{"id":23275,"date":"2025-03-05T09:58:26","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T16:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/from-morocco-to-cortez-abdel-berrada-publishes-novel-inspired-by-his-heritage\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:31:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:31:45","slug":"from-morocco-to-cortez-abdel-berrada-publishes-novel-inspired-by-his-heritage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/from-morocco-to-cortez-abdel-berrada-publishes-novel-inspired-by-his-heritage\/","title":{"rendered":"From Morocco to Cortez: Abdel Berrada publishes novel inspired by his heritage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image naviga-align-left alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=a85c8fdd-cdfd-5f0a-8474-c6b1e0bbd4e9&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"734\" height=\"1106\" alt=\"Local author Abdel Berrada\u2019s first novel, \u201cDriss\u2019s Trials and Triumphs.\u201d\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Local author Abdel Berrada\u2019s first novel, \u201cDriss\u2019s Trials and Triumphs.\u201d<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>Inspired by his upbringing in Morocco, longtime Cortez resident Abdel Berrada recently published his first novel.<\/p>\n<p>To talk through some of its Moroccan cultural elements \u2013 and to sign books and mingle \u2013 there\u2019s an event coming up at the Cortez Public Library on March 18 from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>Plus, as of Feb. 25, <em id=\"emphasis-5d37a25eac4db6d01351dff26d65adbb\">Driss\u2019s Trials and Triumphs<\/em> is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/DRISSS-TRIALS-TRIUMPHS-AMERICAN-IDENTITY\/dp\/B0DVZCTCVK\/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.ovGZ783ByrLix-7etj8m1bLu4A5kiquByHZMa1NFG4_GjHj071QN20LucGBJIEps.vnQFeBBNI9Toy-dzWvM3-ZF717TTNPq7d4g1ITQ373U&amp;qid=1740786033&amp;sr=8-1\" id=\"link-4eadf634149da79fc835e017c0426d4f\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">available to purchase on Amazon.<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"naviga-pdf-embed\"><iframe class=\"article-pdf\" src=\"https:\/\/dur-prod-public-pdfs.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/jCHtJlmWSeyxcmvIoC2PN3ADBv4.pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:500px;border:1px solid #ddd\" loading=\"lazy\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dur-prod-public-pdfs.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/jCHtJlmWSeyxcmvIoC2PN3ADBv4.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Berrada Book Signing Flyer.pdf (Download PDF)<\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/p><\/iframe>\n<p class=\"naviga-pdf-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dur-prod-public-pdfs.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/jCHtJlmWSeyxcmvIoC2PN3ADBv4.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Berrada Book Signing Flyer.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The story is set in the 1990s and early 2000s Morocco, Berrada said.<\/p>\n<p>Like Berrada, the main character Driss is from northwest Africa but moved to the United States when the opportunity presented itself.<\/p>\n<p>Driss and his family moved to the Four Corners area, on the Utah side.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo Blanding,\u201d Berrada laughed. \u201cI made it up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Driss was more than 5,000 miles from home living in the Beehive State, but the \u201ctrauma he experienced during his youth in Morocco came back to haunt him,\u201d said Berrada.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was trauma as a child, trauma as an adult,\u201d Gina Montoya, Berrada\u2019s wife, added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was still experiencing that trauma, and it was exacerbated by the trouble he had integrating into American society,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>And so Driss returns to Morocco to confront his abusers, his demons.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHis wife, Cindy, told him he had to,\u201d Montoya laughed. \u201cI\u2019m not Cindy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Driss heeded Cindy\u2019s advice and returned to Morocco, where he befriended abusers from his past and was thrown into a dangerous adventure as he worked to expose \u201cthe sexual abuse that\u2019s there but often not reported,\u201d said Berrada.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image naviga-align-left alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=6dcdeaf9-cb7d-5274-a695-08d54841a9bd&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"596\" height=\"600\" alt=\"Abdel Berrada.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Abdel Berrada.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>At the same time, on the homefront, his marriage was falling apart.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a story of struggle, trauma, love, hardship, prejudice, perseverance,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Montoya said she thinks \u201cit\u2019s a book of hope.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s a good book for these times, and the times we\u2019re facing with immigrants. It gives you a perspective from another viewpoint,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Berrada said readers are sure to learn a lot about Morocco, and that he did a lot of research to make sure all of its cultural elements are accurate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI learned things I didn\u2019t know about my own country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Moroccan customs are woven throughout the book in both subtle and blatant ways, like in the food they eat or the way Driss loves his wife but won\u2019t publicly show it, a behavior that speaks to some \u201cof the contradictions of Moroccan societies,\u201d said Berrada.<\/p>\n<p>The book\u2019s editor, David Aretha, agreed that it reveals \u201cmuch about Moroccan society.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It reveals so much, in fact, that Berrada opted to publish the book under the name Hamza Ka\u00e7em instead of his own.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are people in Morocco that if they read it, they\u2019re not going to be too happy about some of the things they read,\u201d Berrada said, citing some of the taboos, hypocrisy and abuse the story confronts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe ones who know me \u2013 friends, relatives, classmates \u2013 will know it\u2019s me when they read it, but others won\u2019t,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey might recognize some of the characters,\u201d Montoya added. \u201cThey have different names, but he thinks they\u2019ll figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At any rate, Berrada\u2019s editor concluded that \u201cIt reads like a real-life memoir.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s maybe 60% nonfiction, based on real stuff,\u201d Berrada said. \u201cIt\u2019s all fictionalized or dramatized,\u201d though inspired by real events.<\/p>\n<p>Heading back to Morocco last year on a Fulbright research grant was especially inspiring, and it\u2019s where he got a lot of writing done.<\/p>\n<p>Altogether, Berrada said it took him three years to piece the novel together, as it was largely a wintertime project.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI learned I can write if I put myself into it,\u201d he said, reflecting on the experience.<\/p>\n<p>Though, with his agricultural science background, he admitted that creative writing was challenging. Plus, English isn\u2019t his first language.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWriting literary is a lot more difficult than technical writing,\u201d he said. \u201cDescribing scenes and describing people was the hardest part.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And something he hopes people take away from the book?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt shows we\u2019re all the same,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have the same aspirations, some of the same struggles. But because we grew up in different environments, there\u2019s all these perceptions of this race or that race, or this religion or that religion. But basically we\u2019re all the same. We\u2019re all humans.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>be a book signing at the Cortez Public Library on March 18 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-23275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23275"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78048,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23275\/revisions\/78048"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23275"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}