A Passing West - by Dagoberto Gilb (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A unique, unmistakable voice in American fiction, Dagoberto Gilb is also a singular writer of personal and journalistic essays. In A Passing West he casts a penetrating gaze upon the culture and history of the Southwest, Mexican American identity, and his own family.

Gilb has a forceful message for readers: there is a Mexican America, and its culture is the lifeblood of the Southwest United States, which was Mexican land until the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The rest of the country, Gilb declares, does not want to know or respect the long history of Mexican America. His mission is to defend and proclaim its beauty and importance.

Ranging from accounts of research in Spain's Archivo General de Indias and the culture of farming corn in Iowa to meditations on Mexican and Mexican American writers, deconstructions of Mexican American food, and the experience of teaching students confused about their own culture and identity, these sharply observed portraits are both thought provoking and entertaining. His parent, his youth and manhood, his new disabled life, and snapshots of Mexico City and Guatemala, California, and Texas--all are unforgettable thanks to Gilb's brilliant vision and style.

Review Quotes

"Dagoberto Gilb is a national treasure. In these essays we ride with him on his mad journey--from high-rise construction worker to pioneering man of letters to unstoppable Latino literary force of nature."--Héctor Tobar, author of Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of "Latino"


"One of the most important American writers of his generation, Dagoberto Gilb has created exquisite works of fiction that have cast the Chicano experience as the site of the universal. In this collection of his nonfiction, Gilb displays that same mastery of prose, meditating on family, work, art, love, identity, and the very stuff that makes the human condition both confounding and exalting."--Oscar Villalon, editor for ZYZZYVA


"One of the most powerful writers in his generation."--Larry McMurtry

"The whole Southwest is his stage. He revisits childhood, marriage, literary snobbery, and Mexican history with rough care. Gilb's trouble is authentic and the stuff of literary craftsmanship. No one writes like him."--Gary Soto, author of A Simple Plan


"Un trip fantástico through the reading and the life of a celebrated Chicano writer: devastating in its honesty, stunning in its knowledge."--Santiago Vaquera-Vasquez, author of One Day I'll Tell You the Things I've Seen: Stories


"Dagoberto Gilb's A Passing West is a potent and incisive addition to American letters. His essays tackle matters such as racism, city life, education, the politics and history of Latinx publishing and writing, and the relationship between work and citizenship. His writings are both thought-provoking and passionate. Excellent!"--Yxta Maya Murray, author of The Queen Jade and God Went Like That