Arte Público Press

The history of barrios unidos; healing community violence.

Los Angeles native Jesús Acosta has worked with a number of nonprofit organizations in California, most recently directing a California Wellness Foundation grant-making program, the Violence Prevention Initiative (VPI). In this text, he tells the story of Barrios Unidos (BU), a Santa Cruz-based organization supported by the VPI. With its roots in the Mexican American civil rights and antiwar movements of the 1960s and 1970s, the BU uses the power of culture and spirituality to rescue at-risk youth, provides avenues to quell gang warfare, and offers a model for building healthy and vibrant multicultural communities, which has already been adopted in several cities around the U.S. No subject index. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Under the Texas sun.

Espinoza (1897-1977) worked in Mexico's educational system before going into exile in the U.S., where he worked as a journalist. Originally published in 1926 in San Antonio, his novel chronicles the lives of two Mexican immigrant families who fled during the upheaval of the Mexican Revolution and whose hopes for a better life in America are gradually reduced by the challenges of immigrant life. For this new edition, the novel appears in both Spanish and English, translated into English by poet, screenwriter, and fiction writer, Ethriam Cash Brammer de Gonzales. Also included is an introduction by Houston- based writer, John Pluecker, discussing Espinoza and his text, immigration and Chicano literature, structure and themes of Espinoza's novel, and a comparison of the novel to T omás Rivera's ...And the Earth Did Not Devour Him (1971) which represents Texas Mexicans in a new way. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)