Alfredo Gutierrez: To Sin Against Hope book-signing June 10

By admin June 8, 2013 18:33

On Monday, June 10 7 p.m. at Changing Hands bookstore, 6428 S, McClintock Drive, in Tempe, former Arizona state senator and gubernatorial candidate Alfredo Gutierrez presents his book, To Sin Against Hope: How America Has Failed Its Immigrants: A Personal History.

Alfredo Gutierrez’s father, a U.S. citizen, was deported to Mexico from his Arizona hometown—the mining town where Alfredo grew up. This occurred during a wave of anti-immigrant hysteria stoked by the Great Depression, but as Gutierrez makes clear, in a book that is both a personal chronicle and a thought-provoking history, the war on Mexican immigrants has rarely abated.

President Barack Obama now presides over an immigration policy that Gutierrez says is every inch the equal of Herbert Hoover’s in its harshness. His family experiences inspired Gutierrez to pursue the life of a Chicano activist. Kicked out of Arizona State University after leading a takeover of the president’s office, he later became the majority leader of the Arizona State Senate.

In this engrossing memoir and essay, he dissects the racism that has deformed a century of border policy—leading to a record number of deportations during the Obama presidency—and he analyzes the timidity of today’s immigrant advocacy organizations. To Sin Against Hope brings to light the problems that have prevented the U.S. from honoring the contributions and aspirations of its immigrants. It is a call to remember history and act for the future.

EVENT DETAILS

TICKET (admits two) is free when you purchase To Sin Against Hope from Changing Hands Bookstore.
Letter groups (printed on top of ticket) will be called at 6 p.m. to fill seats and designated standing room. If available, seating and standing room opens to those without tickets at 6:45 p.m.
Space cannot be guaranteed for late arrivals.
Book-signing line forms by assigned letter group after the presentation. Those without tickets may get their books signed after ticket-holders, if time allows.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ALFREDO GUTIERREZ helped found the national Chicano student organization MEChA. He was elected to the Arizona State Senate at the age of twenty-five and served as both Majority and Minority Leader. After losing his bid for Governor of Arizona in 2002, he began hosting a popular radio show and is also the editor of LaFronteraTimes.com.