5 comments about Always Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A..

1. I can see why this book is so popular among high school students: it provides a graphic, unflinching look at LA gang life in the 1960s, and it ends happily, with Mr. Rodriguez living to tell the tale. Unfortunately, the second half of the story contains too many things that make me question the reliability of its teller. I hope this book helps to keep kids out of gangs and in schools, even if its veracity is suspect.
   
   
   And yet... the more I think about this, the more I see in it. I think this is actually a depiction of the violence inherent in people, rather than a specific comment on a time and place. The author's main excuse for gangs is unemployment. However, Mr. Rodriguez ends up portraying the police forces as little more than a rival gang with an unslakable bloodlust, though they obviously have jobs. The problem therefore can't be unemployment, unless all positions of power are necessarily corrupt, or the LA sheriffs are abnormally violent people. Other notable instances of violence are when young Luis gets pushed off his roof by his older brother, when a riot erupts at a peace rally, and when Luis upholds the tradition of a yearly brawl at a football. I guess this is the main problem I have with this book. The blame is misplaced. Mr. Rodriguez's gang involvement started before he was in junior high, so his own unemployment couldn't have been a factor. Since his father was well educated and employed, I have to lay the blame at his feet for failing to protect his son and teach him the right way to live. This sad family failure is then repeated between the author and his own son, Ramiro. The whole attitude of "learn from my mistakes; don't do what I did, son" just isn't enough for me.



2. Always Running was required for my English 28 class, and I've got to admit that I found the book very interesting.It gave me a look into gang life in East Los Angeles and the dynamics of that lifestyle.



3. Luis grew up in LA being raised by a Mexican family. He grows up way too quickly and starts stealing and committing crimes before becoming a teen. Soon enough drugs, sex and violence come into play, and lines and territories are divided across neighborhoods. Ultimately he ends up losing most of his friends to shootings and violent acts. He also blames the cops for constantly targeting Mexicans and African Americans. The educational system does not provide proper courses for minorities. They are tracked to take on vocational occupations while whites and Asians are taking English Lit and Trig on the path to college. If we provided protection, safety and good opportunities for these kids then they would not feel the need to join gangs to gain acceptance, protection and a sense of belonging.



4. This book is on the ALA's list of 100 most frequently banned books of 1990 through 2000.
   
   This is a memoir of gang life & of growing up poor and Chicano in East LA in the '60's & 70's. It's also about learning who you are and finding ways out - through writing, through painting, & through social activism.
   
   Rodriguez is primarily a poet and writer of short stories & it shows in this collection of snap shots of moments from his past. For those wanting a standard tale with a classical throughline and neat conclusions, this book will disappoint.
   
   I enjoyed the author's imagery and the ways he plays with the genre of memoir. What is memory? What do we remember? How do we remember it? For me so much of my memory is just what he provides - little snapshots of moments in time.
   
   From a political/social perspective, this book does a good job of elucidating the reasons kids join gangs and the possible paths out. He talks about gangs as a kind of mass suicide & that's an idea that stuck with me - all these kids looking for family & hating themselves.
   
   In one of those funny moments where influences collide that can happen while reading, I kept thinking of another gang memoir that I read when I was younger. I remembered that it was written by a Puerto Rican guy that grew up in Spanish Harlem & was also about all of the ways that books saved him, but I couldn't remember the name of the book. It was right there on the tip of my tongue. I could remember that the author was named Piri, but that was all. Then I turned a page & there it was - Down These Mean Streets by Piri Thomas - turns out Luis Rodriguez read that one, too.
   
   This book is also full of shades of Sandra Cisneros - a Chicana writer & poet whose work I've read off & on since her first book - The House on Mango Street. Like Cisneros, Rodriguez' work is full of rhythm & bright color.
   
   I liked this book a great deal, although I don't think it offers any long-term solutions to these problems. Like The Corner, David Simon's killer tome on life on a Baltimore drug corner, this book illustrates the condition. Perhaps education really is the only way out, but to get there we're going to have to spend some money & stop using our educational system to ghettoize people based on class, race, income level, & the phase of the moon on Fridays when the cat's too tired to sing.
   
   The world is a complex & beautiful place & in the end maybe only words can save us.



5. This book lacks depth and much-needed perspective. The actual subject matter is interesting, and could have resulted in an incredibly powerful, insightful book. However, he stopped short every time the opportunity for reflection presented itself. As a result, I found myself unable to sympathize with his plight. His transitions from journalistic prose to "poetic" descriptions were jarring and indulgent. Overall, this book was a great disappointment.

