Examine the history and impact of immigration in the U.S. and hear stories from three authors who look at the phenomenon from distinct perspectives in their groundbreaking books. The authors all have personal ties to immigration, either as immigrants themselves or as the descendants of immigrants.

Nuestras Raíces Stage (Seats 150)  
Sat, Mar 14, 1:00 pm - 1:55 pm
Nuestras Raices
Signing area: Pima County Public Library/Nuestras Raíces/Craft Tent & Signing Area (following presentation)  

Panelists: Daisy Hernández, Daniel Olivas, Dora Rodriguez
Moderator: Carlos Parra
Sponsor: Session made possible courtesy of Pima County Public Library

Waiting for Godínez: A Tragicomedy in Two Acts Olivas’s extraordinary reimagining of a classic play lays bare the destructive and brutalizing effects of the United States’ anti-immigration policy on undocumented immigrants and their families. In Waiting for Godínez, the forever-waiting characters of Estragon and Vladimir are embodied in Jesús and Isabel, two Mexican friends living in the States. Each night Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents kidnap Jesús and throw him into a cage, intending to deport him. But the agents forget to lock the cage, so Jesús escapes and makes his way back to Isabel as they wait for the mysterious Godínez in a city park. At one point Isabel looks upon her exhausted friend and laments, “What harm have you done to them? You are as much of this country as you are of México. But you are not home in either place. Ni de aquí, ni de allá.” Waiting for Godínez humanizes the plight undocumented people face in a country that both needs and disdains them. Through a darkly comic absurdist lens, it implores us to reconsider this country’s policies in light of the fact that we are all human and deserve respect and dignity as we each try to make our way in a confusing and often indifferent world.

University of New Mexico Press, Booth #240 (Seats 1)
Sun, Mar 15, 10:30 am - 11:00 am
Fiction / Literature

Author: Daniel Olivas