Description

 «Ana Castillo es un tesoro estadounidense. Temeraria, compasiva y absolutamente brillante: es la escritora que necesitamos mientras enfrentamos los retos de nuestro mundo cambiante». —Tayari Jones, autora de Un matrimonio americano

«Ana Castillo es una narradora de primera». —Julia Álvarez, escritora galardonada

La leyenda literaria Ana Castillo explora los secretos ocultos de los hogares y las mujeres a quienes más impactan en esta colección que cimienta su lugar como una voz destacada de la ficción feminista.

Katia, la primera en su tradicional familia mexicoestadounidense en terminar la secundaria, entra a la edad adulta en una época de cambios turbulentos. En todo el país, los jóvenes luchan por los derechos civiles y de las mujeres, y protestan contra la Guerra de Vietnam y las brutales dictaduras de América del Sur. Como muchos de su generación, Katia quiere hacer del mundo un lugar mejor y está decidida a seguir su propio camino.

Mientras considera mudarse a California para unirse a La Causa —movimiento del activista mexicoestadounidense César Chávez para mejorar las condiciones laborales de los trabajadores rurales migrantes—, Katia recibe un regalo inesperado de su padre: un boleto de avión a la Ciudad de México. “Tráete a tu madre, le dice, sus hijos la necesitan”. Así que, Katia se une a su causa para traer a Tina de regreso a Chicago. Pero no será fácil. Katia debe aprender a sortear una versión liberada de su madre en un nuevo país, donde supuestamente se dedica a la venta ambulante de productos de limpieza de alta calidad llamados Donna Crean Well.

Desde Chicago a México y a Nuevo México, los relatos de Doña Cleanwell deja su hogar iluminan a un grupo de personas cuyas historias nos dejaran sin aliento. 

“Ana Castillo is an American treasure. Fearless, compassionate, and flat-out brilliant—she is the writer we need as we navigate the challenges of our ever-changing world.”—Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage

“Ana Castillo is de primera storyteller.”—award-winning author Julia Alvarez

Literary legend Ana Castillo explores the secrets that are kept within households and the women they impact the most in this breakout collection that cements her place as a leading voice in feminist fiction.

The first person in her traditional Mexican American family to graduate from high school, Katia is entering adulthood at a time of turbulent change. Across the nation young people are fighting for civil and women’s rights and protesting the Vietnam War and brutal dictatorships in South America. Like so many of her generation, Katia wants to make the world a better place, and is determined to follow her own path.

 As she considers moving to California to join La Causa, Mexican American activist Cesar Chavez’s movement to improve the working conditions of migrant farmer workers, Katia receives an unexpected gift from her father: a plane ticket to Mexico City. Bring back your mother, he says, tell her, her children need her. And so Katia joins this cause, to get Tina back to Chicago. But it won't be easy. Katia must learn to navigate a liberated version of her mother in a new country where she is now hawking supposedly superior cleaning products, called Donna Clean Well.

 Katia is but one of the voices introduced in this dazzling collection of short fiction from revered writer Ana Castillo. Spanning from Chicago to Mexico to New Mexico, the stories in Doña Cleanwell Leaves Home illuminate a chorus of people whose stories will leave you breathless.

About the Author

Ana Castillo is a celebrated poet, novelist, short story writer, essayist, editor, playwright, translator, and scholar. Born and raised in Chicago, her award winning, bestselling titles include the novels So Far from God, The Guardians, Peel My Love like an Onion, and Sapogonia, which was a New York Times Notable Book, and the poetry collection I Ask the Impossible. She has received numerous awards, including the 2018 PEN Oakland Lifetime Achievement Award, the Fuller Award for Lifetime Achievement, and was inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame.