Unique novel for and about Hispanic teens from debut author

Author: Wanda Richards

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Date Created: Feb 1, 2007 - 1:19:28 PM
Last Updated: May 10, 2008 - 12:52:32 AM

Imagine feeling like you're from another planet and no one understands you. We all went through that, but what if you really were different? Like if you came from another country and no one understood you because you speak a different language?

That's what Wanda Richards, a local writer has written about. In her first Young Adult novel, the main character, Dolores, a girl born in Guatemala does a lot of growing up in her 'summer of dolores'. 'Dolores' in Spanish means 'pain', the author reminds us. With Wanda's years as an English as a Second Language teacher, she imparts to her readers a very unique perspective into the lives of her students.

And Wanda should know. She is fluent in Spanish, has a Masters in Linguistics, and received a Fulbright Grant to teach English in Peru. She's also prouid to report that excerpts of 'summer of dolores' also can be found in the Linguistics textbook: Telling Tongues: New Perspectives on Language, Identity, and Power in America Latina. Wanda is also a multi-published author, writing under the pen name, Leigh Barbour.

Dolores, the main character in "summer of dolores" she says, is a combination of so many female students from Mexico and Central America. "When I was teaching these kids," Wanda says, "I felt they were the strongest people in the world. As children, they walked across deserts, swam fierce rivers, then entered a country that didn't want them. And whether they wanted to or not, they became American."

"My own feelings of inadequacy I experienced as a teenager were nothing compared to what these kids go through on a daily basis."

The character, Dolores Gutierrez's birth mother, who she's never met, decides to pay a visit from Guatemala.

"Remember," the author says, "Guatemala is really a world away from the American life Dolores knows."

Link to publication: http://www.lulu.com/content/156551

Author: Wanda Richards
Date Created: Feb 1, 2007 - 1:19:28 PM Last Updated: May 10, 2008 - 12:52:32 AM
Email this article  Printer friendly page