Big Scary Brown Guy: A Memoir

Outside of the stories of Latinx immigrants, drug cartels, and refugees lie the narratives of those Latinxs who have been in the United States for many generations. Big Scary Brown Guy is a testament to those marginalized within the crossroads nation, culture, and family. Taking a clear-eyed view of his life, Christopher González narrates how his and his family's experiences in a society whose structure is designed and determined to keep people like himself on the fringes has created a person that White America often fears and loathes--the large, brown-skinned, Latino intellectual who speaks truth to power. He reveals painful and humorous moments in his life that give a greater, more nuanced understanding of Latinxs in the United States. He interrogates the racist and inequitable underpinnings of the US as they manifest in González's embodied experiences in an often confused and certainly troubled family, using a blend of elegant and sardonic prose, with literary and pop cultural allusions and everything in between. Big Scary Brown Guy illuminates the Gen X Latinx generation for all to see with keen precision and heartbreaking wit.