1 comments about Famous Mexican Americans.

1. This book is a valuable reference tool for children in their early teens, whether for a report or simply for knowledge. It is a comprehensive research effort by both authors to inform the reader about accomplished Mexican Americans, their culture and careers. In addition, this book has special touches, such as personal photos of the featured people. I definately recommend this book!

No comments about Carlos Santana (The Great Hispanic Heritage).

1 comments about Songs My Mother Sang to Me: An Oral History of Mexican American Women.

1. This book brought back many fond memories of stories, songs, and my cherished familia. A must have for the busy Muchacha who can still taste the warm tortillas with butter from her Nana's kitchen. This is Mexican Albondiga Soup for the Soul!

2 comments about Black Cuban, Black American: A Memoir (Recovering the Us Hispanic Literary Heritage).

1. Black Cuban, Black American is the informative and engaging memoir of Evelio Grillo's life growing up in Ybor City (now part of Tampa, Florida). Evelio experienced the complexities and difficulties of life in a horse-and-buggy society demarcated by both racial and linguistic lines. Evelio goes on to reveal how he was absorbed into the African-American community as he grew to adulthood during the Great Depression. He then relates his experiences as a solider in an all-black unit serving in the China-Burma-India theater of operations during World War II. This lively, informative, superbly written and presented autobiography is enhanced with an eight-page photo insert.



2. Peace,
   
   I bought this book because one upon a time, I lived in Florida and met an elderly (older than me) black Cuban man whom I became good friends with named Santos. Santos had told me about many of his first experiences that he had when he came to the U.S., which seem to coincide with the experience of the author (Evelio Grillo).
   
   One of the most memorable stories that Santos told me was how while waiting in the "refuge" camps some men wearing robes and on horses had come in carrying torches. At first glance, he told me that they thought that they thought it was a parade or something. It wasn't until one of the men on horseback hit one of the Cuban men that they realized that these men meant to do them harm. These men were the KKK and it was because of this experience, Santos told me that he got a glipmse of what African Americans had to undergo in order to live.
   
   So, this book reminds me of my old friend and the stories that he use to tell me, which made me appreciate the contributions made by early African Americans and other people of color, in order to make the U.S. a great country.

No comments about Roberto Clemente: Baseball Legend (Fact Finders Biographies: Great Hispanics).

1 comments about Begoso Cabin: A Pecos Country Retreat.

1. Begoso Cabin is the account of a woman's experiences living in a remote canyon in the mountains of northern New Mexico. The author has described the land, the animals, the people in vivid detail. The book is replete with pleasing morsels of historical research beginning with the Pecos Indians who once hunted the area, the region's importance as the entry into Mexican territory on the Santa Fe Trail, the takeover of the Southwest by the United States, the legal hassles over the old Spanish land grant on which the Begoso cabin is located, to today's village customs and economy. Begoso Cabin partakes of a genre of women's writing that is characterized by such authors as Annie Dillard, Dorothy Gilman, Gretel Ehrlach and others who have retreated to the wilds to write their stories. Begoso Cabin is a good read, full of historical, and often humorous, anecdotes, sensitve landscape description, and sociological commentary on village life rendered in a vibrant and poetic prose.

No comments about The Best Book of Hispanic Biographies (Fiesta! Siesta! and All the Rest-A!).

5 comments about Pedro, Carlos, and Omar: The Story of a Season in the Big Apple and the Pursuit of Baseball's Top Latino Stars.

1. I was very impressed with Adam Rubin's portrayal of the NY Mets in his new book, "Pedro, Carlos and Omar". Although his newspaper writing is excellent, he takes a different approach and gives a superb accounting of the behind the scenes look at the team. This book is packed with information that cannot be gotten from any other type of publication. You do not have to be a Mets fan to enjoy this book. I highly recommend "Pedro, Carlos and Omar" not only to all Mets fans, but to all fans of baseball.



2. I am a huge Mets fan, have been since I was old enough to understand baseball. I got this book from the library to read while I was on vacation this summer. I am not an avid book reader by any stretch. The most I read is either SI or the newspaper. But I read this book in just two nights. I couldn't put it down.
   
   Rubin really takes you behind the scenes of what was going on from the Winter of 2003 until the Spring of 2005. I was stunned to learn some of the things in this book. For example, the Mets thought they had a 0% chance of landing Pedro, so they were content with going after Ramon Ortiz and Odalis Perez.
   
   This book is a must-read for any NY Mets fan, or baseball fan for that matter.



3. "Pedro, Carlos and Omar" is essentially an extended compilation of Daily News articles about the 2005 Mets. The book is edited well and tells a coherent story about how Omar Minaya was lured back into the Mets' fold by an ownership group tired of three straight losing season, with the promise of complete autonomy over the roster. The Wilpons fired two managers, Bobby Valentine and Art Howe -- each of whom had recent playoff experience, Valentine in the World Series -- and replaced him with Willie Randolph, who'd never managed in the big leagues before but who did have four Series rings as a Yankees coach. What contributions could Minaya and Randolph bring to the team?
   
