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Crying in the Bathroom
"Equal parts pee-your-pants hilarity and break your heart poignancy- like the perfect brunch date you never want to end!"--America Ferrera, Emmy award-winning actress in Ugly Betty From the New York Times bestselling author of I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, an utterly original memoir-in-essays that is as deeply moving as it is disarmingly funny Growing up as the daughter of Mexican immigrants in Chicago in the '90s, Erika L. Sánchez was a self-described pariah, misfit, and disappointment--a foul-mouthed, melancholic rabble-rouser who painted her nails black but also loved comedy and dreamed of an unlikely life as a poet. Twenty-five years later, she's now an award-winning novelist, poet, and essayist, but she's still got an irrepressible laugh, an acerbic wit, and singular powers of perception about the world around her. In these essays about everything from sex to white feminism to debilitating depression to the redemptive pursuits of spirituality, art, and travel, Sánchez reveals an interior life that is rich with ideas, self-awareness, and perception--that of a woman who charted a path entirely of her own making. Raunchy, insightful, unapologetic, and brutally honest, Crying in the Bathroom is Sánchez at her best: a book that will make you feel that post-confessional high that comes from talking for hours with your best friend.
Debating Race, Ethnicity, and Latino Identity
The philosopher Jorge J. E. Gracia engages fifteen prominent scholars on race, ethnicity, nationality, and Hispanic/Latino identity in the United States. Their discussion joins two distinct traditions: the philosophy of race begun by African Americans in the nineteenth century, and the search for an understanding of identity initiated by Latin American philosophers in the sixteenth century. Participants include Linda M. Alcoff, K. Anthony Appiah, Richard J. Bernstein, Lawrence Blum, Robert Gooding-Williams, Eduardo Mendieta, and Lucius T. Outlaw Jr., and their dialogue reflects the analytic, Aristotelian, Continental, literary, Marxist, and pragmatic schools of thought. These intellectuals start with the philosophy of Hispanics/Latinos in the United States and then move to the philosophy of African Americans and Anglo Americans in the United States and the philosophy of Latin Americans in Latin America. Gracia and his interlocutors debate the nature of race and ethnicity and their relation to nationality, linguistic rights, matters of identity, and Affirmative Action, binding the concepts of race and ethnicity together in ways that open new paths of inquiry. Gracia's Familial-Historical View of ethnic and Hispanic/Latino identity operates at the center of each of these discussions, providing vivid access to the philosopher's provocative arguments while adding unique depth to issues that each of us struggles to understand.
The Emergence of Mexican America
Winner of the 2006 Thomas J. Lyon Book Award in Western American Literary Studies, presented by the Western Literature Association In The Emergence of Mexican America, John-Michael Rivera examines the cultural, political, and legal representations of Mexican Americans and the development of US capitalism and nationhood. Beginning with the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848 and continuing through the period of mass repatriation of US Mexican laborers in 1939, Rivera examines both Mexican-American and Anglo-American cultural production in order to tease out the complexities of the so-called “Mexican question.” Using historical and archival materials, Rivera's wide-ranging objects of inquiry include fiction, non-fiction, essays, treaties, legal materials, political speeches, magazines, articles, cartoons, and advertisements created by both Mexicans and Anglo Americans. Engaging and methodologically venturesome, Rivera's study is a crucial contribution to Chicano/Latino Studies and fields of cultural studies, history, government, anthropology, and literary studies.
