The Latina Book Club
celebrates LATINX HERITAGE MONTH
every day.
To honor authors during this
celebratory month, we will highlight a new book every day.
Join us and #ReadLatinoLit.
 |
| Ingram Spark |
DAUGHTERS OF THE STONE
By Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa
Vibrant. Lyrical. Powerful.
DAUGHTERS OF THE STONE
follows five generations of Puerto Rican women on their
physical and spiritual
journey from the Old World to the New.
SUMMARY: It is the mid-1800s. Fela, taken from Africa, is working at her second sugar plantation
in colonial Puerto Rico, where her mistress is only too happy to benefit from
her impressive embroidery skills. But Fela has a secret. Before she and her
husband were separated and sold into slavery, they performed a tribal ceremony
in which they poured the essence of their unborn child into a very special
stone. Fela keeps the stone with her, waiting for the chance to finish what she
started. When the plantation owner approaches her, Fela sees a better
opportunity for her child, and allows the man to act out his desire. Such is
the beginning of a line of daughters connected by their intense love for one
another, and the stories of a lost land.
Mati, a powerful healer and
noted craftswoman, is grounded in a life that is disappearing in a quickly
changing world.
Concha, unsure of her place, doesn't realize
the price she will pay for rejecting her past.
Elena, modern and educated, tries to navigate
between two cultures, moving to New York, where she struggles to keep her
family together.
Carisa turns to the past for wisdom and
strength when her life in New York falls apart.
The stone becomes meaningful
to each of the women, pulling them through times of crisis. Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa
shows great skill and warmth in the telling of this heartbreaking,
inspirational story about mothers and daughters, and the ways in which they
hurt and save one another.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa was born in Puerto Rico and raised in New York City. She is a product of the Puerto Rican communities on the island and in the South Bronx. She attended the New York City public school system and received her academic degrees from the State University of New York at Buffalo and Queens College-City University of New York. As a child she was sent to live with her grandparents in Puerto Rico where she was introduced to the culture of rural Puerto Rico, including the storytelling that came naturally to the women in her family, especially the older women. Much of her work is based on her experiences during this time. Dahlma taught creative writing and language and literature in the New York City public school system before becoming a young-adult librarian. She has also taught creative writing to teenagers, adults, and senior citizens throughout New York while honing her own skills as a fiction writer and memoirist.
The 2009 hardcover edition of DAUGHTERS OF THE STONE was
listed as a 2010 Finalist for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize. In
February, 2019 Dahlma self-published the trade paperback edition
of Daughters of the StonE which
is being distributed by IngramSpark. Her short stories appear in the following
anthologies: Bronx
Memoir Project, Latina Authors and Their Muses, Chicken Soup for the Latino Soul, Breaking Ground: Anthology of
Puerto Rican Women Writers in New York 1980 - 2012, and Growing
Up Girl. Dahlma's work also appears in various literary magazines
such as the Afro-Hispanic Review and Kweli Journal. Dahlma's Literary Agent, Marie Dutton Brown, is currently seeking a home for
Dahlma's second novel, A Woman of Endurance. Since her retirement, Dahlma continues to dedicate
herself to her writing, speaking engagements, and workshops. She resides in the
Bronx with her husband, photographer Jonathan Lessuck. Visit her at https://www.dahlmallanosfigueroa.com/.
#READLATINOLIT
#READLATINO
#READLATINX