No comments about Vilma Martinez (Raintree Hispanic Stories).

No comments about El laberinto intertextual de Carmen Martin Gaite (Juan De La Cuesta Hispanic Monographs).

No comments about Tirso De Molina: Don Gil of the Green Breeches (Hispanic Classics. Golden Age Drama,).

5 comments about Conversations with the Capeman: The Untold Story of Salvador Agron.

1. I picked up the book a little skeptically, even though I admire the author, because I was afraid it might glorify a murderer. Richard Jacoby has a simpler goal. He humanizes the Capeman and makes him understandable.
   
   The Capeman was a 16 year old involved in a gangfight in which he stabbed two other teenagers and they died. Sentenced to death, Governor Rockerfeller commuted the sentence under heavy pressure.
   
   Meantime, Richard Jacoby was doing a thesis about whether people on death row had life changing experiences. He got in touch with the Capeman, letters were exchanged, then they met in person and a deep friendship started. The author also got to know the Capeman's family very well. The original goal was for the Capeman to write his life story, but as it becomes clear, after he's paroled that he won't really do it, Jaocby uses all of his notes to put the story together.
   
   Meantime, Paul Simon wrote a musical based on parts of the Capeman's life. It's a story of redemption, but to Richard, that's only part of the story. He uses this book to tell the whole story, not just about the Capeman's life, but about our prison system and about our insane asylums. He's very careful to let the fact's speak for themselves.
   
   The biggest surprise is how hard the book is to put down. You get inside the head of the Capeman and his relatives and his story becomes an American story and yet, still a very individualized story. The book can perhaps best be summed up by Jacoby's encounter with a racist cop, where, referring to the Capeman, he tells the cop "Yeah, but he's still a human being" At it's most basic, that's what the book is about. Without glossing over his crimes, Jacoby shows us the Capeman as a human being. It's a moving, well balanced portrait that is completely compelling reading. Highly Recommended.



2. Conversations with the Capeman is an absolutely stunning, beautifully written book about the life of convicted murderer Salvador Agron. Richard Jacoby weaves a brilliant and sensitive memoir of his real-life interviews and relationship with Agron. Jacoby paints a compelling, unbiased portrait of a tragic life; from Agron's youth as a member of a violent New York street gang to his conviction for a murder that he may not have committed, to life beyond prison. This impossible to put down book reads as if one is watching a motion picture. It involves all the elements of a modern-day epic; heartbreak, mystery, deception, love, friendship, redemption, and ultimate tragedy. This novel, of all the books I have read, has had the biggest impact on me...Simply amazing.



3. Each page of this beautifully written book brings raw emotion to the surface. Richard Jacoby paints a vivid picture of the poverty stricken, abusive childhood that surer than any court sentenced Salvador Agron to a life of alienation and despair. Yet despite being the youngest person ever sent to New York State's electric chair, Agron possessed a spark of human spirit that would not die. It is Jacoby's great accomplishment that he lets Agron's story speak for itself as he takes us through the dark alleys of Puerto Rico, the doo-wop drenched streets of New York and the cold corridors of state prisons where despair is plentiful, yet hope lives. If you want to know why we should treat our kids better and why giving people in trouble a second chance is NOT some mushy-headed idea, read this extremely engaging book.



4. This insightful, sensitively written book which brings to light Salvador Agron's life that was imprinted by race, sexual abuse and the condemnation of society gave me not only a new awareness of the criminal justice system, but of human redemption as well. Reading Conversations with the Capeman was a powerful eye-opening experience.



5. Conversations with the Capeman, the story on which the musical Westside Story is loosely based, blew me away. I literally read this 500+ page book in two days. I almost could not sleep for want of finishing it on the first day.
   
   The life of Salvador Agron provides a window into humanity that society tends to overlook when confronted with a crime in light of the death penalty. Mr. Agron's life can be viewed as social commentary that makes this a very important look at our penal system but more importantly it renders him human.....not an evil animal. The loyalty that Salvador garnered from people he didn't even know was overwelming. This is the first book that ever brought me to tears to the point that I could barely see the words on the page while reading the last two chapters.
   
   I subsequently bought Paul Simon's Songs from the Capeman and was pretty impressed by the way that he captures Salvadors life in music.

1 comments about Tio Cowboy: Jaun Salinas, Rodeo Roper and Horseman (Fronteras Series).

1. Juan Salinas is not one of the better known cowboys in the history of rodeo, but he should be. He was and is a legend in South Texas. His great-nephew, Ricardo Palacios, does a good job of telling the Salinas story, although at times he races through his uncle's life. But it is also hard to cram 90 years of living into 200 pages.
   
