Hispanic studies Ph.D. candidate receives Pilsen Fest’s 2019 José Revueltas Award for Literature

José Ángel Navejas, Ph.D. candidate in the Hispanic and Italian studies department at UIC, was presented with Pilsen Fest’s 2019 José Revueltas Award for Literature.

Named after the renowned Mexican writer and political activist, the José Revueltas Award is Pilsen Fest’s way of recognizing a local Chicago author whose work addresses the needs of the community and embodies its spirit.

An outspoken critic of immigration policies of the United States, José Ángel is the author of “Illegal: Reflections of an Undocumented Immigrant” (2014). In 2019, “Ilegal” became the first book translated into Spanish by the University of Illinois Press in its one-hundred year history. José Ángel has also recently received the 2019-2020 IUPLR/UIC Mellon Fellowship.

In addition to “Illegal,” José Ángel has edited “Palabras migrantes: 10 ensayistas mexican@s de Chicago” (2018). He is also the author of “Invierno” (2019) and “Un mojado en Chicago y tres discursos inaugurales” (forthcoming in 2020).