"A searching memoir . . . A subtle, expertly written repudiation of the American dream in favor of something more inclusive and more realistic." — Kirkus , starred review   There are many Pedros living in many Americas . . . One Pedro goes to a school where they take away his language. Another disappears in the desert, leaving behind only a backpack. A cousin Pedro comes to visit, awakening feelings that others are afraid to make plain. A rumored Pedro goes missing so completely it's as if he were never there. In Pedro's Theory Marcos Gonsalez explores the lives of these many Pedros, real and imagined. Several are the author himself, while others are strangers, lovers, archetypes, and the men he might have been in other circumstances. All are journeying to some sort of Promised Land, or hoping to discover an America of their own. With sparkling prose and cutting insights, this brilliant literary debut closes the gap between who the world sees in us and who we see in ourselves. Deeply personal yet inspiringly political, it also brings to life those selves that never get the chance to be seen at all. An Electric Literature Favorite Nonfiction Book of 2021 A most anticipated book of 2021 from LitHub Named one of 22 LGBTQ+ Books You Absolutely Need to Read This Year by The Advocate "Gonsalez has created a memoir that is at once a collection of essays about his life and also a kaleidoscopic investigation of the things America has tried to promise him... Gonsalez’s storytelling feels honest for its expansiveness, and he manages this without ever sacrificing the intimacy of his strong, personal voice." -- The New York Times Book Review "A searching memoir . . . A subtle, expertly written repudiation of the American dream in favor of something more inclusive and more realistic." — Kirkus , starred review "A quietly thrilling read, insightful, and constantly surprising." — The Advocate "Filled with lush prose, the resulting memoir is a layered, scathing excavation of how the seeds of white supremacy have bloomed into damages on the everyday lives of immigrants, queer people of color, and others existing on the margins in the United States. " -- Electric Literature "An engrossing memoir that directly confronts intergenerational trauma, internalized prejudices, and colorism in relation to and within the Latinx community." -- Latino Book Review "In  Pedro’s Theory , Marcos Gonsalez writes toward the multiplicities of who he is, who he was, and who he could be—and simultaneously offers an insightful and brilliant dismantling of the traditional American Dream. This book is a beautiful fusion of lived experience and cultural criticism. Gonsalez belongs on the same shelf as Claudia Rankine and Maggie Nelson." — Michele Filgate, editor of W hat My Mother and I Don’t Talk About "A white-knuckled journey through the most vulnerable parts of Marcos Gonsalez's life, love and family—an exploration of not only what it means to be brown, Indigenous, queer and mad, but what it means to be a human in a world that values not who you are, but what you can sacrifice with a smile. This book shows that strength and tenderness are not opposites, but two sides of the same coin—a coin that Gonsalez shows in all its many facets in this incredible book."— Alicia Elliott, author of  A Mind Spread Out on the Ground "An impressive amalgam of autobiography, family portraiture, political diagnosis, cultural history, literary criticism, and novelistic aria,  Pedro's Theory  bodies forth a new form of literature—a variety of personal writing that treats "self" as a malleable substrate, capable of being reinvented, projected, performed, and multiplied.  Through mesmerizing tableaux, songful declarations, ekphrastic experiments, propulsive storytelling, and desire-laden speculations, Marcos Gonsalez reconstructs his world by composing a book lavish in its mastery of both fragmented and flowing modes of articulation. Generosity, fearlessness, vulnerability, and lyricism make up the magic formula that is  Pedro's Theory,  a stunning debut by a powerful writer."— Wayne Koestenbaum, author of Camp Marmalade “A haunting, haunted memoir of a life felt keenly and a thousand others that were never allowed to be. We read as harsh, bright keepsakes are held up to light, turned this way and that, and then are slotted into a careful mosaic.  Not to be missed.” —Anthony Oliveira, award-winning author and cultural critic Marcos Gonsalez is an essayist and professor of literature. His work has appeared in Literary Hub , Inside Higher Education , Ploughshares , Catapult, The New Inquiry , and elsewhere. He lives in New York City. Grow Up, Pedro Sunlight. Treetops garlanded by a cotton candy–like mass of white, the sagging pouches of it skimming the heads of passersby. Little bodies wriggle in the white-webbed splendor, trying to break free, trying to plummet to the ground in order to feed. I