Research Guides: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice: Dominican Heritage Month

Online Resources | Recursos En Línea

UMass Boston - Latinos in Massachusetts: Dominicans
Abstract
"Since the early 1980s, there has been a notable increase in the number of Dominicans in Massachusetts due at first to international migration and later due to nativity. Dominican migration is primarily circular. Dominican migrants embody the notion of transnationalism, that is, they have ties to both the United States and the Dominican Republic. Now after several decades, nearly half of their population is native born. The largest Dominican populations in the state are in Lawrence and Boston. The social and economic analysis that follows paints a mixed picture of their incorporation into Massachusetts. Dominicans have higher labor force participation than others in the state do, even if their wages are comparably lower. A large share of Dominicans are children, and investment in their education can shape their future economic success."
Facts on Hispanics of Dominican origin in the United States, 2017
"Dominicans are the fifth-largest population of Hispanic origin living in the United States, accounting for 4% of the U.S. Hispanic population in 2017. Since 2000, the Dominican-origin population has increased 159%, growing from 797,000 to 2.1 million over the period. At the same time, the Dominican foreign-born population living in the U.S. grew by 106%, from 543,800 in 2000 to 1.1 million in 2017. By comparison, Mexicans, the nation’s largest Hispanic origin group, constituted 36.6 million, or 62%, of the Hispanic population in 2017."
Global Boston - Dominicans
"According to recent federal census surveys, Dominicans are the largest immigrant group in Boston. They have been moving to the region since the 1950s, and especially after the death of Rafael Trujillo, a brutal dictator who was assassinated in 1961. A period of political instability followed, and the US intervened, sending troops to Santo Domingo in 1965. Elected in 1966, President Joaquín Balaguer proved to be another repressive leader who arrested and tortured his political opponents, driving many to emigrate. Balaguer’s industrial development program also stalled in the 1970s, leading to falling wages and widespread unemployment. Economic woes continued in the 1980s, with soaring consumer prices, joblessness, and currency devaluations that led many Dominicans to look for better opportunities abroad."

About Dominica Heritage Month | Sobre el Mes de la Herencia Dominicana

Dominican Republic flag with code of arms that reads " God, Country, and Liberty" in Spanish. The Dominican Heritage Month is celebrated annually from January 21, with the Feast of Nuestra Señora de Altagracia, until February 27. The last day of Dominican Heritage Month marks the commemoration of the Dominican Republic's independence. The Dominican Heritage Month started in New York and has been celebrated since 2016.

El mes de la herencia dominicana se celebra anualmente durante 21 de enero hasta el 27 de febrero. El inicio del mes comienza con la Fiesta de Nuestra Señora de Altagracia y concluye con la conmemoración de la Independencia de República Dominicana. El mes de la herencia dominnicana comenzó a celebrarse en Nueva York en 2016.

NECC Library Catalog

Library Resources | Recursos de la Biblioteca

The Dominican Republic by Frank Moya Pons
Call Number: F1938 .M687 2010
ISBN: 1558764852
Publication Date: 2009-10-01
Available at NECC Haverhill and Lawrence.

Description: "Covers the period from 1990 to 2008, that is, from the collapse of the Dominican economy to the May 2008 presidential elections. Discussing the electoral fraud and constitutional reforms of 1994 and the return and administration of Leonel Fernandez, this title focuses on financial crises, the free-trade agreement with the US, and party politics."
The Dominican Republic Reader by Eric Paul Roorda (Editor); Lauren H. Derby (Editor); Raymundo Gonzalez (Editor)
Call Number: F1935 .D66 2014
ISBN: 0822356880
Publication Date: 2014-05-23
Available at NECC Lawrence.

Description: "Despite its significance in the history of Spanish colonialism, the Dominican Republic is familiar to most outsiders through only a few elements of its past and culture. Non-Dominicans may be aware that the country shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti and that it is where Christopher Columbus chose to build a colony. Some may know that the country produces talented baseball players and musicians; others that it is a prime destination for beach vacations. Little else about the Dominican Republic is common knowledge outside its borders. This Reader seeks to change that. It provides an introduction to the history, politics, and culture of the country, from precolonial times into the early twenty-first century. Among the volume's 118 selections are essays, speeches, journalism, songs, poems, legal documents, testimonials, and short stories, as well as several interviews conducted especially for this Reader. Many of the selections have been translated into English for the first time. All of them are preceded by brief introductions written by the editors. The volume's eighty-five illustrations, ten of which appear in color, include maps, paintings, and photos of architecture, statues, famous figures, and Dominicans going about their everyday lives."
Masculinity after Trujillo by Maja Horn
Call Number: PQ7400.5 .H67 2014
ISBN: 081304930X
Publication Date: 2014-03-11
Available at NECC Haverhill.

