Denise Chavez Books

Without a doubt one of the Baddest Books that i have ever read.this book talks about my Favorite ERA.it explains the importance of these films&Artists.cuz at the time Tinseltown wasn't happening.the Black Artists here&their Films kept the Lights&Power on.this book sheds Light on Many Topics.the Impact of the Images have Lasting Impact.I'M Glad that Many Artists in the book said that they couldn't stand the term Blaxploitation.I Agree.Hollywood is a Business if the films weren't happening&Making Profit they wouldn't be on display.No Impact,no Word of Mouth they wouldn't be Happening.not everything was cool or worth watching but it was the kind of Charge that is needed to Level the Playing Field.it left a Lasting Impression on Me&Countless others.this is a Must have.very Detailed.

If You don't know about all the '70s films,this book will let you know.I was blown away with this book it's a must have for all black film fans!

I was expecting this kind of book because I'm now deep into Blaxploitation era, but also curious about Black movements of the 60ies and 70ies. In a way I learned a lot of things. A big deception is Ron O' Neal (aka Priest in "Superfly") isn't there, and the authors could also have gotten Tamara Dobson, James Brown, the late Curtis Mayfield and Willie Hutch. But that's life ! A big book, great value for me

I thoroughly enjoyed the artwork in this book. I wish they still made movies like they did back in the day.

Great book about the 70's black movies. I thought I seen them all but this book talked about movies I did'nt know about but would like to see, if I could just find all the videos! The art work alone is worth the price of the book! If you plan or get invited to a 70's party use this book as a guide to get that true afropicking,bellbottom,platform shoe wearing look.

Child of Many Rivers: Journeys to and from the Rio Grande. By Lucy Fischer-West, Foreword by Denise Chavez . Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2005. xvi, 190 pages. 32 b/w photos, index. ISBN 0896725561.

This Child won the 2005 Southwest Book Award and was a 2006 WILLA Literary Award Finalist. Lucy Fischer-West teaches English at El Paso's Cathedral High School, and her students are lucky that she does. You are lucky if you read the volume. It started with contributions on her father and mother to the Texas Folklore Society. In the "Epilogue" she summarizes that "Rivers for me are a continuum, linking not only each other but also past and present and most importantly all the people who belong to them and have touched my life."
Her father was a German sailor, her mother was the "youngest and most beautiful girl in a family of twelve" in Camargo, Chihuahua. As young girl, Lucy patted tortilla balls beside the Conchos River, and as a mature woman she washed her hands in the Ganges and received a blessing from Sister Teresa. Her autobiographical essays lure the reader through the gifts of cultures. Whether she's sharing the aroma of the El Paso market, the horrible auto accident near the River Clyde, French rocks with Paulette, touring India and Nepal on the Rotary trip "to improve international understanding," Lucy's waters mingle in a beautiful human stream. Un millon de gracias, Lucy.

Lucy Fischer-West's memoir, Child of Many Rivers, recounts the story of people whose lives predate the author's, Fischer-West's own herstory, and the story of life that will outlive hers (by way of her son and those whose lives have intersected with hers). In this story, Fischer-West introduces us to her father and mother, one with roots in Germany, the other in Juarez, Mexico, respectively; she describes their meeting, their courtship, and eventual marriage, quite unorthodox, considering the two are very much set in their ways, being older like they are. They move from one place to another, the author using rivers, both literal and metaphorical, to document the course of their lives. Fischer-West weaves in her own life from early on to very recent, and that of her son's. As much as a book of this length and nature can be, it is pure poetry.

It is such a pleasure to read a Mexican American memoir that does not stop simply at the cusp of adulthood or at the edge of the barrio. The author's love for El Paso and Juarez shines through these pages, which are rich in detail and dedicated to demonstrating how people cope with, manage and accept "difference" on a daily basis; Child of Many Rivers made me think how such books are sorely needed in this age of conflict and suspicion across borders and cultures.

