Natalia Treviño's Double Book Launch: When You Were Human & The Road Back
Schedule
Thu Apr 16 2026 at 06:30 pm to 08:30 pm
UTC-05:00Location
UNAM San Antonio | San Antonio, TX
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My beautiful community! Come celebrate with me the release of my 2 books, We'll have some snacks, featured poets, book signing music y baile! Can't wait to see you there.*When You Were Human* — a poetry collection exploring the Virgin Mary as spiritual mother, intercessor, and unifying presence across cultures, and part of the Letras Latinas Publishing Collaborative at the Institute of Latino Studies at The University of Notre Dame
@LetrasLatinas, @latinostiudies_nd
*The Road Back* — a novel illuminating the lives of women and undocumented workers searching for a better life.
Kind words about *When You Were Human*
"In Natalia Treviño’s luminous collection, When You Were Human, the speaker is “still learning the difference / between the prayer and the one who prays.” Which is to say, in Treviño’s poetic vision, the Virgin Mary becomes more than a sacred symbol—she is mother, witness, shelter, and wound. She is the prayer and she is also the one who prays. All of these all at once because this is Her nature: to be found everywhere and anywhere—as an air-freshener dangling from a rearview mirror, as a figure on a necklace, or as a tattoo on a young man’s arm. In these poems, divinity appears to us with “the faces we love,” be it son, Grandmother, or all the countless mothers who have lost a son to the State: “to chew tart blood, to press a knee to a neck.” Allusive and ekphrastic, Treviño’s language is also measured, devotional, grounded: “how much Mercy // will it take / for all the redemptions / we need,” she asks. How to measure faith? How to measure love? I pray you read this book for answers, although none might be found, but be assured that these poems, like the Holy Mother, will travel into the different countries of your heart as “miracles // do, without papers.”
—Octavio Quintanilla, author of The Book of Wounded Sparrows (Texas Review Press) & Las Horas Imposibles / The Impossible Hours (University of Arizona Press)
"When You Were Human by Natalia Treviño makes the ordinary and the sacred sing in beautiful harmony. It connects the human body to nature and the supernatural. And it creates a tender intimacy between our icons and ourselves. In Treviño’s world, miracles and mercy wear sneakers; woes and wonders are joined at the hip. In short, these poems are magic."
—Cristina García, author of Dreaming in Cuban and Vanishing Maps
Kind words about *The Road Back*
“Natalia Treviño reminds us of the classic voices of Latina literature while creating her own elegant literature. This is our future.
This is the next page.” —Luis Alberto Urrea
"Natalia Trevino writes with profound tenderness, weaving an intimate portrait of maternal devotion. It is a story of unwavering love pushed to its limit, exploring the weight of a sacrifice no mother should ever have to bear."
—Reyna Grande
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Where is it happening?
UNAM San Antonio, 679 Hemisfair Plaza Way, San Antonio, TX 78205, United StatesEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
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