I really enjoyed this book, it was inter-connected tales and essays about the Latino experience. I liked the author's insight. Very well-written, thought-provoking

I loved the prose in the book, though I admit I found it hard to get into the content at the beginning of the book. Otherwise, I loved how the author weaved his and other stories, as well as some historical anecdotes to reflect and meditate on past, current and potential future experiences of the Latino/Latinx communities. It was both a realistic and sad reflection, yet hopeful at the same time. I felt he did a good job and showcasing the interconnectedness of different communities and showing the humanity in the groups he spoke about.

Our Migrant Souls is a beautiful, book-length essay filled with indignation, melancholy, and, most importantly, love. Love for Latinos, love for a mixing of races and cultures, love for breaking free of outdated, restrictive stories.

Unlike his earlier Translation Nation: Defining a New American Identity in the Spanish-Speaking United States, which was essentially a compilation of mini-profiles as Tobar traveled across the United States meeting Latinos, this book masterfully weaves the stories of his students, the people that he meets, and his own family into a moving treatise about what connects Latinos of all sorts and about the future we can create if we fight the oppressive capitalist system that dehumanizes the poor and the brown and Black.

Read it. If, like me, you're Latino, it will fill you with pride. If you're not, it will help you see the people all around you that you're failing to see.

Sadly, it wasn’t what I expected from the book and I couldn’t connect with the main message of the author. I read a few pages, but I didn’t continue because it felt like an obligation to read this book and that feels like a burden. I hope others have a different experience with this book.

Wow. Tobar uses the phrase 'emotional commonality,' and I understood the interconnectedness across Latino populations and the POC diasporas. This book is truly a meditation, as Tobar explores the intersections of the umbrella term 'Latino' (and its offshoots) and how colonial structures of oppression bind us as people of colour.

Using snippets and ideas of stories told by his students, we see a journey through America where the nation's heart lies in the turmoil and hope of a generation of Latino Americans who take up the banner of multiple cultural faces and nomenclature.

The book is grounded in history, yet it looks to the present, in the varying faces of existence across time and place, to explain the resilience of populations.

Dislikes:
The writing, while beautiful, could often be jarring due to its sequencing and pacing.