Once Upon A Quinceañera Coming of Age in the USA, A nonfiction book by Julia Alvarez(Viking: August

This is only my second book of nonfiction, and the only book that I ever was invited to write! Well, take that back. The seed of A Cafecito Story was a request by my husband that I write "something" about the plight of coffee farmers we had become involved with in the Dominican Republic. But that wasn't an invitation so much as "this is what I want for Christmas, my birthday, and any other time you're going to get me a present for the rest of my life." How easy was that to refuse?!

Once Upon A Quinceañera began when an editor asked me to write about a book about this Latino tradition. At first, I sent regrets, but he was persistent! He asked me to think about it. I decided to attend a few of these celebrations and I got hooked on the subject.It seemed to me that quinceañeras, those elaborate and ritualized parties thrown for young Latinas when they turn fifteen, are a perfect lens through which to view what is happening to us as a Latino community in this country. Writing the book also gave me the opportunity to review my own troubled coming of age and to understand why that passage was so difficult for me and many other young Latinas and women of my generation.

http://www.once-upon-a-quinceanera.juliaalvarez.com/