In Conversation with Rosayra Pablo Cruz and Julie Schwietert Collazo | The Book of Rosy

Join us for a virtual conversation with Rosayra Pablo Cruz and Julie Schwietert Collazo on January 19th at 7PM. They will be discussing The Book of Rosy and answering your questions. This is a ticket-only event. Ticket sales include the purchase of a book and shipping to your home. If you already have a copy, consider gifting the ticket book! A portion of all sales will go to supporting the Hispanic Alliance of Spartanburg.

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The Book of Rosy

by Rosayra Pablo Cruz and Julie Schwietert Collazo

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PEOPLE Magazine Best Books of Summer 2020

TIME Magazine Best Books of Summer 2020

PARADE Best Books of Summer 2020 

Compelling and urgently important, The Book of Rosy is the unforgettable story of one brave mother and her fight to save her family.

“[The] haunting and eloquent…narrative of a Guatemalan woman's desperate search for a better life."--Kirkus (STARRED Review)

When Rosayra “Rosy” Pablo Cruz made the agonizing decision to seek asylum in the United States with two of her children, she knew the journey would be arduous, dangerous, and quite possibly deadly. But she had no choice: violence—from gangs, from crime, from spiraling chaos—was making daily life hell. Rosy knew her family’s one chance at survival was to flee Guatemala and go north.

After a brutal journey that left them dehydrated, exhausted, and nearly starved, Rosy and her two little boys arrived at the Arizona border. Almost immediately they were seized and forcibly separated by government officials under the Department of Homeland Security’s new “zero tolerance” policy. To her horror Rosy discovered that her flight to safety had only just begun.

In The Book of Rosy, with an unprecedented level of sharp detail and soulful intimacy, Rosy tells her story, aided by Julie Schwietert Collazo, founder of Immigrant Families Together, the grassroots organization that reunites mothers and children. She reveals the cruelty of the detention facilities, the excruciating pain of feeling her children ripped from her arms, the abiding faith that staved off despair—and the enduring friendship with Julie, which helped her navigate the darkness and the bottomless Orwellian bureaucracy.

“[I]nspiring and hopeful, The Book of Rosy offers an intimately detailed and personal account of two mothers’ determination and strength…A powerful, emotional perspective that demonstrates how one family’s immigrant experience can transcend inflicted pain and trauma in order to become an example of abundant generosity and love.”--Shelf Awareness

A gripping account of the human cost of inhumane policies, The Book of Rosy is also a paean to the unbreakable will of people united by true love, a sense of justice, and hope for a better future.
 

Rosayra Pablo Cruz es madre de cuatro hijos. Era dueña de una pequeña tienda de ropa en Guatemala antes de llegar a los Estados Unidos. Ahora que vive en Nueva York, es la copresidenta de la Asociación de Padres y Maestros de su hijo mayor y está activa en su iglesia y comunidad.

Julie Schwietert Collazo es una escritora, editora y traductora bilingue (inglés-español), y ex terapeuta de artes creativas. Ha co-escrito y editado un libro sobre el Papa Francisco, que ha sido traducido a más de una docena de idiomas y es un bestseller en Italia. Su trabajo ha aparecido en varios medios de comunicación, incluyendo Outside, Scientific American, Discover, Latina, The Guardian y Time, y ha contribuido a varios libros. Vive en Nueva York.