Hispanic/Latino Fiction

When I Was Puerto Rican

by Esmeralda Santiago
at amazon.com

From the Publisher "Santiago's autobiographical account cinematically recaptures her past and her island culture. What is particularly appealing about Santiago's story is the insight it offers to readers unaware of the double bind Puerto Rican Americans find themselves in: the identity in conflict. Is [she] black or white? Is she rural or urban? Even more importantly, is she Puerto Rican or is she American? [One] can only be grateful that Esmeralda Santiago has chosen to explore her culture and share what she has found." --The Los Angeles Times Book Review

Cuando era puertorriqueña

by Esmeralda Santiago
at amazon.com

Book Description Magia, tensión sexual, comedia e intenso drama se mueven dentro de ésta encantadora pero a la vez dura autobiografía; es la historia de una niña que deja a su pueblo en Puerto Rico por la atracción de Nueva York, y una oportunidad para el éxito. "Clara, calladamente poderosa y muy lírica: una historia de verdadera valentía." - Kirkus Reviews

Almost a Woman

by Esmeralda Santiago
at amazon.com

From Booklist: "The broad outlines of Santiago's life story, begun in When I Was Puerto Rican (1993) and continued here, are familiar; indeed, they limn the quintessential American experience--that of a stranger in a strange land. Santiago, writing prose as notable for its poise and directness as for its sharp detail, picks up where she left off, with her arrival at age 13 in Brooklyn, New York, and chronicles her struggle not only to learn a new language and adjust to a far more diverse and divisive society but also to cope with all the confusion of puberty. The eldest in a family that grew to include 11 children, Santiago was as close as an independent-minded daughter can be to a strict mother, and her Mami emerges as a contradictory yet compelling and admirable figure. Their complex relationship is the fulcrum of Santiago's balancing act between life in their brimming barrio apartment and life in the wider world, where she discovers the joy and frustrations of artistic pursuits and the puzzlements of love." --Donna Seaman

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/americancollection/woman/
http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides/almost_a_woman.asp
http://www.randomhouse.com/vintage/read/almost/
http://www.ncteamericancollection.org/assets/pdf/aaw_teachers_guide.pdf
http://entertainment.msn.com/Movies/Movie.aspx?m=524821

Casi una mujer

by Esmeralda Santiago
at amazon.com

Book Description: "Un conmovedor relato del desarrollo, una sincera historia de inmigrantes. Casi una mujer es el camino triunfal de Santiago hacia la edad adulta, desde los barrios de Brooklyn hacia los teatros de Manhattan. "Un relato universal, común para miles de inmigrantes a éste país, transformado en algo especial por la sencillez y honestidad de Santiago."" - The Miami Herald.

America's Dream

by Esmeralda Santiago
at amazon.com

Amazon.com "America Gonzalez has more than her share of concerns. She is a hotel housekeeper on an island off the Puerto Rican coast with an abusive lover, a drinking mother and a 14-year-old daughter who's run off with her boyfriend. So Gonzalez takes a drastic step by taking a job as a housekeeper with an affluent couple in Westchester, New York. Running away from her problems doesn't really work, though, as new worries arise and old problems rear their ugly heads. The novel is Esmeralda Santiago's second consecutive acclaimed work, following on the heels of When I Was Puerto Rican."

El sueño de América

by Esmeralda Santiago
at amazon.com

Book Description: "América Gonzales es empleada de un hotel en una isla en la costa de Puerto Rico, donde limpia los cuartos de extranjeros ricos que miran de reojo. Su madre alcohólica le tiene resentimiento...su novio Correa, quien es casado le pega...y su hija de catorce años piensa que su vida seria mejor en cualquier otro lugar menos donde esté America.Asi que cuando le ofrecen la oportunidad de trabajar como criada y niñera para una familia en el municipio de Weschester, Nueva York, America cree que ha encontrado una puerta de escape. Pero al mismo tiempo en que disfruta del lujo relativo de su nueva vida atreviéndose incluso a querer a otro hombre que no sea Correa, América tiene que luchar contra la constante sensación de que nunca podra escapar su pasado, no importa lo que haga."

