Julia Alvarez Libros

"El 25 de noviembre de 1960 se encontraron, al pie de un risco en la costa dominicana, los cuerpos sin vida de tres muchachas. Segun la version oficial, se trataba de un accidente, y ningun diario publico la verdad: las tres hermanas Mirabal, luchaban contra el violento regimen dictatorial del general Trujillo, y una cuarta hermana, Dede narra la apasionante historia de su lucha en una novela Ilena de magia y poder de imaginacion."

Anita de la Torre nunca cuestionó su libertad viviendo en la República Dominicana. Pero al cumplir doce años de edad en 1960, la mayoría de sus familiares han emigrado a Estados Unidos, su tío Toni ha desaparecido sin dejar rastro y la policía secreta del gobierno aterroriza a su familia restante dada su presunta oposición a la dictadura de Trujillo. Utilizando la fuerza y el valor de su familia, Anita debe vencer sus miedos y volar hacia la libertad, dejando atrás todo lo que alguna vez había conocido. De la renombrada autora Julia Alvarez llega una historia inolvidable sobre la adolescencia, la perseverancia y la lucha de una niña por su libertad.

Cuando las hermanas García —Carla, Sandra, Yolanda y Sofía— y sus padres huyen de la República Dominicana buscando refugio de la persecución política, encuentran un nuevo hogar en los Estados Unidos. Pero el Nueva York de los años sesenta es marcadamente diferente de la vida privilegiada, aunque conflictiva, que han dejado atrás. Bajo la presión de asimilarse a una nueva cultura, las muchachas García se alisan el pelo, abandonan la lengua española y se encuentran con muchachos sin una chaperona. Pero por más que intentan distanciarse de su isla natal, las hermanas no logran desprender el mundo antiguo del nuevo.           Lo que las hermanas han perdido para siempre —y lo que logran encontrar— se revela en esta novela magistral de una de las novelistas más celebradas de nuestros tiempos.

With a powerful and poignant introduction from Julia Alvarez, Resistencia: Poems of Protest and Revolution is an extraordinary collection, rooted in a strong tradition of protest poetry and voiced by icons of the movement and some of the most exciting writers today. The poets of Resistencia explore feminist, queer, Indigenous, and ecological themes alongside historically prominent protests against imperialism, dictatorships, and economic inequality. Within this momentous collection, poets representing every Latin American country grapple with identity, place, and belonging, resisting easy definitions to render a nuanced and complex portrait of language in rebellion. Included in English translation alongside their original language, the fifty-four poems in Resistencia are a testament to the art of translation as much as the act of resistance. An all-star team of translators, including former US Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera along with young, emerging talent, have made many of the poems available for the first time to an English-speaking audience. Urgent, timely, and absolutely essential, these poems inspire us all to embrace our most fearless selves and unite against all forms of tyranny and oppression. Original languages include Spanish, French, Portuguese, Kaqchikel, Mapudungun, Miskito, and Quechua.

Grade 8.

Already a Butterfly is a gentle picture book tale about self-soothing practices and self-confidence beliefs. With so much to do in so little time, Mari is constantly on the move, flitting from flower to flower, practicing her camouflage poses, and planning for migration. She’s the busiest butterfly around. But does being productive mean she is happy? Mari couldn’t say. The only way she feels like a butterfly is by acting like one. Little does Mari know, the secret to feeling like herself is simply to focus her breath, find her quiet place, and follow her instincts. With the guidance of a thoughtful flower bud, Mari soon learns to meditate and appreciate that she was a butterfly all along. Acclaimed author Julia Alvarez extolls the importance of mindfulness, reflection, and self-care for young children in this gratifying picture book, stunningly illustrated by award-winning artist Raúl Colón. Christy Ottaviano Books

A novel based on the life of Profesora Camila Henríquez-Ureña, a teacher whose mother was Salomé Ureña, famous nineteenth-century political poet from the Dominican Republic.

At last! A zesty, exuberant follow-up to the wildly popular How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, full of Julia Alvarez's keen observations and tender affection for her characters. The Garcia Girls are back, most notably Yolanda, or Yo, who has grown up to be a writer. In the process, she has managed to get kicked out of college, break more than a few hearts, have her own heart broken many times, return for extended visits to the Dominican Republic her family fled when she was a child, and marry three times. She has also infuriated her entire family by publishing the intimate details of their lives as fiction. This brilliant novel is a full and true exploration of a woman's soul, a meditation on the writing life, and a lyrical account of the immigrant's search for identity and a place in the world. !Yo!'s bright colors, zesty dialogue, warm feeling, and genuine insight could only come from the palette of Julia Alvarez. Description from Penguin Group.

"Antonia Vega, the immigrant writer at the center of Afterlife, has had the rug pulled out from under her. She has just retired from the college where she taught English when her beloved husband, Sam, suddenly dies. And then more jolts: her bighearted but unstable sister disappears, and Antonia returns home one evening to find a pregnant, undocumented teenager on her doorstep. Antonia has always sought direction in the literature she loves--lines from her favorite authors play in her head like a soundtrack--but now she finds that the world demands more of her than words. Afterlife is a compact, nimble, and sharply droll novel. Set in this political moment of tribalism and distrust, it asks: What do we owe those in crisis in our families, including--maybe especially--members of our human family? How do we live in a broken world without losing faith in one another or ourselves? And how do we stay true to those glorious souls we have lost?"--Publisher's website

Great American novelist Julia Alvarez returns with a luminescent tale about storytelling that feels like an instant classic. "Only an alchemist as wise and sure as Alvarez could swirl the elements of folklore and the flavor of magical realism around her modern prose and make it all sing . . . Lively, joyous . . . often witty, occasionally somber and elegiac," praises Luis Alberto Urrea. This engaging novel, written in playful, crystal-clear prose, delves into themes of friendship, love, sisterhood, and the haunting nature of unfinished stories. Alma Cruz, a celebrated writer, inherits a small plot of land in the Dominican Republic and envisions it as a graveyard for her untold stories—literally burying her manuscript drafts and the characters she struggled to bring to life. However, her characters defy her intentions, engaging in conversations and rewriting their own narratives. Filomena, the local groundskeeper, becomes a sympathetic listener to these secret tales, which include figures like Bienvenida, the erased wife of dictator Rafael Trujillo, and Manuel Cruz, a doctor who fought in the Dominican underground. The narrative raises questions about whose stories are told and whose are buried. Ultimately, Alma discovers the enduring vitality of stories, reminding us that the tales of our lives are never truly finished, even at their conclusion.