Mexico!|Sandra Benítez,Sylvia López-Medina 9046100502

||boek: Mexico!|Herinneringen van de zee - Het lied van de Mexicana's|Pockethuis

||door: Sandra Benítez, Sylvia López-Medina

||taal: nl
||jaar: 2005
||druk: ?
||pag.: 461p
||opm.: paperback|zo goed als nieuw

||isbn: 90-461-0050-2
||code: 1:000479

--- Over het boek (foto 1): Mexico! ---

(Herinneringen van de zee - Sandra Benítez + Het lied van de Mexicana's - Sylvia López-Medina + De heilige reis van Esperanza - María Amparao Ecandón)

Oude indianenculturen, tempelcomplexen, ongerepte stranden en een rijke en gevarieerde keuken: Mexico spreekt tot ieders verbeelding. In deze omnibus zijn daarom drie meeslepende romans samengebracht die zich afspelen in dit kleurrijke Latijns-Amerikaanse land.

Herinneringen van de zee van Sandrea Benítez is een betoverende roman over een Mexicaanse medicijnvrouw die alle geheimen van de dorpsbewoners kent. Benítez schreef een ontroerend en hypnotiserend verhaal over liefde en wanhoop, woede en tragedie.

Sylvia López-Medina beschrijft in Het lied van de Mexicana's hoe Rosario, een jong meisje dat weigert uitgehuwelijkt te worden, ervandoor gaat met haar minnaar. Ze trouwen, leven in de bergen met de revolutionairen en stichten een grote familie. Als haar kleindochter Amparo vijftig jaar later op zoek gaat naar haar wortels ontdekt zij bij toeval een aantal familiegeheimen...

De weduwe Esperanza Diaz, hoofdpersoon in De heilige reis van Esperanza van María Amparo Escandón, beleeft een openbaring terwijl ze eten klaarmaakt voor het bezoek tijdens de wake voor haar overleden dochter Blanca. De boodschap van de heilige Judas Tadeo is duidelijk: haar dochter is niet dood. Amparo Escandón schreef een charmant en magisch-realistisch verhaal dat eenieder een glimlach op het gezicht zal brengen.

[bron: https--www.bol.com]

--- Over (foto 2): Sandra Benítez ---

Sandra Benitez (March 26, 1941 in Washington D.C.) is an American novelist.

Sandra Benitez was born in Sandy Ables, Washington D.C. and spent ten years of her childhood in El Salvador while her father was based there as a diplomat. She attended high school in Missouri from aged 14 and subsequently graduated with a B.S. (1962) and M.A. (1974) from Northeast Missouri State University.

In 1997 she was selected as the University of Minnesota Edelstein-Keller Distinguished Writer in Residence. In 1998 she did the Writers Community Residency for the YMCA National Writer's Voice program. In the spring of 2001 she held the Knapp Chair in Humanities as Associate Professor of Creative Writing at the University of San Diego.

Awards

• 2004 Hispanic Heritage Award for Literature.
• 2006 United States Artists Gund Fellow
• 1998 American Book Award, for Bitter Grounds

Works

• A Place Where the Sea Remembers. Simon and Schuster. 1993. ISBN 978-0-671-89267-8.
• Bitter Grounds. Macmillan. 1998. ISBN 978-0-312-19541-0.
• The Weight of All Things. Hyperion. 2002. ISBN 978-0-7868-8703-3. "Sandra Benitez."
• Night of the Radishes. Hyperion. January 2004. ISBN 978-0-7868-6400-3.
• Bag Lady: A Memoir, The Triumphant True Story of Loss, Illness and Recovery. Benitez Books. 2005. ISBN 978-0-9774848-0-5.

Anthologies

• Mickey Pearlman (ed.). "Home Views". A Place Called Home: Twenty Writing Women Remember. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-17443-9.
• Marilyn Kallet, Judith Ortiz Cofer (ed.). "Fire, Wax, Smoke". Sleeping with One Eye Open. University of Georgia Press. ISBN 978-0-8203-2153-0.

[source: wikipedia]

From Night of the Radishes (2003) by Sandra Benitez

"Unfamiliar sounds awaken me: Swish, swish, a pause. Swish, swish, again. Other sounds I recognize: birds chirping in the cages I'd seen the night before. I roll on my side, head resting on a bent arm. The pillows are plump and hard as salami. I'll have to ask for softer ones, or else do without. The travel clock on the night table reads almost seven. The room is already flooded with light. Walls faux-painted a dusty sage. A canvas of red poppies. A shelf displaying a carved trio of musicians. Animal musicians in polka-dotted bras. Across the room, a long dresser. Above it, a mirror framed in punched tin and little tiles. In the corner, a massive armoire. Rough-hewn wood the color of caramels."

