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379 reviews for:
For Brown Girls with Sharp Edges and Tender Hearts: A Love Letter to Women of Color
Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez
4.53 AVERAGE
379 reviews for:
For Brown Girls with Sharp Edges and Tender Hearts: A Love Letter to Women of Color
Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez
4.53 AVERAGE
A perfect book to give to the budding Latinx feminist - a book I wish I would have had when I was 18. I'm excited for all the young people to find this book and learn from this stunning collection of essays that hold no punches. Unapologetic fierce Latinx ways of being provided within these pages. Thank you to Prisca for writing this, it was an offering that I was grateful to witness and receive through her words and vision.
3.5! i think this could be radicalizing for woc fresh into academia or just beginning to identify & name systems of oppression.
4.5* I wish so badly that I had this book when I was younger and still gaining value from my proximity to whiteness. I will be making my white male partner read this book ASAP.
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Never have I considered rereading a book until FOR BROWN GIRLS WITH SHARP EDGES AND TENDER HEARTS by Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez. This book had me in all of my feels. I read it slowly and inhaled each word like my next breath depended on it. Oof. I felt seen, understood and validated in so many of my feelings. The journey reflected between the pages of self-love, religion, masculinity, feminism, beauty and just the overall deciphering of the world we live in resonated with me in ways no other text has done so before. I had moments where I just sat and reflected on my own life with tears in my eyes. This was beautiful, raw, honest and necessary.
Here are just a few of the sentences that resonated with me…
“People like me do not get degrees for the fun of it; we do it because we believe it will open new doors for us, new opportunities. I felt like I needed a degree for my life to be different, for things to be better.”
“I did not score well on my GRE, because standardized tests are racist, classist, ableist, and designed to weed out those who do not belong inside the pristine walls of academia.”
“White beauty ideals are both patriarchal and racist, and they suffocate Black, Indigenous and women of color.”
“We don’t just have to call out white people for their racism. We also have to dismantle internalized racism within communities of color.”
“Code-switching is for the benefit of white people, whether they are in the room or not.”
“I am exhausted.”
Here are just a few of the sentences that resonated with me…
“People like me do not get degrees for the fun of it; we do it because we believe it will open new doors for us, new opportunities. I felt like I needed a degree for my life to be different, for things to be better.”
“I did not score well on my GRE, because standardized tests are racist, classist, ableist, and designed to weed out those who do not belong inside the pristine walls of academia.”
“White beauty ideals are both patriarchal and racist, and they suffocate Black, Indigenous and women of color.”
“We don’t just have to call out white people for their racism. We also have to dismantle internalized racism within communities of color.”
“Code-switching is for the benefit of white people, whether they are in the room or not.”
“I am exhausted.”
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
I agree with another review, that she is writing for a white audience and is over explaining things that a brown girl already experiences. It's also not what I expected. I was hoping for a heartfelt positive book but instead was full of injustice and anger at the oppressed system we live in.
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
The book I needed 💖 I have often felt the need to measure my success by my accomplishments - academic, climbing the career and professional ladder, etc. Where does this come from? Prisca breaks down the internalized white supremacy we latinas and biwoc face, and how we can heal and rise above. I know I will return to this book again and again. The audiobook version is beautiful, read by the author.
This letter was full of moments I felt: “This happened to me!”
Things I disliked:
In college and after college I read many of the authors and their theories that Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez (to honor her request) includes here. So, if you have had a chance to read bell hooks or Kimberlé Crenshaw, many of the theories she includes will just not be new or particularly eye-opening.
In the first few chapters, it totally feels like Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez is writing for a white audience because she overexplains certain aspects of her lived experiences that other Brown girls would not need explained.
I agree with some of the reviewers here that I did do an eye-roll when she described makeup as war paint. It felt cringey.
There are very few mentions of the overlapping between her identities with qeer folks. I understand, that is not her experience as a hetero woman, but an area she seemed to overlook especially from the perspective of her Christian upbringing.
Things I LOVED:
Everything else!
At the end of the book, I think she did a good job of ending this piece with this push toward community. It felt full of love and care. It is our job to love and care for those coming up and even hader yet to care for those who brought us to where we are.
Even though the theories she analyzed her life through are not new, I have had very few relationships with other Latinas with similar experiences. Most of my Latina friends are children of immigrants and while they have seen immigration through their parents, very rarely has it been a lived experience for them. Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez gave me a friend. I had never discussed my experiences with someone who shared them so much but also felt like me. Thank you!
The week when I read this book I kept thinking about centering my native language in front of my elementary students, I had a fight with my mom, and my partner and I had safety scare around our genders. All of this to say, this book kept me strong, motivated, brave, and compassionate.
I particularly appreciated the chaper on decoloniality as the ultimate goal–a never ending goal. A goal that can never be achieved alone.
I hope to return to this book for strength, for love, and for a ¡recuardate de lo qe te dije: desahogate!
Things I disliked:
In college and after college I read many of the authors and their theories that Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez (to honor her request) includes here. So, if you have had a chance to read bell hooks or Kimberlé Crenshaw, many of the theories she includes will just not be new or particularly eye-opening.
In the first few chapters, it totally feels like Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez is writing for a white audience because she overexplains certain aspects of her lived experiences that other Brown girls would not need explained.
I agree with some of the reviewers here that I did do an eye-roll when she described makeup as war paint. It felt cringey.
There are very few mentions of the overlapping between her identities with qeer folks. I understand, that is not her experience as a hetero woman, but an area she seemed to overlook especially from the perspective of her Christian upbringing.
Things I LOVED:
Everything else!
At the end of the book, I think she did a good job of ending this piece with this push toward community. It felt full of love and care. It is our job to love and care for those coming up and even hader yet to care for those who brought us to where we are.
Even though the theories she analyzed her life through are not new, I have had very few relationships with other Latinas with similar experiences. Most of my Latina friends are children of immigrants and while they have seen immigration through their parents, very rarely has it been a lived experience for them. Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez gave me a friend. I had never discussed my experiences with someone who shared them so much but also felt like me. Thank you!
The week when I read this book I kept thinking about centering my native language in front of my elementary students, I had a fight with my mom, and my partner and I had safety scare around our genders. All of this to say, this book kept me strong, motivated, brave, and compassionate.
I particularly appreciated the chaper on decoloniality as the ultimate goal–a never ending goal. A goal that can never be achieved alone.
I hope to return to this book for strength, for love, and for a ¡recuardate de lo qe te dije: desahogate!
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced