Book picks similar to
Broken Shields by Krystyna M. Libura
mexico
north-america
cultural-studies
kids-mexico-aztec
Hothal
Bharathi Vyas
When her father is exiled from his kingdom, Hothal disguises herself as a man and fights alongside the valient Odha, who she eventually falls deeply in love with.
What Can You Do with a Rebozo?
Carmen Tafolla - 2008
Lively prose and rich illustrations honor a warm and colorful cultural icon. You can do almost anything with a rebozo--and a little imagination!
The Sorrows of Mexico
Lydia Cacho - 2016
The so-called "war on drugs" has been a brutal and chaotic failure (more than 160,000 lives have been lost). The drug cartels and the forces of law and order are often in collusion, corruption is everywhere. Life is cheap and inconvenient people - the poor, the unlucky, the honest or the inquisitive - can be "disappeared" leaving not a trace behind (in September 2015, more than 26,798 were officially registered as "not located"). Yet people in all walks of life have refused to give up.Diego Enrique Osorno and Juan Villoro tell stories of teenage prostitution and Mexico's street children. Anabel Hernández and Emiliano Ruiz Parra give chilling accounts of the "disappearance" of forty-three students and the murder of a self-educated land lawyer. Sergio González Rodríguez and Marcela Turati dissect the impact of the violence on the victims and those left behind, while Lydia Cacho contributes a journal of what it is like to live every day of your life under threat of death. Reading these accounts we begin to understand the true nature of the meltdown of democracy, obscured by lurid headlines, and the sheer physical and intellectual courage needed to oppose it.This is reportage at its bravest and most necessary - writing that has the power to change the world's view of Mexico and by the force of its truth to start to heal the country's many sorrows.
Barefoot Dogs: Stories
Antonio Ruiz-Camacho - 2014
The Arteagas find few answers; the full truth of what happened to Arteaga is lost to the shadows of Mexico’s vast and desperate underworld, a place of rampant violence and kidnappings, and government corruption. But soon packages arrive to the family house, offering horrifying clues.Fear, guilt, and the prospect of financial ruination fracture the once-proud family and scatter them across the globe, yet delicate threads still hold them together: in a swimming pool in Palo Alto, Arteaga’s young grandson struggles to make sense of the grief that has hobbled his family; in Mexico City, Arteaga’s mistress alternates between rage and heartbreak as she waits, in growing panic, for her lover’s return; in Austin, the Arteagas’ housekeeper tries to piece together a second life in an alienating and demeaning new land; in Madrid, Arteaga’s son takes his ailing dog through the hot and unforgiving streets, in search of his father’s ghost.Multiple award-winning author Antonio Ruiz-Camacho offers an exquisite and intimate evocation of the loneliness, love, hope, and fear that can bind a family even as unspeakable violence tears it apart. “A straight-on jab to the soul” (Ben Fountain, author of Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk), Barefoot Dogs is a heartfelt elegy to the stolen innocence of every family struck by tragedy. This is urgent and vital fiction.
Spark Your Dream: A True Life Story Where Dreams Are Fulfilled and We Are Inspired to Conquer Ours
Candelaria Zapp - 2005
Through this incredible journey the reader will live the risk, the sensation of freedom, the passion, the pain of a death, the birth of a son, frustration, life, and succes. And surely, upon getting to the destination you won't like to stop, but you will have to do like Herman and Cande did upon arrival in Alaska. And you'll get there moved to tears and jump with them celebrating, knowing that dreams are possible if one day you begin.
A Horse Called Dragon
Lynn Hall - 1971
Also published under the title, A Horse Called Dragon.
The Lacuna
Barbara Kingsolver - 2009
Edgar Hoover. The Lacuna is a poignant story of a man pulled between two nations as they invent their modern identities. Born in the United States, reared in a series of provisional households in Mexico—from a coastal island jungle to 1930s Mexico City—Harrison Shepherd finds precarious shelter but no sense of home on his thrilling odyssey. Life is whatever he learns from housekeepers who put him to work in the kitchen, errands he runs in the streets, and one fateful day, by mixing plaster for famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. He discovers a passion for Aztec history and meets the exotic, imperious artist Frida Kahlo, who will become his lifelong friend. When he goes to work for Lev Trotsky, an exiled political leader fighting for his life, Shepherd inadvertently casts his lot with art and revolution, newspaper headlines and howling gossip, and a risk of terrible violence. Meanwhile, to the north, the United States will soon be caught up in the internationalist goodwill of World War II. There in the land of his birth, Shepherd believes he might remake himself in America's hopeful image and claim a voice of his own. He finds support from an unlikely kindred soul, his stenographer, Mrs. Brown, who will be far more valuable to her employer than he could ever know. Through darkening years, political winds continue to toss him between north and south in a plot that turns many times on the unspeakable breach—the lacuna—between truth and public presumption. With deeply compelling characters, a vivid sense of place, and a clear grasp of how history and public opinion can shape a life, Barbara Kingsolver has created an unforgettable portrait of the artist—and of art itself. The Lacuna is a rich and daring work of literature, establishing its author as one of the most provocative and important of her time.
