Latino Books

At times the book was a bit confusing it turned out to be a very gripping novel. You felt the emotions and you understood the characters and how they felt. It was very exciting and it had deep meaning about freedom and what it really means. You understood the hardships of dictatorship and the way it affects people's lives.You understood in what ways people under a dictatorship are effected and how they are not. By the second chapter I was pulled into the book and had trouble putting the book down. It was a truly spectacular work of fiction.

Julia Alvarez - Before we were Free. This talented, prize winning author, again has accurately written a fascinating novel about actual political events in the Dominican Republic during the critical period when her parents, family and friends sought freedom from oppression and won.
I am an Eye Witness. I was the the US Air Attaché at that time and was the tenant of their home when her parents had to flee to the United for safety.
Manuel J. Chavez
Lt. Col. USAF (Ret)

This is a wonderful book for anyone wanting to understand the day-to-day life of people living under a dictatorship. Alvarez eloquently tells of the "Trujillo Era" in the Dominican Republic. The 12-year-old narrator, Anita, learns about oppression when her cousin's family abruptly flees to the United States. During the year leading up to Trujillo's death, Anita discovers that she is living like a prisoner in her own country. When her father is arrested for participating in the assassination of Trujillo her mother must make some life changing decisions. This is a great book for anyone interested in getting a glimpse at what life might have been like during Trujillo's dictatorship.

As the story started, it was just like a normal book beginning, they're at school and it's a regular day. As I read on, it got better and better! It turned into a great book with its ups and its downs. It is about a girl named Anita who struggles under a dictatorship while her father is involved in a plot to overthrow the dictator. I would suggest this book to people who like to see how life was like in a war, or under a dictatorship in this case.

Julia Alvarez tells the story of the end of the Trujillo dictatorship (1960s Dominican Republic). She cleverly tells the story from the perspective of a pre-teen girl (Anita) while weaving in major political players and events. She captures Anita's loss of innocence as the oppressive political regime begins to impact her life first obliquely and then very directly. From the start, Alvarez engages us with her main character as she simultaneously paints on a much larger canvas. [As an adult male (without a pre-teen daughter), I found some of Anita's talk about growing into a woman and being in love with the boy next door tiresome, but it all felt right for the character.]

Alvarez doesn't shy away from the fiasco that took place after Trujillo's assassination, but she does leave off just before the country's first post-Trujillo elections (which were a farce, leaving a Trujillo crony in power for some thirty years). After you've finished the book, re-read the author's note at the beginning: Realizing Alvarez's intimate connection to the fictionalized events in the book is all the more poignant.

Note on content: Besides girlhood crushes, there is a brief, non-graphic mention of various forms of torture (ugly but important) and an allusion to Trujillo's penchant for young mistresses.

For adult readers, this is a sweet complement to Alvarez's wonderful earlier book, In the Time of the Butterflies, which tells the story of the Mirabal sisters, three key anti-Trujillo revolutionaries. While that book took us inside the resistance movement, having this book narrated by a child opens a window into how children are affected in times of oppression. For another perspective on the end of the Trujillo regime, read Mario Vargas Llosa's excellent La Fiesta Del Chivo [The Feast of the Goat]; that book is not appropriate for child readers, with graphic portrayals of torture and of violence against a child (apparently accurate to the time and place).

Julia Alvarez reads the unabridged audiobook herself and is perfect for the role (all the more impressive as I've heard Alvarez speak in person, and she doesn't really sound like a twelve-year-old girl).

I am an ESL teacher who works with 7th and 8th grade, primarily male, Latino and Hmong students. We first read The Circuit which told about Francisco Jimenez's family's first years as migrant farm workers in the United States. This autobiographical account relates the struggles the family encountered during Jimenez's early years in school. The older children and the parents picked fruit, vegetables, and cotton. The family moved according to the agricultural schedule in California. Everytime Francisco would start to feel "at home" in a school, the crop would be harvested and they would have to move to the next farm, hence the name The Circuit. The story ends when La Migra comes to pick up Francisco and his older brother at school. My students were anxious to find out what happened next. Would the family be deported or would they be allowed to stay in the U.S.? To find out we then read the second book, Breaking Through, which we are about half way through now and we're still enjoying every chapter. The books have spawned a multitude of conversations that have bonded us together. The kids can relate to Jimenez's life and he is a role model to them. He shows that hard work and determination lead to success. Personally I think everyone who is interested in immigration questions should read these books.

