They Call You Back: A Lost History, A Search, A Memoir (Camino del Sol) - Softcover

Hernandez, Tim Z.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0816557047 ISBN 13: 9780816557042

Publisher: University of Arizona Press, 2026

Synopsis

2025 Memoir Prize for Books Finalist

A haunting, an obsession, a calling: Tim Z. Hernandez has been searching for people his whole life. Now, in this highly anticipated memoir, he takes us along on an investigative odyssey through personal and collective history to uncover the surprising conjunctions that bind our stories together.

Hernandez’s mission to find the families of the twenty-eight Mexicans who were killed in the 1948 plane wreck at Los Gatos Canyon formed the basis for his acclaimed documentary novel All They Will Call You, which the San Francisco Chronicle dubbed “a stunning piece of investigative journalism,” and the New York Times hailed as “painstaking detective work by a writer who is the descendant of farmworkers.”

In this riveting new work, Hernandez continues his search for the plane crash victims while also turning the lens on himself and his ancestral past, revealing the tumultuous and deeply intimate experiences that have fueled his investigations—a lifelong journey haunted by memory, addiction, generational trauma, and the spirit world.

They Call You Back is the true chronicle of one man’s obsession to restore dignity to an undignified chapter in America’s past, while at the same time making a case for why we must heal our personal wounds if we are ever to heal our political ones.

About this title

About the Author

Tim Z. Hernandez is an award-winning author and performer. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the American Book Award. He is an associate professor in the University of Texas at El Paso’s Bilingual Creative Writing program. He is the writer and director of the new documentary film All They Will Call You.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Arizona Press
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0816557047
• ISBN 13: 9780816557042
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272