Biographical Notes

Birth: March 26, 1941, Washington, District of Columbia

Author Sandra Benitez, previously known as Sandy Ables, attended high school and college in Missouri. She earned a B.S. in education (1962) and a M.A. in comparative literature (1974) from Northeast Missouri State University. In 1979 Benitez left her job translating management training manuals and enrolled in a creative writing course. Her first novel, a murder mystery, was not published. After her early writing attempts received negative criticism, she decided to return to her Latin American roots, changed her name to Sandra, and adopted her mother's maiden name, Benitez. An early version of her book A Place Where the Sea Remembers (1993) won her a position in the mentor program at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis allowing her to work with experienced writers such as author Tim O'Brien.

Benitez has won several awards including the Loft-McKnight Award, Fiction (1988); Loft-McKnight Award of Distinction, Fiction (1993); the Barnes and Noble Discover Award (1993) and the Minnesota Fiction Award (1994) for her book, A Place Where the Sea Remembers (1993); University of Minnesota Keller-Eisenstein Distinguished Writer in Residence for the 1997 winter quarter; an American Book Award (1998) for Bitter Grounds (1997); the Writers Community Residency Award for the YMCA National Writer's Voice program in 1998; the Knapp Chair in Humanities as Associate Professor of Creative Writing at the University of San Diego (2001); Judith Anderson Stoutland Writer-in-Residence, St Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota (2004); National Hispanic Heritage Award for Literature (2004); and she received one of the first United States Artists Awards, being named a USA Gund Fellow (2006).

Selected Works

The titles below link to the catalog record in MnPALS, the Minnesota Historical Society's library catalog. Please click on your browser's back button to return.

• Bitter Grounds
• Night of the Radishes
• A Place Where the Sea Remembers
• The Weight of All Things

Additional Resources

Minnesota Historical Society Links

• Search MNHS Library and Archives Catalog for author - Searches for works by this author in the Minnesota Historical library
• Northern Lights Episode #279

[source: https--collections.mnhs.org/mnauthors/10001075]

Sandra Benitez has spent her life moving between the Latin American culture of her Puerto Rican mother and the Anglo-American culture of her father. She was in Washington D.C., one of a pair of identical twins. Her sister, Susana, died just 37 days after their birth. In 1980 she began to write fiction. It was not until 13 years later that her first book appeared. Benitez lives with her husband, Jim Kondrick, in Edina, Minnesota.

[source: https--www.fantasticfiction.com/b/sandra-benitez]

Sandra Benitez has spent her life moving between the Latin American culture of her Puerto Rican mother and the Anglo-American culture of her father. She was born March 26, 1941 in Washington D.C., one of a pair of identical twins. Her sister, Susana, died just 37 days after their birth. A year later, her father, who worked for the U.S. State Department, was assigned to Mexico, where her sister, Anita, was born. Not long after, the family transferred with him to El Salvador and this is where Sandra lived for most of the next 20 years. In Latin America, she learned that life is frail and capricious; that people can find joy in the midst of insurmountable obstacles; that, in the end, it is hope that sustains.

When Benitez reached high school age, her parents, in part to "Americanize" her, sent Sandra to her paternal grandparents' modest dairy farm in northeastern Missouri. She attended Unionville high school, returning each summer to El Salvador. In Missouri, she saw the back-breaking work and quiet self-reliance required to extract a living from the land and its animals. She learned that life is what you make it; that satisfaction comes from a job well done; that, in the end, it is steadfastness that leads to goals accomplished and dreams realized.

Benitez returned to Missouri for her college years, eventually earning a master's degree in literature from what is, today, Truman University in Kirksville. Later, she taught literature at both the high school and university level. Later, she did a four-year stint in the international division of a major training corporation and traveled extensively throughout Latin America.

In 1980 she began to write fiction. It was not until 13 years later that her first book, A Place Where the Sea Remembers, set in Mexico, was published. It won wonderful reviews and a number of prizes including the Barnes and Noble Discover Award, the Minnesota Book Award, and selection as a finalist for the Los Angeles Times' First Fiction Award. Her second book, Bitter Grounds, set in El Salvador, won an American Book award and a nomination for Great Britain's prestigious Orange Prize. Both books, and her third as well, have been published in more than half a dozen languages.

