Valentin Sandoval, "South Sun Rises" Poetry Reading

A poetry reading from author Valentin Sandoval’s new poetic novel, SOUTH SUN RISES. “Valentin Sandoval’s first book pays tribute to the poetic lions before him – Ricardo Sanchez, Cecillo Camarillo, and Benjamin Saenz” – Jimmy Santiago Baca (American Book Award Winner) Valentin Sandoval hails from the desert metroplex of El Paso, Texas. Sandoval gives us a tale for all from the heart, not simply just a “Latino” voice in pop culture, but an inadvertent humble fresh take on Americana where the modern written word is still important to extend English Literature and the novel further into the 21st century. SOUTH SUN RISES is a poetic narrative of a pursuit of the American dream on one of the world’s most compelling and dangerous international borders, El Paso/Juarez. Leaving behind her life in Juarez, Sandoval’s mother finds herself isolated and alone in the gritty projects of El Paso. Most days, the hardship of working hard hours while being both the mother and father to four children, she’d find herself fending off the dangers of the projects, with its predators, drug dealers, and junkies. She was resilient enough to search for the best setting for her to raise her children. Through tremendous persistence and effort, she managed to become a US citizen in the midst of raising her children on her own. The landscape is covered by a cloud of an almost Darwinian struggle for survival flourishing around a bicultural borderland from which emanates a unique song and dance unlike any in the US. The book adopts poetics as a form of familial understanding, a surreal kind of folklore in order for the writer to understand the life cycle in which he finds himself. EVENT: Tuesday February 17th Valentin Sandoval (El Paso TX) LOCATION: The Wild Detectives – thewilddetectives.com TIME: 7PM