Let Their Spirits Dance

Stella Pope Duarte’s strong and musical voice is reminiscent of Laura Esquivel and Alice Hoffman. Let Their Spirits Dance is a moving, spirited story of a family who takes a trip to the Vietnam Memorial 30 years after the war, and whose trip evolves into a spiritual journey, towards healing and redemption.

Teresa Ramirez, is a schoolteacher from El Cielito in Arizona. Still haunted by the death of her brother Jesse in the Vietnam War. Her mother cherishes the memory of her son’s words to her as he boarded the plane for Vietnam, when he told her she would hear his voice again. When Teresa’s ailing mother sees a photograph of the Vietnam War Memorial, she makes a vow to touch his name on the Wall, and this begins a journey that changes the lives of Teresa and her family forever.

The family’s slow caravan to Washington D.C., which gathers people and publicity, is juxtaposed with flashbacks to the family’s life in the late 1960’s. Let Their Spirits Dance is a vivid novel by a new and vibrant voice in fiction.