   The book offers a good overview of the world of rodeo back in the 1930s, but the book would be a better read for rodeo fans if more detail could have been given to the stories regarding Salinas' exploits in the rodeo arena. Salinas was one of the greats during his era, but was best known as a horseman and roping horse trainer. This would have been an interesting area to explore. Also Toots Mansfield was one of the all-time great calf ropers and was a close friend and traveling partner with Salinas. I would have enjoyed more information about this relationship.
   
   The book also offers a glimpse into the Hispanic culture on the Texas border and these stories play a bigger part in the book that Salinas' exploits in rodeo. At time it seems there is too much effort to include every name that Salinas ever encountered or dealt with, but still some interesting tidbits.
   
   Palacios deserves credit for making the effort to preserve his uncle's legacy and stories. Salinas was a great role model and hopefully readers will find inspiration in his story.

3 comments about Birthday Parties in Heaven: Thoughts on Love, Life, Grief, and Other Matters of the Heart.

1. In the book, "Birthday Parties in Heaven: Thoughts on Love, Life, Grief, and Other Matters of the Heart," Ana Veciana-Suarez provides interesting, sad, inspiring, wonderful, insightful, moving and humorous reflections from which the reader could relate or learn.

   Inspiring are the chapters on the writer's parents.

   In the chapter, 'My Father, Mi Papi,' the author writes about her father, who she describes as the "first man I loved" and "a man for impossible missions."

   'Stitchwork' is a chapter where the author provides a beautiful description of her mother, a strong and courageous woman who has positively affected Veciana-Suarez. "In the face of necessity, you can do anything," her mother has said.

   Hilarious is the chapter entitled, 'Cellulite, Schmellulite,' where the author writes about her experience in the gym.

   Touching, wise and encouraging is the chapter, 'Open Letter to My Son (As He Leaves for College).'

   Probably, most powerful is the chapter, 'Birthday Parties in Heaven.' Here, Veciana-Suarez writes of her experience when her first husband unexpectedly passed away at the age of 37, leaving her and their five children. Anyone, especially someone who has lost a loved one, can appreciate this chapter. The author, truly, writes from the heart and experience.

   I was happy to read that the author was able to find love again.

   Other chapters deal with baseball, parenthood, sisters, a mother-in-law, a household of different religious backgrounds (Catholic and Jewish), and much more.

   Once you start reading the first chapter, you will look forward to reading the following chapters to see what Veciana-Suarez has to write about on other varying topics. There is something to take away from each chapter. It's like receiving a treat.

   So, go ahead and treat yourself!

   Fafa Demasio




2. I sat down to read this book and quickly got hooked. I could not put it down.

   It is a great narrative about life in Miami as a Cuban-American mother -- I know because this is my life as well. Ana Veciana-Suarez writes beautifully and has a gift for expressing those thoughts and moods that are the undercurrent of our lives. She describes Miami and the realities of the Cuban exile experience so that others can understand all of the textures and subtleties that type of existence - caught between two lives.

   The daughter of refugees, she is caught in between the two worlds : the Cuban (Hispanic) culture and the American world in which she is raising her own family. She is articulate and precise when she expresses the Cuban attitude about "Baisbol" and all of the passionate history of that sport in our culture; her description of her parents and the tremendous struggles they faced in beginning a new life in the United States; what fishing on Biscayne Bay feels like; and the subtle complexities of family relationships. The reader grieves with her on the suddend death of her husband and childhood sweetheart. That chapter in particular tore my heart gave me a new appreciation and gratitude for the man I share my life with. She shares her surprise at finding love in mid-life and the complications and joys of being part of a blended family which is not only from different cultures, but also different religions.

   The book is full of laughs, tears, and many smiles. I highly recommend this book. I know that I will personally be purchasing a few as Holiday gifts.

   It is a great book!




3. Her carefully chosen words tug at your heart. Her raw experience, written from the deepest emotion, is universal. She crafts words as a Vermont craftsman cuts marble: so expertly you don't even realize how brilliant she is.

   Here in Miami, Ana Veciana-Suarez is in a league all her own. Beloved and supported by the community after her husband's early death, she openly shared her pain and re-emergence with us all through her Miami Herald columns.

   When she found love and married again, we as a community, each in our way, rejoiced. Her observations of merging her Cuban heritage with her new husband's Jewish background are both sensitive and humorous.

   This book tells what her frequent columns did not. It reveals an even deeper side to a remarkable woman.

   As a writer, I am in pure awe of her ability to say what she does. She never asks for sympathy. She simply observes -- and includes her readers as she shares.

