Book Description

A biography of the power-hitting outfielder for the Cleveland Indians, from his childhood in the Dominican Republic and New York City through his days in the minor leagues to his major league debut and beyond. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Read the book... w/o all my shoes and my glassess
Great book. Sure! Highly reccommend it. Ok! Perfect for children interested in baseball. Right! Order it from Amazon today. I'm Sorry! Terriffic read cover to cover. Read it at 35 78th Street. Fantastic then! ... Read more

Book Description

"I was born in a log cabin just like Abe Lincoln, except our cabin was a rental." Starting with this account of his humble origins, Manny Garcia, who describes himself as "a left-handed, rather contrary Mestizo-American," has written a memoir that begins in late 1947 in the San Luis Valley of Southern Colorado and takes him to Utah and a stint as a Mormon and ultimately to Vietnam.

In late 1965, a cocky, naïve, alienated teen-ager, Garcia joined the army almost accidentally, enlisting for three years. At eighteen he became an Airborne Ranger, a combat infantryman with the crack First Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division, the Screaming Eagles. His book shows you the war from the point man position, up close and personal, at eye level.

"I returned to the body and checked for booby traps. I noticed the guerilla’s small bare leathery feet. I rolled the body over and realized the corpse at my feet was an old woman. Her hair was pulled back and tied in a bun, like how my grandmother used to wear her own hair. This was my first kill. I killed a woman before I made love to one. I killed a woman before I was old enough to vote. I killed a woman before I bought my first car. I killed a woman and I was an Eagle Scout. I killed a woman while I was on probation to the Juvenile Court. I killed a woman before I knew she was a woman. I killed a woman while working for the United States Army in South Vietnam. I had killed before I had lived. The afternoon in the jungle was bright and hot. I stood there sweating, bewildered, dumfounded, and completely absorbed by the power."—from An Accidental Soldier ... Read more

Reviews (4)

A thoughtful and emotional read
Accidental Soldier is an intense, compelling, and graphic story of a young man surviving combat in Vietnam. There is a lot of raw, graphic combat experience and language from the perspective of an 18 year old soldier. There is also a lot of reflection on that experience by the 50 year old veteran. The result is a vivid and emotional narrative.

Garcia reflects on his and others acts of cruelty, his own moral and emotional detachment, and the irrationality and insanity of combat. In addition he sprinkles his story with reflections on why the war was not winnable from the beginning. Many of these are relevant to our current military involvements in Iraq and Afghanistan. Garcia also raises moral dilemmas for those of us who have never been in the military or experienced combat.

Garcia's "tour of duty" ends when his squad is ambushed, two of his men die, and he is seriously wounded. Garcia tells us about the irony of receiving a Silver Star with Valor for his actions in that ambush. "I was given a Silver Star for failing to read an ambush. I was responsible for my squad members being wounded or killed because I failed to read that ambush. .... I was responsible for our walk into that mess and I was only trying to get us out. It was a mistake, not valor."

In the end Garcia throws his Silver Star, two Bronze Stars, Army Commendation Medal, Vietnamese Cross of gallantry, and Purple heart on to the lawn of the White House. I witnessed a similar act in April 1972 on the steps of the capitol building in Washington, D.C. during a massive anti-war demonstration. Garcia did it alone, on a dark night, as a private, personal statement. It is clear that the seeds of the mature Garcia were blooming in the young discharged combat veteran.

Garcia's war experiences are preceded by brief accounts of his early childhood in the San Luis Valley of Colorado, and his adolescence in Salt Lake City. His experiences as a Mexican-American in a white man's world, and as a gentile in a Mormon world. His relationship and experiences within his family. The book closes with Garcia's post combat experiences, the awakening of his mestizo consciousness, and his eventual life as a criminal defense attorney in Salt Lake City. I find these stories as worthy as Garcia's memoir of combat.

The book closes with a comment on the Vietnam War Memorial. "I haven't been back to the federal District to see the Vietnam War Memorial that hard dark autographed slab of granite that protrudes from a gash in the heart of the nation. I don't have to see it. I know it."

Fast and Deadly
What better time to read this passionate and harrowing story of a young soldier in combat than right now when the Army special forces have carried the day in Iraq? Manny Garcia was trained to do this same kind of killing work. We read of the glory in the headlines. Garcia tells us what it was really like, the tragedy, the treachery -- and the gallantry. His narrative is chillingly true and it moves with the speed of an M-16 bullet and the keenness of a sharpened steel blade. The tale is of Vietnam. It's applicability is yesterday and tomorrow.