As a member of The Texas Folklore Society I received this book as a bonus from TFS. I read it in its entirety over one weekend--slowly, taking time with Ms. West's rich detailing of what it means to straddle two cultures from birth to adulthood. Lucy F. West's ability to recall in almost photograph detail her unique childhood wherein she literally had a foot in Mexico and a foot in Texas makes this book a good read.

The child of a Mexican teacher and a German immigrant father, her cultural influences were too many to catalogue in this small space, but they resulted in a unique perspective on what it means to be Mexican and American.

Her writing style is lucid and not the least pretentious. When plain language makes plain the meaning and intent of her ideas, she uses plain language. When using Spanish terms or Mexican folk expressions that may be foreign to Americans, she takes pains to explain them, which serves to enrich her stories.

She switches style or voice occassionally as she moves between childhood and adult episodes. This vareity in tone is welcomed since it has the effect of refreshing our interest in the levels of her story.

Ms. West has published other articles and several chapters in anthologies which I have found to be instructive and enlightening. I am really pleased to hear her "voice" in the longer book format.

Straightforward, without pretension, lucid and thought-provoking. Ms. West's book reminds us that this nation has eternally struggled with the issues of diversity and assimilation. Some, Ms. West for one, manage the assimilation beautifully while preserving the diversity. Bravo!

Since the publication of Shattering the Myth, the plays in this anthology have enjoyed greater awareness and subsequently been produced throughout the United States. It is read throughout American universities and is the book that directors and actors look towards when they are looking for subject matter on the Latino Experience. I give it five stars because it addresses the needs of theaters in search of material that will represent women, and in particular, Latina women. Of the authors included in this anthology, I have personally known Ms. Lopez and Ms. Moraga. Their depiction of the characters in their plays, Shaddow of a Man, and Simply Maria, is told with love, sincerity and the truth in translating their personal experience into art. My play, Dream of Canaries, has been produced in A&M Texas University, University of Amherst, MA, Portland University in Maine, as well as other theaters. The individuality and complexity of this play has been revealed in each production in the interpretaion of each director according to his or her vision. These visions, give testament to the life of the theater. Published works such as these need to be made available to all so that we may be allowed to portray all facets of American Culture.

This is an anthology of plays by six Latina playwrights: Cherrie Moraga, Migdalia Cruz, Caridad Svich, Josefina Lopez, Edit Villarreal, and Diana Saenz. It is a must-have reference book, especially for anyone studying Chicano theater specifically. Moraga is a high-profile academic who is not only a prominent voice for Chicanas but for lesbians of color. Here you will find her script for "Shadow of a Man." Lopez is the most widely produced of Chicano and Chicana playwrights. Her first play "Simply Maria, or The American Dream," which is in this anthology, was produced when she was eighteen. And an earlier draft of Villarreal's semi-autobiographical memory play "My Visits with MGM (My Grandmother Marta)"--the third most produced Chicano play in the United States today--is included, too.

Nathan Brown is an exceptional poet, and one whose sensitivity to language and its nuances contributes much to his work. Each word seems especially chosen for its clarity and precision. Elevated diction finds no place in Hobson's Choice. Indeed, Brown speaks of the everyday life of an everyday man: i pop into Target / on a pain fully [sic] muggy afternoon--one of those must-do purchases / i never want to make time for.

Brown seems as comfortable with deep, literary allusions and those that reflect our modern culture. His work is as diverse as it is refreshing, and I would recommend it to all.

An absolutely hilarious journey. A great mixture of points of views, different narratives, different cultures and generations. So real I just couldn't put it down. Amazing insights into the life of a woman.

An awesome book. Written in an accessible, almost conversational, but also a very poetic style. Chavez explores a lot of feminine themes -- what does it mean to be a modern woman? how does that relate to familiar and cultural traditions? what role should our bodies and sexuality play in our vision of ourselves? should we stay connected to traditional maternal wisdom (an unmentioned mother goddess, I suppose)? Chavez also takes on the role of sociologist in rendering the Mexican-American community, it's people, culture, and problems. Overall an amazing book. I carried it with me day and night, stealing every moment I could to indulge in the pleasure of reading it.

