24. Helena Maria Viramontes, English
Helen Maria Viramontes
Their Dogs Came with Them (Atria, 2007). In the barrio of East Los Angeles, a group of unbreakable young women struggle to find their way through the turbulent urban landscape of the 1960s. Androgynous Turtle is a homeless gang member. Ana devotes herself to a mentally ill brother. Ermila is a teenager poised between childhood and political consciousness. And Tranquilina, the daughter of missionaries, finds hope in faith. The teenage girls support each other in their intent to protect themselves. In this portrait of everyday Latino life in East Los Angeles, Viramontes’ prose is potent and street tough, and the book vibrant, artfully crafted, and kaleidoscopic.