THE LATINA BOOK CLUB

     by Vanessa Libertad Garcia The Latina Book Club is proud to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with author and filmmaker Vanessa Libertad Garcia. Welcome! There are countless reasons I love being Hispanic. Many of these were born in my childhood before I became aware of the shameful way we were portrayed in American news and movies. Before junior high when white kids and their self-loathing Hispanic sidekicks chuckled while calling me “Pocahontas” and “dumb Mexican”. Long before then, I learned to love being Hispanic when the outside world did not exist and there was just my family. During those times, they frequently spoke with pride about the entrepreneurial brilliance and loyal hearts of our seaside Cuban people. When my grandmother Mamaita would talk about her native Cuban-Indian grandmother fleeing from cruel Spanish colonialists to live hidden in the mountains “los montes” where she sat daily on a rock in the stream and combed her long strong wh...

    THE VOTING BOOTH AFTER DARK: Despicable. Embarrassing. Repulsive. By Vanessa Libertad Garcia Fiat Libertad http://www.vanessalibertadgarcia.com/ “Raise your white flags, dirty as they may be.” THE VOTING BOOTH AFTER DARK is a short volume of poetry and essays that follow a group of gay and lesbian Latino club kids in Los Angeles during the course of the 2008 presidential elections. As Obama moves into the White House and Bush moves out, the characters too find themselves on the “Eve of Change.” Whereas, before the elections, they—like most of the country—find themselves full of angst, hopelessness, just like “another ungrateful useless American sitting on the edge of a cliff.” But that “Anguish” is followed by a little hope: “I yearn, I thirst, I crave not to throw all my hard won years away.” And, what begins as dead end days, full of despair, end in acceptance, compassion and trust. With a 40-ounce or a bottle of Barcardi on hand, these 20-somethings a...