Book Review: Breakup from Hell

One of my first reviews for Latinx in Pub was The Storyteller’s Death by Ann Dávila Cardinal. It was her adult fiction debut; it was a novel that touched me and helped me learn about Puerto Rico in such a personal way. So, when the opportunity to review one of Cardinal’s young adult novels came up, I jumped on the chance to review it. If you are looking for a quick heart-pumping unique young adult fantasy romance to add to your February TBR, look no further!

Breakup From Hell by Ann Dávila Cardinal is a fast-paced and surprisingly funny young adult novel that questions the desire to save the bad boy because the bad boy might not always deserve to be saved. Breakup From Hell follows the tale of Miguela Angeles, a teenager living in a small town in Vermont where she feels trapped. Her abuela is keeping secrets from her and she is tired of experiencing the same day over and over. That is until she runs into a new boy named Sam outside of church. With Sam blowing into town, Miguela jumps at the chance for something new and she begins to change. She is turning her back on her best friends and they are worried. But in the midst of Miguela’s new whirlwind romance, she cannot help but feel like something is wrong. As she unravels the secrets her abuela is keeping from her, Miguela soon realizes she is living in something akin to her favorite horror novels. Miguela’s journey is full of twists, turns, betrayals, revenge, and (unexpected) love.

Cardinal’s Breakup From Hell uses religious themes that are important to many Puerto Rican homes to show how individuals can find their own power and change the course of not only their lives but the lives of those around them. This book also highlights the sacrifices families, specifically mothers, make to protect their children. Cardinal’s work points to the strength in our maternal figures, allowing young women to see themselves as strong, as the savior they need instead of being saved. Miguela follows in her mother’s footsteps and is guided by the strength of multiple material figures in this book. There is a beautiful craftsmanship to this book where religion guides without becoming all-consuming for the characters in a way that I think can be aspiring and potentially healing to those with a difficult relationship with Christianity.

“Breakup From Hell is a rich adventure story where a young Puerto Rican woman gets to become her own hero. It has a rich creativity and blends culture, heritage, and religion into a unique story to highlight the growth and strength teenagers have within themselves.”

I am so glad that I read this book; it feels like Cardinal looked into the brain of my teenage self and wrote the book that was sitting on my heart to read. Breakup From Hell is a rich adventure story where a young Puerto Rican woman gets to become her own hero. It has a rich creativity and blends culture, heritage, and religion into a unique story to highlight the growth and strength teenagers have within themselves. This book is a wonderful read for those who are looking to diversify their reads and to celebrate the joy of a young girl who just went through a breakup from hell.

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Ann Dávila Cardinal is a writer and director of student recruitment for Vermont College of Fine Arts, where she earned her MFA in writing. Her young adult horror novels include Breakup from Hell and Five Midnights and its sequel, Category Five, and she also writes screenplays and podcasts with her son, Carlos Victor Cardinal. Ann lives with her family just north of Stowe, Vermont, and is always on the lookout for shadow demons. Visit her online at anndavilacardinal.com.

TEREZA LOPEZ (she/her) is a recent graduate from Clark University with a double major in English and history. She attended Clark University again in Fall 2021 and obtained a Master’s in communication. When she is not studying, you can find her obsessively reading or taking care of her new kitten.

Book Review: A Place to Anchor by: Estela Casas

A Place to Achor: Journalism, Cancer, and Rewriting Mi Vida is an autobiography written by Estela Casas. In her autobiography, Casas gives the reader the opportunity to see inside her life, focusing on her work as a journalist and her journey with cancer. As a news anchor in El Paso, TX, Casas was a constant presence in the homes of her viewers. She was a trusted voice, helping viewers through tragic and trying times, eventually learning, that with her own personal life changing news, she would have to trust others as well as reinvent herself.

Casas’ story is one of courage under fire. She is taken by surprise with the diagnosis of thyroid and bilateral breast cancer. She was used to being the one who reported on the news, keeping her life private but everything changed. Quickly, she became the news and her life was no longer private. Casas decided to open herself up to her viewers, who became both her reason to live and her motivation to change who she was and how she saw herself.

As a journalist, you are privy to many behind-the-scenes circumstances. You pick and choose how and what to report, in order for viewers to make informed decisions. However, when your life becomes the news, it’s even harder to strip away your bias and beliefs. Fear, vulnerability, and faith become a constant. You hardly recognize who you’ve become, unsure if this new version of you can go back to how things were. This is what Casas vividly depicts in her story. “Faith or fear” becomes her mantra, she musters her courage and embraces the uncomfortable, all in the hopes of advocating for others to be their own health care advocates. Casas’ wish, other than being alive, is to enjoy her life with her children and watch them grow, to know that her story pushed others to practice self-care, to take an interest in their physical well-being, and to question the power of faith during turbulent times.

During all of these trials, Casas became very aware of just how much she needed her viewers. Casas’ decision to let the viewers into her private bubble was one that surprised even her, yet there was never really any doubt about the fact that this is how she had to experience it all. The viewers needed to know what was going on and Casas needed to share, but most importantly, she needed her viewers’ support. With each chapter of the book, each turn of the page, the reader is drawn into the shared experience. When Casas is faced with a challenge, feels free, embraces her looks changing, and starts rediscovering her faith in God, we are there right with her.

“Casas’ wish, other than being alive, is to enjoy her life with her children and watch them grow, to know that her story pushed others to practice self-care, to take an interest in their physical well-being, and to question the power of faith during turbulent times. ”

The book resonated with me, as my life seemed to mirror some of Estela’s experiences: an orphan, a mother, Latinx, a journalist, and a survivor, not of cancer but a number of near-catastrophic brain bleeds that required emergency brain surgery. Our stories are not the same exactly, but I was able to empathize with Casas and her journey. The book is a story of a life and of a death. The death of old self to a newer thriving ever changing better version of herself. I am certain you will find a nugget of wisdom or two in Casas’ journey. You will laugh, cry, become fearful and hopeful, while also finding yourself in Casas’ journey. I loved this book and I think you will too.

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Estela Casas is a first-generation El Pasoan, mother, cancer thriver, and philanthropist. She is a former English and Spanish language news anchor and journalist who used her platform to not only report the news, but find ways to make a difference in her community. Estela founded the Stand with Estela Casas Cancer Foundation to help increase awareness about breast cancer and raise money to help uninsured women on their cancer journeys.

In her 37 years as a prime-time television news anchor, Estela has highlighted issues of education and health for underserved communities. She eventually found herself the subject of her own reporting, bringing her loyal viewers with her as she shared personal stories about her chemotherapy treatments and surgeries. As a two-time cancer survivor, Estela aims to show women that they too can successfully wage the war against any challenge—not just cancer. Estela firmly believes that her strong faith and love of family, friends, and strangers helped transform her into a better version of herself.

