Book Description

A celebration of Latino baseball superstars from 1900-1960 who were pioneers of the sport. ... Read more

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After Finishing This Book You'll Love Baseball Even More
If America is the melting pot, then baseball is an extension of that cauldron. Winter's books -- including "Fair Ball," a similar look at pre-Jackie Robinson Negro League stars -- are gems that illuminate athletes, musicians, artists and more. The writing is sharp. The illustrations here are reminscient of baseball cards. And the subject matter, minority baseball greats, has been up till now overlooked. These volumes will give your child -- and you, too -- breadth in understanding America's pastime as well as an understanding of pop culture. We laud our heroes to the point of nausea. Winter delights us by heralding the unsung heroes of a not so long ago but very distant era. ... Read more

Book Description

A biography of the Grammy Award-winning recording artist, Mariah Carey. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

A TOTAL MARIAH CAREY FAN!
THIS BOOK WAS A BIG DISAPPOINTMENT TO ME,IT HAD HARDLY ANY INFO,ALTHOUGH IT DID A GOOD PICTURES THEY WERE IN BLACK AND WHITE,I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THIS TO ANYONE.

I loved this book!
This book was so great! I love Mariah and I loved reading her life story in this book. After I picked it up and started reading it, I didn't want to put it down! Definitely the book for anyone who wants to know more about Mariah Carey!

THE LAST OF HER KIND
I have read the book and I have come to realize that she's one EXTRAORDINARY woman, gifted with a golden voice and heart. Now, that's what you call a TRUE DIVA!

Mariah "DIVA" Carey
This book was fabulous. I wish she'd make an auto-biography. I love Mariah Carey soooooooo much [as in a role modle type way]. Mariah has such a beautiful voice; and it could blow anyone away, she is a great person, and she is so beautiful. I am so determined to become a diva, just like her, but with my own style.~* ... Read more

Book Description

Real-Life Reader Biographies present the lives of contemporary role models for young readers.These are the stories of real men and women who, despite many obstacles, followed their dreams.

Freddie Prinze, Jr., never wants to talk about his famous father, the first Puerto Rican sitcom star in Hollywood ("Chico and the Man"), who shot himself when he was just twenty-two years old.He left behind a wife, ten-month old Freddie, Jr., and millions of adoring fans.Freddie, Jr., never knew him and he doesn't want to dwell on the past.What Freddie, Jr., does want, however, is a successful film career, something his father never saw.And he wants to say that he learned a few lessons from his father: he will never go near drugs.

Launched to stardom after he appeared in the teen horror films I Know What You Did Last Summer and it's sequel, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, Freddie then took on his first romantic leading role in She's All That.But as his career takes off, he is careful not to tread where his father has gone before him.He wants his star to shine for a very long time. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

My life,My find
Mommy look!Ok here's how it goes.When I was 5 I had a brain tumor, and one day I was watching TV when the hit TV show "Faimly Matters" came on.I watched it, and this amazly cute guy came on, my mom told me his name was Freddie Prinze Jr.He's been my idoil ever since.When I found out about this book I froze I was sooooo happy. Then when I read the book I was soooo happy, because it was soooo good.That now I want to order one for my cousin.The whole time I was in the hosipal I wanted to meet him soooo bad now for some reason I feel like I've met him, but I know I haven't.A long time ago when Freddie Prinze Jr was hosting TRL I called in, and got to talk to him.Yeterday I was with my dad in a Harley shop when I saw George Clooney I was soooo happy, because as he was walking past me he bumped me,and then he talked to me and touched me I was soooo excited that I wanted to go get an autograph but I thought it would be mean so I didn't but I wish I would have.And I know if that would have been Freddie Prinze Jr I probably would have died. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Great read!
Excellent book about a side of baseball that is not often analyse, I really recomend this one...