The story of Soveida is one of the best ones I have read. Soveida is a Latina girl growing up in New Mexico. It is the story of her life and her growing up. It has a different plot line, of a Catholic girl who wants to be a saint as a little girl, but as she grows up she has more realilistic dreams. She begins to work in a local resturant as a young teen and continues to work there throughout her adult life. Her family is also a major part of her life. The author also includes stories of her parents, and her grandparents, and her great grandparents. It is a wonderful book full of family gossip, a great read.

If you like John Steinbeck, Oscar Lewis, Upton Sinclair, J.D. Salinger, William Shakespeare, and Socrates, and even if you did not like any of these authors, you'd still adore and love author Denise Chavez. Her novel "Face Of An Angel" to some readers might be a 'chisme', a gossip. To others, however, it will be a brave and gallantly told tale of life in the town of Agua Oscura.

If you take a tablespoon of John Steinbeck, a teaspoon of Oscar Lewis, a pinch of Upton Sinclair, a pinch of William Shakespeare, and sprinkle some of the philosophy of Socrates, you'd come up with the writing style of Denise Chavez.

Her style places the reader in that time and places the reader has never been to and much less spent time on. The reader becomes engrossed, mesmerized, captivated, spellbound, enthralled, and fascinated by the tales, or chismes, the author spins like a yarn of silk for the reader. Denise makes the reader feel the reality of life in a way the reader has never touched life's reality before.

Denise Chavez is not only witty, clever, amusing, humorous, entertaining, sharp and funny, but she is understanding, compassionate, empathetic, quick-witted, and yes, tragic as well with the meaning of life and writing.


There is not enough stars to evaluate Denise Chavez' "Face Of An Angel." I strongly recommend her novel. I guarantee you will not put the book down until the end, and then you will be asking for more.

With school and all in the way, I manage to find time to read the book during bus rides. This is a beautifully written story about the Mexican-American women who struggle with thier identity and themselves. Soveida Dosamantes, the narrator of the book, daughter of Dolores and granddaughter of Mama Lupita, is an independent twice married woman working as a waitress at a restaurant runned by a Mexican-American who has little connection to his culture.
She deals with the men in her lives beginning with her father, who cheated on her mother constantly; her brother Hector, who marries a woman because she's pregnant, yet is involved with another woman; her first husband Ivan, who cheated on her with the town slut; Veryl, her Anglo husband who commits suicide; J.V., the professor who buries his head in academics; and Tirzio, the man she is in love with but is married.
Ms. Chavez's novel is moving describing how each woman dealt differently to their family situations, community and themselves. In addition to Soveida and her family, the other characters make the book an interesting read.

this book was confusing and very not meaningfull i thought that page lambert did a bad job.

Writing Down the River grabs your heart and broadens your understanding of the power of the western landscape. The photographs are amazing in themselves; the essays stunning.

Sybil Downing, award winning author of Ladies of the Goldfield Stock Exchange

Writing Down the River grabs your heart and broadens your understanding of the power of the western landscape. The photographs are amazing in themselves; the essays stunning.

Sybil Downing, award winning author of Ladies of the Goldfield Stock Exchange

I haven't received my copy yet but I can certainly review the experience. I saw Kathleen Jo Ryan on PBS on Sunday morning and as each photograph flashed up on the screen I just gasped because I too made this journey last summer and each photo brought back to me the precious days on that journey of a lifetime, recognizing each cave, slot canyon, falls and utter and absolute peace that I found in that place. Words just can't do it. I could go on for hours about it (and often do) The only words that I can find that come close os to say simply that it touched my soul. No one who makes this journey can ever be the same again. If you do nothing else in your life -make this trip. See Ms Ryan's book for an introduction.

I plan to go again next summer. I look forward to my copy of this book of memories to keep me warm until I can be back on the river again.

Very good reading, with excellent comments on the Grand Canyon, the experiences of rafting the river and essays on how the canyon touches people in different ways. I have just completed an 8 day trip of over 280 miles in the canyon and experienced every emotion and awe-inspiring moment described in the book. The photographs are worth the purchase price alone. A must read before and after taking a trip down the wonderous Colorado in the Grand Canyon

Published in 1916 Jackson's classic romance--in every sense of the word--recreates an already bygone era. After the 1834 Secularization of the 21 missions in the chain founded by Father Serra, the California of the grandees slowly, inevitably began to fade into historical memory. Three groups were drastically affected by the disintegration of this social system--admittedly not free of innate injustice. Ruin fell upon the devout Franciscan fathers, the Hispanic hidalgos who had received vast estates from the King, and the Native Americans who first respected the land--ever at the bottom of the social chain.

Depicted as the underlying moral evil of all three groups are the
Yankees--Americans in general, whose greed and violence destroyed innocent lives, trampled decades of royal justice and raped the landscape of Alta California with wanton violence and callous indifference. Dispersed among these recriminations and regrets the author weaves a grimly fascinating tapestry of love, psychological brutality, outraged or warped honor and overbearing pride.

Senora Moreno rules her household with an iron fist and a cold heart, except where it concerns her only, somewhat naïve son, Felipe, 20. A master at manipulation this dowager wields absolute power to her vast household and retainers but also behind the scenes, deferring only to aged Father Salvierderra, for whom she has had a chapel built.
Keeping selfish secrets about her dead sister's half-breed daughter (who considers a marriage between a white man and an squaw valid?), she hoards both the jewels and the love int ended for the girl. Obeying only the letter of her promise to her sister, she never intended to honor the spirit of motherhood, thus condemning Ramona to be raised without affection.

At 19 Ramona is lovely, sweet, gentle and genteel (thanks to her convent training) but sheltered in a simple country lifestyle, where she is kept in ignorance of the reality of the present world and her own, mysterious past. This tenuous status quo changes when the annual sheep shearing occurs, the year that 21-year-old Alessandro, the educated son of a chief, leads his band of Indians to the hacienda. Their hidden love smolders until it erupts in a passionate embrace, which is unfortunately witnessed and misinterpreted by the shocked Senora.

Her outraged reaction and fierce determination to punish the
culprits sets in motion a chain of events which result in both the lovers
fleeing the rancho. There follow years of persecution of this doomed pair, as they seek to live peacefully--in harmony with nature and man. Jackson includes heavy themes in this story: racial prejudice, the power of Catholicism, the tension between mother and son, and the regenerating force of love. Partly a novel of social protest, RAMONA--despite its semi-tragic denouement, remains a classic tale of old California, whose pathos and passion reach out to modern readers.

Ramona is a historical romantic fiction that was written in the late nineteenth to help publicize the cause of Indian Rights. The author, herself an activist, tells the story of the injustices that were done to the Spaniards, Mexicans and Indians by the early American explorers who came to California. Ramona, who is part-Indian. becomes the heroine in a tale of love and hate. The book is one of the most famous stories ever written about early California, and there have been annual Ramona-festivals in many towns over the years. There is also a town named Ramona in southern California. Most of the characters are very well drawn, but the main character of Ramona is lacking. This does not spoil the impact of the book. As a lover of early western history in America, this book is the best I have ever read about the transition of the old world into the new. Reading it for the second time, I have enjoyed it even more.

It has been a long time since I first read this book, but the subject matter will be around for a long time to come. Bewitching love story for which at least one beautiful song has been written, "Ramona" and possibly "Vaya Con Dios". It is a love story, one whose emotion most of us will recognize; another time, another place, from our own Spring Time; woven skillfully into cultural differences, that somehow begets bigotry, born of all the little differences that make each of us unique, but also make us strange and unacceptable to others who cannot accept differences from what they have always known.