Angela “Angie” Ybarra is a senior student enrolled in the Nontraditional Degree Program (NDP) at Northeastern Illinois University. She hopes to work as a grant writer to assist local nonprofit organizations that address the issues of gentrification within Chicago's NorthWest side and help them find funding for their work. Angie loves to give her audience the opportunity to formulate their own views by presenting the facts or points of interest with the hope to move her audience into action.

“Journalism is what maintains democracy. It’s the force for progressive social change.” —Andrew Vachss, Author

Most Anticipated January 2024 Releases

2024 has many great book releases in store for us. Check out January’s most anticipated releases and keep those reading goals going strong.

Break the Cycle by Dr. Mariel Buqué | On Sale January 2

The definitive, paradigm-shifting guide to healing intergenerational trauma--weaving together scientific research with practical exercises and stories from the therapy room--from Dr. Mariel Buqué, PhD, a Columbia University-trained trauma-informed psychologist and practitioner of holistic healing

From Dr. Mariel Buqué, a leading trauma psychologist, comes this groundbreaking guide to transforming intergenerational pain into intergenerational abundance. With Break the Cycle, she delivers the definitive guide to healing inherited trauma. Weaving together scientific research with practical exercises and stories from the therapy room, Dr. Buqué teaches readers how trauma is transmitted from one generation to the next and how they can break the cycle through tangible therapeutic practices, learning to pass down strength instead of pain to future generations.

You Dreamed of Empires by Álvaro Enrigue|Translated by Natasha Wimmer | On Sale January 9

One morning in 1519, conquistador Hernán Cortés entered the city of Tenochtitlan - today's Mexico City. Later that day, he would meet the emperor Moctezuma in a collision of two worlds, two empires, two languages, two possible futures.

Cortés was accompanied by his nine captains, his troops, and his two translators: Friar Aguilar, a taciturn, former slave, and Malinalli, a strategic, former princess. Greeted at a ceremonial welcome meal by the steely princess Atotoxli, sister and wife of Moctezuma, the Spanish nearly bungle their entrance to the city. As they await their meeting with Moctezuma - who is at a political, spiritual, and physical crossroads, and relies on hallucinogens to get himself through the day and in quest for any kind of answer from the gods - the Spanish are ensconced in the labyrinthine palace. Soon, one of Cortés's captains, Jazmín Caldera, overwhelmed by the grandeur of the city, begins to question the ease with which they were welcomed into the city, and wonders at the risks of getting out alive, much less conquering the empire.

Most Ardently: A Pride & Prejudice Remix by Gabe Cole Novoa | On Sale January 16

London, 1812. Oliver Bennet feels trapped. Not just by the endless corsets, petticoats and skirts he's forced to wear on a daily basis, but also by society's expectations. The world--and the vast majority of his family and friends--think Oliver is a girl named Elizabeth. He is therefore expected to mingle at balls wearing a pretty dress, entertain suitors regardless of his interest in them, and ultimately become someone's wife.

But Oliver can't bear the thought of such a fate. He finds solace in the few times he can sneak out of his family's home and explore the city rightfully dressed as a young gentleman. It's during one such excursion when Oliver becomes acquainted with Darcy, a sulky young man who had been rude to "Elizabeth" at a recent social function. But in the comfort of being out of the public eye, Oliver comes to find that Darcy is actually a sweet, intelligent boy with a warm heart. And not to mention incredibly attractive.

Through Fences by Frederick Luis Aldama|Illustrated by Oscar Garza | On Sale January 19

Through Fences follows the ups and downs of Latino kids and young adults in the US-Mexico borderlands: San Ysidro, Calexico, McAllen, and back and forth across the border. A young girl's journey north goes wrong, and now she is in a forbidding new place, away from her parents and brother, where she doesn't understand what the adults in green are saying even as she tries to obey their rules. Rocky, one of the few white kids in town, stands by and watches as Miguel is jumped by two of his friends. Maggie and her parents are separated at the border in a tragic accident. Alberto's son doesn't understand his Mexican father's hatred for "illegals" or his work as a border patrol agent. Alicia is a TikTok influencer who doesn't want to grow up to be a hospital cleaning lady like her mother, but COVID complicates things. Whatever their challenges, the kids, teens, tweens, and adults in these pages are just trying to survive their everyday lives. Vibrantly illustrated by Oscar Garza, each of these short stories brings a different perspective on the perils of living on the border while brown.

January 2024 Latinx Releases

On Sale January 9

How to Be a Good Savage and Other Poems by Mikeas Sánchez | Translated by Wendy Call & Shook | POETRY

In a fiercely personal yet authoritative voice, prolific contemporary poet Mikeas Sánchez explores the worldview of the Zoque people of southern Mexico. Her paced, steely lyrics fuse cosmology, lineage, feminism, and environmental activism into a singular body of work that stands for the self and the collective in the same instant. “I am woman and I celebrate every vein,” she writes, “where I guard my ancestors’ secrets / every Zoque man’s word in my mouth / every Zoque woman’s wisdom in my spit.”

How to Be a Good Savage and Other Poems examines the intersection of Zoque struggles against colonialism and empire, and those of North African immigrants and refugees. Sánchez encountered the latter in Barcelona as a revelation, “spreading their white blankets on the ground / as if they’ll soon return to sea / flying the sail of the promised land / the land that became a mirage.” Other works bring us just as close to similarly imperiled relatives, ancestors, gods, and archetypal Zoque men and women that Sánchez addresses with both deeply prophetic and childlike love.

Coming from the only woman to ever publish a book of poetry in Zoque and Spanish, this timely, powerful collection pairs the bilingual originals with an English translation for the first time. This book is for anyone interested in poetry as knowledge, proclaimed with both feet squarely set on ancient ground.

You Dreamed of Empires by Alvaro Enrigue | Translated by Natasha Wimmer | ADULT FICTION

One morning in 1519, conquistador Hernán Cortés entered the city of Tenochtitlan – today's Mexico City. Later that day, he would meet the emperor Moctezuma in a collision of two worlds, two empires, two languages, two possible futures.

Cortés was accompanied by his nine captains, his troops, and his two translators: Friar Aguilar, a taciturn, former slave, and Malinalli, a strategic, former princess. Greeted at a ceremonial welcome meal by the steely princess Atotoxli, sister and wife of Moctezuma, the Spanish nearly bungle their entrance to the city. As they await their meeting with Moctezuma – who is at a political, spiritual, and physical crossroads, and relies on hallucinogens to get himself through the day and in quest for any kind of answer from the gods – the Spanish are ensconced in the labyrinthine palace. Soon, one of Cortés’s captains, Jazmín Caldera, overwhelmed by the grandeur of the city, begins to question the ease with which they were welcomed into the city, and wonders at the risks of getting out alive, much less conquering the empire.

