Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian; Once Upon a Quinceañera
31. Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Oh, that was fun. Snarky, angry, funny, fast-paced, with a keen sense of the ridiculous and a perceptive social eye. The book took a little while to grow on me, but once it did catch me I kept wanting to demand that folks listen to "this one passage here."
(Which is doable if it really is this one passage here. It's not so doable of there's such a passage every few pages.)
32. Julia Alvarez, Once Upon a Quinceañera.
Alvarez is deeply conflicted about the quinceañera. In a time where Latina teens have such distressingly high drop-out and pregnancy rates, is the "princess in the patriarchy fantasy" helping or hurting? Should working-class families really be going into debt to throw a fancy ball for their fifteen-year-olds? Does the quinceañera honor community and ethnicity, or is it an US-ian insta-tradition? Is it stimulating Hispanic economy, or is it playing into American consumerism? Is it an expression of hope for the girls' futures, or pessimism about them? Or both?
And given all her feminist-liberal doubts about the quinceañera, why, why does Alvarez get weepy over them? Is it the concrete demonstration of the community's love and hope for each of these girls? Or is she, in the end, just another sucker for a sparkly pink princess dress?
Interwoven into her exploration of the role and history of the modern quinceañera, she tells the story of her own prolonged and halting efforts to learn how to be a Latina adult in the U.S., to invent a role herself that is neither Marianisma nor Malinche. Which, of course, leads back to the question: what does it mean, as a Latina girl, to come of age? And if you were going to have a ritual to mark that---or to guide girl on her way---what should that ritual be?
As you might imagine, there are far more questions here than answers---although in her exploration of the questions, there's a lot she shares about culture, community, family, and history. But even if there are more questions than answers, sometimes there's as much value in figuring out what the questions can and should be, than in figuring out their answers.
Oh, that was fun. Snarky, angry, funny, fast-paced, with a keen sense of the ridiculous and a perceptive social eye. The book took a little while to grow on me, but once it did catch me I kept wanting to demand that folks listen to "this one passage here."
(Which is doable if it really is this one passage here. It's not so doable of there's such a passage every few pages.)
32. Julia Alvarez, Once Upon a Quinceañera.
Alvarez is deeply conflicted about the quinceañera. In a time where Latina teens have such distressingly high drop-out and pregnancy rates, is the "princess in the patriarchy fantasy" helping or hurting? Should working-class families really be going into debt to throw a fancy ball for their fifteen-year-olds? Does the quinceañera honor community and ethnicity, or is it an US-ian insta-tradition? Is it stimulating Hispanic economy, or is it playing into American consumerism? Is it an expression of hope for the girls' futures, or pessimism about them? Or both?
And given all her feminist-liberal doubts about the quinceañera, why, why does Alvarez get weepy over them? Is it the concrete demonstration of the community's love and hope for each of these girls? Or is she, in the end, just another sucker for a sparkly pink princess dress?
Interwoven into her exploration of the role and history of the modern quinceañera, she tells the story of her own prolonged and halting efforts to learn how to be a Latina adult in the U.S., to invent a role herself that is neither Marianisma nor Malinche. Which, of course, leads back to the question: what does it mean, as a Latina girl, to come of age? And if you were going to have a ritual to mark that---or to guide girl on her way---what should that ritual be?
As you might imagine, there are far more questions here than answers---although in her exploration of the questions, there's a lot she shares about culture, community, family, and history. But even if there are more questions than answers, sometimes there's as much value in figuring out what the questions can and should be, than in figuring out their answers.