Latina Voices » Creative Nonfiction

Rose window at Chartres Cathedral by Yoly Zentella– About 200 children, nine tightly robbed, black habited nuns, eight bright but austere classrooms divided in half, separating the sexes, and at each desk, a bottle of blue-black fountain pen ink: this was the stage of the urban...

BIG HAIR

by Yoly Zentella– By the time I was 16 my hair was a mess, brittle, split ends. I was told that the remedy lay in a bottle of good conditioner; but the damage from my adolescent penchant for big hair stemmed from an urgent expression of independence, a drive to establish an...

Poets and Community: Thoughts from the L

By Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo– This past weekend was the Latino Books and Family Festival at California State University, Los Angeles. I was lucky enough to be invited to speak on a panel at the event entitled “From Inspiration to Publication: The Business of Poetry,”...

Immigration: A love story

By Lynndel Noriega– “Up, up with education! Down, down with deportation!” chanted a crowd of 30 or so Latin American youths holding hand-painted signs advocating the Development, Relief and Education of Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, which would grant “restricted” residency...

Powers of Zumba

By Adriana Paramo– Zumba Class, YMCA, Lakeland, Florida I think my Zumba instructor knows me. I think she is a witch, some sort of sorceress that scans my heart as soon as I enter the gym. You see, she seems to know exactly what I need and it worries me that I’m so transparent,...

Product of the ABC School District

By Sandra Lopez– Today, I discovered that I am a “product of the ABC School District.” If you are not familiar with the schools that are a part of the ABC School District, then let me help you out: Ferguson, Melbourne, Tetzlaff, and Cerritos–all schools that...

The disappearing face

By “Unknown Mami”– Mami y yoMy mother’s face has always been beautiful, not just to me. She has always been the kind of beautiful that people notice, the kind of beautiful that opens doors, the kind of beautiful that you can trade on, but to me that beautiful...

For my grandmother: A Los Angeles story

By Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo– In my search and thirst for the past, for the faces of our history, I have forgotten the faces that brought me to the subject of immigration in the first place. I forget that the story isn’t always something out there in the world, but something...

Aquí, ellas tienen poder

Por Tatiana Velásquez– Cada mañana cuando me monto en el bus que me lleva a la universidad las probabilidades de encontrarme a una mujer detrás del volante son altas. No es raro ver a una de ellas, entrada en sus 30, conduciendo un automotor de servicio público para abrirse...

Chavez Ravine: A Los Angeles Story

By Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo– Before the Lasorda and Valenzuela, before we bled blue, before Dodger Stadium Chavez Ravine was a collection of three sleepy communities–La Loma, Bishop, and Palo Verde–existing in the hills sandwiched between downtown and Elysian Park. There,...

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