Shut Up, This Is Serious by Carolina Ixta | YOUNG ADULT

Belén Dolores Itzel del Toro wants the normal stuff: to experience love or maybe have a boyfriend or at least just lose her virginity. But nothing is normal in East Oakland. Her father left her family. She’s at risk of not graduating. And Leti, her super-Catholic, nerdy-ass best friend, is pregnant—by the boyfriend she hasn’t told her parents about, because he’s Black, and her parents are racist.

Things are hella complicated.

Weighed by a depression she can’t seem to shake, Belén helps Leti, hangs out with an older guy, and cuts a lot of class. She soon realizes, though, that distractions are only temporary. Leti is becoming a mother. Classmates are getting ready for college. But what about Belén? What future is there for girls like her?

From debut author Carolina Ixta comes a fierce, intimate examination of friendship, chosen family, and the generational cycles we must break to become our truest selves.

On Sale January 16

The Best That You Can Do: Stories by Amina Gautier | ADULT FICTION

Primarily told from the perspective of women and children in the Northeast who are tethered to fathers and families in Puerto Rico, these stories explore the cultural confusion of being one person in two places—of having a mother who wants your father and his language to stay on his island but sends you there because you need to know your family. Loudly and joyfully filled with Cousins, Aunts, Grandparents, and budding romances, these stories are saturated in summer nostalgia, and place readers at the center of the table to enjoy family traditions and holidays: the resplendent and universal language of survival for displaced or broken families.

Refusing to shy away from dysfunction, loss, obligation, or interrogating Black and Latinx heritages “If we flip the channels fast enough, we can turn almost anyone Puerto Rican, blurring black and white into Boricua.” Gautier's stories feature New York neighborhoods made of island nations living with seasonal and perpetual displacement. Like Justin Torres’ We the Animals, or Quiara Alegria Hudes’ My Broken Language, it’s the characters-in-becoming—flanked by family and rich with detail—that animate each story with special frequencies, especially for readers grappling split-identities themselves.

The Silence in Her Eyes by Armando Lucas Correa | ADULT FICTION

Leah has been living with akinetopsia, or motion blindness, since she was a child. For the last twenty years, she hasn’t been able to see movement. As she walks around her upper Manhattan neighborhood with her white stick tapping in front, most people assume she’s blind. But the truth is Leah sees a good deal, and with her acute senses of smell and hearing, very little escapes her notice.

She has a quiet, orderly life, with little human contact beyond her longtime housekeeper, her doctor, and her elderly neighbor. That all changes when Alice moves into the apartment next door and Leah can immediately smell the anxiety wafting off her. Worse, Leah can’t help but hear Alice and a late-night visitor engage in a violent fight. Worried, she befriends her neighbor and discovers that Alice is in the middle of a messy divorce from an abusive husband.

Then one night, Leah wakes up to someone in her apartment. She blacks out and in the morning is left wondering if she dreamt the episode. And yet the scent of the intruder follows her everywhere. And when she hears Alice through the wall pleading for her help, Leah makes a decision that will test her courage, her strength, and ultimately her sanity.

Nostalgia Doesn’t Flow Away Like Riverwater by Irma Pineda | Translated by Wendy Call | POETRY

Nostalgia Doesn’t Flow Away Like Riverwater / Xilase qui rié di’ sicasi rié nisa guiigu’ / La Nostalgia no se marcha como el agua de los ríos is a trilingual collection by one of the most prominent Indigenous poets in Latin America: Irma Pineda. The book consists of 36 persona poems that tell a story of separation and displacement in two fictionalized voices: a person who has migrated, without papers, to the United States for work, and that person’s partner who waits at home, in the poet’s hometown of Juchitán, Oaxaca.

On Sale January 23

The Bullet Swallower by Elizabeth Gonzalez James | ADULT FICTION

In 1895, Antonio Sonoro is the latest in a long line of ruthless men. He’s good with his gun and is drawn to trouble but he’s also out of money and out of options. A drought has ravaged the town of Dorado, Mexico, where he lives with his wife and children, and so when he hears about a train laden with gold and other treasures, he sets off for Houston to rob it—with his younger brother Hugo in tow. But when the heist goes awry and Hugo is killed by the Texas Rangers, Antonio finds himself launched into a quest for revenge that endangers not only his life and his family, but his eternal soul.

In 1964, Jaime Sonoro is Mexico’s most renowned actor and singer. But his comfortable life is disrupted when he discovers a book that purports to tell the entire history of his family beginning with Cain and Abel. In its ancient pages, Jaime learns about the multitude of horrific crimes committed by his ancestors. And when the same mysterious figure from Antonio’s timeline shows up in Mexico City, Jaime realizes that he may be the one who has to pay for his ancestors’ crimes, unless he can discover the true story of his grandfather Antonio, the legendary bandido El Tragabalas, The Bullet Swallower.

Leonor: The Story of a Lost Childhood by Paula Delgado-Kling | ADULT NONFICTION

Paula Delgado-Kling takes us to her homeland, Colombia, where she finds answers to the country's drug wars by examining the life of Leonor, a former child soldier in the FARC, a rural guerrilla group.

Paula followed Leonor for nineteen years, from shortly after she was an active member forced into sexual slavery by a commander thirty-four years her senior, through her rehabilitation and struggle with alcohol and drug addiction, to more recent days, as the mom of two girls. Leonor's immense resourcefulness and imagination in the face of horrendous circumstances helped her carve a space for herself in the FARC, a world dominated by males. She is beautiful, and by honing her powers of seduction, Leonor created a parallel world where she made herself a protagonist. She never stopped believing that she was a woman of worth and importance. It took her many years of therapy to accept that she was a victim. For half a lifetime, she regarded herself as "the First Lady of the Southern Bloc," and exploited any power she fabricated for herself to stay alive.

Colombia's violence also touched Paula's family. This narrative began with the question: why was her brother kidnapped and why were his guards teenagers?

On Sale January 30

How We Named the Stars by Andrés N. Ordorica | ADULT FICTION

When Daniel de La Luna arrives as a scholarship student at an elite East Coast university, he bears the weight of his family’s hopes and dreams, and the burden of sharing his late uncle’s name. Daniel flounders at first―but then Sam, his roommate, changes everything. As their relationship evolves from brotherly banter to something more intimate, Daniel soon finds himself in love with a man who helps him see himself in a new light. But just as their relationship takes flight, Daniel is pulled away, first by Sam’s hesitation and then by a brutal turn of events that changes Daniel’s life forever.

As he grapples with profound loss, Daniel finds himself in his family’s ancestral homeland in México for the summer, finding joy in this setting even as he struggles to come to terms with what’s happened and faces a host of new questions: How does the person he is connect with this place his family comes from? How is his own story connected to his late uncle’s? And how might he reconcile the many parts of himself as he learns to move forward?

