Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez
The
Godmother Of Chica Lit
 ALBUQUERQUE
(By Carolina A. Miranda, Time) August 18, 2007 For almost three decades, U.S.
Latino fiction was a realm of magic realism, stuck somewhere among cliched
visions of grandmas, mangoes and the sea. Then in 2003 Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez
put pen to paper and produced a hip, fast-paced novel about six young Latinas
trying to get ahead at the office and in the bedroom. Call it chica lit. The six
women of The Dirty Girls Social Club are smart, funny and, most important,
professionals. They include a reporter, a rock star and a news anchornone of
whom ever gets absorbed in ponderous debates about the immigrant experience.
"I didn't want this to be λOh, here we are with
our mantilla, praying to the Virgin of Guadalupe,'" says Valdes-Rodriguez, who
is of Cuban-Irish descent. "That's not my reality." Born 36 years ago into a
middle-class family in Albuquerque, N.M., she lives there now with her husband
and young son. She has a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University
and has worked as a reporter for the Los Angeles Times and the Boston Globe.
Valdes-Rodriguez's view of U.S. Latino life has
found a diverse and willing audience. Dirty Girls has sold more than 350,000
copies and is in development to become a series on the Lifetime network next
spring. Her second book, Playing with Boys, has sold 130,000 hardcover copies.
Two more women's novels as well as two works of teen fiction are in the
pipeline.
Since Dirty Girls made its debut, similar works
by Latina authors, like Hot Tamara by Mary Castillo, have found their way into
bookstores. Valdes-Rodriguez hesitates to take any credit. "These writers have
always been there," she says. "It's just that the industry wasn't ready to
publish them." They're ready now.
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