Entertaining Superficial Romp
Regalado provides a readable survey of the subject but his book is marred by failure to update his much-earlier academic dissertation on the topic, as well has his tendency at times to play rather loosely with the historical facts. It was Juan and not Luis Gonzalez who won a home run title, US sailors did not introduced baseball to Cuba on the Palmar de Junco field (see Roberto Gonzalez for the facts), pro baseball started in Cuba in 1878 and not 1868, Bobby Avila played for Almendares in the Cuban (not Mexican) league, Alejandro Oms did not play in the majors and Fidel Castro did not pitch for the University of Havana, Calvin Griffith was not Clark Griffith's son, Camilo Pascual and Pedro Ramos did not play for the Havana Sugar Kings in the AAA International League, Jose Santiago was Puerto Rico and not Cuban, and the 1891 Pittsburgh Pirates did not feature Ralph Kiner. This is a small sample of the bobbles which often marr an otherwise valuable casual fan's survey of Latino baseball.

Could Have Been Better
This is a passable overview of Latin baseball history but one also filled with numerous smaller and larger errors (San Pedro de Macoris is not by any measure "a small Dominican town" and US sailors did not introduce baseball in Cuba at the Palmar de Junco field in 1866) plus careless treatment of ballplayers names (Luis Gonzalez for Juan Gonzalez, Pinella for Piniella, Roman Mejis for Mejias, etc. etc.). Also the author made little effort to update his work from its earlier incarnation as a doctoral disseration several years earlier. The effort could have been better.

A MUST READ FOR ANY BASEBALL HISTORY FAN
Dr. Regalado did an amazing job with this book. It is a must read for any person that enjoys the history of baseball. Regalado wrote about a topic that doesn't get much attention and did so wonderfully.

"Viva Baseball" works on a multitude of levels.
"Viva Baseball! Latin Major Leaguers and Their Special Hunger" is a nearly effortless and highly entertaining read. Sam Regalado has managed to accomplished something very special: He has written a book for just about the full spectrum of the sports minded. Even if you're tangentially interested in baseball, you are likely to be griped by this heart warming story, which encompasses the hardships faced by Latin American baseball players, along with their "special hunger" to succeed, and finally their eventual triumph that gained them acceptance into North American professional baseball. For those students of history, Dr. Regalado, who teaches history at California State University,Stanislaus, manages to deftly weave in the important social /political and international events that shaped both the United States and the entire Western Hemisphere in the twentieth century. His treatment of the Cuban Missile Crisis, immigration trends and policies in the United States, and the tumult of Latin American politics, not to mention the farm workers movement led by Cesar Chavez and the racial politics of the 1960's in America, is clear, concise, and provides the reader with yet another lens from which to view these seminal events. Lest we forget this is a serious scholarly work, yet one that even neophyte students of history will find friendly.

"Viva Baseball" brings a big smile to the faces of baseball fans as well, especially those who either lived the glory years of the 60's or have since become aficionados. He paints the legends of the San Francisco Giants, such as Juan Marichal (Dominican Republic), Orlando Cepeda (Puerto Rico) and Jose Pagan (Cuba) with such realism by relating fascinating anecdotes that reveal their struggles as dark skin immigrants to a largely hostile racial and nativistic society, and their amazing accomplishments both on and off the field. We witness a side of the great Robert Clemente hitherto hardly offered for popular consumption. He was portrayed by the press in Pittsburgh as aloof, temperamental and even hypochondriac. Clemente's sullenness was in reality a normal reaction to the racism he and other players faced and the unwarranted jabs thrown at him by sports writers. The true measure of the man was both in his classy prowess on the field and in his efforts to help those less fortunate, such as the event that claimed his life in 1973. The plane crash and sorrowful aftermath of Robert Clemente's death are portrayed with great emotion.

My favorite story is of Luis Tiant Jr. Cold War politics isolated the Cuban member of the Boston Red Sox from his parents for fifteen years, until 1975 when Senator George McGovern apparently convinced Fidel Castro to allow Tiants to visit their son in Boston. The city of Boston, not known for its racial tolerance, rolled out the red carpet. Luis senior, who once objected to his son playing baseball in the U.S. because of prejudice, and Mrs. Tiant, watched their son win two games in the 1975 World Series. They both died the following year.

