THE LATINA BOOK CLUB

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 h...

    Arte Publico Press 1973 Slowly, then rapidly, the city began to fade from view as Nilda looked out the window.   First, the Park Avenue Market began to disappear and she looked back at 110 th Street where she went shopping with her mother almost every day; then all the buildings, tenements, streetlights and traffic faded from view. Panic seized her and she swallowed, fighting a strong urge to cry as she longed to go back home that very second. ---Nilda Named an “Outstanding Book of the Year” by The New York Times and one of the “Best Books of the Year” by the American Library Association in 1973 when it was first published, Nicholasa Mohr’s classic novel, NILDA, about life as an immigrant in New York City offers a poignant look at one young girl’s experiences. Issues of race, religion and machismo are movingly depicted in this groundbreaking coming-of-age novel that was one of the first by a Latina author to be hailed by the mainstream media. S...

The Latina Book Club is Celebrating Women’s History Month by showcasing female authors and poets all this month.    We thank these fearless women for joining the celebration and sharing their works with us.   Enjoy! JASMINNE MENDEZ is a poet, playwright, educator and award winning author.  Mendez has had poetry and essays published by or forthcoming in The New England Review, Crab Creek Review, Kenyon Review, Gulf Coast, The Rumpus, and others. She is the author of two poetry/prose collections ISLAND OF DREAMS (Floricanto Press, 2013) which won an International Latino Book Award, and NIGHT-BLOOMING JASMIN(N)E: Personal Essays and Poetry (Arte Publico Press, 2018). She is a Pushcart Prize nominee, and has received fellowships from Canto Mundo and the Kenyon Review Writer's Workshop among others. She is an MFA graduate of the creative writing program at the Rainier Writer's Workshop at Pacific Lutheran...

Happy Valentine’s Week!    The Latina Book Club is doing mini interviews with Latino / Latinx authors about Latin Lovers, favorite couples, and best presents to give this week.     We start with author Jasminne Mendez .   Her book, NIGHT-BLOOMING JASMIN(N)E: PERSONAL ESSAYS & POEMS, was released by Arte Publico Press last Spring, but it’s worth reading in every season. LBC:   Welcome, Jasminne.   Valentine’s Day is upon us, and nothing says romance more than a Latin Lover, or does it?  What do you think of the Latin Lover— is he a Macho Man, Eye Candy or other?   Jasminne:   I think the "Latin Lover" is kind of a myth and a stereotype. I think that Latin men have been shown on TV and the media as a passionate "lover" who can woo any woman and often has several lovers himself. I think that Latin men CAN be this but they can also be so much more or not this at all and still be wonderful, caring partne...

Poetry is like a song, like a psalm, like a prayer. Poetry is different things to many people, and April being Poetry Month,  The Latina Book Club is celebrating by featuring Latino poets all week long.   “ All I wanted was the impossible: To be the who I am in a land unafraid of the me I have become .”—Frank Varela DIASPORA: SELECTED AND NEW POEMS By Frank Varela Arte Publico Pr ess Given all that has been happening with Puerto Rico this past year, we searched for a book of poems that spoke to us about the island; about being a part of it and not; about dreams and reality; about success and disappointment; about love and loss. Summary:  In this collection of 55 poems, Varela writes about growing up Puerto Rican in Brooklyn, noting that there are two types of Puerto Ricans: “those born on the island, / others like me, / the children of exiles.” Pondering the universal sentiment of immigrant children, he notes that he was considered a ...

  Happy Day of the Dead. The Latina Book Club has been counting down all this week with great books celebrating the dark and mysterious,  but today we celebrate our loved ones who have passed away. Happy Reading.  And always, Read Latino!    Arte Publico Press THE REMEMBERING DAY / EL DIA DE LOS MUERTOS is a three-hanky book. Be prepared to cry happy tears.  This is Pat Mora’s take on the origins of El Dia de los Muertos and why it is such an important day and not just another excuse to paint sugar skulls on your face. Endearing. Emotional. Enjoyable. No matter what age you are or if you are Mexican, Puerto Rican, American, European, Chinese, et al, we all have someone we have loved and lost. Remember them. Recall a wonderful memory and celebrate that love which lives forever in your heart.    Book Summary:   Long, long, long ago, Bella and her grandmother Mamá Alma admired their vegetable garden. They l...

It's Halloween Week and Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). The Latina Book Club is proud to bring you books that will scare you and make your heart race.   So Be Brave and Happy Reading. Arte Publico Press I love graffiti art, especially large, colorful murals that depict fun communal scenes.  I found a lot of these in Harlem, and so many more during my recent trip to San Juan.  SOFI AND THE MAGIC, MUSICAL brings these murals to mind and to life.  The book is full of vibrant pictures and enchanting narrative, and I love that it is bilingual.  Readers will be delighted and amazed.  I am, and I am thinking of buying extra hard copies for my nieces and nephews in New York and on the island. SUMMARY:  When Sofi walks through her   barrio  to the local store, she always passes a huge mural with images from Puerto Rico: musicians, dancers, tropical flowers and her least favorite a vejigante, a character from...

    The Latina Book Club is proud to welcome author Graciela Limón ,  who will tell us how she celebrates her Latinidad. Plus, we’ll learn about her new suspense novel,  THE INTRIGUING LIFE OF XIMENA GODOY. When I was a little girl growing up in East Los Angeles, I loved school.  You see, I went to Hammel Street School, a public grammar school that had been there since forever, and even better, it was a school where all the kids were Mexican.  Most of us were born in the barrio, but others had recently come up with their familias from Mexico.  But it was all the same; we all spoke Spanish – on the sly, of course, because the teachers scolded or punished us when they caught us talking, as they said, “funny.”  Another thing I loved was that kids took a lunch in a little brown bag, many times exchanging that delicious gordita for a burrito.  I loved school because it was hardly a change from home where I lived with my mom, da...

  “I’ve learned that only I am responsible for my life: the good, the bad, the positive, the negative, successes and failures. They all belong to me. They are the result of my decisions, my choices. Once I realized that my life truly means my life, I could say ‘I love my life’ and mean it.” --Nancy De Los Santos Reza STORIES INCLUDED: Nancy De Los Santos Reza – “Loving My Life” Josefina Lopez – “The Unlovable” Margo De Leon – The Pillar That Would Not Crumble Laura De Anda – “My Father’s Daughter” Susan Orosco – “The Clearing” Bel Hernandez Castillo – “The Power To Say I Belong” Joanna Ilizaliturri Diaz – “Que Te Dice Tu Corazon?” Rita Mosqueda Marmolejo – “Running In Place” It was Susan Orosco who came up with the idea for a book on how and why she loved her life. Her friend Margo De Leon improved on the idea and suggested they invite other Latinas to also contribute their life stories to the project. They thought of seven Latinas, seven stories, but ended u...