Author Sergio Troncoso read from his new novel and spoke about Jewish-Latino relations last night, celebrating the tail end of Latino Heritage Month at Penn.
With a roughly 30 percent Jewish student body, and 15 student groups under the umbrella of the Latino Coalition, Penn was an appropriate forum for the presentation in Steinhardt Hall.
"The Latinos need to reach out to the Jews, and the Jews need to reach out to the Latinos," Troncoso said. "We need to start seeing ourselves as part of a bigger family."
Alianza, Penn's Latino and Jewish partnership group, sponsored the event.
Troncoso read selections from The Nature of Truth, a thriller set at Yale University where Troncoso attended graduate school. "I assume, because you guys don't like Yale too much, that you'll think this is a good novel," he said.
The Nature of Truth concerns a young Mexican-German researcher who discovers his mentor's anti-Semitic past. "People always ask, 'Why is a Chicano writing about the Holocaust?'" Troncoso said. "It always throws people."
Troncoso added that the novel not only addresses his interest in Latino and Jewish culture, but is an attempt to spur discussion about other ethnic groups.
"I'm trying to write things, I hope, that will make you think," he said.
He also discussed his childhood in El Paso, Texas, his undergraduate career at Harvard University and his relationship with his Jewish wife, whom he met at Harvard.
Troncoso said he became interested in learning more about Judaism when he married his wife. "I felt a need to stop being so ignorant and to reach out and learn more about this community," he said.
He added that his family exemplifies the merging of Jewish and Latino cultures.
"We have a lot of holidays -- Hanukkah, Christmas, everything," Troncoso said. "I just want to expose [my children] to all sides of our cultures."
College junior and Alianza President Jonathan Ludmir introduced Troncoso.
"One of our focuses was art and culture," Ludmir said. "We wanted to bring someone out who had some literary experience. ... [Troncoso] shows the diverse sides of the Latino world. There are multiple identities in the culture."
Attendee and College junior Crystalyn Calderon said she became interested in Jewish-Latino relations after meeting her Jewish roommate. "When I came here, I knew nothing about Judaism," she said. My roommate "really opened my mind."
Calderon, like Troncoso, is from El Paso and said that coming to Penn was a big "culture shock."
She added that she was glad to hear speakers like Troncoso at Alianza events. "I think it's good that there are people promoting Jewish-Latino relations," she said.
