Overview

In Speak of It, Marcos McPeek Villatoro explores how he channeled his Latino roots to come to terms with the childhood sexual abuse he suffered at the hands of a relative in his home in Appalachia, and he recounts his ensuing struggle with trauma and mental illness. The son of a Salvadoran mother and Scotch Irish mechanic father, Marcos spent much of his life trying to break away from his Southern Appalachian past and the trauma experienced there and striving to get closer to his Salvadoran heritage. His journey includes steeping himself in the Spanish language and Latin American literature, especially the work of Gabriel García Marquez; a stint in Nicaragua with Witness for Peace, followed by missionary work in Guatemala; and social-justice work with Mexican migrant farmworkers in Alabama. Each experience brought him closer to understanding where he came from and to forging an identity as a whole self in the wake of trauma. Riveting, horrifying, moving, and inspiring, Speak of It is a testament to the healing power of language, books, and identity.

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9780826365323

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Reviews

"""A neat, Hitchcockian thriller. . . . Let's hope there are real FBI agents as brilliant as Romilia Chacón.""--Washington Post [for A Venom Beneath the Skin] ""Charles Dickens, or more recently Joyce Carol Oates and Margaret Atwood, have used the crime novel to eloquently express themselves. . . . Add to that chorus of writers the name . . . Marcos McPeek Villatoro.""--Los Angeles Times Book Review [for Home Killings] ""Rich in history and myth, rich in setting, rich in character. This book reminded me of The Da Vinci Code. It is a pleasure from start to finish.""--T. Jefferson Parker, Edgar Award-winning author of A Thousand Steps [for Minos] ""Scintillating, densely plotted. . . . Villatoro creates a compelling, dramatic balance.""--Publisher's Weekly (starred review) [for Minos]"

Author Information

Marcos McPeek Villatoro is the author of six novels, two collections of poetry, and a memoir. His Romilia Chacón crime fiction books have won national acclaim (named a Best Book by the Los Angeles Times) and have been translated into German, Russian, Portuguese, and Japanese. Villatoro holds the Fletcher Jones Endowed Chair in Writing at Mount St. Mary's College, where he lectures on poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and his Latino and Appalachian heritages. He lives in Los Angeles, California.

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