María Amparo Escandón

“A secret to reveal, a sin to confess, a story to tell”

“New York Times best-seller and Reese’s Book Club pick,
LA WEATHER, a novel, ON SALE NOW.”

The Writer

María Amparo Escandón is a New York Times best-selling bilingual author (English and Spanish.) Her third novel, L.A. Weather, published by Flatiron Books, a division of Macmillan Publishers is a Reese’s Book Club pick and is featured on Oprah Quarterly as well as a Best Book of the Month in Barnes & Noble, Alta, People, PopSugar, Bustle, CNN, E! News, Ms. Magazine, Nylon, GMA, and more.

She wrote her first novel, Esperanza’s Box of Saints and its Spanish version, Santitos, published in late 1999 by Simon & Schuster and Random House respectively. Her novel has been the number one best seller in the Los Angeles Times Best Sellers List, it has 21 foreign editions and has been read in over 86 countries. Her new novel, González & Daughter Trucking Co. and its Spanish version, Transportes González e Hija, was published in 2005 by Random House. It has been in best sellers lists around the country and is the publisher’s “Book of the Year” in Spain. She has been named Writer to Watch by Newsweek magazine and by the Los Angeles Times. Her books have been chosen as the annual book selection for several Community Reads public library-funded projects, One City One Book, A Novel Idea. Also, many of her short stories have been published in journals and magazines, both in English and Spanish.

María wrote the screenplay Santitos, on which she based her novel. The film was produced by John Sayles and successfully released in Latin America in January of 2001. To date, the film has received awards in 14 international Film Festivals, such as the Latin Cinema Award at the Sundance Film Festival, Special Jury Award at the Rencontres Cinémas de Toulouse, France, and Best Opera Prima by the Critique Française.

She founded The Other Truth Productions, LLC, a content production company, where she has a pipeline of film and television projects in various stages of development. She is currently developing the television mini-series, Mudflap Girl, based on her second novel, González & Daughter Trucking Co. and a screenplay she co-wrote with Pepe Stepensky, Moishe is Moishe.

María has taught numerous Creative Writing courses and workshops at UCLA Extension since 1994: Magic Realism, Written Voice and Short Story Writing. She has been an advisor at the Sundance Film Institute Screenwriters Labs in Mexico and Brazil. She has been a novel and screenplay advisor at the Creative Content Foundation in Barcelona and she has been a mentor for the PEN Center Emerging Voices Program since 2000.

She graduated from Universidad Nuevo Mundo in Mexico City in 1982 where she studied Communications with an emphasis on Linguistics and Semiotics. She is invited regularly as keynote speaker, lecturer, and panelist at numerous colleges and universities, national and international writing conferences, writing seminars in Mexico, Spain and Brazil, film festivals in several other countries, book expos, fundraisers, and other events.

For a detailed bio, go to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar%C3%ADa_Amparo_Escandón

/ Book Club, Minneapolis

/ Deschutes Public Library A Novel Idea

/ Feria del Libro, Madrid

Fiction

Esperanza’s Box of Saints (Santitos)

A magical, humorous, and passion-filled odyssey about a beautiful young widow's search for her missing child, a mission that takes her from a humble Mexican village to the rowdy brothels of Tijuana and a rarely seen side of Los Angeles. Rescued from turmoil by her favorite saint, Esperanza embarks on a journey that tests her faith, teaches her the ways of the world, and transforms her from a fervently religious innocent to an independent, sexual, and passionately devout woman.

