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Butterfly
Boy
Memories of a Chicano
Mariposa
Rigoberto González
Writing in Latinidad: Autobiographical
Voices of U.S. Latinos/as, Susana Chávez-Silverman,
Paul Allatson, Silvia D. Spitta, Rafael Campo, Series Editors
"Rigoberto González is a writer who walks, with
an elegant gait, the line between sorrow and laughter, anger
and acceptance. His prose is shaped by the poetry of irony. And
he is a master of it."–Richard Rodriguez, author
of Brown: The Last Discovery of America
Heartbreaking, poetic, and intensely personal,
Butterfly Boy is a unique coming out and coming-of-age
story of a first-generation Chicano who trades one life for another,
only to discover that history and memory are not exchangeable
or forgettable.
Growing up among poor migrant Mexican farmworkers, Rigoberto
González also faces the pressure of coming-of-age as a
gay man in a culture that prizes machismo. Losing his mother
when he is twelve, González must then confront his father's
abandonment and an abiding sense of cultural estrangement, both
from his adopted home in the United States and from a Mexican
birthright. His only sense of connection gets forged in a violent
relationship with an older man. By finding his calling as a writer,
and by revisiting the relationship with his father during a trip
to Mexico, González finally claims his identity at the
intersection of race, class, and sexuality. The result is a leap
of faith that every reader who ever felt like an outsider will
immediately recognize.
"A deeply felt work that belongs in
the company of classic American memoirs such as I Know Why
the Caged Bird Sings, When I Was Puerto Rican, and Hunger
of Memory. . . . Engrossing, supremely enjoyable, and beautifully
written."–Jaime Manrique, author of Eminent Maricones
Review
"In the tradition of Richard
Rodriguez, this stirring memoir of a first-generation Mexican
American's coming-of-age and coming out is wrenching, angry,
passionate, ironic, and always eloquent about conflicts of family,
class and sexuality. . . . An unforgettable story of leaving
home today."–Hazel Rochman, Booklist
Rigoberto González is the author of So Often the Pitcher Goes
to Water until It Breaks, a selection of the National Poetry
Series, and of Other Fugitives and Other Strangers.
A recipient of Guggenheim and NEA Fellowships and of several
international artist residencies, he has also written two children's
picture books, a literary biography, and an award-winning novel,
Crossing Vines. He is on the Advisory Circle of Con Tinta–a
coalition of Chicano/Latino activist writers. He works and lives
in New York City.
For more information contact our publicity manager,
phone: (608) 263-0734, email: publicity@uwpress.wisc.edu
Rigoberto González has a web site
at www.rigobertogonzalez.com
with more information about his books.
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September 2006
LC: 2006006990 PS
224 pp. 6 x 9
ISBN: 0-299-21900-3 Cloth $24.95 t
ISBN-13: 978-0-299-21900-0
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