Aim High

Not long ago, Laura Contreras-Rowe was invited to give a motivational speech to a pack of female high school basketball players in East Los Angeles. At one point, she asked the young women to name their Aim HighLatina role model. To her astonishment, the room grew quiet. After recovering, she decided to use their silence as a muse. She spent much of 2009 traipsing around the United States, interviewing 33 Latinas pushing the boundaries of possibility, and just published their stories in Aim High: Extraordinary Stories of Hispanic & Latina Women. A smattering include celebrity chef Laura Diaz (“Chef Lala”), comedian Anjelah Johnson, drag racer Erica Ann Ortiz, IndyCar driver Milka Duno, news anchor Rebecca Gomez Diamond, and yours truly! I just received my copy, and it’s absolutely gorgeous, gracias to the cover art by my Tejana hermana, artist Laura Lopez Cano. Rowe is currently criss-crossing the nation, sharing the book with at-risk students at schools, group homes, and juvenile detention centers. Buy your copy now!