Winter Read Focusing on Latinas Kicks Off on Thursday

STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

A short story collection that revolves around Latinas of indigenous descent living in the contemporary American West will be the subject of the 2023 Winter Read.

Kali Fajardo-Anstine’s “Sabrina & Corina: Stories” will serve as the inspiration for several programs and discussions at The Community Library and other local libraries through March.

The community-wide read, in which the community is invited to read the same book for purposes of mutual discussion and reflection, will kick off from 6 to 7:30 pm Thursday, Feb. 2, at The Community Library. There’ll be music, light refreshments, book giveaways and the opening of a new exhibit in the foyer featuring the papier mache art of Mexican Artist Carlos Lecanda.

Lecanda, who lives in the Los Angeles area, has taken part in two papier mache workshops for the Sun Valley Museum of Art, the second at which he showed participants how to build Las Catrinas—elegantly dressed skeletons used to honor the deceased during Dia de Los Muertos. His exhibition will showcase a variety of traditional characters, including a piece inspired by “Sabrina & Corina.” The exhibition will run through early spring.

“Sabrina & Corina” features a variety of stories about women navigating the land and their lives with caution, grace and quit force.

One story follows a sex worker and her daughter as they leave their ancestral home in southern Colorado only to find a foreign, hostile land in California. Another follows a woman who leaves prison to find herself in a gentrified city that is a shadow of the one she remembers from her childhood. One explores issues of ancestry and heritage that arise during land disputes. And still another follows a family that comes together through ritual after a cycle of violence against women.

PROGRAMS ASSOCIATED WITH THE WINTER READ:

Carlos Lecanda’s papier mache figures will be on exhibit in the foyer of The Community Library.

February 10-5 pm Dr. Dora Ramirez, professor at Boise State University’s Department of Sociology, will discuss Chicano literature, particularly how it serves as literature for social change. She will examine “Sabrina & Corina” in this context.

February 13, 5 pm—Tai Simpson will discuss how storytelling helps us nurture the best versions of ourselves to change the world in a presentation called “A Storyteller’s Guide to Changing the World.” Simpson, who lives in Boise, has been named “The Storyteller” in the indigenous language of the Nex Perce Tribe. She is an organizer for the Indigenous Idaho Alliance and co-director with the Idaho Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence.

February 16, 6 pm–Olivia Juarez will discuss “Creating an Inclusive Outdoors while Elevating Latino Environmental Activism” in a program being staged in partnership with the Wood River Land Trust. Juarez, who lives in Salt Lake City, is public land director for Green Latinos, a nation-wide nonprofit that addresses national, regional and local environmental issues that affect the health and welfare of the Latino community.

March 2, 6 pm—Screening of “Warrior Women,” a documentary following organizers of the American Indian Movement (AIM) as they fight for Native survival. The 64-minute film features Madonna Thunder Hawk and her daughter Marcy who are fighting against the environmental devastation of the Dakota Access Pipeline and for Indigenous cultural values. It will be followed by a virtual Q&A with filmmaker Dr. Elizabeth A. Castle, an activist working with Native Nations.

MARCH 9, 6 pm–“Sabrina & Corina” Chicana author Kali Fajardo-Anstine will discuss her book and sign books afterwards. Fajardo-Anstine draws on her Southern Colorado heritage and experience living in the American West to give rousing talks challenging the status quo. She talks about her racial and family identity, the systems in society that hold back marginalized people and the craft of researching one’s cultural roots. The program will be livestreamed and recorded to watch later.

BOOK DISCUSSIONS:

The Community Library’s Winter Read Book Group led by Library Director Jenny Emery Davidson will meet from 4 to 5 pm Wednesdays beginning Feb. 1 and running through Feb. 22. The group will discuss two to three stories each week. Registration is required.

The Stanley Community Library will discuss the book at 5:30 pm Feb. 9.

The Bellevue and Hailey libraries will hold lunchtime discussions from noon to 1 pm Feb. 23 and Feb. 28 at their respective libraries.

The Spur Community Foundation’s support helped underwrite the 2023 Winter Read program.