{"id":3133,"date":"2025-11-07T13:11:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T17:11:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/?p=3133"},"modified":"2025-11-07T18:40:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T22:40:13","slug":"between-hope-and-conflict-migration-labor-and-latino-identity-in-dreams-in-times-of-war-by-oswaldo-estrada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/07\/between-hope-and-conflict-migration-labor-and-latino-identity-in-dreams-in-times-of-war-by-oswaldo-estrada\/","title":{"rendered":"Between Hope and Conflict: Migration, Labor and Latino Identity in Dreams in Times of War by Oswaldo Estrada"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe potatoes there are so much better\u2026Here the chicken tastes different,\u201d says one of the characters in Oswaldo Estrada\u2019s Dreams in Times of War.<\/em> His words aptly bring to light the displacement experienced by immigrants, of that shaky ground of here<\/em> and there<\/em>, which is the inevitable result of leaving one\u2019s country in search of a new home. The twelve short stories in this bilingual collection offer a myriad of experiences and voices of Latin American immigrants, showcasing the diversity of the so-called \u201cLatine community\u201d in the United States. They narrate the lives of immigrants as waiters, students, tobacco workers, nannies, professors, gardeners and teachers from Mexico, Central and South America. Estrada\u2019s complex characters are marked by loss, violence, and trauma, but also by hope, camaraderie and dreams.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0In the opening story, which gives the collection its title, \u201cDreams in Times of War,\u201d Estrada invites us into a narrative space marked by multiplicity. The protagonist is a young Peruvian American born in the U.S who is brought back to Per\u00fa by his parents at a young age. He grows up amid the violence of the war, and a precarious economic situation exacerbated by an absent father. In this challenging scenario, the United States appears as a conflicted space. On the one hand, it is a place that offers a \u201csafe conduct out of this inferno\u201d in the collective imagination (2), a place where one can eat pizza at a street corner, ride a yellow school bus, and visit Disneyland. However, as his mother previously experienced, it is also a place of social isolation and hard work. She still wonders if their lives would have been more independent there<\/em>, if only she \u201cwould\u2019ve been more daring\u201d (4). The lives of migrants are anchored in desires and the infinite possibilities of an existence that challenges stable notions of identity and belonging. For Estrada\u2019s characters, being at war is not only the consequence of experiencing an armed conflict, but a metaphor for displacement.<\/span><\/p>\n

The immigrant bodies become territories marked by different forms of violence. In \u201cUnder My Skin,\u201d for example, we follow a single mother and her daughter who are migrant tobacco field workers perpetually moving across the U.S. to follow the harvest seasons. The daughter struggles with the constant moving and she wonders how their lives would have been different had they stayed in Mexico. Her mother frequently falls ill from contact with an invisible and odorless toxic substance in the tobacco leaves invading the workers\u2019 bodies like \u201ca green monster that spreads under the skin. With tentacles that poison every part of you.\u201d Despite this danger, they\u2014like many other workers\u2014keep returning to work every year, \u201cAs if our bodies were addicted to these fields\u2026because the gringo pays well\u201d (39-40). In \u201cAssisted Living,\u201d we meet Mariana, who endures insults, aggressions and difficult cleaning tasks from the senior residents of the assisted living facility where she works. She \u201cdoesn\u2019t complain about her back pain or her feet\u2026\u201d or the scratches left on her skin by the residents, and she saves every penny in hopes of reuniting with her daughter (25-27). With a prose that oscillates between harsh reality and intimate reflection, Estrada foregrounds the hardships of working in the U.S. and their impact on the physical and mental health of workers and their families.<\/span><\/p>\n

Illness is also a symptom of trauma and violent living conditions. War, domestic violence, rape and sexual discrimination leave deep marks on the bodies of immigrants who populate Dreams in Times of War.<\/em> We meet characters born with asthma whose symptoms reappear as a consequence of settling in a place different from home\u2014an action that threatens to erase nostalgia and the remembrance of origin; a journalism professor researching protests in Latin America who struggles with insomnia; a shy college student who drinks a sip of Benadryl every night to sleep and conceal the trauma of crossing the border. The immigrant body is a site of stories, memories, and the embodied experience of internal conflict: living here <\/em>while constantly remembering there<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Popular culture and friendships provide an outlet for the challenges of living in a present heavily shaped by the past. For immigrants, watching telenovelas<\/em> and cooking traditional dishes while listening and dancing to music from their countries rebuilds a sense of home, even if it is just a recreation where \u201cthe chicken tastes different and the potatoes are not as good.