Marie Arana has had a fascinating career as an editor and writer of both fiction and nonfiction. She is the author of the novels Cellophane and Lima Nights; a memoir called American Chica; a history of Latin America titled Silver, Sword, and Stone; and a stunning biography of Simón Bolívar, the so-called Liberator of Latin America. Arana was the editor of the Washington Post’s Book World and the inaugural literary director of the Library of Congress. We talk with her in this new episode of Writing Latinos about her newest book, LatinoLand: A Portrait of America’s Largest and Least Understood Minority. We discuss how, as a Peruvian American raised in places as different as Wyoming and New Jersey, her somewhat unique Latino experience (but aren’t they all?) shaped the questions she wanted to answer in LatinoLand. She explores such a wide variety of subjects—religion, politics, business, identity and more—and in a way that’s unorthodox compared with how other Latino authors have written about them. Come and listen to us talk about her life and writing and her thoughts about the inevitability of Latino unity. As always, thanks for listening to Writing Latinos!

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View a transcript of the episode here.

Credits:

Writing Latinos is a production of Public Books. The show’s host is Geraldo Cadava, co-editor-in-chief of the magazine, and show’s producer is Tasha Sandoval. Our theme music is “City of Mirrors” by Dos Santos.

Featured image courtesy of Marie Arana