Hoyt Street de Mary Helen Ponce

Hoyt Street: An Autobiography

Mary Helen Ponce

en Limba Engleză Paperback – 31 ian 2006

It's the 1940s. Little Mary Helen Ponce and her family live in Pacoima, a Mexican American barrio near Los Angeles. Unmindful of their poverty, Mary Helen and friends Beto, Concha, Virgie, la Nancy, and Mundo sneak into the circus, run wild at church bazaars, snitch apricots from the neighbour's tree, and poke fun at Father Mickey, the progressive priest who plays jazz on the church organ. Experience the shame of first-generation Americans examined at school for lice, and the desire of a little girl who longs for patent leather shoes instead of clunky oxfords. Share Mary Helen's joy as she savours the sun on her face during walnut-picking expeditions, and basks in her family's love all year long.

Citește tot Restrânge

Recenzii

"I am overjoyed to be invited into la casita on Hoyt Street... Thank you, Mary Helen, for placing your house on the map, for inviting me to the intimacy of its rooms, allowing me the privilege to sit at the table and be nourished. In naming your own life history on Hoyt Street, you are also naming mine." -- Sandra Cisneros. "(Mary Helen Ponce's) ability to create detailed descriptions of the language, clothes, houses, and food Mexican-Americans embraced during World War II and the fifties becomes a priceless portrait of how tradition builds and sustains all cultures." -- The Nation. "Drawing on a child's freshness of vision, Hoyt Street depicts growing up Mexican-American as the norm, not as a sociological phenomenon. It will touch your heart; make you laugh out loud." -- El Mundo Latino.

Descriere

This tender and funny memoir traces Mary Helen's childhood from the age of eight to the beginnings of young womanhood at age 13. Combining a child's freshness of vision with adult irony, she conveys the poverty and prejudice she faced without sacrificing the memories of the everyday joys she experienced.