Latinas Book Club: A Year With Our Writers
In the months of working remotely at the beginning of autumn 2020, my colleague Ms. Gómez, of the 67th Street Library, suggested we read Dominicana by Angie Cruz for a virtual program. I pushed it further: how about an entire book club? A book club dedicated to Latinas, something not yet in existence at NYPL at that time. We gathered the support of Melissa, also of 67th Street Library, and Ms. Desrosier of Terence Cardinal Cooke-Cathedral Library, and we got to work making a list of all the authors we knew.
At first our list was of the authors we had grown up reading, but with further thought and research, we fleshed out that list and it was expansive—as if we needed further proof that we have amazing stories to tell, a vast literary canon of our very own to be proud of.
What a dream it has been to be a part of this book club so far, to relish in the words and stories of Latina and Latinx writers! After a year reading these authors, we have some reflections on the literature, and also on creating community around words. We have had one-time participants who have joined us from as far as Argentina, and our one regular who participates every month (my sister!). At the end of every meeting there is a palpable energy when everyone agrees that it was a good book. We are buoyed by the truths we found universal. We want to read more. We want to talk about it.
The Latinas Book Club discussions take place online. You can find out more and register to attend here.
A Conversation with Our Book Club Members
What was the first book you read that you thought reflected and represented you?
Desrosier: The Vanishing Halfby Brit Bennett. It reminded me of when I came to New York, how other kids from school made fun of me for being Haitian. They called me names and said that all Haitians smelled funny. When I started another school, I didn't let people know that I was Haitian. I rejected my background, identity and culture so I wouldn't be teased at school. The book also talked about running away from your racial identities and wanting/passing to be someone else.
Casillas: For me it was The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. My sister was reading it for school and I picked it up. I read it almost in one sitting! One of the most impactful vignettes was when Esperanza’s father must go to México because his father had passed away. It made me feel for my own father, who would in a few years also be receiving that call.
Melissa: The book that I thought represented me the most was Clap When You Landby Elizabeth Acevedo. This book was so beautifully written and raw as well as inspiring. I was on the verge of tears while reading certain sections. The title itself is a connection already because we all know that when we travel back to our native country, we always clap when we land. We can all relate to some of the stories and struggles faced by both sisters.
Why did you decide to co-facilitate this program?
Desrosier: I haven't read any Latinas authors/books before. I've been reading Black authors for years. I hadn't led or co-led any programs myself. At the Cathedral Branch, I had a volunteer running the Book Discussion Group. I thought this would be a good change and a new experience.
Casillas: I had wanted to start a book club focusing on Latinx literature for a while, but I am a children’s librarian so I didn't think I could! (Perhaps some day I’ll start a Latinas book club of middle grade titles for children.) The opportunity presented itself with this group of co-workers and I just had to ask whether they’d be interested in the idea.
Melissa: I thought it was wonderful for us to come together to learn about and connect more with all the different Latin cultures. It is awesome when all of us can find something in the books that we can relate to even though we're all from different backgrounds.
Gómez: It was Sept 25, 2020 while still in the virtual world due to the pandemic, I reached out to Aimé and Melissa about having a book discussion for the book Dominicana by Angie Cruz. I got immediate feedback that they would love to. I never expected it to go on for so long like it has. I’m extremely proud of all the work we put together to create a Latinas Book Club.
When you think of literature from your culture, what do you think of?
Desrosier: I think of food. I love reading their recipe books.
Casillas: I think of all the stories my grandmother used to tell me. She could have filled a whole book with some spooky stuff.
Melissa: I think of literature as a gateway to the past because I get to relive parts of my childhood. It takes me back to the time when I was living in the Dominican Republic.
Gómez: I think about all the stories that I hear my family tell. They talk about their times back in the Dominican Republic under the Trujillo regime. The needed to escape for a better life and the future of their family and loved ones.
What has been your favorite book so far?
Desrosier: Cantoras by Carolina De Robertis. I enjoyed how the group of ladies got together to support each other in a time of crisis. They had to overcome the military government, family dysfunction, and societal pressures to live their lives how they wanted to and be themselves.
Casillas: Eartheater by Dolores Reyes. I read it as Cometierra in the Spanish original and I thought the wording was exactly right. The metaphors the author used were so clever and incisive.
Melissa: Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado. The short stories in this book are so powerful and were written so magnificently by Machado.
Gómez: Dominicana by Angie Cruz. I enjoyed this book because I grew up in Washington Heights and I knew all the places that were mentioned in the book. Also, because I'm a Dominican womxn, I understood the struggles Ana went through to be able to bring her family to the United States from back home.
What We've Read So Far
Dominicana by Angie Cruz
For our very first book club pick we read Dominicana, a haunting tale (by our modern standards) about a young girl who is chosen to be the bride of an established man.
After the Trujillato, Ana’s family needs to create a lasting relationship with the Ruiz brothers, known to be successes in the United States. This bond will facilitate an improvement in the family’s finances and prospects. Ana, at fifteen years old, is expected to create a new life for herself in New York, to figure it all out. As she soon finds out, success can have a very shaky definition, depending on who is proclaiming it. Like in many immigrant stories, life is not at all how she imagined it would be. One thing that keeps her grounded is her little doll, her dominicana, and the hope that tomorrow could be a day full of real freedom.
