A thick air of melancholy drifts through the start of Esmeralda Santiago's new novel, "Las Madres." The narrator notes that after protagonist Luz Peña Fuentes left her native Puerto Rico as a teenager, the accent mark over the ñ in Peña was left out in English. Without the tilde, her last name took on a different definition: Pena Fuentes can mean "Sorrow Fountains," or "Penalty Fountains" - even "Pity Fountains" or "Shame Fountains."
"Crossing an ocean made me sadder," Luz recalls to her daughter, Marysol Ríos Peña, decades later.
Marysol reminds her 57-year-old mother that Luz is who she believes she is, no matter what. "Your name and identity are different things," she adds.
Luz accepts this as truth and types her daughter's words into the Notes app on her phone. She wants to keep a record of their dialogue. Some memories can be fleeting, yes. But in Luz's case,...
"Crossing an ocean made me sadder," Luz recalls to her daughter, Marysol Ríos Peña, decades later.
Marysol reminds her 57-year-old mother that Luz is who she believes she is, no matter what. "Your name and identity are different things," she adds.
Luz accepts this as truth and types her daughter's words into the Notes app on her phone. She wants to keep a record of their dialogue. Some memories can be fleeting, yes. But in Luz's case,...
- 9/6/2023
- by Amaris Castillo
- Popsugar.com
A distinguished group of Hispanic women are blasting "The View" for allegedly making disparaging remarks against co-host Rosie Perez ... saying they are both racist and sexist.The group referring to themselves as #YoSoyRosie is responding to a "View" source who spoke to the NY Daily News and said Rosie, "is not the sharpest tool in the box," and most recently told Variety that "Ms. Perez can't read a TelePrompTer."The group just put out a letter,...
- 1/21/2015
- by TMZ Staff
- TMZ
Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival
Based on the second memoir by acclaimed writer Esmeralda Santiago, "Almost a Woman" is a historically vivid but dramatically stunted coming-of-age drama.
Directed by Betty Kaplan, the film follows the cultural trek taken by young "Negi" Santiago (nicely played by newcomer Ana Maria Lagasca) from her beloved Puerto Rico to Brooklyn, N.Y., with her tireless mother, Mami Wanda De Jesus), and her numerous brothers and sisters.
Finding herself constantly playing various roles in her life -- from obedient Puerto Rican daughter to young American woman of the early '60s -- it's not surprising that Negi, with some encouragement from her school guidance counselor (Cliff DeYoung), is accepted into the prestigious Performing Arts High School of Manhattan.
The elements of a good story are all there, but they remain compartmentalized, waiting to be ticked off by Venezuela-born Kaplan like items on a large grocery list. Without a stronger dramatic undercurrent, "Woman" is left with the look and feel of a standard-issue TV miniseries, albeit one with standout performances by Lagasca and the always reliable De Jesus, whose world-weary demeanor is put to particularly effective use here.
Based on the second memoir by acclaimed writer Esmeralda Santiago, "Almost a Woman" is a historically vivid but dramatically stunted coming-of-age drama.
Directed by Betty Kaplan, the film follows the cultural trek taken by young "Negi" Santiago (nicely played by newcomer Ana Maria Lagasca) from her beloved Puerto Rico to Brooklyn, N.Y., with her tireless mother, Mami Wanda De Jesus), and her numerous brothers and sisters.
Finding herself constantly playing various roles in her life -- from obedient Puerto Rican daughter to young American woman of the early '60s -- it's not surprising that Negi, with some encouragement from her school guidance counselor (Cliff DeYoung), is accepted into the prestigious Performing Arts High School of Manhattan.
The elements of a good story are all there, but they remain compartmentalized, waiting to be ticked off by Venezuela-born Kaplan like items on a large grocery list. Without a stronger dramatic undercurrent, "Woman" is left with the look and feel of a standard-issue TV miniseries, albeit one with standout performances by Lagasca and the always reliable De Jesus, whose world-weary demeanor is put to particularly effective use here.
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