An emotive, poetic and suprisingly humorous Vietnam memoir
This is the life of Manny Garcia a soldier who experienced war before life.
The book details the youth of a Chicano devoid of the American Dream.
He becomes a specialized Ranger in the 101st Airborne Division onto a point man in the front line of jungle warfare.
The details of the war are harrowing yet the account moves you to laughter as much as to tears.
The descriptive passages of the jungle are pure poetry.
The writing is good, so good that the soldier becomes a friend and you care what happens to him and to all the others you meet in the horror of war.

Entertaining memoir and a great read.
His experiences make it a good story; his writing style make it a great read!! I read it in one sitting. When the subject gets very serious ( as war accounts get), Manny injects his dry humour and I found myself laughing out loud!!
This is a MUST read for anyone living with or related to a military veteran. ... Read more

Book Description

The role of Cubans in the American Civil War is seldom appreciated. This work is the first to provide a look at the often distinguished services they performed. Although Cubans are recorded in the rosters of both Union and Confederate forces, Cuban ties with the Confederacy were particularly strong, perhaps because Cuban patriots fighting for liberation from Spain tended to identify with the Southern cause. In this work are biographies of three Cubans who served the Confederate army in the War Between the States. Darryl E. Brock offers a detailed portrait of José Agustín Quintero, who served as the South's most effective diplomat. Michael Wendell Stevens writes on Ambrosio José Gonzales, who rose to the rank of colonel and served some of the Confederacy's best-known generals. Finally, Richard Hal provides a sketch of Loreta Janeta Velazquez, a soldier and spy for the Confederacy who infiltrated (as a double agent) the operations of Northern spymaster LaFayette C. Baker. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

A Unique Book
This book is a valuable contribution to the historical truth that the Confederacy was much more diverse than is commonly assumed by most people. As the editor of the book states in his introduction "stereotypes continue to exist that the average Southern soldier was a typical Southern 'cracker' and Anglo-Saxon of homogeneous background, but such was not the case." This statement has been proven to be true in other earlier books such as Ella Lonn's classic "Foreigners in the Confederacy" first published in 1940, and reprinted several times since. As Lonn pointed out diversity was particularly apparent in some units from Louisiana, such as the Tenth Louisiana Regiment, where soldiers from 14 counties were represented, including England, Ireland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, etc.
Cubans in the Confederacy concentrates on three Cubans who provided valauble services to the Confederacy. There are three separate articles written by three different writers.
The first article, and the longest in the book (pp. 9-142) is about Jose Agustin Quintero who served the Confederacy as a diplomat in Mexico.
The second article (pp. 143-224) is about Ambrosio Jose Gonzales who served as a high ranking officer in the Confederate Army.
The third article and the shortest (pp. 225-239) is about Loreta Janeta Velazquez who served the Confederacy as a soldier and spy. She is probably the best known of the three persons covered in the book.
The book is an excellent contribution to our knowledge about the diversity that was the Confederacy. The only disappointment for me was that there are no photographs of the persons depicted in the articles. Some of the articles, I thought were a little too windy, and for these two reasons, I gave the book 4 stars instead of 5 stars.

Cuba's unknown history
It is great that someone took the time to research our history.

Superv book, Just a little over priced
Been born in Cuba, I was fascinated with the tittle of this book. You have to understand Cuba's role in the Civil War is not really known in our Cuban circles. The book was a little over priced, but I decided to purchase it. In truth, it was a superv book, both from a Cuban an Civil War perspective. The only reason I did not give this book a 5 star was the price tag that comes along such a skinny book. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Interesting but Flawed
This is not a bad effort at providing a general overview of the subject for young readers, but it is also not a very reliable treatment of the topic for readers seeking thoroughness and historical accuracy. There areplenty of historical errors (for starters, Dolf Luque did not pitch in boththe 1918 and 1919 World Series and the Havana Sugar Kings of theInternational League did not exist for 13 years, but only seven), and thereis also more than a reasonable dose of typographical errors. Mostdistracting from the effort, however, is the author's overlooking in hisbibliographical citations of many of the previous important works on thesame topic.

