“There’s nothing a Mejicano or Mejicana loves more than the
burning, stinging pain of thwarted, frustrated, hopeless, soulful,
take-it-to-the-grave love. Nothing gets us going more than what I call
rabia/love of the
te-juro-you’re-going-to-pay-for-all-the-suffering-you-caused-me variety.” --Tere
Teresina “Tere” Vila is looking for love in all the wrong
places. She’s divorced, 30-something
Chicana working “in the hinterlands of life” in New Mexico, a small dusty town
near El Paso, Texas. The love of her life is Lucio, a smooth-talking
ne'er-do-well who will never leave his wife and ties Tere's heart in knots with
a string of empty promises. Her diversions are few but intense, and center
around her best friend, Irma, and her membership in the Pedro Infante Fan Club.
For those of you who don’t recognize the name, Pedro Infante
was the Mexican Elvis Presley. His movies from the 1940s and 1950s were viewed
with obsessive devotion by millions of fans the Spanish world over.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR.
Denise Chávez is a leading award-winning Chicana playwright and novelist
from New Mexico. She focuses her writing in the southwest, “in heat and dust”
where she claims “love is as real as the land.” From here is where Denise draws
inspiration for her characters. She is also the Director/Bookseller at Casa
Camino Real, a bookstore and gallery on the historic Camino Real in Las Cruces,
NM. She believes in the power of writing to heal lives and heal the many
borders between people, real and imagined.
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