No comments about Ellen Ochoa (Life Skills Biographies).

1 comments about All Rise: Reynaldo G. Garza, the First Mexican American Federal Judge (Centennial Series of the Association of Former Students, Texas a&M University, No. 62).

1. Reynaldo G. Garza is a giant in the political and legal history of Texas and is most deserving of biographical treatment. All Rise successfully recounts many of the highlights of Judge Garza's life and career. It ultimately disappoints, however. First, the author lacks the legal background necessary to explain the significance of many of Judge Garza's judicial opinions. Second, the book fails to fully introduce the reader to the biographical subject himself, leaving him portrayed as two-dimensional and leaving the reader wanting more.

No comments about Latinos in Science, Math, and Professions (A to Z of Latino Americans).

No comments about Read About Cesar Chavez (I Like Biographies!).

No comments about Winning against all odds: for many people, taking calculated chances is too risky a business. For Dallas, County Sheriff Lupe Valdez it is the only way ... An article from: Latino Leaders.

1 comments about Dancing with Ghosts: A Critical Biography of Arturo Islas.

1. Frederick Luis Aldama notes that he could have written a hagiography because of Arturo Islas' "sensational and melodramatic 'up-from-the-bootstraps' story and its tragic denouement." But that would have been dishonest. Despite his talents as a writer, Islas was plagued with self-hate and was often moody, manipulative, narcissistic and unpredictable. Yet he could be brilliant, gentle, soft-spoken and, above all, generous. Aldama succeeds in synthesizing the disparate elements of Arturo Islas to produce what doubtless will become a seminal biographical study of an important figure in Chicano letters. [The full review of this book first appeared in Southwest BookViews.]

2 comments about Our Heroes.

1. Carolina Aguilera's book is a remarkable manifestation of humanity that encourages us to survey unheralded acomplishments while we reevaluate the heroic deeds which we thought we fully comprehended. With an uncanny ability to rigorously analyze the dynamics of prejudice and discrimation in a sociological context, the writer underscores the true meaning of writing: to effect social change and recognize virtues that must be maintained regardless of the anger we feel.
   In a writing style that is not self-aggrandizing, the stories enveloped in tragedy and hope become as poignant as they are empowering. The messages become as idealistically inspiring as they are penetratingly real.
   When the unspeakable events of 9/11 took place, some sectors of our society seemed to forget social injustices that automatically transform Latino officers and firemen into heroes as they combat the subtle and faceless enemey known as prejudice. While discrimation has an identifiable behavioral component, prejudice is a cognitive process that is not always conspicuous in its form. This book makes us realize how devastatingly tangible this degrading approach becomes to all those who are forced to experience it. Indeed, they become as psychologically paralyzed and immobile as the innocent victims of any violent act.
   While the tragic events of 9/11 have catapulted pride in being an American, Ms. Aguilera's book gently reminds me of the pride that is derived in being an American of Hispanic descendancy. Indeed, we must allow oursevles to derive strength from stories of our subjective past to possess the objetive insight that prepares us to tackle future challenges as members of the commonwealth of humanity. While this book has galvanized my intellectual attention, Carolina Aguilera has also captured my heart in reminding me how culturally transcendental "carino" should best be applied in times of crises as well as moments of peace and stability.



2. Carolina Aguilera's book is a remarkable manifestation of humanity that encourages us to survey unrecognized acomplishments while we reevaluate the heroic deeds which we thought we fully comprehended. With an uncanny ability to rigorously analyze the dynamics of prejudice and discrimation in a sociological context, the writer underscores the true meaning of writing: to effect social change and recognize virtues that must be maintained regardless of the anger we feel.
   In a writing style that is not self-aggrandizing, the stories enveloped in tragedy and hope become as poignant as they are empowering. The messages become as idealistically inspiring as they are penetratingly real.
   When the unspeakable events of 9/11 took place, some sectors of our society seemed to forget social injustices that automatically transform Latino officers and firemen into heroes as they combat the subtle and faceless enemey known as prejudice. While discrimation has an identifiable behavioral component, prejudice is a cognitive process that is not always conspicuous in its form. This book makes us realize how devastingly tangible this degrading approach becomes to all those who are forced to experience it. Indeed, they become as psychologically paralyzed and immobile as the innocent victims of any violent act.
   While the tragic events of 9/11 have catapulted pride in being an American, Ms. Aguilera's book gently reminds me of the pride that is derived in being an American of Hispanic descendancy. Indeed, we must allow oursevles to derive strength from stories of our subjective past to possess objetive insight that prepares us to tackle future challenges as members of the commonwealth of humanity. While this book has galvanized my intellectual attention, Carolina Aguilera has also captured my heart in reminding me how culturally transcendental "carino" should best be applied in times of crises as well as moments of peace and stability.

