FromWikipedia: “Black Friday is the namegiven to the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States,traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shoppingseason. On this day, most majorretailers open extremely early, often at 4 am, or earlier, and offerpromotional sales to kick off the holiday shopping season, similar to Boxing Daysales in many Commonwealth Nations.”
FromLa Bloga (today): “Brown Friday is the name given to the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States,traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shoppingseason. On this day, most lovers ofLatino literature will find that perfect book that will make a great giftduring this holiday season.”
Aswe see news reports of people bundled up in long lines waiting to grab the bestprice on flat screen TVs (bring your pepper spray!), why not give the gift of literature by finding that perfect book written by one of the many talented Latino authors who populate this great place we call earth? Andwhile you’re at it, do you know of a Latino-owned bookstore in your city thatcarries such potential holiday gifts?
So,to kick off this first annual Brown Friday, here are a few titles from 2012that would make good stocking stuffers. AndI encourage readers of La Bloga to add other titles in the comments below. Also, if you have a great Latino-ownedbookstore to recommend, please do so. Here in Los Angeles, I recommend TÃaChucha’s Centro Cultural located at 13197-A Gladstone Ave., Sylmar, CA91342.
Remember,this list is not meant to be exhaustive…it’s just a good start.
WesternAvenue and Other Fictions (University of Arizona Press) by FredArroyo. From the publisher: “In theseengaging and often gripping short stories, Fred Arroyo takes us into the livesof working-class Hispanic migrants and immigrants, who are often invisiblewhile they work in plain sight across America. As characters intertwine and evolve acrossstories, Arroyo creates a larger narrative that dramatizes the choices we maketo create identity, make meaning, and deal with hardships and loss. His stories are linked by a concern withborders, both real and imagined, and the power that memory and imagination haveto shape and structure our lives.”
Conjuro (MammothPublications) by Xánath Caraza. From thepublisher: “Xánath Caraza's first book-length collection Conjuro (Spellbound)… is published by Mammoth Publications, aNative-owned literary press. In thistri-lingual text, Caraza combines Spanish, English, and Nahuatl (language ofthe Aztecs) to create a continuous spell of verse. Caraza's writing derives from her awareness ofIndigenous thought: words are tangible objects, not abstractions, and capableof influencing physical reality's web of interactions.”
Breathing,In Dust(Texas Tech University Press) by Tim Z. Hernandez. From the publisher: “Deep within California’sgolden agricultural heartland lies a rotten core: the fictional farmingcommunity of Catela, where the desperate realities of poverty, drug abuse,violence, and bigotry play out in the lives of cucarachas and coyotes, tweekersand strippers, wetbacks and white trash…. Tim Z. Hernandez’s land of pain andplenty, his Catela, evokes the essence of the migrant underclass experience. But more, his stories take us there, into thestreets and into the groves, into the back rooms of the carnicerias and thepanaderias, onto the tracks, onto the thirsty highways, in scenes that unfoldwith graphic, breathtaking honesty.”
Performingthe US Latina and Latino Borderlands (Indiana University Press)edited by Arturo J. Aldama, Chela Sandoval and Peter J. GarcÃa. From the publisher: “In thisinterdisciplinary volume, contributors analyze the expression of Latina/o culturalidentity through performance. With musictheater, dance, visual arts, body art, spoken word, performance activism,fashion, and street theater as points of entry, contributors discuss culturalpractices and the fashioning of identity in Latino/a communities throughout theUS. Examining the areas of crossoverbetween Latin and American cultures gives new meaning to the notion of ‘borderlands.’ This volume features senior scholars andup-and-coming academics from cultural, visual, and performance studies,folklore, and ethnomusicology.”
TacoUSA: How Mexican Food Conquered America (Scribner) by GustavoArellano. From the publisher: “The nationallysyndicated columnist and bestselling author of ¡Ask a Mexican! presents a fascinating and tasty trip through thehistory and culture of Mexican food in this country, uncovering great storiesand charting the cuisine’s tremendous popularity in el Norte.”
TheDreamer(Scholastic) by Pam Muñoz Ryan and illustrated by Peter SÃs. From the publisher: “From the time he is ayoung boy, Neftalà hears the call of a mysterious voice. Even when the neighborhood children taunt him,and when his harsh, authoritarian father ridicules him, and when he doubtshimself, Neftalà knows he cannot ignore the call. Under the canopy of the lush rain forest, intothe fearsome sea, and through the persistent Chilean rain, he listens and hefollows…. Combining elements of magical realism with biography, poetry,literary fiction, and sensorial, transporting illustrations, Pam Muñoz Ryan andPeter SÃs take readers on a rare journey of the heart and imagination.”
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