Barrio Boy

Ernesto Galarza was born in an adobe cottage with a thatched roof at the end of the only street in Jalcocotan, a village tucked so deep in the Sierra Madre de Nayarit that arriving there was always a surprise. His memoir follows him from that hideaway, through the upheaval of the Mexican Revolution, to the bustling barrio of early twentieth-century Sacramento, where he arrived at eight and met the realities of segregation. He writes with humour, occasional sadness and a rare feel for how a child measures time and place.

First published in 1971 and long taught in American classrooms, it returns in a fortieth-anniversary edition with an introduction by Ilan Stavans setting Galarza, later a labour organiser and historian, in context. It is a book for anyone drawn to immigrant lives told from the inside, with warmth and clear eyes.