"Viva Baseball!Latin Major Leaguers and Their Spceial Hunger" satiates a wide spectrum of readers,with many different appetites. With perhaps minimal intellectual engagement and reflection by the reader, Dr. Regalado demonstrates how sport has the capacity, not only to reflect important societal trends and events, but also to qualitatively transform society into a more just and tolerant order. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

The Best of the Raul Julia books
This is a very well thought out book by Barbara C. Cruz. It contains over 30 wonderful photos and a lot of great information about Julia and his work as an actor and Humanitarian. For More information about Raul Julia please visit Raul Julia online. http://www.geocities.com/mrrauljulia ... Read more

Book Description

"This book represents a significant contribution to the discipline in that it raises important issues of ethnographic authority and authorship. . . . Indeed, it could serve as a model for new ways to write ethnography." --Miguel Díaz-Barriga, Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, Swarthmore CollegeWhen a ten-year-old boy befriends a mysterious hobo in his southern Colorado hometown in the early 1940s, he learns about evil in his community and takes his first steps toward manhood by attempting to protect his new friend from corrupt officials. Though a fictional story, Alex and the Hobo is written out of the life experiences of its author, José Inez (Joe) Taylor, and it realistically portrays a boy's coming-of-age as a Spanish-speaking man who must carve out an honorable place for himself in a class-stratified and Anglo-dominated society.In this innovative ethnography, anthropologist James Taggart collaborates with Joe Taylor to explore how Alex and the Hobo sprang from Taylor's life experiences and how it presents an insider's view of Mexicano culture and its constructions of manhood. They frame the story (included in its entirety) with chapters that discuss how it encapsulates notions that Taylor learned from the Chicano movement, the farmworkers' union, his community, his father, his mother, and his religion. Taggart gives the ethnography a solid theoretical underpinning by discussing how the story and Taylor's account of how he created it represent an act of resistance to the class system that Taylor perceives as destroying his native culture. ... Read more

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An excellent textbook
This book is one of the best textbooks on Chicano studies that has come out in a long time.Joe Taylor is a natural storyteller and I am hoping that his next book is an anthology ofshort stories on the San Luis Valley life experience.Joe Taylor has lived the life of a descendant of the sturdy pioneers that settled that area.Theses people were to far from Mexico and never included as part of America ,created their own culture,language and customs.Priscilla Salazar ... Read more

Book Description

Juan Ponce de Leon is credited with discovering the Florida peninsula in 1513. Legend says he set about through the land to search for the Fountain of Youth. ... Read more

Book Description

RetroSpace is a collection of the seminal articles of the noted critic Bruce Novoa on the history and theory of Chicano literature. ... Read more

Book Description

essays & poems: "getting lost to find something" ... Read more

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Exceptional, witty, enternaining, and smart
Arteaga's anecdotes are vivid; Each packed with wit, sarcasm and intelligent thought.I highly recommend this book as one of my all-time favorites. ... Read more

Book Description

To grow up as a Mexican-American Methodist in a small town in south central Texas in the 1940s and 1950s was to be a minority within a minority. This account of a boyhood in Seguin, Texas, broadens our understanding of Latino culture by evoking a time when Catholics and Protestants had nothing to do with each other and the word Chicano was not yet in use. But in spite of ethnic and religious segregation, the Maldonado family and their neighbors flourished in the rich Mejicano culture of their barrio west of Guadalupe Street, a world totally separate from the Anglo world. The language spoken in schools, churches, restaurants, bars, and beauty parlors was predominantly Spanish. The sounds and smells were Mexican. School teachers were the most successful and respected members of the community.