Eyewitness to History: Documents of the Chicano Movement
This book provides a variety of original source documents--from firsthand accounts to media responses to legislative texts--regarding the Chicano movement of the 1960s through 1970s that enable readers to better comprehend the key events, individuals, and developments of La Causa: Chicanos uniting to free themselves of liberation from exploitation, oppression, and racism. * Provides readers with original source documents that trace the origins and accomplishments of the Chicano movement--a national effort of a minority group to gain civil rights, to strive for political and social advancement, and to establish and take pride in their unique cultural identity * Presents compelling insights into how numerous Chicano individuals during the turbulent era of the 1960s-1970s were inspired to stand up and fight against the social, cultural, and legal injustices suffered by Latinos in the United States for generations * Offers historical documentation of how political activism and organization can not only challenge entrenched interests but sometimes succeed
Fields of Toil : A Migrant Family's Journey
As a reporter on special assignment for the "Walla Walla Union-Bulletin," Isabel Valle spent an entire year with a migrant family, sharing domestic and other responsibilities. Every Sunday the newspaper published her award-winning, widely acclaimed reports on life with the Raul and Maria Elena Martinez family. As they resided and worked in the Inland Pacific Northwest and South Texas, Valle investigated topics such as the difficulties of asparagus cutting, drug smuggling and illegal aliens, children working in the fields, and Hispanic customs. She also examined cultural acceptance and language barriers. Her invaluable insights refuted stereotypes and replaced misconceptions.
Hola Papi
LGBTQ advice columnist John Paul Brammer writes a "wise and charming" (David Sedaris) memoir-in-essays chronicling his journey from a queer, mixed-race kid in America's heartland to becoming the "Chicano Carrie Bradshaw" of his generation. "A master class of tone and tenderness." --The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice) "Should be required reading." --Los Angeles Times The first time someone called John Paul (JP) Brammer "Papi" was on the gay hookup app Grindr. At first, it was flattering; JP took this as white-guy speak for "hey, handsome." But then it happened again and again...and again, leaving JP wondering: Who the hell is Papi? Soon, this racialized moniker became the inspiration for his now wildly popular advice column "¡Hola Papi!," launching his career as the Cheryl Strayed for young queer people everywhere--and some straight people too. JP had his doubts at first--what advice could he really offer while he himself stumbled through his early twenties? Sometimes the best advice comes from looking within, which is what JP does in his column and book--and readers have flocked to him for honest, heartfelt wisdom, and more than a few laughs. In this hilarious, tenderhearted book, JP shares his story of growing up biracial and in the closet in America's heartland, while attempting to answer some of life's most challenging questions: How do I let go of the past? How do I become the person I want to be? Is there such a thing as being too gay? Should I hook up with my grade school bully now that he's out of the closet? Questions we've all asked ourselves, surely. ¡Hola Papi! is "a warm, witty compendium of hard-won life lessons," (Harper's Bazaar) for anyone--gay, straight, and everything in between--who has ever taken stock of their unique place in the world.
Latino/a Thought : Culture, Politics, and Society
Latino/a Thought brings together the most important writings that shape Latino consciousness, culture, and activism today. This historical anthology is unique in its presentation of cross cultural writings--especially from Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban writers and political documents--that shape the ideology and experience of U.S. Latinos. Students can read, first hand, the works or authors who most shaped their cultural heritage. They are guided by vivid introductions that set each article or document in its historical context and describe its relevance today. The writings touch on many themes, but are guided by this book's concern for a quest for public citizenship among all Latino populations and a better understanding of racialized populations in the U.S. today.
Magical/Realism: Essays on Music, Memory, Fantasy, and Borders
by
In Magical/Realism, poet and essayist Vanessa Angelica Villarreal intimately and fearlessly explores the many complicated girlhoods of being a working-class, first-generation, Mexican American daughter of a cumbia musician. She loved grunge and hated Selena. She found refuge in 80s fantasy movies and in the half-acre of swampy pines behind her Houston home. And she navigated a country that never really saw her - or her family's - value beyond their labour. These essays sharply weave together memoir with explorations of race, class, and gender, using music and pop culture as their axis. In one essay, Vanessa writes about Nirvana's impact on her life as an outcast; in another she looks critically at the Latina body as a site of trouble and all that gets projected onto it. In 'When We All Loved a Show About a Wall,' Vanessa provides a crucial reading of Game of Thrones, showing its radical political commentaries on borders, asylum, migrant rights, and ICE. And in 'The Fantasy of Healing,' she connects her own divorce and trauma to the video game The Witcher. With Magical/Realism, Vanessa recovers the truth from the absences and silences of migration, colonialism, and white supremacy. She looks closely at music as a stand-in for the archive of the undocumented and how pop culture leaves objects behind as portals for memory. This is a wise, tender, expansive collection from a dazzling, essential voice.
