If one aspect of their consciousness characterizes the Spanish, it 
is the prevailing philosophy that life is worth what it does to you. 
Fiestas is a collection of short stories about modern Spain, 
beginning with a tale of true love versus romance in the years just 
before the Spanish Civil War of 1936. The collection takes the reader 
into the Civil War and Spain's darkest and most wretched times and 
continues through the twentieth century, with stories of ordinary 
Spaniards living the fiestas of their lives—the loves, deaths, miseries, 
and minor triumphs of a people determined to make the most of 
whatever life can throw at them.

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JACQUELINE BAUTISTA was born in California and travels 
between her home there and Madrid, Spain. Fiestas, her first 
published book, is drawn primarily from the recollections and 
experiences of family and friends and was the winner of the 2005 
George Garrett Prize in Fiction. She has published and won awards 
for short fiction, poetry, and essays, and worked as a journalist and 
researcher.