Hope and Life Press (HLP) is pleased to welcome on board the Mexican-American public school educator, artist, and Catholic author Jonas A. Pérez of Texas, with his newest book titled Triptych de Sanctae Familiae. The book presents a first person narrative from each member of the Holy Family, written in both prose and metrical poetry. Ideal for the younger generation, Triptych de Sanctae Familiae is set to be released by HLP later this year in paperback and ebook editions, in both the English and Spanish languages.
Jonas Pérez was born and raised in the beautiful and dry Rio Grande Valley on the United States/Mexico border. He has experienced first hand many contemporary immigration issues and hopes to take such struggles and give them life in ink. Pérez was raised in the Pentecostal church, where he learned to accept spirituality and passion in worship, yet he left in his younger years after having been attracted by the reverence and zeal manifested in the Southern Baptist church. A staunch Protestant for many years, bent on curing the world of the 'blasphemy' of the Catholic Church, Pérez engaged with regularity in open-air preaching at predominantly Mexican crowds to escape and be saved. After much pain, death, birth, and regrowth, Pérez found himself stumbling at long last into the Catholic Church that he had persecuted and which accepted him in its fold with open arms. Perez met his wife in North Texas, dancing salsa, and the dancing was as smooth as his decision to convert to the Catholic faith. He had been praying for a sign to join the Church and it approached him with curly, poignant red hair. Now at home in the Catholic Church, he feels like a wandering ghost who is finally at rest.
Pérez has a Bachelor's degree in English from the University of Texas Pan-American (now Texas RGV). An ardent fan of Shakespeare, he fell in love with traditional poetry and after reading through what he deemed the Western Literary Canon, he felt ready to write. Pérez is the author of Finibus, an epic poem about a priest who is damned and witnesses Armageddon. He has also written the Spanish language version of the poem in alexandrines. The poetry of Pérez is considered a redemptive attempt to salvage the irrevocable beauty of the genre, an aspect he feels has been lost. His goal is to write poetry that is didactic, metrical, clear, and inspiring; the epitome of language. An aspiring musician, Pérez will be releasing an EP in November of contemporary Marian music. He seeks to best serve all, in particular the Hispanic community, by giving them words in both English and Spanish.