This book gave me a real insight as to how our migrant children really live! Thank You!

ANTHONY JOHNSTON
JAN. 11, 2007

"BREAKING THROUGH" BOOK REVIEW


The book is "Breaking Through" and the author is Francisco Jimenez. The main person in the book is the author. It is a true story. He has a mom, dad and brother. His brother's name is Roberto. I thought it would be a good book because the first sentence was "I lived in constant fear for ten long years."



You shouldn't read this book because there are a lot of Spanish words. The book is very long. It has 195 pages in the book. The Spanish words are very hard to read and you can't understand them.


The characters were papa, mama; Roberto and Francisco. They live on a farm or tent. Papa and mama are the mom and dad. Roberto is the brother. Francisco is the author and character in the book.



There are pictures of the author in the back of the book. The Jimenez's lived on a farm or tent. They grew up poor in America. They lived in a tent in America.




This book is very hard to read and it's long. The whole book is Francisco's life. I'd liked to sum up by saying I still don't like the book because I couldn't understand the words. In less you like reading Spanish you shouldn't read this book.

I bought *Breaking Through* without realizing that it was a sequel to *The Circuit*. Nonetheless, you aren't lost if you start with *Breaking Through* I loved this memoir because it was one of the best portrayal of a migrant family.

This memoir chronicled the life of Francisco Jimenez from the time that him and his family entered America from Mexico to his entrance into college.

The Jimenez family saved up some money and entered into Mexico illegally. They were soon caught, after a time, and deported back. However, they were able to get papers and return. Despite living in the land of freedom and opportunities, the family has to work hard in order to survive. They worked in strawberry fields, lettuce patches and cleaned buildings.

Francisco is loving school yet struggled to stay on top as he also has to work. His older brother did well in school but worked nearly as much as their often-ill father did. The mother stayed home and took care of the children. However, she often substituted in their work when needed.

*Breaking Through* is a story of a family working together. It's also a story of one finding one's own identity in America. It's also a story of one trying to achieve the American dream.

You'll laugh. You'll cry. If you don't understand the Mexican culture, you'll find yourself puzzled at some things. Coming from a Hispanic family, I found myself nodding and taking strolls in memory lane.

Overall, it's easy reading for a great book.

Book Review on Breaking Through


Hi, this book Breaking Through by Francisco Jimenez is a sad book. Why is it a sad book? A boy named Francisco struggles through life trying to keep his family together. He works and goes to school, also trying to keep his grades up. This book is a good book because of the Theme, believable charters, and a nice setting.

The theme is, heart breaking. It's heart breaking since a boy and his family have to face many difficult obstacles. The obstacles are not easy for Francisco and his family. They have to pay bills but they don't have any money. So the whole family except mom and the youngest ones have to work.

Besides the heart breaking theme there are nice believable charters. The charters sometimes where confused. They where confused because they didn't have money. No one to help them, and struggled to keep food on the table.

There also was a very good setting. The setting took place in many different places. Like school, fields, gas company, Twitchel and Twitchel. There are many different places. So that means that the family is all over the places.

So this book has a great theme. Wonderful setting that makes you feel like your there watching it all happing. Also nice believable charters that do things that you could relate to. So if you like heart breaking novels then this is the book for you.


The End

What a fascinating book! I really enjoyed it, but I am having a hard time explaining why - or even what the book is really about. I started to wait a while to write this to see if more understanding would come from further reflection, but decided I wouldn't know more then than I do now.

Through use of magical realism, Plascencia places us in the middle of a fight between: the author; his characters; and his real world friends. And the author and real world friends are also characters in the book. Or the characters are real and the author + friends are characters. Or something like that. Or not.

My recommendation: 1. Read the book. 2. YOU try to describe it to someone (other than saying "Trust me. You'll like it." 3. Be very, very wary of turtles.

Trust me. You'll like it.

This book feels great. Whatever they did, I wish more books felt like it. It may be the canvas on which the beautiful illustration rests or the ink or the tight binding, but I love cradling it, sometimes even when I'm not in the middle of reading it.

And this is surely intentional--much of the book cries and pleads for you to hold it close and to remember that it is physical, whether this be through typography or cuts in pages or the use of multiple perspectives per page. It hops, taunting: "Try to make me digital! Try to make me audio! Try!"

I could talk about the story, but if you're not sucked in by the romance of the artifact, you're not worth it.

