WELCOME
Welcome to the Many Stories, One Utah Collection page! From Wallace Stegner to Brandon Sanderson, Utah is home to many celebrated authors. Far too often, however, our writers from historically marginalized groups and their important contributions are under-taught and under-discussed. Since 2021, Utah Humanities has collaborated with Plumas Colectiva, and many others to curate and develop resources to help uplift the historically marginalized voices of Utah. Willy Palomo started the project during his tenure as the program manager for the Center for the Book at Utah Humanities and has continued to spearhead it under the umbrella of Plumas Colectiva with the support of Utah Humanities. Below, you can find discussion guides to five titles from our first completed Many Stories, One Utah Collection. In the upcoming months and years, we hope to publish more collections and add to them in an effort to promote underrepresented authors in Utah.
ACCESSING THE COLLECTION
Procuring a title is easy!
Find your title in the Utah State Library title directory.
Check for its availability in the calendar.
Request the title using this form.
Download your discussion guide below!
Your hold will then be viewable in the public schedule. For more complete instructions, a tutorial, and more, visit the Utah State Library landing page.
THE MANY STORIES, ONE UTAH
LATINX & HISPANIC COLLECTIOn
Furia by Yamile Saied Méndez
In Rosario, Argentina, Camila Hassan lives a double life.
At home, she is a careful daughter, living within her mother’s narrow expectations, in her rising-soccer-star brother’s shadow, and under the abusive rule of her short-tempered father. On the field, she is La Furia, a powerhouse of skill and talent. When her team qualifies for the South American tournament, Camila gets the chance to see just how far those talents can take her.
But the path ahead isn’t easy. Her parents don’t know about her passion. They wouldn’t allow a girl to play fútbol—and she needs their permission to go any farther. As her life becomes more complicated, Camila is forced to face her secrets and make her way in a world with no place for the dreams and ambition of a girl like her.
Let the Wild Grasses Grow by Kase Johnstun
Let the Wild Grasses Grow chronicles the lives of Della Chavez and John Cordova, childhood friends separated by a tragic accident, who find each other again during World War II after leading separate lives of struggle through the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, and, for John, abuse at the hands of his grandfather. This sweeping American love story celebrates the power of home landscapes, family heritage, and first love.Click here for the discussion guide.
Somewhere We Are Human, edited by Reyna Grande and Sonia Guiñansaca
In the overheated debate about immigration, we often lose sight of the humanity at the heart of this complex issue. The immigrants and refugees living precariously in the United States are mothers and fathers, children, neighbors, and friends. Individuals propelled by hope and fear, they gamble their lives on the promise of America, yet their voices are rarely heard.
This anthology of essays, poetry, and art seeks to shift the immigration debate—now shaped by rancorous stereotypes and xenophobia—towards one rooted in humanity and justice. Through their storytelling and art, the contributors to this thought-provoking book remind us that they are human still. Transcending their current immigration status, they offer nuanced portraits of their existence before and after migration, the factors behind their choices, the pain of leaving their homeland and beginning anew in a strange country, and their collective hunger for a future not defined by borders.
Created entirely by undocumented or formerly undocumented migrants, Somewhere We Are Human is a journey of memory and yearning from people newly arrived to America, those who have been here for decades, and those who have ultimately chosen to leave or were deported. Touching on themes of race, class, gender, nationality, sexuality, politics, and parenthood, Somewhere We Are Human reveals how joy, hope, mourning, and perseverance can take root in the toughest soil and bloom in the harshest conditions.
My Kitchen Table: Sketches from My Life by Pilar Pobil
Pilar Pobil was born on the island of Mallorca, off the Mediterranean coast of Spain, and it was there that she first learned to love the colors that suffuse her art. The tales contained here are those she later related to her own children around the kitchen table; many of them describe her childhood and young adulthood in Mallorca, filled with mystery and excitement, privilege and deprivation, and always a fierce will to face life on her own terms.