Dreaming in Cuban

by Cristina Garcia
at amazon.com

From Library Journal: "Garcia's first novel is about Cuba, her native country, and three generations of del Pino women who are seeking spiritual homes for their passionate, often troubled souls. Celia del Pino and her descendants also share clairvoyant and visionary powers that somehow remain undiminished, despite the Cuban revolution and its profound effect upon their lives. This dichotomy suffuses their lives with a potent mixture of superstition, politics, and surrealistic charm that gives the novel an otherworldly atmosphere. Garcia juggles these opposing life forces like a skilled magician accustomed to tossing into the air fiery objects that would explode if they came into contact. Writing experimentally in a variety of forms, she combines narratives, love letters, and monologs to portray the del Pinos as they move back and forth through time. Garcia tells their story with an economy of words and a rich, tropical imagery, setting a brisk but comfortable pace. Highly recommended." - Janet W. Reit, Univ. of Vermont Lib., Burlington Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Soñar en cubano

by Cristina Garcia
at amazon.com

Ingram: "A vivid and funny first novel about three generations of a Cuban family divided by conflicting loyalties over the Cuban revolution, set in the world of Havana in the 1970s and '80s and in an emigre neighborhood of Brooklyn. It is a story of immense charm about women and politics, women and witchcraft, women and their men."
From the Publisher: "The Spanish translation is eloquent and really captures the nuances inherent to the Cuban culture and language. If you liked the English version and can read Spanish, try SONAR EN CUBANO. You're in for a treat."

The Aguero Sisters

by Cristina Garcia. Publisher: Ballantine Books (Trd Pap); (May 1998) at amazon.com

Book Description (amazon.com): "Reina and Constancia Agüero are Cuban sisters who have been estranged for thirty years. Reina--tall, darkly beautiful, and magnetically sexual--still lives in her homeland. Once a devoted daughter of la revolución, she now basks in the glow of her many admiring suitors, believing only in what she can grasp with her five senses. The pale and very petite Constancia lives in the United States, a beauty expert who sees miracles and portents wherever she looks. After she and her husband retire to Miami, she becomes haunted by the memory of her parents and the unexplained death of her beloved mother so long ago.
Told in the stirring voices of their parents, their daughters, and themselves, The Agüero Sisters tells a mesmerizing story about the power of myth to mask, transform, and finally, reveal the truth--as two women move toward an uncertain, long awaited reunion."

Las hermanas Agüero

by Cristina Garcia. Alan West (Translator), Publisher: Vintage Books; Spanish edition (June 1997) at amazon.com

Book Description (amazon.com): "Reina and Constancia Agüero are Cuban sisters who have been estranged for thirty years. Reina--tall, darkly beautiful, and magnetically sexual--still lives in her homeland. Once a devoted daughter of la revolución, she now basks in the glow of her many admiring suitors, believing only in what she can grasp with her five senses. The pale and very petite Constancia lives in the United States, a beauty expert who sees miracles and portents wherever she looks. After she and her husband retire to Miami, she becomes haunted by the memory of her parents and the unexplained death of her beloved mother so long ago.
Told in the stirring voices of their parents, their daughters, and themselves, The Agüero Sisters tells a mesmerizing story about the power of myth to mask, transform, and finally, reveal the truth--as two women move toward an uncertain, long awaited reunion."

The House on Mango Street

by Sandra Cisneros
at amazon.com

From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Jesse Larsen: "Esperanza and her family didn't always live on Mango Street. Right off she says she can't remember all the houses they've lived in but "the house on Mango Street is ours and we don't have to pay rent to anybody, or share the yard with the people downstairs, or be careful not to make too much noise, and there isn't a landlord banging on the ceiling with a broom. But even so, it's not the house we thought we'd get." Esperanza's childhood life in a Spanish-speaking area of Chicago is described in a series of spare, poignant, and powerful vignettes. Each story centers on a detail of her childhood: a greasy cold rice sandwich, a pregnant friend, a mean boy, how the clouds looked one time, something she heard a drunk say, her fear of nuns: "I always cry when nuns yell at me, even if they're not yelling." Esperanza's friends, family, and neighbors wander in and out of her stories; through them all Esperanza sees, learns, loves, and dreams of the house she will someday have, her own house, not on Mango Street."

