Helena Maria Viramontes

MuÑoz’s breakthrough collection, reissued with a new foreword by author Helena MarÍa Viramontes Manuel MuÑoz’s first collection of stories goes beyond the traditional family myths of Mexican American literature and the image of California’s Central Valley as a lush world of rural tranquility, instead exploring the constant struggle of characters against their physical and personal surroundings. A teenage boy learns the consequences of succumbing to the lure of a town outsider; a young farm worker attempts to hide his supervision of a group of children from the town police; a father must expose his own secrets after his son is found murdered in a highway motel. Experiencing conflicts of family and sexuality and the pain of loss and memory, the characters in Zigzagger seek to reconcile themselves with the rural towns of their upbringing—places that, by nature, are bordered by loneliness.

Helena Marƒƒ‚a Viramontes' acclaimed debut story collection exploring the social, economic and cultural impositions that shape women's lives is now available in a new bilingual edition that contains a first-ever Spanish translation.

The sole novel of beloved Chicana author Estela Portillo Trambley is an important rediscovery. This classic Mexican American coming-of-age story was written in the 1980s during the rich burgeoning of Latino literature that also brought us such writers as Sandra Cisneros and Denise Chavez." Trini" is the captivating story one girl's journey across borders and into womanhood. Born in the rural Tarahumaran region of Mexico, Trini loses her mother at an early age and shares her family's struggle to squeeze a living out of her beautiful but inhospitable land. Driven by an impossible love and by her desire for a better life, Trini travels through the Mexican borderlands, from indigenous villages to growing cities, where she encounters both exciting challenges and the harsh realities of violence and betrayal. As a young woman, she finally crosses the border into the United States to pursue her dreams of independence, land ownership and American citizenship for her children." Trini" is a novel distinguished by the richness and beauty of its language and by its rare depiction of life in the borderlands of Mexico and New Mexico in the 1940s and 1950s. Most remarkable of all is its portrait of a sensitive and courageous young Chicana woman, whose quiet heroism resonates from every page." Trini" is a vital novel of the Mexican American experience, appropriate for young adults as well as adult readers. Here restored to print with a new foreword Helena Maria Viramontes, it is bound to take its rightful place among the contemporary classics of multicultural American literature. Estela Portillo Trambley, the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants, founded the first Hispanic Theatre in El Paso, was a beloved teacher and radio show host and received a New York Shakespeare Festival award in a competition among Hispanic playwrights. Her "Sor Juana and Other Plays" earned her widespread acclaim.