Description: "Provides an insightful look at the persistent power of masculinism in Dominican post-dictatorship politics and literature."--Ignacio López-Calvo, author of God and Trujillo "The ideas about masculinization of power developed by Horn are important not only to Dominican scholarship but also to Caribbean and other Latin American students of the intersection of history, political power, and gendered practices and discourses."--Emilio Bejel, author of Gay Cuban Nation Any observer of Dominican political and literary discourse will quickly notice how certain notions of hyper-masculinity permeate the culture. Many critics will attribute this to an outgrowth of "traditional" Latin American patriarchal culture. Masculinity after Trujillo demonstrates why they are mistaken. In this extraordinary work, Maja Horn argues that this common Dominican attitude became ingrained during the dictatorship (1930-61) of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, as well as through the U.S. military occupation that preceded it. Where previous studies have focused mainly on Spanish colonialism and the controversial sharing of the island with Haiti, Horn emphasizes the underexamined and lasting influence of U.S. imperialism and how it prepared the terrain for Trujillo's hyperbolic language of masculinity. She also demonstrates how later attempts to emasculate the image of Trujillo often reproduced the same masculinist ideology popularized by his government. By using the lens of gender politics, Horn enables readers to reconsider the ongoing legacy of the Trujillato, including the relatively weak social movements formed around racial and ethnic identities, sexuality, and even labor. She offers exciting new interpretations of such writers as Hilma Contreras, Rita Indiana Hernández, and Junot Díaz, revealing the ways they successfully challenge dominant political and canonical literary discourses. A volume in the series Latin American and Caribbean Arts and Culture, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
Mulatto Republic by April J. Mayes
Call Number: F1941.A1 M39 2014
ISBN: 0813048672
Publication Date: 2014-01-28
Available at NECC Haverhill.

Description: "The origins of anti-Haitian and anti-black nationalist ideologies in the Dominican Republic have long been central to debates among the historians, political scientists, and journalists who wish to understand the relationship between popular expressions of Dominican identity and official nationalism. In The Mulatto Republic, April Mayes looks at the many ways Dominicans define themselves through race, skin color, and culture. She explores significant historical factors and events that have led the nation, for much of the twentieth century, to favor privileged European ancestry and Hispanic cultural norms such as the Spanish language and Catholicism. Mayes seeks to discern whether contemporary Dominican identity is a product of the Trujillo regime--and, therefore, only a legacy of authoritarian rule--or is representative of a nationalism unique to an island divided into two countries long engaged with each other in ways that are sometimes cooperative and at other times conflicted. Her answers enrich and enliven an ongoing debate."
The Paradox of Paternalism by Elizabeth S. Manley
Call Number: HD8428 .M296 2017
ISBN: 081305429X
Publication Date: 2017-04-18
Available at NECC Lawrence.

Description: "Latin American Studies Association Haiti-Dominican Republic Section Isis Duarte Book Prize From the rise of dictator Rafael Trujillo in the early 1930s through the twelve-year rule of his successor Joaquín Balaguer in the 1960s and 1970s, women are frequently absent or erased from public political narratives in the Dominican Republic. The Paradox of Paternalism shows how women proved themselves as skilled, networked, and non-threatening agents, becoming indispensable to a carefully orchestrated national and international reputation. They garnered concrete political gains like suffrage and paved the way for their continued engagement with the politics of the Dominican state through intense periods of authoritarianism and transition. In this volume, Elizabeth Manley explains how women activists from across the political spectrum engaged with the state by working within both authoritarian regimes and inter-American networks, founding modern Dominican feminism, and contributing to the rise of twentieth-century women's liberation movements in the Global South. A volume in the series Latin American and Caribbean Arts and Culture, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon FoundationPublication of the paperback edition made possible by a Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities."
Reconstructing Racial Identity and the African Past in the Dominican Republic by Kimberly Eison Simmons
Call Number: F1941.B55 S56 2009
ISBN: 0813033748
Publication Date: 2009-07-05
Available at NECC Haverhill.

