THE LATINA BOOK CLUB

We must use our lives to make the world  a  better place to live, not just to acquire things. That is what we are put on the earth for. – Dolores Huerta The Latina Book Club wishes  Dolores Huerta a Happy 90 th  Birthday!   Dolores Huerta is the Voice of the Working Poor. She is a Labor Leader, a Trailblazer, a Visionary.   She worked along with  César Chávez  to form the United Farm Workers of America, all while caring and raising her children.   She was an extraordinary woman, and the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom form Barack Obama in 2012.   The following books help celebrate her life and her accomplishments. Felicidades! DOLORES HUERTA: GET TO KNOW THE VOICE OF MIGRANT WORKERS By Robert Liu-Trujillo Capstone Press Dolores Huerta led farm workers to demand better pay, reasonable hours, and respect on the job. She knew laws needed to be passed to protect the workers and improve their lives. Learn more about this influen

Arte Publico Press My heart belonged to the South, but somehow  I knew I could not escape the North .--- Gerald Poyo Revealing. Well researched. Engaging. Whether Gerald Poyo is writing about Cubans in exile or the island’s struggle for independence or about his great-great-great grandfather who was a lector for Cuban cigar workers (like in the film Anna in the Tropics ), his writing has always been well-researched and detailed, as is his new book. Poyo turns to family again in A LATINO MEMOIR: EXPLORING IDENTITY, FAMILY AND THE COMMON GOOD.   The author is tracing his family’s roots across five generations and two continents.   The writing is wonderfully descriptive and engaging. It’s interesting to learn about our ancestors, their passions and dreams, and realize that those traits are within us. SUMMARY:    In a bumpy, anxiety-producing plane ride across the Straits of Florida to Cuba in 1979, graduate student Gerald Poyo knew his life would either end

Algonquin Books I wasn’t looking for a specific place, since I didn’t believe there was any place I belonged . –Jaquira Fierce. Eloquent. Harsh. Stark. Empowering.     From Ponce to Miami, Jaquira’s life is not easy.   It’s full of doubt, violence, suicide, mental illness, fear, shame, rage, and finally defiance and confidence. She read books on the download, dreamed of getting out of Miami and traveling the world, dreaming of adventures. Jaquira never dreamt of a specific place, because she never felt that she’d belong. Now, she shares her story, her journey to the woman she has become and celebrates today. SUMMARY:   While growing up in housing projects in Puerto Rico and Miami Beach, Díaz found herself caught between extremes. As her family split apart and her mother battled schizophrenia, she was supported by the love of her friends. As she longed for a family and home, her life was upended by violence. As she celebrated her Puerto Rican culture, she cou

Farrar Straus Giroux, 1984 All lovers of justice are invited to attend a public demonstration of solidarity with the idealists of Canudos and with all rebels the world over,  to be held in the Praça da Liberdade  on the fourth of October at 6 p.m. Called a “modern tragedy on the grand scale,” a “thunderous novel,” a “masterpiece.” THE WAR OF THE END OF THE WORLD is all that and more. Canudos is the Wild West and Neverland all rolled into one. There are no laws, no taxes, no marriage, no worries. Sounds like paradise, but there is always a snake in the grass, and this one is the fictional Brazilian government determined to claim the backlands, crush the outcasts and impose their rule.   Freedom fighters or bandits?   The battle is inevitable, but readers must ask, who truly wins the war? SUMMARY:   Deep within the remote backlands of nineteenth-century Brazil lies Canudos, home to all the damned of the earth: prostitutes, bandits, beggars, and every kind of

The Feminist Press at CUNY This debut is so much more than an immigrant’s story. It is an ode to the resilience of the human spirit. A hymn to the power of poems and stories as agents of personal liberation and social change. In any language. Any culture. Anywhere in the world. ¡Brava, Claudia! ¡Otra, otra! Encore!   —Lucha Corpi Breathtaking. Honest. Bilingual. Bicultural. A journey across numerous borders in search of the Promise Land.   Claudia uses all types of forms of writing to tell her story—poetry, prose, English, Spanish.   This is her life, her memories. Some good, a lot bad.   She doesn’t fit in the new land, and after a few years, she doesn’t fit back home in Guatemala either. She is of both lands, but none.   Does that make her more... or less?   Unfortunately , that is the eternal struggle of bicultural children. SUMMARY:   A young Guatemalan immigrant’s adolescence is shaped by her journey to the US as she grapples with Chapina tradition an

