Featured Author

Alejandro Morales, the son of Mexican immigrants, was born in Montebello, California, and grew up in Simons, the company town of the Simons Brick Yard #3, bordering Montebello. He earned his B.A. from California State University, Los Angeles, and a M.A. and Ph.D. from Rutgers University. Morales, currently is a professor in the Department of Chicano/Latino Studies at the University of California, Irvine. As a novelist and professor, Morales received the Luis Leal Award for Distinction in Chicano/Latino Literature in 2007 from the University of California, Santa Barbara. A documentary film, “The Brick People”, inspired by his novel The Brick People, was released in 2012. The film chronicles the story and legacy of the Mexican immigrants who came to work at Simons Brickyard #3 in Los Angeles during the early part of the 20th century. Morales's literary works include: Caras viejas y vino nuevo (1975); La verdad sin voz (1979); Reto en el paraíso (1983); The Brick People (1988); The Rag Doll Plagues (1992); Barrio on the Edge (1997); Waiting to Happen (2001); Pequeña nación (2005); The Captain of All these Men of Death (2008); River of Angels (2014) and Little Nation and Other Stories (2014). In 2013 the Stanford University Libraries acquired Morales's collection of original manuscripts, articles and professional papers. At present, he is working on several projects at different stages of development including: "A Rainbow of Colors," a biographical novel, a collection of speculative short stories and "Zapote Tree," a collection of poems.