Also, the red ink that makes up the flowers on both covers bleeds onto your hands while you grip the book and read, and you become as one of El Monte's many flower pickers, stained and sometimes bleeding their own ink. The black, the outline of 53 and Baby Nostradamus, smudges like so many notes left on Merced de Papel, more so when wet. Either way you become one of those made of paper.

Bleeding ink is likely accidental, but intention doesn't matter.

This books is like being inside someone's head as they are dealing with great sadness and loss while they try to squash/heal it by creating an imaginary world with people who are all dealing with the same/similar pain. Sadly, he never escapes his own pain by chronicling theirs. The book makes sense only after page 200 or so, but you want to keep reading before that - like a search for answers to questions you don't even know you're asking. If you are still totally lost and hate this book and don't want to finish it, page 218 mid page it tells you what the book is about and you have a light bulb moment.

The aim of magical realism, like all fiction, is to find new, more accurate, ways to reflect real life--to show us ways to understand our own heartbreak and our own sorrow. Plascencia's novel is wonderfully inventive in doing just that. Not only does it have an interesting structure and many elements that are not seen in other texts (like the black blotches), but the style is also engaging and hard to get it out of your head. I loved it. I didn't want to finish it.

Federico de la Fe is grieving for his wife who left him because he wets the bed. And he is leading an insane, futile, and destructive war against Saturn. Who is not only the planet Saturn but the author, Salvador Plascencia. That's the plot, I suppose. The book is packed with character sketches, meditations on the creative process, mind-bending inventions, including mechanical turtles, origami surgery, papercuts in intimate parts of the body, and its recurring theme, the pain of love and loss.

Author Plascencia is a fountain of creativity, but he is also repetitive and sometimes too clever. It is hard to really connect with the characters because the characters are too busy fighting a war with the author to develop themselves as three dimensional persons. They remain, mostly, people of paper.

The book is like a combination of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and James Joyce. It's intriguing, but hard to read, and hard to assimilate. It is a most novel novel. I recommend it but not for everyone. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.

It starts out with this Mexican family illegally coming across the border into the United States. When they get to the U.S., they go to a labor camp in California. This first labor camp is probably the best one that they go to. The whole book is about this family moving around to different labor camps during different crop seasons. Every now and then, Francisco and his brother Roberto go to school. Along the way there are more people added to the family. The book doesn't really come to a good ending. It is also kind of hard to understand because it jumps three years into the future at times and then you don't know what's going on.
This was a very good book at some times but most of the time the author put in way too many unnecessary details that make the book kind of boring. This book is exactly like it's sequel, Breaking Through. I would rate this book pretty low if like a lot of action.

This book was very interesting. I loved the way this book shows how Mexicans suffer, struggle and work hard to get what they need to survive. This book has a good way of showing the different types of experiences the family goes through. It gets to a point where you get so into the book that you get frightened of what could happen to the family next. You don't know if the family is going to get caught by the border patrol or if you're going to be able to find a job for the next season. You just don't know if your going to be able to survive the only thing you have in your hands is hope and faith.
There was nothing that I could hate about this book the only thing that I hated was to read about how bad this family suffered. It hurts to see how your own people gets discriminated but, it's ok because this family like many other Mexicans have still succeeded after all the things they have to go trough, like being discriminated. Other than that there is nothing to dislike about this book.
I would definitely recommend this book for everybody especially for people who like this family is an illegal immigrant in this country. I would like for the anti-immigrant people to read this book so they can see that no matter what they do to try to stop the immigrants from succeeding the immigrants will never stop trying no matter what they do to try to stop them. This book is a great book I am sure that this story has repeated itself many times by other Mexican families. I am also sure that it will keep repeating itself for many years, but there is always a limit and the day will come when the Mexicans will be treated the same as everybody else in this country. There are many illegal immigrants that have been more successful in life than the people that are legal in this country, and it kills the anti-immigrants to know this is true.

This is a great family book.I am American Caucasian and my husband is a Mexican imigrant.We read this story out loud to one another,and while it is writen (very well) in simple English so that any reader could probably read it,we enjoyed it imensly.
I can tell you that so much of this story corrolated with our friends and family and was very touching,but brought on a lot of chuckles as well.A great family read.

