Mexican Families

¡Hola Papi! columnist John Paul Brammer’s Authentically Mexican is the hilarious and heartfelt story of his Mexican American family in diaspora, exploring his heritage and identity through six meaningful meals.  

Danny's tall and skinny. Even though he's not "built", his arms are long enough to give his pitch a power so fierce that any college scout would sign him on the spot. Ninety-five-mile-an-hour fastball, but the boy's not even on a team. Every time he gets up on the mound, he loses it. Ball ends up so far out of the strike zone it's laughable. But at his private school, they don't expect much else from him. Danny's brown. Half-Mexican brown....

Cousins Mari, Erica, Selena, and Gracie are inseparable. They aren’t just family but best friends—sharing secrets, traditions, and a fierce love for their abuelita. But their idyllic childhood ends when Mari’s parents divorce, forcing her to move away. With Mari gone, the girls’ tight-knit bond unravels.

From its opening scene in revolutionary Mexico to the Battle of the Marne in 1918, and on to the bordellos and saloons of San Antonio during the reign of the Hole in the Wall Gang, House of the Rising Sun is an epic tale of love, loss, betrayal, vengeance, and retribution that follows Texas Ranger Hackberry Holland on his journey to reunite with his estranged son, Ishmael, a captain in the United States Army.

For generations, the Olivares women have sought to control their daughters’ destinies, starting with their names. In life, Olvido constantly clashed with her carefree daughter. Then teenage Angustias discovered she was pregnant and left her mother’s home in search of her own. Ten years later, Felicitas finally meets her estranged grandmother and is terribly disappointed when Olvido is nothing like a grandmother should be. She is strict, cold, and…dead. Now, Olvido is convinced the only way her spirit will cross over is if she resolves her unfinished business.

Orphan Elizabeth Somers’ malevolent aunt and uncle ship her off to the ominous Winterhouse Hotel, owned by the peculiar Norbridge Falls. Upon arrival, Elizabeth quickly discovers that Winterhouse has many charms - most notably its massive library. It’s not long before she locates a magical book of puzzles that will unlock a mystery involving Norbridge and his sinister family.

Dominate the next game night by playing Mexican Train Dominoes! Want to learn how to play Mexican Train Dominoes? Do you want to learn the basic rules? Do you want to learn the strategies and advanced techniques you can use to improve your skills? Want insight into variations that add complexity and give the game more replay ability? This comprehensive guide will teach you everything from Mexican Train Dominoes rules for beginners to advanced competitive strategies. You’ll learn how to set up and play this fun and social game, hone your skills, and discover the secrets of the pros. In ...

Prieta is a term of endearment. When I tell people who don’t speak Spanish what prieta means—dark or the dark one—their eyes pop open and a small gasp escapes. I see the offense they feel for me sprinkled on their faces like the freckles I will never have. How do I tell them that when I heard Ita say Prieta, I felt the caress of her strong hands on the top of my head as she braided my hair?

Told in a series of voices, Calling for a Blanket Dance takes us into the life of Ever Geimausaddle through the multigenerational perspectives of his family as they face myriad obstacles. His father’s injury at the hands of corrupt police, his mother's struggle to hold on to her job and care for her husband, the constant resettlement of the family, and the legacy of centuries of injustice all intensify Ever’s bottled-up rage. Meanwhile, all of Ever’s relatives have ideas about who he is and who he should be.

A cozy mystery brimming with unexpected twists, turns, and a touch of ghostly magic. In the friendly and quiet town of Sweethaven, an elderly schoolteacher, Elizabeth Bordine, has faithfully served the community for decades. But when a young, ambitious teacher named Zack Tracy arrives to take her place, Miss Bordine’s peaceful retirement is disrupted. As strange events start to unfold around the historic one-room schoolhouse, tensions rise between the two educators. A curious 13-year-old boy named Diego Diaz becomes fascinated with the mysteries of the town's past, including the tales of ...

