cover image Chiquita's Cocoon: The Latina Woman's Guide to Greater Power, Love, Money, Status, and Happiness

Chiquita's Cocoon: The Latina Woman's Guide to Greater Power, Love, Money, Status, and Happiness

Bettina Flores. Villard Books, $13.5 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-679-75044-4

In lively, upbeat style, this book, which sold nearly 20,000 copies when Flores self-published it in 1990, targets the cultural conflicts that face Latina women who seek a nontraditional lifestyle. Based on her own experiences and those of 200 women she interviewed, Flores argues powerfully that Latinas shouldn't feel bad about wanting money; nor should they limit themselves to the barrio or reject education. Regarding relations with men, Flores warns against accepting machismo and ignoring contraception. More controversially, she criticizes various guilt-inducing teachings of the Catholic Church and recommends that women adopt the affirmations of the Unity Church that encourage prosperity. (Social justice isn't part of her individualist prescriptions.) Flores also offers her own self-help messages, suggesting Latinas switch from ``Si Dios Quiere'' (``If God Wills It'') to ``It's Up to Me.'' She provides some sketchy advice on career planning and a few reflections on her own rise from poverty to success; she had her first exposure to life's possibilities when she left home at the age of 12 to be a mother's helper for a well-to-do-family. 75,000 first printing; advertising; author tour. (Jan.)