The Man Who Could Move Clouds
PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST * NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST * From the bestselling author of Fruit of the Drunken Tree, comes a dazzling, kaleidoscopic memoir reclaiming her family's otherworldly legacy. A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: TIME, NPR, VULTURE, PEOPLE, BOSTON GLOBE, VANITY FAIR, ESQUIRE, & MORE "Rojas Contreras reacquaints herself with her family's past, weaving their stories with personal narrative, unraveling legacies of violence, machismo and colonialism... In the process, she has written a spellbinding and genre-defying ancestral history."--New York Times Book Review For Ingrid Rojas Contreras, magic runs in the family. Raised amid the political violence of 1980s and '90s Colombia, in a house bustling with her mother's fortune-telling clients, she was a hard child to surprise. Her maternal grandfather, Nono, was a renowned curandero, a community healer gifted with what the family called "the secrets": the power to talk to the dead, tell the future, treat the sick, and move the clouds. And as the first woman to inherit "the secrets," Rojas Contreras' mother was just as powerful. Mami delighted in her ability to appear in two places at once, and she could cast out even the most persistent spirits with nothing more than a glass of water. This legacy had always felt like it belonged to her mother and grandfather, until, while living in the U.S. in her twenties, Rojas Contreras suffered a head injury that left her with amnesia. As she regained partial memory, her family was excited to tell her that this had happened before: Decades ago Mami had taken a fall that left her with amnesia, too. And when she recovered, she had gained access to "the secrets." In 2012, spurred by a shared dream among Mami and her sisters, and her own powerful urge to relearn her family history in the aftermath of her memory loss, Rojas Contreras joins her mother on a journey to Colombia to disinter Nono's remains. With Mami as her unpredictable, stubborn, and often amusing guide, Rojas Contreras traces her lineage back to her Indigenous and Spanish roots, uncovering the violent and rigid colonial narrative that would eventually break her mestizo family into two camps: those who believe "the secrets" are a gift, and those who are convinced they are a curse. Interweaving family stories more enchanting than those in any novel, resurrected Colombian history, and her own deeply personal reckonings with the bounds of reality, Rojas Contreras writes her way through the incomprehensible and into her inheritance. The result is a luminous testament to the power of storytelling as a healing art and an invitation to embrace the extraordinary.
Mexican Americans and the Question of Race
Honorable Mention, Oliver Cromwell Cox Book Award, presented by the Racial and Ethnic Minorities Section of the American Sociological Association, 2015 With Mexican Americans constituting a large and growing segment of U.S. society, their assimilation trajectory has become a constant source of debate. Some believe Mexican Americans are following the path of European immigrants toward full assimilation into whiteness, while others argue that they remain racialized as nonwhite. Drawing on extensive interviews with Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants in Texas, Dowling's research challenges common assumptions about what informs racial labeling for this population. Her interviews demonstrate that for Mexican Americans, racial ideology is key to how they assert their identities as either in or outside the bounds of whiteness. Emphasizing the link between racial ideology and racial identification, Dowling offers an insightful narrative that highlights the complex and highly contingent nature of racial identity.