\u201d Estrada\u2019s characters remind us that \u201cgetting together with others who suffered from the same illness\u201d (34) is a way of mitigating the violence of being an Other in search of existential meaning in a reality marked by displacement.\u00a0 At a time when the dominant U.S narrative about immigrants and immigration is one of dehumanization, Dreams in Times of War<\/em> offers readers a powerful counterpoint: each story reveals the profound and complex ties between Latin America and the United States, as well as the nuanced humanity at the heart of every immigrant experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

Estrada, Oswaldo. Dreams in Times of War \/ So\u00f1ar en tiempos de guerra. <\/span><\/em>Translated by Sarah Pollack. U of New Mexico P, 2025, 192pp.<\/span><\/em><\/h6>\n
\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Book Author <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Oswaldo Estrada<\/strong> is a fiction writer and literary critic. He has authored numerous works, including a children\u2019s book, four collections of short stories, and the novel Tus peque\u00f1as huellas<\/em> (2023). His book Las guerras perdidas<\/em> (2021) won the 2022 International Latino Book Award Gold Medal for \u201cBest Collection of Short Stories in Spanish.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Book Review by<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Mayra Fortes Gonz\u00e1lez<\/strong> is Associate Professor of Hispanic Literatures and Cultures at Grand Valley State University. She has authored articles on contemporary Latin American literature, counterculture, and the New Latino Boom. She is also co-editor of the edited volume, Ensayando el ensayo. Artilugios del g\u00e9nero en el ensayo mexicano contempor\u00e1neo<\/em> (2012).<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe potatoes there are so much better\u2026Here the chicken tastes different,\u201d says one of the characters in Oswaldo Estrada\u2019s Dreams in Times of War. His words aptly bring to light the displacement experienced by immigrants, of that shaky ground of here and there, which is the inevitable result of leaving one\u2019s country in search of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":3156,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[78,79],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nBetween Hope and Conflict: Migration, Labor and Latino Identity in Dreams in Times of War by Oswaldo Estrada - Spanglish Voces Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/07\/between-hope-and-conflict-migration-labor-and-latino-identity-in-dreams-in-times-of-war-by-oswaldo-estrada\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Between Hope and Conflict: Migration, Labor and Latino Identity in Dreams in Times of War by Oswaldo Estrada - Spanglish Voces Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u201cThe potatoes there are so much better\u2026Here the chicken tastes different,\u201d says one of the characters in Oswaldo Estrada\u2019s Dreams in Times of War. His words aptly bring to light the displacement experienced by immigrants, of that shaky ground of here and there, which is the inevitable result of leaving one\u2019s country in search of […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/07\/between-hope-and-conflict-migration-labor-and-latino-identity-in-dreams-in-times-of-war-by-oswaldo-estrada\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Spanglish Voces Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-07T17:11:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-07T22:40:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/11-x-8.5-in-1024x791.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"791\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mayra Fortes Gonz\u00e1lez\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mayra Fortes Gonz\u00e1lez\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/07\/between-hope-and-conflict-migration-labor-and-latino-identity-in-dreams-in-times-of-war-by-oswaldo-estrada\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/07\/between-hope-and-conflict-migration-labor-and-latino-identity-in-dreams-in-times-of-war-by-oswaldo-estrada\/\",\"name\":\"Between Hope and Conflict: Migration, Labor and Latino Identity in Dreams in Times of War by Oswaldo Estrada - Spanglish Voces Magazine\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-07T17:11:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-07T22:40:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/#\/schema\/person\/496f86cc12f06b80e035dfe5eb7e4a39\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/07\/between-hope-and-conflict-migration-labor-and-latino-identity-in-dreams-in-times-of-war-by-oswaldo-estrada\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/07\/between-hope-and-conflict-migration-labor-and-latino-identity-in-dreams-in-times-of-war-by-oswaldo-estrada\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/07\/between-hope-and-conflict-migration-labor-and-latino-identity-in-dreams-in-times-of-war-by-oswaldo-estrada\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Between Hope and Conflict: Migration, Labor and Latino Identity in Dreams in Times of War by Oswaldo Estrada\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/\",\"name\":\"Spanglish Voces Magazine\",\"description\":\"This platform is a tool to build community.