(Radio Iowa) – A Latino author from Iowa City is publishing a book of short stories about a boy who’s coming of age in a blue-collar, predominately white Midwestern town in the late 1960s. Mario Duarte, a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, says the main character’s experiences are largely based on his own life, and the book is an effort to show how we’re all simultaneously different — and the same. “There’s just not enough focus on who people are in this country, for example, Mexican-Americans or other groups,” Duarte says. “One of the reasons I wrote this book is so people have an understanding of my people, the generations of who we are. I think the more they understand us, the less there’s going to be hate and prejudice.”

Duarte says his book, “My Father Called Us Monkeys: Growing Up Mexican-American in the Heartland,” is designed to be read by people of all colors and of all ages. “I think of this as a group of stories that’s written for anyone who’s preadolescent to the elderly, because it covers all of the characters in that range,” Duarte says, “but anybody faces the same circumstances of growing up. In its essence, I think the most important part of the book is about the sorrows and the joys of growing up.” In the book, Marco is an inquisitive boy who grapples to understand the adult world, telling his tales of friendships, living with white neighbors, as well as interactions and conflicts with extended family.

“This happens to be a Mexican-American family but it’s true of any family,” Duarte says. “The things you go through, the town you live in, where you live, who you meet as you go along in life, your interactions with your parents, your friends, the impact that has on who you are as a person, the lessons you learn. That’s true of anybody.” Duarte, an academic advisor at the University of Iowa, grew up in western Illinois and has lived in Iowa City for some 30 years. He says just a few years ago, he would have said Americans’ attitudes about immigrants were good, but there’s been a change.

“I don’t think I can say that with any kind of honesty. I think these are challenging times for people who are immigrants and who are perceived as immigrants,” Duarte says. “Even people like my own family might be perceived as just fresh to this country, whereas we have a very long history. I can trace my family history back to 1911 in Iowa.” He hopes the book will be something of an antidote to those misconceptions.

Duarte will be appearing at Beaverdale Books in Des Moines on Sunday. The book is being published by North Liberty-based Ice Cube Press.