Voices in First Person: Reflections on Latino Identity
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About this ebook
This eclectic, gritty, and groundbreaking collection of short monologues features twenty-one of the most respected Latino authors writing today, including Sandra Cisneros, Oscar Hijuelos, Esmeralda Santiago, and Gary Soto. Their fictional narratives give voice to what it's like to be a Latino teen in America. These voices are yearning. These voices are angry. These voices are, above all else, hopeful. These voices are America.
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Book preview
Voices in First Person - Lori Marie Carlson
VOICES IN FIRST PERSON
Atheneu m Books for Young Readers
An imprint of Simon & Schuster
Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas,
New York, New York 10020
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Photographs copyright © 2008 by Manuel Rivera-Ortiz
Illustrations copyright © 2008 by Flavio Morais
All rights reserved, including the right of
reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Voices in first person: reflections on Latino identity /
edited by Lori Marie Carlson.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: A collection of brief stories, poems, and reminiscences about the experiences of Latinos in the United States, by such writers as Sandra Cisneros, Gary Soto, Oscar Hijuelos, and others.
ISBN-13: 978-1-4169-8445-0
ISBN-10: 1-4169-8445-3
1. Hispanic Americans—Literary collections. [1. Hispanic Americans—Literary collections.] I. Carlson, Lori M.
PZ5.V76 2008
[Fic]—dc22
2006034161
Visit us on the World Wide Web:
http://www.SimonSays.com
For my young friend Azula Carmen Wilson, and in memory of William Sloane Coffin, Jr., prophet, leader, teacher
—L.M.C.
acknowledgments
I wish to acknowledge the following individuals who, in 2005 and 2006, as I was finishing this book, helped to sustain me through much loss. First my husband, Oscar, and my parents, Robert and Marie; sister Leigh Ann and brother-in-law Larry; my agent, Jennifer Lyons; my editor, Caitlyn Dlouhy; and last, but certainly not least, champions Karen Levinson, Allen Brill, and Ashley Normand. In my midst, too, were caring friends and neighbors: Carol and Jeffrey, Lou and Laurie, Jenny and Jamie, Roger, Meg and Mark, David and Sue, Jonathan, Monroe, Edith, Shirley, Barbara and Jim, and Marilyn. And farther afield, in other states and countries, were friends whose prayers and kindness reminded me to look for beauty: Marjorie and John, Ylva, Constanza, and Pina. Thank you all. For your humanity.
a note on the texts
Some of the monologues in this collection ignore correct spelling and diacritical usage. Rather than altering such instances—so as to make these particular monologues conform to standard written English and Spanish—I have chosen to respect the authors’ artistic license and creative grammar and punctuation. It is my wish to emphasize the liveliness and whimsy of the spoken word so that the underlying rhythm and freedom of the authors’ syntax comes through loud and clear.
Contents
Editor’s Note
Ritual
by Claudia Quiroz Cahill
Reclaim Your Rights as a Citizen of Here, Here
by Michele Serros
Spending Money
by Gary Soto
I Stand at the Crosswalk
by Esmeralda Santiago
Angel’s Monologue
by Gwylym Cano
José
by Caridad de la Luz
The Evil Eye
by Raquel Valle Sentíes
Poultrymorphosis
by Oscar Hijuelos
Last Week I Wanted to Die
by Susan Guevara
I’m Mad at My Father
by Trinidad Sánchez Jr.
Translating Things
by Marjorie Agosín
Mujeriego
by Michael Mejias
Birth
by Walkiris Portes
Me American
by Jesse Villegas
My First American Summer
by Lissette Mendez
God Smells Like a Roast Pig
by Melinda Lopez
Oh, Beautiful?
by René Pedraza del Prado