Latino/Latin American Studies Program : NW Mexicanos Presentation

To the Campus Community: The Center for Latino and Latin American Studies' year-long seminar on immigration continues on Monday, February 26, with a presentation by Phil Garrison, English professor and author of the recently released book, Because I Don't Have Wings, that traces the experiences of Mexican workers in the agricultural valleys of the inland Northwest. The talk is free and open to the public.

For Mexican workers, the agricultural valleys of the inland Northwest are a long way from home. But there they have established communities, settlements recent enough that it feels like these newly arrived immigrant mexicanos are pioneers, still getting used to the Anglos and to each other. Because I Don't Have Wings looks at the inner lives of Mexican immigrants in a northwestern boomtown, a loose collection of families from Michoacán and surrounding states living a mere 150 miles from Canada. With a mix of irony and compassion, Because I Don't Have Wings features vivid characters, telling anecdotes, and poignant reflections on life, unfolding an immigrant's world strikingly different from the one we usually read about. Adaptation, persistence, and survival, we learn, are traits that mexicano culture values. We also learn that, over time, mexicano immigrants don't merely adapt to the culture of el norte, they transform it.

Luis Alberto Urrea, recipient of an American Book Award and inductee into the Latino Literary Hall of Fame, writes: "This book is strong and bold...and undeniably strange. The details of lives played out in the shadows are surreal, sometimes haunting, often deeply moving. It's an eye-opener that all Americans should read."

Rubén Martínez, author of the critically acclaimed Crossing Over, notes: "Weaving together testimonio and text, history and his own experience, Because I Don't Have Wings leads both mexicano and americano towards an encounter neither counted upon....Garrison is a mestizo's mestizo, a literary coyote who smuggles us across not just one but many lines."

Northwest Mexicanos is the second installment of a three-part series on immigration that is part of an effort to build a Center for Latino and Latin American Studies at CWU. The Center aims to bring together the university and community members to promote mutual understanding, and professional and personal enrichment for all involved.

The presentation is sponsored by the CWU Center for Latino and Latin American Studies and the Diversity Education Center. For more information or for persons of disability to arrange for reasonable accommodation, call 509-963-1687, or (for the hearing impaired) TDD 509-963-2143.

Thank you for your time and attention. We hope to see you there on Monday.

Michael A. Ervin
Assistant Professor of History and
Director, Latino/Latin American Studies
ervinm@cwu.edu
Ph.: (509) 963-1244