Wayne State University’s Ethriam Brammer completes first-ever English translation of novel chronicling Mexican immigration to the United States

Detroit: Center for Chicano-Boricua Studies (CBS) Assistant Director for Recruitment and Retention, Ethriam Cash Brammer de Gonzáles, has published a translation of great historical significance for scholars, critics and casual readers of early Mexican-American and Latino literature.

Originally published in 1926 in San Antonio, Texas, Under the Texas Sun/El sol de Texas (Arte Público Press, 2007)—the first novel to chronicle Mexican immigration to the United States—depicts the struggles of two families: the Garcías and the Quijanos. Their initial hopes of returning to their homeland with enough money to buy their own piece of land are worn away by the reality of immigrant life.

Unable to speak English, they find themselves at the mercy of unscrupulous work contractors and foremen: forced to work at backbreaking labor picking cotton in the fields, building the burgeoning Southwest railroad system, and working in Gulf Coast oil refineries.

Published as part of The Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project, the original Spanish-language text by author Conrado Espinoza is accompanied by the first-ever English translation by Ethriam Cash Brammer and a scholarly introduction by John Pluecker.

An author’s book signing is scheduled to take place on Thursday, Sept, 13, (location on WSU campus to be announced) as part of Wayne State University’s Chicano Boricua-Studies Hispanic Heritage Month series of events. Conrado Espinoza (1897-1977) worked in the educational system in México before going into exile in the United States, where he worked as a journalist for newspapers such as La Opinión in Los Angeles and La Prensa in San Antonio. In 1930, he returned to Mexico where he founded a school in the state of Sinaloa and lived the rest of his days.

Brammer de Gonzáles is a widely published poet, screenwriter, and fiction writer. He is the translator of Lucas Guevara (Arte Publico Press, 2003), the first Spanish-language novel of immigration to the United States originally published in 1914, and The Adventures of Don Chipote, or, When Parrots Breast-Feed (Arte Publico Press, 2000), by Daniel Venegas and published originally in Spanish in 1928.