My Boy Will Die of Sorrow
INTERNATIONAL LATINO BOOK AWARD WINNER - The Raul Yzaguirre Best Political/Current Affairs Book This deeply personal perspective from a human rights lawyer--whose work on the front lines of the fight against family separations in South Texas intertwines with his own story of immigrating to the United States at thirteen--reframes the United States' history as a nation of immigrants but also a nation against immigrants. In the summer of 2018, Efrén C. Olivares found himself representing hundreds of immigrant families when Zero Tolerance separated thousands of children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border. Twenty-five years earlier, he had been separated from his own father for several years when he migrated to the U.S. to work. Their family was eventually reunited in Texas, where Efrén and his brother went to high school and learned a new language and culture. By sharing these gripping family separation stories alongside his own, Olivares gives voice to immigrants who have been punished and silenced for seeking safety and opportunity. Through him we meet Mario and his daughter Oralia, Viviana and her son Sandro, Patricia and her son Alessandro, and many others. We see how the principles that ostensibly bind the U.S. together fall apart at its borders. My Boy Will Die of Sorrow reflects on the immigrant experience then and now, on what separations do to families, and how the act of separation itself adds another layer to the immigrant identity. Our concern for fellow human beings who live at the margins of our society--at the border, literally and figuratively--is shaped by how we view ourselves in relation both to our fellow citizens and to immigrants. He discusses not only law and immigration policy in accessible terms, but also makes the case for how this hostility is nothing new: children were put in cages when coming through Ellis Island, and Japanese Americans were forcibly separated from their families and interned during WWII. By examining his personal story and the stories of the families he represents side by side, Olivares meaningfully engages readers with their assumptions about what nationhood means in America and challenges us to question our own empathy and compassion.
My Broken Language
GOOD MORNING AMERICA BUZZ PICK * The Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and co-writer of In the Heights tells her lyrical story of coming of age against the backdrop of an ailing Philadelphia barrio, with her sprawling Puerto Rican family as a collective muse. "Quiara Alegría Hudes is in her own league. Her sentences will take your breath away. How lucky we are to have her telling our stories."--Lin-Manuel Miranda, award-winning creator of Hamilton and In the Heights ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: NPR, New York Public Library, BookPage, BookRiot Quiara Alegría Hudes was the sharp-eyed girl on the stairs while her family danced their defiance in a tight North Philly kitchen. She was awed by her mother and aunts and cousins, but haunted by the unspoken, untold stories of the barrio--even as she tried to find her own voice in the sea of language around her, written and spoken, English and Spanish, bodies and books, Western art and sacred altars. Her family became her private pantheon, a gathering circle of powerful orisha-like women with tragic real-world wounds, and she vowed to tell their stories--but first she'd have to get off the stairs and join the dance. She'd have to find her language. Weaving together Hudes's love of music with the songs of her family, the lessons of North Philly with those of Yale, this is a multimythic dive into home, memory, and belonging--narrated by an obsessed girl who fought to become an artist so she could capture the world she loved in all its wild and delicate beauty. LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL
Noche Buena: Hispanic American Christmas Stories
A family seated round the fireplace Singing and making merry; A sprightly waltz played with grace Noche Buena brings us all the magic of the Christmas season as seen through the eyes of the Hispanic Americans who celebrate it. Christmas is at times a universal story, and many of the images here are recognizable across cultures. We hear and see proud, joyful singing; the adoration of the InfantJesus; and the peaceful strains of Adeste Fidelis. But here as well are the rich traditions and legends specific to the Hispanic culture, such as the celebration of the posadas for nine nights leading up to Christmas, with candy raining down from colorful swinging pinatas, egg shells filled withconfetti, and beautiful paper lanterns crafted to illuminate the town on Christmas Eve. There is the "Legend of the Poinsettia" where a poor child embarrassed by the modesty of his gift for the Christ Child sheds tears on the dull green leaves of the familiar plant, thereby miraculously transformingthem to a brilliant red. And here too are hopeful children singing "If You Give Me Meat Pies," asking for the reward of warm meat pies and rice pudding in return for their sweet caroling. Thirty-six inspiring literary selections comprise this enchanting collection of works from Mexican, Colombian, Cuban, and Puerto Rican writers--writers who represent the range of Hispanic minority groups in the United States. Through these stories, traditional tales, songs, and poetry, readersgain a true understanding of the importance of the Christmas holiday within the Hispanic community, and begin to grasp the issues that inform the Hispanic American creative process--issues such as communal identity, patriotism, poverty, assimilation, and religion. With vivid illustrations andoriginal Spanish text for all poetry, this fascinating anthology will inform readers of all cultural backgrounds, and give them the opportunity to celebrate this cherished time with a newly extended family.
