Ana Castillo

Guardianes de la frontera es una novela coral donde las voces de habitantes de distintas generaciones e historias de migración relatan en primera persona las riquezas y las miserias, los miedos y las esperanzas vinculados a la vida de quien mora entre dos culturas, entre dos tierras, entre dos lenguas. Con una abrumadora franqueza, Ana Castillo nos presenta a traves de las narraciones de Regina, Gabo, Miguel y el abuelo Milton una fotografia no solo de la frontera que paradojicamente une y separa Mexico y los Estados Unidos, sino tambien de la que alla se perfila tristemente tenue entre la vida y la muerte. El titulo pretende condensar la duplicidad de la guarda, ejercida por algunos como vigilancia y control, y como custodia y cuidado por otros, en una tupida maraña de relaciones humanas e interdependencias. A los pies de la montaña, atalaya a su vez de esta zona limitrofe, conviven los coyotes, parasitos de la injusta y abominable maquinaria del trafico de personas, con supervivientes, resignados o esperanzados ante el panorama que los recibe, y la propia estructura de acogida, que busca, no siempre con tino, el equilibrio entre la oferta real del sueño americano y la seguridad frente a una situacion que los desborda. Con esta obra, tal y como ella misma manifiesta en la dedicatoria inicial, Castillo desea ren...

Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award from the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human RightsThis new edition of an immensely influential book gives voice to Mexic Amerindian women silenced for hundreds of years by the dual censorship of being female and indigenous. Castillo replaced the term Chicana feminism with Xicanisma to include mestiza women on both sides of the border. In history, myth, interviews, and ethnography Castillo revisits her reflections on Chicana activism, spiritual practices, sexual attitudes, artistic ideology, labor struggles, and education-related battles. Her book remains a compelling document, enhanced here with a new afterword that reexamines the significance of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

An Anchor Books Original Cherished for her passionate fiction and exuberant essays, the author hailed by Julia Alvarez as "una storyteller de primera," and by Barbara Kingsolver in The Los Angeles Times as "impossible to resist," returns to her first lovepoetryto reveal an unwavering commitment to social justice, and a fervent embrace of the sensual world. With the poems in I Ask the Impossible, Castillo celebrates the strength that "is a woman buried deep in [her] heart." Whether memorializing real-life heroines who have risked their lives for humanity, spinning a lighthearted tale for her young son, or penning odes to mortals, gods, goddesses, Castillos poems are eloquent and rich with insight. She shares over twelve years of poetic inspiration, from her days as a writer who "once wrote poems in a basement with no heat," through the tenderness of motherhood and bitterness of loss, to the strength of love itself, which can "make the impossible a simple act." Radiant with keen perception, wit, and urgency, sometimes erotic, often funny, this inspiring collection sounds the unmistakable voice of a "woman on fire" and "more worthy than stone."

For more than thirty years, Ana Castillo has been mesmerizing and inspiring readers from all over the world with her passionate and fiery poetry and prose. Now the original Xicanista is back to her first literary love, poetry, and to interrogating the social and political upheaval the world has seen over the last decade. Angry and sad, playful and wise, Castillo delves into the bitter side of our worldthe environmental crisis, COVID-19, ongoing systemic racism and violence, children in detention camps, and the Trump presidencyand emerges stronger from exploring these troubling affairs of today. Drawings by Castillo created over the past five years are featured throughout the collection and further showcase her connection to her work as both a writer and a visual artist. My Book of the Dead is a remarkable collection that features a poet at the height of her craft.

Mixing the lyrical with the colloquial, the tender with the tough, Ana Castillo has a deserved reputation as one of the countrys most powerful and entrancing novelists, but she began her literary career as a poet of uncompromising commitment and passion. My Father Was a Toltecis the sassy and street-wise collection of poems that established and secured Castillos place in the popular canon. It is included here in its entirety along with the best of her early poems. Ana Castillos poetry speaksin English and Spanishto every reader who has felt the pangs of exile, the uninterrupted joy of love, and the deep despair of love lost.

Ana Castillo is an American treasure. Fearless, compassionate, and flat-out brilliantshe is the writer we need as we navigate the challenges of our ever-changing world.Tayari Jones, author of An American MarriageAna Castillo is de primera storyteller.award-winning author Julia AlvarezLiterary legend Ana Castillo explores the secrets that are kept within households and the women they impact the most in this breakout collection that cements her place as a leading voice in feminist fiction.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 womens 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 Chavezs 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 wont 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 LeavesHome illuminate a chorus of people whose stories will leave you breathless.

From American Book Award-winning author Ana Castillo comes a suspenseful, moving novel about a sensuous, smart, and fiercely independent woman. Eking out a living as a teachers aide in a small New Mexican border town, Tia Regina is also raising her teenage nephew, Gabo, a hardworking boy who has entered the country illegally and aspires to the priesthood. When Gabos father, Rafa, disappears while crossing over from Mexico, Regina fears the worst. After several days of waiting and with an ominous phone call from a woman who may be connected to a smuggling ring, Regina and Gabo resolve to find Rafa. Help arrives in the form of Miguel, an amorous, recently divorced history teacher; Miguels gregarious abuelo Milton; a couple of Gabos gangbanger classmates; and a priest of wayward faith. Though their journey is rife with challenges and danger, it will serve as a remarkable testament to family bonds, cultural pride, and the human experiencePraise for The GuardiansNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE CHICAGO TRIBUNEAn always skilled storyteller, [Castillo] grounds her writing in . . . humor, love, suspense and heartachethat draw the reader in.Chicago Sunday Sun-TimesA rollicking read, with jokes and suspense and joy rides and hearts breaking . . . This smart, passionate novel deserves a wide audience. Los Angeles TimesWhat drives the novel is its chorus of characters, all, in their own way, witnesses and guardian angels. In the end, Castillos unmistakable voiceearthy, impassioned, weaving a hybrid vocabulary for a hybrid peopleis the books greatest revelation.Time Out New YorkA wonderful novel . . . Castillos most important accomplishment in The Guardians is to give a unique literary voice to questions about what makes up a family. El Paso TimesA moving book that is both intimate and epic in its narrative. Oscar Hijuelos, author of The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love