For Carmen, though, the pressure is the highest. She has always known that she wants to go to a premier fashion and design school. But those cost money. And that means she needs a scholarship. So when a teacher advises her to help out the Sobees -- Coral Gables resident "mean girls" -- with the big school dance, she has no choice. Unfortunately, she also has to help Amigas Inc. plan a double quince for two cousins who are determined to one up each other! As the drama unfolds, Carmen will have to figure out who she is and what she wants. And will pushing herself double-time leave her with nothing left to give?
For Carmen, though, the pressure is the highest. She has always known that she wants to go to a premier fashion and design school. But those cost money. And that means she needs a scholarship. So when a teacher advises her to help out the Sobees--Coral Gables resident "mean girls"--with the big school dance, she has no choice. Unfortunately, she also has to help Amigas Inc. plan a double quince for two cousins who are determined to one up each other! As the drama unfolds, Carmen will have to figure out who she is and what she wants. And will pushing herself double-time leave her with nothing left to give?
It's time for some Texas-sized adventure for Amigas Incorporated! After throwing dozens of quinceaneras for strangers, friends, and plenty of quince-zillas, Alicia, Carmen, Jamie, and Gaz could use a vacation. Unfortunately, with all their time spent planning, they've forgotten to make their own plans -- for Spring Break! So when Alicia's mom mentions she has a friend who wants to throw a quinceanera for her daughter -- in Texas -- the group figures they can combine fun and business. Soon they are heading South. Alicia is excited to meet her new client, Jamie is pumped she can see her boyfriend compete in a big golf tournament, Carmen is looking forward to hanging with her cousins, and Gaz is psyched to be attending the South by Southwest music conference and concert. But with so much going on, it is hard to stay on task. Will Alicia be able to rein in the group or will the drama have her heading for new pastures?
After two years of planning the hottest quineaneras in Miami and beyond, the girls of Amigas Incorporated are facing their biggest challenge yet -- high school graduation. While Carmen and Jamie know exactly what they want, Alicia is on the fence. Should she go to the school of her dreams even if it means doing exactly what has always been expected of her? Or should she try something new? With so many decisions to make, Alicia is beginning to feel like choosing a school is like preparing for a quince -- without any of the fun. On top of it all, the group has gotten a mysterious request from a young woman who wants to throw the most secret of quinceaneras. The girl wants it to be so secret that she won't even tell them her name! Now the group must figure out how to throw the perfect party for a perfect stranger, nail the SATs, and figure out if there is anyone at the school willing and capable of taking on their business. Will it all work out? Or will the end of school mean the end of Amigas Incorporated?
Amigas y Amantes (Friends and Lovers) explores the experiences of sexually nonconforming Latinas in the creation and maintenance of families. It is based on forty-two in-depth ethnographic interviews with women who identify as lesbian, bisexual, or queer (LBQ). Additionally, it draws from fourteen months of participant observation at LBQ Latina events that Katie L. Acosta conducted in 2007 and 2008 in a major northeast city. With this data, Acosta examines how LBQ Latinas manage loving relationships with the families who raised them, and with their partners, their children, and their friends. Acosta investigates how sexually nonconforming Latinas negotiate cultural expectations, combat compulsory heterosexuality, and reconcile tensions with their families. She offers a new way of thinking about the emotion work involved in everyday lives, which highlights the informal, sometimes invisible, labor required in preserving family ties. Acosta contends that the work LBQ Latinas take on to preserve connections with biological families, lovers, and children results in a unique way of doing family. Paying particular attention to the negotiations that LBQ Latinas undertake in an effort to maintain familial order, Amigas y Amantes explores how they understand femininity, how they negotiate their religious faiths, how they face the unique challenges of being in interracial/interethnic relationships, and how they raise their children while integrating their families of origin.
Forget the stereotypes. Today's Japanese women are shattering them -- breaking the bonds of tradition and dramatically transforming their culture. Shopping-crazed schoolgirls in Hello Kitty costumes and the Harajuku girls Gwen Stefani helped make so popular have grabbed the media's attention. But as critically acclaimed author Veronica Chambers has discovered through years of returning to Japan and interviewing Japanese women, the more interesting story is that of the legions of everyday women -- from the office suites to radio and TV studios to the worlds of art and fashion and on to the halls of government -- who have kicked off a revolution in their country. Japanese men hardly know what has hit them. In a single generation, women in Japan have rewritten the rules in both the bedroom and the boardroom. Not a day goes by in Japan that a powerful woman doesn't make the front page of the newspapers. In the face of still-fierce sexism, a new breed of women is breaking through the "rice paper ceiling" of Japan's salary-man dominated corporate culture. The women are traveling the world -- while the men stay at home -- and returning with a cosmopolitan sophistication that is injecting an edgy, stylish internationalism into Japanese life. So many women are happily delaying marriage into their thirties -- labeled "losing dogs" and yet loving their liberated lives -- that the country's birth rate is in crisis. With her keen eye for all facets of Japanese life, Veronica Chambers travels through the exciting world of Japan's new modern women to introduce these "kickboxing geishas" and the stories of their lives: the wildly popular young hip-hop DJ; the TV chef who is also a government minister; the entrepreneur who founded a market research firm specializing in charting the tastes of the teenage girls driving the country's GNC -- "gross national cool"; and the Osaka assembly-woman who came out publicly as a lesbian -- the first openly gay politician in the country. Taking readers deep into these women's lives and giving the lie to the condescending stereotypes, Chambers reveals the vibrant, dynamic, and fascinating true story of the Japanese women we've never met. Kickboxing Geishas is an entrancing journey into the exciting, bold, stylish new Japan these women are making.
"Examines the political and social influences behind the creation of the postrevolutionary Mexican welfare state in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s"--Provided by publisher.
Each night at precisely 4:33 am, while sixteen-year-old London Lane is asleep, her memory of that day is erased. In the morning, all she can "remember" are events from her future. London is used to relying on reminder notes and a trusted friend to get through the day, but things get complicated when a new boy at school enters the picture. Luke Henry is not someone you'd easily forget, yet try as she might, London can't find him in her memories of things to come. When London starts experiencing disturbing flashbacks, or flash-forwards, as the case may be, she realizes it's time to learn about the past she keeps forgetting-before it destroys her future.
It's time for some Texas-sized adventure for Amigas Incorporated! After throwing dozens of quinceaneras for strangers, friends, and plenty of quince-zillas, Alicia, Carmen, Jamie, and Gaz could use a vacation. Unfortunately, with all their time spent planning, they've forgotten to make their own plans -- for Spring Break! So when Alicia's mom mentions she has a friend who wants to throw a quinceanera for her daughter -- in Texas -- the group figures they can combine fun and business. Soon they are heading South. Alicia is excited to meet her new client, Jamie is pumped she can see her boyfriend compete in a big golf tournament, Carmen is looking forward to hanging with her cousins, and Gaz is psyched to be attending the South by Southwest music conference and concert. But with so much going on, it is hard to stay on task. Will Alicia be able to rein in the group or will the drama have her heading for new pastures?