Description: "A self-described light-skinned African American who spent years living and working in the Dominican Republic with her spouse and three children, anthropologist Simmons (Univ. of South Carolina) challenges the commonly held assumption that all Dominicans are in a continuous, constant, and hopeless state of race denial by steadfastly ignoring their African past She refers to the Dominican practice of defining an obviously mixed-race people as mestizo and indio, honed since the dictator Trujillo imposed racial identity labels in the postwar years. This deliberate and, frankly, laughable distortion of meanings enables Dominicans to deny their "blackness," a stigma that they readily apply to their much-despised black Haitian neighbors. Simmons perceives a visible shift resulting from the transnational experiences of legions of Dominican migrants to and from the US, where a different racial regime designates them as black. Consequently, some Dominican individuals and activist organizations are constructing new identities, such as mulatto and Afro-Dominican, in order to embrace their African heritage. This fine-tuned ethnographic study illustrates how racial formation works as a political project."
We Dream Together by Anne Eller
Call Number: F1938.4 .E45 2016
ISBN: 0822362171
Publication Date: 2016-12-09
Available at NECC Haverhill.

Description: "In We Dream Together Anne Eller breaks with dominant narratives of conflict between the Dominican Republic and Haiti by tracing the complicated history of Dominican emancipation and independence between 1822 and 1865. Eller moves beyond the small body of writing by Dominican elites that often narrates Dominican nationhood to craft inclusive, popular histories of identity, community, and freedom, summoning sources that range from trial records and consul reports to poetry and song. Rethinking Dominican relationships with their communities, the national project, and the greater Caribbean, Eller shows how popular anticolonial resistance was anchored in a rich and complex political culture. Haitians and Dominicans fostered a common commitment to Caribbean freedom, the abolition of slavery, and popular democracy, often well beyond the reach of the state. By showing how the island's political roots are deeply entwined, and by contextualizing this history within the wider Atlantic world, Eller demonstrates the centrality of Dominican anticolonial struggles for understanding independence and emancipation throughout the Caribbean and the Americas. "

Latino City: immigration and urban crisis in Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1945-2000 by Llana Barber
Call Number: F74.L4 B37 2017eb
ISBN: 9781469631356
Publication Date: 2017-03-08
Available at NECC Online.

Description: "Latino City explores the transformation of Lawrence, Massachusetts, into New England's first Latino-majority city. Like many industrial cities, Lawrence entered a downward economic spiral in the decades after World War II due to deindustrialization and suburbanization. The arrival of tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans and Dominicans in the late twentieth century brought new life to the struggling city, but settling in Lawrence was fraught with challenges. Facing hostility from their neighbors, exclusion from local governance, inadequate city services, and limited job prospects, Latinos fought and organized for the right to make a home in the city. In this book, Llana Barber interweaves the histories of urban crisis in U.S. cities and imperial migration from Latin America. Pushed to migrate by political and economic circumstances shaped by the long history of U.S. intervention in Latin America, poor and working-class Latinos then had to reckon with the segregation, joblessness, disinvestment, and profound stigma that plagued U.S. cities during the crisis era, particularly in the Rust Belt. For many Puerto Ricans and Dominicans, there was no "American Dream" awaiting them in Lawrence; instead, Latinos struggled to build lives for themselves in the ruins of industrial America."
Life on the Malecón : children and youth on the streets of Santo Domingo by Jon Wolseth
Call Number: HV887.D652 S268 2014eb
ISBN: 9781618402158
Publication Date: [2014]
Available at NECC Online.

Summary: : Life on the Malecón is a narrative ethnography of the lives of street children and youth living in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and the non-governmental organizations that provide social services for them. Writing from the perspective of an anthropologist working as a street educator with a child welfare organization, Jon M. Wolseth follows the intersecting lives of children, the institutions they come into contact with, and the relationships they have with each other, their families, and organization workers. Often socioeconomic conditions push these children to move from their homes to the streets, but sometimes they themselves may choose the allure of the perceived freedoms and opportunities that street life has to offer. What they find, instead, is violence, disease, and exploitation -- the daily reality through which they learn to maneuver and survive. Wolseth describes the stresses, rewards, and failures of the organizations and educators who devote their resources to working with this population. the portrait of Santo Domingo's street children and youth population that emerges is of a diverse community with variations that may be partly related to skin color, gender, and class. The conditions for these youth are changing as the economy of the Dominican Republic changes. Although the children at the core of this book live and sleep on avenues and plazas and in abandoned city buildings, they are not necessarily glue- and solvent-sniffing beggars or petty thieves on the margins of society. Instead, they hold a key position in the service sector of an economy centered on tourism. Life on the Malecón offers a window into the complex relationships children and youth construct in the course of mapping out their social environment. Using a child-centered approach, Wolseth focuses on the social lives of the children by relating the stories that they themselves tell as well as the activities he observes. -- Provided by publisher.
Normal view MARC view An islandwide struggle for freedom : revolution, emancipation, and reenslavement in Hispaniola, 1789-1809 by Graham T. Nessler
Call Number: HT1081 | .N47 2016eb
ISBN: 9781469626888
Publication Date: [2016]
Available at NECC Online.

