{"product_id":"unforgetting-a-memoir-of-family-migration-gangs-and-revolution-in-the-americas","title":"Unforgetting: A Memoir of Family, Migration, Gangs, and Revolution in the Americas","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAn \u003cem\u003eLA Times \u003c\/em\u003eBest Book of the Year\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e -\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA \u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e Editors' Pick\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e -\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e A \u003cem\u003eNewsweek \u003c\/em\u003e25\u003cbr\u003eBest Fall Books\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e -\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e A \u003cem\u003eThe Millions\u003c\/em\u003e Most Anticipated Book of the Year\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Gripping and beautiful. With the artistry of a poet and the intensity of\u003cbr\u003ea revolutionary, Lovato untangles the tightly knit skein of love and terror\u003cbr\u003ethat connects El Salvador and the United States.\" --Barbara Ehrenreich, author of \u003cem\u003eNatural\u003cbr\u003eCauses\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eNickel and Dimed\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAn urgent, no-holds-barred tale of gang life, guerrilla warfare, \u003cbr\u003eintergenerational trauma, and interconnected violence between the United States and El Salvador, Roberto Lovato's memoir excavates family history and reveals\u003cbr\u003ethe intimate stories beneath headlines about gang violence and mass Central\u003cbr\u003eAmerican migration, one of the most important, yet least-understood\u003cbr\u003ehumanitarian crises of our time--and one in which the perspectives of Central\u003cbr\u003eAmericans in the United States have been silenced and forgotten. \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe child of Salvadoran immigrants, Roberto Lovato grew up in\u003cbr\u003e1970s and 80s San Francisco as MS-13 and other notorious Salvadoran gangs were\u003cbr\u003eforming in California. In his teens, he lost friends to the escalating\u003cbr\u003eviolence, and survived acts of brutality himself. He eventually traded the\u003cbr\u003eviolence of the streets for human\u003cbr\u003erights advocacy in wartime El Salvador\u003cbr\u003ewhere he joined the guerilla movement against the U.S.-backed, fascist military\u003cbr\u003egovernment responsible for some of the most barbaric massacres and crimes\u003cbr\u003eagainst humanity in recent history. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRoberto returned from war-torn El Salvador to find the United\u003cbr\u003eStates on the verge of unprecedented crises of its own. There, he channeled his\u003cbr\u003eown pain into activism and journalism, focusing his attention on how trauma\u003cbr\u003eaffects individual lives and societies, and began the difficult journey of\u003cbr\u003econfronting the roots of his own trauma. As a child, Roberto endured a\u003cbr\u003etumultuous relationship with his father Ramón. Raised in extreme poverty in the\u003cbr\u003ecountryside of El Salvador during one of the most violent periods of its\u003cbr\u003ehistory, Ramón learned to survive by straddling intersecting underworlds of\u003cbr\u003efamily secrets, traumatic silences, and dealing in black-market goods and guns.\u003cbr\u003eThe repression of the violence in his life took its toll, however. Ramón was\u003cbr\u003eplagued with silences and fits of anger that\u003cbr\u003ehad a profound impact on his youngest son, and which Roberto attributes as a\u003cbr\u003esource of constant reckoning with the violence and rebellion in his own life.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eUnforgetting\u003c\/em\u003e, Roberto interweaves his father's\u003cbr\u003ecomplicated history and his own with first-hand reportage on gang life, state\u003cbr\u003eviolence, and the heart of the immigration crisis in both El Salvador and the\u003cbr\u003eUnited States. In doing so he makes the political personal, revealing the\u003cbr\u003ecyclical ways violence operates in our homes and our societies, as well as the\u003cbr\u003eways hope and tenderness can rise up out of the darkness if we are courageous\u003cbr\u003eenough to unforget.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Harper Perennial","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51987748552935,"sku":"9780062938527","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0449\/4075\/5096\/files\/imageloader_54d3f727-13cf-49d2-8024-6a1faa97a138.jpg?v=1776395436","url":"https:\/\/arvidabookco.com\/products\/unforgetting-a-memoir-of-family-migration-gangs-and-revolution-in-the-americas","provider":"Arvida Book Co.","version":"1.0","type":"link"}