A story full of passion and revenge following one family living on the Texas Mexico border and a curse that reverberates across generations--Fuentes has achieved something rare and indelible with this story of complex women. (Erika L. Sanchez) In 1951 a mysterious old woman confronts Pilar Aguierre in the small boarder town of La Cienega Texas. The old woman is sure Pilar stole her husband and in a heated outburst lays a curse on Pilar and her family. More than forty years later Lulu Munoz is dodging chaos at every turn: her troubled fathers moods his rules her secret life as singer in a punk band but most of all her upcoming quinceanera. When her beloved grandmother passes away Lulu finds herself drawn to the glamorous stranger who crashed the funeral and who lives alone and shunned on the edge of town. Their unexpected kinship picks at the secrets of Lulus familys past. As the quinceanera looms-and we move between these two strong irascible female voices-one woman must make peace with the past and one girl pushes to embrace her future. Rich with cinematic details-from dusty rodeos to the excitement of a Selena concert and the comfort of conjunto ballads played at family gatherings-this memorable debut is a love letter to the Tejano culture and community that sustain both of these women as they discover what family means.
