Ernesto Cisneros wanted the students he teaches in Santa Ana to read a book in which they’d see themselves. So he wrote one. “Efrén Divided” tells the story of a 12-year-old boy whose mother is picked ...

As affecting as it is timely, Cisneros’s debut depicts how draconian U.S. immigration policies rip through one Southern California family. At the novel’s start, the Nava family lives a hardworking, ...

Growing up in Santa Ana, a largely Latinx, working-class Southern California suburb, Ernesto Cisneros showed early signs of a literary future. He loved to read and daydream. “I was the space cadet in ...