Latina Book

I found this book buried in my personal library. A dear friend gifted it to me twenty years ago when I discovered my own Hispanic roots and began my trek to learn Spanish. It is an anthology of stories written by Latina women who have since gained their rightful places in literary history.

These stories aren't for the faint of heart because they are written about the underbelly of life; the kind of lives that upon reading make one's heart race. However, each story takes the reader back to one drive inherent in all human beings, regardless of socioeconomic and racial backgrounds -- love of family.

When people ask me to explain my obsession with Mexico and its people, I find it hard to explain. For me, it's spiritual, akin to the private thoughts and feelings of praying in church. No one asks us about our talks with God. Yet, when I began to read these stories by women from many Latino lands, that spiritual, connected feeling welled up inside of me with each carefully chosen word. I know these woman. I know the joys, the pains, the burdens, the exhilarations. I know the desire to get it all down in prose in case it disappears, the good and the bad.

If you love literature, history, and family, these stories will resonate. I was so moved by each story, I looked up each writer to see where her writing journey had transpired in the past 20 plus years. As I suspected, talent grows and flourishes like the words we leave behind.