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Jubana! is by far one of my favorite books and has singlehandedly inspired my popular nickname as well as many other aspects of my life. Gigi Anders talks about growing up as a Jubana (Jewish Cubana) in Cuba and then the United States and how she adjusted to being a Cuban American. Her story is filled with anecdotes, laughter as well as some sadness, and touching prose that reinforces my love of all that is the Cuban Jewish culture.
Acclaimed by critics, beloved by readers of all ages, taught everywhere from inner-city grade schools to universities across the country, and translated all over the world, The House on Mango Street is the remarkable story of Esperanza Cordero. Told in a series of vignettes – sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes deeply joyous – it is the story of a young Latina girl growing up in Chicago, inventing for herself who and what she will become.
Warning! Make sure you have a box of kleenex with you before you start reading this book. In the Time of the Butterflies is a tragic and inspiring story of Las Mariposas, a group of sisters living in the Dominican Republic. In this extraordinary novel, the voices of all four sisters—Minerva, Patria, María Teresa, and the survivor, Dedé—speak across the decades to tell their own stories, from hair ribbons and secret crushes to gunrunning and prison torture, and to describe the everyday horrors of life under Trujillo’s rule. Through the art and magic of Julia Alvarez’s imagination, the martyred Butterflies live again in this novel of courage and love, and the human cost of political oppression. 
As a first generation Cuban American, I've always been enamored in all that is Cuba and Cuban history. This novel is one of the most telling and similar to the stories I've heard from my Abuelos. Dreaming in Cuban is the dreamy and bittersweet story of a family divided by politics and feography by the Cuban revolution. It is the family story of Celia del Pino, and her husband, daughter and grandchildren, from the mid-1930s to 1980. Celia's story mirrors the magical realism of Cuba itself, a country of beauty and poverty, idealism and corruption.
It's a long way from Santo Domingo to the Bronx, but if anyone can go the distance, it's the Garcia girls. Four lively Latinas plunge from a pampered life of privilege on an island compound into the big-city chaos of New York, where they embrace all that America has to offer. 
In this addicting, can't-put-it-down novel of six friends-each one an unforgettable woman in her late twenties-you'll meet: --Lauren, the "caliente" columnist for the local Boston paper whose love live has recently led her to her boyfriend's closet...to catch him in the act with someone else --Sara, the perfect wife and mother who's got it all but who is paying a high price --Amber, raised a Valley girl without a word of Spanish but who is becoming a huge rock en espanol star --Elizabeth, the stunning black Latina whose TV anchor job conflicts with her intensely private personal life --Rebecca, hyper-in-command in the world of her glossy magazine, Ella, but totally at sea when it comes to men --Usnavys, fabulous and larger than life, whose agenda to land the kind of man who can keep her in Manolos almost prevents her finding true love. 
