First Partnership: Bookworks/NHCC/ABC Libraries - Bringing Books and People Together

Free Event at the National Hispanic Cultural Center

7pm Monday, June 28

Luis Urrea

Talk & Book Signing

In Honor of Mr. Urrea's NHCC 2009 Literary Arts Award

Luis Urrea's most recent novel Into the Beautiful North (Hachette, $14.99, releases in paperback June 16, 2010), further explores US-Mexico border issues with enchanting magical realism, and is surprisingly sweet. You can almost hear the opening theme to the classic American Western film The Magnificent Seven, the movie that inspires the lovely 19 year old Nayeli to gather together a ragtag group of friends and set out on a mission.  Nayeli decides to go north across the border herself and recruit seven men - her own "Siete Magnificos" - to repopulate her hometown and protect it from the bandits who plan on taking it over.

It only takes a few pages of Urrea's novel to start you wondering whether this book will break or warm your heart - and it does a little of both.  Urrea turns a usually disturbing subject into a book that keeps a smile on your face; Into the Beautiful North is filled with memorable characters who have you cheering for them throughout their quest, and is a big-hearted portrayal of the United States as a foreign country.

Luis Alberto Urrea, 2005 Pulitzer Prize finalist for nonfiction, recipient of the National Hispanic Cultural Center's 2009 Literary Arts Award, and member of the Latino Literature Hall of Fame, uses his dual-culture life experiences to explore greater themes of love, loss and triumph.  Born in Tijuana, Mexico to a Mexican father and an American mother, Urrea writes extensively on US-Mexico border issues, including The Devil's Highway, his 2004 non-fiction account of a group of Mexican immigrants lost in the Arizona desert.  Urrea has also won an Edgar award from the Mystery Writers of America for best short story, "Amapola," included in Phoenix Noir.

A short story from Urrea's collection Six Kinds of Sky was released this June as a stunning graphic novel, Mr. Mendoza's Paintbrush (Cinco Puntos, $16.95), illustrated by artist & muralist Christopher Cardinale.  Depicting the same village as Into the Beautiful north, it is the perfect companion!

Additionally, Urrea's first novel, The Hummingbird's Daughter, follows the brewing rebellion in 1889 against a longtime Mexican dictator and tells the story of Teresa Urrea, sometimes known as the Saint of Cabora and the Mexican Joan of Arc, and involved twenty years of research and writing!  It won the Kiriyama Prize in fiction and, along with The Devil's Highway, was named a best book of the year by many publications.