The descriptions of that far removed landscape and time are marvelous. The Old early Missions, the sheep, the priests who visit the valley in the traditional way on foot, traveling on ancient footpaths to bring religion to the people (and keep them religious), all are magical in their simplicity as the author brings forth their tale. She is also one of the first to dare write of things unsavory to the average conscience. She took conditions "as they were" and exposed them "for what they were" in the treatment of people displaced.

It's a setting deep within the Old Spanish Mission Country of Southern California, among the sheep ranches, and steeped in Spanish Culture, strict traditions, and unforgiving religion. Times were hard, values were strict and anyone not fitting snugly into a pre-conceived notion of a pre-conceived group was hard-pressed to find a life to live in peace anywhere. It is in this life where Ramona grows up, a child of a misalliance between the former lover of the Senora Moreno's own sister and an Indian woman - that's a twist in the story to be discovered while reading it. The Senora, for a variety of reasons you will understand as you read, agrees to take the child Ramona in to raise, although she never accepts her, because she is not blood family. The description of Ramona is captivating, long black hair of the Indian girl, dark blue eyes of the Scottish father - truly she is beautiful, but it is also apparent that her beauty goes deeper than the skin; she is beautiful of spirit as well as of the flesh.

Alessandro, an Indian lad, comes to work on the ranch early in the spring to help with the annual sheep shearing. Ramona quickly sees in him something she has never seen before - someone who will accept her for whom she is, without reservation, coupled with a gentle mind and character much like her own. She falls in love with him, adding another layer of "difference" to her half-breed status.

Felipe, the beloved son of the venerable, strong and proud Matriarch, Senora Moreno, who rules not only the ranch but her son with an iron hand, falls in love with Ramona himself but knows he can never take her for his own, for many reasons. Those "reasons" finally dissolve during the tragic ending of the story and what remains of the life of Ramona blends again into the home she left as a young woman - as she tried to make a new life with a stranger she has loved deeply. As she is delivered back to a life of security, she is strangely serene - but never again will she feel wild, young excitement once experienced with Allesandro, the Indian. I offer one of the last lines of the epilogue - as she finally stands "quietly in Filepe's arms":

"...how unlike was she to that Ramona who flung herself on Alessandro's breast, crying 'take me with you! I would rather die than have you leave me!'....."

Ramona is well deserving of it's place in Classic Literature - a love and strife story extraordinaire.

Helen Hunt Jackson's two major books, CENTURY OF DISHONOR and RAMONA were on a reading list of mine when I was a graduate student back in the Upper Paleolith. I didn't like either book, but am forced to concede their value.

RAMONA reminded me of trying to eat ten gallons of ice cream. It was too sweet, too melodramatic and I was lucky to avoid death by cloying suffocation from reading it.

It is, however, a great example of late 19th century romance. People didn't have e-mail, text messaging, computers, TV or radio. Instead, they read! A lot of them read RAMONA and apparently enjoyed it a lot more than many of today's readers.

It is dated, but that is its true value, in my opinion. Jackson doesn't step out of her skin, or her age, when she writes. Some of the dated, annoying stereotypes which roll off her pen illustrate the perceptions of the age in which she lived. For better or worse, that's their value.

If you're interested in American Literature, Intellectual History, or regional literature related to California, RAMONA may be of interest to you. I have a copy and enjoy it in small doses as befits an aging Philistine.

I heard about the book while hiking at Seven Falls near Colorado Springs. HHJ was suppose to have gone to the overlook there to write, including parts of Ramona. This intrigued me and so I checked it out. I don't read much non-fiction, so I enjoyed the idea of a history based novel. It was enough of a love story for me to earn points with female friends, but enough of an adventure to keep me interested. One part of the book that I found distracting was the attempt at phonetic spelling of the Tennessee drawl of a few characters. I had the hardest time reading that, which perhaps is an excellent way of HHJ to capture the difficulty of listening to it.