Once I Was You
NPR's Best Books of 2020 BookPage's Best Books of 2020 Real Simple's Best Books of 2020 Boston.com readers voted one of Best Books of 2020 "Anyone striving to understand and improve this country should read her story." --Gloria Steinem, author of My Life on the Road The Emmy Award-winning journalist and anchor of NPR's Latino USA tells the story of immigration in America through her family's experiences and decades of reporting, painting an unflinching portrait of a country in crisis in this memoir that is "quite simply beautiful, written in Maria Hinojosa's honest, passionate voice" (BookPage). Maria Hinojosa is an award-winning journalist who, for nearly thirty years, has reported on stories and communities in America that often go ignored by the mainstream media--from tales of hope in the South Bronx to the unseen victims of the War on Terror and the first detention camps in the US. Bestselling author Julia Álvarez has called her "one of the most important, respected, and beloved cultural leaders in the Latinx community." In Once I Was You, Maria shares her intimate experience growing up Mexican American on the South Side of Chicago. She offers a personal and illuminating account of how the rhetoric around immigration has not only long informed American attitudes toward outsiders, but also sanctioned willful negligence and profiteering at the expense of our country's most vulnerable populations--charging us with the broken system we have today. An urgent call to fellow Americans to open their eyes to the immigration crisis and understand that it affects us all, this honest and heartrending memoir paints a vivid portrait of how we got here and what it means to be a survivor, a feminist, a citizen, and a journalist who owns her voice while striving for the truth. Also available in Spanish as Una vez fui tú.
Recovering the Hispanic History of Texas
The eight essays included in this volume examine the dominant narrative of Texas history and seek to establish a record that includes both Mexican men and women, groups whose voices have been notably absent from the history books.
Finding documents that reflect the experiences of those outside of the mainstream culture is difficult, since historical archives tend to contain materials produced by the privileged and governing classes of society. The contributing scholars make a case for expanding the notion of archives to include alternative sources. By utilizing oral histories, Spanish-language writings and periodicals, folklore, photographs, and other personal materials, it becomes possible to recreate a history that includes a significant part of the state¿s population, the Mexican community that lived in the area long before its absorption into the United States.
These articles primarily explore themes within the field of Chicano/a Studies. Divided into three sections, Creating Social Landscapes, Racialized Identities, and Unearthing Voices, the pieces cover issues as diverse as the Mexican-American Presbyterian community, the female voice in the history of the Texas borderlands, and Tejano roots on the Louisiana-Texas border in the 18th and 19th centuries.
In their introduction, editors Monica Perales and Raúl A. Ramos write that the scholars, in their exploration of the state¿s history, go beyond the standard categories of immigration, assimilation, and the nation state. Instead, they forge new paths into historical territories by exploring gender and sexuality, migration, transnationalism, and globalization.
The Schlager Anthology of Hispanic America
The Schlager Anthology of Hispanic America offers a modern,original sourcebook covering Hispanic American history from the 1100s to thepresent day. Modeled after the award-winning SchlagerAnthology of Black America, this 2-volume set traces the history ofHispanic America through 150 critical primary documents: speeches, letters,court cases, interviews, government reports, and visual images. The set isedited by Dr. Aaron E. Sánchez (Homeland: Ethnic Mexican Belonging Since 1900) and features the contributions of numerous scholars.Inclusive and accessible to a wide range of researchers, TheSchlager Anthology of Hispanic America is an essential reference for academic, highschool, and public libraries.
Testimonio: A Documentary History of the Mexican American Struggle for Civil Rights
Beginning with the early 1800s and extending up to the modern era, Rosales collects illuminating documents that shed light on the Mexican-American quest for life, liberty, and justice. Documents include petitions, correspondence, government reports, political proclamations, newspaper items, congressional testimony, memoirs, and even international treaties.
