Book Review: Kiss Me, Mi Amor by Alana Quintana Albertson

Alana Quintana Albertson is known for having many talents. When she’s not rescuing dogs from high-kill shelters, through a rescue she founded, and being an alumna of prestigious universities, she’s writing romance and mystery books. On July 4, 2023, she graced her readers with a second book in the Love & Tacos series, Kiss Me, Mi Amor, published by Berkley Romance.

Kiss Me, Mi Amor follows the middle Montez brother, Enrique, as he attempts to partner with Carolina Flores, a female farm owner who refuses to give the heir of the Taco King empire the time of day. However, when the holidays arrive, she lies to her overbearing family that he is her boyfriend. On these pretend dates, Carolina begins to figure out that she doesn’t have to be the traditional daughter and woman that her parents, especially her father, want her to be. The feelings between Enrique and Carolina grow more intense and they begin to wonder what their fake dates look like for the future as the holidays, and maybe their growing romance, start coming to an end.

Carolina Flores is the owner of the Flores Family Farm and the daughter of farm workers. Although she’s the owner on paper, her father is the one who calls the shots in business and in family. In their traditional Mexican home, her father has rules about women that he implements onto his ten daughters—and Carolina is sick of it. She refuses to marry to avoid moving from one male-dominated household to the next. Carolina loves her independence and wishes to keep it that way. However, when she meets Enrique, she begins to push back against her father’s rules and her outlook on love. When her dad falls ill, she lies about Enrique being her boyfriend and begins to rebel. While enjoying her time with Enrique and opening up to new experiences, it causes major arguments with her parents. She does some soul-searching and finds solace in reconnecting with an aunt who was shunned for defying her father’s rules as well. Carolina has to make major decisions that will better suit her, her family, and Enrique.

Enrique Montez is the middle child of the Taco King empire. He wants to reassess the chain’s agricultural relationships and partner with ethical farms, and Carolina is exactly who he’s looking for. When he drives up to Santa Maria to meet her, he finds out that her sister set up the meeting without Carolina’s knowledge. She refuses to partner with the chain but this doesn’t deter him from finding her captivating in brains and beauty. He offers to play Joseph in the upcoming Las Posadas and this sets their fake dating in motion as Carolina lies about him being her new beau. Enrique has strong, opposing opinions about Señor Flores’ outlook on women and family, so he plays along with her lie if it means she can break free. At first, he never pictured himself settling down but after spending time with her, he begins to reconsider. Things come to a head when Carolina decides that she needs to figure out who she is outside of him and her father. Months go by with no contact until they reunite once more.

“Alana Quintana Albertson shows her flawless ease in “Kiss Me, Mi Amor” of creating a fake-dating, holiday romance . . . while highlighting important conversations such as agriculture, farm worker’s rights, and the patriarchal culture within a traditional Mexican family. ”

While Enrique and Carolina come from different backgrounds, they open each other up to new experiences. He showers her with a shopping spree, which includes new Louboutins, while she tells him what celebrating Nochebuena entails. Neither are afraid to have hard-hitting conversations with the other. Carolina has him work her field and he realizes that it’s going to take more than just words to evoke change with the unethical farms that the chain partners with. Enrique helps her realize that she’s allowed to have fun and let loose with their mini trip to Disneyland and a day trip to Carmel-by-the-Sea. The pair help the other see what their life can hold if they push against the odds and open their minds to change. Through these experiences, their growing feelings for each other blur the line between fake dating and real dating. As Alana effortlessly puts it, “But they shared one language that needed no translating. Amor.”

Alana Quintana Albertson shows her flawless ease in Kiss Me, Mi Amor of creating a fake-dating, holiday romance (where they have to share one bed!) while highlighting important conversations such as agriculture, farm worker’s rights, and the patriarchal culture within a traditional Mexican family. While the Love & Tacos series celebrates many aspects of Mexican culture, she doesn’t shy away from speaking on prominent issues that the community faces.

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Alana Quintana Albertson has written thirty romance novels, rescued five hundred death-row shelter dogs, and danced one thousand rumbas. She lives in sunny San Diego with her husband, two sons, and too many pets. Most days, she can be found writing her next heart book in a beachfront café while sipping an oat-milk Mexican mocha or gardening with her children in their backyard orchard and snacking on a juicy blood orange.

Melissa Gonzalez (she/her) is a UCLA graduate with a major in American Literature & Culture and a minor in Chicana/o & Central American Studies. She loves boba, horror movies, and reading. You can spot her in the fiction, horror/mystery/thriller, and young adult sections of bookstores. Though she is short, she feels as tall as her TBR pile. You can find Melissa on her book Instagram: @floralchapters

Interview with 2023 Whiting Award Fiction Winner Carribean Fragoza

Carribean Fragoza, author of the critically-acclaimed story collection Eat The Mouth That Feeds You, is one of the latest winners of a Whiting Award! The Whiting Awards are given annually to ten emerging writers in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama. They are based on early accomplishment and the promise of great work to come. We were excited to catch up with Carribean and ask her a few questions.

Toni Kirkpatrick (TK): What was your first thought after you learned you won a Whiting Award?

Carribean Fragoza (CF): I flickered between two feelings, the first one being the feeling of being fully seen. This feels odd to say because I know that people I consider my community have been seeing me and my work for a long time. But when I took that phone call from the Whiting, and they told me how much time and energy had been invested into following and selecting each of the winners, I experienced maybe a different kind of care in that level of attention. The other feeling I kept flickering into was astonishment which is a kind of detachment from any one emotion or thought. Like is this really happening to me? I’m still sort of cycling between these, plus the thrill/mild terror of “what comes next?”

(TK): You have long been doing work to shed light on the culture and history of South El Monte. How does your hometown influence your fiction?

(CF): South El Monte and El Monte are almost always in my fiction. Sometimes it’s more in the forefront as a specific set of locations that I have in mind for my stories and sometimes it’s more of a mood or vibe. South El Monte and El Monte have a very distinguishable vibe. I see and feel it when I go back home to visit and I can see it in your Bolero of Andi Rowe collection, Toni, as well as in Michael Jaime-Becerra and Salvador Plascencia’s work. Also, every time I’m back in SEM/EM, I notice something new or something will catch my eye and it will immediately inspire something in me. They might be very ordinary things, like a mother pushing a stroller down the street or a kid eating a popsicle, but I feel them very deeply.

(TK): You are also the Prose Editor for Huizache, which made its return last year. What are you seeing these days from Latine writers and what excites you? 

(CF): I’m very honored to be on board as Huizache’s Prose editor. And so far, what has excited me the most is work that feels urgent and necessary. These are stories that feel like they need to be told and something very important is at stake for the narrator and other characters (and the author!). The style and risks that writers are taking are responding to the world with all of its beautiful and awful complexities. The voices they are developing in the work are forged from survival and wrought with sharp intelligence. There's a lot of power there.

(TK): What is your advice for Latine writers as they seek to publish their work and find recognition?

(CF): I suppose the best advice I can think of right now is to encourage writers to write stories that feel essential to them and to bring forward voices that are clear, strong, and have something that they need to say. Get in touch with the raw nerve of the story and others will feel it too. And perhaps more importantly: JUST KEEP WRITING. The publishing and awards will come, but most often we don’t have a lot of control over that as writers. But writers gotta write. And writers have to keep learning and growing and getting better. With that said, we also need more Latine/Latinx editors, agents, and other publishing industry folks to create a literary ecosystem that is more supportive of Latine/Latinx writers.

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Carribean Fragoza is a fiction and nonfiction writer from South El Monte, CA. Her collection of stories Eat the Mouth That Feeds You was published in 2021 by City Lights and was a finalist for a 2022 PEN Award. Her co-edited compilation of essays, East of East: The Making of Greater El Monte was published by Rutgers University Press and her collection of essays Writing Home: New Terrains of California is forthcoming with Angel City Press. She has published in Harper's Bazaar, The New York Times, Zyzzyva, Alta, BOMB, Huizache, KCET, the Los Angeles Review of Books, ArtNews, and Aperture Magazine. She is the Prose Editor at Huizache Magazine and Creative Nonfiction and Poetry Editor at Boom California, a journal of UC Press. Fragoza is the founder and co-director of South El Monte Arts Posse, an interdisciplinary arts collective. She lives in the San Gabriel Valley in Greater Los Angeles.

Toni (Plummer) Kirkpatrick grew up in South El Monte, California. A Latinx in Publishing board member, she lives in the Hudson Valley, where she acquires, edits, and writes fiction.

Review: The Storyteller’s Death by Ann Dávila Cardinal

The Storyteller’s Death by Ann Dávila Cardinal, her debut into adult fiction, follows the life Isla Larsen Sanchez and her family. When Isla’s father passes away, she finds herself spending the summers in Puerto Rico with her great aunt, while her mother stays home. Set against the ever-shifting background of New Jersey and Puerto Rico, Isla struggles with her family, both immediate and extended, on top of her own questions of self and her cultural identity.

