Program Description
Latine Author Book Cafe
Join us on the second Tuesday of each month as we discuss works written by Latine authors.* Spanish language copies will be made available when possible. Learn more about library-led book discussions »
*After discussion with community members and staff, the library changed its usage from “Latinx” to “Latine.” Latine is a term created by LGBTQIA+ Spanish speakers. This term uses the letter "e" to illustrate gender inclusivity within existing Spanish pronunciation rules. It is a more inclusive term that acknowledges the gender and language diversity of the community.
Event Details
August Book Club Pick: "Doña Cleanwell Leaves Home" by Ana Castillo
The first person in her traditional Mexican American family to graduate from high school, Katia is entering adulthood at a time of turbulent change. Across the nation young people are fighting for civil and women's rights and protesting the Vietnam War and brutal dictatorships in South America. Like so many of her generation, Katia wants to make the world a better place, and is determined to follow her own path.
As she considers moving to California to join La Causa, Mexican American activist Cesar Chavez's movement to improve the working conditions of migrant farmer workers, Katia receives an unexpected gift from her father: a plane ticket to Mexico City. Bring back your mother, he says, tell her, her children need her. And so Katia joins this cause, to get Tina back to Chicago. But it won't be easy. Katia must learn to navigate a liberated version of her mother in a new country where she is now hawking supposedly superior cleaning products, called Donna Clean Well.
Katia is but one of the voices introduced in this dazzling collection of short fiction from revered writer Ana Castillo. Spanning from Chicago to Mexico to New Mexico, the stories in Doña Cleanwell Leaves Home illuminate a chorus of people whose stories will leave you breathless.