Latina Characters & Women’s Voices: Cara Lopez Lee in Conversation with Mona Alvarado Frazier

Join local authors Cara Lopez Lee (Candlelight Bridge, available 5/28) and Mona Alvarado Frazier (A Garden of Second Chances) for a conversation about their novels’ young Latina characters and how Latinas in literature lift all women’s voices. About their books:

Candlelight Bridge is not a romance but a tale of grudging partners struggling to survive the American Dream. In 1910, twelve-year-old Candelaria Rivera and her family flee across the Chihuahuan Desert to America to escape the rising storm of the Mexican Revolution. Meanwhile, twenty-year-old Yan Chi Wong flees the Chinese Revolution and a shattering loss, also bound for America, where he’s nicknamed Yankee. They meet in El Paso, Texas, where they struggle to make a home in a world that does not want them, until a terrible desire threatens to destroy their lives.

In The Garden of Second Chances, Juana's life has taken a dark turn. Accused of her husband’s death, she's now a seventeen-year-old mother, alone and undocumented in a prison cell. No one believes her when she claims she's innocent; her only solace is in her baby, but her husband's furious family wants to take the child away. With no hope in sight, Juana discovers a glimmer of light in a small patch of earth in the prison yard. As she nurtures the plants, memories of her mother's strength and resilience surface, pushing Juana to fight for her freedom and her daughter's future.

Both books are availble to purchase in the shop or online at timbrebooks.com. A portion of Candlelight Bridge sale proceeds will benefit El Concilio Family Services.