Isla lives a dual life: one with her mother in New Jersey and one with her great-aunt and other extended family in Puerto Rico. The two lives almost never intersect, as Isla’s mother hasn’t joined her since her father past. As Isla grows up, she feels like an outsider no matter where she is, until she turns eighteen when her grandmother passes away. Isla’s Is visited by her grandmother, a gifted storyteller, through a vision of the last story her grandmother told her.

As Isla experiences more deaths of her extended family, she continues to be visited by the ghosts of past Sanchez cuentistas, her family’s storytellers. Isla believes the stories are a gift that connects her to her family in a way that she had never been before. But when someone close to Isla passes away, they leave her with a vision of an old murder mystery, one that could kill Isla if she is not careful. What were once harmless stories giving Isla a look into the lives of her family suddenly force Isla to investigate her family’s past in ways that have been buried for years.

The Storyteller’s Death, a historical mystery, takes the reader on the lifelong journey of Isla. Through Isla, the reader can see the way generational trauma, rooted prejudice, and family secrets can taint even the most well-meaning families. Cardinal tackles many difficult themes throughout this novel, including but not limited to classism and personal identification within a cultural, in breathtaking prose that truly allow the reader to reflect on their own life and family history.

Throughout this book, despite the troubles and secrets that the Sanchez family faced there was a deep sense of love and understanding. Through small acts like buying ice cream together or larger displays of love like taking your great-niece in ever summer, the Sanchez loves each other to a fault. This story reminds us that to love intensely most be vulnerable as it is protective. Family must challenge the generational missteps to continue to heal and grow for the better. This book was a beautiful reading experience from its elegant prose to its display of mystery and magical realism, down to its beautiful depiction of familial growth from a place of love and care. For readers who want something different this book has truly earned its spot on Buzzfeed’s Most-Anticipated Mysteries & Thrillers of 2022.

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Ann Dávila Cardinal is a novelist and Director of Recruitment for Vermont College of Fine Arts where she also earned her MFA in Writing. She comes from a long line of Puerto Rican writers, including father and son poets Virgilio and José Antonio Dávila, and her cousin, award-winning fiction writer Tere Dávila. Ann's first novel, Sister Chicas, was co-written with Jane Alberdeston Coralin and Lisa Alvarado, and was released from New American Library. Her next novel, a horror young adult work titled Five Midnights, was released by Tor Teen on June 4, 2019. The story continues in Category Five, also from Tor Teen, released on June 2, 2020. Ann lives in Vermont where she cycles, knits, and prepares for the zombie apocalypse.

Tereza Lopez (she/her) is a recent graduate from Clark University with a double major in English and history. She attended Clark University again in Fall 2021 and obtained a Master’s in communication. When she is not studying, you can find her obsessively reading or taking care of her new kitten.

Book Review: Ramon and Julieta by Alana Quintana Albertson

Ramón and Julieta: Love & Tacos is about Julieta Campos and Ramón Montez, two star-crossed lovers who meet on the Day of the Dead and find out that they are from rival, family-owned taquerias, with an even deeper strained history. This romance novel brings forth conversations that deal with gentrification (and gentefication), family, love, and wealth within the Mexican American identity, history, and community.

“Alana Quintana Albertson created a beautiful, romantic story that successfully magnifies topics within the Mexican American identity. ”

Julieta Campos is a celebrity chef and a workaholic. She and her mother have a taqueria in Barrio Logan, San Diego, where this barrio is an integral part of the community. However, the trajectory of her life would soon be changed at the Día de Los Muertos party where she has a mysterious run-in with a handsome mariachi. Upon figuring out his identity, she realizes she was enraptured by the enemy. But, of course, nothing seems to make sense when love is in the equation. I loved seeing Julieta having to grapple with the situation. On one hand, there is a possibility that could catapult her career as a chef with a new love in her life but that would mean sacrificing her loyalty to her family and community. On the other, she could stay loyal to those close to her but that would mean sacrificing a huge career move and a new love. It’s the ever-so common expectation of BIPOC women, being told what to choose and who to be, for the benefit of others, over what they may possibly want. I found myself thinking about what I would do if I were in her shoes and I realized that no one can make a decision for her (albeit, she is fictional but this scenario is very much a real experience for some people).

Ramón Montez is the CEO of his father’s taco chain and is a driven businessman who gets what he wants. He and his father have plans to place their chain in the historic Barrio Logan, much to the protest of all of the locals who already view the Montez family as “not one of them.” When Ramón discovers the identity of the mysterious señorita at the Día de Los Muertos party, the plans for the block become more complicated. One of the stark differences between Julieta and Ramón is their relationship with their parents. Though her father is deceased, Julieta seems to have fond memories of him and is pretty tight-knit with her mom. Ramón is quite the opposite. While he interacts mainly with his father, it is a pretty rocky relationship. His father, Arturo, has never encouraged his son’s aspirations outside of the family business, is quick to dismiss his son’s ideas for Barrio Logan, and doesn’t consider his son’s happiness. His mother, like all Mexican mothers, sees Ramón as God’s gift to Earth. However, it’s a shame that she never bothered to form an actual relationship with him. His mother cares more about country clubs and galas over getting to know her children. Ramón has money to buy whatever he wants, except for a better relationship with his parents.

