Butterfly Boy Memories of a Chicano Mariposa

Heartbreaking, poetic, and intensely personal, "Butterfly Boy" is a unique coming out and coming-of-age story of a first-generation Chicano who trades one life for another, only to discover that history and memory are not exchangeable or forgettable. Growing up among poor migrant Mexican farmworkers, Rigoberto Gonza lez also faces the pressure of coming-of-age as a gay man in a culture that prizes machismo. Losing his mother when he is twelve, Gonza lez must then confront his father' s abandonment and an abiding sense of cultural estrangement, both from his adopted home in the United States and from a Mexican birthright. His only sense of connection gets forged in a violent relationship with an older man. By finding his calling as a writer, and by revisiting the relationship with his father during a trip to Mexico, Gonza lez finally claims his identity at the intersection of race, class, and sexuality. The result is a leap of faith that every reader who ever felt like an outsider will immediately recognize.Gonzalez, Rigoberto is the author of 'Butterfly Boy Memories of a Chicano Mariposa', published 2006 under ISBN 9780299219000 and ISBN 0299219003.