Maceo Montoya Mosaic of Voices PosterJoin Maceo Montoya for a reading of his new book ‘The Deportation of Wopper Barraza: A Novel.” “The Deportation of Wopper Barraza” is an immigrant saga in reverse. It is a story of young people who must live with the reality of their parents’ dream. We know this story from the headlines, but up to now it has been unexplored literary territory. The reading will be held at the Avid Reader at Tower (1600 Broadway , Sacramento,Ca.) on May 18, 2014 at 2:00 PM.
Reviews of “The Deportation of Wopper Barraza: A Novel”:

“A brilliant and innovative take on an issue close to the hearts and minds of families who have one foot planted firmly on both sides of the border. It is a deportation story in reverse: a bold re-envisioning with unexpected consequences, mystery, and insight.”
– Tim Z. Hernandez, author of Mañana Means Heaven

“I love this novel; the young lovers, the hard deals of municipio life, and the relationships breaking across la frontera and the fractures of city-barrio-rancho on the borderland grid of U.S. /Mexico. Wopper Barraza is everywhere, yet he is a story never told since we are used to remembering Mexico, not double remembering –Mexico, U.S.A., then back again. Montoya’s dialogue is fierce, his multi-voices render and rough cut crystals; his characters are carved with the dark-real scalpel of Juan Rulfo and Victor Martinez. Montoya makes it look easy to enter lives never entered. A first in Chicana/ Latino letters. Wopper is our new reality – a heavy prizewinner on all accounts and in both directions.”
– Juan Felipe Herrera, Poet Laureate of California.
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Maceo Montoya grew up in Elmira, California. He comes from a family of artists, including his father Malaquias Montoya, a renowned artist, activist, and educator, and his late brother, Andrés Montoya, whose poetry collection “The Iceworker Sings and Other Poems” won the American Book Award in 2000. Maceo graduated from Yale University in 2002 and received his Master of Fine Arts in painting from Columbia University in 2006.

Montoya’s paintings, drawings, and prints have been featured in exhibitions and publications throughout the country as well as internationally, including seventeen drawings in David Montejano’s “Sancho’s Journal” (University of Texas Press 2012), an ethnography of the Brown Berets in San Antonio. Montoya’s first novel, “The Scoundrel and the Optimist” (Bilingual Review, 2010), was awarded the 2011 International Latino Book Award for “Best First Book” and Latino Stories named him one of its “Top Ten New Latino Writers to Watch.” Recently, University of New Mexico Press published his second novel, “The Deportation of Wopper Barraza,” and this April, Copilot Press will publish “Letters to the Poet from his Brother,” a hybrid book combining images, prose poems, and essays.

Montoya is an assistant professor in the Chicana/o Studies Department at UC Davis where he teaches the Chicana/o Mural Workshop and courses in Chicano literature. He is also affiliated with Taller Arte del Nuevo Amanecer (TANA), a community-based arts organization located in Woodland, CA. More information, including examples of his artwork, can be viewed at www.maceomontoya.com.
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There will be an open mic after the book reading. Maceo Montoya will be signing “The Deportation of Wopper Barraza: A Novel.”

The reading is a free event and open to the public.
Mosaic of Voices is hosted by Nancy Aidé González in conjuction with the SacPoetry Center.

Facebook event invite link :

https://www.facebook.com/events/577861162312931/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming