Ocotillo Dreams

by Melinda Palacio

Overview

Fiction. Latino/Latina Studies. Set in Chandler, Arizona, during the city's infamous 1997 migrant sweeps, OCOTILLO DREAMS is no run-of-the-mill border tale. In her captivating first novel, Melinda Palacio skillfully weaves a story of politics, intrigue, love, and trust. Isola, a young woman who inherits her mother's Chandler home, relocates from California only to find that her mother had lived a secret life of helping undocumented immigrants. Isola must confront her own confusion and sense of loyalty in a strange and hostile environment. As she gets to know her mother from clues left behind, she grapples with questions of identity and belonging that eventually lead her to explore her life's meaning and to reconnect with her roots.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781931010757
Publisher:	Bilingual Review Press (AZ)
Publication date:	07/15/2011
Pages:	188
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Melinda Palacio grew up in South Central Los Angeles and now lives in Santa Barbara and New Orleans. She holds an M.A. in comparative literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz. A 2007 PEN Center USA Emerging Voices Fellow and a 2009 poetry alumna of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, she coedits Ink Byte Magazine and writes a column for online journal La Bloga. Her work has appeared in the Squaw Valley Review, Black Renaissance/Renaissance Noire, Buffalo Carp, Latinos in Lotusland: An Anthology of Contemporary Southern California Literature, Maple Leaf Rag III and IV: An Anthology of Poems, among many other publications. Melinda's poetry chapbook, Folsom Lockdown, won the 2009 Kulupi Press Sense of Place award. The author recently completed a full-length poetry manuscript, How Fire Is a Story, Waiting.

Table of Contents

Prologue 1

I The House 1

1 The House 13

2 Mother's Words 5

3 Daddy's Home 15

4 Cobwebs 18

5 Sometimes a Phone Call 27

6 Wednesday 33

7 Liz the Lawyer 38

8 Doña Trini's Domain 43

9 Dusty Photographs 47

10 Dinner Guest 49

11 Back to La Barda 54

12 Epifanía 59

13 Frisco Fog 63

14 Mommy Marina 68

15 What She Didn't Say 71

16 Alberto's Taqueria 76

17 Nacho's Luck 79

18 Quiet Moment 83

19 Desert Heat 89

20 A Closer Look 99

21 Take a Little Trip 106

22 One Allowed 110

23 Change of Heart 116

24 A Grain of Salt 120

II The Sweep 127

25 The Sweep: Day One 129

26 The Sweep: Day Two 134

27 The Sweep: Day Three 136

28 The Sweep: Day Four 138

29 The Sweep: Day Five 141

III Ocotillo Dreams 147

30 History Repeats 149

31 Cactus Gift 155

32 Found Phone 159

33 A Favor? 161

34 Turning a Corner 167

35 Save the Last Dance for Me 170

36 Papers Please 174

37 Rescate Angeles 176

38 Ocotillo Dreams 182

Editorial Reviews

Accomplished poet Palacio seamlessly transitions to fiction in her debut novel about identity, stereotypes, and prejudice in a Phoenix suburb. Isola leaves her San Francisco home and university community to claim the house in Chandler, Ariz., she inherited after her mother's death. Long estranged, Isola is unfamiliar with her mother's life, except for a monthly postcard of a blooming ocotillo cactus that proclaimed dreams came true in Chandler. Isola is startled to find a man, Cruz, asleep in the kitchen, whom she learns he knew her mother well and was one of many undocumented immigrants her mother (as a part of her work with Rescate Angeles) had helped cross the border, learn English, and find work. Additional surprises await Isola when new visitors arrive, slowly revealing the mother she never really knew. Polacio's poet's eye reveals a vibrantly painted desert culture of fragile beauty and uncompromising harshness. (July)

Publishers Weekly