Ramón and Julieta’s forbidden love also presents the stark differences in the realities that they live. Wealth is a prevalent one. While Julieta does what she can to get by, Ramón has more resources than the entirety of Barrio Logan combined. Readers see how money is managed when someone doesn’t have much of it and when someone has more than enough of it. I enjoyed this aspect of the book because it gives an insight into the financial reality that some people live in and how it can affect one’s social life. Also, the book had a couple of spicy scenes and I was NOT expecting that. But you won’t find me complaining.

Alana Quintana Albertson created a beautiful, romantic story that successfully magnifies topics within the Mexican American identity. She celebrates the culture while having readers think critically about bringing forth the intricacies of the identity, history, and community.  

Book content warnings: NSFW, deceased parent

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Alana Quintana Albertson is a Latina author with bestselling novels in romance and mystery. She holds a bachelor’s from Stanford University, a master’s from Harvard, and is the former president of Romance Writers of America for various chapters. You can also find her recovering from her professional ballroom dancing career and saving 500 dogs from high-kill shelters. Needless to say, Alana Quintana Albertson is extremely multi-talented.

Melissa Gonzalez (she/her) is a UCLA graduate with a major in American Literature & Culture and a minor in Chicana/o & Central American Studies. She loves boba, horror movies, and reading. You can spot her in the fiction, horror/mystery/thriller, and young adult sections of bookstores. Though she is short, she feels as tall as her TBR pile. You can find Melissa on her book Instagram: @floralchapters

Toni Kirkpatrick interviews Jennifer De Leon

Read below for an exclusive Q&A between Toni Kirkpatrick and WHITE SPACE author, Jennifer De Leon!

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Pictured: author Jennifer De Leon

Toni Kirkpatrick (TK): When did you first start writing these essays and how did they evolve into the manuscript that would win the Juniper Prize for Creative Nonfiction?

Jennifer De Leon (JDL): The ‘oldest’ essay in the collection is one I wrote when I was nineteen years old and published in Ms. Magazine, shortly after I had interned there while in college, and the ‘youngest’ essay is one I wrote maybe three years ago. All told, I wrote and revised these essays over the last decade. The writing process continues to be mysterious and magical to me because I did not set out to write an essay collection; I really didn’t. Instead, I wrote one essay at a time. But I also worked on several drafts at a time, like many pots on a stove, I guess. I began submitting essays to contests and literary journals, and over the years, many of them were published. “The White Space” won the Fourth Genre Michael Steinberg Essay Prize in 2012. Winning this contest felt like winning a brand-new car at a state fair or something, in the sense that it was that unbelievable. I will always be grateful to Ryan Van Meter for selecting my essay. At the time, I was very much still getting my sea legs in the world of writing and publishing and so this win really inspired me to submit more and more. Eventually, I realized I had a collection. Maybe? So I showed the manuscript to trusted readers. Took out some pieces. Added a few. Showed it to my writing group once more. Then clicked submit. 

TK: You grew up in Massachusetts, are a longtime instructor at GrubStreet, and now an Assistant Professor at Framingham State University. A story of yours was chosen as the One City, One Story for the Boston Book Festival. Now the University of Massachusetts has published your first book for adults, a book about your life. It looks like you and your home state are in a love-love relationship! Can you tell us about that relationship?

JDL: What a great question! Yes, I guess we are in a love-love relationship! I was born in Boston, raised in a suburb of the city, traveled around the world (Nigeria, France, Vietnam, Guatemala, and more) and even lived in California for a few years, all to land just ten minutes from my childhood home. Maybe it’s true, that saying about all roads leading home. Like many writers, I find inspiration from place and coming of age and family. I see many more stories and books set in Massachusetts, for sure! 

TK: Your parents immigrated from Guatemala and in this book you write about returning there. How has your relationship with Guatemala changed since you were a child? What kind of a relationship would you like for your own children to have with Guatemala?

JDL: I was fascinated by Guatemala when I was younger—on a visceral level. I was nine years old the first time my parents and sisters and I visited the country. The smell of firewood burning, the mountain air, the tortillas cooked over an open fire, the endless cousins offering to braid my hair and teach me how to play avion along the dirt-paths or paved courtyards…it was all so vivid and sensory and remains so in my memory. I have returned to Guatemala many times, and each visit I get to know the country in a more profound way, but it will always be rooted in the senses. 