5 comments about Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez.

1. Another "required reading" book at most inner city schools. This book is not very well written and does not portray your typical hispanic family. It's another "poor me/pity me" type book.



2. The title, and dramatic cover picture, drew me to buy this book. My copy is an orange and white hardcover edition, with a layout similar to the one presented here. It's from 1982 and is stamped with the address and name of a local, NY, school.
   
   I think the durable, still mint condition, cover was the best part of the book, along with the first few pages. After getting past the cover, and what seems like might be a good read, the book became horribly repetitive and boring. Over and over, the same issues are rehashed. You wait for a pivotal moment, and none comes.
   
   As such, even if you agree with his beliefs, and, as a person who grew up in a Spanish-speaking household, I don't, you won't be entertained.
   
   As for his ideology, concerning ethnicity, race and language, it's really irrelevant to the issues of acceptance, humanity and success, that he tries to tie it to. If you read the book critically, you'll see that he doesn't really make a case for any of this. If you're Latino, raised in a Spanish speaking household, as I am (Puerto Rican), you'll definitely see that the claims he makes, about language and ethnicity, are untrue and, despite his drawn out writing, go unproven.
   
   I'd call him a cheap, two-bit provocateur, but he never manages to stir anything up, in this bland, boring, shallow-minded piece of drivel.



3. As a Bilingual teacher, I believe immigrant children should learn the basics of schooling in their home language; that way, they will be able to communicate with their parents, and they will earn self confidence. This book shows the lack of communication and self-esteem immigrant children are suffering from, in the United States.



4. Richard Rodriguez reflects on his journey from the barrios of California to a seat in the library of the British Museum. He recognizes that the distance has moved him closer to a world of privilege and freedom. At the same time, he acknowledges that he is removed from his family and his background.
   
   Rodriguez bristles at attempts to mainstream Hispanic students through bilingual education. He is not calling for an official language. Its not quite like that. He just feels that students need to have an ability to master the language that, for better or worse, is spoken in the pathways that lead to power in this country.
   
   Rodriguez is very aware of the lessons that others would draw from his story. He points out that a group of people are attracted to having him as a speaker, because it confirms their own politics. Oddly, he doesn't feel that aligned with their perspective, because while they draw some similar conclusions about education, they have nothing else in common.
   
   Rodriguez laments that his book is catalogued and shelved in the wrong category. It is not a book about Hispanics, or within Latino studies. It is a book about class and privilege. That mistake is not likely to change, though, because class is a taboo topic and not something that is given its own space in our book stores.
   
   At one point, Rodriguez mentions that his editor would prefer less reflection and more stories. The editor wanted more anecdotes from Rodriguez' life -- more about his grandmother, for example. Rodriguez doesn't want to do that.
   
   I would argue that this is one privilege that he is not entitled to, even as a person holding a doctorate. He still has to show the reader, not just tell. If he thinks that he cannot tell the personal stories of his life without compromising his message, then he needs to write a few more drafts!



5. Looking beyond the criticisms of other reviewers, one can find in this little book many fundamental truths about education -- what it means to be an educated person, even how education might alienate people or divide families. Intensely intellectual and at the same time profoundly personal, Richard Rodriguez's Hunger of Memory eloquently charts the process of education in his own life, uncovering its magic, measuring its costs along the way, but in the end testifying to its great benefits. Students and teachers alike could gain greater understanding of the process of education and what it can mean through reading this book.

5 comments about When I Was Puerto Rican.

1. I love this book with all my heart and soul! "When I Was Puerto Rican," is the first book I've read by Esmeralda Santiago and now I plan to read them all.



2. It was a good service the vendor was outstanding and always did what he had to do at the right time.



3. "When I Was Puerto Rican" is a wonderful story of growing up in Puerto Rico. The humor and frankness of the narrative touched me. I strongly recommend it!



4. I expect the prime reason this autobiography was published is because it's unique. However, it's only half a story - assume this is contrived in the hope of selling the other half at a later date. The author's reconstruction of dialogue is to be admired, as well as the descriptions of her life of poverty and deprivation. More to be admired is the character of her mother who managed to produce and provide for eleven children in an unmarried state, while coping with an irresponsible father. Can only recommend if you're looking for a holiday read. Very little material for book club discussions.



