Why It Matters: Héctor Tobar in Conversation with Karen R. Lawrence

Name: Why It Matters: Héctor Tobar in Conversation with Karen R. Lawrence | The Huntington
Start: Thu, Nov 5 2026
Location: The Huntington

Event

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author, and educator Héctor Tobar joins President Karen R. Lawrence to explore what his 9,000-mile journey across the United States revealed about migration, “Latino” identity, and the stories Americans tell about belonging.

Drawing on his award-winning book Our Migrant Souls and a career spent listening to personal narratives carried across generations, Tobar will consider how demographic labels can both illuminate and obscure individual experience—and how personal stories can deepen our understanding of community and the American story.

Presented as part of THIS LAND IS ..., The Huntington’s initiative marking the 250th anniversary of the United States’ founding, the conversation will also consider land as both physical ground and a metaphor for promise, struggle, and belonging.

Limited quantities of Tobar's books will be available for purchase at Rothenberg Hall 30 minutes before the start of the program (6:30–7 p.m.) and 30 minutes after the program ends (8–8:30 p.m.). Tobar will sign books following the program. Unsigned copies are also available through the Huntington Store.

About Why It Matters

Celebrating The Huntington’s unparalleled opportunities for cross-disciplinary exploration of human culture and history, the Why It Matters series features Huntington President Karen R. Lawrence in conversation with distinguished guests about the enduring relevance of the arts and humanities.

About the Featured Guest

Héctor Tobar is the author of six books, including the novels The Tattooed Soldier, The Barbarian Nurseries, and The Last Great Road Bum. His most recent book is Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of “Latino”; it won the Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction and was listed as a best book of the year by the New York TimesHis nonfiction book was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and a New York Times best seller; it was adapted into the film . was a New York Times Notable Book and won the California Book Award Gold Medal for fiction. Tobar’s fiction has also appeared twice in . He earned an MFA in fiction from the University of California, Irvine, where he is currently a professor. As a journalist, he was the Los Angeles Times bureau chief in Buenos Aires and Mexico City, and a member of the reporting team that won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the 1992 L.A. riots. Tobar has also been an op-ed writer for the New York Times and a contributor to , ,, and other publications. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Harvard Radcliffe Fellowship. Born and raised in Los Angeles, he is the son of Guatemalan immigrants.