Antonio’s Gun and Delfino’s Dream, by Sam Quinones, is a series of short stories and essays that begins with a break-dancing bricklayer and ends with drug-dealing German Mennonites in Mexico.
“It does a good job of presenting the impact of immigration … which is almost entirely south-to-north, but also the impact it has on both sides of the border,” said Wynn Goering, coordinator of the Lobo Reading Experience program.
The book is the first selection for the Lobo Reading Experience, which encourages everyone in the entering freshman class to read the same text, Goering said.
“The Lobo Reading Experience is about picking one book for community discussion,” said Bookstore manager Lisa Walden. “It’s a provocative subject chosen to get discussion amongst students.”
Goering, vice provost for academic affairs, said the committee wanted a book that had special relevance to UNM and that was accessible for freshmen.
“We’re looking for something that would have particular relevance to the Southwest and New Mexico,” Goering said. “Immigration stories are clearly something that border states deal with in a way that’s unique. The second was that it just is a readable book. He’s a good writer.”
A journalist for the L.A. Times, Quinones is coming to UNM today to give a lecture at the Continuing Education Conference Center. He will also speak and sign books tomorrow at the UNM Bookstore.
Walden said Quinones will read his favorite selections from his book and will take questions from the audience.
A smaller series of discussions, hosted by UNM faculty and staff, will promote further insight into the novel’s complicated themes of migration and cultural mixing, Goering said.
“We’ve organized a number of different discussion groups around campus, just inviting anyone who has read the book to show up,” he said.
Karma Chavez, an assistant professor at UNM and one of the discussion leaders, said the book presents a different perspective on immigration.
“I was excited to read it because it’s not a typical immigration story,” Chavez said. “Some of the typical stories we hear in the media are included, but I think (Quinones) really paints an interesting picture of the border we don’t always
think of.”
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Chavez also researches immigration. She said she will go to the book signing, and she encourages students to do the same.
“Many of our families have been impacted by migration, if we are not immigrants ourselves,” she said. “Considering immigration politics in the United States, anyone with brown skin can be compelled into the discourse of immigration based on racial profiling. I think anytime you get the chance to interact with someone who has been face-to-face with all these different dynamics of immigration politics, especially for an extended period of time, I just think it’s an amazing opportunity for students.”
Walden, who has met Quinones before, said the author should provide insight to attendees.
Goering also suggests the book and the corresponding lectures to all students, even those who may not have experienced the immigration issue firsthand.
“Both the book and the level of their (lectures) will be accessible to people, regardless whether you grew up on the border or you’re coming from someplace else, because immigration is a national issue,” he said. “One of the things I want to come out of the program this year, … I want everyone to model together as an academic community, a civic discourse on a subject of interest.”
Lecture by Sam Quinones
Author of Antonio’s Gun and Delfino’s Dream
Tonight, 7 p.m.
Continuing Education Conference Center
1634 University Blvd. NE
Free
Book Reading
UNM Bookstore
Wednesday, 3 p.m.
Free
