Garcia provides a highly original and penetrating reassessment of [Wright and Rodriguez], as well as a careful study of how Hispanic and black American literatures are integrally related to each other. . . . An indispensable resource for generalists and specialists alike.--African American Review

""In his insightful book, Garcia . . . demonstrates how Wright and Rodriguez use and yet go beyond racialized notions of consciousness--namely, W. E. B. Du Bois's theorizations of 'double consciousness' and Gloria Anzuldúa's of multiple consciousness and mestizaje--to illuminate the complexities of ethnic identities, (masculine) embodiment, and (racialized) subjectivity and personhood that speak to and about communities of color and society at large. . . . Highly recommended."--Choice"

An important contribution to the study of American life writing and an invaluable reassessment of the work of Richard Wright and Richard Rodriguez.--Robert J. Butler, coeditor of The Richard Wright Encyclopedia

Garcia's book sweeps us off our feet. With great acuity he offers a remarkable and total vision of how the autobiographical format in the hands of such masters as Wright and Rodriguez radically reshapes our sense of what it means to be Black and Brown in the United States. The breadth and depth of Garcia's erudition is breathtaking. Never again can we consider race in the United States in black and white terms. Extraordinary!--Frederick Luis Aldama, author of The Routledge Concise History of Latino/a Literature