Spirit Run: A 6,000-Mile Marathon Through North America's Stolen Land

By Noé Álvarez

Book Overview

A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE

The son of working-class Mexican immigrants flees a life of labor in fruit-packing plants to run in a Native American marathon from Canada to Guatemala in this "stunning memoir that moves to the rhythm of feet, labor, and the many landscapes of the Americas" (Catriona Menzies-Pike, author of The Long Run)

Growing up in Yakima, Washington, Noé Álvarez worked at an apple-packing plant alongside his mother, who "slouched over a conveyor belt of fruit, shoulder to shoulder with mothers conditioned to believe this was all they could do with their lives." A university scholarship offered escape, but as a first-generation Latino college-goer, Álvarez struggled to fit in.

At nineteen, he learned about a Native American/First Nations movement called the Peace and Dignity Journeys, epic marathons meant to renew cultural connections across North America. He dropped out of school and joined a group of Dené, Secwépemc, Gitxsan, Dakelh, Apache, Tohono O'odham, Seri, Purépecha, and Maya runners, all fleeing difficult beginnings. Telling their stories alongside his own, Álvarez writes about a four-month-long journey from Canada to Guatemala that pushed him to his limits. He writes not only of overcoming hunger, thirst, and fear--dangers included stone-throwing motorists and a mountain lion--but also of asserting Indigenous and working-class humanity in a capitalist society where oil extraction, deforestation, and substance abuse wreck communities.

Running through mountains, deserts, and cities, and through the Mexican territory his parents left behind, Álvarez forges a new relationship with the land, and with the act of running, carrying with him the knowledge of his parents' migration, and--against all odds in a society that exploits his body and rejects his spirit--the dream of a liberated future.

"This book is not like any other out there. You will see this country in a fresh way, and you might see aspects of your own soul. A beautiful run." --Luís Alberto Urrea, author of The House of Broken Angels

"An anthem to the landscape that holds our identities and traumas, and its profound power to heal them." --Francisco Cantú, author of The Line Becomes a River

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1646220536
• ISBN13: 9781646220533
• Release Date: March 2021
• Publisher: Catapult
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.69 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 8.2"