Intellectually Entertaining. Socially Relevant.
I want books. Good books by and about Latinos. Since Latinos comprise a large and growing part of the U.S. population, with increasingly significant purchasing power, I naturally assumed that these figures would have translated into a flood of new Latino to Latino products, like books. But, as highlighted by a recent New York Times Read More
“Vino descalso is what they called it”, Michael Houlihan exclaimed with his hearty Northern Californian accent. “When they gave us a nickname I knew they loved it!” What Houlihan is referring to is the smashing success Barefoot Wine began to experience once it began to be marketed to Latino communities in the mid 1980s. This Read More
“This is not a get rich quick plan,” said Michael Houlihan during our first phone conversation in November. “Too often people try them out and after awhile they fail.” What Houlihan says not untrue and does occur far too often. What he’s alluding to though are the stories readers will discover in his new book Read More
Ana L. Flores and Roxana A. Soto have written a book which is truly an asset for any parental figure looking to raise bilingual, or even multiple-lingual, children. Their book, “Bilingual Is Better,” houses a wealth of knowledge. Soto pens a succinct history of the four largest groups within the Latino community in the U.S., Read More
A shock came over me when I found out what students in the school I teach at were reading. I saw in opened book bags copies of Piri Thomas’s Down These Mean Streets. My horror was confirmed when I saw stacks of the books on the side of a classroom that I happen to share Read More
It’s about a quarter after 10:00 p.m. and the Harlem Haberdashery is officially closing up shop after a successful event for Elena Romero’s book release. All the meeting and greeting is done for the evening. Every hors d’oeuvre has been served and taken in along with the cocktails by each gormandizer in attendance. Elena gets Read More
In part one, I highlighted the career of author Elena Romero and briefly touched on her new book Free Stylin’: How Hip Hop Changed the Fashion Industry. This second installment of this article I will uncover the story of how the manuscript came to life. As soon as she began covering the burgeoning hip hop Read More
I have to be completely honest with everyone who will be reading the following piece. This one will contain a horde of firsts for me. I’ve never done an article about fashion of any category. I’ve never interviewed a journalist of Puerto Rican heritage. Nor did I ever entertain the notion that I’d be interviewing Read More
A marriage falls apart; the father goes one way, the mother goes another, and the kids shuffle back and forth. One parent gets custody of the friendships that were cultivated during the marriage, and the other goes out into the world learning how to make friends all over again. In Better With You Here, the Read More
Book of the Month Join us as we delve into July’s Book of the Month: When I was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago. Esmeralda’s essays and opinion pieces have appeared in numerous publications, such as The New York Times and The Boston Globe. Along with a novel and a children’s book, she has written three Read More