In 2019, Escalona began writing a series of chronicles that were published in the magazine Viceversa Magazine over a two-year period, from May 2019 (“Arriving in New York”) to May 2021 (“An Afternoon in a Recording Studio”). His work also appeared in Enclave, published by the City University of New York. His chronicles quickly gained recognition throughout the city, leading to invitations to read at various literary and cultural events, including the 13th Queens Book Fair (2019), the CUNY Graduate Center (2019), the Híbrido Literario program on Maker Park Radio (2020), the Queens Public Library in Corona (2023), the Barco de Papel (2019), and other literary gatherings.

This volume of twenty-two chronicles is a revised and edited compilation prepared by the team at Five Points Publishing, selecting those pieces that best capture Escalona’s vision of the city. For the English edition, the work of editor Aurelie Brambilla proved especially important. She carried out a demanding and highly professional revision process, striving to preserve the spirit and distinctive voice of each chronicle. As she herself has noted, the first books she read in Spanish were by Gabriel García Márquez and José Donoso—an influence that made the project both meaningful and challenging. Attorney Richard Beck and historian Frances Early also collaborated on the English revisions, later joined by professor Mary Jane Vavra. The process was both rigorous and exciting, as their revisions consistently included thoughtful commentary that helped strengthen the texts.

The chronicles collected in Maybe Manhattan are the result of three years of work—an intense process both emotionally and technically. Throughout the collection, readers encounter the vulnerability of the immigrant experience alongside the force of the dreams carried by those who arrive in the Big Apple. Among Escalona’s most personal pieces are “The New York of Another Galaxy” and “The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.” “I still feel a sharp sadness when I read them,” Escalona confesses. Yet humor and irony remain essential to the collection. “The Vile Attack of the Leaf Blowers” and “My Starbucks Name” are especially vivid examples, in which the writer humorously reflects on New Yorkers’ obsessive use of leaf blowers and on the strange transformation a name undergoes when pronounced with an American accent.