Fwd: LECTOR: THE HISPANIC BOOK REVIEW JOURNAL

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In a message dated 2/5/2005 9:13:30 PM Pacific Standard Time, rcabello@floricantopress.com writes:

Bring Me More Stories. By Sally Benforado. Floricanto Press ISBN: 0915745674  $22.95

In these short tales, author Benforado weaves together the oral history of a family of Sephardic Jews, from their close knit home in Turkey to their new lives in America. They are stories of a heritage that spans the globe, of centuries-old traditions transported to a different world, and of people who held tightly to the ways of their ancestors, who, like them, left their homes to settle in a strange new land. Following their exodus from Spain in 1492, Sephardic Jews were not allowed to remain on Spanish territories. Any Sephardim who chose not to leave, had to convert to Catholicism. Many chose to emigrate and leave Spain, their ancestral land forever.The hardships faced upon leaving Spain were horrific for the Spanish Jews. Paris vividly describes the following: Although some Jews "traveled by donkey," the Jews of Spain, for the most part, literally walked out of their country. These refugees were the "scholars, the sons and daughters of families who had served their monarchs. . . shoemakers, tanners, butchers, the old, the pregnant, [and] the young." Extraordinary weather conditions, in the heat of summer, and the harshness of the land caused many to endure severe suffering. The Sephardim who had so much pride in their achievements could not believe their banishment. Traveling conditions were quite dangerous, especially in unsafe ships. Yet, many chose exile, and as Paris explains, " Those who chose exile were, for the most part, the salt-of-the-earth of Spanish Jewry: the artisans, the tradesmen, and the women—the historical carriers of religious tradition." An extraordinary civilization was lost in Iberia, probably to never again regain its glory.

Bring Me More Stories stands as a living testament to a people born of their Hispanic ancestry, Jewish tradition and immigrant experience.

 

 NEW!!

The Illegal Alien: a Dagger into the Heart of America?? By Raoul Lowery Contreras, Floricanto Press ISBN:0-915745-61-5 $29.95

ILLEGAL ALIEN is the most reasoned analysis to date of the controversial issue of illegal immigration and its growing impact on the American economy and way of life. Mr. Contreras makes a historical comparison of immigration and a well-documented scrutiny of the vocal opinions of well-known anti-immigrant spoke-persons as well as those who seek unrestricted openness of our borders.    “With impeccable logic, Raoul Lowery Contreras demolishes the drivel emanating from anti-immigration fanatics - the “knuckle-dragging element within the Republican Party,” as he puts it. Yet he is clear-eyed enough to also take on the “professional plantationeers” of the radical Chicano movement and their liberal sponsors on America’s campuses and at activist “minority” groups. A cry for common sense from the radical center, showing American Hispanics can - and must - punch to the left and to the right.” Roger E. Hernández, Nationally Syndicated Columnist

NEW!!

 Remnants of Crypto-Jews Among Hispanic Americans. By Gloria Golden. Floricanto Press, ISBN:0-915745-56-9 $29.95

Hidden deep in the heart of the American Southwest among the larger Hispanic population are descendants of the Sephardim, Jews from Spain and Portugal. Five hundred years after their expulsion from Spain remnants of Judaism are still practiced within Southwestern Hispanic communities. Often unaware of their origins, conversos have revealed, through oral history, how the ancestral faith of the Crypto-Jews has been passed on from generation to generation. "Five hundred years after the Inquisition, Gloria Golden manages to turn the little-known subject of crypto-Jews into an inspiring tale of identity. The rich portraiture and captivating oral histories offer a poignant view of what it means to discover and embrace one's Judaism." Elana Harris, Managing Editor, B'nai B'rith Magazine "Gloria Golden's images and text provide a valuable insight into the Crypto-Judaic world. All who are drawn to this fascinating subject will find great rewards in this volume." Rabbi Joshua Stampfer, Founder and First President of the Society for Crypto Judaic Studies "The impact of these photographs and related interviews cannot be measured. Surely, through their existence, we touch a part of our past, and preserve it for our children's children. It is another piece in the great puzzle of our scattered people." Flora Sussely, Director, Adult Programs, Mittleman Jewish Community Center

Borrowing Time: A Latino Sexual Odyssey. By Carlos T. Mock, M.D.  Edited by Andrea Alessandra Cabello, UC Berkeley. ISBN: 0-915745-54-2 $39.95 Hardbound  “Whatever your orientation, no matter your ethnicity, you’ll never be the same after a journey through this odyssey. A vivid and visceral portrayal of a sexual and political coming-of-age in today’s America—and beyond.” Laura S. Washington, Ida B. Wells-Barnett University Professor, DePaul University; Columnist, Chicago Sun-Times.  “Gay literature is rich in so many areas, yet we still have a need for strong stories from the world of Latino culture—about family, about youth, about coming out, about creating adult relationships, about AIDS. Now, Carlos Mock give us a strong Latino story that deals with all these isues.” —Patricia Nell Warren, author of The Front Runner and The Wild Man.     

