Canícula: Snapshots of a Girlhood en la Frontera

by Norma Elia Cantú

Winner of the Premio Aztlán Literary Prize

Canícula—the dog days—a particularly intense part of the summer when most cotton is harvested in South Texas. In Norma Cantú’s fictionalized memoir of Laredo in the 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s, it also represents a time between childhood and a still-unknown adulthood. Snapshots and the author’s re-created memories allow readers to experience the pivotal events of this world—births, deaths, injuries, fiestas, and rites of passage.
In celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the original publication, this updated edition includes newly written pieces as well as never-before-published images—culled from hundreds of the author’s family photos—adding further depth and insight into this unique contribution to Chicana literature.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Norma Elia Cantú is a professor of Latina/Latino studies and English at the University of Missouri, Kansas City.

225 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 16, 2015

Reviews

[Lucinda Garza Zamarripa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lectura 2020:
Un álbum de fotografías que retrata la intersección entre dos fronteras: entre México y Estados Unidos, y entre ser niña y ser mujer.

(Creo que después de haber leído y releído este libro tantas veces, después de haberme graduado escribiendo sobre él, es momento de marcarlo como leído en Goodreads).

Lectura 2022:
Recordando, recordando, recordando...

[Jessica Burchett · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 out of 5 stars.

Have you ever sat with a family member, maybe a grandparent, as they flipped through the pages of a photo album, telling you who the people were and what their stories were? That was what it was like reading this book. The author connects the dots between individuals and culture, one side of a border to another. Very well-written.

[landon vaughan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cada semestre, me encanta leer un libro que fue escrito por un professor mío. Dra. Cantú es mi profesora de espanol este semestre, y Canicula... "dog days" en inglés... es un tipa de autoetnobiografia muy unica. Se lee como tu estás viendo fotos de un scrapbook y cada foto cuentate una historia sobre su vida en Laredo, Texas/ Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas cuando era pequeña.

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this for a course I’m teaching on the American Southwest. I enjoyed aspects of this book, generically defined by the author as “fictional autobioethnography.” Part memoir, part novel, part ethnographic exploration of a Texas border town, it felt very much like all three. It was jarring for students but many liked it. It’s a much quieter book than, say, Blood Meridian, which I didn’t mind at all. I did lose interest by the end and just wanted to be done. I think the biggest problem with this book is the lack of cohesion. No rise and fall so nothing to really pull a reader forward. It was just vignette after vignette after vignette. Some sort of momentum would’ve helped me get through to the end a little quicker.

[Josie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring, depressing garbage for Hispanics who want to live up to every stereotype about living in the barrio like getting healed with an egg for susto and throwing your hard-earned money away at the bingo. If you have any sense of ambition, you will read Marquez instead.