THE LATINA BOOK CLUB

The Latina Book Club wishes everyone a Happy New Year and a Happy Three Kings Day! January 6, 2016, was the 39 th annual Three Kings Day Parade sponsored by El Museo del Barrio .  This is my fourth year attending and each year the parade is spectacular, as was the company.  Members of Las Comadres Para Las Americas , of which I am one, gather to attend the parade and then finish with a fabulous lunch at La Fonda restaurant. Julia, Tess, Dora, Maria, Ingrid, Carmen, Clara, Gladys, Nikki & Julie Wednesday was a magical day full of shiny crowns, music, dancing, colorful puppets and live camels! The day was sunny and bright so it was easy to see the smiles and joy on the faces of the kids and adults lined up on 106 Street and Third Avenue; all eager to catch a glimpse of the Baby Jesus, his parents Mary and Joseph and the Three Kings. Aside from the parade, El Museo del Barrio also honored Latinos who have made a contribution to the community....

  [I need to] "go, go, go as far away as I can from this place where nothing changes."  - --Sonia Manzano, Emmy award winning actress and Pura Belpre Award winning author      Scholastic BECOMING MARIA: A MEMOIR Love and Chaos in the South Bronx Passionate and Personal.  This is a story about the courage and strength to dream big, and making those dreams come true from a woman who continues to inspire.  Bravo, Sonia! Sonia Manzano is best known as “Maria” from the eternally popular “Sesame Street” TV show.  BECOMING MARIA is her passionate and personal memoir.  Although, the book briefly touches on her iconic role, this memoir is more about her troubled childhood; the family’s struggle with poverty in the south Bronx during the 1950s and 60s; her father’s drunken abusive rages; her long suffering mother; and the despair of thinking she would be stuck in that life forever.  Television is her solace, h...

  History:   In 1998, Nancy Pearl from the Washington Center for the Book in the Seattle Public Library launched the campaign "If All Seattle Read the Same Book,” designed to unite the community of readers under the same book. The goal of the campaign was to encourage the public to read one particular book and to participate in several educational and literature-based programs associated with the chosen book. Today, countless libraries, schools and bookstores across the United States have adopted their own version of “One Book” with the same enthusiasm and vision as its original campaign. Today:   La Casa Azul Bookstore has begun a community-wide reading campaign to promote literacy and foster community through literature in East Harlem. On June 7, they announced the first book in their One Book, One Barrio project -- The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano, by Sonia Manzano. Now through November, there will be events each month to complement the One Book, One Barrio p...