   Plenty, as it turns out. The Mets went out and did something they'd never done before -- signed a high-profile slugger under the age of 30 to a long-term, multi-million dollar contract. Say farewell to the shameful days of George Foster and Mo Vaughn. Along with Carlos Beltran came Pedro Martinez, fresh off his shutout in Game 3 of the World Series, with the hopes of getting Manny Ramirez right behind. Could Beltran bear up under big-market pressure? Could Pedro keep his sometimes whimsical, sometimes antagonistic attitude in check for a full year? Could he beat the Yankees?
   
   The Mets don't make the playoffs in 2005. That has to wait for a thus-far glorious 2006 campaign that will probably be summarized in an afterword to the paperback edition of this book. However, they did finish third, at four games over .500 -- their best finish since the 2000 World Series season. They re-energized the fan base, capitalized on Fred Wilpon's promise to play "meaningful games in September", and gave a full year's experience to two youngsters who'd energize Queens in '06: David Wright and Jose Reyes. Best of all, they got rid of Braden Looper.
   
   One caution: this is not hard-hitting investigative journalism. Apart from a few glimpses into the future, "Pedro, Carlos and Omar" is told one day at a time, in straight chronological order, and only with quotes taken from game-day articles. No-one is interviewed after the end of the season to provide perspective or commentary. This is not so much the untold story of the 2005 Mets, as a retelling of what we already knew from Rubin's Daily News articles from that year.
   
   However, read in the run-up to the '06 playoffs, this book is a nice training montage showing how the Mets started to put it all together a year ago.



4. The story of how Omar Minaya refashioned the Mets - from perennial bottom feeders into genuine contenders, in two short seasons - is indeed an appropiately Amazin' tale. In fact, Minaya is not finished yet, and there is still work to be done. However, Adam Rubin has taken the first two of Minaya's moves - the enlistment of Pedro and Carlos Beltran in the winter of 2004/5 - as the basis for his book. Alas, his writing neither matches nor illuminates any of the very distinctive characters involved, nor does it shed any particular light on the sea-change that Minaya has instituted within the Mets organization. The book is enjoyable enough, at least for most Mets fans, simply because it replays two very enjoyable events - but it lacks depth. I know - it's only baseball - but still, more is required. The best of sports books have it - but this one doesn't.



5. The Mets have experienced a few great seasons among the 45 in franchise history: 1969, 1973, 1986, 1999 and a few others that could be argued. The 2005 season wouldn't make a lot of people's lists on the surface, but dig underneath, like Adam Rubin has, and you'll see that 2005--starting with the most successful offseason in 20 years--was the year that the building blocks moved into place. Willie Randolph's hiring, the wooing of Pedro Martinez, the signing of Carlos Beltran, created, in Beltran's words, the "New Mets." In one fell swoop the Art Howe Era was shovelled it into the trash can. Just as important was the hiring of Omar Minaya to put all these changes in motion and the realization by the Wilpons that owning a team for a quarter century doesn't mean you essentially know what's best. Adam Rubin, who wrote about all these things deftly removes these facts from the constraints of the daily newspaper and creates a cohensive storyline in a year that may well stand with 1968, 1984, and 1997 as years that signaled sea changes in the club's fortunes. Of course, we all may be wrong about this--Mets fans are, after all, a pessimistic lot--but Adam Rubin's solid book shows what it's like to start from scratch in a town where baseball means so much.

2 comments about The Border Patrol Ate My Dust.

1. Southern California radio personality Alicia Alarcon invited her immigrant listeners to call in and share their stories: The Border Patrol Ate My Dust (translated into English by Ethriam Cash Brammer de Gonzales) is her recorded collection of these stories of hardship and deprivation suffered by those who struggled to enter this country. Natural and man-made obstacles are recounted in recollections of making it across the border and making a new life in America.



2. This book is a superb collection of real-life adventures. Some are a few pages, while others are several pages. All share a common theme: In first-person narrative, they tell the story of a person from Latin America who is heading to the USA to find a better life. Each story is quite distinct, due to the narrators' age and gender differences, their available resources, their life experiences they have left behind, and what they expect to find awaiting in the USA. In each story I became acquainted with a unique person of different aspirations. Translated from the Spanish, these are day-by-day accounts from good storytellers, describing that important transition of their life when they left poverty behind. Entering the USA illegally is difficult, expensive and dangerous. Some have died trying. In these stories, we read about tragic situations and even some comical ones, as our narrators do everything they can to evade capture from the ever-present border patrol. Though sometimes it looks like capture is imminent, the reader keeps in mind that these are the lucky ones that made it. They arrived here safely, and now have quite the story to share with us.
   
   Regardless of one's opinions concerning the "immigration issue", anyone reading these stories would want these people to make it safely across. They describe their hopes and dreams that any normal person could relate to. They also describe terrible economic hardships in their homelands. It would seem there is no other option than to go to the USA. In one particularly memorable story, a young narrator describes leaving his mother and little sisters behind. The mother and girls were crying. The narrator told them not to cry and promised to send back money after he reached the USA. He set out on foot and had food for barely two days. Many weeks passed before he could send back word that he had arrived safely in the USA. It was enough time that his family feared he had died. The truth was that he almost had, after several days in the desert!
   
   In conclusion, these are fascinating stories, and I highly recommend them. But how much better the world would be if they were only fiction...

No comments about Rigoberta Menchu Indian Rights Activist (The 20th Century's Most Influential: Hispanics).