It's the most absurd story. I grew up in the dirt streets of Tijuana, dying of all kinds of diseases - tuberculosis, fevers, all that - and it somehow turned into this charmed life. I don't know exactly how. — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
“Aztlán (“The Place of the Reeds”) was the traditional home of the Aztecs, a possibly mythical motherland from which the tribe ventured forth on… — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
With a name like Luis Alberto Urrea, it's political no matter what I do. — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
During grade school, we moved to a white, working-class suburb in San Diego, and there were no Mexicans. — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
I've been told not to tour down in Mexico. I am too well-known now. The kidnappers may think that my publisher will pay a… — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
“Braulio rises and extends his hands, making peace. " No hay pedo ," he says, the absurd lower-class slang for "There's no trouble here,"… — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
“This is how Heaven works. They're practical. We are always looking for rays of light. For lightning bolts or burning bushes. But God is… — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
We want to ascribe a kind of tragic grimness to people, but people are funny. — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
I came to believe the green fuse that drives spring and summer through the world is essentially a literary energy. That the world was… — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
“He couldn't believe she was real. She was like some dream, some story old men told youngsters. She made a fool out of him… — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
The world was more than a place. Life was more than an event. It was all one thing, and that thing was: story. — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
The concept of a literature of witness - of bearing witness - has embedded in it the need for action. One must not simply… — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
I have often said I come from a family of unreliable narrators. I tend to believe their struggles with racism, identity, nationality do dovetail… — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
In the end, I'm really interested in people and what we do with our short time here on earth. I'm interested in the human… — Luis Alberto Urrea Copy Share Image