This book is a great place to start if you are interested in learning about the life of someone less priviledged than yourself. Perhaps it will help you appreciate the simple pleasures in life and everything that you've got. When you reach the end of the book, you'll be glad Jimenez wrote a sequel (Breaking Through).
Written in a language that is accessible to everyone from grade school to adulthood, Jimenez doesn't exaggerate details or go into a lot of long desriptions. It's simply his memories of his childhood in a migrant family. As all memories go, the book does not flow smoothly from chapter to chapter, but rather gives you snapshots of his life, so take it for what it is and don't worry about the chronology.
As a teacher, this book really helped me appreciate the lives and struggles of many of my students (who lead lives similar to Jimenez in his childhood).

The Circuit, one of my favorite books, is written by Francisco Jimenez. The Circuit is about a family that lived in El Rancho Blanco, Guadalajara. Francisco and his family moved to the United States crossing the border illegally. When they get to the United States in California they look for work and they work in the fields picking cotton. Francisco's family is always hiding from the border patrol which they call it "la migra." As they go on they move to different places. The reason I read this story is because it held my interest , because I wondered how it would be crossing the border illegally. Also, because some of the story reminds me about when I got here from Mexico. I really recommend this book. It's exciting and it taught me to eat all my food and not throw it away because Francisco's family did't have anything to eat sometimes. I would give this book a ten, and I really loved it a lot and I think you should try it.

HI, have you read a book about two .different cultures. My class just read a book called `'CREATIVITY'' BY John Stepoe. What I liked was Hector was from PuertoRico. And Charles But you could have told us more about Puerto Rico. No I would not Recommend because I did not like the book. Kashifu K. Grandberry

Have you read the b ook `'Creativity'' ? Our class read a book called `'Creativity'' by John Steptoe. I like when Charles gave Hector his shoes, because it was a nice thing to do. The author should have made the boys do more things together. I would
recommend it to my mom, my dad, and my sister, because they might like it.
Darius Harts, 3rd grade Scribe at CLAS

Our class just read a book Creativity by John Steptoe. I liked it when Charles and Hector gave clothes to each other. I liked it because it showed love. The author should have changed the part about the kids laughing at Hector.
Yaisa Dodd, 3rd grade Scribe at CLAS.

Have you ever read a book called "Creativity"? I had fun reading "Creativity". I like when Charles walked Hector home. Because in this story Charles did not won't his friend to look crazy. The author could have improved the book "Creativity" by making the picture better. I would recommend this book to my brother, my mom, and my dad.
Quentin Collier, 3rd grade Scribe at CLAS.

My class just read a book Creativity by John Steptoe. My favorite part was when they went to P.E. because even though every one was laughing at Hector Charles wasn't. But the author could of told us more about Puerto Rico. I will tell people they should read this book because it is interesting. Brittany Lowe, 3rd grade Scribe at CLAS.

Violet's quinceanero, something she thought of as a humiliation, changed all her views and prompted an area of her life that changed everything that was anything, and with the party, anything was everything. A quinceanero is what fifteen year-olds of the Hispanic persuasion use as the show of changing from a girl to a woman, and Violet was far from happy about hers. Over a year, Violet competed on the speech team, from which she got a boyfriend, organized her quinceanero, and tried futilely to learn from her secretive family about Cuba, where her Dad was from. Violet got pumped for the party, lied to her parents, and nearly didn't get to have the traditional dance with her Dad. Luckily, every part of the quinceanera's party thudded into place with funny family and friends and an easy to read, quirky book that I would recommend to middle to early high school girls.

Violet, or Violeta, was not a perfect teenager, but she learned from her mistakes. For her school speech team, she was in Original Comedy, and she was not very skillful at first, but she figured out how to make something that would win awards. She also figured out that she liked being out on stage. She listened to part of a poem that her best friend Janell was dedicating to her, and got offended before she had the right to do so. Janell told her the rest, and she was flattered. Violeta's biggest mistake was most likely when she lied to her parents about where she was going with her second best friend Leda. They went to a rally for PEACE WITH CUBA, and her father believed that it was evil, especially since she didn't tell him that she was going. Violet did have some sort of reason to go -her father would never talk about Cuba- but she learned not to lie, but to talk.

Nancy Osa gave the characters all very different personalities, which kept things interesting. Violet's grandfather (Abuelo) was stubborn; he wouldn't talk about Cuba either, funny with his music and constantly unchanged clothes, and excellent at dominoes. Violet's boyfriend, Clarence, was easy-going, seeing as how he was wide open to playing dominoes with Violet's father and brother instead of being alone with her, caring with his phone calls and willingness to go to a Cuba rally with her and Leda, and sort of scandalous because of the fact that he called Violet's house to ask if she would be at the party and then flirted with Leda. Violet at first didn't think that she was too cool of a person, but learned that she was very unique as a Cuban Polish girl with the crazy family, which she used in her Original Comedy.