Author's site: http://www.sandracisneros.com

La casa en Mango Street

by Sandra Cisneros, Elena Poniatowska (Translator)
at amazon.com

Caramelo

by Sandra Cisneros
at amazon.com

"Lala Reyes’ grandmother is descended from a family of renowned rebozo, or shawl, makers. The striped caramelo rebozo is the most beautiful of all, and the one that makes its way, like the family history it has come to represent, into Lala’s possession. The novel opens with the Reyes’ annual car trip — a caravan overflowing with children, laughter, and quarrels — from Chicago to “the other side”: Mexico City. It is there, each year, that Lala hears her family’s stories, separating the truth from the “healthy lies” that have ricocheted from one generation to the next. We travel from the Mexico City that was the “Paris of the New World” to the music-filled streets of Chicago at the dawn of the Roaring Twenties—and, finally, to Lala’s own difficult adolescence in the not-quite-promised land of San Antonio, Texas."

Amazon.com: Caramelo, Sandra Cisneros's first novel since her celebrated The House on Mango Street, weaves a large yet intricate pattern, much like the decorative fringe on a rebozo, the traditional Mexican shawl. Through the eyes of young Celaya, or Lala, the Reyes family saga twists and turns over three generations of truths, half-truths, and outright lies. And, like Celaya's grandmother's prized caramelo (striped) rebozo, so is "the universe a cloth, and all humanity interwoven.... Pull one string and the whole thing comes undone." The Reyes clan, from Awful Grandmother Soledad and her favorite son Inocencio to Celaya, follow their destinies from Mexico City to the U.S. armed forces, jobs upholstering furniture, and to Chicago and San Antonio. Celaya gathers and retells, in over 80 chapters, the stories that reinforce her family's, and subsequently her own, identity as they travel between the U.S.-Mexican border and within the United States. Rich with sensory descriptions and animated conversations and peppered with Mexican cultural and historical details, this novel can hardly contain itself. Also an acclaimed poet, Cisneros writes fiercely and thoroughly, and her characters enter and exit the page with uncommon humanity. Although the book is long--over 400 pages plus a relevant U.S.-Mexico chronology--in many ways it's not long enough. The world of the 20th-century Mexican family, and of the Reyeses in particular, is as complicated, timeless, and satisfying as our own family stories. --Emily Russin

Caramelo: O, Puro Cuento

by Sandra Cisneros - Knopf - 2002
at amazon.com

Author's site: http://www.sandracisneros.com, Caramelo page Review: http://www.mesalibrary.org/espanol/cafe/caramelo.asp

Parrot in the Oven: mi vida

by Victor Martinez
at amazon.com
HarperCollins, 1996
Grade level(s): 7-12

Growing up Hispanic in California of the 1960's, November 20, 2000 Amazon.com: Reviewer: A reader from Oak Park, IL United States: "This is a semi-autobigraphical story of a poverty-ridden, dysfunctional family that many urban, American-born Hispanic students aged 12-18 years old may well identify with. I taught it to grades 6-8, and students were mesmerized by the poetic language (Mr.Martinez is a published poet), realistic episodes, true-to-life characters, and Jerry Springer-like trauma-drama.These characters may appear trailer-trash types, but the main character Manny, overcomes his emotional restraints bythe end of the novel. He's a strong, young, Hispanic male character, and we need more of these. The similies and metaphors alonemake this book worth reading."

El loro en el horno, mi vida

by Victor Martinez (Translator: Amalia Bermejo)
at amazon.com

Review: http://clnet.ucr.edu/library/bplg/loroenelhorno.htm

Alburquerque

by Rudolfo Anaya
at amazon.com

From Library Journal: "In his fifth novel, the best-selling author of Bless Me, Ultima ( LJ 2/1/73) sets an archetypal quest for the father in the city of "Alburquerque" (according to Anaya, the legendary spelling of the name), in which various characters vie for political power. Abran Gonzalez, a former Golden Gloves champion unaware that he was adopted, learns this secret from his biological mother on the night she dies. The revelation triggers a search for his father's identity that involves New Mexican politicos, a Rocky -like boxing match, and a man who believes his ancestors were bears. Other main characters also have murky ancestry; one Italian American even tries to prove that he was descended from the Duke of Albu(r)querque. At times melodramatic, the work has an intense spirituality that ultimately makes it mesmerizing. Highly recommended." - Harold Augenbraum, Mer cantile Lib., New York Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Bless Me, Ultima

by Rudolfo A. Anaya at amazon.com

"Besides winning the Premio Quinto Sol national Chicano literary award, this novel of a young boy in New Mexico in the 1940s has sold more than 300,000 copies in paperback since its 1973 debut."