Guadalupe Street separated Protestant families like the Maldonados from the Anglo and Catholic communities. But it did not keep them from attaining success in the Anglo world. David Maldonado’s memoir of how he crossed Guadalupe Street is the story of a man who became bilingual, bicultural, and successful, but it is also a tribute to the traditions in which he grew up. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Crossing Guafdalupe Street by David Maldonado
Crossing Guadalupe Street by David Maldonado takes place during the 1940s. The setting story takes place in a small town of Mexico called Seguin. The nivel is about the authored chilhood memories. The story is about avid Maldonado, his family, things he had been through and seen and so much more. One of the reasons why I enjoyed this novel is because we call all relate ti it when it comes to family and memories. It was so easy to pictured the setting because of the way the way the author describes the place or situationalso with specific details and examples. His family plays an important role in his life qalso the place where he was born and raised. Growing up were he came from describe his personality and "Who I am" "Seguin". IT gave me the impression that although he was poor and his family may have went through struggles and sacrifices, somehow he felted the richest and luckiest guy of earth because of his loving,caring and united family he had. My rating for this novel I give five stars. I recommend this novel because I truely believe that is very informative and inspiring. The author leaves you with curiosity on what's going to happen next.

crossing Guadalupe Street review
"Crossing Guadalupe Street" is a story that took place in a small town in South Central Texas called Seguin in the 1940s and 1950s. The author David Maldonado tells the story of his childhood,growing up in Seguin and how it was segregated. This book is about a family of seven children and how they were molded by their parents'ethnic and religious path. There was a big cultural barrio in Seguin and on the other side of Guadalupe Street, was a whole other world and the only time or place these two worlds would come together was at school. The rating that i give to this book is a four stars. I recommend this novel to all ages because it give you and idea of how a family should be.

Review of Crossing Guadalupe Street
Crossing Guadalupe Street takes place during 1940 in a small town of Mexico called Seguin. The novel talks about the author's childhood memories. The story is about David Maldonado it also talks about his family and there adventures. The reason why I liked this novel was because it is about families and memories that we can all make with each other. When you first start reading you can actually picture what is going on is like you can see what is happening and you can also predict what is going to happen next. The novel also makes you want to read more and more it is so interesting. This novel gave me the impression that the author did love and care very much about his family. If I was to rate this novel I would give it **** stars because is that good. I would recommend that people read this novel because it chouse you how much your family should mean to you and it helps you to appreciate them more. ... Read more

Book Description

The first nonfiction work by acclaimed novelist Julia Alvarez--twenty-four personal essays on the experience of immigration and the writing life

The rich and revealing essays in Something to Declare offer Julia Alvarez's dual meditations on coming to America and becoming a writer. In the first section, "Customs," Alvarez relates how she and her family fled the Dominican Republic and its oppressive dictator, Rafael Trujillo, settling in New York City in the 1960s. Here Julia begins a love affair with the English language under the tutelage of the aptly named Sister Maria Generosa. Part Two--"Declarations"--celebrates Alvarez's enduring passion for the writing life. From the valentine to mythic storyteller Scheherazade that is "First Muse," to a description of Alvarez's itinerant life as a struggling poet, teacher, and writer in "Have Typewriter, Will Travel," to the sage and witty advice of "Ten of My Writing Commandments," Alvarez generously shares her influences and inspirations with aspiring writers everywhere.

"Reading Julia Alvarez's new collection of essays is like curling up with a glass of wine in one hand and the phone in the other, listening to a big-hearted, wisecracking friend share hard-earned wisdom about family, identity, and the art of writing."--People ... Read more

Reviews (5)

At last! Nonfiction from Alvarez!
Alvarez has mined deeply into her childhood in Dominican Republic and her family's flight from Trujillo to Queens, NY, as sources for her lyrical fiction and poetry. At last she launches herself into nonfiction, and the result is Something to Declare. The book is a collection of 24 autobiographical essays focused on her life and her personal writing process. The first part chronicles her girlhood in DR, surrounded with a rich and varied cast of characters comprised of her huge family, the servants, her classmates and nursemaids. It ends with her family's escape to America and documents the beginning of the difficult assimilation process.
In the second part of Something to Declare, Alvarez talks about her writing process, the difficulty balancing a writing life with teaching and her "real life," and concludes with her Ten Commandments for writing, a poster of which hangs above my computer.
This book is a gift from Julia Alvarez to her many fans, and we thank her for it.

