THE MEANINGS AND MYTHS OF “LATINO” with HÉCTOR TOBAR

1:15 pm - 2:00 pm
| Location of Session: Russell Hill Rogers Tent
Adult Sessions

Start of Signing: 2:15 pm
| Signing Location: Festival Marketplace

My Schedule

About the Event

The Pulitzer Prize–winning Héctor Tobar takes on the impacts of colonialism, public policy, immigration, media, and pop culture to explore Latino experience and identity in Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of “Latino”. A can’t miss session from a powerhouse nonfiction writer about Latine identity.

About the Author

Photo Credit: Patrice Normand

Héctor Tobar

Héctor Tobar is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and novelist. He is the author of the critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller, Deep Down Dark, as well as The Barbarian Nurseries, Translation Nation, and The Tattooed Soldier. Héctor is also a contributing writer for the New York Times opinion pages and an associate professor at the University of California, Irvine. He has written for The New Yorker, Los Angeles Times, and many other publications. His short fiction has appeared in Best American Short Stories, L.A. Noir, ZYZZYVA, and Slate. The son of Guatemalan immigrants, he is a native of Los Angeles, where he lives with his family. His latest book is Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of “Latino.”

Moderator

Erika Prosper

Growing up as a migrant farm worker in the Rio Grande Valley, much of Erika’s passion revolves around efforts to help improve quality of life among underserved populations. She is employed as an executive at H-E-B’s headquarters.

Outside of work, she co-founded and was the 2016 Chair of the Latina Leadership Institute and has led the creation of multiple education, youth entrepreneurship programming, and women’s economic development white papers with Raising Texas, the SABER Institute and VentureLab. In 2019, Erika was named the San Antonio Business Journal’s Woman of the Year and a Governor’s Yellow Rose of Texas honoree. Since 2022, she has been a yearly regional Panelist for the prestigious White House Fellows Program and participated in the Department of Defense’s JCOC Class 93. Erika became a Dame De Escoffier in 2023 and received the 2023 Ohtli Award from the Mexican government, the highest honor given to a non-citizen. Within H-E-B, she has also received Executive Corporate Leadership awards in Community Service and Diversity & Inclusion in 2015, 2016, and 2019.

Erika earned a master’s in communication from the UPENN Annenberg School, and two bachelors from UT Austin. In 2020, she earned an Executive degree in Behavioral Economics from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Having been the 2018 Chairwoman of the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Erika has served on several community boards and is currently active on the boards of the Girls Scouts of Southwest Texas, and Methodist Healthcare Ministries. Additionally, she volunteers on several advisory boards aimed at empowering Hispanic women, non-profits, and voting.