5. When I was Puerto Rican is a coming of age memoir of a young girl growing up in rural Puerto Rico. The author, Esmeralda Santiago, describes with vivid detail not only the surroundings of her small village and the nature around her, but also her emotions. The novel records with extraordinary detail the way the author felt as she experienced tough times within her family life, school life, going through puberty, and relating to the society around her both in Puerto Rico, and in Brooklyn. When I was Puerto Rican expertly paints an image of a young girl dealing with strife as she grows into a woman while making the transition to a totally different life in America. I don't particularly recommend the novel, but it was an interesting read, although sad.

5 comments about Down These Mean Streets.

1. I read this book when I was maybe 12 years old, in 1967. I had to get "special permission" from the Philadelphia public library to check it out. I recall the librarian advising me that the content was "rather rough," and asking if I was sure I could handle it. I was sure, and I loved it.
   
   In his memoir, Piri Thomas makes personal his experience growing up in the barrio in Harlem. His mean streets jump to life for the reader. Sights and sounds are real. You see what he sees, feel what he feels: streets shining in the rain--sometimes dark and empty, dangerous; sometimes alive with neighbors and kids. You suffer with him as he untangles the threads of his relationship with his father, and as he learns to differentiate between machismo and manhood. And you live in prison with him, struggling to survive in a system built to destroy him.
   
   The descriptive form of the writing, the music in the narrative, the beat and cadence, all make this the most readable of books. You will live in it for days, maybe years, after you finish, and you will likely read it again.
   
   While the language in "Down These Mean Streets" may at times seem dated, the message is not. (Junot Diaz describes in more current vernacular the Dominican experience in New York and New Jersey.) In fact, any American immigrant from today or past decades could tell a similar story about surviving in a new place. Few, though, can tell it with the same impact as Piri Thomas.



2. My boyfriend love this book. I glad I was able to get it for his birthday...Thanks



3. Bill Cosby once said "in the old days you couldn't skip school, because there was an eye behind every drawn curtain, and when your mother got off the bus she'd hear where you'd been."
   
   Cosby wasn't entirely right. In the old days, there were kids in the poor Black neighborhoods who skipped school, stole, got in fights, sold/used drugs, etc. Piri Thomas was one of them, and his story is very disturbing. His family, Puerto Rican and Cuban, has a problem with race (I won't spoil it by elaborating) and his father settles every disagreement with a slap. He leaves home for the streets, drifting through the poor and unhealthy underground of the Puerto Rican and Black worlds in Harlem.
   
   I had no idea there was a Puerto Rican community in NYC back in the 1930's and 40's. This book tells you a lot about the sleazy and dangerous side of urban life in the old days. Like today, kids went to the streets, not because it was fun, but because it was a substitute for the family love that the kids weren't getting.
   
   It's like my grandfather used to, there never were any "good old days."



4. This book is written so well that you can feel the streets and his life as he felt them, it is as if you were living through that era and through his experiences with him. If you lived through that era or have experienced some of the things he did in your life it brings you back to your own childhood with a nostalgic feeling. It does have some curses which I don't really care for, it is the way he expresses specific feelings, or things he or others specifically expressed at that time, but fortunately is not that much. It has that NYC streets authenticity; the story was written decades ago but certain parts feel as if they were written yesterday. It is an excellent book that is straight forward and hard to put down once you get into it; by the time you know it, you're done.



5. Down These Mean Streets was a breakthrough book for Latinos. For a Chicano like me, it was like the Autobiography of Malcolm X was for African Americans. Even though Thomas was writing about an East coast that I have never known, I felt like this was the first book to make me aware that there were experiences that were like mine that weren't only mine. Like the Chicano poet Ricardo Sanchez, anger was something political but dealt with best through poetic words and language.

5 comments about Breaking Through.

1. A work of art all students should read. My students were begging to read this book after reading Jimenez's first book The Circuit! My 8th graders loved the story and can't get enough of Panchito and his family!



2. I am an ESL teacher who works with 7th and 8th grade, primarily male, Latino and Hmong students. We first read The Circuit which told about Francisco Jimenez's family's first years as migrant farm workers in the United States. This autobiographical account relates the struggles the family encountered during Jimenez's early years in school. The older children and the parents picked fruit, vegetables, and cotton. The family moved according to the agricultural schedule in California. Everytime Francisco would start to feel "at home" in a school, the crop would be harvested and they would have to move to the next farm, hence the name The Circuit. The story ends when La Migra comes to pick up Francisco and his older brother at school. My students were anxious to find out what happened next. Would the family be deported or would they be allowed to stay in the U.S.? To find out we then read the second book, Breaking Through, which we are about half way through now and we're still enjoying every chapter. The books have spawned a multitude of conversations that have bonded us together. The kids can relate to Jimenez's life and he is a role model to them. He shows that hard work and determination lead to success. Personally I think everyone who is interested in immigration questions should read these books.



