75 pages • 2 hours read
Yuri HerreraSigns Preceding the End of the World
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2009A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Introduction
Signs Preceding the End of the World
- Genre: Fiction; literary
- Originally Published: 2009
- Reading Level/Interest: College/Adult
- Structure/Length: 9 chapters; approx. 128 pages; approx. 2 hours, 18 minutes on audio
- Protagonist and Central Conflict: Makina leaves behind her life in Mexico to look for her brother. After dangerous trials, she smuggles two messages—one from her mother and one from the Mexican underworld—into the United States.
- Potential Sensitivity Issues: Strong language; violence; sexual harassment; racism
Yuri Herrera, Author
- Bio: Born in Actopan, Mexico, in 1970; Mexican political scientist, editor, and writer; studied Political Science at National Autonomous University of Mexico; has a master’s degree in creative writing from University of Texas, El Paso, and received his doctorate in Hispanic Language and Literature at University of California, Berkeley; is currently a Mellow Postdoctoral Fellow at Tulane University; editor of El perro, a literary magazine
- Other Works: Kingdom Cons (2004); The Transmigration of Bodies (2013); A Silent Fury: The El Bordo Mine Fire (2018); Ten Planets: Stories (2019)
- Awards: Best Translated Book Award for Signs Preceding the End of the World (2016)
CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit:
- Translation and Communication
- History as a Palimpsest
- Violence and Racism in the Borderlands
STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Unit, students will:
- Develop an understanding of the geographical and historical contexts regarding the perception of migration between the Global North and Global South that relate to Makina’s journey in the novel.
- Analyze paired texts and other brief resources to make connections via the text’s themes of Translation and Communication, Violence and Racism in the Borderlands, and History as a Palimpsest.
- Draft and present a research paper that demonstrates an understanding of the danger of contemporary border crossings, based on textual details.
