A01=Elvira K. Gonzalez
abuse survivor
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author of color
Author_Elvira K. Gonzalez
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Category1=Kids
Category=YNB
Category=YNM
Category=YNW
Category=YXA
Category=YXZ
COP=United States
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
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eq_isMigrated=0
eq_isMigrated=2
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eq_personal-social-topics
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Hispanic
incarceration
jail
Language_English
Latinx
PA=Available
Price_€20 to €50
prison
PS=Active
PTSD
racing
racism
sexual assault survivor
social justice
softlaunch
sports YA
track and field
Product details
- ISBN 9781250847850
- Weight: 483g
- Dimensions: 164 x 239mm
- Publication Date: 15 Jul 2024
- Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
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Twenty-four hours: that's how long fourteen-year-old Elvira Gonzalez is given to come up with the 40,000 dollars she needs to save her kidnapped mother from a drug cartel. It's 2006 and Elvira's hometown of Laredo, Texas, has become engulfed by the Mexican Drug War. Elvira's life is unraveling around her - setting her on a harrowing path that leads her to being locked up in one of South Texas's worst juvenile detention centres.
After Elvira's released from juvie, she's resolved to never go back. That's when her unexpected salvation arrives in the form of 33-inch-high plastic hurdles. Determined to win a track scholarship out of Laredo, Elvira begins breaking into the school, alone, at 5:30 in the morning to practice hurdling. Soon, she catches the attention of a renowned high school coach, an adult man in his 30s. As they train, their coach-student relationship begins to change, becoming sexual. At just seventeen years old, Elvira experiences the dangers many young athletes face, especially those who are marginalised. In spite of these towering obstacles, Elvira eventually propels herself to become one of the top ranked hurdlers in the USA and the first in her family to go to college.
This inspiring true story of grit, tenacity, and hope traces Elvira's path as she overcomes impossible hurdles in her race to freedom.
Elvira K. Gonzalez is a Tejana author, activist, and entrepreneur from the South Texas borderlands. Hurdles in the Dark is her literary debut. elvirakgonzalez.com