""Bless Me Ultima" is written by the father of Chicano literature, Rudolph Anaya. "Bless Me Ultima" is a story of a young boy who is torn between family, friends, and religion. This story also gives insight into the Chicano culture."

Heart of Aztlan: A Novel

by Rudolfo A. Anaya.
Publisher: University of New Mexico Press; Reprint edition (July 1988)
at amazon.com

The Jumping Tree: A Novel

by Rene, Jr. Saldana
Reading level: Ages 9-12 at amazon.com

From School Library Journal: "Gr 5-9-A lively novel told through vignettes about growing up in Nuevo Pe-itas, TX. American-born Rey and his loving family maintain close ties with their Mexican relatives, who live "a stone's throw" away across the border, yet have very different opportunities. Rey's family, though poor, struggles and survives through their kind and honest efforts, religious beliefs, and hard work. Just entering adolescence, Rey yearns to be a man like his father, uncles, and older male cousins. The boys of the barrio play marbles and "king of the mountain," climb trees, and collect cigarette butts. The title comes from one of the boys' challenges: to jump from the upper branches of a mammoth mesquite to another without falling. Unfortunately, Rey is the youngest and his legs are short. Predictably, he falls, and he ends up with a broken wrist. The writing is engaging and accessible, with Spanish-language phrases and names smoothly integrated throughout. Loosely tied together, the chapters create a cohesive whole. Rey is an appealing protagonist who will speak to early adolescents. Salda-a draws extended family together and binds one boy's growth into manhood with real emotion and believable events." Gail Richmond, San Diego Unified Schools, CA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

El Bronx Remembered

by Nicholasa Mohr
at amazon.com
Reading level: Young Adult

Ingram: "In the South Bronx--or El Bronx, as it's known to the people who live there--anything can happen. A migrant from Puerto Rico can become somebody on the mainland, pursue the American Dream--and maybe even make it come true. Harsh, happy, scary, sad, and funny, here are stories of growing up in the South Bronx during its heyday, from 1946 to 1956."

Before We Were Free

by Julia Alvarez
at amazon.com
Reading level: Young Adult

From Publishers Weekly "In her first YA novel, Alvarez (How the Garc¡a Girls Lost Their Accents) proves as gifted at writing for adolescents as she is for adults. Here she brings her warmth, sensitivity and eye for detail to a volatile setting the Dominican Republic of her childhood, during the 1960-1961 attempt to overthrow Trujillo's dictatorship. The story opens as 12-year-old narrator Anita watches her cousins, the Garc¡a girls, abruptly leave for the U.S. with their parents; Anita's own immediate family are now the only ones occupying the extended family's compound. Alvarez relays the terrors of the Trujillo regime in a muted but unmistakable tone; for a while, Anita's parents protect her (and, by extension, readers), both from the ruler's criminal and even murderous ways and also from knowledge of their involvement in the planned coup d'‚tat. The perspective remains securely Anita's, and Alvarez's pitch-perfect narration will immerse readers in Anita's world. Her crush on the American boy next door is at first as important as knowing that the maid is almost certainly working for the secret police and spying on them; later, as Anita understands the implications of the adult remarks she overhears, her voice becomes anxious and the tension mounts. When the revolution fails, Anita's father and uncle are immediately arrested, and she and her mother go underground, living in secret in their friends' bedroom closet a sequence the author renders with palpable suspense. Alvarez conveys the hopeful ending with as much passion as suffuses the tragedies that precede it. A stirring work of art. Ages 12-up." Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

