Book talk — Author Max Tyrone Lozano speaks about his book, “Tiempo, Texas,” with his publisher, Tomas Ray Garcia. The book is available for $20 through Garcia’s publishing company at the following website: beyond-borders-books.com/tiempo. (Courtesy photo/Albert Villegas)
By ALBERT VILLEGAS
Special to the NEWS
In discussing their collaboration on the fictional novel “Tiempo, Texas,” authors Max Tyrone Lozano and Tomas Ray Garcia shared real-life experiences that mirror the book’s characters, who live along the South Texas border.
They were invited to discuss the 212-page book at the San Benito Cultural Heritage Museum, Saturday, June 28. It’s a book that was 10 years in the making, having been released just two months ago through Garcia’s publishing company, Beyond Borders Books, based in Pharr.
The two guest speakers didn’t delve too deeply into the book’s characters, as they wanted to avoid spoiling the narratives they had worked on for years. Instead, they compared the realities of living in the Rio Grande Valley to “Tiempo, Texas.”
Lozano was described as a “fronterizo” writer by his publisher, Garcia, who sat in front of him during the duo’s question-and-answer session.
Google describes such a writer as “often exploring themes of cultural identity, migration, and the liminal space of the border region … and highlights the significance of the border as a central element in their work and identity.”
Added Garcia: “I often say our books can’t be placed on a single shelf at a bookstore, and ‘Tiempo, Texas’ is a wonderful example of that in that it’s fiction, but it’s much more than a series of vignettes. It’s a matter of time, place, and memory, as well as what it’s like to live through these divergent experiences, and what life is like along the Texas-Mexico border, living in a place that’s familiar yet distant at the same time. It’s a place that’s ever-growing and changing, but still stuck in time.”
The author Lozano said that sometimes in life, a person can be torn between wanting to better themselves, which can sometimes translate to moving away from home.
Some of the book’s characters have names like Luis Ruiz, Freddy Quintanilla, Araceli Lucio, and El Rey.
“Growing up through high school, there was a lot of (student) talk of let’s leave, let’s go to Austin where it’s all at,” Lozano said.
He was such a person, having been raised in the Valley. Still, having received his education at Bryan/College Station, home of Texas A&M, he eventually also received education through the University of Texas system, at Edinburg, in the Rio Grande Valley.
“The book is kind of tackling that idea; I’m looking at this here (home), but I’m also seeing people disappear, and since writing the book more than 10 years ago, there have been those leaving their home willingly and then forced deportations we see today.”
According to the book, the characters are described in the following manner: “Ruiz dreams of reuniting with his mother; Quintanilla is unable to confront his only lifeline to his family in Mexico; Lucio and her cursed progeny; El Rey and his demands for things to stay as they are.”
The book explains, through a series of vignettes, that these intersecting lives, bound by the absence of control, populate the turnstile narrative that runs through their town.
Garcia, who is also a writer and a professor at South Texas College (based in McAllen), said the “Tiempo, Texas” book blurs the border between the past and present and constructs a town that feels both familiar and distant. It’s rooted in history and uprooted by time, Garcia adds.
“His debut novel introduces a new voice from the borderlands, and our literary landscape is all the better for it,” Garcia said.
The book is available for purchase for $20 at: beyond-borders-books.com/tiempo
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