Dominican-American Authors

deelt

Bronze
Mar 23, 2004
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For those of you interested a friend of mine has just finish publishing her second novel! (Hurray!!!!!!) It's about to hit the bookstores/amazon.com this May. She is also the author of "Soledad." Check it out and send out some love by buying her book or, if you can't afford to buy, do sign it out at your local library!!! Buy the way this is my image of Dominicayorks not the mess I keep reading in some of these threads...

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is a little bit about the author:
Angie Cruz was born and raised in the Washington Heights section of New York City. She is a graduate of SUNY Binghamton and received her MFA from New York University. Her fiction and activist work have earned her the New York Foundation of the Arts Fellowship, the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund Award, and the Bronx Writers' Center Van Lier Literary Fellowship. Cruz lives in New York City. She is the author of Soledad.

From: http://www.simonsays.com/content/content.cfm?sid=33&pid=505777&agid=13

Here is the book's description:
With her first novel, Angie Cruz established herself as a dazzling new voice in Latin-American fiction. Junot Diaz called her "a revelation" and The Boston Globe compared her writing to that of Gabriel Garc?a M?rquez. Now, with humor, passion, and intensity, she reveals the proud members of the Col?n family and the dreams, love, and heartbreak that bind them to their past and the future.

Esperanza did not risk her life fleeing the Dominican Republic to live in a tenement in Washington Heights. No, she left for the glittering dream she saw on television: JR, Bobby Ewing, and the crystal chandeliers of Dallas. But years later, she is still stuck in a cramped apartment with her husband, Santo, and their two children, Bobby and Dallas. She works as a home aide and, at night, stuffs unopened bills from the credit card company in her lingerie drawer where Santo won't find them when he returns from driving his livery cab. Despite their best efforts, they cannot seem to change their present circumstances.

But when Santo's mother dies, back in Los Llanos, and his father, Don Chan, comes to Nueva York to live out his twilight years in the Col?ns' small apartment, nothing will ever be the same. Santo had so much promise before he fell for that maldita woman, thinks Don Chan, especially when he is left alone with his memories of the revolution they once fought together against Trujillo's cruel regime, the promise of who Santo might have been, had he not fallen under Esperanza's spell. From the moment Don Chan arrives, the tension in the Col?n household is palpable.

Flashing between past and present, Let It Rain Coffee is a sweeping novel about love, loss, family, and the elusive nature of memory and desire, set amid the crosscurrents of the history and culture that shape our past and govern our future.

Source:http://www.simonsays.com/content/content.cfm?sid=33&pid=505777&agid=13
 

Chirimoya

Well-known member
Dec 9, 2002
17,850
982
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deelt, thanks for the tip. I loved 'Soledad' and look forward to reading this one. Next stop, amazon.com to make my order.

Is the 'Los Llanos' in the story real or fictitious? My husband's finca is in San Jose de Los Llanos, in SPM.

Edited to add - when does it come out in paperback?
 
Last edited:

Marianopolita

Former Spanish forum Mod 2010-2021
Dec 26, 2003
4,821
766
113
This is great news!

Deelt,

Thanks so much for the details on this new book. However, you know very well by now what my magic question is: Will a Spanish version be available? I much prefer Spanish prose. We could talk about this later on.



LDG
 

Chirimoya

Well-known member
Dec 9, 2002
17,850
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Lesley, the best version of the book will be the language it is written in, in this case, English. Authors like Diaz, Cruz and Alvarez are writing in English, (deelt, please correct me if I am wrong in the case of Cruz) and their 'voice' is flavoured by their Dominican-American identity. However good, no translation can reproduce this entirely.

Having said that, I am the first to admit my own guilt in reading English translations of books originally written in Spanish because I find it much easier to read in English. I do usually try the original first, and if it proves too much for me, I resort to the English translation. Recently I read GGM's 'Memoria de mis putas tristes' in Spanish, but gave up on 'Vivir para contarla' which I have since bought in English.

Has anyone read Julia Alvarez's essay 'Do?a Aida, with your permission'?
 

