Intaglio: A Novel in Six Stories is a deftly-narrated coming-of-age novel made up of sensitive portraits of six extraordinary women from the Texas-Mexican border area who serve as the role models for the maturing narrator. The book pays tribute to the cultural expressions of these women and to the manner in which their creativity is transmitted to younger generations. Fernández’s style is riveting as she elaborates upon themes such as the making of a writer, the development of a feminist aesthetic and the identification and valorization of women’s culture in a pre-feminist era.
“. . . a warm, energetic and beautifully composed landscape of a novel that tells us the rich story of many Mexican American women along the Rio Grande . . . a beautiful story of beautiful women . . .”—The Houston Post
“Steeped in a rich Mexican heritage transplanted to the soil of Texas, these stories celebrate remarkable women . . .”—San Francisco Chronicle
ROBERTA FERNÁNDEZ is a three-time Lila Wallace resident at the Mac Dowell Colony in New Hampshire. Her book, Intaglio: A Novel in Six Stories (Arte Público Press, 1990), about the transmission of women’s cultural expression on the Texas/Mexican borderlands, was selected by Multicultural Publisher’s Exchange as Best Fiction for 1991. Fernández’s own Spanish version of Intaglio (Fronterizas: Una novela en seis cuentos) will be published by Arte Público Press in Fall 2001. Currently, she is working on another novel,which deals with present-day Mayans in Guatemala and in the United States. Her anthology, In Other Words: Literature by Latinas of the United States (Arte Público Press, 1994) includes the work of forty-five writers and represents the best examples of Latina fiction, poetry, drama, and essay. Another anthology, En nuestras palabras: Ficción y poesía de las latinas en los Estados Unidos, is forth-coming. Her work has appeared in many national and international literary reviews and anthologies. In 1991 she was named to the Texas Institute of Letters.
