THE LATINA BOOK CLUB

      The month is not over yet and neither is the Celebration. The Latina Book Club is proud to welcome Poet Laureate of the Altadena Library District, Dr. Thelma T. Reyna , who urges us to celebrate Women year round not just one month a year.  As Women’s History Month comes to a close, it is easy for many of us to return to other issues that consume our attention daily. Women have been extolled throughout this special month of honoring, women’s “firsts” have been recognized and commemorated, and our collective desire to see women gain greater equity in all spheres of society has been duly expressed in various media throughout March. But our awareness of women’s status in all nations, not just in ours, for the purpose of averting discrimination and expanding egalitarianism in all facets of existence must never be delimited to a certain slice of time. We need no boundaries--of time, place, emphasis--to further any worthy cause, and the cause of women’s advan

    The Latina Book Club continues its celebration of Women’s History Month.   Hence, we are pleased to welcome as our guest blogger Erika M. Martínez ,  editor of an exciting and courageous new literary anthology by 25 Dominican women.   The book will be released on April 15. Watch for it! Announcing the call for submissions for Daring to Write: Contemporary Narratives by Dominican Women in environments full of machismo was quite the challenge. When I attended literary events in the Dominican Republic men offered to contribute to the anthology, yet their writing often objectified women, depicting them as helpless victims or as possessing only sexual power. “This is going to be an important work. It should include men,” someone said to me once. Men assumed they could speak for women, but it wasn’t enough to have female characters in a story. I had to defend my decision to concentrate my work on women writers. At the 2009 International Book Fair in Santo Do

    It's March and The Latina Book Club is celebrating Women's History Month .   To help us is Teresa Dovalpage , who shares with our readers her interview of an exciting new author with a great family tale to tell. Meet Celeste León , award-winning writer and a 2013 alumna of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers. She is the recipient of First Prize in the annual contest for the High Sierra Writers group in Reno, Nevada for her essay, “Finding Home,” about her travels to Puerto Rico in search of her family roots. When Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor read the piece, she said, “If your work on your short story reflects your work on your book, it will be successful.” Bueno, Celeste has proved her right!  The piece was also a finalist in the 2014 annual contest for The Preservation Foundation. Her short stories “Sharing Luck” and “A Lucky Man” (both published in Chicken Soup for the Soul: Celebrating People Who Make a Difference, and www.beliefnet.com)

   The Latina Book Club congratulates author Sandra Perez Gluschankoff on the debut of her second novel, FRANZISCA’S BOX.   It's out today!!  And, we  are pleased to be able to share this excerpt with our readers.  Happy Reading! BOOK SUMMARY:   Mystery, betrayal, murder, and passionate love were things Sofia Lazar only experienced as a movie producer. All of that changed after her grandmother’s sudden death when she comes face to face with an unwanted revelation contained in a tattered box. The meager contents of the box take her back to her childhood and the fantastic bedtime stories that Abuela, her grandmother, used to tell her of a heroic warrior girl named Franzisca. Now, two decades later, fragments of Franzisca’s stories creep back into Sofia’s life, tying Franzisca and her grandmother to an unknown past. With the memories of her childhood bedtime stories to guide her, Sofia sets out to piece together her grandmother's mysterious history leading her t

       A woman who writes has power. A woman who writes is feared.   In the eyes of the world this makes us dangerous beasts .—Gloria Anzaldúa from THIS BRIDGE CALLED BY BACK The Latina Book Club celebrates “dangerous beasts” –aka Latina Authors –during March, Women’s History Month! This month, we will have guest posts from authors Chiquis Barrón, Erika M. Martinez and Thelma Reyna; plus, an excerpt from Sandra Perez Gluschankoff’s new book, FRANCIZCA’S BOX. We celebrate pioneers like Isabel Allende, Julia Alvarez, Ana Castillo, Sandra Cisneros, Lucha Corpi, Laura Esquivel, Reyna Grande, Meg Medina, and Pat Mora.  Yet there are many more Latina authors making their mark and flexing their power.  Below is a list of 10 Latina Authors to watch and read: Mayra Calvani -- LATINA AUTHORS & THEIR MUSES (Paladin Timeless Books), an inspirational collection of interviews about the writers's life and the passionate quest for spiritual and artistic fre

       University of Texas Press It’s Women’s History Month and The Latina Book Club begins its celebration with a new hot-off-the-press anthology— ENTRE GUADALUPE Y MALINCHE: TEJANAS IN LITERATURE AND ART —edited by two leading experts in Chicana and Mexican feminism,  Inés Hernández-Ávila and Norma Elia Cantú . This is a unique collection of memoirs, poetry, essays and artwork from artists such as Carmen Lomas Garza, Kathy Varga and Santa Barraza. Contributors include writers such as Celeste De Luna, Maria Limon, Laura M. Lopez, Pat Mora, Ire’ne Lara Silva, Carmen Tafolla and Terry Ybañnez.  Most of the pieces are in English, but a few are in Spanish with translations. The writers and artists discuss everything from family to friends to dreams to identity to community to women rights. Readers will find this a powerful, passionate and (sometimes) painful collection. Happy Reading. BOOK SUMMARY:   Mexican and Mexican American women have written about Texas and th

   March is Women’s History Month.   The Latina Book Club begins the celebration  with a guest post from author Chiquis Barrón , who shares with our readers  some of her principles to empower young women with confidence and awareness. Desert Arts & Cultural Media Open your arms wide to release the old and then embrace  the new and unfamiliar with utmost grace and finesse.—Chiquis Growing up is not easy. During adolescence and early adulthood, most of us go through drastic physical changes as well as deep emotional changes. Social changes at this age, such as starting secondary school, college or getting a first job, also imply spending more time with friends and people outside of our comfortable family circles. Although these changes can be exciting, they can also be incredibly confusing and awkward. Most of us are familiar with the physical changes that occur during youth as a result of fluctuating hormone levels. The emotional and psychological cha