Let Us Begin

Salvador arrives in the United States from Argentina with one big, unfocused goal, to become successful at something. He knows that America is the land of opportunity and if he works hard, he will triumph.

Together with his childhood sweetheart, he settles in the Big Apple where dreams come true.

But this ambitious young immigrant soon learns that it takes more than hard work and charisma to succeed and is changed by the harsh realities of living in New York.

Everyone has advice for Salvador as he moves from one dead-end job to another attempting to reinvent himself. But the best advice comes from the loving letters he gets from his father. They keep him grounded and remind him of the man he wants to be until he loses this moral compass the day his father succumbs to diabetes.

As the 1960s roll into the 1970s and America and Salvador become less innocent, he finds himself in California where he starts his own business, and it finally looks like the American Dream is within his grasp.

But things get complicated when Argentina is involved in a war in the early 1980s and Salvador must decide where his allegiances lie. One wrong decision and bold act can bring his dreams crumbling down, and Salvador soon realizes that there are consequences for being impulsive and disloyal.

In the end, Salvador learns that there are boundaries men should not cross and that the love of family is perhaps the only worthwhile dream Americans should pursue.

Spanning decades, Let Us Begin is a moving story filled with joy and despair about a family searching for a home and a place to belong.

Women's Fiction author of This is Now, That Was Then, Say You'll Be Mine, and Evenings at the Argentine Club, Julia Amante writes emotionally rich stories about family, love, and the passion of chasing and achieving one’s goals.

Julia began her writing career in 2000 writing Latina romance under the pseudonym, Lara Rios when Kensington Publishing released a new line of Latino romance books. These books reflected the flavor and rhythm of Latino communities in the U.S. and delivered richly textured commercial fiction about a population that had been mostly ignored by publishers at the time. Julia sold four romances to this publisher before moving on to write longer Chick Lit novels for Berkley Publishing by 2006. Her book Becoming Latina in 10 Easy Steps was optioned by Disney's ABC Family to become a future TV series.

In 2009, Lara Rios became Julia Amante when she changed her writing style to reach a new audience. Amante wanted to expand her writing to include not only romantic relationships, but the more complex bonds women have with parents, children, and friends. These novels continued to feature Latino characters and the cultural flavor of Hispanic life in America, but they also dealt with universal issues that appealed to women of all cultures.

Julia learned to value her roots and to be proud of her Latina heritage, as well as to be grateful for the life her parents built in the U.S.  The beauty of America is that both cultures could be interwoven together, and Julia illustrates this in her novels. To her, being Latina is not separate from being American; her immigrant story is part of the great history of this country.

Julia's other passion is education. She received her B.A. at the University of California, Riverside, and her M.F.A in Fiction from California State University, San Bernardino. She currently teaches writing at Crafton Hills College and California State University, San Bernardino.