Voices of the U. S. Latino Experience
The history and experiences of the diverse groups labeled Latinos in this country are abundantly documented in this major new collection. From the Treaty of San Ildefonso in 1803 to remembrances of life on the frontier, to the Young Lords platform of 1969, to a discussion of Latinos and the war on Iraq today, this 3-volume collection showcases more than 400 crucial primary documents from and concerning the major Latino groups in the United States. Sources include letters, memoirs, speeches, articles, essays, interviews, treaties, government reports, testimony, and more. The voices include whites as well as Latinos, prominent and obscure, and Americans as well as foreigners. The bulk of the primary documents concern Mexico and the United States and Mexican Americans, who paved the way for immigrants from Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Central and South America to come. The scope also includes primary documents pertaining to events in Latin American and Caribbean history that have had an impact on these groups. Each primary document has a short introduction, placing it in historical and cultural context. An introduction that gives an historical overview, a chronology, a selected bibliography chock full of useful websites, and a set index provide added value. Sample documents: memoirs of early Texas, commentary by a Mexican diplomat on the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo of 1848, essay on the social condition of New Mexico in 1852, Cuban independence leader Jose Marti in New York on race (1894), El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez-- a ballad about a Mexican who stood up to the Texas Rangers in 1901, excerpts from an autobiography by Ella Winter on school segregation in the 1930s, a Latino soldier's reminiscences of World War II, testimony from a Bracero worker in the 1950s, article on Cuban Miami in the 1960s, socioeconomic profile of Dominicans in the United States in 2000, interview with Subcomandante Marcos from the Zapatista Army of National Liberation.
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Hecho en Tejas: An Anthology of Texas-Mexican Literature
Once an independent nation, Texas has always been proud of its unique culture. The literature of the Lone Star State has long attracted local, regional, and national audiences and critics, yet the state's Mexican American voices have yet to receive the attention they deserve. "Hecho en Tejas" is a historic anthology that establishes the canon of Mexican American literature in Texas. With close to one hundred selections chosen, the book reaches back to the sixteenth-century exploration narrative of Texas' first Spanish-speaking writer, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca.
Solito: A Memoir
New York Times Bestseller * Read With Jenna Book Club Pick as seen on Today * Winner of the Los Angeles Times Christopher Isherwood Prize for Autobiography * Winner of the American Library Association Alex Award A young poet tells the inspiring story of his migration from El Salvador to the United States at the age of nine in this "gripping memoir" (NPR) of bravery, hope, and finding family. Finalist for the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction * One of the New York Public Library's Ten Best Books of the Year Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence and the PEN/Open Book Award "I read Solito with my heart in my throat and did not burst into tears until the last sentence. What a person, what a writer, what a book."--Emma Straub "A riveting tale of perseverance and the lengths humans will go to help each other in times of struggle."--Dave Eggers ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, NPR, The Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Vulture, She Reads, Kirkus Reviews Trip. My parents started using that word about a year ago--"one day, you'll take a trip to be with us. Like an adventure." Javier Zamora's adventure is a three-thousand-mile journey from his small town in El Salvador, through Guatemala and Mexico, and across the U.S. border. He will leave behind his beloved aunt and grandparents to reunite with a mother who left four years ago and a father he barely remembers. Traveling alone amid a group of strangers and a "coyote" hired to lead them to safety, Javier expects his trip to last two short weeks. At nine years old, all Javier can imagine is rushing into his parents' arms, snuggling in bed between them, and living under the same roof again. He cannot foresee the perilous boat trips, relentless desert treks, pointed guns, arrests and deceptions that await him; nor can he know that those two weeks will expand into two life-altering months alongside fellow migrants who will come to encircle him like an unexpected family. A memoir as gripping as it is moving, Solito provides an immediate and intimate account not only of a treacherous and near-impossible journey, but also of the miraculous kindness and love delivered at the most unexpected moments. Solito is Javier Zamora's story, but it's also the story of millions of others who had no choice but to leave home.
Voices of Multicultural America: Notable Speeches Delivered by African, Asian, Hispanic, and Native Americans, 1790-1995
A new reference that presents a look at history through some 230 speeches by some 130 prominent African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans from the late 1700s through early 1995. Each entry includes a biographical sketch that provides information on the listee's life and career, and frames the context for the speech that follows. Where an entry contains more than one speech, each speech has its own introduction. Following many speeches is a brief summary paragraph, and all entries end with sources of further information.