“Heaven is well staffed. Esperanza has suitably grimy experiences on the slyly humorous magic realism tour.” —New York Times

“Heaven is well staffed... in this slyly humorous magic realism tour. ”
—New York Times—

“Esperanza's road trip of self-discovery will no doubt evoke many smiles... An enchanting read that soon gets under your skin. Read the book... it's real magic.”
—Wall Street Journal—

“Exuberant!”
—Los Angeles Times—

“A funny, romantic road trip that explores the seedy border culture of Mexico and Southern California. ”
—Newsweek—

“An extremely likable first novel that seems destined for high visibility. Smoothly and enjoyably readable throughout: a more than commendable debut. ”
—Kirkus Reviews—

“Mexican-American author Escandón offers an engaging, simply written novel that traces a woman's search for her beloved 12-year-old daughter.”
—Publishers Weekly—

“All in all, this is a book guaranteed to charm and amuse. ”
—Amazon—

“A highly original, beautifully written, and heartwarming tale.”
—Tony Hillerman—

“This novel introduces us to many saints in Heaven and the more interesting--struggling saints-in-the-making right here on earth. A charming and compassionate fable. ”
—Carolyn See—

“Esperanza’s Box of Saints takes us on a spirited journey at once poignant and hilarious. May the Saints bless the innocence and courage of Esperanza Díaz, the novel's inimitable hero who winds her way through the world toward independence. May the Saints preserve her wit, tenacity and passion.”
—Sandra Benitez—

“The saints in María Amparo Escandón’s novel take us on a journey that explores the nature of sin and absolution, the pain of loss and the resurrection of desire. Esperanza’s Box of Saints is an enormously compassionate work about a woman who wrestles with her own faith and emerges victorious.”
—John Sayles—

“Esperanza, like Demeter, enters the underworld in search of her daughter. But this is a contemporary hell of pimps, whores, perverse sex, and rare moments of satisfying love. A stunning commentary on religion and sex.”
—Rudolph Anaya—

“A haunting-and hunting-tale of spiritual self-discovery wherein a searcher and the object of her search are one and the same. Maria Amparo Escandón writes with enviable assurance and deceitful simplicity. Her style is all about sight, belief, and memory. And her tale is miraculous: it has the weight of a myth and the beauty of a legend.”
—Ilan Stavans—

“Esperanza’s Box of Saints fills our souls with colors and flavors, but more importantly with a sense of genuine, heartfelt candor, born from true faith. With a smile on our face and a pang in our heart, we find renewed hope in Esperanza's quest.”
—Laura Esquivel—

“A sweet and entertaining novel by an inventive writer.”
—Oscar Hijuelos—

“Beyond magic realism, María Amparo Escandón takes us into a fascinating world where the mystical and the mundane collide in Esperanza’s desperate search for her missing daughter. Amongst her extraordinary ordeal, this young devout widow’s life is transformed forever as she passes through the most bizarre brothels, from Veracruz all the way to Los Angeles, guided by her beloved saints. Disturbing and funny, offbeat and bold, Esperanza’s Box of Saints is definitely a new landmark in Latin American literature.”
—Jorge Ramos, Anchor, Univision—

“Here is a Mexican woman’s take on the Odyssean tale: a mother looking for a daughter, guided by a Saint’s image on a grime-drenched glass oven door. From one bizarre, and often dangerous, encounter after another, this motherlove keeps Esperanza from losing her conscience, her beauty, and the purity of her soul. I admire Escandón’s telling, a seduction in itself, pulling me deeper to a heart of darkness, which is also the heart of intractable love.”
—Luis Rodríguez—

González & Daughter Trucking Co.

Serving a sentence in a Mexican prison, Libertad González finds a way to confess her crime to her fellow inmates with the weekly Library Club, reading from whatever books she can find in the prison's meager supply. The story that emerges, though, has nothing todo with the words printed on the pages. She tells of a former literature professor and fugitive of the Mexican government who reinvents himself as a trucker in the United States raising a baby girl on the run.