Marianopolita

Former Spanish forum Mod 2010-2021
Dec 26, 2003
4,821
766
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Chirimoya....

You are most correct that the best versions of any literature is the language that is originally written in and there is plenty of translation loss when translated into another language. As well, Julia Alvarez exclusively writes in English and her books have been translated into Spanish. I cannot speak for Diaz and Cruz. My problem is and Deelt knows this is that I have not read an English book in ten years and I realize it's because of the prose. It's just not the same.

Regarding Gaby Marquez you have to realize his literature is not for everyone. He uses a lot of metaphors and some exclusive vocabulary so I am not surprised that you resorted to some of the English versions of his works. I have Memoria de mis putas tristes but I have so many other books waiting for their turn to be read so I will get to it whenever. I hear Vivir para contarla is worth the read and evokes true Colombian sentiment. I am not planning on reading the book but you never know. I may change my mind.

Anyway thanks for your input as usual and let's wait for Deelt's commentary.


LDG.
 

Chirimoya

Well-known member
Dec 9, 2002
17,850
982
113
Lesley - I'd skip the 'putas' and read the memoir, if I were you!

What is it about English prose you dislike?
 

Marianopolita

Former Spanish forum Mod 2010-2021
Dec 26, 2003
4,821
766
113
Chiri,

I am not really sure what it is about English prose. However, when I started to take reading novels and books of all kinds etc. seriously I realized that I had a preference.

LDG.


Chirimoya said:
Lesley - I'd skip the 'putas' and read the memoir, if I were you!

What is it about English prose you dislike?
 

deelt

Bronze
Mar 23, 2004
987
2
0
Sorry I've out of the loop

Just got back! This is the first time the book is in publication so this is the hardcover version. The soft cover will probably come out in another year or so, followed by the Spanish version. This really is as hot off the press as it gets. The book is based on a fictional, but it is a very real story to tell.

I tend to be more of an English, rather than Spanish reader. I hope that I can eventually straddle equally between the languages.

I hope that you guys do get it. I am still waiting for Junot to come out with his next one (so far it sounds awesome) and stop BS in Boston.

Bueno gente gotta run soon.
Hugs
D
 

A.J.

New member
Jan 2, 2002
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Thanks for letting us know. I loved Soledad - bought it when it first hit the shelves.
 

angela-in-nj

New member
May 1, 2005
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deelt said:
For those of you interested a friend of mine has just finish publishing her second novel! (Hurray!!!!!!) It's about to hit the bookstores/amazon.com this May. She is also the author of "Soledad." Check it out and send out some love by buying her book or, if you can't afford to buy, do sign it out at your local library!!! Buy the way this is my image of Dominicayorks not the mess I keep reading in some of these threads...

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Here is a little bit about the author:
Angie Cruz was born and raised in the Washington Heights section of New York City. She is a graduate of SUNY Binghamton and received her MFA from New York University. Her fiction and activist work have earned her the New York Foundation of the Arts Fellowship, the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund Award, and the Bronx Writers' Center Van Lier Literary Fellowship. Cruz lives in New York City. She is the author of Soledad.

From: http://www.simonsays.com/content/content.cfm?sid=33&pid=505777&agid=13

Here is the book's description:
With her first novel, Angie Cruz established herself as a dazzling new voice in Latin-American fiction. Junot Diaz called her "a revelation" and The Boston Globe compared her writing to that of Gabriel Garc?a M?rquez. Now, with humor, passion, and intensity, she reveals the proud members of the Col?n family and the dreams, love, and heartbreak that bind them to their past and the future.

Esperanza did not risk her life fleeing the Dominican Republic to live in a tenement in Washington Heights. No, she left for the glittering dream she saw on television: JR, Bobby Ewing, and the crystal chandeliers of Dallas. But years later, she is still stuck in a cramped apartment with her husband, Santo, and their two children, Bobby and Dallas. She works as a home aide and, at night, stuffs unopened bills from the credit card company in her lingerie drawer where Santo won't find them when he returns from driving his livery cab. Despite their best efforts, they cannot seem to change their present circumstances.