Love & Riot: Oscar Zeta Acosta and the Great Mexican American Revolt.  By Burton Moore. With Preamble by Diego Vigil with the assistance of Richard E. Vigil, Nome de guerre, Mangas Coloradas. Edited by Andrea Alessandra Cabello. $39.95 Hardbound. ISBN: 0-915745-29-1 $39.95 This is the story of the rage and fury of the Los Angeles Riots that swept LA during the gestation of the Movimiento Chicano, MECHA, Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, and of the remarkable life of Oscar Zeta Acosta—a radical civil-rights lawyer who defended Chicano activists, among them the LA 13, won new rights for Latinos, and challenged the LA establishment.

The Cult of Jaguar.      By Bonnie Hayman. Floricanto Press, Mountain View, Ca. 2004. ISBN: 0915745585 Hardbound $39.95  Set in the sultry and mysterious jungles of Mexico, with a backdrop of Mayan calendar, pyramids, Maya prophecies ( Maya calendario, piramides y profecias), the story revolves around several interesting characters who are after the same thing-each for a different reason.  What happened to the ancient native civilizations of Mexico and Central America, which disappeared without a trace? The Mayan and Aztec cultures left important archaeological sites in Middle America before their civilizations vanished from this earth.

   

THE DRUGLORD. Neissa, Peter A. 2004 210 pgs. (pbk) ISBN: 091574526 $38.95 It is the true life story of Gonzalo  Rodriguez Gacha, the drug lord of the Bogota branch of the Colombian Drug Cartel, this historical novel offers a factual and knowledgeable Colombian perspective that well connected Colombians have known for years: the real Drug Cartel, a group consisting of over two-hundred drug traffickers, met for the first time in 1976, not to discuss drugs, but to devise a solution to the kidnapping and murders inflicted upon them by the Marxist guerrillas. This led to cooperation on other matters —like cocaine. The Drug Lord, born an outcast in 1952, during Colombia’s bloody civil war, rose from poverty to multi-billionaire status in the violent world of cocaine traffic.

Tina Modotti’s Mexico: A Tale of Love & Revolution  Bonnie Hayman. Edited by Andrea Alessandra Cabello, UC Berkeley. ISBN: 0-915745-40-2 $39.95 Hardbound   Hayman situates Tina Modotti (1896-1942) profoundly within her social period from her 1913 emigration to San Francisco to a full-fledged member of the intellectual wing of the Mexican Communist Party. She is one of the most important contemporary women of Mexico.  When the Mexican president was assassinated, she was accused and deported. She returned to Mexico many years later and lived alone in a small cottage until her mysterious death in a taxi at age 46. Octavio Paz claimed that Tina Modotti belonged “more to the history of passions than to the history of ideologies”  Modotti lived a full life of her own choice, and that politics, ideology, and history were never paramount to her own personal life—an indescribable story of fame, style, gossip and turmoil.

LATINA HEALERS: LIVES OF POWER AND TRADITION Oliva Espín.  173 pgs. (pbk) Ser.: La Mujer Latina. 2004 ISBN: 0-915745-49-6 Includes biblio and table. $35.00                 "Latina Healers casts new light on the centrality of gender and migration status on the lives of Latina women. Encompassing the idiosyncrasies of individual decisions and the social context of the healers' lives, this book presents an original analysis of the relationship between gender, power, religious beliefs and social status of curanderas. It brings the scholarship on life narratives together with understandings of the impact of migration and traditional beliefs on the lives of these women. Heralding women not as passive victims of social forces, but as active and creative agents of their lives, the book's findings are valuable for mental health practitioners, feminist scholars, and all interested in the lives of Latinas."  Lillian Comas-Díaz, Ph.D.,

The Salvation of La Purísima. By T.M. Spooner. ISBN: 0-915745-55-0. Hard cover $32.95.

New Novel, The Salvation of La Purísima, explores an anthropologist’s struggle with professional objectivity as he is drawn into a crisis in a Mexican village. The chilling and dramatic events will significantly change him.  In the aftermath of a death during a border-crossing attempt, a Mexican village desperately searches for understanding and survival.  Compellingly told and written – with tender regard for its characters. T.M. Spooner’s debut novel, The Salvation of La Purísima, reveals the forces driving migrants north and the resulting impact on the communities and families left behind. The journey north is no longer just an economic necessity, but has evolved into a right of passage for so many of Mexico’s rural youth.

 

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Inter American Development/Floricanto Press

650 Castro St., Suite 120-331

Mountain View, California 94041-2055

Telephone: (415) 552 1879   Fax (702) 995 1410

info@floricantopress.com

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Floricanto Press New Book Titles     

 http://www.floricantopress.com/            http://www.floricantopress.com/catalog/title_list_253178_products.htm

 

NEW!!

