"In Urrea's exuberant new novel of Mexican-American life, 70-year-old patriarch Big Angel de la Cruz is dying, and he wants to have one last birthday blowout. Unfortunately, his 100-year-old mother, America, dies the week of his party, so funeral and birthday are celebrated one day apart. The entire contentious, riotous de la Cruz clan descends on San Diego for the events -- "High rollers and college students, prison veternaos and welfare mothers,...

Four cousins, who were exceptionally close as children, have grown apart and are struggling with their own issues. When tragedy reunites them, will they remember their abuelita's lessons about family and forgiveness--or is a fifteen-year separation too much to overcome? Mari, Erica, Selena, and Gracie are inseparable. They weren't just cousins, but best friends: sharing secrets, traditions, and a fierce love for their abuelita. Then Mari's parents...

"A masterful debut that weaves together the lives of three generations of a Mexican American family bound by love, and a curse. The tight-knit Izquierdo family is grappling with misfortunes none of them can explain. Their beloved patriarch has suffered from an emotional collapse and is dying; eldest son Gonzalo's marriage is falling apart; daughter Dina, beleaguered by the fear that her nightmares are real, is a shut-in. When Gonzalo digs up a strange...

Comezón: It's more than an itch. It's a longstanding desire that will never be fulfilled. And, in this novel by award-winning author Denise Chávez, it is also a border town in New Mexico whose denizens' longings are as powerful as they are, all too often, impossible.

Rocío Esquibel is a girl growing up in a Southern New Mexico town with her mother and sister. She defines her neighborhood by its trees -- the willow, the apricot and the one they call the marking-off tree. Rocio knows she was born in the closet where she and her sister now take turns looking at the picture of Jesus whose eyes light up in the dark. But at night she enters a magical realm, and in her imaginary Blue Room, she can fly. At first she...

"In this fourth book in his award-winning memoir series, Francisco Jimenez leaves everything behind in California--a loving family, a devoted girlfriend, and the culture that shaped him-- to attend Columbia University in New York City"--

These stories follow a migrant family through their circuit, from picking cotton and strawberries to topping carrots-- and back again-- over a number of years.