Ana Castillo is an American treasure. Fearless compassionate and flat-out brilliant-she is
the writer we need as we navigate the challenges of our ever-changing world.-Tayari Jones
author of An American Marriage Ana Castillo is de primera storyteller.-award-winning author
Julia Alvarez Literary legend Ana Castillo explores the secrets that are kept within households
and the women they impact the most in this breakout collection that cements her place as a
leading voice in feminist fiction. The first person in her traditional Mexican American family
to graduate from high school Katia is entering adulthood at a time of turbulent change. Across
the nation young people are fighting for civil and women's rights and protesting the Vietnam
War and brutal dictatorships in South America. Like so many of her generation Katia wants to
make the world a better place and is determined to follow her own path. As she considers
moving to California to join La Causa Mexican American activist Cesar Chavez's movement to
improve the working conditions of migrant farmer workers Katia receives an unexpected gift
from her father: a plane ticket to Mexico City. Bring back your mother he says tell her her
children need her. And so Katia joins this cause to get Tina back to Chicago. But it won't be
easy. Katia must learn to navigate a liberated version of her mother in a new country where she
is now hawking supposedly superior cleaning products called Donna Clean Well. Katia is but one
of the voices introduced in this dazzling collection of short fiction from revered writer Ana
Castillo. Spanning from Chicago to Mexico to New Mexico the stories in Doña Cleanwell Leaves
Home illuminate a chorus of people whose stories will leave you breathless.