As an adult, my relationship with Guatemala definitely evolved. When I was 28 years old, I moved to Quetzaltenango, in the Western Highlands, far from relatives living in the capital. I wanted to experience Guatemala on my own, and in my own way. I also wanted to write a novel and improve my Spanish and learn more about the country’s rich history. A few years later, my husband and I were married in Antigua Guatemala, the old cobblestone capital. We both want our young sons to embrace Guatemala in ways we have, but also in their own ways—to create their own relationships with this country. 

TK: You signed my copy of WHITE SPACE “Take up space!” What does “taking up space” mean for you? Has this been something easy or difficult for you to do in your life, and in what ways do you think you have made strides to take up space?

JDL: Yes, to taking up space in life and on the page! For so long, I remained quiet in writing workshops or dutifully took notes, while thinking about ways I was going to quit the class. I’m serious. The doubt was real. Heavy as a cloak. So, I think the notion of taking up space –whether in a writing workshop or on the page—is related to whether or not we see ourselves and our stories as valuable, worthy. I write about this much more in my essay, “Work.” But, yes, taking up space is something I’ve had to learn to do, and to do so unapologetically. 

TK: What advice do you have for Latinx writers who are struggling to find an agent or publish their work?

JDL: Do not take rejection personally. I wish I had known this, really internalized it, early on in my career. I could have saved myself from many moments of even more self-doubt, of paralysis, and fear. Keep it movin’ would be another piece of advice. Wasn’t there some statistic that showed how men receive rejections and that same day will send out more work? But women wait weeks, sometimes months to do so. As a woman of color, I know that many times in my life I have wrestled with insecurity, second-guessing, etc., but I also know that there are times when I have conquered the self-critic on my shoulder, hit ‘mute’ on that chatty station in my mind, and so there’s that, too. 

TK: What are you currently writing? Do you find working in different genres to be more challenging or freeing?

I always have a couple essays cooking on the stove. Some on a low-burner, as I do now. One is about my time working at the GAP and how, among other things, a manager would mistakenly call me Maria. But I also recently signed a two-book contract with my amazing editor, Caitlyn Dlouhy, at Simon & Schuster, so I’m focused on revising my next Young Adult novel, Maya, which tells the story of a 16-year-old aspiring fashion designer in Guatemala who must flee the country with her mother after gangs threaten to take their lives, leaving them with an unimaginable choice to make at the Mexico/U.S. border. It is scheduled for publication in 2022. I would also love to write another essay collection, or perhaps a memoir. A YA memoir? Or all. ¿Por qué no?   

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Jennifer De Leon is author of the YA novel Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From (Simon & Schuster), editor of the anthology Wise Latinas: Writers on Higher Education (University of Nebraska Press), and most recently, the essay collection White Space: Essays on Culture, Race, & Writing (UMass Press). She is Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Framingham State University and faculty member in the MFA in Creative Nonfiction program at Bay Path University. Connect with her @jdeleonwriter on Instagram and Twitter or at her website: www.jenniferdeleonauthor.com 

Toni Kirkpatrick is a Senior Acquisitions Editor at Crooked Lane Books, acquiring crime and book club fiction. Originally from the Los Angeles area, she now lives in the Hudson Valley. You can find her on Twitter @tmargaritaplum.

Review: Of Women And Salt

REVIEW: OF WOMEN AND SALT

Of Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia is a debut novel that takes an introspective look at generational trauma. Inviting the reader with strong descriptions and striking imagery, there was no escaping the sorrow that was written throughout the pages. -- The story takes a focus on Jeanette who is a Cuban-American recovering addict. We see several stages of Jeanette’s life as she suffers and battles through her addiction. However in the midst of this journey, we discover how each generation that has come before her has played a role in her overall development. Whether the political unrest in Cuba that started with her 3x great grandmother Maria Isabel; to the domestic abuse and violence that has long played a role in the women’s lives, we see how trauma trickles down from one woman to the next, passing along dead dreams with unspoken pain and fear. 

Garcia does a powerful job at outlining Cuban history and displaying Cuban culture and sentiments. Though, what I found most interesting was how she wove the subject of immigration, into the plotline, by adding a subsequent storyline focusing on Gloria and Ana – mother and child who emigrated from El Salvador. She painted such a vivid heartbreaking picture of detention centers; delineating the many flaws in a system that is built to fail those who need it the most. It makes you question how can something so broken still exist in an era where so much seems to be possible? She then took it a step further by bringing in racism into the picture; giving us a portrait of how different immigration can look like depending on the color of your skin. Garcia did not hold back. 

