Seattle Latinx Bookclub - Catalina

This month we'll be discussing (author of The Undocumented Americans) Karla Cornejo Villavicencio's debut fiction novel, Catalina

National Bestseller - Longlisted for the National Book Award! - A year in the life of the unforgettable Catalina Ituralde, a wickedly wry and heartbreakingly vulnerable student at an elite college, forced to navigate an opaque past, an uncertain future, tragedies on two continents, and the tantalizing possibilities of love and freedom

As always, our number one priority is creating comunidad. So please feel free to attend even if you didn't get a chance to finish the book this month.

Nos vemos pronto!

Where to find the book

You can find a copy of their book on Bookshop.org here

Purchase through Estelita's Library's Bookshop.org storefront, and you'll support Seattle's local Black/Brown-owned justice-focused community bookstore & lending library.

You can also find the book at Seattle Public Library in print, ebook, and audiobook formats.

About the Book

When Catalina is admitted to Harvard, it feels like the fulfillment of destiny: a miracle child escapes death in Latin America, moves to Queens to be raised by her undocumented grandparents, and becomes one of the chosen. But nothing is simple for Catalina, least of all her complicated, contradictory, ruthlessly probing mind. Now a senior, she faces graduation to a world with no place for the undocumented. Her sense of doom intensifies her curiosities and desires. She infiltrates the school’s elite subcultures—internships and literary journals, posh parties, and secret societies—which she observes with the eye of an anthropologist and an interloper’s skepticism: She is both fascinated and repulsed.

Craving a great romance, Catalina finds herself drawn to a fellow student, an actual budding anthropologist eager to teach her about the Latin American world she was born into but never knew, even as her life back in Queens begins to unravel. And every day, the clock ticks closer to the abyss of life after graduation. Can she save her family? Can she save herself? What does it mean to be saved?

About the Author

Karla Cornejo Villavicencio has written about immigration, music, beauty, and mental illness for The New York Times, The Atlantic, The New Republic, Glamour, Elle, Vogue, n+1, and The New Inquiry, among others. She lives in New Haven with her partner and their dog.

2025 Meeting Dates & Book Picks

• , Iris Morales
• , Saraciea Fennell & Various
• , Camila Sosa Villada
• , Cristina Enriquez
• , Yesika Salgado
• , Vincent Tirado
• , Karla Cornejo Villavicencio
• , Cristina Rivera Garza
• , Aja Monet
• , Isabel Cañas
• , Deborah Miranda

Host or Publisher Seattle Latinx Bookclub