Describe: "Reinterpreting the Haitian Revolution as both an islandwide and a circum-Caribbean phenomenon, Graham Nessler examines the intertwined histories of Saint-Domingue, the French colony that became Haiti, and Santo Domingo, the Spanish colony that became the Dominican Republic. Nessler argues that the territories' borders and governance were often unclear and mutually influential."
Our Caribbean Kin by Alaí Reyes-Santos
Call Number: F1628.8 .R49 2015eb
ISBN: 9780813572024
Publication Date: 2015-06-15
Available at NECC Online.

Summary: "Beset by the forces of European colonialism, US imperialism, and neoliberalism, the people of the Antilles have had good reasons to band together politically and economically, yet not all Dominicans, Haitians, and Puerto Ricans have heeded the calls for collective action. So what has determined whether Antillean solidarity movements fail or succeed? In this comprehensive new study, Ala#65533; Reyes-Santos argues that the crucial factor has been the extent to which Dominicans, Haitians, and Puerto Ricans imagine each other as kin. Our Caribbean Kin considers three key moments in the region's history: the nineteenth century, when the antillanismo movement sought to throw off the yoke of colonial occupation; the 1930s, at the height of the region's struggles with US imperialism; and the past thirty years, as neoliberal economic and social policies have encroached upon the islands. At each moment, the book demonstrates, specific tropes of brotherhood, marriage, and lineage have been mobilized to construct political kinship among Antilleans, while racist and xenophobic discourses have made it difficult for them to imagine themselves as part of one big family. Recognizing the wide array of contexts in which Antilleans learn to affirm or deny kinship, Reyes-Santos draws from a vast archive of media, including everything from canonical novels to political tracts, historical newspapers to online forums, sociological texts to local jokes. Along the way, she uncovers the conflicts, secrets, and internal hierarchies that characterize kin relations among Antilleans, but she also discovers how they have used notions of kinship to create cohesion across differences. "
The Pitcher and the Dictator by Averell "Ace" Smith
Call Number: GV865.P3 S64 2018
ISBN: 9781496206695
Publication Date: 2018-04-01
Available at NECC Online.

Description: "Soon after Satchel Paige arrived at spring training in 1937 to pitch for the Pittsburgh Crawfords, he and five of his teammates, including Josh Gibson and Cool Papa Bell, were lured to the Dominican Republic with the promise of easy money to play a short baseball tournament in support of the country's dictator, Rafael Trujillo. As it turned out, the money wasn't so easy. After Paige and his friends arrived on the island, they found themselves under the thumb of Trujillo, known by Dominicans for murdering those who disappointed him. In the initial games, the Ciudad Trujillo All-Star team floundered. Living outside the shadow of segregation, Satchel and his recruits spent their nights carousing and their days dropping close games to their rivals, who were also stocked with great players. Desperate to restore discipline, Trujillo tapped the leader of his death squads to become part of the team management. When Paige's team ultimately rallied to win, it barely registered with Trujillo, who a few months later ordered the killings of fifteen thousand Haitians at the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Paige and his teammates returned to the states to face banishment from the Negro Leagues, but they barnstormed across America wearing their Trujillo All-Stars uniforms. The Pitcher and the Dictator is an extraordinary story of race, politics, and some of the greatest baseball players ever assembled, playing high-stakes games in support of one of the Caribbean's cruelest dictators. For more information about The Pitcher and the Dictator, visit thepitcherandthedictator.com."

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Code Name: Butterflies | Available through Academic Video Online.

Dir. Jake Kheel, & Juan Mejia Botero (2008).

