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PART I: BOOK REVIEW, AMERICA LIBRE BY RAUL RAMOS Y SANCHEZ

(Part II: Q&A with author Raul Ramos y Sanchez will be posted tomorrow, November 30.  Join us!)



AMERICA LIBRE
By Raul Ramos y Sanchez
Grand Central Publishing

Like the thirteen English colonies huddled along the coast of North America in 1776, the countries of Latin America will one day reach an epiphany of consciousness and unite into a single nation. This is their inevitable destiny. –Jose Antonio Marcha, JUSTICIA

Hispanics in America have come to accept the way things are, not because they’re fair or just, but because it’s the way things have been for a very long time. –Josefina Herrera

Being Latino was something he’d simply learned to endure with dignity, like a handicap. The revelation shamed him. –Mano Suarez



During WWII, the U.S. government imprisoned many Japanese-Americas in concentration-liked camps, even as many of them fought in the war. The government did it in the name of homeland security. Could it happen again on American soil? Could one group of people prove to be of such great risk that the government would segregate and locked them up….again?

Such is the premise of Raul Ramos y Sanchez award-winning book AMERICA LIBRE. In his America, the U.S. is in a severe recession, it’s first African-American president is voted out after one-term, the Hispanic population is growing by leaps and bounds, while tough anti-immigration laws give rise to Anglo vigilante groups, epidemic muggings on immigrants and militant Hispanic separatist groups. Riots lead to violence to battle to war zones, until the U.S. government passes the Quarantine and Relocation Acts, and Latinos everywhere are corralled into quarantine zones, thereby neutralizing the Hispanic political influence in the U.S. But this doesn’t stop the rebels – La Defensa del Pueblo – from continuing to fight for the people’s rights and the formation of the Hispanic Republic of North America.

At the heart of this fight are five pivotal characters:

*  Mano Suarez–desperate to protect his family and “rock-hard loyal” to his country, but he is drawn to the radicals when the foundations of his world crack

*Rosa Suarez–a wife and a mother powerless to save her children or her marriage

*Josefina Herrera–a revolutionary eager to keep the momentum for justicia growing even if it means paying the local gangs to riot could keep the media’s attention on her cause

*Ramon Garcia–another revolutionary whose words moved thousands to pick up arms

*Nesto–a mero, a gang leader and gun runner, more interested in money than in any Hispanic cause and willing to play both sides


Passionate. Vivid. Terrifying.  AMERICA LIBRE is an engrossing and emotional tale about Hispanics in search of justice and a country of their own. The characters are well rounded, and the story is fast-paced and action-packed.  Readers will be captivated from the first page to the last.  But, what will frighten them most will be the idea that this could happen.  AMERICA LIBRE has won several awards including, Best Novel from the International Latino Book Awards; First Place in the Book Into Movies Awards; and, Finalist in the Violet Crown Fiction Awards.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Raul Ramos y Sanchez is a founding partner of BRC Marketing, established in 1992. He had developed a documentary for public television entitled, “Two Americas: The Legacy of Our Hemisphere.” Ramos y Sanchez is also the host of MyImmigrationStory.com, an online forum for the U.S. immigration community. To learn more about the author and his works, visit http://www.raulramos.com/.###


TOMORROW (NOV 30): Q&A with author….Raul Ramos y Sanchez


DO LEAVE A COMMENT. Tell us if you’ve read the book and what you thought of it. Did you agree with Mano and Jo’s fight? And, do you believe in a Hispanic Republic of North America?

AND, do visit the author's website and vote for YOUR favorite Hollywood star to play Manolo Suarez in the possible AMERICA LIBRE movie.   Who can see you see in the title role?  Benicio del Toro? Jimmy Smits? Wilmer Valderrama?  Do tell.

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