Butterfly Boy from University of Wisconsin Press at the Book Checkout

Butterfly Boy
Butterfly Boy
Subtitle:
Memories of a Chicano Mariposa
Book Category:
Biography & Autobiography > General
Author:
Gonzalez, Rigoberto
ISBN 10:
978-0-299-21904-8
ISBN 13:
0-299-21904-6
Price:
USD 19.95
Publication Year:
2011

Publisher Info

University of Wisconsin Press.

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Book Description

Heartbreaking, poetic, and intensely personal, Butterfly Boy is a unique coming out and coming-of-age story of a first-generation Chicano who trades one life for another, only to discover that history and memory are not exchangeable or forgettable. Growing up among poor migrant Mexican farmworkers, Rigoberto Gonzalez also faces the pressure of coming-of-age as a gay man in a culture that prizes machismo. Losing his mother when he is twelve, Gonzalez must then confront his father's abandonment and an abiding sense of cultural estrangement, both from his adopted home in the United States and from a Mexican birthright. His only sense of connection gets forged in a violent relationship with an older man. By finding his calling as a writer, and by revisiting the relationship with his father during a trip to Mexico, Gonzalez finally claims his identity at the intersection of race, class, and sexuality. The result is a leap of faith that every reader who ever felt like an outsider will immediately recognize.

 
Ordering/Distributor/Wholesaler Information

  • University of Wisconsin Press c/o Chicago Distribution Center 11030 S. Langley Ave. Chicago, IL 60628-3892 USA [email protected] Ph: 800-621-2736 or 773-702-7000 Fax: 800-621-8476 or 773-702-7212

 

Book Review and Awards

Winner of the American Book Award