A House of My Own: Stories from My Life by Sandra Cisneros
A House of My Own: Stories from My Life is a memoir in essays about what it means to be a writer—a Latina writer. Cisneros shows us with her magnificent flourishes how important it is to have a space to think, to write. Every essay is dedicated to a place. We learn about her time in Greece, about what it meant to visit her ancestral home in México, and that all-important place for writers: Iowa.
Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
Although cataloged as young adult literature, we couldn’t resist picking this book. Just look at that cover! This novel in verse written by Elizabeth Acevedo (whose novels have been in NYPL’s Best Books for Teens list every year since 2018), grips the reader with an alternating narration. Yahaira and Camino are sisters, but they didn’t know each other existed until their father dies in a plane accident on his way from New York to the Dominican Republic. It is very apropos that this happens in the middle of his travels, not here nor there. In the story, the sisters do not fall to the trope of rivalry, but instead give each other a chance and find a love they had been missing.
The Affairs of the Falcóns by Melissa Rivero
Ana faces constant pressure to be strong for her family. The threat of deportation back to Perú looms over her. Although she and her husband have fallen on hard times and had to move in with his cousin, Valeria, they try to maintain a sense of stability for their children. Conflicts arise inside the home (Valeria is increasingly disrespectful towards Ana), and outside (Mama, the neighborhood loan shark, expects her payments). In the end, the question is: how far would Ana go to protect her family?
Stubborn Archivist by Yara Rodrigues Fowler
Told in a combination of prose and poetry, Ana Paula, narrates her life in London while reminiscing about her family trips to Brazil. Some poems are just lists of Brazilian fruits, those that cannot be found in England, while others are about a much sharper and explicit distance from the motherland.
Cantoras by Carolina De Robertis
Five young women meet by chance in Montevideo during a time of fear, unspoken truths, and government censorship. La Flaca, Romina, Paz, Anita, and Malena go on a trip to the coast, to Cabo Polonio, where they hope nothing bad can reach them—as women, as women who love women. In the years that follow, the women find love and community, but they always go back to that place that was so life-changing for all of them.
Fiebre Tropical by Julián Delgado Lopera
Francisca still believes her family will move back to Bogotá. She misses her life and her friends and has no patience for the sticky days of Miami. She and her sister are expected at a new church her mother has fully pledged herself to, and even though her younger sister is apparently equally ready to participate, Francisca looks at everyone sideways. Who knew such devotion could be found in the conference hall of the Hyatt? Francisca decides to give it all a try when she sees Carmen, the youth group leader and pastor’s daughter.
Delgado Lopera’s voice comes through nice and clear, delivering this coming out/coming of age story full of humor and nuance.
Eartheater by Dolores Reyes
A girl discovers that she can conjure people in her mind by eating the soil they have stepped on. Most of the time, the people she sees are dead, and most of them are women caught up in the detestable grip of femicide. As word spreads of her abilities, her neighbors shun her, but then seek her help when they find themselves in need. She wants to not think about all the requests she gets. She wants to avoid and escape. But then again, is there any clean spot of earth, any place where horrors have not occurred?
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
Horror and science fiction combine in these short stories about women and their lives. There is the unforgettable story about a woman with a green ribbon around her neck, retold so that we understand the importance of boundaries and consent. There is the story about a woman at the shore, facing an island, running from place to place trying to avoid an infection. And one of my favorites, a story about a woman who undergoes a surgery in order to make her body fit into the norm, only to find out that it will haunt her in the end.
Unapologetically queer, unapologetically feminist, these stories showcase how genre fiction is an extremely apt tool to make social commentary.
Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor
If you’re looking for a light read, this isn’t it. The language is violent, yet impactful, in a way that only the truth can be. As a small town comes to terms with the murder of the witch, the reader gets glimpses into the minds of unreliable narrators, including one of the perpetrators.
Halsey Street by Naima Coster
Stagnating in her twenties, Penelope decides to move back to Brooklyn to help her father after a fall. But she won’t be going back home, since there’s not much of that left. Her childhood home is full of painful memories involving her mother: her negligence and her estrangement. Her Brooklyn neighborhood is getting gentrified. Although she confronts the white homeowners she rents from—if they feel so unsafe, why are they there?—it’s much more difficult to confront her parents, to point out who is accountable for what.
What We're Reading Next
Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz
Odes to the desert, acknowledgement of pain, and lots of inclusion of family (present and long gone). The poems in this collection shine with their brilliance and cut deep to the core of identity and the necessity of self-love for that identity.
Winner of the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry.
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Noemí is not taken seriously. She’s fabulous and beautiful, therefore she cannot be taken seriously. She wants to go to university, so her father promises she can go if she’ll go help out her cousin. The family got a distress signal from her (and because she is also not taken seriously), Noemí must go see whether she is actually in distress. Traveling from Mexico City, Noemí arrives in a small town where there are many tales told about the house she’s headed to. Her cousin is behaving strangely, but no more strangely than her husband and in-laws. Noemí must use her instincts and cleverness, or risk getting caught up.
And the winner for Most Popular Name for a Protagonist Award: Ana!
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