Sandra's third novel, The Weight of All Things, also set in El Salvador, tells the heart-breaking story of a nine-year-old boy caught up in a vicious civil war. While it won no awards, it garnered plenty of praise from reviewers. Her latest novel, Night of the Radishes draws on her unique bi-cultural background. In it, a Minnesota woman, plunged into depression by a series of family tragedies, finds a long-lost brother and redemption in the mystical atmosphere of Oaxaca, Mexico. Published by Hyperion Books, it is due for release in January, 2004.

Benitez's work has also appeared in a number of magazines and anthologies. Most notably, A Place Called Home: Twenty Writing Women Remember, Mickey Pearlman, editor, St. Martin's Press, and Sleeping with One Eye Open, Marilyn Kallet, editor, University of Georgia Press.

Sandra's work has earned her nearly two dozen honors, awards and grants (see below), and she is much in demand as a teacher and speaker. In 1997 she was selected as the University of Minnesota Edelstein-Keller Distinguished Writer in Residence. In 1998 she did the Writers Community Residency for the YMCA National Writer's Voice program. In the spring of 2001 she held the Knapp Chair in Humanities as Associate Professor of Creative Writing at the University of San Diego. Other teaching residencies include Bread Loaf Writers Conference, Flight of the Mind, the University of Minnesota Split Rock Arts Program, and Hamline (Minn.) University.

Sandra is the recipient of the 2004 National Hispanic Heritage Award Honoree for Literature.

In December, 2006, Benitez received one of the first United States Artists Awards, being named a USA Gund Fellow.

2006 Central Region Winner. ConvaTec and Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America GREAT COMEBACKS AWARD.

2006: "Rockford Reads One Book," Rockford, IL
A Place Where the Sea Remembers and Alli Donde El Mar Recuerda
all-city book read selection.

Benitez has lectured at colleges, high schools and professional organizations coast to coast. All of her first three novels, but especially A Place Where the Sea Remembers, are used extensively in classrooms through the country and are book group favorites as well.

Benitez lives with her husband, Jim Kondrick, in Edina, Minnesota, and has completed her first non-fiction Bag Lady: A Memoir of Illness and Recovery. The book is an account of Sandra's 30 year struggle with Ulcerative Colitis, and her acceptance of the ileostomy surgery that changed her life.

Sandra Benitez is the 2004 National Hispanic Heritage Foundation Honoree for Literature, as well as listed by Hispanic Business Magazine as one of the U.S.'s 100 Influentials.

[source: https--www.readinggroupguides.com/authors/sandra-benitez]

Sandra Benitez
Fiction Writer
Minneapolis, MN
2006 USA Fellow

This award was generously supported by Agnes Gund.

Sandra Benitez was raised in Mexico, El Salvador, and Missouri, and has lived in Minnesota since the 1970s. Her books reflect her bicultural Latin American and Midwestern background, focusing on the lives of characters such as Salvadoran maids, coffee pickers, and struggling American farmers and on events such as the civil war in El Salvador. She began writing at the age of 39 and published her first book, A Place the Sea Remembers, 13 years later. Including that work, she has written four books of fiction and one autobiography. Her first book of nonfiction, Memoir, was awarded a National Hispanic Heritage Award for Literature. Benitez lectures at universities and has been awarded many honors, including a Bush Foundation Fellowship and two Loft-McKnight Awards.

[source: https--www.unitedstatesartists.org/fellow/sandra-benitez]

Sandra Benítez may be little known because she only began writing at age thirty-nine. She did not participate in a national writer's workshop; her stories just came out at one point in her life as she reached back to her varied childhood experiences. She is of Puerto Rican descent through her mother and Midwestern descent through her father. She was born in Washington, D.C., where her father worked as a diplomat, then grew up in Mexico, El Salvador, Puerto Rico, and Missouri. She now lives in Edina, Minnesota. In 1994 she won the Minnesota Book award for her first novel, A Place Where the Sea Remembers (1994), which is based in a small village on the Mexican coast. Three years later she published her second novel, Bitter Grounds (1997), which spans three generations of women's lives in El Salvador.

