Book Discussion on Saturday, April 11, 2015, 2:00 PM, San Leandro Main Library

2015 "Big Read" Event, Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea

Meet the Author

Luis Urrea was born in 1955 in Tijuana, Mexico, to a Mexican father and American mother. His family eventually moved across the border to San Diego, and he spent most of his childhood there. He graduated from UC, San Diego and did graduate work at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He was a relief worker at the dumps in Tijuana, the memory of which colors much of his writing. He moved to Boston to teach expository writing and fiction at Harvard, and it was at about this point that his career as a writer began to take off. He now lives in Napierville, IL, and is a professor of creative writing at the University of Illinois, Chicago. Many of us were fortunate to be able to hear Mr. Urrea speak at the San Leandro Library last month. In addition to this year's "Big Read" selection, Into the Beautiful North, Mr. Urrea has written three other novels, several books of memoirs and short stories, and several non-fiction works including The Devil's Highway from 2004, which was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize. Last month, I posted an interview of Mr. Urrea by Bill Moyers, in which they talked about The Devil's Highway. This interview can be found by scrolling down on the home page or by clicking on this link.

In the YouTube clip below, Luis Urrea talks with a reporter from San Diego's public television station about Into the Beautiful North



The Magnificent Seven

It is the movie, "The Magnificent Seven," that inspires Nayeli and her friends to take the perilous journey into the north.



Bonus trivia question: Who is the only one of the seven still alive?

ROAD TRIP!

El Rosario, Sinaloa, AKA "Tres Camarones"

Entry to the temple of Nuestra Senora del Rosario, built in the mid 1700s

The lagoon in El Rosario

Tijuana, Baja California

Tijuana dump

Mexico-US border fence at beach in Tijuana

Los Yunaites

La Jolla Beach, San Diego

Viva Las Vegas!

Lake Estes, Colorado

Prairie Dog Town, Oakley, KS

"Seemore" and "Readmore" guarding the door at the library in Kankakee, IL