A week before Mother's Day, we celebrate mothers with Westchester's treasure, Esmeralda Santiago, who will be here with the book she and Joie Davidow co-edited, Las Mamis: Favorite Latino Authors Remember Their Mothers. How wonderful that Gustavo Pérez Firmat, whose story is also included in the collection, will join her. His humorous story is included in the collection, and this picture of him with his mother is featured on the cover. Won't an author-signed copy, with your mother's name included, make a perfect Mother's Day gift? We expect to have the book available in Spanish as well as English.

ESMERALDA SANTIAGO of Katonah is the author of two memoirs, When I Was Puerto Rican and Almost a Woman, and a novel, América's Dream. She is currently assisting with the production of an ExxonMobil Masterpiece Theatre adaptation of Almost a Woman, which will air in early 2002. In addition to co-editing Las Mamis, which contains fourteen authors (including Junot Diaz, Dagoberto Gilb, Francisco Goldman, and Ilan Stavans) writing about their mothers, Ms. Santiago and Joie Davidow co-edited the anthology Las Christmas.

GUSTAVO PÉREZ FIRMAT of New York City and Chapel Hill, NC, was born in Havana, Cuba and raised in Miami, Florida, and has been named by Hispanic Business Magazine as one of the "100 most influential Hispanics." He is currently David Feinson Professor of Humanities at Columbia University and is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships. His many volumes of literary and cultural criticism include Literature and Liminality, Do the Americas Have a Common Literature?, Life on the Hyphen: The Cuban-American Way, and My Own Private Cuba. He has also published three collections of poetry and a memoir, Next Year in Cuba: A Cubano's Coming of Age in America. His first novel, Anything But Love, has just appeared.

Suggested Donation: $5 ($3 for members)

This series made possible in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Westchester Arts Council with funds from Westchester County Government, corporations and individuals and with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency. Additional funding has been provided by The Bydale Foundation.

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