Saturday
10/10
2015
2:00 pm
Tim Z. Hernandez – “Searching for the Real Mexican Girl”
In 2010, author Tim Z. Hernandez located the real woman behind Jack Kerouac’s “Terry” from On the Road. At age 92, Bea Franco was living in relative obscurity, in Fresno, California. In this presentation, Hernandez will share his journey from research to the writing of his award winning book, Mañana Means Heaven (University of Arizona Press, 2013), as well as the choices one must make when writing a counter-narrative to Kerouac’s portrayal of California’s Mexican communities in the late 1940’s. Hernandez is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas El Paso’s Bilingual M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing. Part of the Lowell Celebrates Kerouac Festival