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A review by shelfexplanatory
Dominicana by Angie Cruz
4.0
DOMINICANA by Angie Cruz is the story of a 15 year old girl named Ana, who is forced to leave her family in the Dominican Republic to immigrate to New York with her new husband. This book takes place in the mid-60's, and although it is a relatively short book, it covers a variety of themes such as immigration, migrant workers, colorism, and the American Dream.
Cruz does a great job at humanizing all the characters, which is what really stood out to me about DOMINICANA. Ana's husband Juan is twice her age, controlling to the point of abusive, and generally not a lovable character. We follow Ana's point of view for the entire book and see her resentment for Juan firsthand.
In between the lines, though, I was also able to understand Juan's flaws and see that as a migrant worker, he is making sacrifices of his own in order to succeed in the American Dream. While this isn't enough to absolve him in the eyes of the reader, it provides us insight to the difficult situations that migrant workers and immigrants have to navigate in order to make it in America.
Ana's character arc was also both satisfying and eye-opening. I had to constantly remind myself of how young Ana is throughout, and how the situation she was in forced her to grow up too quickly.
cw: sexual content, domestic abuse, abuse of a minor (physical and sexual), pregnancy, extramarital affairs
Cruz does a great job at humanizing all the characters, which is what really stood out to me about DOMINICANA. Ana's husband Juan is twice her age, controlling to the point of abusive, and generally not a lovable character. We follow Ana's point of view for the entire book and see her resentment for Juan firsthand.
In between the lines, though, I was also able to understand Juan's flaws and see that as a migrant worker, he is making sacrifices of his own in order to succeed in the American Dream. While this isn't enough to absolve him in the eyes of the reader, it provides us insight to the difficult situations that migrant workers and immigrants have to navigate in order to make it in America.
Ana's character arc was also both satisfying and eye-opening. I had to constantly remind myself of how young Ana is throughout, and how the situation she was in forced her to grow up too quickly.
cw: sexual content, domestic abuse, abuse of a minor (physical and sexual), pregnancy, extramarital affairs