THE LATINA BOOK CLUB

The Latina Book Club welcomes Thelma T. Reyna , editor, of the newly published WHEN THE VIRUS CAME CALLING.  It's a heart-wrenching anthology that records the events Americans - and the world! - have been living and struggling with these past seven months.  Some of the stories are hard to read, but all expose the havoc this disease has wrought and, most importantly, the resilience of people who refuse to be defeated.  WHEN THE VIRUS CAME CALLING:  COVID-19 STRIKES AMERICA Thelma T. Reyna, Editor   A ground-breaking anthology of 46 distinguished American contemporary poets and prose writers, written in real time in the first half of the historic, devastating coronavirus COVID-19 invasion of America in 2020. In heart-wrenching, wide-eyed observations, firsthand events, tragedies, and reflections, these top authors document for us the horrors, grief, and heroism of friends, family, neighbors as we watched the disease unfold. Here are moments of hope and togethe...

How easy it is, how easy, for the brain to trick us into wiping pain away,  in to thinking you’re here at my door, or in the kitchen by my side, sipping at the mug, sighing at the early hour, calling my name, your mouth at my ear. How easy, how easy. --Old Habits Thelma T. Reyna Golden Foothills Press What do you do when your beloved husband of  50 years and 8 months dies undergoing a minor surgery? Poet laureate Thelma T. Reyna turned towards the written word. Thelma lost her beloved husband Victor two years ago. Her grief was unbearable and immeasurable, but life goes on and unfortunately, she had to march with it. “ I wish the wife back then knew clearly what the widow now knows…about impermanence, about ensuring that our loved ones know clearly and unfailingly how much they mean to us, how much they enrich our lives, because we’re telling them regularly, with heart and soul.” Heartfelt. Piercing. Loving. DEAREST...

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. We welcome to our site former Poet Laureate Thelma T. Reyna ,  who has graciously shared with us an autobiographical poem, a glimpse from her childhood. GROWING UP DUSTY IN A SMALL TEXAS TOWN Our ankles were always gray, caliche dust swirling like guardian angels around twiggy brown legs leaping potholes, tripping on dirt clods. Nine children oblivious to what it meant to be growing up dusty. In winter, rivers of mud separated us from Licha, Juan, Susie. Dripping mesquite trees beckoned. Black puddles dotted our ‘hoodscape far as child eyes could see, little lakes navigated house to house as we grew up dusty. When morning light tickled our bedfaces, dervishes danced through cracks and chinks in sills and walls and f...

Women who stepped up Were measured as citizens Of the nation, not as women… This was a people’s war, And everyone was in it. ---Colonel Oveta Culp Hobby First Director of the Women’s Army Corps, WWII Golden Foothills Press This quote from more than 60 years ago is so apropos today.  Women have always had a role in wars, but usually behind the scenes in medical units or where they weren’t at risk of being captured.  But earlier this year, women were finally approved for combat duty, specifically in the infantry, which is why Victor Cass’ new novel seems to be pulled right from the headlines, and maybe a little prophetic too. BLACKWIDOW BITCHES is a political thriller about the first all-female combat infantry unit of paratroopers; Not only soldiers but airborne soldiers! Be warned! This is a big book—846 pages!—about terrorism and war.  It’s raw, horrific, with “blood-soaked” images of war. There are also race issues, gang issues, bull...