© Copyright 2010 Ray Santisteban


Major works





Caramelo


Caramelo is a rich saga spanning generations of a Mexican-American family. To help readers appreciate the full richness of this novel, this site offers an interactive database of characters and chapters of the book. Caramelo index of chapters and characters

The celebrated author of The House on Mango Street gives us an extraordinary new novel, told in language of blazing originality: a multigenerational story of a Mexican-American family whose voices create a dazzling weave of humor, passion, and poignancy –- the very stuff of life.

Lala Reyes’ grandmother is descended from a family of renowned rebozo, or shawl, makers. The striped caramelo rebozo is the most beautiful of all, and the one that makes its way, like the family history it has come to represent, into Lala’s possession. The novel opens with the Reyes’ annual car trip–a caravan overflowing with children, laughter, and quarrels–from Chicago to "the other side": Mexico City. It is there, each year, that Lala hears her family’s stories, separating the truth from the "healthy lies" that have ricocheted from one generation to the next. We travel from the Mexico City that was the "Paris of the New World" to the music-filled streets of Chicago at the dawn of the Roaring Twenties -– and, finally, to Lala’s own difficult adolescence in the not-quite-promised land of San Antonio, Texas.

Caramelo is a romantic tale of homelands, sometimes real, sometimes imagined. Vivid, funny, intimate, historical, it is a brilliant work destined to become a classic: a major new novel from one of our country’s most beloved storytellers.


Caramelo, or, Puro CuentoCaramelo, or, Puro Cuento, by Sandra Cisneros
Alfred A. Knopf, New York City, NY
January, 1, 2002.
ISBN: 0679435549 -- hardcover, English, 1st ed.

 

Caramelo, or, Puro CuentoCaramelo, or, Puro Cuento, by Sandra Cisneros
HarperAudio; Unabridged edition Recorded Books (distributor), Prince Frederick, MD
October, 1, 2002.
ISBN: 0060515910 -- sound recording, read by the author

 

Caramelo, or, Puro Cuento  (En Espa?ol)Caramelo, or, Puro Cuento (En Espa?ol), by Sandra Cisneros, translated by Liliana Valenzuela
Alfred A. Knopf, New York City, NY
October, 1, 2002.
ISBN: 0375415092 -- hardcover, Primera ed.

 

Caramelo, or, Puro CuentoCaramelo, or, Puro Cuento, by Sandra Cisneros
Sound Library; Unabridged edition
October, 1, 2002.
ISBN: 0792727088 -- sound recording, read by the author

 

Caramelo, or, Puro CuentoCaramelo, or, Puro Cuento, by Sandra Cisneros
Sound Library; Unabridged edition
November, 1, 2002.
ISBN: 0792727355 -- sound recording, read by the author

 

Caramelo, or, Puro cuentoCaramelo, or, Puro cuento, by Sandra Cisneros
Thorndike Press, Waterville, ME
January, 1, 2003.
ISBN: 0786251387 -- large print

 

Caramelo, or, Puro Cuento  (En Espa?ol)Caramelo, or, Puro Cuento (En Espa?ol), by Sandra Cisneros, translated by Liliana Valenzuela
Thorndike Press; 1 edition
March, 2, 2003.
ISBN: 0786251247 -- Large print

 

Caramelo, or, Puro CuentoCaramelo, or, Puro Cuento, by Sandra Cisneros
Alfred A. Knopf, New York City, NY
March, 10, 2003.
ISBN: 1400041503 -- hardcover, 2003 printing, Today Show Book Club edition (March 10, 2003)

 

Caramelo, or, Puro cuentoCaramelo, or, Puro cuento, by Sandra Cisneros
Tandem Library
September, 1, 2003.
ISBN: 1417718803 -- unknown binding

 

Caramelo, or, Puro cuentoCaramelo, or, Puro cuento, by Sandra Cisneros
Tandem Library
September, 1, 2003.
ISBN: 141772496X -- unknown binding

 

Caramelo, or, Puro CuentoCaramelo, or, Puro Cuento, by Sandra Cisneros
Vintage; Reprint edition, New York City, NY
September, 9, 2003.
ISBN: 0679742581 -- trade paperback

 

Caramelo, or, Puro Cuento  (En Espa?ol)Caramelo, or, Puro Cuento (En Espa?ol), by Sandra Cisneros, translated by Liliana Valenzuela
Vintage, New York City, NY
September, 9, 2003.
ISBN: 1400030994 -- trade paperback

 

 

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