Sunday Speaker Series – Living Beyond Borders: Growing up Mexican in America Book Plática

The Sunday Speaker Series presentation “Living Beyond Borders: Growing up Mexican in America Book Plática” will feature panelists Margarita Longoria, Trinidad Gonzales and Sylvia Sánchez Garza in the museum’s Courtyard Gallery.

In this mixed-media collection of short stories, personal essays, poetry and comics, this celebrated group of authors share the borders they have crossed, the struggles they have pushed through, and the two cultures they continue to navigate as Mexican Americans. “Living Beyond Borders” is at once an eye-opening, heart-wrenching and hopeful love letter from the Mexican American community to today’s young readers. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the Museum Store after the presentation.

Longoria is a lifelong bookworm, young adult book expert and an award-winning high school librarian in South Texas. She is the founder of Border Book Bash: Celebrating Teens and Tweens of the Rio Grande Valley and served on state reading committees for the Texas Library Association. She is the editor of “Living Beyond Borders: Growing Up Mexican in America.” She grew up in Edinburg, Texas, and lives with her family in the Rio Grande Valley. You can visit Longoria online at margiesmustreads.com and on Instagram at @MargiesMustReads.

Gonzales, Ph.D., is a history instructor at South Texas College and a co-founder of Refusing to Forget, an award-winning non-profit, public history project devoted to bringing awareness to state sanctioned violence against ethnic Mexicans that occurred during the 1910s in Texas. Gonzales has published op-ed pieces in the Austin American Statesmen, San Antonio Express and The Monitor concerning issues of immigration and Mexican American Studies. He also taught the first dual enrollment Mexican American Studies course in Texas at Mission High School.

Sánchez Garza grew up in Weslaco, Texas, and now lives in Edinburg, Texas, with her husband, sons and dogs. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English, a master’s degree in School Administration and a doctorate’s degree in Leadership Studies. “Cascarones,” a novel about the cultures and traditions of growing up as a Mexican American in South Texas, was her first book and has won several awards: a Literary Classics Gold Star, a Texas Authors Award and a Literary Titan Gold Star. Sánchez Garza is currently working on a young adult novel as well as a poetry manuscript.

This program is made possible by the generous support from the Carmen C. Guerra Endowment. Mrs. Guerra was committed to educational causes in the Rio Grande Valley. This named endowment was created by her family to honor her memory and to continue providing educational opportunities for the community.