"Real Women Have Curves explores the politics of beauty and the power women have when working together. Simply Maria or the American Dream deals with the struggle of a young Mexican girl to find her identity and stay true to her self and her dreams. Confessions of Women from East L.A. shatters stereotypes of Latina women by providing complex explorations into to the Latina experience. Food for the Dead is a satirical look at machismo while celebrating Mexican cultural traditions and sexual liberation. Unconquered Spirits explores the legend of "La Llorona" from a Chicana feminist perspective retelling the spiritual conquest of Mexico and celebrating the unbeatable spirit of the indigenous and Chicanos"-- Back cover.

"Set in a tiny sewing factory in East L.A., this is the outrageously funny story of five full-figured Mexican-American women who are racing to meet nearly impossible production deadlines in order to keep their tiny factory from going under. And while they work, hiding from the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service), they talk ... about their husbands and lovers, their children, their dreams for the future. The story is told from the point of view of Ana, the youngest among them. Just graduated from high school, Ana dreams of getting out of the barrio and going off to college and becoming a famous writer. Although she needs the money, Ana doesn't like working at the factory and has little respect for the coworkers, who make fun of her ambitions and what they consider her idealistic feminist philosophies. However, Ana keeps coming to her job and chronicling her experiences in a journal. As the summer unfolds, she slowly gains an understanding and appreciation of the work and the women, eventually writing an essay that wins her a journalism fellowship which will take her to New York City. This play, a microcosm of the Latina immigrant experience, celebrates real women's bodies, the power of women, and the incredible bond that happens when women work together."--Publisher description.

Barash and Lipton discuss the theories scientists have advanced to explain evolutionary enigmas--from how women get their curves to why women menstruate--and present hypotheses of their own.

Generational conflict is set off between the blossoming Ana, a Mexican-American teenager who has a chance to attend Columbia University on a scholarship, and her mother, Carmen, who is determined that Ana follow convention and go to work with her in a Los Angeles sweatshop.

National Book Award Finalist A heartstrong story of family and romance, tribulation and tenacity, set on the High Plains east of Denver. In the small town of Holt, Colorado, a high school teacher is confronted with raising his two boys alone after their mother retreats first to the bedroom, then altogether. A teenage girl—her father long since disappeared, her mother unwilling to have her in the house—is pregnant, alone herself, with nowhere to go. And out in the country, two brothers, elderly bachelors, work the family homestead, the only world they've ever known. From these unsettled lives emerges a vision of life, and of the town and landscape that bind them together—their fates somehow overcoming the powerful circumstances of place and station, their confusion, curiosity, dignity and humor intact and resonant. As the milieu widens to embrace fully four generations, Kent Haruf displays an emotional and aesthetic authority to rival the past masters of a classic American tradition.

With 11 original essays, this edited volume examines 'chick flicks' within the larger context of 'chick culture' as well as women's cinema. The essays consider chick flicks from a variety of angles, touching on issues of film history, female sexuality, femininity, age, race, ethnicity, and consumerism.