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Episode 73 with Roberto Lovato: Lightshiner and Truthteller-The Brilliant Excavator of Past Travesties and Author of the Incredible Memoir, Unforgetting
Show Notes and Links to Roberto Lovato’s Work and Allusions/Texts from Episode 73
On Episode 73, Pete talks with Roberto Lovato about his outstanding, moving, and illuminating memoir, Unforgetting. Using the book as a foundation, the two talk about US foreign policy in El Salvador and beyond, media and propaganda, connections between the past and today, “La Matanza” and other traumatic events in El Salvador’s history, the importance of “unforgetting” and “re-membering,” and hope as embodied by the Salvadoran resolve and beauty shown despite great tragedies.
Roberto Lovato is the author of Unforgetting: A Memoir of Family, Migration, Gangs and Revolution in the Americas (Harper Collins), a memoir picked by the New York Times as an “Editor’s Choice” that the paper also hailed as “Groundbreaking…. A kaleidoscopic montage that is at once a family saga, a coming-of-age story and a meditation on the vicissitudes of history, community and, most of all for [Lovato], identity.” Newsweek listed Lovato’s memoir as a “must read” 2020 book and the Los Angeles Times listed it as one of its 20 Best Books of 2020. Lovato is also an educator, journalist and writer based at The Writers Grotto in San Francisco, California. As a Co-Founder of #DignidadLiteraria, he helped build a movement advocating for equity and literary justice for the more than 60 million Latinx persons left off of bookshelves in the United States and out of the national dialogue. A recipient of a reporting grant from the Pulitzer Center, Lovato has reported on numerous issues—violence, terrorism, the drug war and the refugee crisis—from Mexico, Venezuela, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Haiti, France and the United States, among other countries.
Buy Unforgetting: A Memoir of Family, Migration, Gangs, and Revolution in the Americas (Bookshop.org)
Roberto Lovato Personal Website
"When reporting on a nation’s civil war erases the truths of a beautiful people" from October 1, 2020 in San Francisco Chronicle Datebook
At about 2:30, Roberto talks about the journey that his book takes him on, and how it’s an investigation of secret history and
At about 4:30, Roberto talks about his literary childhood, including his connection with Danny Dunn, The Bible, and Piri Thomas, among others; he connects his reading to Carl Jung’s quote-”The gold is in the dark” and talks about his extensive lifetime habit of writing in journals
At about 7:00, Roberto discusses education’s history in his family and gives background on his father's childhood in El Salvador; this leads to an outline
At about 10:10, Roberto explains the feeling of being “half-dead” as a Salvadoran-American and ideas of post-traumatic stress and the connections felt to his story by those of the Salvadoran and Jewish diasporas
At about 11:40, Roberto talks about obstacles to his intellectual growth, though he was identified as a “gifted” child, and he gives a summary of the book through a description of his relationships with people and places throughout
At about 12:45, Roberto talks about early reading and refuge through reading The Bible, and believing that “words had the power of God”
At about 14:20, Roberto talks about the different religious organizations he’s been part of in his life, with his love for The Word being the one constant
At about 15:30, Pete references the universal and hyper-specific references to trauma and fascism and quotes the wise Hannah Arendt, saying “terror forces oblivion”; Roberto reverses the Arendt quote and connects it to US government policies of Central American child separation and “normalization of fascist tendencies” in the US
At about 21:00, Roberto explains the path he took to becoming a writer/journalist and the path to Unforgetting that crystallized around age 50, including visits to Karnes, Texas and learning about migration stories and jailing and separation of Central American children and America’s historically-destructive role in Él Salvador
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Show Notes and Links to Roberto Lovato’s Work and Allusions/Texts from Episode 73
On Episode 73, Pete talks with Roberto Lovato about his outstanding, moving, and illuminating memoir, Unforgetting. Using the book as a foundation, the two talk about US foreign policy in El Salvador and beyond, media and propaganda, connections between the past and today, “La Matanza” and other traumatic events in El Salvador’s history, the importance of “unforgetting” and “re-membering,” and hope as embodied by the Salvadoran resolve and beauty shown despite great tragedies.
Roberto Lovato is the author of Unforgetting: A Memoir of Family, Migration, Gangs and Revolution in the Americas (Harper Collins), a memoir picked by the New York Times as an “Editor’s Choice” that the paper also hailed as “Groundbreaking…. A kaleidoscopic montage that is at once a family saga, a coming-of-age story and a meditation on the vicissitudes of history, community and, most of all for [Lovato], identity.” Newsweek listed Lovato’s memoir as a “must read” 2020 book and the Los Angeles Times listed it as one of its 20 Best Books of 2020. Lovato is also an educator, journalist and writer based at The Writers Grotto in San Francisco, California. As a Co-Founder of #DignidadLiteraria, he helped build a movement advocating for equity and literary justice for the more than 60 million Latinx persons left off of bookshelves in the United States and out of the national dialogue. A recipient of a reporting grant from the Pulitzer Center, Lovato has reported on numerous issues—violence, terrorism, the drug war and the refugee crisis—from Mexico, Venezuela, El Salvador, Dominican Republic, Haiti, France and the United States, among other countries.
Buy Unforgetting: A Memoir of Family, Migration, Gangs, and Revolution in the Americas (Bookshop.org)
Roberto Lovato Personal Website
"When reporting on a nation’s civil war erases the truths of a beautiful people" from October 1, 2020 in San Francisco Chronicle Datebook
At about 2:30, Roberto talks about the journey that his book takes him on, and how it’s an investigation of secret history and
At about 4:30, Roberto talks about his literary childhood, including his connection with Danny Dunn, The Bible, and Piri Thomas, among others; he connects his reading to Carl Jung’s quote-”The gold is in the dark” and talks about his extensive lifetime habit of writing in journals
At about 7:00, Roberto discusses education’s history in his family and gives background on his father's childhood in El Salvador; this leads to an outline
At about 10:10, Roberto explains the feeling of being “half-dead” as a Salvadoran-American and ideas of post-traumatic stress and the connections felt to his story by those of the Salvadoran and Jewish diasporas
At about 11:40, Roberto talks about obstacles to his intellectual growth, though he was identified as a “gifted” child, and he gives a summary of the book through a description of his relationships with people and places throughout
At about 12:45, Roberto talks about early reading and refuge through reading The Bible, and believing that “words had the power of God”
At about 14:20, Roberto talks about the different religious organizations he’s been part of in his life, with his love for The Word being the one constant
At about 15:30, Pete references the universal and hyper-specific references to trauma and fascism and quotes the wise Hannah Arendt, saying “terror forces oblivion”; Roberto reverses the Arendt quote and connects it to US government policies of Central American child separation and “normalization of fascist tendencies” in the US
At about 21:00, Roberto explains the path he took to becoming a writer/journalist and the path to Unforgetting that crystallized around age 50, including visits to Karnes, Texas and learning about migration stories and jailing and separation of Central American children and America’s historically-destructive role in Él Salvador
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