Wise Latinas

Jennifer De Leon is a teacher in the Boston Public Schools district and an instructor at the Grub Street Creative Writing Center. Her writing has appeared in Ploughshares, Fourth Genre, Ms. Magazine, Poets & Writers, The Best Women's Travel Writing 2010, and elsewhere.

• AcknowledgmentsSouce AcknowledgmentsIntroductionJennifer De LeonI. World's ApartGoing the DistanceBlanca TorresScrambled ChannelsYalitza FerrerasWhiteGirlColorlessAfriPanaGail M. DottinNomadicIngrid Rojas ContrerasLeaving MiamiChantel AcevedoII. Rooms of Our OwnLas OtrasCeleste Guzman MendozaPancakes at 2 a.m.Stephanie Elizondo GriestIndependenceIris GomezStories She Told UsDaisy HerÁndezWho Goes to College?Cecilia Rodriguez MilanÉsI'm Living in a Foreign CountryToni Margarita PlummerMy StalkerLoraine M. LÓpezIII. Inside These Academic WallsRapunzel's LadderJulia AlvarezDerrumbando Muros along an Academic PathNorma Elia CantÚOn Becoming EducatedJoy CastroLa SillaRuth BeharIV. In Tribute, In TimeThe Weight of PaperBeatriz TerrazasTo My Younger SelfErika MartÍnezAfter YaleLi Yun AlvaradoHow to Leave HialeahJennine CapÓ CrucetOnly DaughterSandra CisnerosContributors

"The abundance of high-quality material makes the book hard to put down."—Kirkus "[Wise Latinas] holds relevance for any young person setting out of their homes for the first time."—Ru Freeman, Huffington Post "An extraordinary collection of testimonies. There is plenty of honesty and no pretension in the voices included in Wise Latinas. These essays elicit the gamut of emotions from the reader, from chuckles to gasps to tears. An excellent anthology."—Rigoberto González, author of Butterfly Boy: Memories of a Chicano Mariposa  "On the most fundamental level, Wise Latinas aims to provide models for other Latinas. . . . [It was] a joy to read this book, and a reminder of the footsteps that we all trace."—Marta Caminero-Santangelo, author of On Latinidad: U.S. Latino Literature and the Construction of Ethnicity