Cuba 15 brought you through ups and downs that made it really easy to read. As I said, Violet's first speech team performance brought her down for good reason, but after that she got better and started to figure out that a quinceanero is not that bad. She went to the Halloween party after hearing Janell's poem and taking offense to it only to feel bad about her costume and her "headless date." Of course, her friends explained and everything was better. The lowest point of the book was when Violeta's dad wouldn't even go to her quinceanero because of her lies, that is, before he came to his senses and gave in to talking about Cuba.

There were a lot of things in Cuba 15 that I could relate to, like unfair parents, stress about life in general like Violet had in her fifteenth year of life, or fights with friends as Violet did once, both friends at the same time. It left you with things to think about, but it didn't make it seem like a sequel would come because it would probably mess up the aura of the story, which I will add was fantastic.

-K. Carson

In Cuba (Coo-ba) it's tradicional for a girl turning fifteen to have a quinceñero or a coming out party. But this is not the ideal birthday present for Violet Paz. Half Cuban on her father's side, and half Polish on her mothers but raised in America Violet doesn't really know what she is. One thing's for sure, she is having a quinceñero whether she wants one or not. This is due mainly to her grandmother who speaks a mixture of spanish and English when she's around violet. Violet only really knows what it was like in Cuba when her grandparents throw crazy domino parties while smoking and dancing the conga to loud Latin music. Coming up with the theme of the party, learning how to dance the waltz, trying to glean information abut Cuba from her father, practicing comedy speeches for the speech team, and schoolwork Violet has so much on her plate. But she still finds time for her boyfriend and her two best friends Leda and Janell.
Blending Spanish and English words may be confusing for some people but I thought that the author Nancy Osa did a great job of it. She also wrote in first person, it gave me an insight into violets life and made me feel sad or happy for her at times.
I really liked this book because I learned a lot about a different culture and what a quinceñero is. I thought that Violet was a very believable character and that she fitted in with the story perfectly. El Fin

This kind of book seems to be circulating a lot lately. Crazy ethnic family, a lot of Spanish. Not being a Spanish speaker, I didn't really want to read the spanish bits, although I find the quinceanera theme quite intriguing.

I read this book for a school book club, but I really liked it. However, there are quite a few books very similar to this one floating around out there.

Light hearted novel with the wonderful message of being proud of who you are and your family roots. This book is a great gift idea for Quincineros.
Interestingly enough, there is a wonderful little area of Chicago where many Polish and Cuban Catholics do live; and I hear from my Cuban friends that Cuban/Polish marriages are very common. I wonder if Osa based her story on this Polish/Cuban neighborhood. Whatever the case, this book is worth the read, as it brings people from different groups together too.i.e., we are all the same. Wonderful book!

Violet Paz gives little thought to her ethnicity. She's half-Cuban and half-Polish, but all American. She takes for father's roots for granted, even if her crazy relatives are always visiting for mega-Domino tournaments and zany cookouts. But when her grandmother and parents insist that she participate in her "quince," she is forced into a reluctant and embarrassed embrace with an "old world" tradition.

This debut novel masterfully and subtly details the modernization of the quinceanero, a coming-of-age party for a Latina's fifteenth birthday, through the eyes of a clever and humorous teen living near Chicago. The author, Nancy Osa, accurately captures the resentment of parental influence some teens experience in their quest for their own identity. As Violet struggles with being forced to participate in her own quince, she seeks advice from other adult figures who help her balance parental expectations with her own need for independence. Osa pulls off this high-wire act masterfully, not going "over the top" in teen rebellion fashion, nor making Violet an unbelievably acquiescent parent-pleaser.

Osa weaves the subplot into the novel quite well, also. It makes Violet's self-discovery a double success story: not only does she make her quince relevant to her modern, American life, but she uses her zany family's exploits as fodder for her speech team event.

CUBA 15 has received considerable attention and been nominated for numerous awards. This is a likeable story from a "new" author I hope we hear from again! Five stars.

Reviewed by: Mark Frye, author and reviewer

I have given this book as a gift to several people to whom English was not their first language - each thanked me and told me later it had helped them. The addition of CDs was nice as it allowed them to actually hear the words spoken and to practice more accurately. I hope to continue giving this book as a gift when needed.