Bring Me More Stories. By Sally Benforado. Floricanto Press ISBN: 0915745674  $22.95

In these short tales, author Benforado weaves together the oral history of a family of Sephardic Jews, from their close knit home in Turkey to their new lives in America. They are stories of a heritage that spans the globe, of centuries-old traditions transported to a different world, and of people who held tightly to the ways of their ancestors, who, like them, left their homes to settle in a strange new land. Following their exodus from Spain in 1492, Sephardic Jews were not allowed to remain on Spanish territories. Any Sephardim who chose not to leave, had to convert to Catholicism. Many chose to emigrate and leave Spain, their ancestral land forever.The hardships faced upon leaving Spain were horrific for the Spanish Jews. Paris vividly describes the following: Although some Jews "traveled by donkey," the Jews of Spain, for the most part, literally walked out of their country. These refugees were the "scholars, the sons and daughters of families who had served their monarchs. . . shoemakers, tanners, butchers, the old, the pregnant, [and] the young." Extraordinary weather conditions, in the heat of summer, and the harshness of the land caused many to endure severe suffering. The Sephardim who had so much pride in their achievements could not believe their banishment. Traveling conditions were quite dangerous, especially in unsafe ships. Yet, many chose exile, and as Paris explains, " Those who chose exile were, for the most part, the salt-of-the-earth of Spanish Jewry: the artisans, the tradesmen, and the women?the historical carriers of religious tradition." An extraordinary civilization was lost in Iberia, probably to never again regain its glory.

Bring Me More Stories stands as a living testament to a people born of their Hispanic ancestry, Jewish tradition and immigrant experience.

 

 NEW!!

The Illegal Alien: a Dagger into the Heart of America?? By Raoul Lowery Contreras, Floricanto Press ISBN:0-915745-61-5 $29.95

ILLEGAL ALIEN is the most reasoned analysis to date of the controversial issue of illegal immigration and its growing impact on the American economy and way of life. Mr. Contreras makes a historical comparison of immigration and a well-documented scrutiny of the vocal opinions of well-known anti-immigrant spoke-persons as well as those who seek unrestricted openness of our borders.    ?With impeccable logic, Raoul Lowery Contreras demolishes the drivel emanating from anti-immigration fanatics - the ?knuckle-dragging element within the Republican Party,? as he puts it. Yet he is clear-eyed enough to also take on the ?professional plantationeers? of the radical Chicano movement and their liberal sponsors on America?s campuses and at activist ?minority? groups. A cry for common sense from the radical center, showing American Hispanics can - and must - punch to the left and to the right.? Roger E. Hernández, Nationally Syndicated Columnist

NEW!!

 Remnants of Crypto-Jews Among Hispanic Americans. By Gloria Golden. Floricanto Press, ISBN:0-915745-56-9 $29.95

Hidden deep in the heart of the American Southwest among the larger Hispanic population are descendants of the Sephardim, Jews from Spain and Portugal. Five hundred years after their expulsion from Spain remnants of Judaism are still practiced within Southwestern Hispanic communities. Often unaware of their origins, conversos have revealed, through oral history, how the ancestral faith of the Crypto-Jews has been passed on from generation to generation. "Five hundred years after the Inquisition, Gloria Golden manages to turn the little-known subject of crypto-Jews into an inspiring tale of identity. The rich portraiture and captivating oral histories offer a poignant view of what it means to discover and embrace one's Judaism." Elana Harris, Managing Editor, B'nai B'rith Magazine "Gloria Golden's images and text provide a valuable insight into the Crypto-Judaic world. All who are drawn to this fascinating subject will find great rewards in this volume." Rabbi Joshua Stampfer, Founder and First President of the Society for Crypto Judaic Studies "The impact of these photographs and related interviews cannot be measured. Surely, through their existence, we touch a part of our past, and preserve it for our children's children. It is another piece in the great puzzle of our scattered people." Flora Sussely, Director, Adult Programs, Mittleman Jewish Community Center

Borrowing Time: A Latino Sexual Odyssey. By Carlos T. Mock, M.D.  Edited by Andrea Alessandra Cabello, UC Berkeley. ISBN: 0-915745-54-2 $39.95 Hardbound  ?Whatever your orientation, no matter your ethnicity, you?ll never be the same after a journey through this odyssey. A vivid and visceral portrayal of a sexual and political coming-of-age in today?s America?and beyond.? Laura S. Washington, Ida B. Wells-Barnett University Professor, DePaul University; Columnist, Chicago Sun-Times.  ?Gay literature is rich in so many areas, yet we still have a need for strong stories from the world of Latino culture?about family, about youth, about coming out, about creating adult relationships, about AIDS. Now, Carlos Mock give us a strong Latino story that deals with all these isues.? ?Patricia Nell Warren, author of The Front Runner and The Wild Man.     

