The Appleton Public Library received a grant from the Wisconsin Humanities Council to present the book discussion series One Vision, Many Voices: Latino Literature in the U.S. during 2003. Richard Yatzeck, a Lawrence University Professor who teaches Comparative Literature, will lead the discussions of books dealing with the Hispanic experience.

The introductory handout to the series begins:

"Literature in an immigrant society can function as a mirror reflecting the experiences of the many groups inside the melting pot. Latinos, an integral part of the boiling stew that is the U.S., are a most heterogeneous group. Despite sharing common roots south of the border, each segment of Latino society has a distinct national background, with its particular history and sense of time and space. Thus, to read Latino literature is to experience multiplicity. Although Latinos as a group may be said to share a single vision, behind that vision lie many voices struggling to define themselves, alone and together."

Susan Miller, writing in Newsweek, says "Their stories appeal not only to Latinos-who identify with them-but to a surprising number of Anglos, who find in them a refreshingly different perspective on American life."

The program schedule will be:

February 26
Growing Up Latino: Memoirs and Stories
edited by Harold Augenbraum and Ilan Stavans
An anthology of fiction and non-fiction stories, some funny, some poignant, about growing up Latino in the U.S.

March 26
In the Time of the Butterflies
by Julia Alvarez
A fictionalized account of the Mirabal sisters who were active in the resistance movement in the Dominican Republic in the mid-twentieth century

April 16
Dreaming in Cuban
by Cristina Garcia
A first novel that shifts between Cuba and Brooklyn and centers on three generations of a family torn apart by Fidel Castro's revolution

May 7
The Devil in Texas
by Aristeo Brito
An eloquent novel about the plight of an oppressed people

May 28
Down These Mean Streets
by Piri Thomas
A classic memoir about growing up in Spanish Harlem

The programs will be held from 6:30-7:30pm in the library's lower level meeting room. They are free and open to the general public. Books will be available through the library's Community Services Office. Call 832-1695 to pre-register.