Additional information
by Estela Gonzalez (Author)
*WINNER! 2023 Edmund White Award from the Publishing Triangle - WINNER, 2023 International Latino Book Award*
Mariana Sá nchez Celis has traveled the world as a pianist trained at the Juilliard School of Music. But when her mother has a stroke and her beloved uncle suddenly disappears, Mariana must put her life on hold to return to her home in Ayotlan, Mexico.She soon discovers her town is no longer the place she remembers. Ayotlan's beaches, sea turtle colonies, and historic center are decimated under decades of neglect and abuse. What part did her late father have in this? And could it be related to her uncle's disappearance?
When Fernanda Lucero, a member of the indigenous Concá ac people, convinces Mariana to join her sea turtle and architectural conservation projects, the deepening love between Mariana and Fernanda threatens to put them both further in harm's way. This, together with the web of secrets Mariana unravels, stands to radically transform her and her family's fate.
Arribada is the story of a well-to-do woman pushed to confront her role in environmental and social injustice. It is the saga of a family faced with the realization that their comfortable position rests, beyond a strong work ethic, on crimes against what they hold dearest: the natural world, their town, and their loved ones.
Author Biography
Estela Gonzá lez holds an MFA in creative writing and a PhD in Latin American literature. As a binational and bilingual writer, she tells stories in English and Spanish about race, class, gender, and environmental justice. Growing up in Mexico, Estela regularly visited her family in Mazatlá n, where decades-long intensive development has led to the demise of beaches and sea turtle colonies. Her research and support of fishermen protecting sea turtles in the Sea of Corté s deepen her reflections on environmental justice, race relations, and sexuality. Her work is featured in the Barcelona Review, the Cobalt Review, Connotation Press, Cronopio, Flash Frontier, Flyway Magazine, Kudzu House, Label Me Latina, La Colmena, Luvina, the Fem, and the Revista Mexicana de Literatura Contemporá nea, as well as in outstanding collections such as Best of Solstice Literary Magazine, Feminine Rising (Cynren Press, 2019), and Under the Volcano.
