"Sonia GutiƩrrez masterfully evokes the voices of the Chicano forebearers in her debut novel, Dreaming with Mariposas. The text reads like a new song; in it you can hear the whimsical humor and self-aware candor of Sandra Cisneros, as well as the iconic vignette voice and style of the great TomƔs Rivera, made anew for the contemporary audience. GutiƩrrez gracefully navigates difficult
themes that are relevant to today's reader, such as immigration, sexism and the search for destiny. Dreaming with Mariposas contains all the hallmarks of a new classic. I just love it!"
-Gris MuƱoz, author of Coatlicue Girl
"Sonia GutiĆ©rrez invites us to dream in her world made up of literary skill as we follow the mundane and the miraculous ways migrant families exist in the United States. She brilliantly humanizes these experiences as we get to know SofĆa and Paloma; two brown girls growing up in North County San
Diego. GutiĆ©rrez provides a window of opportunity to understand transregional knowledge of border life between San Diego and Tijuana through a sharp lens of race, gender, class, and doctors that live in another country. She masters the use of bilingual phrases and cultural cues of Mexican and Indigenous systems of being: limpias, paletas, bikas, domingo, manzanilla, yerbitas y santos, el burro, piƱatas, cebollita y cilantro, tacos y carne asada, guayaba trees, el mercadito, cholo boys, la chota y la migra. We understand the cultural complexity that SofĆa and Paloma navigate as they imagine dream worlds of college aspirations. I am confident my students will revel in its familiarity and newcomers will fall in love. Without dreams, butterflies, and writers like GutiĆ©rrez, our world would not be beautiful and delicious. These human connections are all sacred, and without them, we would not exist y punto."
-AngƩlica M. YaƱez, Ph.D., editor of United States History from a Chicano Perspective
"Sonia GutiƩrrez captures dreams and memories with Dreaming with Mariposas, her latest literary collection. The poignancy of Dreaming wraps the reader in memories and wishes, and dreams, deferred and fulfilled. A Family of Butterflies forever traveling through dreams and reality."
-Kim McMillon, Ph.D., Black Arts Movement scholar and playwright
"Sonia GutiƩrrez reminds one of our elders offering us blessings in our youth. These vignettes are like the energy that connects the synapses in our body and the emotions infused in them bring warmth to the soul; and as fleeting as a soft cool breeze, they offer a fragrance that is remembered, etched and made tangible. The memories and narratives told are unrelenting and nourishing, they provide a vulnerability in their confessions."
-GibrĆ”n GĆ¼ido, coeditor of Queer in AztlĆ”n: Chicano Male Recollections of Consciousness
