Raising Raul: Adventures Raising Myself and My Son

by María Hinojosa

The Mexican-American author and journalist describes how she overcame her traditional upbringing to become a successful career woman and a mom. Reprint.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir

256 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1999

About the author

Maria Hinojosa dreamt of a space where she could create independent, multimedia journalism that explores and gives a critical voice to the diverse American experience. She made that dream a reality in 2010 when she created Futuro Media, an independent, nonprofit newsroom based in Harlem, NYC with the mission to create multimedia content from a POC perspective. As Anchor and Executive Producer of the Peabody Award-winning show Latino USA, distributed by NPR, and Co-Host of Futuro Media’s award-winning political podcast In The Thick, Hinojosa has informed millions about the changing cultural and political landscape in America and abroad.

Reviews

[KOMET · Rating 5 out of 5]

María Hinojosa is a journalist whose work I've followed and respected for more than a decade. I came to eagerly follow her stories on various issues through her work with National Public Radio (NPR). This is her story and a very rich and compelling one it is. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in learning about someone from the South Side of Chicago who bucked the odds and found success as a journalist, as well as fulfillment in her personal life.

[Pete Dematteo · Rating 4 out of 5]

i never knew how utterly challenging it was as far as being pregnant was concerned. it was especially touching and engrossing because my late-mother had two miscarages and was a blonde haired mid-westerner who married a olive-skinned argentine. in 1961, they were fairly well-off and had migrated to manhattan and selected a very elite adoption agency which did a pretty keen job of pairing us, as far as ethnic resemblance was concerned. a third brother was adopted but when it became obvious that he was Black, they quickly got rid of him. the upper east side in 1961 was what it was, i guess, but it did hurt me, although it wasn't intentional. i often wanted to criticize maria for being so seemingly self-centered as to remain in such a dangerous area of manhattan when she didn't even have to go to the suburbs, as she claimed, with commuter trains and malls galore. she could have investigated certain parts of jackson heights, woodside, or sunnyside, queens. also, due to my partner being ecuadorian, i am aware of the inter-racial predjudices of the Hispanic populace, which may be partially economic, cultural, etc. folk from the dominican republic, whom i find highly likeable, entrepreneurial, and having republican mentalities even though they have to support democrats for purposes of self-advancement, unlike our cuban friends, usually receive the brunt of criticism from all of the other groups residing in the u.s.a. this is why it was so utterly, utterly enlightening to see maria, who would probably end up in ascheville, north carolina, resembling the mother of a friend i went to boarding school whose mom was a colombian, macrobiotic bisexual from, you guessed it, queens. the book was filled with challenges, but it all worked out, and maria and her hubby do deserve credit for thriving and surviving in such a spiritually demanding city where everything has to be done so utterly swiftly indeed, and good conversation is, indeed, such a rarity.

[meli · Rating 5 out of 5]

this felt like a conversation at your favorite tía's house full with politics sex and chisme on a sunday coffee session. a poderosa mujer so many latinx youth and older generations including treintonas like myself around the states/latin america love to admire – the force of nature in the tv/radio waves aka known as maria hinojosa, who always pronounces her name correctly as she should, is our santa de las chingonas. not sure what took me so long to dive into her writing, that phase of her life, and join her along for this very enjoyable read. highly recommend.

i agree with this review/quote so much “Raising Raul is not just for mothers but for all of us who are challenged to combine the best of traditions with the new selves we become as we grow beyond our roots …”

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maria Hinojosa has a way with words...she spoke at my college/workplace last year and had me in tears most of the time. There's a lot of honesty here about motherhood as a bigger life picture, which makes this book a great read for anyone at any point of life, I think.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished and so thoroughly enjoyed this book. It ended up being a more important-for-us book than I could have possibly anticipated, because of the difficulty of Maria's son's birth and early days of nursing, and the role that the father plays in feeding their son in the first few days. Plus I just loved all the reflections on culture, identity, parenting, "the politics of sleep," nursing, balancing work and parenting, dealing with the mess of one's feelings as a new mom... and all the Spanish! It was fun getting Cathy to translate for me now and then. I enjoyed Hinojosa's very conversational writing style and would love to read more of her writing...

[Ivette · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book addresses the human search for identity. Struggling between womanhood, motherhood and cultural distinctions, Hinojosa harmoniously combines all three.

[Carrie]

memoir

[kathy daily · Rating 3 out of 5]

a warm funny story of an mexican american's struggle to find herself with two heritages and a career plus a child. the balance is long time coming for her emotional human