3. This book gave me a real insight as to how our migrant children really live! Thank You!



4. I bought *Breaking Through* without realizing that it was a sequel to *The Circuit*. Nonetheless, you aren't lost if you start with *Breaking Through* I loved this memoir because it was one of the best portrayal of a migrant family.
   
   This memoir chronicled the life of Francisco Jimenez from the time that him and his family entered America from Mexico to his entrance into college.
   
   The Jimenez family saved up some money and entered into Mexico illegally. They were soon caught, after a time, and deported back. However, they were able to get papers and return. Despite living in the land of freedom and opportunities, the family has to work hard in order to survive. They worked in strawberry fields, lettuce patches and cleaned buildings.
   
   Francisco is loving school yet struggled to stay on top as he also has to work. His older brother did well in school but worked nearly as much as their often-ill father did. The mother stayed home and took care of the children. However, she often substituted in their work when needed.
   
   *Breaking Through* is a story of a family working together. It's also a story of one finding one's own identity in America. It's also a story of one trying to achieve the American dream.
   
   You'll laugh. You'll cry. If you don't understand the Mexican culture, you'll find yourself puzzled at some things. Coming from a Hispanic family, I found myself nodding and taking strolls in memory lane.
   
   Overall, it's easy reading for a great book.



5. 
   
   Book Review on Breaking Through
   
   
   Hi, this book Breaking Through by Francisco Jimenez is a sad book. Why is it a sad book? A boy named Francisco struggles through life trying to keep his family together. He works and goes to school, also trying to keep his grades up. This book is a good book because of the Theme, believable charters, and a nice setting.
   
   The theme is, heart breaking. It's heart breaking since a boy and his family have to face many difficult obstacles. The obstacles are not easy for Francisco and his family. They have to pay bills but they don't have any money. So the whole family except mom and the youngest ones have to work.
   
   Besides the heart breaking theme there are nice believable charters. The charters sometimes where confused. They where confused because they didn't have money. No one to help them, and struggled to keep food on the table.
   
   There also was a very good setting. The setting took place in many different places. Like school, fields, gas company, Twitchel and Twitchel. There are many different places. So that means that the family is all over the places.
   
   So this book has a great theme. Wonderful setting that makes you feel like your there watching it all happing. Also nice believable charters that do things that you could relate to. So if you like heart breaking novels then this is the book for you.
   
   
   The End

5 comments about The Revolt of the Cockroach People.

1. Re-Saturday Review of Literature
   Oscar Acosta disappeared in Mexico in 1974, not 1971 (the year of his trip to Las Vegas with Dr. Thompson).



2. Re-Saturday Review of Literature
   Oscar Acosta disappeared in Mexico in 1974, not 1971 (the year of his trip to Las Vegas with Dr. Thompson).



3. This is the most realistic book I have ever seen about Mexican American hippies in Aztlan, the Chicanos of the 1960's neo-freedom movements. It will surely become a collector's item worth saving in this era of gung-ho Americanism which does not know the kind of objectivity Acosta displays with regard to how we think and why we believe as we do. Hunter S. Thompson described the author better than I can in his introduction to the book, highlighting his uniqueness while lamenting his untimely passing. I will write more after I give the book a more thorough second reading.



4. I read this book after finding out that Oscar Zeta Acosta was the fat Samoan lawyer from "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." Acosta's style is similar, with a lot of drugs and sex with minors. The differences are that Acosta isn't tripping the whole time and he has time to incite political rallies. I love when they protest the Catholic church, or when he pleasures himself with some nubile young high schoolers under a blanket during a sit-in.... For those interested in the turbulent times that was the 60s, this is a must-read.



5. After reading this book, and actually living through those turbulent times of the 60's and 70' s , it was refreshing to read and feel the burning frustration and love that this man was experiencing and the way he expressed his anger against the machine. This type of awareness has been lost , due to us the forefathers of the Chicano Movement, to teach our own and other's children of how important those actions were, so that we may emphasize education, political power and family values. We have implemented a course in Chicano Studies in schools, we now have political representation in our governments, and many more success stories that are due to the work of such people as Cesar Chavez, Ruben Salazar and Corky Gonzales. Oscar Zeta was a man amongst his own that was afraid of nothing and no one.My thanks to him for fighting the powers that be and for creating an example for all of us, regardless of race. You have to stand up for what you believe and Acosta is atrue testament to that.

