Críticas Magazine

Adriana V. Lopez

Mexican Enough: Elizondo Griest's New Memoir on Identity
August 5, 2008

Growing up in a half-white, half-brown town and family in South Texas, the writer Stephanie Elizondo Griest struggled with her cultural identity. Upon turning thirty, she ventured to her mother's native Mexico to do a little root-searching and improve her self-described "Tarzan Lite" Spanish. She stumbled upon a social movement that shook the nation to its core. From the author of the memoir Around the Bloc, her latest book, Mexican Enough: My Life Between the Borderlines, chronicles her adventures rumbling with luchadores (professional wrestlers), sneaking into prison to meet with resistance fighters, and rallying with rebels in Oaxaca. She also interviews scores of migrant workers and the families they were forced to leave behind. Travel companions include a Polish thief, a Border Patrol agent, and a sultry Dominatrix. Part memoir, part journalistic reportage, Mexican Enough illuminates how we cast off our identity in our youth, only to strive to find it again as adults--and the lessons to be learned along the way. Published by Simon & Schuster’s Washington Square Press, it hits bookstores today.


Here’s an excerpt of chapter one in this month’s Texas Monthly Magazine

And if you want to catch the charming Elizondo Griest on the road again, here are the dates for her 2008 BORDER PARTY BOOK TOUR

Sunday, August 17 - ALLEN, TX -- Borders Bookstore at 2 p.m, 965 West Bethany Drive

Tuesday, August 19 - SAN ANTONIO, TX -- Borders Bookstore at 7 p.m., 255 E. Basse Road

Wednesday, August 20 - HOUSTON, TX -- Borders Bookstore at 7 p.m., 3025 Kirby Street

Sunday, August 24 - CORPUS CHRISTI, TX -- Barnes and Noble at 2 p.m., Moore Plaza

Tuesday, September 9 - AUSTIN, TX -- Book People at 7 p.m., 603 North Lamar

Saturday, September 13 - CORPUS CHRISTI, TX -- Instituto de Cultura Hispanica at 10:30 a.m., Instituto Museum at Heritage Park

Thursday, September 18 - Sunday, September 21 - HOUSTON, TX -- Latino Book & Family Festival

Tuesday, September 23 - BROWNSVILLE, TX -- the University of Texas at Brownsville

Saturday, September 27 - PHILADELPHIA, PA -- Taller Puertorriqueño's Julia de Burgos Bookstore at 3 p.m., 2721 Nth 5th Street

Monday, September 29 - PRINCETON, NJ -- Princeton Public Library at 7 p.m.

Thursday, October 2 - WASHINGTON, DC -- Olsson's at 7 p.m., Dupont Circle, 1307 19th St. NW

Monday, October 6 - BOSTON, MA -- Center for New Words at 7 p.m., Linda K. Paresky Conference Center at Simmons College

Wednesday, October 8 - NEW YORK, NY -- Book Culture at 7 p.m., 112th Street

Friday, October 17 - Sunday, October 19 - MADISON, WI -- Wisconsin Book Festival

Posted by Adriana V. Lopez on August 5, 2008 | Comments (0)