   If I were to choose only one gift for this holiday season to tell people around me that I love them, this wonderfully rich book would be my choice. I warn you that your tears will flow, and you cannot just plunk down and read this book all the way through. Like a fine wine or a decadent dessert, this small book takes time to savor and appreciate. It is worth every delicious moment.

5 comments about How Did You Get to Be Mexican?: A White/Brown Man's Search for Identity.

1. This is an interesting book where the author relates his own life experience and all that he goes through growing up in a mixed Latino-Anglo Family. Through his life the author illustrates and analyzes important issues for Latinos living in the United States.
   
   Kevin Johnson is the son of a Mexican American mother and an Anglo father. While his mom always denied her Mexican heritage and chose not to teach her kids Spanish, his dad always encouraged him to take pride on his Mexican background. Kevin Johnson's parents divorced when he was a young child and he grew up experiencing the socio economic differences between the middle class and the people on welfare. Through his experiences he narrates how he struggled developing his racial identity and how that affected his life.
   
   Johnson says that Latinos in the United States are a diverse group in terms of race, country of origin, time living in the country, language, and immigration status. According to Johnson, some Latinos may be able to choose an identity, but finding and becoming comfortable with the racial identity is a difficult task that members of a racial minority face. They can risk rejection for refusing to assimilate and trying to benefit from affirmative action. Johnson says that the United States is a much racially mixed nation today than it was in the past, and as immigration and intermarriage increase so will the diversity in the population.
   
   As a Latina, it was interesting for me to read this book because I was able to relate myself in some of the experiences and incidents that the author recounts. I consider that the book is an inspiring story for Latinos and people of other ethnic groups living in the United States that shows that although it may be hard at times to fit into the social dynamics of the United States, there are plenty of opportunities. With effort and self-determination individuals can find their own social accommodation without having to deny their own cultural background.



2. : I loved Johnson's book and his story. I found myself saying to myself, "that happened to me too". I would say "yeah, that's totally true" and "he's right on". This book was like a breath of fresh air for me. It was a way for me to look at myself and really think about how I viewed myself. There are many sections in the book that I read and thought "that's exactly what I would have written too". Johnson put his heart into this book and put his emotions and thoughts on the table for all to read and enjoy and learn from. I think that anyone could learn a new perspective by reading the book. Anyone from a mixed heritage background could read it feel relief in that there are others in the world that have had similar experiences to that of their own. My mother is Mexican and my father is white and I could wholly relate to the author's experience. I have a white last name and always felt stuck in between the two worlds. I think that the author portrayed this feeling very well. The book gave me newfound respect for anyone who enters the legal profession. They definitely have to work very to get to where they want to be in life. Bravo to Mr. Johnson.



3. When I saw the title, I knew I had to check out the book for myself. Since I am a bicultural person (of Venezuelan and Polish descent) I could relate to his struggle. A lot of people doubt you based on physical characteristics, surname and mannerisms when you come from a bicultural background. The situation was the same for Mr. Johnson, a lawyer of English and Mexican background. His last name, light complexion and elementary knowledge of Spanish hindered him in integrating into Mexican culture, while his non-Caucasian features separated him from his Anglo contemporaries. He wrote sensitively about his experiences and enlightened us about his process of self-discovery (finally marrying a Mexicana, having children with her, giving them Spanish names, etc). I reccomend this book to anyone who wants an education on the bicultural experience or has been through that process themselves. I can't tell you how many times, to this day, people still deny me my Latin roots because I don't look like the caricatures they have in their heads about how all Hispanics/Latinos are supposed to look (Dark skin, black hair, black eyes), and I don't have a Spanish last name because I was raised by my mom (Martinez, Morales, Rodriguez, etc). We have to get over our assumptions about people if we want the walls to come down in our thinking. It is the only way toward liberation.



4. I had to read this book for a perspectives on race and ethnicity class, contrasting it with a book of a similar theme. I won't mention the other title out of respect for that author but this book was by far much more humbly introspective than the other book. Even though I am an Asian American, I was able to see the similarities between the Latino American experience and the Asian American one, and that the issues a person of a minority background experiences are to an extent universal and maddening. I am really glad I had the opportunity to read this book because it showed me that a biography that covered deep-seated social issues could be written and presented with humility and dignity. The other book, though honest too, had such an arrogance about it that I could not stand to read it. I would recommend this book to anyone regardless of their background.



5. This is the story of a mother who dearly wanted to assimilate but couldn't - and her son, who could have but finally wouldn't. It is the story of a man of mixed White-Latino heritage engulfed in self-doubt about his place in a society obsessed with race. It is the story of a prominent young lawyer and college professor who can never fully enjoy his success because someone always pops up to accuse him of being a "box checker," a counterfeit Latino for affirmative action purposes.