But when Santo's mother dies, back in Los Llanos, and his father, Don Chan, comes to Nueva York to live out his twilight years in the Col?ns' small apartment, nothing will ever be the same. Santo had so much promise before he fell for that maldita woman, thinks Don Chan, especially when he is left alone with his memories of the revolution they once fought together against Trujillo's cruel regime, the promise of who Santo might have been, had he not fallen under Esperanza's spell. From the moment Don Chan arrives, the tension in the Col?n household is palpable.

Flashing between past and present, Let It Rain Coffee is a sweeping novel about love, loss, family, and the elusive nature of memory and desire, set amid the crosscurrents of the history and culture that shape our past and govern our future.

Source:http://www.simonsays.com/content/content.cfm?sid=33&pid=505777&agid=13

I am definitly going out to buy the book, i have read many books of Julia Alvarez and i love the way she writes so it's wonderful to find another dominican author to read.
Thanks
Angela
 

neverlost

*** Sin Bin ***
Jun 7, 2004
73
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0
Excerpt for a Junot Diaz Essay

This Exerpt from a Junot Diaz Essay


Authors Julia Alvarez, Junot Diaz and Loida Maritza Perez talk about their distinctive Dominican heritage and their common cultural roots with African Americans

"Community must not mean a shedding of our differences, nor the pathetic pretense that these differences do not exist ... it is learning how to stand alone, unpopular and sometimes reviled, and how to make common cause with those others identified as outside the structures in order to define and seek a world in which we can all flourish."

--Audre Lorde, "The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House"

On cold, gray Bronx mornings, I often ache for the warm riot of colors of my Dominican Republic: miles of brilliant, blue-green ocean, fiery oranges and vivid greens in open-air markets, pastels brightening both glorious and hauntingly dilapidated houses. But the colors I love most are on the faces of mi gente--a rainbow palate ranging from deep ebonies, through golden bronzes, to the fairest of alabasters. Dominicans are a blend of the indigenous Taino Indians, the colonizing Spaniards and the Africans brought in chains to work the sugar plantations. Yet our claim to the Taino bloodline is as tenuous as it is ardent: by the mid-1500s only 500 Tainos had survived the merciless Spaniards.

It's our African lineage that is most enduring, still vibrant in our skin and hair. Ninety percent of the roughly ten million Dominicans, living at home and abroad, have African ancestry. This is the key link between the collective stories of African Americans and Dominicans. As a friend in college was fond of reminding me, "same trip, different ships."

When I was in college a number of racially charged incidents led me to discover that I was black, not just Latina. But my most valuable cross-cultural lessons came from books. Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker and Malcolm X opened my eyes and heart. Gifted writers delightfully deliver the literary equivalent of the Vulcan mind meld, creating characters that serve as irresistible cultural guides.

I recently engaged in this discussion with three gifted Dominican American writers: Julia Alvarez, a renown veteran with eleven books to her credit; Junot Diaz, who burst onto the literary scene amidst great fanfare in 1996; and

newcomer Loida Maritza Perez. We spoke recently about their work--which often reflects the American preoccupation with race--and they shared their views on how our two groups differ, and why we're kin.

"Latino writers stand on the shoulders of the African American writers who paved the way, who with a new voice, a new face and a new rage enriched the canon of American literature," says Alvarez. She cites "The Creation," a poem by James Weldon Johnson, with inspiring her early poetry. Lucille Clifton and June Jordan, were both influencial teachers with whom she studied.

With In the Name of Salomd (Algonquin Books, 2000), Alvarez skillfully weaves, in alternating chapters, the fictionalized histories of 19th-century Dominican poet Salome Unrena, and her daughter Camila. It's a history lesson rich with romance and politics, in which Alvarez brilliantly uses the power of poetry to tightly bind mother, daughter and reader across time and space.