“1,001 nights in a Mexicali women’s prison. María Amparo Escandón’s
beautifully-written novela invites us to do time with a population of hard-luck sisters sentenced to ponder the comedies and tragedies of their own lives González & Daughter Trucking Co. is about our compulsion to make events into stories and stories into bridges of understanding.” — John Sayles, author and filmmaker of “Lone Star”

“Entirely enjoyable... The novel has abundant black humor that comes across as a sly wink from the author... Escandón has created such a sympathetic and attractive personality in Libertad that I found myself rooting for her.”
—Los Angeles Times—

“Exuberantly told, passionately felt, and at times knee-knockingly funny, González & Daughter Trucking Co. is a heart-rending look at a community of women, with a cast of characters as indelible as the marks scratched into a prison wall.”
—Boston Globe—

“This highly readable novel is a paean both to storytelling and to freedom. ”
—Booklist—

“Written with an efficient and delicious narrative-sense style, in which reality and fiction are mixed until normaly existing limits between the two terrirories are erased. ”
—The Dallas Morning News—

“This breezy and witty novel is just the right nourishment for anyone looking for a quick escape and an easy, fun read. Don't just watch for [Escandón]. It's better to spend time pursuing her latest work... you might just find yourself having a sinfully good time.”
—Hispanic Magazine—

“In this engaging twist on the 1,001 Arabian nights, Libertad González enthralls her fellow inmates in a Mexican women's prison by telling tales as a weekly book group... Escandón, author of Esperanza's Box of Saints, vividly describes the unorthodox prison with a wistful compassion for its convicts... Libertad's stories keep her listeners—and us—so engrossed that the notion of freedom seems limited only by the imagination.”
—Miami Herald—

“Libertad González mirrors her creator, María Amparo Escandón, in that both are prodigious storytellers, and as readers we mirror Libertad's fellow prisoners in our urgent need to know what's going to happen next. This is a warm and ingenious novel that delights from start to finish. ”
—Alexander Payne, director and screenwriter of Sideways —

“Escandón has delivered us yet another work of art. This time it is a whimsical, humorous and passionate mystery that explores the love and hurt of a father and daughter on the run. Libertad, a well-educated Mexican-American young woman, is in a surreal prison in Mexicali and no one knows why. Her father is a Literature professor running from a murderous past, driving his truck and changing identities all over the United States. In González & Daughter Trucking Co. freedom is a state of mind. ”
—Jorge Ramos, The Other Face of America, and Univision Anchor—

“In this novel filled with humor and wisdom, María Amparo Escandón narrates the accidental lives of a group of profoundly human characters. Weaving a story where tragedy crashes with the will to live and tell, the author makes us laugh, cry and celebrate the ties that women have, even in the most difficult circumstances. ”
—Gioconda Belli, The Country Under My Skin—

“1,001 nights in a Mexicali women’s prison. María Amparo Escandón’s beautifully-written novela invites us to do time with a population of hard-luck sisters sentenced to ponder the comedies and tragedies of their own lives González & Daughter Trucking Co. is about our compulsion to make events into stories and stories into bridges of understanding. ”
—John Sayles, author and filmmaker of Lone Star—

“An ingenious retelling of Scheherazade’s odyssey—but on wheels and with sabor mexicano.”
—Ilan Stavans, Spanglish, The Making of a New American Language—

CarCass

A collection of short stories inspired by photographs that María took of totaled, abandoned cars by the side of the Baja roads

L.A. Weather

A nuanced and vibrant portrait of a Mexican-American couple who announce their divorce after nearly forty years, upending the careful balance of the family, and forcing their three grown daughters to take a hard look at their own relationships L.A. is parched, dry as a bone, and all Oscar, the patriarch of the Mexican-American Alvarado family, wants is a little rain. But when twin toddlers Diana and Andrea almost drown in their grandparents’ pool, the Alvarado family’s stability threatens to go up in flames. Oscar is harboring a costly secret that accounts for his obsession with the weather, and his sense of helplessness is turning him into the shell of the man he once was. His wife, Keila, feels she has no choice but to end their marriage. Their three daughters--Claudia, a television chef with a less than empathetic attitude, Olivia, a successful architect who suffers from gentrification guilt, and Patricia, a social media wizard who has an uncanny knack for connecting with audiences but not with her lovers--will each have to take a long, hard look at their own relationships and make some tough decisions.

With her trademark wit and sense of the absurd, María Amparo Escandón brings us L.A Weather, an epic story of intimate proportions that takes us on an often whimsical journey into the death and rebirth of love. Set against the backdrop of Latino Los Angeles in the middle of the worst drought ever recorded, the marriages in the Alvarado family are tested and their bonds with each other bent but never broken as they navigate life’s many twists and turns, coping with secrets, deception, and betrayal to ultimately arrive at a surprising new order.