5 comments about Scattering the Ashes.

1. I recently returned from Cuba, and it has been quite difficult for me to reconcile the bitterness of Cuban Americans with the beauty of the island. I have been reading a lot of Cuban American memoirs from the 1.5 generation recently, and Maria Del Carmen Boza is the first author who I have seen to set aside her anger over losing her homeland with the Revolution and creating a real portrait of Cuba in the 1950's. A beautiful piece of literature, I highly recommend this book.
   
   Also recommended, Three Trapped Tigers, The Fourteen Sisters of Emilio Montez O'Brien, the Moon Guide to Cuba



2. Reading about the betrayal by the Kennedy administration of the invasion by Brigade 2506 was one of the first topics that shaped my view of things. It may have been in "None Dare Call It Treason" which I read in 1964. In any event, it made a great impression on me as a twelve-year-old boy. In the same time period, I was reading "Reminiscences" the autobiography of Gen. Douglas MacArthur and "Conscience of a Conservative" by Sen. Barry Morris Goldwater. Reading details of Giron in Maria's book, details which were unavailable in 1964, brought back all of the personal anguish which I felt at the time and somehow it was a reassurance that the frustration and anguish which I have held close to my heart all of these years was a validation; a validation of my own life.

   The failure to defeat Castro by actually supporting actions like Brigade 2506 has been the most disastrous blunder in American history. Certainly, I think that it ranks as first place as the damage that Castro has inflicted upon the world as a Soviet client state has had the most direct impact upon my country. The betrayal of Chiang Kai-Shek and the Alger Hiss conspiracy with Joseph Stalin at Yalta would rank second and third. Every time I view something by the CBS news department, it reminds me that I'm in "internal exile" in my own country.

   I have a great respect for Maria del Carmen Boza for writing about her family in such a close personal way as it exposes her private life to the public. To bring all of their vastitudes and personal strengths and weaknesses to public view gives me a greater appreciation of myself and the value of life itself. For this gift I can only say "thank you."




3. I am an avid reader of latino fiction and eagerly bought this book hoping that it would be a good addition to my latino literature course. I was thoroughly dissapointed. The text is repetitive and awkward in its prose. Worst of all it presents as a text about Cuban exile, but reads like a tale of a woman who has unresolved issues with her dead father and her disconnected mother. If you are interested in reading about a woman's struggle to understand her identity--this book is a decent read.



4. The act of emigration is traumatic for most of us, who retain the freedom to return to our homelands, to visit family and friends, to find the comfort of familiar sights and sounds. In Ms. Boza's memoir, a fragile young girl emigrates to this country as an exile who can never see her extended family or home again. She writes a poignant and thought-provoking story about her struggle to make peace with her past and move on with her life. While this book is not eary to read, it is beautifully written and worth the effort. I'm still thinking about it.



5. Think of Cuban exiles and you will likely come up with a stereotypical figure -- rich, right-wing, insane. In the US this prejudice is largely unexamined. Cuban exiles are easy to dismiss. But I wouldn't dismiss this one.

   Boza, a Cuban exile who came to the US when she was eight, has written a courageous book -- her first. Compelled to discover why her father committed suicide -- she explores the effect of the political on the personal within her own family, and within the exile community.

   Boza writes compellingly about this life in exile, a life sometimes warped by memories of the old and the realities of the new. Her father was a player in Cuban exile politics, and was consumed with this, becoming more and more bitter after the Bay of Pigs fiasco. Yet he is sympathetic, and Boza is successful in writing honestly of an imperfect man in a way that makes his obsession understandable if not troubling.

   But this memoir is not just about her father. It explores how, after coming to Miami, life in exile unravelled, how personal things, and connections with the commonplace - birthdays, clothes, food -, became more and more of an abstraction. And she writes about her own struggles to make her own world concrete again.

   It is a difficult book in some ways. Boza moves against the grain. Her narrative skips in time. At times the narrative intrudes on our own sense of privacy making us a little uncomfortable. She often interrupts the narrative, disrupting the political with the personal or vice versa, taking long detours around the subject. Memory intrudes - some pleasant, some ugly. We look at it all. But the writing is strong throughout, and there are numerous long sections that are poetic if not sublime.

   Life in exile, in spite of the ease with which we can imagine it, must have been/must be strange and isolating. Much more so for an eight-eighteen year old to watch ones parents slip into a kind of madness. There are no heroes in this book. But it took a lot of courage to write.

No comments about Isabel Allende's Writing of the Self: Trespassing the Boundaries of Fiction and Autobiography (Hispanic Literature, V. 33).

No comments about Extraordinary Hispanic Americans (Extraordinary People (Paperback)).