The Southern Oregon University campus in Medford eagerly welcomed Chicano author Daniel Chacon, who provided laughs and a few solemn anecdotes for the Southern Oregon community, last Thursday.

The SOU Latino Student Union-sponsored event was held in the Higher Education Center, SOU and RCC’s joint campus building.

Chacon is an associate professor at the University of Texas, El Paso. He is currently on a book tour called “Book Tour Confessions” to promote his newest novel, “Unending Rooms.”

In celebration of his visit to Medford, Chacon focused his reading on an earlier book instead, “And the Shadows Took Him,” most of which takes place in Medford. It covers the story of an Hispanic-American family that moves to Oregon from Fresno, Calif., and the changes in their lives which result from the move.

Senior Jen Montoya, a criminology major, explained that the book is “an exposure of a very unexposed group of people . . . the Chicano. You don’t hear much about this area . . . [Shadows] caught our attention with the struggle they go through.”

Most attendees were LSU members and the mood was cheery. Chacon reminisced about his own experiences in Medford.

“I spent all my holidays and every other weekend here,” he said. He joked about walking to the mall and being splashed by passing SUVs.

“This town is a town of imagination,” added Chacon. “Everything I bring into what I write is a reflection of how I grew up . . . how I see reality.”

Chacon first read a short story from his collection “Unending Rooms,” focusing on a friend from his days as a University of Oregon graduate student. The author set up poster boards with the names and descriptions of each main character against chairs in the front of the room.

During a brief break in the middle of the presentation, Amanda Martinez, an LSU member, sang for the audience. Chacon then continued with stories of the family in the novel, including a well-received part about a boy who feels the need to act tougher and pretend he is a gang member. Yeni Fernandez, a nursing student at SOU, related, saying “sometimes you take on roles without knowing that you do.”

Chacon also had a book signing after the reading, and went to dinner with the LSU subsequent to the event.

Fernandez exclaimed that the reading “was great! It was nice to see a book that comes from Medford.”

Chacon is currently working on a new collection of stories.

The LSU is sponsoring an event May 1 at the Ashland Armory, a concert called the “California Show.” Tickets are $10 for students and $15 for the public.

For more information about Daniel Chacon, visit his blog, soychacon.blogspot.com. The LSU can be contacted at 552-6031. They are located in the Multicultural Resource Center in SU 308.