Drown (Riverhead, 1996), Junot Diaz' collection of short stories, was published to an avalanche of acclaim. His characters are drawn with brutal honesty in language loaded with strident profanity and silent prayer, evoking cruel immigrant realities and elusive dreams. "There's about fifty books whose very existence make me happy every day to be alive," says Diaz. "If I had to single out the one author who had the most profound influence on my artistic and political development, I'd have to pull out Toni Morrison. Morrison fundamentally altered my entire vision of writing. She writes specifically for an African Diasporic community. Anyone who can read and can get a hold of her books is welcome, but let's not kid ourselves folks; we people of African descent are her privileged audience ... the ones she is most centrally trying to dialogue with. Morrison is not attempting to translate black American culture for a white audience, she is no guide, no native informant. That in itself is revolutionary."

Diaz, who advises, "in the words of Ho Chi Mihn, `every poet must learn to lead a charge," is an active bridge builder between the Haitian and Dominican communities. Diaz brings his own irreverent, urban voice to all of his work, as exhibited in this exceprt from "How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie," from the bestselling short story collection, Drown.

Recently listed as one of the 20 most promising young writers by The New Yorker, Diaz will publish a short novel about "the most atypical Dominican kid you can imagine" in 2001. He's also finalizing a longer "urban science fiction/new age novel."

In Geographies of Home (Viking, February 1999), Loida Maritza Perez paints a heart-rending portrait of a Dominican family struggling for survival in America. Paranormal phenomenon competes with insanity, domestic brutality and religious fanaticism to ultimately elicit compassion, and the insistent hope that elevates this from a depressing litany of woes into a song of praise for the resilience of love and family.

Perez is completing her second novel, which she calls "an intimately scaled narrative of a family living under the infamous Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic." The title, To Die Dreaming, is the English translation of "Morir Sonando", the sweet frothy Dominican drink made from two liquids that should never mix well: milk and either orange or lime juice. The liquids are laced with so much sugar that they blend, becoming smooth and deceptively sweet. "It's symbolic of the Trujillo dictatorship, where in order to survive, many had to turn a blind eye and sweeten the reality of day-to-day life with humor until they were living a lie."

Perez reminds us that our bonds transcend literary icons. "Our island was the first place on the continent to which African slaves were shipped," she says. "We share the blood of common ancestors. Language separates us, but our silence regarding our shared history also divides. We must learn from and be sensitive to each other's complex histories, and the amount of pain that still exists in the national psyche of both cultures. We should refuse to be so easily fragmented--even by the unfortunate judgments some of us make about each other."

"African Americans are sometimes too quick to speak about Dominican race consciousness," says Diaz. "If we're honest, many African Americans still overvalue white characteristics and behavior. If there's one thing that ties African Americans and Dominicans together, it's our self-hatred, this tendency to value whiteness and to devalue blackness. It's a fundamental issue facing all African Diaspora communities. Another divider is conversations on race and culture in this country that are too often limited to black and white, and that erase Dominicans. I live in Harlem, and am often challenged by African Americans: `Hey, why cant you folks just speak English?!' Some are upset when we're unwilling to define ourselves merely as Black."

"The discussions that have emerged on the African diaspora are truly helpful," says Alvarez, "as they've opened up dialogue that supports the notion that one does not have to choose between identifying oneself as Latino or black." Diaz continues, "we're also immigrants in a country that is not very immigrant-friendly and we must deal with that from both whites and blacks. But we Dominicans also have much work to do, too. Some of us have embraced a white racist view of African Americans we must vehemently reject." There is hope, however, as we look at the writing we've produced--both separately and together--that we are crossing the divides both in our lives, and in our literature.

Check Out!
 

deelt

Bronze
Mar 23, 2004
987
2
0
Where did you get this article? I remember reading something similar written by Milca Esdaille. I remember her writing this for the Black Issues Book Review and/or Black Enterprise Magazine. Please give her credit, next time you post her work. She is a good friend, an amazing writer, and beautiful representative of all we are.

Here are the article details.

"Same Trip, Different Ships - Dominican authors and African Americans - Interview Authors Julia Alvarez, Junot Diaz and Loida Maritza Perez talk about their distinctive Dominican heritage and their common cultural roots with African ...

