College can be a complex time for Latinas, who are traditionally expected to leave home when they get married. In her essay “Only Daughter,” author Sandra Cisneros remarks, “After four years in college and two more in graduate school, and still no husband, my father shakes his head even now and says I wasted all that education.” Wise Latinas is a collection of personal essays addressing the varied landscape of the Latina experience in higher education. For some Latinas, college, where they are vastly underrepresented, is the first time they are immersed in American culture outside their homes—and where the values of two cultures often clash. Wise Latinas is in part a response to this widening gap. Featuring acclaimed writers such as Sandra Cisneros, Norma Cantú, and Julia Alvarez, to name a few, Wise Latinas shows that there is no one Latina college experience. With thoughtful and engaging pieces, Wise Latinas provides a platform for Latina writers to share their experiences in higher education and gives a voice to the many Latina women who have taken risks; embraced the new, confronted change; and maintained (and in some cases found) their roots.   While not every essay in this collection by and about Latinas and their experiences with higher education imparts great wisdom, together they present a nuanced picture of the determination, sorrow, and sacrifice conjoining a young Latina’s decision to attend college and graduate school. The voices span Hispanic American nationalities—Mexican, Cuban, Colombian, Puerto Rican, Tejana (Texan Mexican)—as well as places of origin and destination. Among the most prevalent topics are traditional mothers, both loving and clinging; alienation from families and neighborhood friends; and sex, including a fair degree of explicitness. The final selection, by Sandra Cisneros, is a wistful but ultimately satisfying reflection ending with her father’s eventual acceptance of her chosen career. What drives these women to break from their familial and cultural narratives, even though, according to contributor Jennine Capo Crucet, “We’ve all felt so alone and guilty”? Her answer: “We are strong enough to take this hit for our daughters’ sakes.” Moreover, writes Stephanie Elizondo Griest, “it’s amazing to see who else you might become along the way.” --Carolyn Saper "The abundance of high-quality material makes the book hard to put down."— Kirkus Published On: 2014-01-20 "[ Wise Latinas ] holds relevance for any young person setting out of their homes for the first time."—Ru Freeman, Huffington Post Published On: 2014-06-20 “An extraordinary collection of testimonies. There is plenty of honesty and no pretension in the voices included in Wise Latinas . These essays elicit the gamut of emotions from the reader, from chuckles to gasps to tears. An excellent anthology.”—Rigoberto González, author of Butterfly Boy: Memories of a Chicano Mariposa   Published On: 2013-09-20 “On the most fundamental level, Wise Latinas aims to provide models for other Latinas. . . . [It was] a joy to read this book, and a reminder of the footsteps that we all trace.”—Marta Caminero-Santangelo, author of On Latinidad: U.S. Latino Literature and the Construction of Ethnicity Published On: 2013-09-20 Jennifer De Leon is a teacher in the Boston Public Schools district and an instructor at the Grub Street Creative Writing Center. Her writing has appeared in Ploughshares , Fourth Genre , Ms. Magazine , Poets & Writers , The Best Women’s Travel Writing 2010 , and elsewhere.