Somewhere We Are Human

LibroMobile Presents

Somewhere We Are Human: Authentic Voices on Migration, Survival and New Beginnings | Saturday, July 23, 2022 at 4pm–6pm PST | In-person @ LibroMobile bookstore in Santa Ana! & IG Live!

Edited by Sonia Guiñansaca and Reyna Grande , with an introduction by Pulitzer Prize–winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen.

A unique collection of 41 groundbreaking essays, poems, and artwork by migrants, refugees and Dreamers—including award-winning writers, artists, and activists—that illuminate what it is like living undocumented today.

Featured Authors for Panel & Reading:

Alexa Vasquez is a Pisces, a writer and artist from Oaxacalifornia. Her visual artworks are inspired by her birthplace, Oaxaca. Her writings are memories of growing up in an immigrant household, leaving home, transitioning and surviving trans womanhood. Alexa, a Voices of Our National Arts alumni, has been published as part of CultureStrike’s Home in Time of Displacement (2014) and Pariahs: Writing Outside the Margins (2016). She is currently one of 41 contributors in Harper Collins’ (2022), Some Where We Are Human, edited by Sonia Guiñansaca and Reyna Grande. Her visual piece, Cisnes En La Montaña, was part of TransLash’s Zine: Migration Stories. Alexa Vasquez graduated from Santa Ana Community College in 2020 with a degree in Fashion Design. Alexa lives in Corona, California with her husband, Ismael and their four cats: Max, Mushu, Sully and Melon.

Francisco Aviles Pino is a Mexican writer and producer based in Los Angeles, California, whose work focuses on incarceration, migration, and culture. They are currently an Investigative Journalist and Producer at LAist / KPCC working on three upcoming shows, they are also a producer for an Adam Perez documentary project, and working on Film and TV Screenplays inspired by their family and their nonfiction work.

Before working in creative nonfiction, Francisco worked as a Staff Community Organizer for the Orange County Congregation Community Organization for five years, where they supported numerous local to statewide campaigns and organized several intergenerational coalitions.

After immigrating alone as a child to Los Angeles, Francisco learned English in bilingual theatre with Bilingual Foundation Of the Arts and continued to act in productions in the Los Angeles Theatre, the Million Dollar Theatre, and most recently facilitated Theatre of the Oppressed workshops at the Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall in Sylmar with Bryon Bain.

Born in Acapulco Guerrero, Mexico, and raised in Los Angeles and Anaheim, Francisco is a passionate observer who is always thinking and working through the intersections and conflicts between TV, Cinema, Fine Art, Documentary, Theatre, Participatory Research, Poetry, and Public Policy. They are an alum of the Macondo Writers Workshop, the NALAC Leadership Institute, The Poetry Foundation's Incubator Fellowship, the Center for Cultural Power's Disruptors Fellowship in Screenwriting, and UCLA.

Sonia Guiñansaca (Kichwa-Kañari) is a poet, culture strategist, and artist advocate. Born in Ecuador and at the age of five migrated to the United States to reunite with their parents in NY. Guiñansaca helped build some of the largest undocumented organizations in the U.S and co-founded some of the first artistic projects for and by undocumented writers. Guiñansaca has been featured on PEN America, Interview Magazine, Teen Vogue, NBC, and PBS. Their honors include those from Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation, British Council, and Creative Time. They self-published their debut chapbook, Nostalgia and Borders (2016). They are the co-editor of the forthcoming anthology Somewhere We Are Human: Authentic Voices on Migration, Survival, and New Beginnings (HarperCollins, June 2022).

More About Somewhere We Are Human anthology:

In the overheated debate about immigration, we often lose sight of the humanity at the heart of this complex issue. The immigrants and refugees living precariously in the United States are mothers and fathers, children, neighbors, and friends. Individuals propelled by hope and fear, they gamble their lives on the promise of America, yet their voices are rarely heard.

This anthology of essays, poetry, and art seeks to shift the immigration debate—now shaped by rancorous stereotypes and xenophobia—towards one rooted in humanity and justice. Through their storytelling and art, the contributors to this thought-provoking book remind us that they are human still. Transcending their current immigration status, they offer nuanced portraits of their existence before and after migration, the factors behind their choices, the pain of leaving their homeland and beginning anew in a strange country, and their collective hunger for a future not defined by borders.

Created entirely by undocumented or formerly undocumented migrants, Somewhere We Are Human is a journey of memory and yearning from people newly arrived to America, those who have been here for decades, and those who have ultimately chosen to leave or were deported. Touching on themes of race, class, gender, nationality, sexuality, politics, and parenthood, Somewhere We Are Human reveals how joy, hope, mourning, and perseverance can take root in the toughest soil and bloom in the harshest conditions. [Featuring contributions by award winning poet Javier Zamora, Alan Pelaez Lopez, Ola Osaze, Kaveh Bassiri, Grace Talusa, Yosimar Reyes, Julio Salgado, Rommy Torrico, t.jahan, T.Le]

*Books are available for purchase online & in-person.

LibroMobile is a a literary arts co-op & bookstore established in Santa Ana, CA—at the Bristol Swap Mall Plaza.

See you soon!