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Operation Familia. By Donna del Oro. ISBN: 978-0-915745-96-8. 520 pages. $24.95
Dina Salazar likes to think she has it together. Dodging the bullet of early marriage and motherhood that every other female in her family has succumbed to, she’s her own woman. Or is she? Is she free ...or just lost?
Adventurous, athletic Dina has a satisfying career and her freedom from emotional entanglements. She has it all. All except the love of her life, Rick Ramos—THE HATED ONE--who ended up marrying another woman nearly six years before. All except the closeness of her blue-collar family, who live in a Latino barrio of Salinas, ninety miles south of Silicon Valley. All except the feeling of belonging to her cultural heritage. She speaks Spanish but who is she really? Is she a mixed mutt with an American mind and a Latino heart? In her attempts at educating herself and climbing the socio-economic ladder into the middle-class, has Dina lost her Latino heart and soul? Then, like an artichoke, Dina begins to peel away the secrets to get at the heart of her family. When Dina learns that her stern, disapproving Mexican-born grandmother has a shameful secret-- a son Grandma Gómez had to abandon in Mexico sixty years before-- Dina is reluctant at first to get involved. The uncle she has never known has died mysteriously-- killed, her grandmother believes, by a rival in the Juarez drug cartel. And Abuelita’s grand-daughter, Teresa--Dina’s Mexican cousin-- is in danger and is on the run. To Dina’s dismay, her grandmother urges HER to find out where her grand-daughter and great grandson are seeking refuge in Mexico. Her grandmother tells her that Dina is the only one that can rescue Teresa and her son, for Dina is the only one who speaks fluent Spanish. What’s a girl to do when la familia calls?
“A delightful, endearing story! You can’t help but root for Dina in her journey of self-discovery.” --Brenda Novak, Nationally Best-selling Author
“Dina is a character that many Latinos can identify with—a woman trying to weave her own place between cultures. Around Dina, Donna Del Oro has done her own weaving: a heady plot …of crime, romance, family conflict and intrigue.”
--Carlos Alcalá, Sacramento Bee Columnist