Now available for the first time in paperback, The Memories of Ana Calderón is the fictional memoir of a talented woman, born in tradition-bound rural Mexico, who comes to the United States and greater opportunity only to find that here, too, society, family, and religion seem to conspire to hold her back. In order to succeed Ana must give up all that she holds dear. She must remake herself into a rootless and obsessed individual. But even after accomplishing this, fate still conspires to wound her. Ana Calderón has will, guts, and intelligence, but her battle against family, church, and the justice system shakes our belief in the ability to forge our own destinies. The Memories of Ana Calderón is a second novel by the writer who The New York Times Book Review hailed as one who "leaves the reader with that special hunger that can be created only by a newly discovered writer. Ms. Limón's prose is self-assured and engrossing."

Adriana Mora, a Latina photojournalist haunted by childhood memories of her parents' death, abuse and displacement, journeys south to Chiapas, Mexico, in search of images to record on film. Mora's path crosses that of Chan K'in, the aged Lacandon shaman and interpreter of his people's mysticism. In this village, Adriana meets Juana Galvan, a woman whose own heroism mirrors that of the women that Chan K'in describes. Adriana follows Juana into the mountains where she is drawn into the tumultuous events of 1994 and the stories of the insurgents who fight for freedom. This compelling novel portrays forbidden love set against the backdrop of a complicated war.

Ana Calderon, born in Mexico, discovers that despite greater opportunities in the United States, society, family, and religon still present obstacles to her becoming a successful businesswoman.

There has been a dramatic increase in the amount of narrative work published by Chicana and Latina authors in the past 5 to 10 years. Nonetheless, there has been little attempt to catalog this material. This reference provides convenient access to all forms of narrative written by Chicana and Latina authors from the early 1940s through 2002. In doing so, it helps users locate these works and surveys the growth of this vast body of literature. The volume cites more than 2,750 short stories, novels, novel excerpts, and autobiographies written by some 600 Mexican American, Puerto Rican, Cuban American, Dominican American, and Nuyorican women authors. These citations are grouped in five indexes: an author/title index, title/author index, anthology index, novel index, and autobiography index. Short annotations are provided for the anthologies, novels, and autobiographies. Thus the user who knows the title of a work can discover the author, the other works the author has written, and the anthologies in which the author's shorter pieces have been reprinted, along with information about particular works.

This collection attends to western women's struggles within Roman Catholicism by examining how women throughout the centuries have attempted to reconcile their unruliness with their Catholic backgrounds or conversions.

During the last two decades of the twentieth century, U.S. Latina writers have made a profound impact on American letters with fiction in both mainstream and regional venues. Following on the heels of this vibrant and growing body of work, New Latina Narrative offers the first in-depth synthesis and literary analysis of this transethnic genre. Focusing on the dynamic writing published in the 1980s and 1990s by Mexican American, Puerto Rican, Cuban American, and Domincan American women, New Latina Narrative illustrates how these writers have redefined the concepts of multiculturalism and diversity in American society. As participants in both mainstream and grassroots forms of multiculturalism, these new Latina narrativists have created a feminine space within postmodern ethnicity, disrupting the idealistic veneer of diversity with which publishers often market this fiction. In this groundbreaking study, author Ellen McCracken opens the conventional boundaries of Latino/a literary criticism, incorporating elements of cultural studies theory and contemporary feminism. Emphasizing the diversity within new Latina narrative, McCracken discusses the works of more than two dozen writers, including Julia Alvarez, Denise Ch‡vez, Sandra Cisneros, Cristina Garcia, Graciela Lim—n, Demetria Mart’nez, Pat Mora, Cherr’e Moraga, Mary Helen Ponce, and Helena Mar’a Viramontes. She stresses such themes as the resignification of master narrative, the autobiographical self and collective identity, popular religiosity, subculture and transgression, and narrative harmony and dissonance. New Latina Narrative provides readers an enriched basis for reconceiving the overall Latino/a literary field and its relation to other contemporary literary and cultural trends. McCracken's original approach extends the Latina literary canonÑboth the works to be studied and the issues to be examinedÑresulting in a valuable work for all readers of women's studies, contemporary American literature, ethnic studies, communications, and sociology.

From East L.A. to the barrios of New York City and the Cuban neighborhoods of Miami, Latino literature, or literature written by Hispanic peoples of the United States, is the written word of North America's vibrant Latino communities. Emerging from the fusion of Spanish, North American, and African cultures, it has always been part of the American mosaic. Written for students and general readers, this encyclopedia surveys the vast landscape of Latino literature from the colonial era to the present. Aiming to be as broad and inclusive as possible, the encyclopedia covers all of native North American Latino literature as well as that created by authors originating in virtually every country of Spanish America and Spain. Included are more than 700 alphabetically arranged entries written by roughly 60 expert contributors. While most of the entries are on writers, such as Julia Alvarez, Sandra Cisneros, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Oscar Hijuelos, and Piri Thomas, others cover genres, ethnic and national literatures, movements, historical topics and events, themes, concepts, associations and organizations, and publishers and magazines. Special attention is given to the cultural, political, social, and historical contexts in which Latino literature has developed. Entries cite works for further reading, and the encyclopedia closes with a selected, general bibliography. Entries cite works for further reading, and the encyclopedia closes with a selected, general bibliography. The encyclopedia gives special attention to the social, cultural, historical, and political contexts of Latino literature, thus making it an ideal tool to help students use literature to learn about history and cultural diversity.