5 comments about Orange County: A Personal History.

1. Although I am a fan of Arellano's witty writing style in his "Ask a Mexican" column, I was not very pleased with this book. I personally found it dull & a drag to continue turning page after page. If it weren't because I had to read it for class, I probably wouldn't have bothered finishing it.



2. As a native born South Texan, I never gave California much thought till I came out to teach here in the early 90s. Since then I have been blown away by the beauty and horrors of a magnificent state--staggered by its resources and its peoples, floored by its violent and surprising history. Gustavo Arellano's ORANGE COUNTY is one of those delicious, honest tomes that tells the various ugly, outrageous, AND beautiful stories of southern California with wit, vision, pace, and style. A unique book--one part memoir, one part history, one part investigative journalism--Arellano's volume explores the backstory of the Southlands, uncovering skeletons, crazies, and, of course, oranges along the way. Any student of contemporary writing will find much to learn from and ponder in this volume; Californiana aficionados will find that and more, as the all-too-often white-washed contours of the Californias are reborn in the electric writings of the man better known as Ask a Mexican.



3. While most writing and almost all journalism is attempting to make their subjects less complex Gustavo Arellano is accepting the complexity and relishing it. His book "Orange County' is a wonderfully complex story of his family, its migration, the towns where they settled, the history of the towns and the strange paradox that is Orange County, California. There are very funny repetitions of lists of Aunts (I think he's mocking Leviticus) the story of his being a nerd among the macho and constant jibes at the gabachos. My favorite part was the restaurant recommendations , one for each town except Leisure World.
   This is the perfect book to give as a Christmas gift to anyone with a sense of humor who lives in Orange County. It is a quick read, it has new data and will make you think again about the place you live.
   Well done!



4. This is a great story combining the history of Orange County with a memoir of the author. Arellano is pretty well know in "the OC" for his weekly column "Ask a Mexican" and this book reflects his wit and wisdom as well. I really enjoyed it.



5. I had seen Arrellano interviewed on C-Span's "Book TV" before buying his book, Orange County. Though he seemed a bit contentious and tad chippy on the shoulder, he was clearly bright and witty.
   
   The disappointment of the book is that the brightness of the person becomes the main issue. He'll say any damn thing to turn a phrase, and in turning his phrases, he becomes consistently smug and critical--of conservatives, of the wealthy, of the religious. He is a liberal writing for liberals and that generally results in a book that in pretty unreadable. In this case, too, the tedium of the history of his family obscures and delays the unravelling of the history of Orange County, which in itself is occasionally interesting and well wrought.
   
   Hell, we all have colorful enough families to write about, but generally the public is spared these cute histories, as they are normally cranked out on a portable Smith-Corona by a sentimental grandson in his eighties who intends the chapter to be useful to those descendants crazy enough to be doing a family geneaolgy. In Arellano's case, the details of the comings and goings across the border of his grandfather and Dad, usually in a trench or the trunk of a car--and "everyone having to pee real bad"--and the minute details of street squabbles between persecuting Americanos and fleeing Mexicanos just don't ring true. This writer would have had no way to access the multiple yarns he passes off as "fact," and in the final analysis, who gives a hang?
   
   Arrellano just can't get over how the Mexicans weren't allowed to win the Citrus Wars of 1936. A powerful combine of farmers, newspaper magnates, and politicians quelled the strike by the workers in the Orange fields. That incident, returned to several times, bespeaks the mind-set of the author and the spirit which pervades this book. After reading half of this mixed tale, I realized the everything I was really interested in, an expansion of my knowlege of Orange County, was to be found in the occasional paragraphs surrounded by a border, in which interesting facts about Orange county towns are highlighted. Thus I spent five days reading the first half of the book, trying to remember who Papa Je, Ezequiel and Mariana were, but happily I finished the second 125 pages in less than twenty minutes. And now I have a lot of information I probably didn't need: where in Orange County to find gays, MILF's, hookers, and lavish Gospel tents.
   
   This book is from the hand of a young man who has everything, a proper education (albeit from Chapman), a decent home in a land of milk and honey, a better-than-decent job as an itinerant cuisine columnist, a young man is is going to spend his whole life viewing the world the the prism of the failed Citrus Wars of 1936. "Woe is me" books are a dime a dozen. And here is another.

5 comments about G-Dog and the Homeboys: Father Greg Boyle and the Gangs of East Los Angeles.

