NEPANTLA FAMILIAS
An Anthology of Mexican American Literature on families in between worlds
Texas A&M Press
I’m honored to have been included in Nepantla Familias, an anthology of short stories, poems, and essays edited by award-winning writer and scholar Sergio Troncoso. The title uses the Nahuatl word, nepantla, meaning “in between” or “middle”— to describe a space of transformation, a threshold between two worlds. For many of us who grew up navigating Mexican and American cultures, nepantla isn’t just a concept. It’s where we’ve lived our entire lives.
The writers in Nepantla Familias—including Sandra Cisneros, Reyna Grande, Alex Espinoza, Francisco Cantú, David Dorado Romo, and many others—open and expose these in-between places. They write about borders both physical and cultural, about the wounds of the past and the victories of the present, about family dynamics where values are either adapted or discarded in the quest for self-discovery.
I’ve spent a lifetime exploring in my own work that middle world, from a soldier returning home after World War 2, Soldierboy (with Judith Perez, 1982); to the migrant families in …and the earth did not swallow him (1994); and the characters in Odd Birds (2019) who encounter changing times in 1960s Texas.
Find Nepantla Familias here.
The anthologyhas received extraordinary recognition, including:
Award-winning filmmaker, playwright, and writer, Severo Perez grew up in Westside San Antonio and graduated from the University of Texas, Austin. For over forty years, he produced films for PBS, network and cable television, corporate sponsors, and the educational market. His feature film adaptation of the novel …and the earth did not swallow him (1994) by Tomas Rivera won eleven international awards, including one for Best Director and five for Best Picture. His first novel, Willa Brown & the Challengers, is historical fiction based on the real-life African American aviation pioneer, Willa Beatrice Brown. Odd Birds is his second novel. His third book, Filmmaker's Journey, was published in 2024.