Hello, everyone.
[CHUCKLING] It's odd to be up here after so much time
but welcome tonight.
I'm Diana Marie Delgado.
I'm the Literary Director of the Poetry Center.
And tonight, I'm excited to present an evening
with Luis Alberto Urrea in what is our first event after nearly
two years.
[APPLAUSE]
Yes.
We need to clap.
We really do need to clap.
It's been a long time.
[APPLAUSE]
This evening is part of the 12th Annual Tucson Humanities
Festival, which started as Humanities Week,
and, through community outreach, engagement,
and incredible speakers, has grown into a month-long series
of thought-provoking presentations
during October each year to celebrate National Arts
and Humanities Month.
We would like to start today by saying that we respectfully
acknowledge the University of Arizona
is on the land and territories of Indigenous peoples.
Today, Arizona is home to 22 federally-recognized tribes,
with Tucson being home to the O'odham and the Yaqui.
Committed to diversity and inclusion,
the University strives to build sustainable relationships
with sovereign Native nations and Indigenous communities
through education offerings, partnerships,
and community service.
We also want to emphasize that this land acknowledgment is
a milestone in our ongoing dialogue with the Tohono
O'odham, the Pascua Yaqui, and the 20
other federally-recognized tribes in the state.
It is an indicator of our commitment to collaboration
and to maintaining government-to-government
relationships with the Native nations and Indigenous
communities with whom we share this region.
This year's festival theme is storytelling.
And we'd like to thank our sponsors who help make
tonight's event and the festival possible, Dorrance Foundation,
Arizona Humanities, Humanities Seminars Program, and Bookmans
Entertainment Exchange.
We are also excited to offer tonight's presentation
to a wide audience at home through livestream
and captioning provided by the Town of Oro Valley.
In addition, tonight's event is sponsored by the Borchard
Foundation Center on Literary Arts, a foundation established
to create a community of literary artists
from across the Americas to foster
meaningful connections between people, culture,
and the natural world.
Michael Spurgeon, who was here to offer a few words,
unfortunately is in airport hell.
We wish him safe travels, but we're
hoping that we do see him later on tonight.
But he was planning to be here.
But sadly, he's got caught in that turmoil.
A few just key things.
We have books for sale.
I mean, I don't know how long it's
been since you've gone out in-person and bought a book,
but get a book tonight.
Right?
Get a book for someone else.
Christmas is coming.
Luis has done an amazing job in signing book plates,
so every book that you purchase will
have a bookplate that has his signature,
an original signature from Luis.
So please, take time.
That will happen after the reading briefly.
The other thing I want to mention
is, once Luis finishes the reading,
I'm going to come back up and just say a few closing remarks.
So just, if you don't mind, not like
running out right after the reading to get your book.
Just take a few moments, and I'm just
going to just remind everyone of a few things
that we have coming up in the Humanities Festival as well
as the Poetry Center.
So I was in charge of potentially writing
an introduction for Luis.
And I went back and forth reading his books,
and I thought, man, this guy doesn't need an introduction.
There's nothing really that I can write that is new
or that can really encapsulate just the genius
and the impact that his work has made, not only on just readers
but also specifically Latino communities.
Right?
Personally.
So I'm going to go just for an introduction.
If you don't know about some of his work,
it's more of a biography.
And then we're going to have Luis come up,
and then you can kind of hear firsthand
just why I didn't write that introduction.
[LAUGHING]
Luis Alberto Urrea is the critically
acclaimed and best-selling author
of 18 books of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction.
He's a Pulitzer finalist; a Guggenheim fellow;
has won an Edgar, an American book award;
and is an inaugural fellow for the Borchard Foundation.
Born in Tijuana to a Mexican father and American mother,
Urrea uses his dual-culture life experiences
to explore greater themes of loss, love, and triumph.
Urrea has lived and written in Tucson
and received the 2019 Tucson Festival of Books Founders
Award.
His most recent book is The House of Broken Angels
and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle
Award and New York Times notable book.
Everyone, please give a warm round of applause
for Luis Alberto Urrea.
[APPLAUSE]