Purepero Stories

Literary Nonfiction. Latino/Latina Studies. A collaborative project told in words and images, PUREPERO STORIES captures the life of a young Mexican girl growing up in Mexico and California with her sisters, tia Rosa, and grandmothers. The stories are told by a Michoacana and seasonal immigrant to California to her new romantic partner as a way of introducing her culture and heritage. Myths, history and truth blend as the stories unravel to reveal a life between cultures.

PUREPERO STORIES unfold with startling beauty through the seamless collaboration of a storyteller, a poet, and two visual artists. These deeply moving prose poems reveal tender moments in the life of a young Mexican girl growing up with her many sisters, tia Rosa, and other family, on both sides of the border. The accompanying paintings and photographs, placed brilliantly to enhance the stories, are blossoms in the rich garden of this story. The synergy between the words and images–the collaborative love among its creators–makes this book sing. I devoured the whole experience in one sitting.–Lucy Jane Bledsoe

With precision and beauty, PUREPERO STORIES takes you to a small village in Mexico, where the sensuous world is presented in postcard-like frames. By the end of the book, prose poems and short stories knit together, creating a magical whole, much greater than its lovely parts.–Nina Schuyler