DENTON, Texas (UNT) — Author Richard Gonzales will be part of one of the largest and most prestigious literary festivals – the annual Texas Book Festival – in the country, following the recent release of “Raza Rising: Chicanos in North Texas”. The book is the 10th in the’ “Al Filo: Mexican American Studies” series, which was edited by UNT associate professor Roberto Calderon and published by UNT Press.
“We are truly pleased that this best-selling UNT Press title will be introduced to state, national and international audiences at the Texas Book Festival,” said Calderon. “Raza Rising is a timely, engaging and beautifully written narrative that provides one of a handful of published accounts by a university press to date of North Texas’s Mexican American community.”
The 2016 Texas Book Festival will be held November 5-6 (Saturday and Sunday) in Austin and will include other high-profile authors like Don DeLillo, Skip Hollandsworth, R.L. Stine, Lois Lowry, Kelly Clarkson and Nick Offerman.
Prior to the release of the new book, Gonzales spent six years as a columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, focusing his writing on the Latino community. He said the research he did during that time made him realize that a bigger discussion was needed.
“We may now be the majority of the population in Dallas and Fort Worth, but we are still the minority when it comes to politics and education,” said Gonzales. “The future can be one in which we can excel in all fields if we can become organized and achieve academic and political success.”
Gonzales draws on his educational, inner-city and professional life experiences to weave eyewitness testimony into issues facing Chicanos, including economic, health, education, criminal justice, politics, immigration and cultural issues.
“My reason for writing this book is that our voice needs to be heard. There are just not enough Chicano writers expressing our views, our history and our stories,” he said.
Gonzales will be part of a panel discussion and a book signing at the Texas Book Festival.