Héctor Tobar with Alejandro Varela: The Meanings and Myths of “Latino”

The Pulitzer Prize–winning writer explores what it means to be Latino in the United States.
Book cover of Our Migrant Souls by Héctor Tobar
In his new book, Héctor Tobar writes that the feeling of being ni de aqui ni de alla—from neither here nor there—is the fundamental paradox of latinidad. The son of Guatemalan immigrants, he uses the details of his own life and the broader past of Latinos in America to examine the impacts of colonialism, public policy, immigration, and pop culture as they relate to arguably the most open-ended and loosely defined of the major race categories in the United States.

Tobar discusses with author Alejandro Varela the long, complicated story of the historical and social forces that define Latino identity.