I've been teaching English to Latinos for a few years. Usually, I use other materials for a one on one class, but I think this book is good to study alone. Most of it is written in Spanish. It doesn't seem to be boring. It is light hearted and a little funny.
I'm not sure I'm the best one to review it though, since I'm a native English speaker. The opinion that would matter more than mine would be from someone who has used the materials to learn English as an adult.

I bought this as a gift for a monolingual Spanish pastor in SE Nicaragua. Even though I was the first English speaking person to visit him in his poblado since he has lived there, he feels compelled to learn English so he may tell more people about his country.

Very "pocho" book, I dont like it.

Pocho: A rare mix among ENGLISH and SPANISH, commonly called "SPANGLISH"

I teach English to adult Latinos, and the generic ESL text (i.e., a book not designed for speakers of a specific foreign language) we were using earlier was just awful. My students really love using this book, and I can absolutely notice a marked improvement in their English. One caveat is that if you are an ESL tutor or teacher, you need to have a good knowledge of Spanish in order to make proper use of this text.

My daughter (aged 4) and I have enjoyed all of the Josefina books. Though the death of her mother is a major plot point in this story (and in most of the other stories in this series), it occurs a year before the events in the book, and no details of the death are presented. The book deals primarily with the griefing process, life on a New Mexican rancho in the early 19th century, and the arrival of Josefina's aunt. All the books in the series are very informative and present the New Mexican culture in an interesting and positive way. I highly recommend the series!

There is a young girl named Josefina. Josefina has so many dreams. She has three sisters and no brothers. Her mother died. If you like adventure and excitement this is the book for you.I think this is a great book. This book is exciting. I like this amazing book because it is adventurous.

This is the first in the American Girls series about Josefina Montoya, a nine-year-old girl living in the New Mexico of 1824. In this book, Josefina and her sisters wait for their grandfather to return from his annual trip to Mexico City. Each girl hopes that he will bring her her heart's desire. However, what Josefina desires is more complicated than what her sisters' desire: she wants her sisters to be at peace and her newly widowed father to be happy again. Can her grandfather bring such gifts? You must read to find out!

The final chapter is a fascinating and highly informative look into life in New Mexico in 1824. All the way through, Jean-Paul Tibbles beautiful illustrations help to make this a wonderful book.

This book is every bit as wonderful as the other American Girls books, and its look at Mexico is quite refreshing. My daughter has only recently begun to read about Josefina, and she loves the stories. I must admit that I love them too. In particular, I liked the fact that the family's religious faith is incorporated into the story. We both highly recommend this book to you.

This book teaches you about how a young mexican girl's life would be in 1824. This book is not boring at all. I think any child or adult would enjoy this book if they had common sense. I think this book deserves 20 stars, if that were possible.

This is my daughter's favorite American Girl! This book is the first in a series of 6 about a 9 yr. old Hispanic girl growing up in New Mexicio in the year 1824. In the beginning it shows pictures of Josefina's friends & family. Basically, the series is about how Josefina's family survives on their 'rancho' after their mother dies. The books go into Hispanic culture and history. At the end of the book are photographs of some of the things mentioned in the story, as well as a glossary of spanish words. My 7 yr. old daughter has no problem reading these books by herself.

Gay and lesbian "coming of age and coming out" novels and memoirs have become so common over the past few years that they virtually constitute a subgenre in their own right, with such titles as Paul Monette's BECOMING A MAN and Augusten Burroughs' RUNNING WITH SISSORS leading the pack. In BORROWING TIME, which author Carlos T. Mock describes as fiction with a somewhat factual basis, the genre takes a slightly different turn: both author Mock and the story's narrator Juan Subira are Latinos from Pureto Rico living in "white America," and the novel offers us a image of the American gay community as seen through their eyes.

The story opens with Juan rushed to the hospital: an HIV patient suddenly suffering from acute pancreatitis. A doctor himself, he floats on morphine between present and past, contemplating the impact of his background, be it for good or ill, upon his status as gay man. The boyish uncertainties, the teenage angst, the sexual confusion, the drive to be some one of significance--all are placed on full display.

BORROWING TIME is not a "literary" work in the sense of BECOMING A MAN nor is it a story in the sense of RUNNING WITH SISSORS; it lacks the elegant formality of the former and the story drive of the latter, and there are occasions when the narrative seems self-contradictory and now and then even mundane. But that, rather surprisingly, is rather the point; our narrator is morphine-laden and the experiences he recalls, while Latin-inflected, are universal in nature. It would be difficult to find a gay man who came of age in the 1970s and 1980s who could not tell much the same. In consequence, Juan emerges an "everyman." His experiences are the coin of the realm.