1. Regardless of whether you read for enjoyment or entering the field of Behavior Analysis in Criminal Justice, this book offers an intimate view of relationships between society, law enforcement, a Jesuit Priest, and gangs. I highly recommend adding this one to your book collection.



2. My husband and I recently heard a taped interview with Father Boyle that aired on NPR. We were very interested in learning more about his unique outreach efforts with LA Gang members. This book is excellent.



3. "G-Dog and the Homeboys" shows how Father Greg Boyle and a select few adults, including the author, completely changed the lives of teens in East LA. Greg opened the homies' and his followers' eyes to the world outside of their lives in their little neighborhood. Many kids would not think past selling drugs to earn a little extra cash, or firing off a couple of rounds of bullets in order to simply stay alive. Boyle changed all of this.
   In actuality, the homies were not violent, cruel, or evil kids at heart. Many had rotten home lives and joined gangs to find love. Others joined for protection. Gangs offered support if they were ever in serious danger.
   Father Greg understood and felt for these teens. Greg lent them helping hand in any way he could. He gave them money for school, jobs, even a roof over their heads. However, the best gift he gave the homies was his love and caring for them.
   As one follows the stories of numerous homies, one realizes how much of an impact one man, Father Greg, had on their lives. This story is touching, at times frightening, and over all, enlightening. It is highly recommended that you read "G-Dog and the Homeboys". Your eyes, too, will be opened to the world around you.



4. This book is quite unlike any other that I have read on crime or gangs, both in style and in substance.
   
   The style is very simple. Fremon makes no attempt to be objective. She makes no effort to put the story into any larger context. She does not come across like a professional writer of any kind. Her ego is absent from the work. Instead, she tells a story, a simple, moving story.
   
   The subject of her story is extraordinary. John Paul II liked to say that there are many more saints around us then we recognize. This story is another example of that. Father Greg Boyle is a normal suburban white guy who became a priest, and was sent to East LA. He found himself surrounded by gang violence. Nothing unusual in the story so far.
   
   But his reaction was extraordinary. He responded to the situation in a radically Christian manner. He did not get into any of the usual left wing politics or posturing. Instead, he offered the gang members uncondititional love, just as the Gospel teaches. He spent time with them. He visited them in jail. He visited them in the hospital. Whenever the guns went off, he was there trying to bring peace. In one extraordinary incident, he put himself between two gangs who were starting a fire fight, and told them that if they wanted to kill each other, they would have to kill him. He was risking his life doing this, and the gang members knew it. They did not shoot; his Christian witness brought them back from their madness.
   
   It took time, but the gang members responded to Father Greg's ministry with tremendous enthusiasm and love. It is an incredibly inspiring story. It reminds us of why we are Christians. It shows us the transforming power of Christian love.
   
   I would like to be able to draw some political conclusions from all of this. I would like to somehow replace our current approach to gangs with Father Greg's approach. I do not know how to do that. I can not see how to make his saintly approach work in ordinary political or police work. But I do know that we are all better people with someone like him among us. If we had more like him, the world would be healed.



5. A wonderful read that can be shared with reluctant readers to bring them face to face with their place in modern literature. A book that should be shared with more teenagers. A look at gang life/ prisons in our urban world through the eyes of someone on a shared journey. I shared this book and another series that Celeste wrote in LA Weekly (2005) with my students as a combination class: experience of life literature and morality. Father Boyle is a master at understanding humanity and our call to larger social responsibility. We are not permitted to dismiss the world around us after reading this book that tugs at the corners of your heart. Greg gives hope where it is needed the most - to everyone. If the opportunity to hear Father Greg Boyle speak presents itself, do yourself a favor and go.

1 comments about The Latin Deli: Telling the Lives of Barrio Women.

1. This tasty book is full of the smells, textures, colors and lives of the Barrio. Lively, inspiring, heartfelt and sometimes heartbreaking, Ortiz fills this book with individuals whose lives are both representative of immigrated people and yet strikingly the stories of every woman and man. Mostly comprised of short-shorts the occasional poem is also brought in. Not all of the characters are named, and there is a sense that the reader is sometimes getting both the history and the future of the same characters. Marvelously woven, this book is a tapestry of personalities, lives, tastes and aromas. Check this book out for something unique! May I also recommend that a cup of Cuban coffee goes wonderfully!

No comments about The Answer / La Respuesta (Expanded Edition): Including Sor Filotea's Letter and New Selected Poems.