The World of Mexican Migrants: The Rock and the Hard Place
The Rock -- Beto: Those Not with Us -- Nopal Verde: The Life of a Town -- San Rafael: A Life of Cooperation -- Marta: The Tyranny of In-Laws -- Dolores: "We Only Speak on Sundays" -- The Journey -- Tomas: Traveling in Style -- Elena: "Absolutely Still" -- Angel: Cat and Mouse -- Fernando: "A Snake's Breakfast" -- The Tucson Consulate -- No More Deaths -- Shanti and Daniel -- "Walking Around, Living Their Lives" -- The Hard Place -- Carlos: Names and Networks -- Sara: "Ten Words in Ten Years" -- Francisco: The Hardest Place -- To Stay or to Return Home -- Julio: A Quick Exit -- Manuel: Life After Amnesty -- Patricia: Weighing the Good and the Bad.
The World War I Diary of José de la Luz Sáenz
Prologue -- My personal diary -- Reporting at New Braunfels -- The brigade station -- Camp Travis -- France -- How Carrejo and four others died -- A horrible night in "no man's land" -- Toul, Choloy, and Rampondt -- Moving across the rubble of the battlefield to reach the enemy and occupy the line of fire: Montfaucon and Dead Man's Hill -- Five days and nights in a foxhole in Romagne -- How we destroyed Hindenburg's impregnable trenches -- Simón González and others -- Hipólito Jasso receives a shrapnel wound -- Dark night, cold night, horrible night in Villers-devant-Dun
You Sound Like a White Girl
AN INDIE BESTSELLER Most Anticipated by ELLE * Bustle * Bloomberg * Kirkus * HipLatina * SheReads * BookPage * The Millions * The Mujerista * Ms. Magazine * and more "Unflinching" --Ms. Magazine * "Phenomenal" --BookRiot * "An essential read" --Kirkus, starred review * "Necessary" --Library Journal * "Powerful" --Joaquin Castro * "Illuminating" --Reyna Grande * "A love letter to our people" --José Olivarez * "I have been waiting for this book all my life" --Paul Ortiz Bestselling author Julissa Arce calls for a celebration of our uniqueness, our origins, our heritage, and the beauty of the differences that make us Americans in this powerful polemic against the myth that assimilation leads to happiness and belonging for immigrants. "You sound like a white girl." These were the words spoken to Julissa by a high school crush as she struggled to find her place in America. As a brown immigrant from Mexico, assimilation had been demanded of her since the moment she set foot in San Antonio, Texas, in 1994. She'd spent so much time getting rid of her accent so no one could tell English was her second language that in that moment she felt those words--you sound like a white girl?--were a compliment. As a child, she didn't yet understand that assimilating to "American" culture really meant imitating "white" America--that sounding like a white girl was a racist idea meant to tame her, change her, and make her small. She ran the race, completing each stage, but never quite fit in, until she stopped running altogether. In this dual polemic and manifesto, Julissa dives into and tears apart the lie that assimilation leads to belonging. She combs through history and her own story to break down this myth, arguing that assimilation is a moving finish line designed to keep Black and brown Americans and immigrants chasing racist American ideals. She talks about the Lie of Success, the Lie of Legality, the Lie of Whiteness, and the Lie of English--each promising that if you obtain these things, you will reach acceptance and won't be an outsider anymore. Julissa deftly argues that these demands leave her and those like her in a purgatory--neither able to secure the power and belonging within whiteness nor find it in the community and cultures whiteness demands immigrants and people of color leave behind. In You Sound Like a White Girl, Julissa offers a bold new promise: Belonging only comes through celebrating yourself, your history, your culture, and everything that makes you uniquely you. Only in turning away from the white gaze can we truly make America beautiful. An America where difference is celebrated, heritage is shared and embraced, and belonging is for everyone. Through unearthing veiled history and reclaiming her own identity, Julissa shows us how to do this.
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