Love & Riot: Oscar Zeta Acosta and the Great Mexican American Revolt.  By Burton Moore. With Preamble by Diego Vigil with the assistance of Richard E. Vigil, Nome de guerre, Mangas Coloradas. Edited by Andrea Alessandra Cabello. $39.95 Hardbound. ISBN: 0-915745-29-1 $39.95 This is the story of the rage and fury of the Los Angeles Riots that swept LA during the gestation of the Movimiento Chicano, MECHA, Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, and of the remarkable life of Oscar Zeta Acosta?a radical civil-rights lawyer who defended Chicano activists, among them the LA 13, won new rights for Latinos, and challenged the LA establishment.

The Cult of Jaguar.      By Bonnie Hayman. Floricanto Press, Mountain View, Ca. 2004. ISBN: 0915745585 Hardbound $39.95  Set in the sultry and mysterious jungles of Mexico, with a backdrop of Mayan calendar, pyramids, Maya prophecies ( Maya calendario, piramides y profecias), the story revolves around several interesting characters who are after the same thing-each for a different reason.  What happened to the ancient native civilizations of Mexico and Central America, which disappeared without a trace? The Mayan and Aztec cultures left important archaeological sites in Middle America before their civilizations vanished from this earth.

   

THE DRUGLORD. Neissa, Peter A. 2004 210 pgs. (pbk) ISBN: 091574526 $38.95 It is the true life story of Gonzalo  Rodriguez Gacha, the drug lord of the Bogota branch of the Colombian Drug Cartel, this historical novel offers a factual and knowledgeable Colombian perspective that well connected Colombians have known for years: the real Drug Cartel, a group consisting of over two-hundred drug traffickers, met for the first time in 1976, not to discuss drugs, but to devise a solution to the kidnapping and murders inflicted upon them by the Marxist guerrillas. This led to cooperation on other matters ?like cocaine. The Drug Lord, born an outcast in 1952, during Colombia?s bloody civil war, rose from poverty to multi-billionaire status in the violent world of cocaine traffic.

Tina Modotti?s Mexico: A Tale of Love & Revolution  Bonnie Hayman. Edited by Andrea Alessandra Cabello, UC Berkeley. ISBN: 0-915745-40-2 $39.95 Hardbound   Hayman situates Tina Modotti (1896-1942) profoundly within her social period from her 1913 emigration to San Francisco to a full-fledged member of the intellectual wing of the Mexican Communist Party. She is one of the most important contemporary women of Mexico.  When the Mexican president was assassinated, she was accused and deported. She returned to Mexico many years later and lived alone in a small cottage until her mysterious death in a taxi at age 46. Octavio Paz claimed that Tina Modotti belonged ?more to the history of passions than to the history of ideologies?  Modotti lived a full life of her own choice, and that politics, ideology, and history were never paramount to her own personal life?an indescribable story of fame, style, gossip and turmoil.

LATINA HEALERS: LIVES OF POWER AND TRADITION Oliva Espín.  173 pgs. (pbk) Ser.: La Mujer Latina. 2004 ISBN: 0-915745-49-6 Includes biblio and table. $35.00                 "Latina Healers casts new light on the centrality of gender and migration status on the lives of Latina women. Encompassing the idiosyncrasies of individual decisions and the social context of the healers' lives, this book presents an original analysis of the relationship between gender, power, religious beliefs and social status of curanderas. It brings the scholarship on life narratives together with understandings of the impact of migration and traditional beliefs on the lives of these women. Heralding women not as passive victims of social forces, but as active and creative agents of their lives, the book's findings are valuable for mental health practitioners, feminist scholars, and all interested in the lives of Latinas."  Lillian Comas-Díaz, Ph.D.,

The Salvation of La Purísima. By T.M. Spooner. ISBN: 0-915745-55-0. Hard cover $32.95.

New Novel, The Salvation of La Purísima, explores an anthropologist?s struggle with professional objectivity as he is drawn into a crisis in a Mexican village. The chilling and dramatic events will significantly change him.  In the aftermath of a death during a border-crossing attempt, a Mexican village desperately searches for understanding and survival.  Compellingly told and written ? with tender regard for its characters. T.M. Spooner?s debut novel, The Salvation of La Purísima, reveals the forces driving migrants north and the resulting impact on the communities and families left behind. The journey north is no longer just an economic necessity, but has evolved into a right of passage for so many of Mexico?s rural youth.

 

To be removed from our e-mail list, please, send an e-mail to info@floricantopress.com with the subject in capitals REMOVE

Inter American Development/Floricanto Press

650 Castro St., Suite 120-331

Mountain View, California 94041-2055

Telephone: (415) 552 1879   Fax (702) 995 1410

info@...

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