Quiara Alegría Hudes was the sharp-eyed girl on the stairs while her family danced in her grandmother's North Philly kitchen. She was awed but haunted by the secrets of the family and the untold stories of the barrio - even as she tried to find her own voice in the sea of language around her, written and spoken, English and Spanish, bodies and books, Western art and sacred altars. Her family became her private pantheon, a circle of powerful Orisha-like women with tragic real-world wounds, and she vowed to tell their stories - but first she'd have to get off the stairs and join the dance. She'd have to find her language. Book jacket.