Amplify Your Library with Women Centric Writings   Chola Salvation by Estella Gonzalez In the title story of this collection, Isabela is minding her family’s restaurant, drinking her dad’s beer, when Frida Kahlo and the Virgen de Guadalupe walk in. Even though they’re dressed like cholas, the girl immediately recognizes Frida’s uni-brow and La Virgen’s crown. They want to give her advice about the quinceañera her parents are forcing on her. In fact, their lecture (don’t get pregnant, go to school, be proud of your indigenous roots) helps Isabela to escape her parents’ physical and sexual abuse. But can she really run away from the self-hatred they’ve created? These inter-related stories, mostly set in East Los Angeles, uncover the lives of a conflicted Mexican-American community. In “Sábado Gigante,” Bernardo drinks himself into a stupor every Saturday night. “Aquí no es mi tierra,” he cries, as he tries to ease the sorrow of a …

Amplify Your Library with Women Centric Writings “El feminismo no es nuevo”: Las crónicas de Clotilde Betances Jaeger by Clotilde Betances Jaeger  Edited by María Teresa Vera-Rojas  “Every woman who gets accustomed to the yoke of marriage remains a slave,” Clotilde Betances Jaeger wrote in an article published in 1929. This revolutionary idea, which scandalized society at the time of its publication, reflects her passionate ideas in this collection of essays and articles that shines a light on the women’s movement in the first half of the twentieth century in New York’s Hispanic community.  Clotilde Betances Jaeger was a Puerto Rican feminist, writer and intellectual who, in addition to championing women’s rights, advocated for racial equality, education rights and Puerto Rican independence. She questioned the role of the church, reflected on marriage and highlighted women’s roles in education, the economy and politics. Her writing was a call to arms, encouraging women to fight for their emancipation: “Woman, mother, wife, daughter, alone you have …

A useful guide to woman-centric novels, poetry collections and short stories for librarians, readers and teachers alike! Create a shelf display or find your next read. Secrets of the Casa Rosada Sixteen-year-old Martha and her mother move constantly, never staying anywhere for long. So she knows better than to ask if they’ve been evicted again when her mom says they’re going on a “vacation” to Laredo, Texas, to meet the grandmother Martha didn’t know existed. At her Abuela’s pink house, Martha’s shocked and hurt when her mom abandons her, even though a part of her had been expecting it. Suddenly, Martha must deal with a lifestyle that is completely foreign. And it turns out that her grandmother is revered as a healer, or curandera. Meanwhile, at Martha’s new school, she can’t be anonymous because everyone knows she’s Doña González’s granddaughter, and a girl named Marcella has it out for her. …