“A capacious book, chock-full of human drama... Escandón’s narrative voice is often witty and warm, and her meditations on Los Angeles are lush and lyrical... A lively and ambitious family novel. ”
—New York Times Book Review—

“There’s a 100% chance you’ll be paging through this book to uncover the secrets and deception that could potentially burn everything down! ”
—Reese Witherspoon, Reese’s Book Club—

“This is by far one of the most endearing L.A. novels in recent memory.”
—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)—

“Warm, witty, and funny, this novel makes the perfect, curl-up-on-the-couch long weekend read.”
—Amazon Book Review (Editors’ Pick)—

“Enchanting.”
—Oprah Quarterly—

“A warmhearted domestic drama with political undercurrents makes for fun reading.”
—Kirkus Review—

“Absorbing, moving, comic and tragic, L.A. Weather will capture readers and never let them go.”
—Shelf Awareness—

“A year in the life of a Mexican Jewish family whose problems include a near-drowning, a drought and drama galore as the marriages of the parents and all three daughters go off the rails.”
—People—

“María Amparo Escandón is bold. Who dares to write about the weather in Los Angeles? Unlike the warm and benign climate cliché that can so easily be ignored, the complicated richness that makes up the Alvarado family can be appreciated from the first paragraph.”
—Laura Esquivel, author of Like Water for Chocolate—

“A phenomenal story about the Mexican-American experience in L.A: fun, quirky, heart-wrenching, very human and full of soul. Read it and realize how much we all share (beyond the weather). María Amparo Escandón is a superb and unique observer.”
—Jorge Ramos, award-winning journalist and author of No Borders—

“Take it from María Amparo Escandón—it’s not always 72 and sunny in Los Angeles. Known for her sly humor, she brings us a surprising story about family life in one of America’s most complex cities. ”
—Reyna Grande, author of Across A Hundred Mountains—

“There is no other voice as quick-witted and sharp as María Amparo Escandón’s. In L.A. Weather she displays yet again her talent for creating engaging characters who leap off the page and linger like old friends or cherished relatives. As the Alvarados face shifts of tectonic proportions, Escandón confronts how families test our understanding of not just ourselves, but of the very world around us.”
—Alex Espinoza, author of Cruising: An Intimate History of a Radical Pastime and Still Water Saints—

“Messy lives of women, well told. What could be better? ”
—Rodrigo García, writer and director of Nine Lives and Mother and Child —

“In her most ambitious, personal and mature work, María Amparo Escandón recounts a single year in the life of an extended family in Los Angeles. Funny, moving and relatable, L.A. Weather is at once sprawling and fragile, a wonderful read -- one I couldn’t put down. ”
—Alexander Payne writer and director of Sideways—

L.A. Weather

Esperanza’s Box of Saints

González & Daughter Trucking Co.

CarCass

Santitos

Written by María Amparo Escandón based on her novel Esperanza’s Box of Saints, directed by Alejandro Springall and co-produced by independent filmmaker John Sayles, Santitos (Spanish with English subtitles) was premiered at the Sundance Film Festival where it won the Latin American Jury Award. This film also won thirteen international film festival awards.

Mudflap Girl

The eight-part limited television series is currently in development by The Other Truth Productions. Screenplay by María Amparo Escandón, based on her novel González & Daughter Trucking Co.

L.A. Weather

The television series is currently in development by The Other Truth Productions based on María Amparo Escandón’s latest novel.

The Reader

Comments and questions for María

Post your comments/questions here for María.

If you belong to a book club requesting her participation, please include your meeting date for a reply in a timely fashion. Some of the most frequently asked questions are answered in these links:

/ Q&A for Esperanza’s Box of Saints
/ Q&A for González & Daughter Trucking Co.

Where to buy?

Amazon Apple Books Barnes & Noble Books a Million Indiebound Audible Target