Héctor Tobar Wins the 2024 Zócalo Book Prize

Our Migrant Souls Is an Essential Exploration of ‘Latino’ Identity

Héctor Tobar is the winner of the 2024 Zócalo Public Square Book Prize for Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of “Latino.”

Zócalo has awarded the $10,000 prize yearly since 2011 to the nonfiction book that best enhances our understanding of community and the forces that strengthen or undermine human connectedness and social cohesion. The 13 previous Zócalo Public Square Book Prize recipients include Heather McGhee, Michael Ignatieff, Danielle Allen, Jonathan Haidt, and most recently, Michelle Wilde Anderson.

Tobar is the author of six books, a …

Interview by Sarah Rothbard | May 4, 2024

In Search of the ‘Tomato King’

Finding a Mexican Migrant Politician, Rooted in California Soil

by Adrián Félix | April 8, 2024

There is only one person more obsessed than I when it comes to the memory of Don Andrés Bermúdez: his son, Andrés Junior. Junior lives with his family in the …

When the U.S. Welcomed the ‘Pedro Pan’ Migrants of Cuba

Cold War America Resettled Unaccompanied Minors as an Anti-Communist Imperative. Today, the Nation Forgets This History

by John A. Gronbeck-Tedesco | January 8, 2024

When Fidel Castro took over Cuba in 1959, 13-year-old José Azel joined the ranks of the underground opposition engaging in acts of sabotage. When Castro closed the country’s schools, José’s …

The 1929 Law That Turned Undocumented Entry Into a Crime

By Treating Migrants as Felons, the Undesirable Aliens Act Reinforced a Punitive Approach to Unauthorized Immigration

by Benjamin Gonzalez O’Brien | November 27, 2018

Too often, discussions of modern immigration policy are ahistorical, focusing on recent events while ignoring the past policies that led us, as a country, to where we are today.

That’s especially …

How an Oahu Doctor Struggles to Care for His Micronesian Patients

Fleeing Rising Sea Levels and Burdened With Health Problems, Hawai‘i’s Newest Migrants Now Face ‘Bigotry and Backlash’

by Seiji Yamada | September 14, 2018

With its multitude of ethnicities, cultures, and languages, Hawaiʻi might appear at first glance to be a post-racial society. The predicament of Micronesians in Hawai‘i, however, gives the lie to …

In Rome, a New Kind of Sanctuary Is Growing

Rooted in the Humane Treatment of Migrants, the Baobab Experience Provides Shelter Despite Significant Hurdles

By Marzia Di Mento and Giulia Montefiore | January 30, 2017

The Baobab Experience, inspired by the strong African tree whose long roots can stretch far away and, for us, even across continents and cultures, is the name chosen for a …

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