Tag Archives: family

The Distance Between Us

Posted on May 27, 2016 by racheloriol

Grande, Reyna. The Distance Between Us: A Memoir. New York: Atria Books, 2012. Perhaps because I am the mother of a one and a half year old, and perhaps because I feel vulnerable due to income, future work, and stability, … Continue reading →

Posted in Memoir, Uncategorized | Tagged American identity, family, Mexican Americans, migration | Leave a comment

Sin Alas (film)

Posted on May 6, 2016 by racheloriol

Sin Alas. Dir. Ben Chace. Perf. Carlos Padron, Yulislievis Rodriguez, Mario Limonta. Franklin Avenue Films, 2015. This film by U.S. director Ben Chace is the first one since the Cuban Revolution in 1959 to be shot entirely in Cuba. What … Continue reading →

Posted in Performance, Uncategorized | Tagged Cubans, dance, family, film, Imaginary, love matches, meta-text | Leave a comment

Fierce Attachments: A Memoir by Vivian Gornick

Posted on April 28, 2016 by racheloriol

Gornick, Vivian. Fierce Attachments: A Memoir. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1987. This memoir was recommended to me by memoirist Daisy Hernández, as she said it was one of the most moving examples of the genre she had read. … Continue reading →

Posted in Memoir, Uncategorized | Tagged family, first-person narrative, meta-text | Leave a comment

True Love: A Memoir by Jennifer Lopez

Posted on April 15, 2016 by racheloriol

Lopez, Jennifer. True Love. New York: Celebra, 2014. In the spirit of reading dance memoirs, particularly of Latinas in the U.S., I thought to see if Jennifer Lopez had written a memoir. She had. So I bought it and read … Continue reading →

Posted in Memoir, Performance, Uncategorized | Tagged American identity, celebrity, costumes, dance, family | Leave a comment

Bird of Paradise: How I Became a Latina (memoir)

Posted on February 23, 2016 by racheloriol

Cepeda, Raquel. Bird of Paradise: How I Became a Latina (a memoir). New York: Atria Books, 2013. This memoir was hard to read. Really hard – it gave me nightmares the first night (one account recalls a baby being dropped … Continue reading →

Posted in Memoir, Uncategorized | Tagged American identity, Dominican Americans, family, genetics, History, meta-text, travel | Leave a comment

A Cup of Water Under my Bed: A Memoir by Daisy Hernández

Posted on January 12, 2016 by racheloriol

Hernández, Daisy. A Cup of Water Under My Bed: A Memoir. Beacon Press: Boston, 2014. I’m back at it: reflecting on the books I am reading for my dissertation (and some beyond). I have unfortunately begun to re-read material realizing that … Continue reading →

Posted in Memoir, Uncategorized | Tagged Cubans, family, Memoir, religion | Leave a comment

Heroes and Saints & Other Plays by Cherríe Moraga

Posted on April 22, 2014 by racheloriol

Moraga, Cherríe. Heroes and Saints & Other Plays. Albuquerque: West End Press, 1994. Summary: This collection contains three plays: “Giving Up the Ghost,” “Shadow of a Man,” and “Heroes and Saints.” “Giving up the Ghost” is interesting because it shifts … Continue reading →

Posted in Special Topic, ST: Prose, Uncategorized | Tagged bodies, drama, family, female bodies, gender, Mexican Americans, religion, sensuality | Leave a comment

Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck

Posted on March 23, 2014 by racheloriol

Steinbeck, John. Tortilla Flat. 1935. New York: Penguin Books, 1986. Summary/Reaction: This is a set of loose stories about a group of friends who live in the hills, called Tortilla Flat, above Monterrey Bay in California. This area is inhabited … Continue reading →

Posted in AC: Prose, Area of Concentration | Tagged American identity, California, family, History, masculinity, Mexican Americans, Nature, religion | Leave a comment

Peel My Love Like an Onion by Ana Castillo

Posted on March 21, 2014 by racheloriol

Castillo, Ana. Peel My Love Like an Onion. New York: Anchor Books, 1999. Summary: This novel is about Carmen Santos, a Chicana flamenco dancer from Chicago who suffers from post-polio syndrome. Throughout most of the novel, Carmen reflects back on … Continue reading →

Posted in Special Topic, ST: Prose | Tagged American identity, bodies, dance, family, female bodies, History, love matches, materiality, Mexican Americans, physical pain | Leave a comment

Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende

Posted on March 17, 2014 by racheloriol

Allende, Isabel. Daughter of Fortune. Trans. Margaret Sayers Peden. New York: Perennial, 2000. Summary: This large novel follows primarily Eliza Sommers, the illegitimate daughter of an Englishman sea captain living in Valpariso, and a unknown Chilean woman. Eliza is taken … Continue reading →

Posted in AC: Prose, Area of Concentration | Tagged American identity, California History, Chile, family, female bodies, marriages, migration, travel | Leave a comment