We are thrilled to welcome Alejandra Oliva to celebrate the paperback release of Rivermouth: A Chronicle of Language. Faith, and Migration. For this event, Alejandra will be joined in conversation by Miguel Jimenez. 

Please note: This event is free to attend, but registration is required! By registering for this event, you agree to wear a mask throughout the duration of the event according to W&CF’s Covid-19 policies. 

REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT HERE! 

In this powerful and deeply felt memoir of translation, storytelling, and borders, Alejandra Oliva, a Mexican American translator and immigrant justice activist, offers a powerful chronical of her experience interpreting at the US-Mexico border.

In Rivermouth, Oliva focuses on the physical spaces that make up different phases of immigration, looking at how language and opportunity move through each of them: from the river as the waterway that separates the US and Mexico, to the table as the place over which Oliva prepares asylum seekers for their Credible Fear Interviews, and finally, to the wall as the behemoth imposition that runs along America’s southernmost border.

With lush prose and perceptive insight, Oliva encourages readers to approach the painful questions that this crisis poses with equal parts critique and compassion. By which metrics are we measuring who “deserves” American citizenship? What is the point of humanitarian systems that distribute aid conditionally? What do we owe to our most disenfranchised?

As investigative and analytical as she is meditative and introspective, sharp as she is lyrical, and incisive as she is compassionate, seasoned interpreter Alejandra Oliva argues for a better world while guiding us through the suffering that makes the fight necessary and the joy that makes it worth fighting for.

Alejandra Oliva is an essayist, translator, immigrant justice advocate, and embroiderer. She is a recipient of the 2022 Creative Nonfiction Whiting Grant. Her writing has been included in Best American Travel Writing 2020, was nominated for a Pushcart prize, and was honored with an Aspen Summer Words Emerging Writers Fellowship. She was the Frankie Fellow at the Yale Whitney Hummanities Center in 2022. Read more at olivalejandra.com

Miguel Jimenez is a writer and professor from Chicago. He is the Literary Arts Director of the Lit & Luz Festival of Language, Literature, and Art, and co-editor of the Willow Review.

Accessibility: This event is hosted at the bookstore, which is a wheelchair accessible space. Masks are required. Seating is on a first-come, first-serve basis. To request ASL interpretation for this event, please email events@womenandchildrenfirst.com by no later than 14 days before the event. For other questions or access needs, please email events@womenandchildrenfirst.com.

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Tags: Alejandra Oliva, Chicago, Edgewater, Miguel Jiménez, Rivermouth: A Chronicle of Language Faith and Migration, Women & Children First Bookstore