The only good thing about this book is the writer's idea to use the name Pedro Infante to exploit it for the umpteenth time, and therefore find the right vehicle to lure readers into buying it. This book is not about Pedro Infante. The only reference about him is that he died in a plane crash, and that he was a famous singer, and a great actor with lots of films under his belt--duh! Every Mexican, and average fanatic of great film-making knows that.
The writer makes a few attempts to spice it up, and throws in some of Pedro's movie titles which the characters from the story apparently watched every now and then, but mostly Pedro's name is smartly used just to keep the reader from falling asleep.
It took me months to read it in its entirety, and the only reason I kept going back to it was the hope to maybe read something more realistic about Pedro Infante. However, more than anything this book tells the boring story of a woman who uses the excuse of feeling unloved so she can sleep with every possible man in a small Texas town, and later complain that no one takes her seriously.

It's too bad the writer picked a Mexican woman as her main character to tell this cheap tale since sleeping with married men applies in all nationalities. It also erroneously suggests that all or most Mexican women are ugly, easy, careless drinkers and compulsive eaters; a false proclamation. I got this book as a gift from a beautiful and successful Mexican woman because I am a fan of Pedro Infante's work. But I would not waste my time and money.
If it's cheap stories what you are looking for, tune in to Jerry Springer or one of the many cheap shows that plague TV nowadays.

In love with Lucio, a married man who can't or won't love her back, Teresina "La Tere" Ávila, a thirty-something teacher's aide and secretary of the Pedro Infante Fan Club #256 in dusty Cabritoville, NM, escapes into the world of Infante. So she tells it in Denise Chavez's Loving Pedro Infante, a witty and insightful look at the difference between fantasy and reality.

As she unravels her story, Tere parallels her mental ponderings about Infante to her own foolish love for Lucio. It happens that Epoca de Oro Mexican movie star Infante, who has captured many a Chicana(o)'s and Mejicana(o)'s heart, has captured hers. The same as Lucio has. She and her best friend Irma even celebrate weekend Pedro-a-thons, drowning themselves in the ever enticing embrace of those black and white moving, talking, singing images.

She chastises those who don't already know Infante, wishing them to a destiny involving dry corn husks and a vat of soggy fideos. Though there's no need to panic. Tere teaches even the knowing Mejicano a thing or two by saturating her narrative with Pedro Infante trivia.

Mastering the art of pochismos in conjunction with the elusive "desde", she speaks in a language comfortable even if unfamiliar. She weaves through the intricacies of her turmoiled affair with these two men with the same detail and ease as she would a description of the burnt popcorn strewn aisles of the noisy El Colon Theater during an Infante feature with her best friend Irma. Y sin pelos en la lengua, she presents the very unromantic aspects of romance, such as forgetting to shave and misplacing a diaphragm in the moldy shower stall of a seedy motel. Such is the process of outlining that which separates real and illusionary love.

But this not merely an ill-fated love story, it is equally a story of family, friendship and community. Tere's mother and Irma provide constant strength and support. When Tere's good friend Ubaldo disappears and a search party gathers, it becomes clear that-- though an outcast-- her community will also be there for her.

Ultimately, this book is a liberating Chicana account of personal growth, powered by an unconventional heroine. Tere ventures where others won't: creating or simply uncovering a truer face for womanhood.