I Love This Book!!!
This is a book that every Latino should cope with. Not only because it talks about Latinos, but because it will make you feel better about yourself! ... Read more

Reviews (2)

great book, very well written
A mindblowing book. I want to find more books by this autho

Highlights from past reviews
``Barry Levine has that increasingly rare gift, the sociological ear. In this book we have the result of his listening-patiently, sensitively, with a fine feeling for nuance to what I'm sure must be one of the most colorful characters in sociological literature.'' Peter L. Berger on the dust jacket of Benjy Lopez ``This book is intended as a positive alternative to much testimonial literature about Puerto Ricans/Neoricans in which they appear as passive victims... The sad absurdity of racial and cultural prejudice is illuminated... Highly recommended.'' Joanna Walsh in Library Journal ``An attempt to redress the balance in the sociological literature about Puerto Ricans... providing a more balanced view of Puerto Rican migrants and of the acculturation process.'' Frank Fernández in Revista/Review Interamericana ``In this book one reads a few paragraphs at random only to find them so interesting that one turns to the first page and reads every page. Benjy is a good antidote to those who believe that the culture of poverty concept is all but divinely inspired... Valuable research, excellent writing.'' Raymond E. Crist in Latin America in Books ``Professor Levine's book is both a labor of love for Puerto Rico and its plight and a fine piece of scholarship.'' Ed Vega in Nuestro ``Bringing to Lopez's story advanced instruments of social science, an effective interpretative scheme, and a solid sociological background, Levine has rescued Third World man from indignity... Few works will better demonstrate the circum-stances of the Puerto Rican in New York than this one by Levine.'' Miguel Barnet in ``A Man and His Potential,'' Caribbean Review. The review appeared in Spanish in Opiniones Latinoamericanas, titled: ``Un puertorrequeño contra el sistema.'' ``I applaud his attempt to give a different picture of Puerto Rican life, one not ridden with despair and resignation like many other writers... have done.'' Helen I. Safa in ``A Tale of Wit and Woe,'' Caribbean Review ``Ojala que Barry Levine, quien con tanto acierto ha sabido comunicamos la personalidad de este hombre puertorrequeño de nuestra epoca, ofrezca en algún momento nuevas noticias que vayan completando esta apasionante `historia picaresca'...'' Juan Mart¡nez Capó in ``Libros de Puerto Rico,'' El Mundo (San Juan) ``Acaba de aparecer un estupendo libro... Tras esa historia aparentemente vulgar, se esconde algo realmente conmovedor: la lucha de un imigrante de origen hispano para ser respetado y apreciado... La labor de selecci¢n de informaci¢n hecha por Barry Levine puede considerarse ejemplar. Ahí estan en ese magnífico libro todas las luchas... de miles de puertorrequeños.'' Carlos AIberto Montaner on the Spanish International Television Network ``A rare work about the Puerto Rican diaspora that leaves the reader on the whole more cheerful when he finishes reading than when he started.'' Gerald Guinness in ``Beating the System,'' Américas. The same review also appeared in Spanish under the title ``Cómo burlar el sistema.'' A similar review by the same author appeared in the San Juan Star under the title ``The Puerto Rican Hustle: Beating the System'' ``Benjy's story is much more interesting and refreshing than the countless one-dimensional sociological studies of Caribbean and Latin American emigrants to the U.S., or Mediterranean emigrants to Western Europe.'' Aaron Segal in The Times of the America. This review also appeared in Worldview [Benjy's life] ``opens the reader's eyes to the problems and challenges, the pain and frustration of life as a Puerto Rican in the big metropolis.'' Joseph P. Fitzpatrick in ``Is There Hope for Puerto Ricans?,'' a review essay in Contemporary Sociology ``A good read... but above and beyond its literary attributes, it stands on its own as a well-conceived, thoroughly researched, and solid study. A significant contribution to the scientific analysis of the causes and consequences of Puerto Rican emigration and return.'' Angel Calderdón Cruz in Caribbean Studies ``A stupendous book that only a sociologist/anthropologist willing and unafraid to let a little humanism and common sense creep into his study could write. A very human document about a very human being.'' Gary Brana-Shute in Bijdragen (Liden) `Levine's simpatico study reveals unique kinds of resourcefulness and suffering that elevate Benjy from a `type' into a subject of human concern.'' W. Marvin Will and Edward M. Dew in Choice ``Levine does not believe that the migration experience is one of failure and for this reason he writes a success story.'' Carolina Hospital in Latinamericanist A nasty little attack appears in Marvin A. Lewis, ``The Puerto Rican in Popular U.S. Literature: A Culturalist Perspective,'' in Asela Rodríguez de Laguna, ed., Images and Identities: The Puerto Rican in Literature, (New Jersey: Transaction Books) and in Imágines e Identitades: el puertorriqueño en la literatura (Río Piedras: Editorial Huracán) A critical essay appeared in Revista de Ciencias Sociales (San Juan), Vol. XXll, Nos. 1 & 2 (March-June 1980), 187-98. Reviews also appeared in La Critica Sociologica (Rome), Sociogische Gide (Amsterdam) and Social Science Journal. Book notes have appeared in: Kirkus Review (15 February 1980); Publishers Weekly (22 February 1980), and Booklist (15 June 1980). ... Read more

