Where the paleta wagon rings its tinkly bell and carries a treasure of icy paletas in every color of the sarape . . . As she strolls through her barrio, a young girl introduces readers to the frozen, fruit-flavored treat that thrills Mexican and Mexican-American children. Create a masterpiece, make tough choices (strawberry or coconut?), or cool off on a warm summer's day--there's so much to do with a paleta.

San Antonio Poet Laureate Carmen Tafolla captures her hometown — the city of her ancestors for the past three centuries — in poems that celebrate its history as a cosmopolitan multilingual cultural crossroads. Discover San Antonio’s corazón in Tafolla’s poetry, accompanied by historic and contemporary photographs that convey its enduring sense of place. The little river that has charmed so many rises at “the biological hub of the northern half of this hemisphere” (Dr. Karen Stothert) in a spring that Frederick Law Olmsted described as being “among the gems of the natural world.” A century ago, San Antonio gave Oscar Wilde “a thrill of strange pleasure.” J. Frank Dobie claimed that “every Texan has two hometowns — his own and San Antonio,” and Will Rogers declared it to be “one of the three unique cities of America.” To Larry McMurtry, “San Antonio has kept an ambiance that all the rest of our cities lack.” Carmen Tafolla calls forth the soul of this place — the holy home of the waters, called Yanaguana by los Indios — and celebrates the many cultures that have made of it “un rebozo bordado de culturas y colores.”

Featuring historic photos of the Chicano Movement in San Antonio and a new introduction, this is the 30th-anniversary edition of Carmen Tafolla's first solo poetry collection. Having filled a cultural and linguistic void in 1983, when it was first published, this compilation showcases the poet's creation of a literary language from the natural Spanish and English code-switching of the barrios of San Antonio. Banned in Arizona along with many other multicultural books, this work celebrates bilingual and bicultural diversity and the power of individual imagination while simultaneously examining social inequities. Many poems from this book have been widely anthologized throughout the past three decades.

Celebrating both the rebozo as a cultural icon of Mexico and the series of rebozo-inspired paintings by Mexican-Californian artist Catalina Gárate, this bilingual collection of poems gives voices of strength, endurance, joy, and sorrow to the women of Gárate's paintings. The rebozo is considered a physical manifestation of Mexican womanhood throughout every stage of life and can be used as a tool of daily labor: a sling to carry children, a shield from weather or from prying eyes, an heirloom, and even a shroud. Inspired by each painting, these poems, in both Spanish and English, are accompanied by a historical explanation of the role of the rebozo in Mexican history, art, and culture.

A spunky, young Mexican American girl explains the many uses of her mother's red rebozo, or long scarf.

This major poetry collection is a fearless depiction of a Latina living in the best and worst of times.

A collection of short stories set in the Southwest.