NEWS

The Best Gift of All: The Legend of La Vieja Belén/El mejor regalo del mundo: la historia de La Vieja Belén, a bilingual picturebook (English/Spanish) has been published (November 2008) just in time for the holidays! click for book summary

COMING IN JANUARY 2009 RETURN TO SENDER, a novel, ages ten and up (and up!), will be published by Knopf Books for Children. The seed for the novel came when I got involved translating at local schools for the children of Mexican migrant workers who have now made their way up to Vermont. (And boosted our compromised Latino population!) These workers are now doing the milking on many of our dairy farms. Without them, many of our small farmers could not survive, as they, too, are being squeezed by the high cost of farming and a dearth of workers.

Seeing how baffled the Mexican children and their classmates were about how to understand this situation that had thrown us all together, I thought: we need a story to understand what is happening to us! The title comes from a dragnet operation that the Department of Homeland Security conducted in 2006, named, Return to Sender. Work places were raided and undocumented workers were seized. Their children were the biggest casualties of this operation -- left behind to be soothed and reassured until they could be finally reunited with their parents. Check my Appearances Schedule for book tour dates.

Sometimes it's just plain fun to take a break from book writing and do short pieces for magazines who ask. Two recent articles are "Weybridge, Vermont: No Frills Here," Smithsonian magazine, November 2008, and "Winning the Hair Wars," MORE, October 2008.

Once Upon A Quinceañera: Coming of Age in the USA was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in criticism (announced March 2008). These are annual awards given by a consortium of book reviewers and critics from around the country. There are six categories, five finalists in each category.
Check out the website.

How The García Girls Lost Their Accents, a play by Karen Zacarías, based on my novel, had its world premiere on September 22, 2008, at the Round House Theatre in Bethesda, Maryland. Blake Robison, the Producing Artistic Director of the theatre, also directed the play, and he did a fabulous job! For one thing: the last scene was played totally in Spanish! I was there for opening night, and afterwards, even monolingual/English-only audience members claimed they understood every word. How could you not? The almost all-Latino cast was sassy, inventive, skilled -- in a word, great! The run is over (September 22 - October 12, 2008) but if the play is revived, go see it. And if you're ever in the D.C. area, go visit the Round House Theatre (www.roundhousetheatre.org). They are a great community and national resource.

It was a long time coming, but finally my first novel, How The García Girls Lost Their Accents (1991), is out in Spanish translation: De cómo las muchachas García perdieron su acento. Both Vintage Español (for USA Spanish) and Punto de Lectura/ Groupo Santillana (for Spanish-speaking countries) have published an edition of the same translation. Can't decide which cover I like better.

MORE NEWS

On October 4th, 2007, the United Nations dedicated a session to honoring the work of my mother, Julia T. Alvarez. She was unable to attend due to illness, and so she asked me to go and accept the award in her place.

For twenty-three years, my mother served as alternate representative to the UN with the Dominican mission. Hers was a labor of love and public service. Many of her colleagues never knew that she never collected a salary; she felt that she had been one of the lucky few to receive opportunities and hers was a poor country that could well use the salary for other needs. She devoted herself to the Third Committee, which addresses issues involving the vulnerable populations in developing countries, including children, women, and the elderly, who became Mami's particular focus.

It was through her efforts that an International Year of Older Persons (1999) and an ongoing International Day of Older Persons (October 1st) were instituted as well as a declaration of the rights of older persons, known as the United Nations Principles for Older Persons. She was unofficially proclaimed "the United Nations Ambassador on Ageing." Her vision -- before she left the UN in 2002 -- was to start an worldwide Elders for Peace program, in which the elderly around the world would serve as promoters of peace. I hope someone picks up this torch!

At the award session, many of her colleagues and admirers expressed their gratitude for her relentless and visionary work. She helped change the way the United Nations address the ageing issue.

It was a bittersweet moment for me to bring to a close my mother's indefatigable, passionate, and groundbreaking life of public service.

If you'd like to see the webcast of the tribute, please go to:
www.un.org/webcast/2007.html
Then scroll down to:
4 October 07    NGO/DPI: NGO Briefing - "Addressing the Challenges and Opportunities of Ageing: Empowering Older Persons" in observance of the International Day of Older Persons (1 October).
[ Programme ]
[Webcast: Archived Video - AM Session English: 1 hour and 54 minutes]

The session recognizing my mother's work begins about 15 minutes into this webcast and lasts for about 30-40 minutes.

The speeches she gave over the years are collected in Speeches for the Ages: An Ambassador Speaks Out on Worldwide Aging. If you'd like to order a copy, you can do so at the XLibris website.

Alta Gracia news

Starting September 2008, two new volunteers joined us on the farm:

Naomi Harper is the 2008-2009 DREAM volunteer teacher on the farm. She recently graduated from Middlebury College and is wonderful poet. Her poem, "Little Cages," based on her experiences in Peru was published in Babel Fruit, Volume 3, Issue 3, Summer 08.

Our other volunteer for 2008-2009, Dylan Wajda-Levie, also just graduated from Middlebury College and has worked on farms in Germany, Spain, and the United States, as well as on an organic coffee farm in Peru. He will be our Community Development Worker and also provide a link with Café Alta Gracia in the United States as a Field Operations Manager (CAG, USA).

We feel excited and blessed that these two wonderful young people will be at Alta Gracia. The farm will definitely rock and be full of high grace this coming year.

Vermont Coffee Company is our wonderful presence Stateside. Paul Ralston, the owner of VCC, roasts and distributes two coffees using beans from Alta Gracia Farm: Café Alta Gracia and Tres Mariposas. You can order online at order online at vermontcoffeecompany.com.

For every pound of our coffee purchased 10 cents go to the Dream Project's Alta Gracia school program!

If you want information on what's happening on the farm, upcoming workshops, internships, please go to cafealtagracia.com.

Read about the farm/our project in these recent publications:

• "Alvarez Brews Up Coffee with a Social Conscience: Cafe Alta Gracia Promotes Environmentalism, Literacy in Dominican Republic" by Deborah Jones at middleburycampus.com.
• "Couple Funds Literacy Through Coffee Imports," an Associated Press article by Anne Wallace Allen at burlingtonfreepress.com.
• "Places of a Lifetime" by Julia Alvarez in National Geographic Traveler, October 2002, Vol. 19, No. 7.

Alta Gracia is also a partner in the DREAM Project (The Dominican Republic Education and Mentoring Project). Read all about this grass-roots movement of individuals and organizations to help improve educational opportunities for kids all over la isla: dominicandream.org.

Think about visiting! Visit online at cafealtagracia.com.