Other stories describe her meeting in Mallorca with the Utah man who would become her husband, her journey to a faraway country, the birth of her children, and her discovery of her artistic impulses and abilities. All are woven with the threads of color and culture of her two homes. Filled with wit and insight, My Kitchen Table reveals foremost the voice of a woman determined to be true to herself and to her art.
Wake the Others: A Biography of My Motherland by Willy Palomo
Half-memoir, half-biography, Wake the Others wrestles with the legacy of the Salvadoran Civil War. Blending lyric and narrative, Palomo traces his mother's childhood, war experiences, family separation, migration, and its aftermath. Political without sacrificing craft, confessional without navel-gazing, this debut collection of poetry guides readers through the quagmire of family secrets to a place where healing is possible.
Regarding curation, terminology, and representation:
Over two dozen titles were considered for the Many Stories, One Utah Latinx & Hispanic Book Buzz Collection. Willy Palomo presented the titles to the Many Stories, One Utah Latinx Working Group, a coalition of Latinx-serving organizations including Artes de México en Utah, the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Utah, University Neighborhood Partners, and many other partner organizations and individuals. The working group narrowed down titles and charged Willy with the task of vetting the most intriguing titles and developing discussion guides. The working group curated with an eye towards representation of diverse backgrounds, as well as literary genres. Willy recruited community members from target audiences and readers who shared cultural backgrounds with the author or characters of the book.
There is little consensus in the so-called Latino community regarding the best terminology to convey the complex, contradictory mass of nations, ethnicities, and linguistic groups we belong to. We have chosen to call this collection the Latinx and Hispanic collection firstly to remain consistent with the name of the Many Stories, One Utah Latinx Working Group, which was instrumental to building these resources. The “x” in “Latinx” is meant to challenge the gender binary imbedded in the Spanish language in order to be more inclusive of all genders, especially non-binary people, when referring to Latinxs. The term “Latinx” has been criticized for not following the Spanish linguistic rules by people who prefer the term “Latine.” “Latinx” is not widely accepted in Latinx communities; however, “Latinx” and “Latine” are widely accepted in LGBTQ+ Latinx communities from which the term emerged, as well as academia, journalism, and other parts of popular culture. Every variation of Latino/a/x/e has been criticized for emphasizing European roots, as opposed to Black or Indigenous roots. We use Latinx simply because no other term exists that captures the range of people we are referring to any better. We added Hispanic, a term that emphasizes the Spanish heritage and language, to include Pilar Pobil, a white Mallorcan woman who has played a monumental role in uplifting Latinx community in Utah and shaping the cultural landscape for Spanish-speaking peoples. Alongside her diverse peers, her inclusion illustrates the range of voices included in the Spanish-speaking and Latinx communities of Utah.
The Latinx and Hispanic collection features the voices of queer undocumented and deportee Utahans, the queer son of formerly undocumented Salvadoran refugees, an immigrant Argentinian woman, a wealthy Mallorcan immigrant, and a mixed race white Mexican-American whose ancestors likely argued they never crossed the border, but rather, the border crossed them. Some of the authors descend from, if not outright identify as, indigenous people. The inclusion of Somewhere We Are Human, an anthology of undocumented literature, introduces an array of different racial backgrounds and nationalities that extend far beyond Latin America. This is intentional to challenge the Latinx hegemony in Utah spaces for the undocumented, as well as an important way to include Black, Asian, and Indigenous voices who, while present in Latin America and our Latinx communities in Utah, have yet to publish many books with ties to Utah. We hope that by uplifting the stories in this collection, we also help inspire and uplift the voices of Afro-Latinxs, Asian-Latinxs, and all the other Latinxs in Utah who lie in between the borders of different cultures and languages. Once we complete the other Many Stories, One Utah collections, we hope to add more voices to the Latinx and Hispanic collection.
This project is made possible with support by Utah Humanities.