Black Issues Book Review, 3/1/01 by Milca Esdaille ? 1 page ? More from publication
http://www.findarticles.com/p/search?tb=art&qt="Milca Esdaille"

Thanks
Deelt

neverlost said:
This Exerpt from a Junot Diaz Essay


Authors Julia Alvarez, Junot Diaz and Loida Maritza Perez talk about their distinctive Dominican heritage and their common cultural roots with African Americans

"Community must not mean a shedding of our differences, nor the pathetic pretense that these differences do not exist ... it is learning how to stand alone, unpopular and sometimes reviled, and how to make common cause with those others identified as outside the structures in order to define and seek a world in which we can all flourish."

--Audre Lorde, "The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House"

On cold, gray Bronx mornings, I often ache for the warm riot of colors of my Dominican Republic: miles of brilliant, blue-green ocean, fiery oranges and vivid greens in open-air markets, pastels brightening both glorious and hauntingly dilapidated houses. But the colors I love most are on the faces of mi gente--a rainbow palate ranging from deep ebonies, through golden bronzes, to the fairest of alabasters. Dominicans are a blend of the indigenous Taino Indians, the colonizing Spaniards and the Africans brought in chains to work the sugar plantations. Yet our claim to the Taino bloodline is as tenuous as it is ardent: by the mid-1500s only 500 Tainos had survived the merciless Spaniards.

It's our African lineage that is most enduring, still vibrant in our skin and hair. Ninety percent of the roughly ten million Dominicans, living at home and abroad, have African ancestry. This is the key link between the collective stories of African Americans and Dominicans. As a friend in college was fond of reminding me, "same trip, different ships."

When I was in college a number of racially charged incidents led me to discover that I was black, not just Latina. But my most valuable cross-cultural lessons came from books. Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker and Malcolm X opened my eyes and heart. Gifted writers delightfully deliver the literary equivalent of the Vulcan mind meld, creating characters that serve as irresistible cultural guides.

I recently engaged in this discussion with three gifted Dominican American writers: Julia Alvarez, a renown veteran with eleven books to her credit; Junot Diaz, who burst onto the literary scene amidst great fanfare in 1996; and

newcomer Loida Maritza Perez. We spoke recently about their work--which often reflects the American preoccupation with race--and they shared their views on how our two groups differ, and why we're kin.

"Latino writers stand on the shoulders of the African American writers who paved the way, who with a new voice, a new face and a new rage enriched the canon of American literature," says Alvarez. She cites "The Creation," a poem by James Weldon Johnson, with inspiring her early poetry. Lucille Clifton and June Jordan, were both influencial teachers with whom she studied.

With In the Name of Salomd (Algonquin Books, 2000), Alvarez skillfully weaves, in alternating chapters, the fictionalized histories of 19th-century Dominican poet Salome Unrena, and her daughter Camila. It's a history lesson rich with romance and politics, in which Alvarez brilliantly uses the power of poetry to tightly bind mother, daughter and reader across time and space.

Drown (Riverhead, 1996), Junot Diaz' collection of short stories, was published to an avalanche of acclaim. His characters are drawn with brutal honesty in language loaded with strident profanity and silent prayer, evoking cruel immigrant realities and elusive dreams. "There's about fifty books whose very existence make me happy every day to be alive," says Diaz. "If I had to single out the one author who had the most profound influence on my artistic and political development, I'd have to pull out Toni Morrison. Morrison fundamentally altered my entire vision of writing. She writes specifically for an African Diasporic community. Anyone who can read and can get a hold of her books is welcome, but let's not kid ourselves folks; we people of African descent are her privileged audience ... the ones she is most centrally trying to dialogue with. Morrison is not attempting to translate black American culture for a white audience, she is no guide, no native informant. That in itself is revolutionary."

Diaz, who advises, "in the words of Ho Chi Mihn, `every poet must learn to lead a charge," is an active bridge builder between the Haitian and Dominican communities. Diaz brings his own irreverent, urban voice to all of his work, as exhibited in this exceprt from "How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie," from the bestselling short story collection, Drown.

Recently listed as one of the 20 most promising young writers by The New Yorker, Diaz will publish a short novel about "the most atypical Dominican kid you can imagine" in 2001. He's also finalizing a longer "urban science fiction/new age novel."

