Overview

Growing up in Yakima, Washington, Noe Alvarez worked at an apple-packing plant alongside his mother, who slouched over a conveyor belt of fruit, shoulder to shoulder with mothers conditioned to believe this was all they could do with their lives. A university scholarship offered escape, but as a first-generation Latino college-goer, Alvarez struggled to fit in. At nineteen, he learned about a Native American/First Nations movement called the Peace and Dignity Journeys, epic marathons meant to renew cultural connections across North America. He dropped out of school and joined a group of Dene, Secwepemc, Gitxsan, Dakelh, Apache, Tohono O'odham, Seri, Purepecha, and Maya runners, all fleeing difficult beginnings. Telling their stories alongside his own, Alvarez writes about a four-month-long journey from Canada to Guatemala that pushed him to his limits. He writes not only of overcoming hunger, thirst, and fear-dangers included stone-throwing motorists and a mountain lion-but also of asserting Indigenous and working-class humanity in a capitalist society where oil extraction, deforestation, and substance abuse wreck communities.

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9781696600460

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Noe Alvarez was born to Mexican immigrant parents and raised working-class in Yakima, Washington. He lives in Boston, where, until recently, he worked as a security officer at one of the nation's oldest libraries, the Boston Athenaeum. A graduate of Carnegie Mellon, Ramon de Ocampo is best known for his television work, especially for his recurring roles on many hit TV shows, including The West Wing, Notorious, 12 Monkeys, and Sons of Anarchy. A longtime audiobook narrator, Ramon is an Audie Award nominee and has won eleven AudioFile Earphones Awards.

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