Scan barcode
omurphy's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
fast-paced
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault
joceloreads's review
5.0
I couldn’t put this book down once I started to binge read it. My heart aches for the matriarchs in this novel. It was an eye opening perspective from someone who has immigrated from Guatemala to the US and the sacrifices that come with that difficult move.
Water was a constant image in this book and I feel it represented growth. The memory of the rio by the dump to falling into her friend’s pool. Of course including images of the water of the Rio Grande. they were telling moments of where the narrator was mentally and emotionally in her state of mind. One of my favorite lines about water is, “I swore to never forget the sweetness of the water in my motherland.”
The poems provided a pause in the story line to set the tone of significant situations. Overall, it was a beautiful book.
Water was a constant image in this book and I feel it represented growth. The memory of the rio by the dump to falling into her friend’s pool. Of course including images of the water of the Rio Grande. they were telling moments of where the narrator was mentally and emotionally in her state of mind. One of my favorite lines about water is, “I swore to never forget the sweetness of the water in my motherland.”
The poems provided a pause in the story line to set the tone of significant situations. Overall, it was a beautiful book.
toria_dussault's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism and Domestic abuse
idleutopia_reads's review against another edition
5.0
A memoir weaving bilingual poetry with an economy of words that are full of such linguistical riches that truly prove that sometimes less is more. I’m not sure how Claudia D. Hernandez was able to do it but she truly transported us back to her childhood and we got to see her life through that innocence. The importance of this story is that it gives voice to three generations of women that are simply trying to survive while dealing with the immigrant experience of having a mother leave her daughters behind; making the ultimate sacrifice to leave behind a toxic marriage and to provide a better future for her daughters. The trauma that linked each generation is so wonderfully explored, that in the end I felt I understood each women, I was in their circle crying with them at their pain and admiring the strength it took to survive everything that came their way. To top it all off, Claudia takes us with her through her 21 day journey of crossing the border to El Norte, when her mother comes back to Guatemala to take her daughters with her. We bear witness to this harrowing journey and then to the assimilation process that seems to only work by stripping away the unique parts of you and those deemed different. The importance of this story is that it’s an own voices account to the Central American immigration story that is prevalent today but that many of us might not know on a personal level. Claudia D. Hernandez makes the story personal and the vulnerabilities we are allowed to witness make this a story that you are not likely to forget. I also want to commend this story for allowing us to read between the spaces of the line, for allowing us the freedom to guide our own emotions solely based on the vast landscape that Claudia D. Hernandez paints. She never manipulates our emotions by throwing vacuous lines or tawdry sentiments. Even in the sparsity of the words she uses she is able to paint such a beautiful tapestry that in the end we can’t help but empathize with her journey and to admire the work she has crafted in this 178 page story. I would strongly suggest you read this book. It was one of the best things I’ve read this year.
More...