Latino Hispanic Culture, Art and Film at Bullfighter’s Cafe

ANGIE CRUZ, author of LET IT RAIN COFFEE
($20.95)

“Let it Rain Coffee”
Esperanza risked her life fleeing the Dominican Republic for the glittering dream she saw on television, but years later she is still stuck in a cramped tenement with her husband, Santo, and their two children, Bobby and Dallas. She works as a home aide and, at night, hides unopened bills from the credit card company where Santo won’t find them when he returns from driving his livery cab. When Santo’s mother dies and his father, Don Chan, comes to Nueva York to live out his twilight years with the Colon’s, nothing will ever be the same. Don Chan remembers fighting together with Santo in the revolution against Trujillo’s cruel regime, the promise of who his son might have been, had he not fallen under Esperanza’s spell.

Let It Rain Coffee
is a sweeping novel about love, loss, family, and the elusive nature of memory and desire.
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When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
I knew the day that I finished reading, “Another Country”, by James Baldwin. And then again when I read, “When the Garcia Girls Lost their Accent”, by Julia Alvarez. And then when I read, “Dreaming in Cuban”, by Cristina Garcia, and then when I read, “Krik Krak” by Edwidge Danticat. And every time I read a book that makes me hold my breath and open my heart I want to be a writer.

What/Who is the inspiration behind your book “Let it Rain Coffee”?
So many inspirations fed this book. My upbringing in Washington Heights. My desire to learn why and how I ended up in NYC. The history of Dominican Republic. The Iraq war and my frustrations with the US occupying it. My admiration for the woman who support, raise, care for their families despite all odds.

Do you identify with any one character?
All the characters reveal a bit of my emotional life. Don Chan and Miraluz reveal my activist spirit and also my experience of working with collectives. Esperanza reveals my conflict with consumerism. Bobby, my optimism. Santo, my love for music and dancing. Dallas, my youth, insecurities.

What is your favorite part about meeting your fans at book signings?
Every time someone tells me they connected with a character in one of my books I am affirmed. I feel very privileged to be a writer and even more so that people read what I write especially because there is so much stuff to to read out there.

What do you miss most about New York?
Everything, especially the food. The diversity. Being around the electric, active energy of artists in the city. My family that lives in the Heights. Central Park. Sidewalks for walking. Art galleries. Jazz clubs. Good theater.

About the author:
Angie Cruz is the author of “Soledad” and “Let It Rain Coffee”. She has published in the anthologies: “Borderlines Personalities”, ed. by Robyn Moreno and Michelle Mulligan, and “Quincenera”, edited by Adriana Lopez. Her shorter works have appeared in The New York Times, Callaloo and Latina Magazine. She currently is an Assistant Professor at Texas A&M University and splits her time between TX, NYC and Turin, Italy where she is at work on her third novel.

“Soledad” and “Let it Rain Coffee” are available online at:
www.lacasaazulbookstore.com

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Article written by Aurora Anaya-Cerda,
owner of La Casa Azul Bookstore

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