Writing Latinos, from Public Books, is a new podcast featuring interviews with Latino (a/x/e) authors discussing their books and how their writing contributes to the ever-changing conversation about the meanings of latinidad.

This episode features our conversation with Graciela Mochkofsky, author of The Prophet of the Andes: An Unlikely Journey to the Promised Land. Mochkofsky’s book is about the extraordinary life of Segundo Villanueva, a Peruvian prophet who grew a following of hundreds, ultimately leading their pilgrimage to Israel and conversion to Judaism. The Prophet of the Andes shatters every preconception about religion in the Americas, and what we mean when we talk about Latino religiosity.

Mochkofsky is Dean of CUNY’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, contributing writer for The New Yorker, an award-winning journalist, and author of several books published in Latin America and the United States.