Take time to visit with Alvarez
Ever since reading In the Time of the Butterflies, I have been convinced that Julia Alvarez was a gifted writer. This collection of her essays was purchased for our library to add to our creative writing teacher's curricular tools. I couldn't resist being the first to sample same. Alvarez has a way of talking to the reader that makes her essays ever so readable. I especially love the personal illuminations of her family in the Dominican Republic and in the states. What a fascinating immigrant story! One of my favorite essays is "Chasing the Butterfies" which put chills on me as I recalled the power in her novel that made me into her fan. I am not surprised that she is connected to the Bread Loaf writers. What quality comes from that group! I was a late-in-life discoverer of writers outside of the CANON, but I never again shall believe that only the canon has quality. The multicultural writers that I have discovered since 1992 as a member of the NEH sponsored Common Ground at the University of Houston, have enriched my life and the lives of my students. Any would be writer should read these Alvarez revelations. Being able to come and go from the entries makes the work so very user friendly. Brava, Julia!

Great straight thoughts about the bi-cultural experience
In Something to Declare Julia Alvarez give us rich insights into the process of being a writer and living the full but difficult life of a bi-cultural citizen. Her book helped me a lot to understand my dual citizenship, but also it helped me to deal with the voices that fill my mind in at least two languages. A must for anyone who enjoys ethnic literature, or emmigrant fiction.

A marvelous chat with a fantastic author.
Julia Alvarez lets readers into her thoughts and imagination with a wonderfully readable collection of essays in "Something to Declare".

For anybody who loves to read -- or to write.
I spent much of last night reading the galley of Alvarez's first essay collection. It's so alive and so beautifully drawn. Nothing surprises me more than when a novelist or poet allows the reader to get to know her directly -- Alvarez does with remarkable results. ... Read more

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This is an awesome book!!!
My house is about the Rodriguez family and their home. I was excited to learn this family lives near my home. The pictures are wonderful. The author has taken much care when taking the photos.

I enjoyed the dual language format. It allowed me to practice my knowledge of Spanish. ... Read more

Book Description

Authorized biography of Puerto Rican-born Roberto Alomar, whose father, Sandy Sr. and brother, Sandy Jr. are both in baseball. For the 1999 season, Roberto will join his brother on the Cleveland Indians ... Read more

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If Roberto Alomar is your favorite player, read this book...
I just finished reading this book and I have to tell you, it was good. The way the author captures the life of this wonderful player.It includes many thins that not a lot of his fans know about him. Roberto and Sandy Alomar are great people, their parents did a wonderful job with all three of their kids. Sandy and Roberto are wondeful people, on and off the field. The book is wonderful. ... Read more

Book Description

Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founded and colonized the city of St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest city in the continental United States. Considering who his father was, it was little wonder that he was drawn to a life of adventure and service to the Spanish king. Pedro's father had helped defeat the last of the Moors in 1492. Serving the Spanish monarchy was an honored tradition in the family.

Pedro soon made a name for himself because of his brave deeds at sea. Sometimes, he was little better than a pirate himself, but he was well known for his daring and his bravery.

Most historians believe that it was Ponce de Léon who claimed Florida for Spain in 1513. But by 1562, France began to challenge Spain's claim to the area. This angered the Spanish king. So in 1565, King Philip sent Menéndez back to Florida to get rid of the French and establish Spain's stronghold in the area. His brother-in-law was the official recorder of the expedition and we are able to reconstruct his exploration of the American Southeast (back then, La Florida encompassed most of the southeastern part of the U.S.). Though he was ruthless and merciless in the name of the Spanish crown, he established a colony in Florida that nearly 450 years later still reflects its rich Spanish history. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (1)

Charro: The Mexican Cowboy
Lovely photos and words reveal a traditional sport, way of life and skills comparable to the American rodeo.Boys, girls, young women and men join in for a day of celebration centered around style, courage, horses and skillwith a rope. Over 2 & 1/2 dozen Spanish words are introduced throughthe text. I would reocmmend this book to students in the 4th and 5thgrades. ... Read more