A Darker Shade of Crimson Odyssey of a Harvard Chicano

In 1985 an ambitious young Mexican-American from California’s rural San Joaquin Valley became one of the few Latinos to enter America’s most prestigious university. The lessons Ruben Navarette, Jr., learned as he journeyed from his middle-class surroundings to an exclusive 350-year-old world of privilege would forever alter his life.

With intelligence and grace, Navarrette chronicles his experiences at Harvard, where he confronted questions of identity and ethnicity, and wrestled with the need to reconcile his values and opinions with the expectations of his family, his race, and society at large.

More than a deeply personal memoir, A Darker Shade of Crimson also dares to pursue the complex questions of what needs to be done to provide a quality education for Latinos and other minorities in America. Whatever one’s views on affirmative action, racism, and liberal education in this country today, his provocative story will offer a new perspective on these issues and a message of hope for tomorrow’s generation.

Praise for A Darker Shade of Crimson

“Hard-hitting, funny, sad and inspiring.”—Chicago Tribune

“Powerful... for its twofold message: that America must do more to educate Latinos (our fastest-growing minority) and that freedom of thought belongs to everybody.”—Kirkus Reviews