Book Description

The "Easy Biographies" series focuses on the childhood and young-adult years of famous men and women who overcame obstacles to achieve greatness. Inspirational and informative reading for students with big dreams. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

*
This book, although informational, is largely biased by the writers. In my opinion it is too flowery to be presented as a reference source. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Fantastic Francisca
Francisca and the Boys is the true essence of growing up in a hispanicfamily during the depression years of the 30's.This book sets you in reallife, as if you were actually living with the characters.The Delmontefamily is gently unwoven with love and support that gives the reader a trueunderstanding of what "family" really is.Reading this book tothe end is not enough, you'll want more of Nick, Davy, and Francisca...... ... Read more

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Modern Language Review, published by Modern Humanities Research Association on January 1, 1999. The length of the article is 699 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The Hispanic Homograph: Gay Self-Representation in Contemporary Spanish Autobiography.(Review)
Author: Stephen M. Hart
Publication: The Modern Language Review (Refereed)
Date: January 1, 1999
Publisher: Modern Humanities Research Association
Volume: 94Issue: 1Page: 233(2)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Reviews (1)

WARNING - This Book is for First Graders Only!
I ordered this book thinking it would provide a nice, concise biography of Ellen Ochoa, the famous Latina astronaut, for my 10 year old son. Unfortunately, the book consists almost entirely of pairs of facing pages, one a color photo occupying a full page and the other a page with a single sentence 6 to 8 words long. The only exceptions to this are the first page, which has two sentences totaling 7 words in all, and the last page, which has 3 sentences of 7 or 8 words each. There is also a 4-word glossary at the end with 3 to 6 word long definitions of these words: astronaut, machines, space and train (the verb).

For you to grasp the level of this book, I need only quote the first few pages: "Meet Ellen Ochoa. She is an astronaut. Ellen had to train to be an astronaut. Ellen had to learn how to use many machines. She worked hard, but she had fun." You have now read the first 12 pages of this 24 page book. We don't get to find out when or where she was born, how long or where she trained, how long she worked at NASA, what the machines were she had to train on, or what trips she may or may not have taken into space.

The color photographs are beautiful. If you want a nice picture book to inspire 6 year olds to read their first simple sentences, this is your book. If you actually want your child to learn something about Ellen Ochoa, you'll have to look elsewhere! ... Read more

Book Description

Rudolfo A. Anaya's seven novels can all be viewed in terms of the Chicano literary tradition though their rich texts have earned Anaya a place of respect in mainstream modern American literature. Fernandez Olmos guides the reader through Anaya's literary world with clear signposts, illuminating the mythical, cultural, and linguistic complexities of his astounding stories. From his coming of age masterpiece Bless Me, Ultima (1972) to his most recent work Shaman Winter (1999) Anaya's writing with its rich spiritual symbolism is brought down to earth and made accessible to the student reader by Fernandez Olmos's insightful analyses. This work devotes a chapter to each novel, enabling Fernandez Olmos to guide the reader through each, showing both the patterns and variations of literary devices in Anaya's works, while offering interesting alternative interpretations of Anaya's writing. ... Read more

Book Description

When Ernie Lpez was a boy selling newspapers in Depression-era Los Angeles, his father beat him when he failed to bring home the expected eighty to ninety cents a day. When the beatings became unbearable, he took to petty stealing to make up the difference. As his thefts succeeded, Ernie's sense of necessity got tangled up with ambition and adventure. At thirteen, a joyride in a stolen car led to a sentence in California's harshest juvenile reformatory. The system's failure to show any mercy soon propelled Lpez into a cycle of crime and incarceration that resulted in his spending decades in some of America's most notorious prisons, including four and a half years on death row for a murder Lpez insists he did not commit.To Alcatraz, Death Row, and Back is the personal life story of a man who refused to be broken by either an abusive father or an equally abusive criminal justice system. While Lpez freely admits that "I've been no angel," his insider's account of daily life in Alcatraz and San Quentin graphically reveals the violence, arbitrary infliction of excessive punishment, and unending monotony that give rise to gang cultures within the prisons and practically insure that parolees will commit far worse crimes when they return to the streets. Rafael Prez-Torres discusses how Ernie Lpez's experiences typify the harsher treatment that ethnic and minority suspects often receive in the American criminal justice system, as well as how they reveal the indomitable resilience of Chicanos/as and their culture. As Prez-Torres concludes, "Lpez's story presents us with the voice of one who--though subjected to a system meant to destroy his soul--not only endured but survived, and in surviving prevailed." ... Read more