José Feeds the World: How a Famous Chef Feeds Millions of People in Need Around the World by David Unger | Illustrated by Marta Álvarez Miguéns | PICTURE BOOK

When a terrible earthquake hit Haiti in 2010, chef José Andrés knew he needed to help. Within a few hours of the disaster, he had gathered friends, they flew to the island, and they began cooking rice and beans for the hungry locals. This trip changed the life of the successful chef and led him to found World Central Kitchen, a disaster-relief organization that has fed more than 200 million people affected by natural disasters, the COVID pandemic, and war.

This beautifully illustrated book tells the story of a passionate chef who uses the power of food to nurture people in need, one plate at a time.

Interview: Our Otherness Is Our Strength by Andrea Navedo

In her book Our Otherness Is Our Strength: Wisdom from the Boogie Down Bronx, Andrea Navedo, known as Xiomara from the acclaimed CW series Jane the Virgin, reminds us that “When you show up for you, amazing things happen.” A short but powerful book, filled with lessons on how to thrive in our “otherness.”

Expanding on her commencement address to her former alma mater DeWitt Clinton High School as well as other speeches that she has given, Navedo proudly highlights how her upbringing in The Bronx has made her who she is today. From learning how to stand up for herself, to further exploring her culture, to becoming the representation she wished to see on television, Our Otherness Is Our Strength is an invitation from Navedo to believe in yourself.

Each chapter begins with a quote, wisdom that gets reflected throughout each unique story, and as we slowly get more intimate with Navedo, we start seeing that there’s no limitations to what one can achieve if you believe in yourself.

On behalf of Latinx in Publishing, I asked Navedo a few questions about the journey that led to writing her book, the importance of Latinx representation in the media, exploring your cultural history and more.

Tiffany Gonzalez (TG): I'm a huge Jane The Virgin fan and was excited to learn that you had a forthcoming book. I was also even more excited to learn that you were from the Bronx, as I spent my childhood there, until I was 13 years old. How did the idea for this book come into fruition. And why did you decide to focus on your upbringing and the Boogie Down?

Andrea Navedo (AN): I wrote this book because while I was on Jane the Virgin I was invited to give the commencement speech at the high school I graduated from. I had been wanting to write a book for a while. I wasn't sure what it was going to be about, but I felt like I had some ideas to share. And so when I got the invitation to give the commencement speech at Dewitt Clinton Highschool in The Bronx, I thought, Wow, here I am! It's 30 years later. What am I gonna say to these kids? I was one of those kids sitting in those seats. The response from the speech was so positive that I wanted to share what I told them, tell stories they related to, on a bigger scale. That’s where the idea for the book came from.

The other reason why I have the Bronx in the title is because when I was growing up, I felt like “the other”—one who's not part of the mainstream, not accepted. I felt that being from The Bronx was one of the things that made me “other.” Also, the reputation The Bronx has worldwide is as dangerous, a bad place. I wanted to shine a light on the humanity that is in that borough and show that good can come out of The Bronx, that wisdom can come out from there—and places like it. I wanted to focus on my upbringing to show the humanity of my community.

“I may not have gotten to see myself reflected on television, but I got to be the person to help create that reflection, that image.”

TG: OK, I grew up in the 90’s/2000s and watched a lot of TV in Spanish and English. It never dawned on me that no one ever looked like me until much later in life. It's one of the reasons that I love Jane the Virgin. I not only saw myself but my family in the characters. Can you talk more on why it's important for characters like Xiomara, to exist on television and your thoughts on the future of Latinx people in the media?

AN: I was aware, when I was growing up that I wasn’t being reflected on television and film. As a little girl, I had a dream of being an actress. I never shared it because it seemed like a pie-in-the-sky dream, unobtainable, especially because I didn't see my own images reflected on television—at least not in a positive way.

I’m a member of the Geena Davis Institute for Gender in Media. Her message is “If she can See it, she can Be it.” What she tries to promote are more female images in front of the camera, more female lead characters and she's also expanded that agenda to bring in more diverse characters, as well. I believe that motto is true, that if she can see it, she can be it. Unfortunately, I didn't see it. So it was really hard for me to believe that I could “be it.” I'm glad that I tried acting as a career anyway, because I got to be one of the people who have represented people like me and have created an image that could potentially inspire a younger generation of “others.” I may not have gotten to see myself reflected on television, but I got to be the person to help create that reflection, that image. That's really important to me. Jane the Virgin was the show that I needed when I was growing up. I needed that show. It would have meant so much to me. But the prize came later on for me, when I became an adult. I got to be the person to bring that gift, not only to my family, (because the women in my family didn't get to see it either) but to other generations of Latinos, people of color and a diverse background of so many cultures that related to Jane the Virgin. It is not just being Latina. That whole immigrant story makes sense to so many cultures in the United States and globally. I'm proud and happy that I got to be one of persons who helped tell that story.

TG: In the book, you discussed negative portrayals of The Bronx in the media, throughout your upbringing. Do you think those portrayals are different today? If so, how? What is something positive you wish for people to know about The Bronx?

AN: There’s definitely way more positive images of Latinos or people of color in the media now. That's because so many people have been speaking up for years, pointing out the discrepancy in the population at large versus what you see on the screen. There was a huge discrepancy there that makes a certain segment of the population feel left out, excluded, “othered.” That's really where my book comes from: feeling like “the other” but realizing that being “the other” and all the challenges that come along with that can be the very thing to help you succeed. Those challenges are what make you stronger. It made me strong enough to handle a very challenging career as an actor. Entertainment is still a very, very challenging career.

People may know that The Bronx just celebrated the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop, which was born in the Bronx! Hip Hop is a global, multibillion dollar industry. Who would have thought that those black and brown kids from the Bronx had anything to offer the world? And look at what they offered?! Hip Hop is not only for black and brown kids anymore. It's for all cultures. It has exploded. It’s been an amazing way of expressing the challenge of being “the other” through music and dance. It's resonated with so many people and so many cultures because everyone has some sort of otherness. Everyone has some challenge and hip hop is a way of saying F you to the Big System and carving a way for oneself. Another multibillion dollar influence is Salsa music. Salsa also comes from The Bronx. Many think that salsa music came from Puerto Rico or from Cuba. It has its influence from there but the birthplace of salsa music is The Bronx. But no one has to do something amazing or incredible in order to be validated. I want people to know that the people living in The Bronx or a place like The Bronx are human beings with dreams, wishes, wants, goals. These are people who care for their children, who want them to do well in the world, who want their kids to be safe and contributing members of society.

TG: I Absolutely loved the retelling of your time in Puerto Rico with your grandmother. I laughed when I read how much Sancocho you ate. I have to ask if Sancocho is still a go for you? 