   The Latina Book Club remembers and honors All the fallen Soldiers and Heroes – men and women – who have sacrificed so much for our country’s freedom.   We can never Thank Them enough ! Here are some books that honor our Latino Soldiers.   Enjoy. SOLDIER FOR EQUALITY: JOSE DE LA LUZ SAENZ AND THE GREAT WAR By Duncan Tonatiuh A 2020 Pura Belprè Author Honor Book Abrams Books for Young Readers Josè de la Luz Sáenz believed in fighting for what was right. He fought in WWI and was an invaluable member of the Intelligence Office in Europe. But even in the army, he faced prejudice. When he returned home, he joined other Mexican American Veterans to create the League of Latin American Citizens (LULAC), one of largest and oldest Latinx civil rights organizations. GOOD NIGHT CAPTAIN MAMA / BUENAS NOCHES CAPITAN MAMA By Graciela Tiscareňo-Sato Gracefully Global Group A sweet, reassuring bedtime conversation between a military Mom and her child a

The Latina Book Club thanks Boroughs Publishing for pointing out this quote from the legendary writer. Isabel Allende on the Craft of Writing “Show up. Show up in front of the computer or the typewriter. And if I show up long enough – it happens.” “When I started writing, I always had the feeling that the book was like a gift–that it would just fall in my lap like an apple or something. So I almost had the feeling that it wasn’t going to happen again. That I had written The House of the Spirits, and that was it. Or I had written the second or third book, and that was it. But what I have learned in time, in thirty-two years of writing, is that it’s a lot of work, and if I just show up, and I work and work, there is a moment, a magical moment, at some point, when it gives. And then you don’t need the effort anymore. It’s like dancing. When you’re dancing and counting the steps, you’re not dancing. When your body just goes—then you’re dancing, and then there’s a

Vintage Books  1985 Think of love as a state of grace: not the means to anything but the alpha and omega, an end in itself. —Florentino This novel by Gabriel García Márquez seems very apropos for this time. We are under a pandemic, and the protagonists in this historic novel are under their own pandemic.   Of course, it takes 50+ years before the boy gets the girl, but love is forever. Some readers have problems with Florentino.   He seems an obsessive Don Juan – bedding everything with breasts—and yet still insists that he is a “virgin,” that he only has one love. Is it because Fermina is the one who got away, or because she is the other half of his soul? Readers have been battling over this question for over 50 years, and will probably continue to do so for another 50.   Read it again and let us know where you stand.   Happy Reading.—mcf LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA (EL AMOR EN LOS TIEMPOS DE COLERA) was first published in 1985. It is considered a non-tra

The Latina Book Club is reclaiming  May Is Latino Books Month.   Let’s continue the Celebration with these children's books. And, for a list of May's fiction books, click here . Happy Reading ---mcf A NEW KIND OF WILD by Zara Gonzáles Hoang  (Dial Books) Ren grew up surrounded by the magic and wonder of the forest. When he moves to the city, he is lost until he meets Ava. This city girl teaches Ren that the city is also full of wonder, and there is always something to do or see or hear.     FEDERICO AND THE WOLF by Rebecca J. Gomez  (Clarion Books) This time it’s little Red Hoodie Federico on his way to Abuelo’s house. He meets a Wolf who wants to detain him, but Federico just happens to be carrying a spicy surprise. GHOST SQUAD by Claribel A. Ortega  (Scholastic Press) Think Coco meets Ghostbusters. Lucely and her BFF Syd cast a spell that accidentally awakens malicious spirits. Luckily, they join forces with Syd’s witch gra

The Latina Book Club has become an affiliate of Bookshop to help support local and independent bookstores.  Visit us at   https://bookshop.org/shop/latinabookclub . Bookshop is an online bookstore that believes bookstores are essential to a healthy culture. They’re where authors can connect with readers, where we discover new writers, where children get hooked on the thrill of reading that can last a lifetime.   By design, Bookshop gives away over 75% of its profit margin to stores, publications, authors and others who make up the thriving, inspirational culture around books! To date, Bookshop has raised $1.5 million dollars. Bookshop hopes to help strengthen the fragile ecosystem and margins around bookselling and keep local bookstores an integral part of our culture and communities.   They are a B-Corp - a corporation dedicated to the public good.  The Latina Book Club is proud affiliate. Please check out The Latina Book Club's Favorites Books