Finalist for the 2022 Lambda Literary Award for Gay FictionLonglisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction
A "Best Book of August" by Bustle, Orion Magazine, and AltaA Best Book of the Year at NPR and BookPage
An ALA Notable Book
"[Gordo] gives the reader an unobstructed view into the lives of those who are often relegated to statistics and political talking points: people who come to the States for a better life for themselves and their offspring ...The strength of Cortez's work is that he lays out these stories without defining his characters by their worst actions, showing us people who are closer to reflections of ourselves than we think, even if they do not look like us, or come from the places we call home. And this is the book's superpower: the cultivation of empathy." –New York Times Book Review
"Funny and incredibly charming, despite highlighting the acute poverty of the camp's Latino migrant residents...Cortez, a Bay Area author, masterfully navigates adverse conditions of migrant life while prioritizing in these stories the way people adapt to their circumstance – managing to find joy and amusement, love and triumph, that which makes us delightfully human – amid its challenge." –
San Francisco Chronicle"So fresh, so smart and funny... the collection offers a ground's-eye view of California in which joy and sorrow, aspiration and survival, family and individuality are irrevocably and unforgettably intertwined." –Alta
"A lovely book that masterfully evokes 1970s California, but manages, nonetheless, to feel truly universal.... The town that inspired John Steinbeck has a new literary star." –
NPR
"Intimate and irreverent... This hilarious short story collection gives incisive glimpses of blue-collar Mexican American life." –
Minneapolis Star Tribune"[Gordo] announces a vibrant new voice on the literary scene, at once wise and authentic and supremely gifted. For readers of Junot Díaz and Ocean Vuong." –Booklist, starred review
"Like Diane Arbus or Weegee, Cortez depicts warts-and-all moments of vulnerability precisely, sometimes even harshly, and without sentiment... Cortez artfully frames these characters' daily struggles and captures them in the freeze-frame flash of a master at work." –BookPage , starred review
"Exuberant... A bright, clear voice that avoids stereotypes and navigates issues of identity with ease... Readers will be delighted." –Publishers Weekly
"These stories are elemental and unfussy, their emotional hearts affecting and memorable. [They] serve as unvarnished, even fond, testaments to a tough, queer life." –Kirkus (starred review)
"Cortez's dialogue, timing, and humor is quick, dark and hilarious and the voice of Gordo, singular and soaring, full of naivete and grit that wrangles humor and human complexity with serious high-stake themes... Gordo, like Winesburg, Ohio, is capable of changing not only what it means to be American today, but what American literature can be... Hands down, top debut of 2021." –Kerri Arsenault, Literary Hub
'"What a voice, what a charming, idiosyncratic voice! Cortez tells the untold stories of California. Set what you know aside, lay your expectations on the couch next to you, put your feet up,