Description: "Sometimes the courage for revolution comes from where you least expect it. The sun-soaked Caribbean island of the Dominican Republic, 1960. An embattled people, suffering under the cruel tyranny of Rafael Trujillo, the most blood-thirsty dictator in Latin American history. Three beautiful and remarkable sisters--Patria, Minerva, and Maria Teresa Mirabal--who are resolved to overthrow a government that their fathers, brothers, and husbands could not. Now for the first time the real story will be told on television: the story of the Butterflies (the code-name of the Mirabal sisters) and their courageous efforts to bring down one of the world's most ruthless dictators. It is a suspense-filled tale, about simple and ordinary housewives and mothers who rose to extraordinary heights in an extraordinary time. The Mirabals are a symbol of the men and women of all of the Americas who have lived under dictators like Trujillo, who pillages national treasuries and enslaved their own people. They represent the courageous few in any age who dare to risk their lives for human rights and democracy. "Code Name: Butterflies" is filled with powerful exclusive interviews with the Mirabal's relatives, friends, and other freedom fighters, and behind-the-scenes revelations by Trujillo supporters, who tell the dark side of the story. The documentary draws on photographs, film clips and letters, and is supported by dramatic recreations of key scenes. No one will be able to forget this dramatic and inspiring story." [Trans. "A veces la bravura para se hacer la revolución proviene de dónde menos lo esperas. En la isla caribeña, de la República Dominicana, 1960, hs un pueblo asediado, sufriendo bajo la cruel tiranía de Rafael Trujillo, el dictador más sanguinario de la historia latinoamericana. Tres bellas y notables hermanas - Patria, Minerva y María Teresa Mirabal - están decididas a derrocar el gobierno que sus padres, hermanos y esposos no pudieron. Ahora por primera vez la verdadera historia será contada en televisión: la historia de las Mariposas (el nombre de código de las hermanas Mirabal) y sus valientes esfuerzos para derribar a uno de los dictadores más despiadados del mundo. Es una historia llena de suspense, sobre amas de casa y madres que subieron a alturas extraordinarias en un tiempo extraordinario. Los Mirabales son un símbolo de los hombres y mujeres de todas las Américas que han vivido bajo dictadores como Trujillo, que saquea los tesoros nacionales y esclaviza a su propio pueblo. Representan a los pocos valientes de cualquier edad que se atreven a arriesgar sus vidas por los derechos humanos y la democracia. "Code Name: Butterflies" presenta entrevistas exclusivas con los familiares, amigos y otros luchadores por la libertad de Mirabal, y traje revelaciones de los partidarios de Trujillo, que dicen el lado oscuro de la historia. El documental se basa en fotografías, clips de películas y cartas, y es apoyado por dramáticas recreaciones de escenas clave. Nadie podrá olvidar esta dramática e inspiradora historia."]

Cimarrón Spirit: Afro-Dominican Maroon Culture | Available through Kanopy.

Dir. Rubén Durán (2015).

Description: "In the Dominican Republic, as early as 1512, African slaves escaped from Spanish plantations and lived with the island's Taino Indians or on their own in mountainous jungles in the remote frontier land of Hispaniola. These people who were known as "cimarrones," meaning "maroons," created their own independent communities that have survived for centuries and until recently remained isolated from mainstream Dominican society. These resilient and resourceful "outlaws" have long developed their own celebrations, many of which mock a society that enslaved and branded them.

Our documentary examines cimarrón syncretic cultural celebrations and beliefs that are full of magic, fantasy and popular religiosity. We travel the cimarron regions of the Dominican Republic, near the cities of Elías Pina and Barahona, looking for Dominican Gaga troops and Haitian Rara bands. Traditionally separated by national borders, these religion-based musical forms are beginning to coincide.

Cimarron Spirit explores carnival traditions such as the ritualistic fire burning of the masks and costumes of "Judas," "Cocoricamo," and "Tifuas," as figures important to the cimarron culture of Elías Pina. We also document the similar yet unique ritualistic practices around the figure of "Las Cachuas de Cabral" in the region of Barahona, and the popular "Los Negros de La Joya" and "El Peje" that so much reflect cimarron communal behaviors and beliefs."

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
Call Number: PZ7.5.A35 Cl 2020
ISBN: 9780062882769
Publication Date: 2020-05-05
Available at NECC Haverhill.

Description: "In a novel-in-verse that brims with grief and love, National Book Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Acevedo writes about the devastation of loss, the difficulty of forgiveness, and the bittersweet bonds that shape our lives. Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people... In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the principal's office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash. Separated by distance--and Papi's secrets--the two girls are forced to face a new reality in which their father is dead and their lives are forever altered. And then, when it seems like they've lost everything of their father, they learn of each other. Great for summer reading or anytime! Clap When You Land is a Today show pick for "25 children's books your kids and teens won't be able to put down this summer!" Plus don't miss Elizabeth Acevedo's The Poet X and With the Fire on High!"
How Tía Lola Came to Visit Stay by Julia Alvarez; Andrea Cascardi (Editor)
Call Number: PZ7 .A48 Ho 2001
ISBN: 0375902155
Publication Date: 2001-04-10
Available at NECC Haverhill.

