Description

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This is a rarity in contemporary writing, a truly bilingual enterprise, as in Susana Chávez-Silverman’s previous memoir, Killer Crónicas. Chávez-Silverman switches between English and Spanish, creating alinguistic mestizaje that is still a surprise encounter in the world of letters today, and the author forms one of a small but growing band of writers to embrace bilingualism as a literary force. Also like Killer Crónicas, each chapter in Scenes from la Cuenca de Los Angeles is a “crónica,” a vignette that began as intimate diary entries and e-mails and letters to lovers, friends, and ghosts from the past. These episodic chapters follow the Chávez-Silverman’s personal history, from California to South Africa and Australia and back, from unfathomable loss to deeply felt joy. Readers drawn into this witty book will confront their own conceptions of boundaries, borders, languages, memories, and spaces. Honorable Mention, Best Biography in Spanish or Bilingual, International Latino Book Awards

About the Author

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Susana Chávez-Silverman is professor of romance languages and literatures at Pomona College in California. She is author of Killer Crónicas and coeditor of Tropicalizations: Transcultural Representations of Latinidad and Reading and Writing the Ambiente: Queer Sexualities in Latino, Latin American, and Spanish Culture.

Praise For…

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“Chávez-Silverman is doing nothing less than creating a new genre . . . through the only language capable of apprehending it: Spanglish as the new language of national becoming.”—Lázaro Lima, Bryn Mawr College

“In her book, Chavez-Silverman breaks out of ‘proper’ language and writes the way she speaks and hears language spoken. . . .  She respects language, but isn’t afraid to have a little fun.” —Open Salon

“By sharing her story in a stream-of-consciousness manner, Chavez-Silverman inspires readers to evaluate their perceptions of ethnicity, meanwhile highlighting the versatility of language.”—ForeWord

“These diverse passions—trees, men, perfume, astral signs, chronic panic attacks, an all-abiding love for friends and the sounds of the streets of San Francisco, all make her so endearing. After the alarums and diversions, it is these passions that drive her story . . . drive her . . .  make it hard for those of us on either side of the border to ever be able to forget her y su poder.”—Carlos Amantea, The Review of Arts, Literature, Philosophy and the Humanities