This is not intended to be a light read, but instead meant to challenge your thoughts.

You are left wondering about the outcomes of many of the characters presented throughout the book and it could feel somewhat glass half full. However, as the reader I felt as though they were characters meant to help connect experiences, between the women, while also allowing the reader to gain more understanding of Jeannette’s storyline. 

This is a story about culture but also of the pain that lies between mother, daughter and the legacies that are never too far behind. You will be left with profound thoughts that will pull at your heart, but most importantly your soul. 

-- Tiffany Gonzalez

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Gabriela Garcia is the author of the novel Of Women and Salt, forthcoming from Flatiron (US), Picador (UK), and in eight other languages. Her fiction and poems have appeared in Best American Poetry, Tin House, Zyzzyva, Iowa Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Cincinnati Review, Black Warrior Review, and elsewhere. She received a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award, a Steinbeck Fellowship, and residencies and fellowships from Breadloaf, Sarabande Books, Lighthouse Works, the Keller Estate, and the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley. She has a BA in Sociology from Fordham University and an MFA in fiction from Purdue University, where she also taught creative writing. 

The daughter of immigrants from Cuba and Mexico, Gabriela was raised in Miami and currently lives in the Bay Area. She is a long-time feminist and migrant justice organizer who has also worked in music and magazines.

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Tiffany Gonzalez earned a Bachelors of Arts in Journalism and Media Studies and obtained her Masters in Communication and Media from Rutgers University – NB. She has worked in the Publishing industry for over 4 years. She currently works for Astra Publishing House as the Marketing and Publicity Coordinator for Astra House. She’s excited to start working with underrepresented stories and bringing them to the hands of all readers. You can follow her on Instagram @wandering_tiff_

‘Don't Ask Me Where I'm From’ Takes Us on an Empowering Journey Between Cultural Worlds

Jennifer De Leon’s YA debut novel, Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From, takes us on an empowering journey between cultural worlds through the eyes of Guatemalan-Salvadoran American Liliana Cruz. The story is set in Boston during Liliana’s sophomore year of high school, as she explores friendship, love, racism, discrimination, and her own cultural roots. Never does De Leon fail to surprise readers, as she skillfully addresses segregation, immigration, and social activism in one narrative.

As her sophomore year begins, Liliana is given the opportunity to join the competitive METCO program, founded to give Boston students from underperforming school districts the chance to attend a high-performing school and increase their educational and professional possibilities. METCO places her at Westburg High School, a majority-white school where Liliana feels that she’s entered an entirely different sphere.

Liliana’s parents submitted her application to the METCO program when Liliana was just a kid, and this story could raise awareness for numerous families about the possibilities available for their own kids, no matter their socioeconomic status. However, the METCO program itself is also a platform for De Leon to discuss school segregation; its existence highlights how for many low-resourced families, a higher educational opportunity is only possible if the student is accepted to a special program.

As a METCO student at Westburg, Liliana is not easily welcomed by other students, or even teachers. Genesis, Liliana’s METCO buddy, tries to mentor her by stating, “It’s actually an advantage to be different. . . . Work it. Raise your hand in class. Speak up. . . . Make the system work for you. You won’t remember these fools twenty years from now when they’re calling you up trying to get internships for their kids at the TV station you’re working at” (100-101). It’s a wake-up call for Liliana. Even though some class discussions make her uncomfortable, like when a classmate comments, “but [immigrants] should come educated,” she realizes she needs to stay at Westburg. Liliana begins discovering her voice by learning that she doesn’t have to answer people’s uncomfortable questions—like “where are you from?”—the way that people want her to. When she asks Genesis for advice on how to answer that particular question, Genesis delivers a satisfying response: “Say ‘I’m from my mother’.”

That’s just one example of how De Leon seamlessly delivers humor throughout the book, even while presenting serious situations and questioning our social conditioning. With such a sassy and strong main character in Liliana, there’s no way you won’t laugh out loud from time to time. Another funny moment is De Leon’s warm acknowledgment of the facts of cooking for many Latinx people: Liliana talks about how her parents never follow recipes, just eyeball amounts, but when she tried to do the same, she ended up with rice soup. The next time she tried to cook, she “measured and stirred,” and added onions, tomatoes, and bouillon, among other key ingredients. Liliana is also very observant and notices the machismo (toxic masculinity) that goes on in the family. She brings out her sass when Tío R. criticizes everything she cooks, telling readers, “well, I thought, if boys weren’t supposed to be in the kitchen, then why was he there?” (152). De Leon gives readers that necessary humorous touch to Liliana’s empowerment.

Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From is also a valuable read for its explanation of Latinx history and Liliana’s cultural heritage. During a meeting between METCO students, there’s an essential discussion about the difference between being Spanish and Latinx, and about the term ‘Latinx’:

Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books

“Spanish conquistadors bombarded most of Latin America at various points in history. . . . That doesn’t mean that everyone in Latin America suddenly became Spanish. They had their own cultures and traditions and everything already in place. . . . [‘Latinx’ is] meant to be inclusive of all people of Latin American origin or descent, no matter what gender” (228). 

Besides this brief yet comprehensive explanation of general Latinx heritage, De Leon also gives specific details about Guatemala and El Salvador through a conversation between Liliana and her aunt. Tía Laura explains to Liliana that Guatemala and El Salvador had a civil war that lasted for 36 years, and that a Guatemalan general named Ríos Montt wanted to get rid of indigenous communities because he was afraid they’d join those revolting against the government. Liliana’s tía also reveals that some of their relatives were killed, and that many people in Guatemala and El Salvador are still struggling even today because of the war’s aftereffects. Liliana comes to an understanding of why many people leave and try to cross the US border. This relates to another important plot point; Liliana’s father has been deported and is trying to get across the border back to them, and Liliana realizes more than ever that she must help her family by going through with being a METCO student, no matter how difficult it seems.

This book is so essential for classrooms and local libraries and bookstores. As Jennifer De Leon said in an interview, this is the kind of book that she “craved as a young person. It’s the book as a teacher I wished I had to pass on to my students.” When Liliana is initially hesitant to attend Westburg, her school counselor, Ms. Jackson, tells her, “What you do now—or don’t do now—can really affect your future, and the choices you have in the future.” The line is so powerful, and could be something that a lot of teen readers out there need to hear. It also raises the issue that not all schools teach youngsters what they should know, such as the extreme importance of networking and building career skills. Liliana’s story has immense potential to speak to students unaware of the professional opportunities available for them, and to spark crucial and much-needed conversations between teens and their parents or teachers. 

De Leon also emphasizes the need to build camaraderie between everyone, no matter their background. Racial tensions do arise between students at Westburg High School, and Jennifer De Leon presents three questions in the story that many schools could use to begin important and respectful conversations, and build rapport between students: 1. What is it that you want us to know about you in terms of race and culture? 2. What is it that you never want to hear again? 3. How can we be allies and assist you? 

In another powerful moment, Liliana uses the book’s title as her six-word autobiography in creative writing class: “Don’t ask me where I’m from.” Her goal is to highlight that it shouldn’t matter where she’s born or what languages she speaks. Liliana’s story also emphasizes that no single person’s experience represents others’ experiences. In Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From, Jennifer De Leon delivers a worthy, timeless Own Voices book. Here’s to a story that sticks with you, and gives you hope for a future where there are no barriers between cultures.

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Yvonne Tapia is a Latina professional from East Harlem, New York. She earned a BA in Media Studies and Psychology from Hunter College. Additionally, she has worked in the educational and media fields through various outlets. With a long-term enthusiasm for children’s books, she has been involved at Housing Works Bookstore and Latinx in Publishing. She currently works on the Marketing and Publicity team at Levine Querido. Yvonne is excited and dedicated to engage book visibility in marginalized communities, welcoming all readers while making them feel seen and empowered.

'Plantains and the Seven Plagues' is an intimate look at family and memory

A couple of months after her mother passed away, Paz Ellis sat down to write. Ellis grew up in an expansive, tight-knit, mixed-heritage family in New Jersey. Her Dominican mother and Cuban father provided her with a family history and cultural legacy that informed her experiences and sense of self, which she examines in her memoir. The book that resulted from these meditations is a familiar yet revealing account of growing up as a mixed-heritage Latina in New Jersey that often feels less like a memoir and more like spending time with a close friend who has invited you to have a conversation and who shares her life story with you over a cup of café con leche.

Image courtesy of Paz Ellis.

In Plantains and the Seven Plagues: A Memoir: Half-Dominican, Half-Cuban, and Full Life, Ellis takes us through her life, beginning with her early childhood and continuing through adulthood and her own marriage, and finally recounts her parents’ passing. She writes about significant milestones and events in her life, but also lets us into the everyday and shares the quiet moments that formed the glue of her family relationships. That is what makes this memoir so relatable and captivating. For example, Ellis recalls early Saturday morning cleaning routines with her mother with the music on full blast. She recalls translating documents for her immigrant parents and serving as an interpreter during parent-teacher conferences. She muses on her father’s mourning of his Cuban homeland, and on the schisms his Cuban background caused when he married a Dominican woman. She reminisces about introducing her own future spouse, a white Irish American man, to her large Latino family. All of these snapshots and small moments add up to often funny, sometimes painful streams of memories that Ellis dives into as she interrogates the legacy of intergenerational trauma and reflects on what she wants to pass on to her own children. 