Description: "A delightfully entertaining story of family and culture from acclaimed author Julia Alvarez. Moving to Vermont after his parents split, Miguel has plenty to worry about! Tía Lola, his quirky, carismática, and maybe magical aunt makes his life even more unpredictable when she arrives from the Dominican Republic to help out his Mami. Like her stories for adults, Julia Alvarez’s first middle-grade book sparkles with magic as it illuminates a child’s experiences living in two cultures."
How Tía Lola Saved the Summer by Julia Alvarez
Call Number: PZ7 .A48 Hoy 2011
ISBN: 0375867279
Publication Date: 2011-05-10
Available at NECC Lawrence.

Description: "Miguel Guzmán isn't exactly looking forward to the summer now that his mother has agreed to let the Sword family--a father, his three daughters, and their dog--live with them while they decide whether or not to move to Vermont. Little does Miguel know his aunt has something up her sleeve that just may make this the best summer ever. With her usual flair for creativity and fun, Tía Lola decides to start a summer camp for Miguel, his little sister, and the three Sword girls, complete with magical swords, nighttime treasure hunts, campfires, barbecues, and an end-of-summer surprise! The warm and funny third book in the Tía Lola Stories is sure to delight young readers and leave them looking forward to their own summer fun!"
Lola by Junot Díaz; Leo Espinosa (Illustrator)
Call Number: PZ7.1 .D4988 Lol 2018
ISBN: 0525552812
Publication Date: 2018-03-13
Available at NECC Haverhill.

Description: "Del exitoso autor en ventas según el New York Times y ganador del Premio Pulitzer, Junot Díaz, nos llega su primer álbum ilustrado acerca de la magia de los recuerdos y el poder infinito de la imaginación, ¡ahora en español! Todos los niños en la escuela de Lola venían de otra parte. Era una escuela de lugares lejanos. Así que cuando la maestra de Lola pide a sus alumnos que hagan un dibujo del lugar del que emigraron sus familias, todos los niños se entusiasman. Todos, menos Lola. Ella no recuerda la Isla: se fue cuando era apenas un bebé. Pero con la ayuda de su familia y de sus amigos, todos ellos con sus recuerdos --felices, maravillosos, tristes, aterradores--, la imaginación de Lola la lleva en un extraordinario viaje de regreso a la Isla. Cuando finalmente se acerca al corazón de la historia de su familia, Lola llega a entender el sentido de las palabras de su abuela: «Que no recuerdes un lugar, no significa que no sea parte de ti». Espléndidamente ilustrado, y escrito en una bella prosa, Lola es un homenaje a la creatividad, a la diversidad y a la imaginación sin límites, que nos permite conectar con nuestra familia, nuestro pasado y con nosotros mismos."
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
Call Number: PS3601.C475 P64 2018
ISBN: 9780062662804
Publication Date: 2018-03-06
Available at NECC Haverhill.

Description: "Winner of the National Book Award for Young People's Literature, the Michael L. Printz Award, and the Pura Belpré Award! Fans of Jacqueline Woodson, Meg Medina, and Jason Reynolds will fall hard for this astonishing New York Times-bestselling novel-in-verse by an award-winning slam poet, about an Afro-Latina heroine who tells her story with blazing words and powerful truth. Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking. But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers--especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about. With Mami's determination to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself. So when she is invited to join her school's slam poetry club, she doesn't know how she could ever attend without her mami finding out. But she still can't stop thinking about performing her poems. Because in the face of a world that may not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be silent. "Crackles with energy and snaps with authenticity and voice." --Justina Ireland, author of Dread Nation "An incredibly potent debut." --Jason Reynolds, author of the National Book Award Finalist Ghost "Acevedo has amplified the voices of girls en el barrio who are equal parts goddess, saint, warrior, and hero." --Ibi Zoboi, author of American Street"

The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa; Edith Grossman (Translator)
Call Number: PQ8498.32.A65 F5413 2002
ISBN: 0312420277
Publication Date: 2002-11-09
Available at NECC Haverhill and Lawrence.

Description: "WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE InThe Feast of the Goat, this 'masterpiece of Latin American and world literature, and one of the finest political novels ever written' (Bookforum), Mario Vargas Llosa recounts the end of a regime and the birth of a terrible democracy, giving voice to the historical Trujillo and the victims, both innocent and complicit, drawn into his deadly orbit. Haunted all her life by feelings of terror and emptiness, forty-nine-year-old Urania Cabral returns to her native Dominican Republic - and finds herself reliving the events of l961, when the capital was still called Trujillo City and one old man terrorized a nation of three million. Rafael Trujillo, the depraved ailing dictator whom Dominicans call the Goat, controls his inner circle with a combination of violence and blackmail. In Trujillo's gaudy palace, treachery and cowardice have becomea way of life. But Trujillo's grasp is slipping. There is a conspiracy against him, and a Machiavellian revolution already underway that will have bloody consequences of its own. "A fierce, edgy and enthralling book ... Mr. Vargas Llosa has pushed the boundaries of the traditional historical novel, and in doing so has written a book of harrowing power and lasting resonance."--The New York Times
In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
Call Number: PS3551.L845 I5 1995
ISBN: 1565129768
Publication Date: 2010-01-12
Available at NECC Haverhill and Lawrence.

