Nicolas Medina Mora: América del Norte

Episode 3 April 16, 2025 00:37:14
Nicolas Medina Mora: América del Norte
Writing Latinos
Nicolas Medina Mora: América del Norte

Apr 16 2025 | 00:37:14

/

Hosted By

Geraldo Cadava

Show Notes

Sebastián Arteaga y Salazar is the descendant of an elite Mexican family who studies at Yale and then enrolls in an MFA program at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He’s working on a failed history of Mexico—meaning his own failure to write his book, and the Mexican nation’s failures, especially in relation to the United States. Along the way, “Sebas” crosses many borders—between the United States and Mexico, of course, but also between elite and non-elite Mexicans and Latinos in the United States. This is the basic plot of Nicolás Medina Mora’s debut novel, América del Norte, which offers a beautifully written meditation on historical, cultural, and political relationships between the United States and Mexico. Sebas, like Medina, sees the subject of Latinidad from the perspective of a member of the Mexican elite who is more like other elites in the United States than like working class Mexicans and Mexican Americans on either side of the border. On this newest episode of Writing Latinos, we talk about all of it, including how Medina wrestles with “Latino” as a concept in a way that makes for great listening

Other Episodes

Episode 7

May 24, 2023 00:44:09
Episode Cover

Alejandro Varela: The Town of Babylon, The People Who Report More Stress

Writing Latinos, from Public Books, features interviews with Latino (a/x/e) authors discussing their books and how their writing contributes to the ever-changing conversation about...

Listen

Episode 6

June 25, 2025 00:44:56
Episode Cover

Albert Camarillo: Compton in My Soul

Albert Camarillo is the Leon Sloss Jr. Memorial Professor, Emeritus, at Stanford University. He’s one of a small number of people who founded the...

Listen

Episode 5

May 28, 2025 00:44:36
Episode Cover

Jorell Meléndez Badillo, Puerto Rico: a National History

In a new episode of Writing Latinos, we talk with Jorell Meléndez-Badillo about his most recent book, Puerto Rico: A National History—out next month...

Listen