40 pages 1 hour read

Javier Zamora

Solito

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2022

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Background

Literary Context: Latin American Migration Literature

In his poetry collection Unaccompanied, Javier Zamora states that one reason for his poetry is to remind Americans that the words of poets are “tied to a history of people who have literally risked [their lives] and died to write those words” (Unaccompanied, back cover). For this reason, both his poetry and memoir fit into the category of migration literature, which is defined as literature by or about migrants and their experiences of migration. In the US, books by Latin American writers about these experiences are popular because the works personalize the often politically fraught topic of immigration. Migration literature crosses all literary genres and includes poetry, short fiction, novels, memoirs, and essays. Zamora joins other contemporary Latinx and Latin American writers who focus on immigration or migration experiences, such as Mexican writer Reyna Grande, author of the memoir The Distance Between Us (2012), Luis Alberto Reya, author of The Devil's Highway (2004), Karla Cornejo Villacicencio, author of The Undocumented Americans (2020), Angie Cruz, author of Dominicana (2019), and Colombian American writer Ingrid Rojas Contreras, author of the novel