AN: Ah Sancocho, I hardly ever eat because it's such a hearty stew and there's so much salt in it. I try to avoid soups because I’m watching my blood pressure. Fun, I know. . . If I'm given the opportunity, I would definitely have some as a treat, but Sancocho is so delicious and filling, I wouldn’t need to eat for the rest of the day!

“. . . learning the language, learning about your history, and traveling to your country of origin, really help give you a sense of belonging. ”

TG: We are in a pivotal time, people are exploring their histories more, doing the research they weren’t assigned growing up, fighting back the unjust systems trying to erase our past. What is your advice to those on this crucial journey?

AN: I would say to explore your heritage, your background, what your genetic makeup is. Learn where your parents and grandparents are from, where your great grandparents are from, because it will give you a sense of identity and belonging. I needed that growing up. As a kid, I knew I was Puerto Rican, but I didn't really know what that meant. Puerto Rico was just some island far off I had never been to. It sounded cool. I was an American, although I didn't feel American because I didn't look American. I didn't look like the people on TV. I kept asking myself, “Who am I and where do I belong?” Then I had the opportunity to go for a month to Puerto Rico to stay with my grandmother and have Sancocho and roast coffee beans from the family farm out in the sun, on the patio. I had the freshest, best coffee I've ever had in my entire life. That gave me a sense of identity and belonging. Then, as an adult, I decided to learn Spanish because I did not grow up speaking Spanish. I was technically second generation in the States and so even though my parents speak Spanish, they would always speak to me in English. They grew up in a time where assimilation was the most important thing. You had to assimilate into the American culture and on some level, you had to reject your family culture. There was a lot of racism that my parents experienced, especially my mom because she had brown skin, like me. My father had fair skin, blue eyes so it was a little easier for him to navigate the world, but for my mother, it was harder. As an adult, I started to learn Spanish, especially because when on that trip to Puerto Rico, I didn't know how to speak with my extended family members. I couldn't understand them and they made a comment that it was a shame that I didn't speak Spanish. I felt very embarrassed and said, “Hell no! When I get older I'm going to learn how to speak Spanish.” So when I graduated college I went to Mexico. It was cheapest of all those Spanish abroad Programs. I had some money saved up. I went to Mexico for three months, attended a Spanish school, lived with a family who didn't speak English and I learned so much during that time. After that, I studied in Manhattan at a really cool school that doesn't use textbooks. They teach in a way that is very natural to how we learn to speak languages. I also went to Cuba for a month to the University of Havana. I’ve done all this to claim my identity because learning the language, learning about your history, and traveling to your country of origin, really help give you a sense of belonging.

“Writing this book gave me the opportunity to look at where I was from and to see how far I had come.”

TG: Could you share some words of wisdom to those embracing  their “Otherness?” 

AN: Write down the negative experiences or feelings you've had growing up or even in your adult life. What were the challenges your otherness created? For me, the sense of being Latina and brown from The Bronx, made me feel like I was less than, not valuable enough to be an actor or to be a featured actor. But I persevered anyway. I pushed against that, and those things made me stronger. I lived in a tough neighborhood, was bullied, but I used that to make myself stronger. Back to your list. Write down your challenges, especially those that came with your otherness. Then list the achievements in your life. So often we focus on what we didn’t get and what was bad and wrong that happened to us and never stop to say, “Well wait, look what have I overcome and achieved.” That’s what was so great about writing this book. Writing this book gave me the opportunity to look at where I was from and to see how far I had come. Those are my words of wisdom. Do that exercise and see how your otherness has strengthened you.

TG: Finally, what can we expect next from you?

AN: *The audio version of the book will be coming out very soon. I'm actually going into the studio to record the audio book, so that's what's next for me! My next goal is to work on a TED talk or two, but nothing is in stone yet. For those who’ve never heard of a TED Talk, it’s a global organization that promotes speeches to help share ideas and get the word out to millions of listeners.

*The audio is now available via audible.

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Andrea Navedo is a Bronx-born-and-raised Puerto Rican American actress best known for her role as Xiomara, a complex and genuine Latina, on The CW’s series Jane the Virgin, for which she received critical acclaim. She is dedicated to various charities, including A Place Called Home in South Central Los Angeles, and the Fresh Air Fund in New York City. Navedo has a passion for self-improvement, growth, and healing, and through her experiences seeks to help those who see themselves on the outside looking in. She and her family divide their time between their homes in Toronto and Connecticut. 

Website: AndreaNavedo.com
Instagram: @andreanavedo
Facebook: /AndreaNavedoOfficial
Twitter: @andreanavedo

Tiffany Gonzalez is the Marketing Manager at Astra House and the Board Treasurer for Latinx In Publishing. She previously worked in Production at HarperCollins Publishers. She has worked on the Publicity and Marketing campaign for Dreaming of You by Melissa Lozada-Oliva and on the Marketing campaigns for Becoming Abolitionists by Derecka Purnell, National Book Award Finalist The Town of Babylon by Alejandro Varela and Y/N by Esther Yi. She was a 2022 Publishers Weekly Rising Star Honoree. She has earned her Bachelors and Master's degrees from Rutgers University - New Brunswick. She is Dominican-American and fluid in Spanish. You can follow her on Instagram @wandering_tiff_ and on Twitter @wanderingtiff or visit her website wanderingtiff.com.

Book Review: The Making of Yolanda La Bruja by Lorraine Avila

Sometimes the title of a book is all you need to see in order to decide whether or not you want to read it but this book brought the full package. The Making of Yolanda La Bruja by Lorraine Avila does not disappoint. From the title, to the powerful cover image, I was immediately drawn. The content of this book is also so well written that you are hooked from the start. The first chapter starts us on a journey and keeps us captured until the skillful wrap-up of the story in the final chapter.

As the story opens, the reader is treated to some of the mystical charms of Yolanda’s ancestors and her culture. Have you ever experienced a tarot card reading before? Well, Yolanda’s family lives a life full of tradition that is seeped in this way of life. They have beliefs in the powers that be and tarot cards, visions, and spells are part of their everyday life. This YA book is relevant to today’s issues, giving us a look at what school can be like for teenagers nowadays. Think fire drills versus active shooter drills. Yolanda’s unique abilities can be chalked up to being good at reading people but the storyline shows us that it is so much more than that. Yolanda is a seer of sorts and when a new boy transfers into her school, she gets a strange feeling about him. We join Yolanda on her adventures to try and stop a tragic event befalling her school and community.

Rich in so many traditions, The Making of Yolanda La Bruja gives us a deeper look at Brujeria and how it can be viewed as a religious experience, specifically pertaining to the story, in the Dominican Republic. A young girl living in the Bronx, excited to be turning 16, Yolanda is about to be further introduced to Brujeria. Throughout the story, she is faced with the challenge of trying to show a young boy what is special about her community, hoping that this will keep him from performing a most heinous act that could alter the face of her beloved community.

