Ruth Behar
Author of Lucky Broken Girl
About the Author
Ruth Behar -- ethnographer, essayist, poet, and filmmaker -- is professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan. The recipient of a MacArthur Fellows Award and a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, Behar is the author of several books
Image credit: By Monroem - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26468550
Works by Ruth Behar
Associated Works
How I Learned English: 55 Accomplished Latinos Recall Lessons in Language and Life (2007) — Contributor — 53 copies
The House of Memory: Stories by Jewish Women Writers of Latin America (1999) — Contributor — 30 copies
Family Trouble: Memoirists on the Hazards and Rewards of Revealing Family (2013) — Contributor — 19 copies
Daughters of Latin America: An International Anthology of Writing by Latine Women (2023) — Contributor — 18 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1956-11-12
- Gender
- female
- Birthplace
- Havana, Cuba
- Awards and honors
- MacArthur Fellowship (1988)
Members
Reviews
Lists
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 17
- Also by
- 6
- Members
- 1,123
- Popularity
- #22,888
- Rating
- 4.1
- Reviews
- 44
- ISBNs
- 76
- Languages
- 2
King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella’s expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 sends Benvenida fleeing from Toledo with her family, though she promises to remember where she came from. In 1923, Reina celebrates Turkish independence with her longtime friend and neighbor, a Muslim boy, causing her strict father to disown her and send her to live with an aunt in Cuba as punishment. Reina brings her mother’s oud with her and passes it on to Alegra, her daughter, who serves as a brigadista in Castro’s literacy campaign before fleeing to the U.S. in 1961. In Miami in 2003, Paloma, Alegra’s daughter, who has an Afro-Cuban dad, is excited to travel to Spain with her family to explore their roots. They find a miraculous connection in Toledo. Woven through all four girls’ stories is the same Ladino song (included with an English translation); as Paloma says, “I’m connected to those who came before me through the power of the words we speak, the words we write, the words we sing, the words in which we tell our dreams.” Behar’s diligent research and her personal connection to this history, as described in a moving author’s note, shine through this story of generations of girls who use music and language to survive, tell their stories, and connect with past and future.
Powerful and resonant. (sources) (Historical fiction. 10-15)
-Kirkus Review… (more)