Publisher Description

It's April 1969, and fourteen-year-old Yolanda Sahagun can hardly wait to see her favourite brother, Chuy, newly returned from Vietnam. But when he arrives at the Welcome Home party the family has prepared in his honour it's clear that the war has changed him. The transformation of Chuy is only one of the challenges that Yolanda and the rest of her family face. This powerful coming-of-age novel, winner of the 1999 Chicano/Latino Literary Contest, is a touching and funny account of a summer that is still remembered as a crossroads in American life. Yolanda and her brothers and sisters learn how to be men and women and how to be Americans as well as Mexican Americans.

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A touching and funny coming-of-age novel set in 1969 with a background of family and the Vietnam war.

Author Biography

Patricia Santana is chair of the foreign languages department and professor of Spanish at Cuyamaca College, El Cajon, California. Her earlier book, Motorcycle Ride on the Sea of Tranquility (UNM Press), received the Chicano/Latino Literary Prize and was selected by the American Library Association as a Best Book for Young Adults.

Review

"Seasoned with salty dashes of Spanish and radiant with family warmth and affection, Santana's 1999 Chicano/Latino Literary Contest-winning first novel tells the tender coming-of-age tale of a young Chicana in 1969 San Diego. . . . Santana has her finger on the pulse of Mexican-American life in Southern California."
"This proud Chicana has the strength and savvy to take all that life has to offer, and to make it her own. Following her journey is pure pleasure."
"Edgy and interesting, this is a great first novel. Buy it!"

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