Reviewers note Benítez's talent in describing the lives and telling the stories of native people and small-town life in Mexico and El Salvador. Chicana novelist Denise Chávez said the world of Benítez' first novel is "poignant, passionate, bittersweet. There are no small lives. Her characters are magnificent, merciful, soul-rooted creatures clinging to the shore." The Boston Sunday Globe called the novel "tender and gripping." Cuban-American writer Cristina García added that A Place Where the Sea Remembers is a quietly stunning book that leaves soft tracks in the heart."

The first novel weaves several characters' lives through the possibilities of work and life in a small coastal village. Love and anger, on the order of a Gabriel García Márquez story, influence the decisions of three principal characters, while each moves through the aspirations and disillusionments of their limited options. Candelario Marroquín is filled with pride and respect for his role when he is promoted to salad maker at the tourist-stop restaurant where he works. He feels he can finally provide well for his wife and the family they have always desired; since they have been unable to have their own child, they plan to adopt the baby his wife's younger sister will have. She was raped and now wants to leave the baby behind in good hands and go to the U.S., where she can earn good money. When Candelario is fired because of his boss' own error and embarrassment, he returns home to discover that his wife is now pregnant. He will have to return to a life of fishing and selling each day's catch to the restaurants in order to provide for his family. He and his wife know he cannot provide for two children. A quarrel ensues between the sisters, triggering a series of events that affect the lives of many members of their village.

The lyrical quality of this short (160-page) novel is reminiscent of Latin American literature of the 1950s and 1960s. Benítez writes only in English, but the essence of her stories is Latin American. She aptly paints descriptions of peasants, small-town life, and a people's rootedness to their land and their region, whether coastal Mexico or the small country of El Salvador. In her second novel, she contrasts the lives of wealthy women with their maids, but it is the servant women and their families whose portraits come alive, as well as their connection to their land. The 1930s' uprising and the revolution of the 1970s are only the backdrop to this story of the people. New Mexican writer Demetria Martínez called Benítez's second novel "a beautiful story and a major contribution to the literature of the Americas." Isabel Allende found it "a story of passion, politics, death, and love written with suspense; a country's tragic story seen by four strong women. This is the kind of book that fills your dreams for weeks." And Chris Bohjalian, a reviewer for the New York Times Book Review, found Bitter Grounds"like a recipe for a novel by Laura Esquivel, the rhythms reminiscent of Sandra Cisneros. Ms. Benítez certainly merits placement beside some of the mesmerizing new literature with its roots in Latin America." Her 445-page second novel is an epic that celebrates the Salvadoran people of the 20th century in their history, their land, and their beauty.

While Benítez seems difficult to categorize ethnically, she is truly a Latina writer: she writes in English and her themes are often of women's issues and Latin American origin. She has said that being an avid reader in her childhood helped lead her to story writing, and she seems to be collecting her Latin American experiences to share with a North American audience. Benítez has written several short stories, which have appeared in various anthologies, including Do You Know Me Now?, edited by Elizabeth Rosenberg (1992), and Speaking in Tongues, edited by Carolyn Holbrook-Montgomery (1993). Her awards and honors include the Loft Mentor award for fiction, 1987; Loft-McKnight award for fiction, 1988; Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Grant for literature, 1989; Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship for fiction, 1991; Minnesota Hispanic Heritage Month award, 1992; Loft-McKnight award of Distinction for prose, 1993; Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers award, 1993; and Minnesota Book award for fiction, 1994. Benítez is also a teacher of creative writing.
Other Works:

Women's Voices from the Borderlands (ed. by Lillian Castillo-Speed,1995).
Bibliography:

CA 144; WRB 15 (June 1998); PW (19 July 1993).

Other references: Boston Globe (19 Dec. 1993). Gac-Artigas, P., ed., Reflexiones: 60 Essays on Spanish American Women Writers (1999). NYTBR (31 Oct. 1993). WPBW (5 Sept. 1993).

[source: https--www.encyclopedia.com/arts/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/benitez-sandra-ables]

--- Over (foto 3): Sylvia López-Medina ---

Ms. Lopez-Medina was born in Modesto on December 5, 1942.

She worked earlier in her life as a legal assistant, returning to school in the mid-1980s. In 1991 she received a degree in creative writing and English literature from the University of California at Santa Cruz.

In 1992 the University of New Mexico Press published her first novel, "Cantora", based on her family and ancestral heritage. She received much critical acclaim and praise for it as a first-time author. It was later published in paperback.

Her second book, "Sigui-riya," was released by Harper Collins last September. Her third book, a novel that would have completed her trilogy, was near completion.

[She] died on March 5, [1998, at age 55].

[source: https--www.goodreads.com]