Pedro's Theory: Reimagining the Promised Land

by Marcos Gonsalez

One Pedro goes to a school where they take away his language. Another disappears in the desert, leaving behind only a backpack. A cousin Pedro comes to visit, awakening feelings that others are afraid to make plain. A rumored Pedro goes missing so completely it's as if he were never there.

In Pedro's Theory Marcos Gonsalez explores the lives of these many Pedros, real and imagined. Several are the author himself, while others are strangers, lovers, archetypes, and the men he might have been in other circumstances. All are journeying to some sort of Promised Land, or hoping to discover an America of their own.

With sparkling prose and cutting insights, this brilliant literary debut closes the gap between who the world sees in us and who we see in ourselves. Deeply personal yet inspiringly political, it also brings to life those selves that never get the chance to be seen at all.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, LGBT, Latinx, Queer, Essays, Biography Memoir

304 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 12, 2021

Reviews

[Christopher Gonzalez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gonsalez is most interested in what we can learn from snapshots, the physical and those of memory, such as the conversations had between classmates or a parent and their child, and when they occur in relation to history. He leads readers into his childhood school, down small-town streets, life in academia, New York City queer clubs, and everywhere in between. Filled with lush prose, the resulting memoir is a layered, scathing excavation of how the seeds of white supremacy have bloomed into damages on the everyday lives of immigrants, queer people of color, and others existing on the margins in the United States.

[Vivek Tejuja · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think so far in the year, this is the best memoir that I’ve read. I hope it remains this way. This is a story of many Pedros. The ones whose stories are told and the ones whose stories aren’t paid attention to. The Pedros that lie, love, cheat, try and make their way in a world that doesn’t seem them or treat them as equal, and sometimes we meet Pedros who also give up and then there are those who fight the good fight.

Gonsalez speaks of his life as being a Pedro. Sometimes he is Marcos and sometimes he isn’t. He doesn’t shy from speaking of his life, his family, the warts and all, and he doesn’t just restrict it to what it means to be brown in this world but takes it a step further. He speaks of what it is to be human in a world that is lost. Of what it’s like to be queer, indigenous, and mad at a world that is so eager to bring you down.

Marcos also through this book speaks of all that he could have been - the man he could’ve been, the friend, the lover, the child, and all of these in other circumstances. All trying to navigate their way in the promised land. All trying very hard to fit in and yet assert themselves.

The writing is honest and sublime. There is no pretense. It is written sometimes with anger and sometimes love takes over. The American dream is taken apart - bit and bit and you can see it for what it’s worth. Pedro’s Theory is a book you shouldn’t miss. It is about all the Pedros from different countries, and different lands, with one same lot of emotions, only wanting to live with dignity.
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[Christopher Alonso · Rating 5 out of 5]

Part memoir, part cultural and literary criticism, part myth making, Gonsalez has created a text of not just constant reimagining but revising of America as the place of infinite possibilities. Through the work of other writers, Gonsalez inserts himself--a body that was never meant to fit the image of an American--and connects personal anecdotes to how he imagines other people might live, almost like trying to live out fantasies. I find this book hard to place or categorize, which is why I like it so much.

[Paht (Pat) Satji · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Just an everyday Pedro in the Americas". Marcos (I feel like the reader would feel personally well acquainted with him), writes a personal autobiography, combining aspects of peer-reviewed journal articles on social theories (gender, race, history and sexuality) and illustrates how many different versions of a person can exist.

Marcos writes brilliantly - through the use of Pedros, Mollies, David's and more, it is difficult for anyone from to not relate to anything he says. I was very fond of the chapters dedicated to his parents and the complexities in their relationships (whiteness played a part).

However, I did find some parts of the book to be repetitive. By the time we get the chapter titled "Pedro's theory", I could not help but think that I've already heard these explanations before (ie. Femme, fat, queer).

[Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

queer joy who? only queer sadness here

[Elliott Turner · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars -a gripping story about growing up in a small town in the US, facing discrimination via both overt and subtle slights, but then coming to terms with internalized racism that can be equally harmful. And I also loved the stuff about "playing the gay sidekick" in NYC and how queerness can often come with shackles that don't fit everyone.

Gonsalez did a great job being candid about his own failings & feelings - accepting and then trying to overcome internalized "white fetishism" and colorism that in Mexico manifests as anti-indigenous sentiments.

I also liked the part about him visiting Mexico as a tourist, a "ni de aca de ni de alla" vibe. Piglia has written about the "ojos de turista", basically the notion that when u travel u see landscapes differently from locals not bc u are superior, but bc u bring ur own prejudices and perspectives to unpack. It's not necessarily a bad thing and of course travel can be done responsibly.

[Adriana De Persia Colón · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book is fascinating because it combines theory with creative writing in a way that is not formulaic. it is ambitious in what it sets out to do: be its own thing. you can't pin it down to one tradition and we love to see it. all the best to Marcos in his journey. i'm only giving it 4 stars because i'm big on emotional moments and some parts veered a bit more toward discussion, but that is in no way a lack or a negative. on the contrary, it has a great balance and there's something for everyone. 💗

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half was excellent - a delving into questions around identity in the context of race, culture, sexuality, language, and immigration. But the second half was more like an overwrought literary analysis. If the first half of the book had been the whole thing, I could imagine keeping this on the shelf in a high school classroom for independent reading. But the second half was tiresome and overwritten.

[Abbey Schuetze · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really beautiful memoir exploring many scopes of identity, family, personal relationships, and relationships with yourself. Gonsalez's writing guides you along different moments in his life and connects you with his thoughts and feelings in tender and vulnerable way I have yet to encounter in many memoirs.

[Lianne]

https://therumpus.net/2020/12/what-to...

[Richard Snow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Autobiographical, gay, Latino, first-generation son of immigrants. Remembering the difficulty of being the other... A series of vignettes exploring personal history. Even for a white American, the story resonates with the challenge of growing up gay in a small, affluent town.

[Tammy Matthews · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing. Gonsalez is an incredible essayist but the approach of coming at a memoir through an analytical framework doesn’t work for me. There is no joy in the storytelling. I understand how a writer may need to distance themselves, come at the pain of, for instance, a US school system that wants to strip you of your native language, through an analytical lense in order to deal with the subject, rather than an emotional approach. I get it, but it doesn’t always deliver a satisfying piece of writing.

“Much of what constitutes memoir writing is the concentrated attempt to recover and reconstruct the past into a cohesive narrative. Whether overtly expressed or subtly implied, a sense of wholeness and realized identity is typically the end goal for narrativizing one’s experience.”