Anna Lapera, Bessie Flores Zaldívar, John Manual Arias, and Diana Rojas enchanted the audience at Busboys and Poets in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, September 25. They shared stories about why they wrote their books with Central American themes, read excerpts, and responded to questions from the audience.
The session began with a welcome from Teaching for Change board member Nancy Raquel Mirabal and an overview of the Teach Central America campaign by Teaching for Change deputy director Keesha Ceran. A streamed version of the event can be viewed below.
The event was part of Teaching for Change’s 35th anniversary celebrations and in preparation for Teach Central America Week (October 7–11). It was the first in a series of monthly events that Teaching for Change is hosting at Busboys and Poets.
Photo album.
Authors
Anna Lapera is a Guatemalan American who teaches middle school in Montgomery County. In the early hours before school, she writes stories about spunky kids stepping into their power.
Lapera is the author of Mani Semilla Finds Her Quetzal Voice. Manuela “Mani” Semilla wants two things: To get her period and to thwart her mom’s plan of taking her to Guatemala on her thirteenth birthday. If her mom’s always going on about how dangerous it is in Guatemala and how much she sacrificed to come to this country, then why should Mani even want to visit?
Bessie Flores Zaldívar (all pronouns) is a queer writer from Tegucigalpa, Honduras. They live in the New Haven area and are a fiction professor at Quinnipiac University. Libertad is Bessie’s debut publication.
A queer YA coming-of-age set during the rigged Honduran presidential election, the story follows a young poet discovering the courage it takes to speak her truth about the people and country she loves.
Diana Rojas is a writer from Connecticut, New Jersey, and Costa Rica. She currently lives “taxed and unrepresented” in Washington, D.C.
Her first book, Litany of Saints, is a triptych of novellas that explores the stories of migrants from the same Costa Rican town as they face challenges to who they think they’re supposed to be and who they actually want to be. In the opening piece, “The Lives of Saints,” an immigrant family from Costa Rica regularly prays to a litany of saints to help deal with all that life throws their way — including alcoholism, marital discord, illness, and death — all while adjusting to their new circumstances as “Americans.”
John Manuel Arias is a queer, Costa Rican American poet and writer and the National Bestselling author of Where There Was Fire, a Good Morning America Buzz Pick and Barnes & Noble Discover Pick.
A Canto Mundo fellow and an alumnus of the Tin House Summer Writers Workshop, his prose and poetry have been published in The Kenyon Review, PANK, The Rumpus, and Akashic Books. He has lived in Washington, D.C.; Brooklyn, New York; and in San José, Costa Rica, with his grandmother and four ghosts.
Nancy Raquel Mirabal is associate professor of American Studies and the current director of the U.S. Latina/o Studies (USLT) program at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is a historian who has published widely in the fields of Afro-diasporic, Latinx, gentrification, and spatial studies.
The Beyond Heroes & Holidays Series is held once a month (generally on Wednesdays) from 6:30PM – 8:30PM at one of the Busboys and Poets locations. This series is designed for everyone who loves to learn. It offers the opportunity to engage with authors, scholars, people’s historians, films, and peers on social justice education and fugitive pedagogy. Educators can request professional development credit.
Contemporary Central American Voices
Anna Lapera, Bessie Flores Zaldívar, John Manual Arias, and Diana Rojas enchanted the audience at Busboys and Poets in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, September 25. They shared stories about why they wrote their books with Central American themes, read excerpts, and responded to questions from the audience.
The session began with a welcome from Teaching for Change board member Nancy Raquel Mirabal and an overview of the Teach Central America campaign by Teaching for Change deputy director Keesha Ceran. A streamed version of the event can be viewed below.
The event was part of Teaching for Change’s 35th anniversary celebrations and in preparation for Teach Central America Week (October 7–11). It was the first in a series of monthly events that Teaching for Change is hosting at Busboys and Poets.
Authors
Anna Lapera is a Guatemalan American who teaches middle school in Montgomery County. In the early hours before school, she writes stories about spunky kids stepping into their power.
Lapera is the author of Mani Semilla Finds Her Quetzal Voice. Manuela “Mani” Semilla wants two things: To get her period and to thwart her mom’s plan of taking her to Guatemala on her thirteenth birthday. If her mom’s always going on about how dangerous it is in Guatemala and how much she sacrificed to come to this country, then why should Mani even want to visit?
Bessie Flores Zaldívar (all pronouns) is a queer writer from Tegucigalpa, Honduras. They live in the New Haven area and are a fiction professor at Quinnipiac University. Libertad is Bessie’s debut publication.
A queer YA coming-of-age set during the rigged Honduran presidential election, the story follows a young poet discovering the courage it takes to speak her truth about the people and country she loves.
Diana Rojas is a writer from Connecticut, New Jersey, and Costa Rica. She currently lives “taxed and unrepresented” in Washington, D.C.
Her first book, Litany of Saints, is a triptych of novellas that explores the stories of migrants from the same Costa Rican town as they face challenges to who they think they’re supposed to be and who they actually want to be. In the opening piece, “The Lives of Saints,” an immigrant family from Costa Rica regularly prays to a litany of saints to help deal with all that life throws their way — including alcoholism, marital discord, illness, and death — all while adjusting to their new circumstances as “Americans.”
John Manuel Arias is a queer, Costa Rican American poet and writer and the National Bestselling author of Where There Was Fire, a Good Morning America Buzz Pick and Barnes & Noble Discover Pick.
A Canto Mundo fellow and an alumnus of the Tin House Summer Writers Workshop, his prose and poetry have been published in The Kenyon Review, PANK, The Rumpus, and Akashic Books. He has lived in Washington, D.C.; Brooklyn, New York; and in San José, Costa Rica, with his grandmother and four ghosts.
Nancy Raquel Mirabal is associate professor of American Studies and the current director of the U.S. Latina/o Studies (USLT) program at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is a historian who has published widely in the fields of Afro-diasporic, Latinx, gentrification, and spatial studies.
Her most recent publication is Suspect Freedoms: The Racial and Sexual Politics of Cubanidad in New York, 1823-1957 (NYU Press, 2017). Her next project examines the politics of archival spaces, dissonant discourses, and Latina/o spatial inquiry. Nancy has been a Teaching for Change board member since 2019.
The Beyond Heroes & Holidays Series is held once a month (generally on Wednesdays) from 6:30PM – 8:30PM at one of the Busboys and Poets locations. This series is designed for everyone who loves to learn. It offers the opportunity to engage with authors, scholars, people’s historians, films, and peers on social justice education and fugitive pedagogy. Educators can request professional development credit.
Posted: September 28, 2024