Javier Zamora, Author Event

2050 Center Street,Berkeley CA 94704

19 April, 2023

Description

Memoirist and poet Javier Zamora shares the unforgettable story of his harrowing migration from El Salvador to the United States at only nine years old. Accompanied only by strangers and a hired “coyote,” he left his beloved aunt and grandparents to reunite with his mother and father in the United States. The three-thousand-mile journey is supposed to last two weeks, but after their guide abandons them in Oaxaca, it stretches into two life-altering months spent among strangers turned guardians as they travel from El Salvador to Guatemala and to Mexico before arriving in the United States. Now, Javier Zamora chronicles his revelatory journey as an immigrant and as an artist to audiences at universities, organizations, libraries, and more. Going beyond his harrowing border crossing, Zamora explores the ways he has been processing and healing from trauma ever since, from therapy to poetry to nature hikes. As a native Salvadoran who grew up as an undocumented American, he delves into the intersecting and conflicting meanings of home and identity. “Perhaps only a poet could invoke the fear and beauty of a migrant’s voyage. A witness who lived the story is essential to gain credibility. A child is necessary to summon compassion. This is the mythic journey of our era, told by a hero not old enough to tie his shoes, an oracle for our troubled times. I have waited decades for a memoir like Solito.”—Sandra Cisneros