Club Oasis: Childhood Memories. By Alma M. García

Club Oasis: Childhood Memories. By Alma M. García. ISBN: 978-0-915745-32-6. 6"x9", B&W, Photos, 90 pgs. $19.95

Latino Non-Fiction Children biography book, Mexican American Latino Children biography book, Hispanic Non-Fiction Children biography book, Latino academic Children biography, Hispanic Latinx Children biography book, Mexican American Non-Fiction Children biography book

 "Alma M. García's Club Oasis is a series of linked coming-of-age stories that harken back to an almost idyllic time in El Paso. Now and then, glimpses of the racist and discriminatory border world tell a more nuanced and complicated narrative than the apparent calm existence gleaned from the child's perspective. Pinky García, the main character, is smart, spunky, outspoken, a keen observer, and loves a good joke! She publishes a newspaper, has a radio program, hosts parties, and otherwise engages in adventures that set this childhood apart and is a testament to the ways family can empower young people to develop and be all they can be. Nama, her maternal grandmother, imparts life lessons and Pop and Mom allow her imagination to thrive and encourage her exploits. All in all, the delightful stories makes this reader wish life were so for all children who live on the border."       

Norma Elia Cantú is the Norine R. and T. Frank Murchison, Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Trinity University and the author of Cabañuelas: Snapshots of a Girlhood en la Frontera.  She is the recipient of the Luis Leal Literature Award for Distinction in Chicano/Latino Literature and the Distinguished Scholar Award from the Modern Language Association’s Chicana and Chicano Literature Division.

"Come, fall in love with Pinky García—the fun-loving deejay, earnest reporter, and intrepid detective. Offering evocative episodes from a borderlands girlhood, The Club Oasis is a child’s eye memoir to be savored and shared. This smart, spunky narrator does not walk between two worlds but creates her own path rich in imagination, familial warmth, Mexican tradition, and American popular culture. She observes with subtle insight the cultural tensions within her family and across El Paso, picking up nuances not always meant for children. Infused with the optimism of youth, Pinky and her adventures will resonate across generations."        Vicki L. Ruiz, Distinguished Professor Emerita, University of California, Irvine, author of From Out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in Twentieth-Century America

Club Oasis: Childhood Memories  by Alma M. García is a heartwarming and memorable story about “Pinky” (Alma), a wonderfully precocious and intelligent child whose creative imagination touches our heart and makes us laugh. With rare honesty, she vividly illuminates her boundless love for family, especially her father, and inspires children to reach for the stars. It’s a must read.     Francisco Jiménez, Boston Globe Horn Book Award--winning author of The Circuit, Breaking Through, Reading Out and Taking Hold

The author introduces the reader to Pinky García, her younger self who grows up in the border city of El Paso, Texas during the early 1960s. She creates The Club Oasis, a magical world in her upstairs porch, a space in which her imagination soars with the love, encouragement and tenderness of her grandmother, mother and, particularly her father who shares Pinky’s adventures with enthusiasm, a sense of humor, playfulness and endearing enchantment. Pinky develops from a playful nine year old far beyond her years in maturity into a blossoming adolescent displaying compassion, pride in her Mexican heritage, an unwavering commitment to her family and the values they instilled in her: respect and love for family, particularly her father, a fierce independence and belief in the power of education and the confidence to believe in herself while always maintaining a spirit of adventure and a sense of humor.

About the Author

Alma M. García is a Professor of Sociology at Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA.  She grew up in El Paso, Texas and is the daughter of a Mexican immigrant father and a U.S.-born Mexican mother.  She co-authored Ethnic Community Builders [San Jose, CA]: Mexican Americans in Search of Justice and Power, winner of the Small Project Award from the Oral History Association and Women of Color & Popular Culture, winner of the award for the Best Anthology in Feminist Studies by the National Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association.