African Passions and Other Stories

Library Journal

The University of Houston's Arte Pblico Press reconfirms its niche as a major publisher of Hispanic American works by introducing readers to these four new novels by Latinas. Both Ambert and Espinosa explore abuse-physical, sexual, emotional-as metaphors for women's subjugation and degradation. Ambert's A Perfect Silence examines the case of Blanca, a young Puerto Rican whose life alternates between Puerto Rico and New York; she endeavors to escape poverty and abuse through education, only to find that the price is madness. Chilean-born Adrianne, of Espinosa's Dark Plums, goes from nearly nonstop casual sexual encounters with men and women to brutal prostitution but ultimately, like Blanca, emerges with a whole, if bruised, identity. Lachtman's more traditional novel examines the life of Angela Martn/Angela Raines. At the age of nine, living in the barrio of Depression-era Los Angeles, Angela agonizingly learns that it is a crime to be Mexican as she witnesses her adored father's unjust beating and arrest by immigration authorities. Twenty-year-old Angela formally rejects her Mexican heritage as she marries an Anglo and becomes a perfect suburban housewife. Thirty years later, with a reprieve from cancer, Angela finally attempts to heal the wounds that bifurcate her two lives. Rivera's African Passions is a collection of eight interwoven stories about passionate Cuban American women. Recurring characters, family relationships, and the Jersey City Hispanic barrio connect the stories, as does Rivera's delicious sense of humor. These first novels are all appropriate for Latino and women's literature collections in academic and large public libraries.-Mary Margaret Benson, Linfield Coll. Lib., McMinnville, Ore.