THE LATINA BOOK CLUB

The Latina Book Club  welcomes author René Colato Laínez  and  chats with him about his new book and illegal aliens.     Q:  Congratulations on your new book, MAMÁ THE ALIEN/ MAMÁ LA  EXTRATERRESTE.  We love how your books are bilingual.  Do you write the Spanish version first or the English? René Colato Laínez :  Thank you! I am so happy that MAMÁ THE ALIEN/ MAMÁ LA EXTRATERRESTE is ready to fly and visit homes, classrooms and libraries. When I am writing a story for the first time, I write it in English or Spanish. When it is time to submit the manuscript for publication, my agent always submit an English manuscript. I work on that manuscript with my editor until it is ready to print. It is until then, when I translate the manuscript from English to Spanish. Q:  Thanks to you and many other diverse authors, our children are finally seeing books with heroes that look like them.  When you were growing up...

The Latina Book Club congratulates actress-writer-comedian Jonisha Rios , whose book, CURSE OF THE BLUE VAGINA AND OTHER STORIES, was just released. Jonisha  shares with us a funny story of a Mom at a supermarket short on funds who ends us with more than she bargain for.  Welcome! “WE’RE ALL LIVING TELENOVELA LIVES….” by Jonisha Rios I’m in line at Winn Dixie here in Orlando, in one hand is a box of no frills pull-up pampers, in the other a basket with a half gallon of milk, cereal for the baby, an iced tea- and my guilty pleasure - an “US weekly magazine”.  I’m a sucker for those mags, especially when my life sucks.  I just look at the photos of the rich and famous and realize we aren’t all that different.  They’re just as screwed up as poor people are. As I inch up to the cash register, I’m suddenly filled with dread “Will I have enough? Did my husband remember to refill the prepaid card? I look over at my child...

    “The world is full of sorrow,” Agapita whispered to Alfonso. Did she stamp those words into his destiny? University of Oklahoma Press The story of Alfonso, a Nuevo Mexicano, begins with his birth, when the   curandera  Agapita delivers these haunting words into his infant ear. What then unfolds is an elegiac song to the llanos of New Mexico where Alfonso comes of age. As this exquisite novel charts Alfonso’s life journey from childhood through his education and evolution as a writer, renowned Chicano author Rudolfo Anaya invites readers to reflect on the truths and mysteries of the human condition. Because Alfonso “didn’t write his own biography,” it falls to his childhood friend, the anonymous narrator here, to tell his story, through a series of letters addressed to a mysterious figure named K. The narrator depicts young Alfonso caught between dual influences: his beloved, devout Catholic mother, Rafaelita, and the folk healer Agapita. Aft...