   Contradictions run wild in Kevin Johnson's autobiographical account of growing up racially mixed and emotionally mixed up. On one page, he rightly laments racial pigeonholing. On the next, he paints a painfully detailed picture of someone's racial history and physical features. The book is replete with mixed heritage characters who "identify" publicly with the racial tradition of one parent over that of another.

   At first this approach left me frustrated (maybe I yearned for transcendence). But soon I realized that Johnson could hardly tell his story otherwise: the contradictions are not his but society's. Such is the sad - indeed the surreal - state of America's racial politics.

   However sad and surreal race relations indeed may be, books like Johnson's represent a breakthrough of sorts for diversity and understanding. For most of our nation's history, dispossessed individuals were truly silenced - either by poverty or outright discrimination. As society began to allow different voices to emerge, pure outsiders got most of the attention. Now people like Johnson, who inhabits what the book jacket calls "the borderlands between racial identities," are receiving the call to tell their stories.

   Before I run on any longer, I should reveal some modest secrets of my own. Johnson and I attended the same high school in Southern California. In college, in the late 1970s, we shared two different apartments on Berkeley's Haste Street, a student ghetto just south of the University of California campus. We remained friends as he progressed through the legal profession to his current position as associate dean for academic affairs and professor of law at the University of California, Davis.

   Johnson was born in 1958, the first child of a White father and a Mexican American mother. His parents divorced when he was young, and he grew up hopscotching from the barrio's poverty to the relative affluence of the beach cities near Los Angeles. Johnson's mother, a staunch assimilationist, neither taught him Spanish nor encouraged pride in his Latin roots. When she remarried, she attached herself yet another Anglo.

   Following the advice of his politically savvy father, the adolescent Johnson began to ponder his Mexican American background. He began taking Spanish in high school. He continued in college. Meanwhile Berkeley introduced him - as it did us all - to heretofore unimagined diversity. Yet, to me, my roommate seemed most comfortable while slam dancing to the Dead Kennedys at the San Francisco punk club Mabuhay Gardens. White like me, I would have told anyone who bothered to ask about his racial identity (though I knew, of course, about his mother's background). Tellingly, no one raised the question.

   My analysis at the time partly reflected my own lack of maturity and perception, but there's little doubt that Harvard Law School forced my friend unequivocally out of his Latino closet. Like other Harvard law students from modest economic and social backgrounds, he wondered whether he really deserved his place in the elite institution. Had the admissions committee let him in just because he'd checked the Latino box on the application? Even after he made law review, he could never convince himself.
   
   During a tussle over affirmative action on the virtually all-white law review, Johnson took a firm pro-diversity stance. From that point on, he became increasingly outspoken about his Mexican American heritage - both personally and professionally. Though it might have been easier to blend in as white, he opted for a more rewarding, if rockier, bicultural path.

   His chapter about Harvard, which opens the book, should be required reading for any undergraduate contemplating the LSAT. This isn't the first time someone has slammed Harvard Law, and it won't be the last, but Johnson's account makes the experience seem outright hellish for anyone with the slightest non-conformist streak. Pranks (probably innocuous to your average Yale man) resound with new meaning when aimed at a sensitive outsider. For his defense of affirmative action, Johnson earned a citation in a spoof yearbook as author of a volume entitled, "I Hate Whites." Nearly two decades later, the barb still stings.

   After law school, Johnson plunged into pro bono work on behalf of Latin American immigrants and married a woman of Mexican American descent. Virginia helped him grow more comfortable with his identity, and together they try to provide a foundation of Mexican culture for their three children.

   Policy discussions generally take a backseat in Johnson's autobiographical account. When they appear, they're grounded in personal experience - like his analysis of the "box checker" dilemma. The question is simple: what constitutes a member of an underprivileged group for the purposes of affirmative action? The answer is complex, if not insoluble. Under pressure to admit or hire individuals from certain groups, many institutions and businesses are keen to count anyone vaguely entitled to membership. Predictably, this has sparked a debate among civil rights activists over who qualifies to check the box. Individuals of mixed racial heritage, like Johnson, come under special scrutiny. The phenomenon is captured by the book's title, "How Did You Get to Be a Mexican?" A senior professor asked Johnson that very question during an interview for a position on a law faculty.

   Johnson's book offers a partial answer, but no response will prove satisfactory as long as our society remains obsessed with race. Indeed, we can only put racism behind us when we no longer care about the answer.

   * Bill Hinchberger is the editor of the BrazilMax website.

No comments about The Life & Times of Willie Velásquez (The Hispanic Civil Rights Series).

No comments about Hand on My Shoulder (1963).

No comments about Frida Kahlo: Mexican Portrait Artist (The 20th Century's Most Influential Hispanics).