Description: 25th Anniversary Edition "A magnificent treasure for all cultures and all time." --St. Petersburg Times It is November 25, 1960, and three beautiful sisters have been found near their wrecked Jeep at the bottom of a 150-foot cliff on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. The official state newspaper reports their deaths as accidental. It does not mention that a fourth sister lives. Nor does it explain that the sisters were among the leading opponents of Gen. Rafael Leónidas Trujillo's dictatorship. It doesn't have to. Everybody knows of Las Mariposas--the Butterflies. 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 secret crushes to gunrunning, 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 costs of political oppression. Julia Alvarez's new novel, Afterlife, is available now.
This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Díaz
Call Number: PS3554 .I259 T48 2013
ISBN: 1594487367
Publication Date: 2012-09-11
Available at NECC Haverhill and Lawrence.

Description: "Finalist for the 2012 National Book Award A Time and People Top 10 Book of 2012 Finalist for the 2012 Story Prize Chosen as a notable or best book of the year by The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, The LA Times, Newsday, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, the iTunes bookstore, and many more... "Electrifying." -The New York Times Book Review "Exhibits the potent blend of literary eloquence and street cred that earned him a Pulitzer Prize... Díaz's prose is vulgar, brave, and poetic." -O Magazine From the award-winning author, a stunning collection that celebrates the haunting, impossible power of love. On a beach in the Dominican Republic, a doomed relationship flounders. In a New Jersey laundry room, a woman does her lover's washing and thinks about his wife. In Boston, a man buys his love child, his only son, a first baseball bat and glove. At the heart of these stories is the irrepressible, irresistible Yunior, a young hardhead whose longing for love is equaled only by his recklessness--and by the extraordinary women he loves and loses. In prose that is endlessly energetic, inventive, tender, and funny, these stories lay bare the infinite longing and inevitable weakness of the human heart. They remind us that passion always triumphs over experience, and that "the half-life of love is forever."
Let It Rain Coffee by Angie Cruz
Call Number: PS3603.R89 L47 2006
ISBN: 0743212045
Publication Date: 2006-05-03
Available at NECC Lawrence.

Description: "Angie Cruz has established herself as a dazzling new voice in Latin American fiction, her writing compared to Gabriel García Márquez's by The Boston Globe. Now, with humor, passion, and intensity, she reveals the proud members of the Colón family and the dreams, love, and heartbreak that bind them to their past and the future. Esperanza risked her life fleeing the Dominican Republic for the glittering dream she saw on television, but years later she is still stuck in a cramped tenement with her husband, Santo, and their two children, Bobby and Dallas. She works as a home aide and, at night, hides unopened bills from the credit card company where Santo won't find them when he returns from driving his livery cab. When Santo's mother dies and his father, Don Chan, comes to Nueva York to live out his twilight years with the Colóns, nothing will ever be the same. Don Chan remembers fighting together with Santo in the revolution against Trujillo's cruel regime, the promise of who his son might have been, had he not fallen under Esperanza's spell. Let It Rain Coffee is a sweeping novel about love, loss, family, and the elusive nature of memory and desire."

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz
ISBN: 9781101147306
Publication Date: September 6, 2007
Available through OverDrive/Libby

Summary: "Winner of:
The Pulitzer Prize
The National Book Critics Circle Award
The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award
The Jon Sargent, Sr. First Novel Prize
A Time Magazine #1 Fiction Book of the Year

One of the best books of 2007 according to: The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, New York Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, The Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, People, The Village Voice, Time Out New York, Salon, Baltimore City Paper, The Christian Science Monitor, Booklist, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, New York Public Library, and many more...

Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read

Oscar is a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd who—from the New Jersey home he shares with his old world mother and rebellious sister—dreams of becoming the Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien and, most of all, finding love. But Oscar may never get what he wants. Blame the fukú—a curse that has haunted Oscar’s family for generations, following them on their epic journey from Santo Domingo to the USA. Encapsulating Dominican-American history, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao opens our eyes to an astonishing vision of the contemporary American experience and explores the endless human capacity to persevere—and risk it all—in the name of love."
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez
ISBN: 9781616200985
Publication Date: 2010-01-12
Available through OverDrive/Libby

Description: "Poignant . . . Powerful . . . Beautifully captures the threshold experience of the new immigrant, where the past is not yet a memory." --The New York Times Book Review Acclaimed writer Julia Alvarez's beloved first novel gives voice to four sisters as they grow up in two cultures. The García sisters--Carla, Sandra, Yolanda, and Sofía--and their family must flee their home in the Dominican Republic after their father's role in an attempt to overthrow brutal dictator Rafael Trujillo is discovered. They arrive in New York City in 1960 to a life far removed from their existence in the Caribbean. In the wondrous but not always welcoming U.S.A., their parents try to hold on to their old ways as the girls try find new lives: by straightening their hair and wearing American fashions, and by forgetting their Spanish. For them, it is at once liberating and excruciating to be caught between the old world and the new. Here they tell their stories about being at home--and not at home--in America. Julia Alvarez's new novel, Afterlife, is available now.
The Lost Book of Adana Moreau by Michael Zapata
ISBN: 9781488055737
Publication Date: 2020-02-04
Available through OverDrive / Libby

Description: "*Winner of the Chicago Review of Books Award for Fiction* A Heartland Booksellers Award Nominee An NPR Best Book of the Year A BookPage Best Book of the Year A Library Journal Best Winter/Spring Debut of 2020 A Most Anticipated Book of 2020 from the Boston Globe and The Millions A Best Book of February 2020 at Salon, The Millions, LitHub and Vol 1. Brooklyn "A stunner--equal parts epic and intimate, thrilling and elegiac."--Laura Van den Berg, author of The Third Hotel The mesmerizing story of a Latin American science fiction writer and the lives her lost manuscript unites decades later in post-Katrina New Orleans In 1929 in New Orleans, a Dominican immigrant named Adana Moreau writes a science fiction novel. The novel earns rave reviews, and Adana begins a sequel. Then she falls gravely ill. Just before she dies, she destroys the only copy of the manuscript. Decades later in Chicago, Saul Drower is cleaning out his dead grandfather's home when he discovers a mysterious manuscript written by none other than Adana Moreau. With the help of his friend Javier, Saul tracks down an address for Adana's son in New Orleans, but as Hurricane Katrina strikes they must head to the storm-ravaged city for answers. What results is a brilliantly layered masterpiece--an ode to home, storytelling and the possibility of parallel worlds."
Undocumented A Dominican Boy's Odyssey from a Homeless Shelter to the Ivy League by Dan-el Padilla Peralta
ISBN: 9780698195684
Publication Date: July 28, 2015
Available through OverDrive/Libby

Description: "An undocumented immigrant’s journey from a New York City homeless shelter to the top of his Princeton class
Dan-el Padilla Peralta has lived the American dream. As a boy, he came here legally with his family. Together they left Santo Domingo behind, but life in New York City was harder than they imagined. Their visas lapsed, and Dan-el’s father returned home. But Dan-el’s courageous mother was determined to make a better life for her bright sons.
Without papers, she faced tremendous obstacles. While Dan-el was only in grade school, the family joined the ranks of the city’s homeless. Dan-el, his mother, and brother lived in a downtown shelter where Dan-el’s only refuge was the meager library. There he met Jeff, a young volunteer from a wealthy family. Jeff was immediately struck by Dan-el’s passion for books and learning. With Jeff’s help, Dan-el was accepted on scholarship to Collegiate, the oldest private school in the country.
There, Dan-el thrived. Throughout his youth, Dan-el navigated these two worlds: the rough streets of East Harlem, where he lived with his brother and his mother and tried to make friends, and the ultra-elite halls of a Manhattan private school, where he could immerse himself in a world of books and where he soon rose to the top of his class.
From Collegiate, Dan-el went to Princeton, where he thrived, and where he made the momentous decision to come out as an undocumented student in a Wall Street Journal profile a few months before he gave the salutatorian’s traditional address in Latin at his commencement.
Undocumented is a classic story of the triumph of the human spirit. It also is the perfect cri de coeur for the debate on comprehensive immigration reform.
Praise for Undocumented
“Dan-el Padilla Peralta’s story is as compulsively readable as a novel, an all-American tall tale that just happens to be true. From homeless shelter to Princeton, Oxford, and Stanford, through the grace not only of his own hard work but his mother’s discipline and care, he documents the America we should still aspire to be.” —Dr. Anne-Marie Slaughter, President of the New America Foundation"