http://www.readersread.com/cgi-bin/review.pl?reviewid=10010202

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents

by Julia Alvarez, 1992
at amazon.com

From School Library Journal "YA-- This sensitive story of four sisters who must adjust to life in America after having to flee from the Dominican Republic is told through a series of episodes beginning in adulthood, when their lives have been shaped by U. S. mores, and moving backwards to their wealthy childhood on the island. Adapting to American life is difficult and causes embarrassment when friends meet their parents, anger as they are bullied and called "spics," and identity confusion following summer trips to the family compound in the Dominican Republic. These interconnected vignettes of family life, resilience, and love are skillfully intertwined and offer young adults a perspective on immigration and families as well as a look at America through Hispanic eyes. This unique coming-of-age tale is a feast of stories that will enchant and captivate readers." - Pam Spencer, Thomas Jefferson Sci-Tech, Fairfax County, VA Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Bajo las palmas reales

by Alma Flor Ada at amazon.com

Book Description "Las historias y remembranzas de la infancia de su autora, Alma Flor Ada, en la isla de Cuba. A través de estos relatos, vemos cómo los muchos acontecimientos y relaciones que disfrutó en su niñez, ayudaron a formar la persona que es ella hoy. Enternecedora, intensa y a menudo humorística, esta colección anima a los niños a descubrir historias de sus propias vidas, que ayuden a formar sus propios valores y celebrar las alegrías y las luchas que todos compartimos, sin importar dónde o cómo crecimos."

Under The Royal Palms: A Childhood in Cuba

by Alma Flor Ada at amazon.com

From Publishers Weekly "In this handsomely designed companion volume to Where the Flame Trees Bloom, Ada once again draws upon her experiences growing up in post-war Cuba. In a short introduction, the author describes her hometown, Camaguey, as a "city of contrasts"?diverse religions and education and economic levels ("some had so much and others had very little"). The 10 stories that follow do not focus on these oppositions so much as the unique experiences of young Alma and her extended family. Several memories poignantly expose the disparity between those who have and those who have not, such as "Explorers," in which young Alma and her cousin get lost in a marabu field and are aided and fed by a poverty-stricken family. Others illustrate life lessons (for example, the impossible but gleeful task of counting bats in flight for their nightly feeding taught Alma to appreciate the process of an endeavor, rather than its completion). But the best of these stories simply recreate a poignant or humorous moment from the author's girlhood: Alma sipping from a porron (a small clay pot) at school, lovingly filled with water by her mother; Alma's pride in her uncle's daring turning to grief when he dies in an airplane crash. Many of the stories stand well alone, but some take a meandering expository path to recount a history or explain a term. These more formal (though often graceful) tangents distance readers from the slices of life. Still, at the core of the collection, there is a heartfelt portrayal of a quickly disappearing culture and a vastly beautiful land. Ages 8-12. " Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Spirits of the High Mesa

by Floyd Martinez
Reading level: Young Adult
Publisher: Arte Publico Press; 1997
at amazon.com

Book Description: "In this moving coming-of-age novel set in rural New Mexico, the young protagonist, Flavio, is torn between the seductiveness of progress and new technology and his loyalty to village traditions so steadfastly preserved by his grandfather, El Grande."

From the Publisher: "Named to the HAISL Recommended Reading List for 1999; Honor Book, Pura Belpré Award; Commended Title in the 1997 Américas Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature, and Finalist in the 1997 Small Press Book Award."

Esperanza Rising

by Pam Munoz Ryan
Reading level: Ages 9-12
at amazon.com

From School Library Journal: "Grade 6-9-Ryan uses the experiences of her own Mexican grandmother as the basis for this compelling story of immigration and assimilation, not only to a new country but also into a different social class. Esperanza's expectation that her 13th birthday will be celebrated with all the material pleasures and folk elements of her previous years is shattered when her father is murdered by bandits. His powerful stepbrothers then hold her mother as a social and economic hostage, wanting to force her remarriage to one of them, and go so far as to burn down the family home. Esperanza's mother then decides to join the cook and gardener and their son as they move to the United States and work in California's agricultural industry. They embark on a new way of life, away from the uncles, and Esperanza unwillingly enters a world where she is no longer a princess but a worker. Set against the multiethnic, labor-organizing era of the Depression, the story of Esperanza remaking herself is satisfyingly complete, including dire illness and a difficult romance. Except for the evil uncles, all of the characters are rounded, their motives genuine, with class issues honestly portrayed. Easy to booktalk, useful in classroom discussions, and accessible as pleasure reading, this well-written novel belongs in all collections." Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Author's site: http://www.pammunozryan.com/
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