Product Description

Without claiming to speak directly on anyone’s behalf, "Color: Latino Voices in the Pacific Northwest" presents a tapestry of poignant conversations with people from various Central and South American countries and backgrounds; dialogue they could not communicate on their own. The majority of these new arrivals in the United States can neither read nor speak English. Few are educated; some struggle to sign their own name. Their professions range from attorney to school bus driver. Some embrace the new culture; others merely tolerate it. The author’s single page vignettes depict their hopes, dreams, and life experiences—from the ordinary to the overwhelmingly difficult—and offer a fresh, unique look into their seldom seen world. In "Color," a young man who wants to be an auto mechanic cannot understand why he is required to take Psychology 101 at the local community college. "Tell me they’re not doing it just to cheat the students out of even more money." A mother recounts how as a little girl, she swept a dirt floor, cooked over a wood fire, and washed clothes in a muddy river. Now, keeping her apartment clean is one of her most enjoyable activities. A laborer is unable to comprehend the poor work ethic of his fellow employees. "Minimum wage is more per hour than I would make at home by a long shot. So I work as hard as I can…but my citizen coworkers are always complaining. They even tell me not to work so hard because I make them look bad!" A father speaks of the intense hunger he felt as a child and his profound joy when he realized that his young son had the luxury of turning down food. Another family endured the opposite. "We never got ahead. The jobs kept drying up on us…we had to pay $800.00! a month to live in an unheated basement with just two mattresses to share for the five of us…Life has been horrible here…I would like to write a book and tell my people, don’t come. It isn’t like the movies. Don’t come."

Whether about love, work, play, finances, or family, these accounts illuminate cultural differences in attitudes, rights, and values, and pose intriguing questions about the effects of prosperity and how welcoming this country actually is. Author Lorane A. West paints a very real picture of life for many new immigrants to the United States, and through her portraits, gives Americans a glimpse of themselves that may both surprise and challenge.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1516382 in Books
• Published on: 2004-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780874222746
• Condition: NEW
• Notes:
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From the Publisher
Seattle resident Lorane A. West based her writing on exchanges she witnessed through her work as an interpreter and advocate for Spanish-speaking immigrants. She has daily opportunities to become intimately and personally involved in the lives of her immigrant patients and their families. As she spends countless hours in waiting rooms, she gets to know them and hear about their lives in the United States. She goes into the exam room with them, observes some of their surgeries, and assists them as they learn to live with chronic illness. She follows them through cancer treatment, pregnancies, births, and deaths. And through it all, she listens. The idea for "Color: Latino Voices in the Pacific Northwest" arose from their stories.

Using a contemporary short format, each narrative is written in English as a loosely translated, spoken monologue from the immigrant’s perspective, although no story is based on a specific encounter or person. "Color: Latino Voices in the Pacific Northwest" offers a fresh, unique, glimpse into the rarely seen world of the recent immigrant. It also provides some insights into the modern healthcare delivery system and other matters of cultural interest. Praise for "Color: Latino Voices in the Pacific Northwest"

"Lorane West has broken the silence, bringing to life the voices that Spanish interpreters hear every day in the clinic, the ER, and the maternity ward…Though the stories in this book are uniquely Latino, many of the stories recount common human experiences that resonate across cultures."—Cynthia E. Roat, MPH, trainer and consultant for Language Access in Health Care

"…a truly original and beautiful work documenting the Latino immigrant experience…"—Lars G. Warme, professor emeritus, University of Washington

About the Author
Lorane West has been immersed in immigrant communities for her entire life. Her father and grandparents arrived in the United States from Finland, unable to speak English. She has spent the last twenty years with her Salvadoran husband, and speaks both English and Spanish at home.

Although now settled in the United States, the author has lived in Nicaragua and El Salvador. Flying to both countries with money in the bank and a college education, she was able to obtain legal residence status fairly easily. Even so, as a recent arrival, she felt deep loneliness and numbing isolation.

Yet West had it easy. Unlike the people she assists in her work as a medical interpreter, she did not endure walking to another country under cover of night, led by a man to whom she paid six months wages in cash, who might leave her lost along the way. She did not travel two thousand miles from home to get a minimum wage job, only able to provide her children with food and shelter by leaving them behind. She did not wait years to reunite with her husband, who worked in another country and sent her money, only to discover that he had started a new family during his lonely exile. She was not forced to give up her own dreams in order to keep younger siblings in school. But her clients have suffered through these ordeals and much more in their travels. West wrote her first book out of love, gratitude, respect, and admiration for Spanish-speaking immigrants living and working in the Pacific Northwest.

Customer Reviews

This book should be mandatory for all medical interpreters!
Wonderful book, reading it has been "deja vu" page after page. In my opinion, this book should be mandatory for all of those who work with the hispanic community in the medical as well as the legal arena in the United States. Like the author said: it makes you laugh out loud on one page, and moves you to tears the next. I'm seriously thinking on buying at least ten books just to have my community clinic co-workers read it!

immigrant voices heard
Latino Voices in the Pacific Northwest is a collection of immigrant stories written as loosely translated spoken monologues, each written from the perspective of recent Spanish-speaking immigrants to the Pacific Northwest, with stories based in the healthcare setting, as well as at work and at home. The book speaks to the experiences of many immigrants and travelers across cultural boundaries. After reading this book time and time again, I still find myself laughing aloud or holding back the tears as different stories move me, which is especially impressive and touching as I wrote the book myself.

Insightful
A wonderful book. Sensitive and though-provoking. I look forward to more by this talented author!