Between Inca Walls: A Peace Corps Memoir

(Paperback)

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Description

It's 1964, and Evelyn-an adventurous and romantically inclined twenty-one-year-old-joins the Peace Corps and is sent to the Andes, where she falls in love with her village, her indigenous pupils . . . and a university student. Violating the sexual prohibitions of her Catholic upbringing, she finds herself pregnant and must choose whether to marry the father of her unborn child.

Reviews

2021 Moritz Thomsen Peace Corps Experience Award Winner
2020 CIBA Hearten Book Awards 1st Place Winner
2020 Readers Favorite Book Awards Finalist in Non-Fiction Cultural
2020 International Book Awards Finalist Multicultural Non-Fiction

LaTorre presents a forthright and candid voice. . . . LaTorres story is one of a determined young woman keen to achieve her goals; her relationship with Antonio will have readers guessing how the romance will turn out. Illustrated with the author's photographs, this bold memoir offers many rich details about Peru and the Peace Corps . . .
Kirkus Reviews

Evelyn LaTorre creates a masterful portrait of placefrom the Montana hills to the peaks of Perand illustrates how place shapes us. The many lovely metaphors and descriptions throughout the book invite the reader to see through the eyes of an innocent girl as she discovers exotic, lively cultures; absorbs the colors, sounds, passion, and intensity of that new world; and allows it to change her life path.
Linda Joy Myers, president of the National Association of Memoir Writers and author of Dont Call Me Mother, Song of the Plains, and The Power of Memoir

In a stunning Andean valley blessed by eternal spring, a young woman finds her life turning around even more than the winding mountain roads that brought her there for two years of volunteer service in the Peace Corps. A great read for all ages.
Charles David Kleymeyer, PhD, author of the award-winning YESHU: A Novel for the Open-Hearted

Walls typically keep people and things both in and out. In this memoir of her days as a Peace Corp Volunteer, Evelyn LaTorre breaks down those walls and tells a story of establishing relationships and projects in the mountains of Per in the sixtiesa fascinating story of challenges faced in learning about oneself through the eyes of another culture. Once you start reading, you wont want to put it down.
Dr. Jackie M. Allen, MFT, Associate Professor of Education, University of La Verne, and coauthor of A Pathway to PDS Partnership: Using the PDSEA Protocol

Evelyn LaTorre tells a story that becomes that of the readers as we struggle with her growing up in the rural Midwest, through the risks of joining the Peace Corps, and moving to Per. Scenes remain in my mind as if these stories had been my own. I found myself caught up in adventure after adventure, from copper ovens to shoeless kids playing soccer, from busy cities with cobblestone streets to roads that clung to the sides of mountains. I became captivated by Evelyns community of students and peers and the man who became Evelyns big love.
Charlotte Robin Cook, MFA, former publisher, current story editor, and head fiction judge for the Next Generation Indie Book Awards

Travel with Evelyn LaTorre during the early chaotic days of the Peace Corps as she arrives in Per and must navigate finding housing and a suitable volunteer job in an unfamiliar land whose language she barely speaks. Along the way, she also finds friends, love, and respect for a new culture. An inspiring journey.
Tish Davidson, editor of the California Writers Club 2019 Literary Review and author of African American Scientists and Inventors and The Vaccine Debate

Evelyn LaTorre made two trips. The first, in 1964, was an expedition to Per with the Peace Corps. The second was in her memoir by retelling the story of that transforming experience.
Alaide Ventura Medina, author of Como Caracol, winner of the 2018 Gran Angular Prize, and Entre Los Rotos, winner of the 2019 Mauricio Achar Prize

Author Bio

Evelyn Kohl LaTorre grew up in rural Southeastern Montana, surrounded by sheep and cattle ranches, before coming to California with her family at age sixteen. She holds a doctorate in multicultural education from the University of San Francisco, and a masters degree in social welfare from UC Berkeley. She worked as a bilingual school psychologist and school administrator in public education until her retirement. Evelyn loves to travel; to date, she and her husband have traveled to some 100 countries. You can view her stories and photos on her website, www.evelynlatorre.com. Her writing has appeared in World View Magazine, The Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, the California Writers Club Literary Review, the Tri-City Voice, Dispatches, and Clever Magazine. She is currently completing a second book about the struggles and triumphs of a bicultural marriage in the US. Evelyn lives in Fremont, California.