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Luis Montez is nursing a drink and licking his wounds in the Dark Knight Lounge after a bruising case. The jury took less than an hour to decide his efforts defending a client were worthless. He's on the verge of a mid-life crisis and ready to give up his law business. But the night brightens when an old friend from the Chicano student civil rights movement turns up with a beautiful woman on his arm. Teresa Fuentes, a new attorney about to start at a prestigious Denver firm, is much younger, but that doesn't keep Luis' imagination from running wild. As the weary attorney dreams about the mysterious woman and deals with his faltering law firm and an ethics investigation, he's shocked to learn another friend from the activist days is getting threats about "the old business," the murder of their friend Rocky Ruiz twenty years ago by men in white robes. And when compadres get beaten up, murdered or go into hiding, Luis can't ignore that history may be repeating itself. Are the crazy racists back to finish what they started so long ago? Is it just bad luck that Teresa's arrival in town coincides with the violence? Or is there a deeper connection? Originally published in 1993 by St. Martin's Press and reissued by Northwestern University Press in 2004, this gripping first installment in the Luis Montez Mystery series introduces readers to the Denver attorney and activist who appears in four subsequent novels.
"Imprisoned by the totalitarian government, Dr. Benito Espinoza practices for his weekly interrogations by recounting his story to his thirteen-year-old daughter. He tells her about turning his back on his ability to shift his gender from male to female-to Alejandra-to become a scholar in the Grand Library. Most scholars are Residents who inherited their seats and believe Descendants like Ben don't have the intellectual ability to be a person of letters."--
Virginia's mom finally leaves Opelousas, Louisiana--in an ambulance, dead from an overdose--the day before the girl turns eighteen. Her mother never told her who her father is, though she regularly blamed him for all that had gone wrong in her life. "Your real father was nothing but a no-account druggie, wife-slugging, whore-mongering, sonuvabitching jailbird." But Virginia has a stuffed dog he gave her, and she knows there must be more to the story. With few clues about his identity, Virginia sets out to find her father. She meets Daniel, a stepbrother she didn't know about, who has his own share of problems. He's living in his mom's garage after a month in rehab following the Persian Gulf War. Oxy and vodka help dull the pain of his PTSD. Haunted by the image of the pregnant Iraqi woman who died on his watch, he is sure his inability to save her and the fetus caused his wife's miscarriage. Daniel agrees to help Virginia find her dead father's family in the hope that orchestrating a reunion will absolve him of his sins in Fallujah. As the pair navigates the landmines of multiple family secrets, they realize they share more than they knew. Chasing after dysfunctional relatives and their own ghosts, it's not long before things blow up in their faces. In this exploration of Latinos living on the outskirts of society, Martinez crafts scenes of war, grief and loss that will remain with readers long after the last page is turned.
