CCCS Remembering Childhood Lecture Series
presented
Tanya
Maria Barrientos
Tanya
Maria Barrientos is
an award-winning author
and staff writer for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Born in Guatemala, she grew up in a Texas border town
and now lives in the Philadelphia area.
Tanya
Maria Barrientos,
the
second author in the CCCS Remembering Childhood:
Meet The Authors, Hear Their Stories Lecture
Series held in the Rutgers-Camden Gordon Theater,
captivated
her audience with stories of her own childhood. Her family
migrated from Guatemala to the US during the turbulent times
of the mid-60s. Like her fictional characters in Frontera
Street, she grew up in a Texas border town.
Ms.
Barrientos read from her first novel, Frontera Street,
a richly imagined novel of friendship and forgiveness."Frontera"
means "border" in Spanish and the book, Frontera
Street, explores the physical, cultural, and emotional
borders that shape its characters' lives. Nowhere are those
lines more clearly drawn than in the small West Texas town
of Los Cielos. On the one side in this bordertown rich white
people live in big houses, while on the other side of the
tracks, the barrio struggle to survive. Barrio men work in
the fields or earn their living through other strenuous manual
labor, and the women are often employed as domestics. Tanya
Maria Barrientos' stories tell of strength and endurance.
Her fiction was awarded a 2001 fellowship by the Pennsylvania
Council of the Arts, and the 2001 Pew Fellowship in the Arts.
"A
warm and touching tale about the borders that keep us apart
and the love that brings us together. Anyone who's ever struggled
with a secret, found a new friend, or wondered about how the
people on the other side of the tracks live will cherish a
visit to Frontera Street." (Jennifer Weiner, New York
Times)
|
Pictures
from the pre-event reception with the author |
 |
 |
 |
Howard
Gillette and Dick Langner |
Tanya
Maria Barrientos |
Gail
Rosenberg and CCCS sponsors |
Read
more about Tanya
Maria Barrientos and her books.
Mark
your calendar for the next event: Nov 19, 2003 Michael
Chabban