Althought the prose here is more workman-like than stylish, Mock does now and then conjure up a glittering passage--most often in his descriptions of location. His passages on Puerto Rico are particularly memorable, giving one the sense of a unique location alternately sparkling with sun and mysterious with shadow. Juan's love-hate relationship with his own background, his own culture colors the novel throughout in a particularly interesting way: the social norms, the customs, the religious edges of Puerto Rico inform the work and in often provides the book's most eloquent edges.

I found the sub-title, "A Latino Sexual Odyssey," poorly chosen and rather misleading, for it implies that the book is erotica--and although Mock has a fair amount to say on the subject of sex one would hardly describe the book as sexy, much less erotica. I must also note, and with tremendous irritation, that Floricanto Press has done a great disservice to the book in terms of page lay-out. Each page is "boxed" with a thin-line frame that has the effect of highlighting some of the most awkward paragraph spacing I have ever seen. This might seem inconsequential, but in this instance the effect is horrendously distracting. One hopes that this will be corrected in any future edition of the work.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

Borrowing Time: A Latino Sexual Odyssey. By Carlos T.
Mock. Floricanto Press, Mountain View, CA, 2003. 288
pp.$35.00 hardback (ISBN 0-915745-54-2)

Carlos Mock has written a book that tells a sweeping
story of life. It stands out from other stories in
current gay literature because the tale is told from
the standpoint of a Latino man, growing up in a strong
Catholic family in Puerto Rico, a view not seen often
in GLBT literature up until now. Floricanto Press, a
publisher of digital products and Latino, Chicano,
Mexican American, and Hispanic books, sought to reach
out to a market they felt was not covered well. It is
well past time for such a book, and Mock has a well
told story, that examines life from this perspective.

It some ways "Borrowing Time" fits the Magical Realism
of García-Marquez. Mock has bent and turned the story
of his own life into a fictional piece worthy of the
allusion to Paul Monette in the title. The main
character is struggling to understand his life in the
face of his diagnosis with HIV. He is also struggling,
in the stories he tells, with coming to terms with
being gay, his family's rejection, a Catholic
upbringing on the island, and a friendship that goes
sour. It really is a story for all people to read and
one that will be important for young Latinos coming to
terms with their identity.

Reviewed by Steve Stratton, Cal State-Channel Islands.
Copyrighted material. Reprinted from the American Library Association's GLBTRT Fall 2004 Newsletter by permission.

Borrowing Time: A Latino Sexual Odyssey. By Carlos T. Mock. Floricanto Press, Mountain View, CA, 2003. 288 pp.$35.00 hardback (ISBN 0-915745-54-2)

This book is mislabeled: Borrowing Time is billed as a Latino sexual odyssey, but it is not. Instead it is a wonderful story of love and compassion, growth and resolution, mourning and acceptance, and about family - the one you were born in, and the one you make.
Carlos T. Mock has written an engaging book about growing up gay in Puerto Rico, and how it affected the life of the protagonist, Juan Subirá-Rexach. Yet, it is a story of a gay "everyman." Anyone self-aware of themselves and their sexuality at an early age has faced many of the same dilemmas, and made choices - some of which were good, some not so much, as Juan describes.
The tone of the book is the studied reflection of a man facing his maker and his making. It begins with a vivid description of a hospital horror. Not the kind of scene involving dismemberments and gore, but the mind-numbing, full-of-excruciating-pain type that seems to be without surcease, a purgatory of pain that does not allow any escape. In that kind of agony, the only resort is inward, to the steps that led to the torture that results from a failing body due to AIDS. Mock's description captures this hopelessness when Juan states that he is defenseless: "not life nor faith, nor any of the structures that surround me, nothing...nothing more than fear. What experiences are left? Death, nothing else."
But do not get the wrong impression. This is not some morbid book about death and dying; it's not the main storyline. Borrowing Time has delightful anecdotes about the first baby steps taken in self-recognition of being "different" from other kids and how this occurred on the Enchanted Isle. Macho in Puerto Rico is not just a mannerism; it is a way of life that is very different from Ozzie and Harriett. Being outside of that machismo mandate is both revealing and staggering to Juan, who knows internally it is okay to be feeling "those" feelings, but sees a very different reaction from those around him - especially his father. Mock addresses this problem with strength and self-worth; it is a joy to behold.
The story also delves into unconditional love, and observations from the lofty angle of painful remorse. Juan is able to see things through the focused lens of time, and thereby finds nuggets of truth: "For the first time in my life I learned the silence that is required to really talk to a loved one." That "walls are either to protect what is inside, or to hide the fact there is nothing there." Or, that "love is like a clear stream; you don't know it's there till there's an impediment." And a favorite, "a relationship is judged on how well you travel together." Each of these observations comes from a life well lived and the recognition that the gifts and treasures given without end are "borrowed."
Most of the book is in leitmotif, and is an easy, fun read. For anyone who has had time to reflect on and assess where they have been and where they are going, and recognize the bullion of joy to be found, this is a must read.


