Radio and Print Interviews, News Articles with Sergio Troncoso
News Articles
El Paso Times: An essayist for the border: Ysleta author Sergio Troncoso --- By Ramon Renteria. Sergio Troncoso (2011) discusses his new collection of essays, Crossing Borders: Personal Essays, with essays about the relationship with his father, his wife’s battle against breast cancer, and the struggles and successes he hopes to share with others.
Harvard Magazine: Identity Seeker --- By Liz Goodwin. In a retrospective (2008) on alumni attending their 25th Reunion at Harvard, Sergio talks about how he felt as a freshman at Harvard, and how he transformed himself from a scholar of the Mexican political economy to a writer focused on philosophical stories. Sergio Troncoso also discusses the work on his new novel and being on the board of directors of the Hudson Valley Writers' Center.
Houston Chronicle: A Thinking Man's Mystery --- By Fritz Lanham. Sergio Troncoso (2004) takes a philosophical perspective in his new novel, The Nature of Truth. The author discusses how his upbringing in El Paso and his studies at Harvard and Yale sparked his interest in philosophy. The novel is Troncoso's effort to have a dialogue with and issue a challenge to Nietzsche and Dostoyevsky on the creation and destruction of truth, moral responsibility and justification, and the links between righteousness and evil.
Words on a Wire Interview --- Radio interview (2011; mp3 audio format; 11 minutes) with writer Daniel Chacon of Words on a Wire, a radio program of El Paso’s KTEP. Sergio Troncoso talks about being a writer in New York City with roots in El Paso, his wife’s battle against breast cancer, and his relationship to Judaism.
KUHA Houston Public Radio Interview --- Radio interview (2011; mp3 audio format; 82 minutes) with host Eric Ladau of Houston Public Radio’s 91.7 FM. Sergio Troncoso talks about his novel, From This Wicked Patch of Dust, and book of essays, Crossing Borders: Personal Essays, the importance of teachers, his experiences at Harvard, his relationship to Judaism, and the politics of Latino literature in Texas and New York.
La Bloga Interview --- Daniel Olivas of La Bloga (2011) interviews Sergio Troncoso about his novel From This Wicked Patch of Dust, why he centered the novel on a group protagonist, the Martinez family, rather than an individual one, and the significance of time in the novel.
TheLatinoAuthor.com Interview --- TheLatinoAuthor.com website (2011) features Sergio Troncoso and asks him questions about his literary inspirations, how he began his writing career, what books and authors have influenced his writing, and what advice he would give to aspiring writers.
Older Radio and Print Interviews, News Articles
NPR Interview on Latino USA --- Radio interview (2003; real audio format; 4 minutes) with host Maria Hinojosa of National Public Radio's Latino USA. Sergio Troncoso talks about his novel, The Nature of Truth, and how Chicano writers should expand their work beyond 'barrio' and 'familia' stories, to create characters instead of caricatures.
Yale Daily News: Troncoso teaches --- By Julie Post. Author Sergio Troncoso (2003) talks about his cultural adjustment at Harvard after growing up on the Mexican-American border, and encourages Yale students at La Casa Cultural to challenge their Latino heritage and ask what should Latinos be. He also discusses his novel's effort to provoke questions about the pursuit of truth and what is taught at places like Harvard and Yale.
Hispanic Scholarship Fund: HSF inducts five into 2003 Alumni Hall of Fame --- By Miguel Salinas. Five, including White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and writer Sergio Troncoso (2003), are inducted into the Hispanic Scholarship Fund's Alumni Hall of Fame, to celebrate success stories to inspire future Hispanic college graduates.
KTEP Interview --- Radio interview (2000; mp3 audio format; 32 minutes) at public radio station in El Paso, Texas, with Louie Saenz. Sergio Troncoso talks about his family and Ysleta, the struggle to become a writer, and the influence of his maternal grandmother, Dolores Rivero, and his paternal grandfather, Santiago Troncoso.
Radio and Print Interviews
Conversation with C. M. Mayo and Sergio Troncoso --- Podcast interview (2012; mp3 audio format; 59 minutes) with writer C.M. Mayo, recorded on Skype. Sergio Troncoso talks about the fragmentation of our country and culture, connecting to recreate new groups and families, and the Librotraficante movement against the banning of books in Arizona.
Texas Library Association Interview --- Online interview (2012; mp3 audio format; 7 minutes) with Ted Wanner of the Texas Library Association, a preview of the annual conference in Houston, Texas. Sergio Troncoso talks about his new books, crossing geographical, intellectual, religious borders, and what inspired him to write his essays and novel.
Associated Press: El Paso native writes about life, love on the border --- By Michelle Koidin. Troncoso (2000) has always prodded people to think about moral issues, even as a young man growing up in a poor community of Mexican immigrants.
LatinoLink Interview --- Turning Ordinary Lives into Extraordinary Tales (2000). In this interview, the author discusses how he grew up in El Paso, Texas and his reaction to winning the Premio Aztlan for The Last Tortilla and Other Stories.
El Paso Times: New voice in Chicano literature --- By Ramon Renteria. Sergio Troncoso (1999) grew up in Ysleta as el terco, the hard-headed overachiever who went to Harvard and Yale and never forgot about his Mexican roots.
Interview in T-Zero Writers' Annual --- One of the first interviews (1998) of Sergio Troncoso. He discusses his reaction to the militarization of the Mexican-American border, his background as an economist and philosopher, and why he first decided to write short stories.