This book is rich, filled with flavorful words that come together to paint a coming-of-age story that centers tradition, religion, and the reality of being a teenager faced with the possibility of a tragic incident, too familiar to many people and communities across the United States and the world.

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Lorraine Avila (she/they) is a storyteller. Lorraine was born and raised in the Bronx, NY and is a first generation Dominican-American. Avila spent a decade as an educator in the K-12 education system. She has a BA from Fordham University in English, an MA in Teaching from New York University, and an MFA from the University of Pittsburgh. The Making of Yolanda La Bruja is her YA debut.

Angela “Angie” Ybarra is a senior student enrolled in the Nontraditional Degree Program (NDP) at Northeastern Illinois University. She hopes to work as a grant writer to assist local nonprofit organizations that address the issues of gentrification within Chicago's NorthWest side and help them find funding for their work. Angie loves to give her audience the opportunity to formulate their own views by presenting the facts or points of interest with the hope to move her audience into action.

“Journalism is what maintains democracy. It’s the force for progressive social change.” —Andrew Vachss, Author

Book Review: The Flower In The Skull by Kathleen Alcala

Kathleen Alcalá weaves together a story that begins over 100 years ago, in the community of the Opata Indians, in the Sonoran Desert. It is a story of three generations that centers around the life of Cocha. Starting amidst a small village, in a time of violence and war, we are invited to see the beauty of the land through Alcalá’s descriptive words, painting a vivid picture of the Opata Indians land. A land that is simple and yet grand in tradition, and the villagers, slight as they may be, are the strength of the village. Though a hard life to image and an even harder one to live, we witness the struggles that Cocha faces, soaking up the words of Alcalá.

The reader follows the travels of Cocha who is destined to live a life that is innately centered around survival. From a young age, Cocha realizes that her life will not be easy. Living in a land full of dream-like beauty, quiet and peacefulness, the reader quickly sees how Cocha’s home becomes overrun with the brutality of war. Soldiers invade, confiscate land, capture the men of the village and displace many others. Cocha must leave her home, her village and her way of life for the unknown. This book provides a look into the lives of ordinary people who faced extraordinary circumstances. Along the way, either by the need for self perseveration or the desire to keep the family together, Cocha faces many obstacles.

“This book provides a look into the lives of ordinary people who faced extraordinary circumstances. ”

Traversing generations, we are given a look into the hope, fear, vulnerability, ordinariness and the courage it takes Cocha to carry on her lineage, with the lesson that people are more alike than different, regardless of time and space. We see how Cocha goes from being a child, to her siblings caregiver in a breath. She experiences a shock in discovering her mother’s dependency on a man, lost, willing to walk away from her family; not looking back once.

Fast forward to the 1990s and we are introduced to Shelly. Shelly finds herself in Tuscan in search of details for a research project she is working on, when she stumbles upon a photo that gives her a connection to her past and her ancestors. The photo is of Cocha, who Shelly thinks looks like the only photo that she has of a family member. Could it be? Is fate intervening to provide Shelly with a renewed sense of self and a way to move forward in her own life, amidst that which has not changed—patriarchal attitudes.

Let this book provide you with a look at life in Cocha’s village, to the long dirt road that she travels to find herself, both literally and figuratively. We sit and watch in our mind’s eye a life unfold and give way to a tale of modern times. We discover the trauma of a generation and the healing process that takes place. You will enjoy this book, which originally appeared in the late 1990s and is the 2nd book of what was to be a trilogy. The Flower In the Skull, however, holds its own and stands alone as well. I enjoyed Alcalá’s style and her introduction of characters, the description of the land and the life of Cocha. Perhaps this tale will strike in you a desire to know more about who you are.

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Kathleen Alcalá was born in Compton, California, to Mexican parents and grew up in San Bernardino. She is the author of six award-winning books that include a collection of stories, three novels, a book of essays, and The Deepest Roots: Finding Food and Community on a Pacific Northwest Island, from the University of Washington Press. A member of the Ópata Nation, Kathleen makes her home on Suquamish territory.

Angela “Angie” Ybarra is a senior student enrolled in the Nontraditional Degree Program (NDP) at Northeastern Illinois University. She hopes to work as a grant writer to assist local nonprofit organizations that address the issues of gentrification within Chicago's NorthWest side and help them find funding for their work. Angie loves to give her audience the opportunity to formulate their own views by presenting the facts or points of interest with the hope to move her audience into action.

“Journalism is what maintains democracy. It’s the force for progressive social change.” —Andrew Vachss, Author

Author Q&A: Paloma’s Song for Puerto Rico by Adriana Erin Rivera

Paloma Santos is excited about her new diary. In her first diary entry dated July 16, 1898, she shares how her friend, Rosa, had brought her this leather journal from a market in Ponce.

Paloma is a 12-year-old girl who lives in Puerto Rico, on a large coffee farm with her mami, papi, and baby brother, Jorge. She has brown eyes and wavy brown hair. She loves to sing.

“Papi heard that 1898 would be an important year for us to remember,” Paloma writes in the diary. “He says we are in a war. It is between the United States and Spain. They are fighting over the island, our isla, we call home. We are a Spanish colony, but we are also Puerto Ricans.”

Out now from Capstone Publishing, Paloma’s Song for Puerto Rico: A Diary from 1898 by Adriana Erin Rivera is a historical fiction middle grade novel about one Puerto Rican girl during the Spanish-American War—during which the United States invaded the island. The book illustrated by Eugenia Nobati is part of Nuestras Voces, a new series in partnership with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Latino.

Paloma’s Song for Puerto Rico is told in diary format, which helps make the fears and anxieties around war more accessible to a young audience. Rivera—an author and singer/songwriter of Puerto Rican descent—said that she conducted a lot of research to tell this story properly.

“I was so inspired by this story—by this idea of Paloma and who she could be, and what she was looking forward to, this optimism, this hope she has,” Rivera said. “What would she be interested in as a child?”

The result is a taut and memorable story about one young girl and the lifelong impact of war on her and her family. And it’s also about a critical time in Puerto Rico’s history that would forever shape it.

Rivera spoke with Latinx in Publishing about crafting Paloma’s story, the research it entailed, and more.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Amaris Castillo (AC): Congratulations on Paloma’s Song for Puerto Rico! I understand this book was a collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum for the American Latino. How did you land the opportunity to write this story?

Adriana Erin Rivera (AER): This story came to me in a really surprising way. The publisher actually reached out to me and asked me if I would be interested in writing this book. They gave me some parameters of what they were looking for in a story like this, because it is part of a series. . . They had that it would be a Puerto Rican girl, 12 years old in 1898. And it’s all they gave me. They were like, ‘OK, go.’ Immediately I was inspired, and I built a story around these three details.