"The movement of the old woman's hands is quick and youthful as she works the dough for tamales on Mars' dusty, dry surface where their cohete broke apart and crash landed. She, her husband and their only son survive, and the old man curses the coyotes who took his money for a rocket not built to accommodate his family of eleven. A storm is coming, and he rails at his wife that she's wasting her time. "We'll be dead by the time you finish your goddamn tamales." This riveting collection of horror stories-and four poems-contains a wide range of styles, themes and authors. Creepy creatures roam the pages, including La Llorona and the Chupacabras in fresh takes on Latin American lore, as well as ghosts, zombies and shadow selves. Migrants continue to pass through Rancho Altamira where Esteban's family has lived for generations, but now there are two types: the living and the dead. A young man returns repeatedly to the scary portal down which his buddy disappeared. A woman is relieved to receive multiple calls from her cousin following Hurricane Marâia in Puerto Rico, but she is stunned to later learn her prima died the first night of the storm! There's plenty of blood and gore in some stories, while others are mysterious and suspenseful. In his introduction, editor Richard Z. Santos writes it is no surprise these stories are brilliant and terrifying, given cartel violence, a history of CIA-backed dictatorships in Latin America, increasingly scary rhetoric from American politicians, decades of institutionalized racism and the demonization of Latinos in the media. "After all," he says, "we are the faceless horde, invading zombies hellbent on upturning the world and replacing it with something foreign, accented and impossibly different""--
"Willie Cuesta, former Miami Police Department detective-turned-private investigator, is swinging in his hammock, estimating the number of mango daquiris he can squeeze from a ripe piece of fruit about to fall from his tree. He's also waiting for a prospective client who refused to discuss her case over the phone. Ellie Hernandez hasn't seen her fiancâe, Roberto "Bobby" Player, in ten days, and she wants Willie to find him. Bobby has been obsessed with the suspicious death of his parents more than thirty-five years ago in Cuba, and he recently went to the island to find their killers. Only six years old when they were murdered, he was living in the United States, where they were supposed to join him. He was one of the "Peter Pan" kids smuggled out when Fidel Castro took over. Willie learns the Players controlled one of the most successful casinos on the island and a large sum of money-half a million dollars-disappeared with their deaths. His investigation reveals an assortment of suspicious characters who were in Havana when the Players were killed, including a former Cuban spy now living in Little Havana, Mafia gangsters involved in gambling institutions and even an undercover US intelligence agent. Were they murdered by the Cuban government for being involved in the counter-revolution underground movement? Did the Mafia kill them to steal their fortune? Or did anti-communist Cubans believe they were traitors and execute them? Rumors and questions abound, but when men in rubber masks firing machine guns turn up, Willie knows someone is trying to keep a long-buried secret under wraps!"--
For Jasminne Mendez, pericardial effusion and pericarditis are not just an abnormal accumulation of fluid and increased inflammation around the heart. It's what happens "when you stifle the tears and pain of a miscarriage, infertility and chronic illness for so long that your heart does the crying for you until it begins to drown because its tears have nowhere to go." Diagnosed with scleroderma at 22 and lupus just six years later, her life becomes a roller coaster of doctor visits, medical tests and procedures. Staring at EKG results that look like hieroglyphics, she realizes that she doesn't want to understand them: "The language of a life lived with chronic illness is not something I want to adapt to. I cannot let this hostile vocabulary hijack my story." The daughter of Dominican immigrants, Mendez fought for independence against her overly-protective parents, obtaining a full scholarship to college, a dream job after school and a master's degree shortly thereafter. But the full-time job with medical insurance doesn't satisfy her urge to write and perform, so she leaves it in search of creative fulfillment. In this stirring collection of personal essays and poetry, Mendez shares her story, writing about encounters with the medical establishment, experiences as an Afro Latina and longing for the life she expected but that eludes her.
One night, while Dalia slept safely wrapped in her mother's cool silken sheets, her hair grew and grew. By the time the rooster crowed, her hair had "grown straight up to the sky, tall and thick as a Cuban royal palm tree." Her mother was amazed, and wondered what her daughter would do with her wondrous hair. As Dalia looked at the flowers blooming in the garden, an idea sprouted inside her. She decorated her hair with leaves from the forest and mud from the marsh. Her mother was puzzled and could not imagine what she was. "Are you a leaf-crusted mud-tree?" she guessed incorrectly. That night, while Dalia slept safely cocooned in her mama's sheets, something stirred and unfolded. When the rooster crowed, the girl ran outside and everyone watched in awe as she carefully unwrapped her towering hair. Could it be? Is Dalia a . . . blossoming butterfly tree?!? In this whimsical bilingual picture book, Dalia's hair becomes a magical force of nature, a life-giving cocoon. Author and illustrator Laura Lacamara once again delights children ages 4 to 9 with her vibrant illustrations and an imaginative story about a girl's fanciful encounters with nature. Bonus features include a guide for how to create your own butterfly garden at home, as well as a bilingual glossary of select plant and animal species native to the island of Cuba.