Another one of Denise Chavez's good books, Loving Pedro Infante intertwines romanticism with contemporary fiction. Pedro Infante, a popular Mexican actor during the forties and the fifties, is a hearthrob for Teresina Avila, her best friend Irma, and her fan club members. He is a symbol of machismo. His passion is women and women are drawn to his charms and looks. His death has made him legendary.
Teresina, or Tere, is a teacher's aide involved with a self-centered married man Lucio Valadez. Lucio promises her the sun and the moon which are never delivered to her. He cheats on her as well as his wife. Irma and Ubaldo, another friend of hers, tell her that she needs to do away with him. But she clings on to hope that she will have him and they'll be a family along with Lucio's daughter Andrea. Unfortunately, a series of events will force Tere to confront the reality of her life and self.
Chavez is not afraid to express the lives of Mexican women and their descendants or does she sugarcoat on homosexuality and sexual child abuse of Ubaldo Miranda. The description of a town gives the reader an idea of what it is like to be a part of a small community that clings to its old customs despite the occuring changes.
This is a good read which took me a week to read. Highly recommended.

I love the writing of Denise Chavez and wonder why her books aren't as widely recognized as those of other major Chicana writers. She has a unique voice. Loving Pedro Infante is hilarious (the specifically Chicana focus)and I frequently laughed out loud as I read the book -- both times. A Pedro Infante fan myself, I thought the author's use of the plots of his movies to convey the feelings of the characters was ingenious and moving. The story also conveys a touching and frustrating desperation about "that man thing" which transcends ethnicity.

Between the covers of Loving Pedro Infante is some really great writing that, unfortunately, didn't go far enough to be a satisfying read. While I loved the relationship between Tere and Irma, and enjoyed their Pedro-a-thons tremendously, I failed to understand Tere's attraction to her married lover, Lucio. In trying to reflect the story against the larger-than-life image of Pedro Infante, I can see that Chavez was probably trying to say that there are no Pedros in real life. Yet, this run-of-the-mill, boring Lucio became Tere's obsession, and stagnated her as well as the story.
Quisas estoy una romantica, como Cinderella stories y mas, pero I think that if you are going to introduce the world of make-believe (movie stars) into the mix, you've got to tell a story that has a romance hot enough to fill the big screen. What helps to hold the book together are the textures of Cabritoville, the loathed and loved nowhere town, that Denise Chavez has carefully woven. I remember feeling the same let-down at the end of Last of the Menu Girls, so maybe it is just that I want to send Chavez's characters on a journey larger than they are meant to travel.

Author DENISE CHAVEZ creates several things in THE LAST OF THE MENU GIRLS. She offers vivid childhood memories as the main character, Rocio grows from child to young woman. CHAVEZ gives us a strong sense of Hispanic culture, and she talks about the rites of passage from girlhood to womanhood universal to all of us. Rocio's discovery that Mama couldn't protect her from all harm, that evil lurked in the world, and that people could be manipulative and downright vicious over nothing resonaged particularly with me because of some of my own childhood experiences. I also chuckled at Rocio's interactions with neighbors and friends, and her experiences on her first job because, yes, I had similar ones. THE LAST OF THE MENU GIRLS set me recalling my neighborhood, the German-Czech Republic culture I knew, and my family stories. Good stories do that. This one's worth the read. And for those who are learning Spanish, there's an extra bonus, lots of bilingual writing. but CHAVEZ handles both languages in a way that lets the person who doesn't speak Spanish also enjoy HE LAST OF THE MENU GIRLS.

I read this book when it first came out and shortly after meeting Ms. Chavez, and have since re-read it at least a dozen times. Each time I find myself transported back to my childhood. The images Chavez creates evoke cultural memories that I am only now able to understand and appreciate. For anyone who wants to explore cultural identity, The Last of the Menu Girls is a perfect starting place.

I wish I liked this book more. Some of the seven stories were wonderful and rambly. Others just left a lot to be desired. I did like the story with the drama students. All 7 stories follow different parts of Rocio Esquibel (the main character)'s life...told in a unique voice.

This book tells the story of the role of tacos in the author's life, but she also creates a coming-of-age memoir as well as a loving portrait of her mother, the champion taco-maker. It includes recipes, poems, moving personal history, and thoughts about Mexican culture in both Mexico and the US, but the word pictures it creates of growing up in the 50s and 60s have parallels throughout the various "cultures" in the US.