I was so inspired by this story—by this idea of Paloma and who she could be, and what she was looking forward to, this optimism, this hope she has. What would she be interested in as a child? I was also really inspired by my childhood visiting Puerto Rico. My abuelo had a farm in Aguadilla. So I pulled a lot of my own feelings of, what did Puerto Rico look like to me as a child? I pulled those ideas of Puerto Rico through a child’s eyes, and I built that into the story. And I think that’s really what came out in the book.

AC: Your main character, Paloma—lives on a finca with her parents and baby brother, Jorge. She’s very much a girl from el campo, as they say. She helps her mother in the house and also outside by helping to tend to the chickens and fruit trees. What was it like crafting this character from a time that is well over a century ago?

AER: I did a lot of research [Laughs]. Initially, I didn’t know so much about the Spanish-American War. It wasn’t really taught in the context of Puerto Rico in school for me, so I had to learn a lot to really tell the story properly and authentically. I didn’t want to mince words or talk down to readers, or shy away from things that were very real to the time, and very real to Puerto Rican people. It’s very important that we don’t lose track of what really did happen in our history. So it was very important to me to really keep that in mind as I was writing it.

AC: Your book is so lively with details about Paloma’s life, and snippets of information about the Spanish-American War? Tell us more about the research or resources you tapped into to get all those details for the story.

AER: I initially was overwhelmed by the fact that I didn’t know so much about the topic, but then I immediately thought, Where can I get the most information in the quickest amount of time? It was like a crash course in the Spanish-American War for me. I went to libraries and I reached out to the Newark, New Jersey Public Library, and they were able to give me all sorts of resource articles and the really in-depth things that you need to know without having to go over the top. I also got information from the Library of Congress. They have a whole timeline on their website, which is great because this (the book) is in diary form. So knowing what happened on each single day was super important, so I could really keep track of what was happening in Paloma’s life each day as the story goes on.

AC: What surprised you about Puerto Rico’s history while doing your research?

AER: It was really eye-opening for me. I learned about El Grito De Lares, which was a really important time for Puerto Ricans’ revolution against Spain. I learned a lot about how people in el campo really lived back then. There were a lot of resources at the Smithsonian that they wanted to include in the story, and they worked seamlessly into the story—like the tiple, the cuatro, the coconut bowls, and things that were really critical for people living there at that time. Just everyday things that were really important to how they lived back then. And knowing what those looked like and what those items were was really important to weave into the story.

AC: There’s a thread throughout the book about music, and its importance to not just Paloma and her father. And I know you’re a singer/songwriter, too. Why did you want to include music in this way in this story?

AER: Music is so important to Puerto Rican culture. It’s important to a lot of Latin American cultures—I think all of them. And it’s important to a lot of cultures in general. Music is how we tell our stories, right? I thought that music as a creative outlet for Paloma would be really important as a character, just in the sense that it was not just about the farm for her. What does she do? What is she interested in? Whether it was art, whether it was dancing, whether it was music, I wanted to find something that was in her heart besides just the farm. And I found that music would be the best way to showcase that, and weave it into the culture as well. The cultural aspect of that was going to be really critical, in terms of telling the story. And like I said, music is part of how we tell our stories through history. Her song really does resonate through that.

AC: What are you hoping readers take away from Paloma’s Song for Puerto Rico?

AER: When I set out to write this story, I wanted to make sure that Latinos see themselves as the stars of their own story. And I think that’s really what the Smithsonian is doing with this series, which I love. I wanted readers to see themselves as the stars of their own story. I wanted them to see themselves in the cover. I wanted them to see themselves as important. Our stories are important, so I wanted to make sure that was shining through. 

And then I also thought that within the story was really important because any reader’s culture can be showcased, and I wanted readers to see the book and think, ‘Well, I wonder where my family is from. And I wonder if there’s information about where my culture is from.’ Wherever their cultural origin is. . . I thought it would be important for them to see themselves and want to learn more about themselves.

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Adriana Erin Rivera is a New Jersey-raised author of Puerto Rican descent. Her writing has been published in Barzakh Magazine, Metro New York, Latina Magazine, and Footwear News. She is also a singer and songwriter, and has written theatrical pieces that have been performed on New York City stages. A magna cum laude graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology, she holds a bachelor’s degree in Advertising and Marketing Communications. Her latest middle grade historical fiction book, PALOMA’S SONG FOR PUERTO RICO: A DIARY FROM 1898, is a collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum for the American Latino. Currently based in Westchester County, NY, Adriana is a Marketing Manager at a higher-education institution in New York.

Amaris Castillo is an award-winning journalist, writer, and the creator of Bodega Stories, a series featuring real stories from the corner store. Her writing has appeared in La Galería Magazine, Aster(ix) Journal, Spanglish Voces, PALABRITAS, Dominican Moms Be Like… (part of the Dominican Writers Association’s #DWACuenticos chapbook series), and most recently Quislaona: A Dominican Fantasy Anthology and Sana, Sana: Latinx Pain and Radical Visions for Healing and Justice. Her short story, “El Don,” was a prize finalist for the 2022 Elizabeth Nunez Caribbean-American Writers’ Prize by the Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival. She is a proud member of Latinx in Publishing’s Writers Mentorship Class of 2023 and lives in Florida with her family and dog, Brooklyn.

Best Books of 2023 According to Latinx in Publishing

So many wonderful books have been published this year, both frontlist and newly released in paperback. Here are the best books according to Latinx in Publishing. We hope you enjoy this list, and can’t wait to see what these authors bring us in the future. Happy reading!

THE LESBIANA’S GUIDE TO CATHOLIC SCHOOL by Sonora Reyes (paperback)

“This book made me laugh, this book made me cry, this book made me want to hug the main characters and also hug my teenage self–this is the kind of book that I would have loved to have read growing up, and that I’m so thrilled is out for other queer Latine teens to read now. It’s just a wonderful hug of a book.” –-Vanessa Aguirre, Writers Mentorship Co-Director

CREEP: ACCUSATIONS AND CONFESSIONS by Myriam Gurba

“I cackled at one of Myriam’s readings of this book where she said that if she wrote about every creep in existence, past, present and future, the book would be never ending. Well, I finished the book and I wish she would. With an essay collection packed with insight, jokes, and prowess, Myriam’s on the frontlines taking down creeps lurking amongst us, most in plain sight.” —Andrea Morales, Board Member, Writers Mentorship Co-Director

Promises of Gold / Promesas de oro by José Olivarez

“This book gave me so much nostalgia. It made me giggle, made my eyes watery, and motivated me to write more poetry. I also love that it comes with a  Spanish translation.” —Ruddy Lopez, Communications Co-director

What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez by Claire Jiménez 

“Hopeful and healing, this debut novel is about the fierce love between sisters, mothers, and daughters trying to unravel an unsolved family mystery. With multiple points of view, by book’s end the true-to-life characters felt like family.” —Stefanie Sanchez Von Borstel, Board Member, Programs Director