Bob Hoff is an attorney practicing in Washington, D.C., living in Rehoboth Beach, Del., but reading in Condado Beach.

I was unable to put the book down! The author captured my youth, my fears, my shame, my guilt. As a Puerto Rican, I relived growing up in the Island knowing I was different. I relived leaving the Island to find myself, and finally, coming back to the Island transformed into my new self and not fitting in.

Like the author, I have found peace with who I am. I thank him for his wonderful book.

Borrowing Time: A Latino Sexual Odyssey, by Carlos T. Mock (Floricanto Press, $35) Mock's novel isn't truly self-published: Floricanto Press (www.floricantopress.com) does several books a year, and of several sorts - but doesn't do much more than print them, I imagine; the clunky design and odd paragraph layout work against what is otherwise a rather vivid read - and though an editor from the University of California is credited for work on the book, there are some odd stylistic and grammatical choices. That said, there's not a lot of gay storytelling from the Puerto Rican community, and that's partially the appeal of this heartfelt work, with its roots in Catholic doctrine, macho attitudes, and cultural differences. That's also the filter through which Monk addresses coming out, yearning for love, settling into a relationship, and - most viscerally - living with AIDS. It's probably no accident that Monk's title, Borrowing Time, echoes that of Paul Monette's monumental AIDS memoir, Borrowed Time: both focus on the excitement of living and the struggle to die with dignity.
An author interview: www.pridesource.com/article.shtml?article=7538

Richard Labonte From: Books to Watch Out For
(...)

sparrow hawk red is about 13 year old ricky tries to avenge his mothers death.cuased by a couple of drug dealers. all he has to do is steel a biplane!!
i like this book becuase its got lots of good details. and good action,and leves you dieing for more!

SICERLEY,
$$YO DADDY$$

The name of my book is Sparrow Hawk Red.It's about a boy who finds out his mother was killed by drug dealers. He runs away to Mexico and becomes a sreet rat, ratero. He meets a girl named Soledad who helps him out. She helps him get to Ranchao Camacho where he plans on stealing an airplane. It is a good book .If you want to find out what happens,read the book!

"Sparrow Hawk Red," written by Ben Mikaelsen is a very fun book to read. The story takes place in Arizona and Mexico and the climate is very hot. The description is so well you start to sweat because of the heat. The moral of the story is to keep going for your goal and never quit.
The story is about a kid named Ricky Diaz and his dad Benito who was in the DEA, but quit after his wife died. The F.B.I wants him to go on one last mission to Mexico to steal a plane from drug dealers, but refuses. Ricky thinks his dad is a quitter so he goes to Mexico and can't go back because he ripped up his I.D. Then he meets a poor girl named Soledad who is a huge help to Ricky. I do not want to give away the end.
This is a great book for future pilots or people that like adventure. I give this two thumbs up. This is one of the most suspenseful books I've ever read. I don't recommend this book for people who don't like violence.

Sparrow Hawk Red is an excellent book. It is about a boy who's mom got killed in a car accident that was set up by drug runners who were trying to kill his dad who was in the DEA and busted one of the drug runners. Now go on an adventure with a young boy who traveled to Mexico to help his Father and ruin the people who killed his Mother.

Sparrow Hawk Red is an adventurous story. Ricky Diaz learns that drug smugglers killed his mother. He runs away to Mexico to get revenge. Ricky plans on stealing a bi-plane from the drug cartel and flying it back to the U.S.A. After he gets there Ricky experiences many difficulties. A girl named Soledad becomes his friend. Soledad tries to get Ricky to realize that his idea of stealing the plan is a death wish. If you want to know more about Ricky's and Soledad's adventures you should read this book.It will make you hungry for more. Studio A!!!!