Cristina Garcia, acclaimed author of Dreaming in Cuban and The Aguero Sisters , is the guest speaker for the Ninth Annual Unity Dinner hosted by Cornell University's Latino Studies Program (LSP) Friday, Oct. 19, at 5:30 p.m. in the Willard Straight Hall Memorial Room on campus.

There is a $6 admission fee for the dinner, and the public is invited to attend. On Saturday, Oct. 20, Garcia also will give a free public reading and book signing at 11:30 a.m. in 132 Rockefeller Hall.

The Unity Dinner will include performances by student groups, including the Sabor Latino Dance Ensemble, the Phenomenon Step Club, the Uhuru Kuumba Dance Ensemble and the Orgullo Latino group from Ithaca College. Other entertainment includes poetry readings by members of La Organizacion de Latinas Universitarias, Omego Phi Beta Sorority and the Lambda Theta Phi Fraternity.

Garcia is a Cuban-born American novelist and journalist and an important voice in Latin American literature. Her debut novel Dreaming in Cuban (1992), nominated for a National Book Award, explores the displacement of personal and cultural identity of Cuban emigres. New York Times reviewer Michiko Kakutani called the book a "dazzling first novel" and praised Garcia as "a magical new writer." Garcia's second novel, The Aguero Sisters (1997), continues her exploration of the fracturing of identity and the quest for what constitutes Cuban-ness.

For more information about the dinner or reading, contact Marti Dense, LSP administrative manager at (607) 255-3197, or e-mail mfd1@cornell.edu . For more information about LSP, view its web site at http://latino.lsp.cornell.edu .

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