Hanson Oil Company deals with the wildcat strike's notoriety targeting their hard-earned wealth. The Hansons, to survive, arm a fearsome private army known as the White Hats that becomes an international security service company. The combination of the Hanson's prevailing against all the odds and the global demand for the Hanson White Hats brought him power that Hoot enhances by agreeing to take the place of terminally ill US Senator. Senator Hanson leads his White Hats into Mexico to rescue a group of high school girls kidnapped by the jihadists in New Mexico. They team up with the Mexican...

Follow the riveting journey of the Hanson family in this high-octane tale of resilience, revenge, and unwavering determination. Hoot, once a laid-back oilman, and his feisty wife, Hanna, alongside their twin girls and a trusty bird dog, find themselves amidst a harrowing nightmare, despite their newfound wealth from Hanson Oil, their small independent oil company. As their riches draw unwanted attention from both federal authorities and a dangerous Mexican cartel, the Hansons are thrust into a tumultuous battle to protect their hard-earned wealth. A grueling court battle ensues, leaving the...

Cece Rios thought saving her sister would be the end of her adventures in the world of criaturas. But part of Juana’s soul is still trapped in Devil’s Alley. As Cece tries to find a way to get it back using her new curandera abilities, Juana takes her fate in her own hands and sets off alone, intent on restoring her soul and getting revenge on El Sombrerón.

Gillian Armstead-Bancroft—Pride of the East Side and once-perfect bruja, wife, and mother—is going to spend her summer getting good at being bad. The first time she left Freedom, Kansas, behind, she did it by doing everything right. This time, she’ll hide from the large Mexican American family welcoming her home and work in secret to break the curse that’s erased her magical life. Only by doing it all wrong can Gillian get herself and her two children away from the ghosts of her hometown by summer’s end.

My mother named me Gabriella, after my grandmother who, coincidentally, didn't want to meet me when I was born because my mother was unmarried, and therefore living in sin. My mom has told me the story many, many, many, times of how, when she confessed to my grandmother that she was pregnant with me, her mother beat her. BEAT HER! She was 25. That story is the basis of my sexual education and has reiterated why it's important to wait until you're married to give it up.

A groundbreaking collection of poems addressing how every kind of love—self, brotherly, romantic, familial, cultural—is birthed, shaped, and complicated by the invisible forces of gender, capitalism, religion, migration, and so on.

When it comes to parenting, more isn't always better - but it is always more tiring. Over the course of nearly 50 years, Robert and Sarah LeVine have conducted a groundbreaking, worldwide study of how families work. They have consistently found that children can be happy and healthy in a wide variety of conditions, not just the effort-intensive, cautious environment so many American parents drive themselves crazy trying to create. Do Parents Matter? is an eye-opening look at the world of human nurture, one with profound lessons for the way we think about our families.

A story of West Texas. From the mid-1850's to the Mexican Revolution until 1915. The tale is centered around a character known as Little Bird; a child born with Tigua Indian, Mexican, and Gringo blood. Welcomed into a band of Apache at the age of five and reintroduced into the explosive changing era of the 1870s. This is the story of the growth of a very special, unique girl and the characters that influence her journey through life. Death at Needle Peak is the fourth and final book in the Little Bird series

Perfect Mexican daughters do not go away to college. And they do not move out of their parents’ house after high school graduation. Perfect Mexican daughters never abandon their family. But Julia is not your perfect Mexican daughter. That was her sister Olga’s role. Then a tragic accident on the busiest street in Chicago leaves Olga dead, and Julia left behind to reassemble the shattered pieces of her family. And no one seems to acknowledge that Julia is broken, too.

Cruzita is going to be a pop star. All she has to do is win a singing contest at her favorite theme park and get famous. But she can't go to the theme park this summer. Instead, she has to help out at her family's bakery, which has been struggling ever since Tio Chuy died. Cruzita's great-uncle poured his heart into the bakery-the family legacy—and now that he's gone, nothing is the same. When Cruzita's not rolling uneven tortillas or trying to salvage rock-hard conchas, she has to take mariachi lessons, even though she doesn't know how to play her great-grandpa's violin.