Unforgetting

A Memoir of Family, Migration, Gangs, and Revolution in the Americas

By: Roberto Lovato

Narrated by: Roberto Lovato

Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

A The Millions Most Anticipated Book of the Year

"Gripping and beautiful. With the artistry of a poet and the intensity of a revolutionary, Lovato untangles the tightly knit skein of love and terror that connects El Salvador and the United States." (Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Natural Causes and Nickel and Dimed)

An urgent, no-holds-barred tale of gang life, guerrilla warfare, intergenerational trauma, and interconnected violence between the United States and El Salvador, Roberto Lovato’s memoir excavates family history and reveals the intimate stories beneath headlines about gang violence and mass Central American migration, one of the most important, yet least-understood humanitarian crises of our time - and one in which the perspectives of Central Americans in the United States have been silenced and forgotten.

The child of Salvadoran immigrants, Roberto Lovato grew up in 1970s and 80s San Francisco as MS-13 and other notorious Salvadoran gangs were forming in California. In his teens, he lost friends to the escalating violence, and survived acts of brutality himself. He eventually traded the violence of the streets for human rights advocacy in wartime El Salvador where he joined the guerilla movement against the US-backed, fascist military government responsible for some of the most barbaric massacres and crimes against humanity in recent history.

Roberto returned from war-torn El Salvador to find the United States on the verge of unprecedented crises of its own. There, he channeled his own pain into activism and journalism, focusing his attention on how trauma affects individual lives and societies, and began the difficult journey of confronting the roots of his own trauma. As a child, Roberto endured a tumultuous relationship with his father Ramón. Raised in extreme poverty in the countryside of El Salvador during one of the most violent periods of its history, Ramón learned to survive by straddling intersecting underworlds of family secrets, traumatic silences, and dealing in black-market goods and guns. The repression of the violence in his life took its toll, however. Ramón was plagued with silences and fits of anger that had a profound impact on his youngest son, and which Roberto attributes as a source of constant reckoning with the violence and rebellion in his own life.

In Unforgetting, Roberto interweaves his father’s complicated history and his own with first-hand reportage on gang life, state violence, and the heart of the immigration crisis in both El Salvador and the United States. In doing so he makes the political personal, revealing the cyclical ways violence operates in our homes and our societies, as well as the ways hope and tenderness can rise up out of the darkness if we are courageous enough to unforget.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2020 Roberto Lovato (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers

Brilliant

Roberto Lovato’s memoir digs into his family’s story and his Salvadoran cultural story. His aim is to reveal what’s been buried in silence. With its passion for language, character, and history, Lovato’s Unforgetting is a triumph.

Difficult to hear but important to know.

This is an excellent audio book about a very difficult past that we, as United States citizens, are complicity bound with. The message that people cannot move forward unless they know and acknowledge their past—no matter how difficult—is an important one for all people. I wish it had a happy ending but there is hope for the future and it’s so important to know what is behind the massive migration of people from the south and how the violence has developed. I recommend this well written and read book.

Great Book!

This is an amazing book that intertwines family with history, and theory. It also addresses the role of the US which is important for us to reflect on as Americans. It is a must read for any Salvadoran and also those who want to understand their story and perspective.

History is often written by the victors

Its always sad to learn about stories like this later in life because they were not taught in typical rooms of instruction. I had to seek this out for myself to get a glimpse of what certain populations went through and still go through. I hope everyone has a chance to read this book to get a sense of traumatic events that you nor I would ever wish upon anyone, but because of certain circumstances happened. hopefully it will help plant the seeds of empathy into those who have never been forced to experience what was written in this book.

MORE ABOUT MY COUNTRY THAT I DIDN'T KNOW

Horrific, humanizing, extremely relatable, extremely graphic. And did I say horrifying? It left me trembling with anger and much sorrow from the inside out Extremely well written and well told. Thank you for sharing this enlightening tale. A heart for the people. Much love!

Have New Insight On El Salvador, Thank You

This book explains the hard stares and sometimes blank expressions I see here. Respect

outstanding!

To hear Lovato read his own story, one written with such precise yet poetic style!