Pulitzer Prize Winner Héctor Tobar Talks Migration and Belonging at The Huntington

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author and educator Héctor Tobar joins Huntington President Karen R. Lawrence on Thursday, November 5, to explore what his 9,000-mile journey across the United States revealed about migration, “Latino” identity and the stories Americans tell about belonging.

Drawing on his book “Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of ‘Latino,’” which won the Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction, Tobar will consider how demographic labels can both illuminate and obscure individual experience, and how personal stories can deepen understanding of community and the American story.

The conversation is part of THIS LAND IS …, The Huntington’s initiative marking the 250th anniversary of the United States’ founding, and will also consider land as both physical ground and a metaphor for promise, struggle and belonging. It belongs to the Why It Matters series, in which Lawrence talks with guests about the enduring relevance of the arts and humanities.

Tobar is the author of six books, including the novels “The Tattooed Soldier,” “The Barbarian Nurseries” and “The Last Great Road Bum.” His nonfiction book “Deep Down Dark,” about 33 men buried in a Chilean mine, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and a New York Times best seller. As a journalist, he was the Los Angeles Times bureau chief in Buenos Aires and Mexico City and a member of the reporting team that won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the 1992 L.A. riots. He earned an MFA in fiction from the University of California, Irvine, where he is a professor, and has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Harvard Radcliffe Fellowship. Born and raised in Los Angeles, he is the son of Guatemalan immigrants.

Limited quantities of Tobar’s books will be on sale in Rothenberg Hall from 6:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. and from 8 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., and he will sign books after the program. The event is also livestreamed.

Admission is free with a reservation.

Why It Matters: Héctor Tobar in Conversation with Karen R. Lawrence will run on Thursday, November 5 at 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. Rothenberg Hall at The Huntington, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino. For more information, visit https://www.huntington.org/event/why-it-matters-hector-tobar-conversation-karen-r-lawrence. Admission is free.