It must be noted that Ellis is able to conjure the world as she experienced it in her childhood with compassion and ease, but she does so without glossing over the difficult realities of intergenerational trauma and its effects on the lives of the children of immigrants. Ellis wrestles with the ways that her mother’s struggle with depression and mental health and her father’s coping with disability impacted her and her family, as well as the effects that addiction, racism, and economic struggle all had on her upbringing. It is precisely Ellis’s honesty in confronting and sharing these issues on the page that makes the stories she tells engrossing, heart-breaking and relatable all at once. 

Plantains and the Seven Plagues is many things. It is a deeply nostalgic and intimate reflection on a full life lived between cultures—Cuban, Dominican and American. It is a meditation on family legacy, storytelling, and intergenerational trauma as told through one woman’s life. But most of all, it is an utterly binge-able read that you can devour in one sitting, but that will make you want to slow down and savor every bite. If you are looking for an intimate and engaging read on family and memory, this one's for you. 

Content warning for the inclusion of slurs: g*psy, and r*tarded. 

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Mariana Huerta was born in Mexico City and now lives in New England. She has a B.A. in Economics from the University of Chicago and a background in Higher Education, but books are her one true love. She also runs the blog Latinas Leyendo which aims to highlight and celebrate books by and about Latinx folk. You can also find her book reviews on Twitter @latinasleyendo and Instagram @latinasleyendo.

Flirty 'Island Affair' Will Take You to the Romantic Beaches of Key West

Sara Vance is counting on an upcoming family vacation in Key West, Florida as the perfect occasion to prove to her highly successful doctor siblings and parents that, yes, she is making it as a successful lifestyle blogger, social media influencer, and small business owner and that, yes, she is getting her life together and even has a fiancé to prove it. The only problem? Her fiancé stands her up at the last minute leaving her scrambling.  

Enter Luis Navarro, Key West raised, and hunky firefighter paramedic with the local Fire Department who finds himself with a week of time off on his hands and nothing to do. So, when he runs into a gorgeous tourist in trouble, he agrees to step into the role of pretend boyfriend for the week. The only problem is, as the two plan and execute a 90s rom-com worthy charade, they begin to realize that what started off as a convenient arrangement for both of them might quickly be turning into something more.

Kensington Publishing website.

 Island Affair is Priscilla Oliveras’s first-in-a-series romance and it brings together all the elements of a perfect tropically inspired vacation read; a fake-relationship, plenty of hijinks, and of course, a romance  as hot as the Key West sun. And speaking of Key West, the setting is absolutely a character in its own right and is brought to life through Oliveras’s evocative  prose. The vivid and lush descriptions of idyllic island life, and shout outs to must-visit locations and mouthwatering mentions of the local cuisine will transport you directly onto the tropical island.

 But the real heart of the story lies in the main characters’ family dynamics and relationships. Writing warm, heartfelt, and very real family dynamics has become a feature of Oliveras’s novels, and Island Affair is no different. Sara and Luis’s families are central to the narrative and key in the development of the story and each of the main character’s evolution. Sara’s complicated family dynamics especially come into play as she looks to assert herself as the only non-doctor in the family. Her journey to rebuild their fractured relationship is handled in an honesty and empathic manner and is as much an arc as her romance with Luis. Luis’s large, meddling, but loving Cuban American family also features plenty of complications of their own and several side characters you get to know and love.

 The book also tackles a few serious issues such as mental health and eating disorders. Both Luis and Sara struggle with vulnerability and fractured family relationships based on past trauma. As they learn more about each other and weigh the risk of opening up their heart anew, each must decide how to heal and confront the fact that their pretend relationship might not be quite as pretend as they initially thought.

 Island Affair is the perfect feel-good getaway read to pick up this summer that will transport you to the tropical beaches of Key West from your home. If you are looking for a fun and flirty romance filled with Latinx family dynamics, various great side characters, and a throwback 90s rom com feel, this is one you won’t want to miss!

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Mariana Huerta was born in Mexico City and now lives in New England. She has a B.A. in Economics from the University of Chicago and a background in Higher Education but books are her one true love. She also runs the blog Latinas Leyendo, which aims to highlight and celebrate books by and about Latinx folk. You can also find her book reviews on Twitter and Instagram as @latinasleyendo.