Spirit Run: A 6,000-Mile Marathon Through North America's Stolen Land

In this New York Times Book Review Editors Choice, the son of working-class Mexican immigrants flees a life of labor in fruit-packing plants to run in a Native American marathon from Canada to Guatemala in this "stunning memoir that moves to the rhythm of feet, labor, and the many landscapes of the Americas" (Catriona Menzies-Pike, author of The Long Run). Growing up in Yakima, Washington, Noe Alvarez worked at an applepacking plant alongside his mother, who slouched over a conveyor belt of fruit, shoulder to shoulder with mothers conditioned to believe this was all they could do with their lives. A university scholarship offered escape, but as a firstgeneration Latino collegegoer, Alvarez struggled to fit in. At nineteen, he learned about a Native American/First Nations movement called the Peace and Dignity Journeys, epic marathons meant to renew cultural connections across North America. He dropped out of school and joined a group of Dene, Secwepemc, Gitxsan, Dakelh, Apache, Tohono Oodham, Seri, Purepecha, and Maya runners, all fleeing difficult beginnings. Telling their stories alongside his own, Alvarez writes about a fourmonthlong journey from Canada to Guatemala that pushed him to his limits. He writes not only of overcoming hunger, thirst, and feardangers included stonethrowing motorists and a mountain lionbut also of asserting Indigenous and workingclass humanity in a capitalist society where oil extraction, deforestation, and substance abuse wreck communities. Running through mountains, deserts, and cities, and through the Mexican territory his parents left behind, Alvarez forges a new relationship with the land, and with the act of running, carrying with him the knowledge of his parents migration, andagainst all odds in a society that exploits his body and rejects his spiritthe dream of a liberated future. "This book is not like any other out there. You will see this country in a fresh way, and you might see aspects of your own soul. A beautiful run." Luis Alberto Urrea, author of The House of Broken Angels "When the son of two Mexican immigrants hears about the Peace and Dignity Journeys'epic marathons meant to renew cultural connections across North America'hes compelled enough to drop out of college and sign up for one. Spirit Run is Noe Alvarezs account of the four months he spends trekking from Canada to Guatemala alongside Native Americans representing nine tribes, all of whom are seeking brighter futures through running, selfexploration, and renewed relationships with the land theyve traversed." Runner's World, Best New Running Books of 2020 "An anthem to the landscape that holds our identities and traumas, and its profound power to heal them." Francisco Cantu, author of The Line Becomes a River