Passage 1With her magical first novel, Garcia joins a growing chorus of talented Latino writers whosevoices are suddenly reaching a far wider, more diverse audience. Unlike Latin American writerssuch as Colombia′s Gabriel Garcia Marquee of Peru′s Mario Vargas Llosa--whose translatedworks became popular here in the 1970s--these authors are writing in English and drawing theirthemes from two cultures. Their stories, from "Dreaming in Cuban" to Julia Alvarez′s "How theGarcia Girls Lost Their Accent" and Victor Villasenor′s "Rain of Gold", offer insight into themixture of economic opportunity and discrimination that Latinos encounter in the United States."Garcia Girls" for example, is the story of four sisters weathering their transition from wealthyDominicans to ragtag immigrants, "We didn′ t feel we had the beat the United States had to offer,"one of the girls says, "We had only second-hand stuff, rental houses in one redneck Catholicneighborhood after another, clothes at Round Robin, a black and white TV afflicted with wavylines." Alvarez, a Middlebury College professor Who emigrated from Santo Domingo when she was10, says being an immigrant has given her a special vantage point: "We travel on that borderbetween two worlds and we can see both points of view."With few exceptions, such as Chicano writer Rudolfo Anaya, many Hispanic-Americans havebeen writing in virtual obscurity for years, nurtured only by small presses like Houston′s ArtePublico or the Bilingual Press in Tempe, Ariz. Only with the recent success of Sandra Cisneros′s "Woman Hollering Creek" and Oscar Hijuelos′s prize-winning novel, "The Mambo Kings PlaySongs of Love," have mainstream publishers begun opening door to other Latinos. Julie Grau,Cisneros′s editor at Turtle Bay, says, "Editors may now be looking more carefully at a book thatbefore they would have deemed too exotic for the general readership."But if Villasenor′s experience is any indication, some editors are still wary. In 1989, Putnamgave Villasenor a $75,000 advance for the hardcover rights to "Rain of Gold," the compelling sagaof his family′s migration from Mexico to California. But the editors, says Villasenor, wanted majorchanges: "They were going to destroy the book. It′ s nonfiction; they wanted to publish it as a novel.And they wanted to change the title to ′Rio Grande,′ which sounded like some old John Waynemovie." After a year of strained relations, he mortgaged his house, borrowed his mother′s lifesavings and bought back the rights to the book that had taken 10 years to write.In frustration, Villasenor turned to Arte Publico. In the eight months since its release, "Rain ofGold" has done extremely well, considering its limited distribution; 20,000 copies have been sold."If we were a mainstream publisher, this book would have been on The New York Times best-sellerlist for weeks," says Arte Pulico′ s Nicolas Kanelos. The author may still have a shot: he has sold thepaperback rights to Dell. And he was just named a keynote speaker (with Molly Ivins and NormanSchwarzkop0 for the American Booksellers Association convention in May. Long before theygained this sort of attention, however, Villasenor, Cisneros and other Latino writers were quietlybuilding devoted followings. Crossing the country, they read in local bookstores, libraries andschools. Their stories, they found, appeal not only to Latinos--who identify with them, but to asurprising number of Anglos, who find in them a refreshingly different perspective on American life.Still, there are unusual pressures on these writers. Cisneros vividly recalls the angst she went throughin writing the final short stories for "Woman Hollering": "I was traumatized that it was going to beone of the first Chicano books ′out there.′ I felt I had this responsibility to my community torepresent us in all our diversity."What did the new generation Latino writers do to get their works known to the public
A.They avoided writing those too exotic for readers.B.They revised their works as required by press.C.They trans