The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas

”This was my first time reading horror and I had no idea what to expect. I couldn’t have made a better choice because I was completely engulfed in the world that Cañas built. I also loved that there were historical fiction components in the novel. Taking place after the Mexican War of Independence, a woman finds solace in escaping to the countryside, to find what she believes will be her freedom, except instead she finds a creepy house that is overtaken by an evil spirit and secrets that could destroy her.”  —Tiffany Gonzalez, Communications Co-Director

Dulcinea by Ana Veciana-Suarez

“Everyone knows the story of Don Quijote.  Now we meet his love, his muse – Dulcinea. She is not a wallflower but a strong, vibrant heroine and this is her story.  Loved all the historical details, the complex characters and the new spin on a classic love story.” —Maria Ferrer, Board Member, Events Director

A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens by Raul Palma

“A darkly funny, offbeat, and tender debut novel about a skeptical babaláwo working at a botánica in Miami, haunted by the death of his wife, his childhood in the Bolivian silver mines, and his indebtedness, which rivals the devils in this modern Christmas ghost story.” —Toni Kirkpatrick, Board Secretary

Book Review: Where There Was Fire by John Manuel Arias

We don't learn our family history all at once. We learn it in fragments, casual asides, and eavesdropping. Tangents are important, oftentimes everything. We master the art of listening as much as we master the art of interjecting because storytelling can be as interactive as it is captivating and, while we do take the scenic route, we get to the point. Children of a certain generation also know which questions to ask and won’t ask them. That is to say, some of us hesitate on subjects we inherently know are delicate. And it’s in this tension of what’s withheld that John Manuel Arias brilliantly writes his debut Where There Was Fire, detailing a strained family saga haunted by the colonial history and machismo it’s set against. 

The novel opens with a hot night in 1968 Costa Rica, an evening we soon learn was planned to be spent as a date to the local theater, that culminates in a destructive fire and murder. Told in shifting multi-generational perspectives traversing time, the women of the novel are left to make sense of what came to pass that night and in the years since. Illustrated by the novel’s nonlinear narrative approach, piecing together family history doesn’t happen chronologically. Like an investigator’s wall crowded with tacks and string, we trace a web of evidence to the novel’s present time, 1995, when the oldest daughter of the family is intent on answers, for her own sake and for the sake of her son. However, this pursuit comes more easily to us as readers with valuable access to various points of view that render a fuller scope of the tragedies wrought throughout the novel. Where a mother may feel righteous in her bitterness, we may see a daughter who has a right to her pain. In the novel, Arias pens a range of voices so that we see it’s not just one stake in the matter, it’s several. 

Arias, who is also a poet, writes this story with lyricism and evocative imagery expressive of Latin American canon. During his September in-person event at Book Soup LA for the novel, Arias discussed the necessity he felt in writing a speculative family history that leaned into magical realism rather than shied away from it. The mesmerizing croaks of toads (which I made the mistake of listening to on the Internet) and the myths woven into the story are the most memorable for me. And while I’m sure there is more than one reason Arias had to use this narrative style, the one I think about the most is that he’s haunted. He said as much, matter-of-factly describing his life living with ghosts. I thought about this a lot while I read the novel because being haunted can feel like nagging nostalgia, and I realized that all the women in the novel are haunted by their histories, including the parts unbeknownst to them. But it seems that, apart from the greed that drives the colonization of Costa Rica and the U.S. capitalization of locally farmed bananas and other crops, the women are directly harmed by the men in their lives too; by family members, friends, and the specters of machismo. And Arias shows us this harm processed by Costa Rican women, who sit with each other and drink instant coffee, in a country famous for their coffee beans.

This harm can seem so ordinary in a culture steeped in misogyny, to live with the omnipresent forces of patriarchy backed by a dominant religion and colonization. But Arias skillfully takes a deeper look at the family’s women of several generations, revealing their relationship dynamics, bringing forth their individual agencies and responsibilities to each other, and where they failed too. One of the book’s cruxes is mother-child estrangement and understanding what it takes to go against the societal norms woven into the culture, to have a child dignify themselves worthy of respect rather than blindly accept a mother who vaguely does everything “for a reason.” The novel’s narrative choices makes the estrangement more mystifying, since we don’t have all the information right away, pulling our sympathies in all directions. So while the search for explanations may be less complicated to us as willing readers, the novel challenges us to do the heavy work of feeling our conflicting emotions.

““Where There Was Fire” examines whether time can heal generational wounds, if forgiveness can come with time, or if grudges and pain are as much part of our inheritance. I think Arias points to mercy instead. The rains of Costa Rica could cleanse a fire.”

When I think about Where There Was Fire, the heartwrenching question I come back to is: what could have been if generational pain didn’t make a family so guarded with each other? Though the pain is shared and passed around, it can be so isolating. The avoidance—and cowardice—that spans decades is toxic, and in the novel Arias runs this up against the toxicity of the pesticides used by the American companies mining bananas with fervor. The colonial and capitalistic harm done to Costa Ricans is a major part of the generational trauma the novel’s characters contend with, and that’s the thing: how does a Costa Rican family have the space to understand one another under the gigantic and violent shadow of U.S. capitalism? It informs their dynamics, a legacy that was crudely and unsuccessfully shrouded by those same American companies, the living ghosts Costa Rican descendents live with. Ultimately, in family histories, Arias sensitively shows us how misunderstandings brew in silence and resentments nestle in what is left unsaid. It makes it easy for violence. Where There Was Fire examines whether time can heal generational wounds, if forgiveness can come with time, or if grudges and pain are as much part of our inheritance. I think Arias points to mercy instead. The rains of Costa Rica could cleanse a fire.

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John Manuel Arias is a queer, Costa Rican American poet and writer, and the National Bestselling author of Where There Was Fire, a Good Morning America Buzz Pick and Barnes & Noble Discover Pick. A Canto Mundo fellow & an alumnus of the Tin House Summer Writers Workshop, his prose and poetry have been published in The Kenyon Review, PANK, The Rumpus, and Akashic Books. He has lived in Washington D.C., Brooklyn New York, and in San José, Costa Rica with his grandmother and four ghosts.

Andrea Morales is a Board Member and Fellowship & Writers Mentorship Director of Latinx in Publishing. As a Contracts Associate at Macmillan, she works on and negotiates various book agreements on the adult and young adult trade side. She is from and based in Los Angeles, where she graduated from the University of Southern California with a B.A. in English Literature and a minor in Psychology. She previously interned as an editorial assistant with Red Hen Press and a literary agent. A daughter of Guatemalan immigrants, her special mission is to boost the visibility of Central American writers and literature. You can find her on Instagram as @guatemalcriada and lurking on Twitter as @guatemalcriada.