Hi, Tamarindo listeners. Today's episode of Tamarindo is a mini episode to hold you over. It is a conversation with Carla Cornejo, Villavicencio, an Ecuadorian American writer and the author of the National Book Award finalist,

The Undocumented Americans. Her work focuses on race, culture, and immigration, and has appeared

in the New York Times, The New Yorker, Vogue, L, and NPR. She joins Tavarino to talk about her

debut novel, Catalina, which was long listed for the National Book Award for Fiction.

I'll tell you a little bit more about Catalina.

Catalina is the story of Catalina Utturale,

a wickedly wry and heartbreakingly vulnerable student

at an elite college, forced to navigate an opaque past,

an uncertain future, tragedies on two continents,

and the tantalizing possibilities of love and freedom. This is a delightful conversation. I really

enjoyed Carla telling me a little bit about this fantastic little book. I also want to read you

what Ira Glass has to say about this book. Diabocally charming and magnetic.

About once every page of Catalina, I found myself pausing to marvel at some incredibly

breathtaking sentence.

I honestly don't know how you write like this.

I don't know how you make something that feels so urgent and driven and alive.

I enjoyed the hell out of this

little exploding geyser of a book. That's Ira Glass. I love the book, and I'm excited for you

all to hear my conversation with Carla. Welcome to the Marindo podcast.

Hosted by me, Brenda Gonzalez, a fitness coach, political nerd, and nonprofit capacity builder.

And me, Delcy Sandoval, a Guatemalan American licensed therapist and passionate creativity advocate.

Together, we're here to uplift our community through powerful conversations with changemakers,

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