Two new memoirs offer harrowing firsthand accounts of immigration into the United States. In the Kirkus-starred My Boy Will Die of Sorrow, human rights lawyer Efrén C. Olivares enterwines his own story of immigration to the US at age 13 with the stories of the families he now represents—families who, though already fleeing for their lives, suffer family separation, zero-tolerance policies, and more at the hands of the US government. Javier Zamora’s New York Times–bestselling memoir, Solito, tells of his two-month trek from El Salvador to the US at the age of 9 to reunite with his parents. Traveling with a group of strangers shepherded by a “coyote,” Zamora faces unthinkable peril but also discovers a few moments of life-changing humanity and love from his fellow travelers.

Moderator: Victor Saenz, professor of educational leadership and policy at the University of Texas at Austin
Efrén C. Olivares, Javier Zamora, My Boy Will Die of Sorrow: A Memoir of Immigration from the Front Lines, Solito: A Memoir