Rocky Mountain Reckoning
Kurt James
What the Verdugo brothers did not count on is that Lucas Eldridge is a dangerous man that is not to be trifled with. For over two years Lucas is a man driven to exact justice and revenge from the bandit brothers that took everything he ever wanted and everything he ever loved when his wife died at their hands. In a pursuit through the Colorado Rocky Mountain wilderness that cover towns such as Breckenridge, Como, and Silver Plume and across the "Great Divide" Lucas sole purpose for living is to take the life from the Verdugos and condemn them to the depths of Hell. Lucas has become a hard and haunted man until he rescues the beautiful redheaded, green eyed Devon King the sister of a surveyor working for the Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad from Jose the youngest of the Verdugo brothers on top of Boreas Pass. Devon King is everything that Lucas departed wife was and his heart knows it, but his hatred for the Verdugos leaves no room for love. Or does it? Follow Lucas Eldridge in his western adventure as he battles the Verdugos and other outlaw's, mountain lions, wolves and the deadly cold and snow of a Colorado winter in the high country of the Rocky Mountains in his quest for justice and finally love.
Ancient Tales of Wit and Wisdom: 5 in 1 (Amar Chitra Katha)
Anant Pai - 2006
Collection of the following titles: A Bag of Gold Coin, Choice of Friends, How Friends are Parted, Tiger and the Woodpecker, Friends and Foes
The Young Jaguar
Zoe Saadia - 2012
Tecpatl, the Chief Warlord and a very content man, still married to the Anasazi woman his peers view as a barbarian, tries to obey the old Emperor's edicts. Yet, when Atolli, his elder son and a very promising but hotheaded youth, gets caught in the political turmoil, everything changes. Tecpatl isforced to choose between his duty and his family, while his wife takes her own non-traditional paths to deal with the crisis.
The Diving Bell
Todd Strasser - 1992
The divers are essential to the survival of the village as the pearls and shells they gather are used for trading. All is not well, however. When Spanish ships full of gold sink in a storm, the divers are taken to recover the treasure, and Culca uses her nimble wits and unflagging bravery to save her brother's life. Female roles and Spanish Colonial exploration of land and people are the themes of this story. Culca comes through as a strong female voice.
American Dirt
Jeanine Cummins - 2020
She has a son, Luca, the love of her life, and a wonderful husband who is a journalist. And while cracks are beginning to show in Acapulco because of the cartels, Lydia’s life is, by and large, fairly comfortable. But after her husband’s tell-all profile of the newest drug lord is published, none of their lives will ever be the same.Forced to flee, Lydia and Luca find themselves joining the countless people trying to reach the United States. Lydia soon sees that everyone is running from something. But what exactly are they running to?
Last Train from Cuernavaca
Lucia St. Clair Robson - 2010
In a hailstorm of rifle fire, sixteen-year-old Angela Sanchez’s life takes a horrifying turn. After the soldiers leave, she returns to the ruins of her family’s home. She collects her father’s old Winchester carbine, gathers the survivors among his workers, and rides off in search of Zapata’s Liberating Army of the South.Last Train from Cuernavaca is the story of two strong and ambitious women. For the sake of love, honor, and survival, they become swept up in a Revolution that almost destroys them and their country.
Xtabentum: A Novel of Yucatan
Rosy Hugener - 2010
Xtabentum: A Novel of Yucatan is a story of two young women set in the years following the Mexican Revolution in Merida, Yucatan, one of the wealthiest cities in the world at the time. Amanda Diaz is from the "divine caste," a small group of families of European descent who dominate the politics and economy of the region. Amanda's lifelong friend, Carmen, is from the opposite end of the social spectrum, a Mayan Indian who is the daughter of one of the Diaz family servants. Against the true historical background of rebellion, discrimination and assassination in the unstable country, the whipping of Carmen by a Diaz neighbor exposes the sheltered existence of the two women and drives them apart. The story follows Amanda through her horror at the social injustice of the two-class Mexico to the sacrifices she makes in the name of friendship. Parts of the story take place in modern times, where the discovery of an old birth certificate sets Amanda's granddaughter in search of a secret about her father's birth. Her search, told in the first person, is blended with a third-person account of the lives of Amanda and her contemporaries in the 1920s.
The Empress
Laura Martínez-Belli - 2017
Napoleon III has installed a foreign monarch in Mexico to squash the current regime. Maximilian von Habsburg of Austria accepts the emperor’s crown. But it is his wife, the brilliant and ambitious Princess Charlotte, who throws herself passionately into the role. Known to the people as Empress Carlota, she rules deftly from behind the scenes while her husband contents himself with philandering and decorating the palace.But Carlota bears a guilty secret. Trapped in a loveless marriage, she’s thrown herself into a reckless affair. Desire has blinded Carlota to its consequences, for it has left her vulnerable to her sole trusted confidante. Carlota’s devious lady-in-waiting has political beliefs of her own—and they are strong enough to cause her to betray the empress and join a plot to depose her from the throne. As Carlota grows increasingly, maddeningly defenseless, both her own fate and that of the empire are at stake.A sweeping historical novel of forbidden love, dangerous secrets, courtly intrigue, and treachery, The Empress passionately reimagines the tragic romance and ill-fated reign of the most unforgettable royal couple of nineteenth-century Europe during the last throes of the Second Empire.