About the Author

Raquel Cepeda is an award-winning journalist, cultural activist, and documentary filmmaker. A former magazine editor, her byline has appeared in The Village Voice, CNN.com, the Associated Press, and many others. Cepeda directed and produced Bling: A Planet Rock, the critically acclaimed documentary about American hip-hop culture's obsession with diamonds. She lives with her husband, a writer and TV producer, daughter, and son in her beloved New York City.

Reviews

"A beautiful story of reconciliation and redemption." -- "The Huffington Post"

"A thrilling and impassioned quest into the heart of the race question and the Latino--a label as we've come to understand it. With meticulous research and refreshing honesty, Cepeda breaks the code not only of her own origins, but those of an entire people. Bird of Paradise is a necessary and important book for our time."--Patricia Engel "author of Vida"

"Cepeda's complex family history is both uniquely Latino--the book is peppered with Spanish idiom--and paradoxically universal in this nation of immigrants. It will appeal to those who watch Who Do You Think You Are? and wonder about themselves."--Library Journal

"In Bird of Paradise, Raquel Cepeda takes on, with cultural flair and brutal honesty, what it means to be the living embodiment of a global society. A Dominican-American woman seeking the truth about her roots, Cepeda uses tools including DNA testing and her reporterly skill for teasing out family secrets. What she finds is a revelation not just for her or for Latino Americans, but for anyone who cares about the way the past connects us to the future."--Farai Chideya "author of Kiss the Sky and Don't Believe the Hype"

"Raquel Cepeda has long been one of the hip-hop community's most passionate and visionary writers and filmmakers; now, with this stunning blend of memoir and reportage, mythos and logos, we will have to share her with the world. An elegant, electric mash-up, Bird of Paradise offers resonant snapshots of a bygone New York City, family portraits saturated with beauty, honesty, and pain, captivating travelogues, and a fascinating, wide-angled look at ethnicity and identity. Cepeda's story is wrought with care and insight - and ought to increase the sale of DNA testing kits by about twelve thousand percent."--Adam Mansbach "#1 New York Times bestselling author of GO THE F**K TO SLEEP and RAGE IS BACK"

"A beautiful story of reconciliation and redemption." -- "The Huffington Post"
"A thrilling and impassioned quest into the heart of the race question and the Latino--a label as we've come to understand it. With meticulous research and refreshing honesty, Cepeda breaks the code not only of her own origins, but those of an entire people. Bird of Paradise is a necessary and important book for our time."--Patricia Engel "author of Vida"
"Cepeda's complex family history is both uniquely Latino--the book is peppered with Spanish idiom--and paradoxically universal in this nation of immigrants. It will appeal to those who watch Who Do You Think You Are? and wonder about themselves."--Library Journal
"In Bird of Paradise, Raquel Cepeda takes on, with cultural flair and brutal honesty, what it means to be the living embodiment of a global society. A Dominican-American woman seeking the truth about her roots, Cepeda uses tools including DNA testing and her reporterly skill for teasing out family secrets. What she finds is a revelation not just for her or for Latino Americans, but for anyone who cares about the way the past connects us to the future."--Farai Chideya "author of Kiss the Sky and Don't Believe the Hype"
"Raquel Cepeda has long been one of the hip-hop community's most passionate and visionary writers and filmmakers; now, with this stunning blend of memoir and reportage, mythos and logos, we will have to share her with the world. An elegant, electric mash-up, Bird of Paradise offers resonant snapshots of a bygone New York City, family portraits saturated with beauty, honesty, and pain, captivating travelogues, and a fascinating, wide-angled look at ethnicity and identity. Cepeda's story is wrought with care and insight - and ought to increase the sale of DNA testing kits by about twelve thousand percent."--Adam Mansbach "#1 New York Times bestselling author of GO THE F**K TO SLEEP and RAGE IS BACK"