In Geographies of Home (Viking, February 1999), Loida Maritza Perez paints a heart-rending portrait of a Dominican family struggling for survival in America. Paranormal phenomenon competes with insanity, domestic brutality and religious fanaticism to ultimately elicit compassion, and the insistent hope that elevates this from a depressing litany of woes into a song of praise for the resilience of love and family.

Perez is completing her second novel, which she calls "an intimately scaled narrative of a family living under the infamous Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic." The title, To Die Dreaming, is the English translation of "Morir Sonando", the sweet frothy Dominican drink made from two liquids that should never mix well: milk and either orange or lime juice. The liquids are laced with so much sugar that they blend, becoming smooth and deceptively sweet. "It's symbolic of the Trujillo dictatorship, where in order to survive, many had to turn a blind eye and sweeten the reality of day-to-day life with humor until they were living a lie."

Perez reminds us that our bonds transcend literary icons. "Our island was the first place on the continent to which African slaves were shipped," she says. "We share the blood of common ancestors. Language separates us, but our silence regarding our shared history also divides. We must learn from and be sensitive to each other's complex histories, and the amount of pain that still exists in the national psyche of both cultures. We should refuse to be so easily fragmented--even by the unfortunate judgments some of us make about each other."

"African Americans are sometimes too quick to speak about Dominican race consciousness," says Diaz. "If we're honest, many African Americans still overvalue white characteristics and behavior. If there's one thing that ties African Americans and Dominicans together, it's our self-hatred, this tendency to value whiteness and to devalue blackness. It's a fundamental issue facing all African Diaspora communities. Another divider is conversations on race and culture in this country that are too often limited to black and white, and that erase Dominicans. I live in Harlem, and am often challenged by African Americans: `Hey, why cant you folks just speak English?!' Some are upset when we're unwilling to define ourselves merely as Black."

"The discussions that have emerged on the African diaspora are truly helpful," says Alvarez, "as they've opened up dialogue that supports the notion that one does not have to choose between identifying oneself as Latino or black." Diaz continues, "we're also immigrants in a country that is not very immigrant-friendly and we must deal with that from both whites and blacks. But we Dominicans also have much work to do, too. Some of us have embraced a white racist view of African Americans we must vehemently reject." There is hope, however, as we look at the writing we've produced--both separately and together--that we are crossing the divides both in our lives, and in our literature.

Check Out!
 

neverlost

*** Sin Bin ***
Jun 7, 2004
73
0
0
deelt said:
Where did you get this article? I remember reading something similar written by Milca Esdaille. I remember her writing this for the Black Issues Book Review and/or Black Enterprise Magazine. Please give her credit, next time you post her work. She is a good friend, an amazing writer, and beautiful representative of all we are.

Here are the article details.

"Same Trip, Different Ships - Dominican authors and African Americans - Interview Authors Julia Alvarez, Junot Diaz and Loida Maritza Perez talk about their distinctive Dominican heritage and their common cultural roots with African ...

Black Issues Book Review, 3/1/01 by Milca Esdaille ? 1 page ? More from publication
http://www.findarticles.com/p/search?tb=art&qt="Milca Esdaille"

Thanks
Deelt


Yeah, I meant to Print the Authors name, I just Couldn't find it. I saw this article on http://www.Afrolatino.com ,Which is talks about these issues alot. There alot of Dominicans on there Forum!
 

concon_quemao

New member
Oct 28, 2005
55
0
0
lostinthemetro.blogspot.com
you cant forget Loida Maritza P?rez

she wrote Geographies of Home.. its a book about a young dominican-american woman trying to become independent and escape from her overprotective parents. After coming home from college, she finds that she can move away from home, but she can never move away from her experiences as an immigrant child caught in two cultural worlds, both with unique challenges.

great book. my mom read it and loved it and i just passed it on to Yari to read.

0140253718.jpg



i just saw that someone already posted about her.. my bad!
 

pimentel79

New member
Jul 24, 2005
29
0
1
Anybody recommend any book by Junot Diaz, besides 'drown'? I've already read it. It's the only book I've read of his so far.