America's fastest-growing minority shares a variety of heritages from New World lands where Spain once dominated. In The Latino Holiday Book, Valerie Menard outlines the full year's festivals, not merely Navidad, that have a distinctively Latino origin or a uniquely Latino way of observing the day. Menard's quite serious purpose is to educate, not to plan parties. She outlines histories of days of special celebration for people of Mexican, Cuban, and Puerto Rican heritage. Only a few recipes appear in sidebars, but Menard devotes several pages to instructions on properly praying the rosary. The book is a useful reference for anyone seeking background information on this increasingly influential culture rapidly becoming mainstream. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description

The Latino Holiday Book is the essential resource for everyone wanting to celebrate and honor the special traditions and celebrations of Hispanic-Americans. Author Valerie Menard takes us through the full year, covering new year's traditions, Día de los Reyes, Calle Ocho, Easter, Cinco de Mayo, the feast day of San Juan Bautista, the Cuban and Mexican celebrations of independence, National Puerto Rican Day, the feast of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre and Our Lady of the Divine Inspiration, Día de la Raza (the Latin American version of Columbus Day), Día de los Muertos, the feast day of the Virgin of Guadalupe, and Christmas. Weddings, birthdays, and quinceañeras are also explored in rich detail. For each celebration, Menard discusses their religious or social history, typical customs, special foods and activities, and gives recipes and instructions for making the authentic foods and crafts that particularly represent a day's traditions.

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4.2 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)

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4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent resource, April 11 2004

Susanna Duffy (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Latino Holiday Book: From Cinco De Mayo To Dia De Los Muertos -- The Celebrations And Traditions Of Hispanic-Americans (Paperback)

I've been looking for descriptions of festivities from the Latin American world for a long time. And it's not easy ! Too often it's assumed that everyone knows whar Cinco de Mayo is all abour, but it's all mysterious and novel in my part of the world.

Thank you very much Valerie Menard for your excellent resource

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4.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books on the subject, Mar 12 2003

"aryln" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Latino Holiday Book: From Cinco De Mayo To Dia De Los Muertos -- The Celebrations And Traditions Of Hispanic-Americans (Paperback)

There are not a lot of comprehensive books on Latin American Holidays (many on individual holidays, but few books that offer a solid description of multiple holidays). This book, though it focuses exclusively on the holidays and how they are celebrated in the United States, does manage to describe a number of holidays, and best of all, gives lots of ideas for activities (whether its recipes, or children's activity, or websites to visit for more information) that would work just as well in a classroom or in your own home, whether you hope to resurrect your own families' traditions, or create new traditions of your own. The layout is lovely, and the information is fairly complete, giving historical descriptions as well as descriptions of the traditions associated with the holiday. I highly recommend this book. Also note that the book is available in Spanish, under the title (I believe) _Tradiciones_.

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4.0 out of 5 stars mixed effort, Jun 10 2002

Stephen McHenry (Olney, MD USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Latino Holiday Book: From Cinco De Mayo To Dia De Los Muertos -- The Celebrations And Traditions Of Hispanic-Americans (Paperback)

There is a necessity for a book like this, although this book could have done a more even job of filling the need. A resource on some of the latino holiday/celebrations, slanted towards how they are celebrated in the U.S., this is can be a helpful resource.
The down side is not all the celbrations are covered that you would expect; practically nothing about how Carneval (Mardi Gras) is celebrated in Latin America itself, only a mention of the Miami, Florida festivity. And there is absolutely no mention of Semana Santa, the week before Easter. On the other hand, a good job of describing the difference between Cinco de Mayo and the real Mexican Independence day in September; as well as receipes and insights that give the book a light-hearted feel. If you are looking for information on a specific holiday, this good be a good resource or a complete blank: If you are looking to find out more about Lation culture, this will be helpful. This is not a travel resource to prepare so much for visiting Latin America during festivals, meant more for understanding the celebrations here in the States, how they are celebrated, why, and their origins.

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Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Makes a great gift!
When my sister-in-law was planning to get married, I wanted to get her a gift that she could keep and refer to throughout her future. Read more

Published on April 21 2001 by Kathy Cano-Murillo

5.0 out of 5 stars great resource book
Its really great you can learn about the different celebrations of the Latino culture. You'll also find some traditional recipes, and other little fact we might have never... Read more

Published on July 13 2000 by frenchy78