Rain of Gold is a true-life saga of love, family and destiny that pulses with bold vitality, sweeping from the war-ravaged Mexican mountains of Pancho Villa's revolution to the days of Prohibition in California. It all began when Villaseor's maternal grandmother sat him down in their little home in the barrio of Carlsbad, California, gave him sweet bread and told him the story of their past. Of his mother Lupe, the most beautiful girl in the whole village who was only a child when Villa's men came shooting into their canyon. And of his father Juan and his family, reduced to rags and starvation as they sought refuge across the border, where they believed that endless opportunity awaited. Lupe and Juan met and fell in love in California, but they found that the doors to the Promised Land were often closed to those from south of the border. His father was forced to take the law into his own hands, in spite of his wife's objections. With love and humor, Villaseor shares this passionate love story that celebrates the triumph of the human spirit. An all-American story of struggle and success, Rain of Gold focuses on three generations of Villaseor's kin, their spiritual and cultural roots back in Mexico, their immigration to California and overcoming poverty, prejudice and economic exploitation. It is the warm-hearted and spirited account of the wily, wary and persevering forebears of Victor Villaseor.
An anthology of suspenseful short fiction by Latino authors for teenagers.
"A native of El Paso/Ciudad Juâarez region, ... author and scholar Alicia Gaspar de Alba writes that she grew up with a 'forked tongue and a severe case of cultural schizophrenia, the split in the psyche that happens to someone who grows up in the borderlands between nations, languages and cultures.' Border dwellers struggle with place and identity in the short fiction [and essays] in this collection"--Back cover.
"In this poignant and often humorous account of growing up in the Bronx in the 1950s, Yolanda Gallardo's mischievous young character vividly recalls her childhood as the neighborhood changed from Jewish to Latino. She and her siblings swam in the East River, despite the rats and garbage; watched police beat up local kids; and got involved in the Royals and Young Sinners gangs. Their family was financially impoverished, but there were many happy times as they watched their parents dance to "hick Spanish records," helped their mom cook pasteles and learned to dance the mambo and cha-cha."--Back cover.
"This collection of twelve stories featuring private investigator Willie Cuesta illuminates the histories and issues of the numerous Latin American communities that call Miami home, and how the past continues to haunt them. Whether Willie is doing surveillance in salsa clubs, interviewing clients over cafecitos in Little Havana or on a fishing boat in the Gulf, his attempts to find justice for clients are always enlightening and exciting" --
In this wide-ranging biography, historian Cynthia Orozco examines the life and work of one of the most influential Mexican Americans of the twentieth century. Alonso S. Perales was born in Alice, Texas, in 1898; he became an attorney, leading civil rights activist, author and US diplomat. Perales was active in promoting and seeking equality for "La Raza" in numerous arenas. In 1929, he founded the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the most important Latino civil rights organization in the United States. He encouraged the empowerment of Latinos at the voting box and sought to pass state and federal legislation banning racial discrimination. He fought for school desegregation in Texas and initiated a movement for more and better public schools for Mexican-descent people in San Antonio. A complex and controversial figure, Alonso S. Perales is now largely forgotten, and this first-ever comprehensive biography reveals his work and accomplishments to a new generation of scholars of Mexican-American history and Hispanic civil rights. This volume is divided into four parts: the first is organized chronologically and examines his childhood to his role in World War I, the beginnings of his activism in the 1920s and the founding of LULAC. The second section explores his impact as an attorney, politico, public intellectual, Pan-American ideologue and US diplomat. Perales' private life is examined in the third part and scholars' interpretations of his legacy in the fourth.
This engrossing memoir charts Ruiz's journey toward self-identity, tracing the tortuous path of her life--a life in which Ruiz assumed contradictory roles: gang chola, high school drop-out, disowned daughter, battered wife, welfare mother, student, and policewoman.
A group of Mexican-Americans are sent to San Quentin unjustly for the death of a man at Sleepy Lagoon. Based on the actual case and zoot suit riots of 1940's Los Angeles.
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