Discussion Questions and Glossary for the Class H Trilogy

by Raul Ramos y Sanchez

A Resource for Educators and Book Clubs
The novels of the Class H Trilogy explore complex and controversial topics. These group discussion questions are intended to stimulate reader dialog about immigration, the often-misunderstood Latino identity and the warning signs of a potential ethnic conflict. Questions about the characters and plot are also included. The glossary provides translations of Spanish words used in the novels and English terms unique to the Class H Trilogy.

Author
- Amazon Best-Selling author- Best Novel Award Winner - International Latino Book Awards
- Violet Crown Awards Fiction Finalist - Writers League of Texas
- Books Into Movies Award Winner - presented by Edward James Olmos
- USA Today Summer Reads Author
- LATINA Magazine "10 Hottest Summer Reads" 
- Named #1 among "2011 Top Ten Latino Authors" by LatinoStories.com 
- Listed among "Best Hispanic Writers of the 21st century" by ChaCha.com

17 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 2, 2013

About the author

“January” is the first English word I ever learned. I read it on the calendar thumbtacked to the wall of our apartment in the Bronx. Han-noo-a-ree, I pronounced it. That was in the winter of 1957. My mother had just divorced my father and moved us from Havana to New York City. My father was busy trying to overthrow Batista and my mother thought her prospects for raising a seven-year-old son looked much better sewing sequins on evening gowns in the midtown garment district than in a Cuban prison. Thanks, mamá. You made the right call.

Since mastering that first English word, the power and joy of words have become my life. I not only love words, I’ve made a living from them. First, composing them into pages as a graphic designer, and later arranging them into sentences as an advertising writer. After twenty-four years of creating the fiction commonly known as advertising, I decided to start telling my own stories.

THE SKINNY YEARS is my fourth novel. Called “gritty and witty” by Foreword Reviews, it’s a coming-of-age story set in Miami during the stormy 1960s. The novel follows the quirky travails of young Victor “Skinny” Delgado and his Cuban-exile family over their first ten years in the United States. Some readers have asked if the novel is autobiographical. The short answer is “no.” But my childhood memories of growing up in Miami are the inspiration for the story. In reality, my first experiences in the U.S. began in New York City.