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/#\/schema\/person\/496f86cc12f06b80e035dfe5eb7e4a39\",\"name\":\"Mayra Fortes Gonz\u00e1lez\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/aaff5afd890c0d010bb61cc322c3361e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/aaff5afd890c0d010bb61cc322c3361e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Mayra Fortes Gonz\u00e1lez\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/index.php\/author\/mayrafortes\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Between Hope and Conflict: Migration, Labor and Latino Identity in Dreams in Times of War by Oswaldo Estrada - Spanglish Voces Magazine","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/07\/between-hope-and-conflict-migration-labor-and-latino-identity-in-dreams-in-times-of-war-by-oswaldo-estrada\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Between Hope and Conflict: Migration, Labor and Latino Identity in Dreams in Times of War by Oswaldo Estrada - Spanglish Voces Magazine","og_description":"\u201cThe potatoes there are so much better\u2026Here the chicken tastes different,\u201d says one of the characters in Oswaldo Estrada\u2019s Dreams in Times of War. His words aptly bring to light the displacement experienced by immigrants, of that shaky ground of here and there, which is the inevitable result of leaving one\u2019s country in search of […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/07\/between-hope-and-conflict-migration-labor-and-latino-identity-in-dreams-in-times-of-war-by-oswaldo-estrada\/","og_site_name":"Spanglish Voces Magazine","article_published_time":"2025-11-07T17:11:21+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-11-07T22:40:13+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":791,"url":"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/11-x-8.5-in-1024x791.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Mayra Fortes Gonz\u00e1lez","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mayra Fortes Gonz\u00e1lez","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/07\/between-hope-and-conflict-migration-labor-and-latino-identity-in-dreams-in-times-of-war-by-oswaldo-estrada\/","url":"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/07\/between-hope-and-conflict-migration-labor-and-latino-identity-in-dreams-in-times-of-war-by-oswaldo-estrada\/","name":"Between Hope and Conflict: Migration, Labor and Latino Identity in Dreams in Times of War by Oswaldo Estrada - Spanglish Voces Magazine","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-11-07T17:11:21+00:00","dateModified":"2025-11-07T22:40:13+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/#\/schema\/person\/496f86cc12f06b80e035dfe5eb7e4a39"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/07\/between-hope-and-conflict-migration-labor-and-latino-identity-in-dreams-in-times-of-war-by-oswaldo-estrada\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/07\/between-hope-and-conflict-migration-labor-and-latino-identity-in-dreams-in-times-of-war-by-oswaldo-estrada\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/07\/between-hope-and-conflict-migration-labor-and-latino-identity-in-dreams-in-times-of-war-by-oswaldo-estrada\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Between Hope and Conflict: Migration, Labor and Latino Identity in Dreams in Times of War by Oswaldo Estrada"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/","name":"Spanglish Voces Magazine","description":"This platform is a tool to build community.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/#\/schema\/person\/496f86cc12f06b80e035dfe5eb7e4a39","name":"Mayra Fortes Gonz\u00e1lez","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/aaff5afd890c0d010bb61cc322c3361e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/aaff5afd890c0d010bb61cc322c3361e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Mayra Fortes Gonz\u00e1lez"},"url":"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/index.php\/author\/mayrafortes\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3133"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3133"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3149,"href":"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3133\/revisions\/3149"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spanglishvoces.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}