I have recently read Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros, and Esmeralda Santiago's books on growing up in Puerto Rico and the US, and find it valuable to think about all these books at once--since there are parallels in all these women's experiences.

This is no cookbook about tacos, but it is a food memoir reviewed here for its even wider-ranging survey of culture, family, and belief. Denise Chavez reflects on her coming of age in New Mexico, surveying her family's traditions, memories, and food-influenced lives. It's a fine leisure choice for any who would understand both family interrelationships and cultural infleunces.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Uninteresting recipes, uninteresting writing. So uninteresting in fact that I skipped whole pages and sections and never found out if she even got around to explaining that the word taco means wadding or wedge, such as the wadding that used to be used to stuff cannons. Visual image, stuffing a taco "wad of food" into your mouth.

The praised Delfina's tacos, which are a guisado of ground beef, onion, sweet peas, salt pepper and comino stuffed into a softened with oil tortilla and bake until crisp,well, it's an interesting recipe that I haven't seen before but a lot of work for not very much of a pay-off in flavor.

Reading the book reminded me of times when I would be stuck having to listen to someone ramble on about whatever, and not having a means to extricate myself from the situation. Fortunately, in the case of the book, all I had to do was close it and shelve it.

As a resident of the author's city, I was looking forward to reading her much anticipated release. Unfortunately though, I was sorely disappointed. In fact, the reviewer who awarded A Taco Testimony two stars was generous. Unlike the 2-star reviewer though, I stuck with it, reading page after dull page, hoping it would improve (but never does), much like a monotonous "Saturday Night Live" skit that doesn't know when to end.

Without semblance of structure, she haphazardly places poems, recipes, and anecdotes at random, repeating herself ad nauseam utilizing the sophomoric "Taco is life" metaphor. Moreover, her inchoate thoughts lack depth and detail. Riddled with inconsistencies and contradictions, full of fluff and devoid of content, her style resembles that of a grade-groveling high school sycophant, trying to con her audience with melodrama and malaise, but inevitably saying nothing of note.

In her weak attempt to explain "Culture", for example, she affirms that it is lack of cultural awareness that results in our inability to know and respect others which ultimately causes violence in the world. Here, I agree. Yet her very example epitomizes HER ignorance of culture. With awkward phrasing she states, "A man who lives here but is not from here is trying to sue the city to get the three crosses, the symbol of our town, removed from all public displays." Not only does she promote divisiveness by insinuating that he is an outsider, despite claims throughout her book that we are all one people, she fails to acknowledge that the crosses of Calvary are recognized worldwide as the autograph of Christianity - that the triumvirate could represent centuries of violence perpetrated against non-believers. By failing to recognize the identities of non-adherents of Christianity, she obliterates them from the landscape, engaging in her own brand of cultural imperialism. Thus, the crosses are not merely the symbol of our town, the simplistic notion that the author would like us to believe.

Perhaps the author is better suited to writing fiction. I can only hope her tacos are better than her book.

It's so very true that you never really value what you have until it's gone. Such is the tone of A Taco Testimony. Like many of us, much of the author's life was spent wanting to get away from her small hometown and well away from her family. She wanted a life of her own where she could define who she wanted to be and where she could be a shining star.

Fortunately, as being part of a family seems to do, the author could never quite shake off who she was, where she came from, and those that loved her. She was the one that ended up taking care of her parents. In doing so, she was given a gift- the understanding that her parents were human just like her, they made mistakes, they had regrets, and like her they were extremely stubborn which often left feelings unsaid. Throughout it all, during the good times and the bad, there were tacos.

A Taco Testimony serves as both a memoir of the author's life experiences and a tribute to her parents. It was this latter aspect of the piece that really touched me. I started reminiscing through my own experiences, began seeing them in a new light and had the incredible urge to phone my mother and have a real conversation.