Press Release

This is the press release we handed out to all the media at the press conference yesterday.

In other news, Laredo City Council has officially waived all fees for the use of the Laredo Civic Center. It was a unanimous vote!

Pulitzer Prize-winning author headlines One City, One Book
Food drives, book discussions among planned activities

Laredo, TX – Sponsors of the second annual One City, One Book festival that brought Holocaust survivor, Academy Award winner, and author Gerda Weissmann Klein last year have unveiled this year’s author and book.

Sonia Nazario, author of Enrique’s Journey, will visit the city to speak at various arenas, including the Laredo Civic Center, from September 24 – 25. Enrique’s Journey is the true story of a Honduran boy who journeys thousands of miles to find his mother in the United States.

The Food for Thought Foundation, the Laredo Public Library, the City of Laredo, TAMIU, LCC, UISD and LISD, along with local businesses, are sponsoring the event.

“This year’s theme focuses on family, including genealogy and immigration,” said Annie Treviño, treasurer of the foundation and J.B. Alexander High School English teacher. “We have within us a hunger to belong and to connect with others; as a result, we seek family in its many forms. The Laredo family tree, with roots extending around the globe, has produced a diverse community with branches extending across the city. Unity and diversity - we are Laredo.”

Nazario’s book traces that urge to connect with family and takes readers along on the journey.

“My hope is that the book takes people inside a world that they might not otherwise go,” said Nazario in a July interview with the Food for Thought Foundation. “That it does put a human face on these millions of people who for many of us are either people in our families or our neighbors or people who work in our communities.”

The former Los Angeles Times reporter first wrote the book as a series of articles for the Times, tracing Enrique’s steps across Guatemala and Mexico. The articles won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing and the accompanying photographs by Don Bartletti won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography.

“Enrique’s Journey is a story of America,” said Carmen Escamilla, secretary for the foundation and J.B. Alexander High School librarian. “One City grew out of an earnest yearning to engage Laredoans in reading by inquiry and self-reflection.”

The Food for Thought Foundation was started in March 2008 to combat hunger and illiteracy in Laredo. Escamilla came up with the idea to bring the One City, One Book program to Laredo after studying about similar programs across the nation.

Nazario will arrive at the Laredo International Airport at 5:50 p.m. on September 23 and will first speak at a press conference from 7 – 9 p.m. that same evening at La Posada Hotel, where the author will also stay. La Posada has been designated as the official hotel for One City, One Book authors.

The activities throughout August and September, including four book discussions, two movie screenings and four food drive days, will lead up to the author’s speech, A Conversation with Sonia Nazario on September 24, 6 – 8 p.m. at the Laredo Civic Center. In order to receive a ticket to the talk, members of the public must attend one book discussion or film screening and donate five non-perishable food items. The items will benefit local food banks.

The Laredo Public Library has 50 copies of the book in English and 20 in Spanish available for checkout. The library will also help sponsor the book discussions and screenings of Under the Same Moon, the 2007 film that was inspired by the book.

B. Dalton Booksellers at Mall Del Norte is selling the paperback and a limited amount of hard cover copies of Enrique’s Journey in English and Spanish.

“I wanted the book published in Spanish so a lot of Latinas would really think about it and say, ‘If I leave my children, should it be for two years instead of 10 years? Should I bring them with me?’” Nazario said. “‘Should I stay in my home country because, yes, I know the benefits of coming here, but let me consider the consequences 10 years from now?’”

B. Dalton will also sponsor a “Back-to-School” book fair as part of One City, One Book activities, with part of the proceeds going toward next year’s activities.

The Library of Congress’s “One Book” Web site states, “‘One Book’ projects, initiated by the Washington Center for the Book in 1998, are being introduced across the U.S.A. and around the world.”

# # #

Members of the media and public are encouraged to visit laredofoodforthought.blogspot.com for a full calendar of events, updates and further information involving One City, One Book. For more information or an article about Sonia Nazario, you may contact Cristina Herrera at 956-286-8706 or cherrera@mail.utexas.edu.

To get more information on the Laredo Public Library’s activities concerning One City, One Book, call Pam Burrell at 795-2400, ext. 2268 or go to www.laredolibrary.org.