clap when you land

For Banned Books Week, One World authors discussed what they wished they had learned in school. As in what they felt was missing from their yearslong education presumably from kindergarten to college. The conversation centered on the absence of racial and ethnic groups that make up the fabric of the United States and the context of discrimination against these groups. English and history classes became a target where authors said they didn’t recall reading works by entire groups of people, their voices missing from our curriculums.

We’re in the midst of National Hispanic American Heritage Month. From Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, we as a country are celebrating the histories, cultures, and contributions of Americans whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. The middle of September marks the independence days for Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, and Chile.

I don’t read enough books by Latina authors. I started she lit to document my adventures of becoming a published author like blogging about the literary industry conferences and networking events I attended in Los Angeles. One factor I realized as a future author is the necessity to read current works. That’s when I noticed the diversity and inclusion conversation in book publishing. And that’s when I realized I read mostly books by men because that was what was marketed to me the most, recommended to me the most. When I started adding more books by women to my #ToBeRead list, I added books by Black women because as a Black woman who had attended predominantly White schools, I rarely had the opportunity to invest the time into reading books by women whose experiences I can identify with.

The disappointing realization that I need to read more books by Latinas occurred to me months ago while examining my book collection. Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of Butterflies and Yo! stared at me from my bookshelf, both fixtures that have been there for years, but the time to read them always slips away. I reread The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros a few years ago since we share Chicago roots, and I had to experience her part of Chicago again. The thick hardcover of Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés sits unread though I bought it last year to replace the paperback Jada Pinkett Smith gifted my class at Spelman College that later made its way to the jungles of Africa with my sister. It didn’t return intact.

As a challenge, I read three books in a row:

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Dominicana by Angie Cruz

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

Other content related to Latina authors you can find on she lit include:

Why the Latinx Literary Community Is Warning Us About ‘American Dirt’

Book Review: ‘Sabrina & Corina’ by Kali Fajardo-Anstine

‘The View’ Co-Host Sunny Hostin Gushes Over Debut Novel

Book Launch: ‘The Education of Margot Sanchez’ by Lilliam Rivera

I look forward to blogging about more works by Latina authors, and diversifying that list even more since many of the ones I have read recently are of Dominican descent. Like many readers open to broadening their perspectives, there is always room for improvement. Leave a comment below on the books you recommend by Latina authors 👇🏾

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo explores how a father’s dual life impacts two daughters with two different identities who have to unify as one to move forward past tragedy.

Camino Rios and Yahaira Rios are half-sisters, but they don’t know about each other until their father dies in an airplane crash flying to the Dominican Republic like he always does for the summer.

Camino, who lives on the island, is devastated, especially since she had lost her mother years before to illness. Her best friend, Carline, is occupied with her boyfriend and their impending baby. Camino’s aunt, Tia Solana, takes care of her and the community as a healer. With hopeless New York City university dreams, Camino throws herself into training to become a healer, so she can follow in her aunt’s footsteps and assist her friend.

Yahaira lives on an island, too. Born and raised in the Morningside Heights section of Manhattan, she was a promising chess player until she found out her father’s secret. As the secret eats her alive, she faces her father’s untimely death and leans on her girlfriend, Dre.

The closer it gets to burying their father, the more secrets Camino and Yahaira’s extended family reveal, including about each other. Chatting via social media, they try to accept each other in their grief and unite to make sure their father receives the proper burial.

This is so far one of the top young adult novels in verse. Another competitor is Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi, who is also Dominican, and Dr. Yusef Salaam of the Exonerated Five. Novels in verse are becoming more popular in YA literature, but it’s difficult to deepen characters and storylines when writing long poems in the form of chapters. But Elizabeth Acevedo―an awardee for her previous two YA novels, The Poet X, and With the Fire on High, does an excellent job of navigating two separate lives handling unexpected grief. She says she was inspired by the real-life crash of American Airlines Flight 587, where most of the passengers had ties to the Dominican Republic and traveled back and forth from New York. Since it occurred weeks after 9/11 and had no ties to terrorism, the tragedy lost steam in American media as the Dominican community stateside continued to grieve. The loss of a parent hits the two characters but so do the lies that their father kept. The trauma and betrayal are spelled out in the pages as we get to know Camino and Yahaira more, especially when they are roaming through their own labyrinths of confusion.

Overall, the portrayal of two sisters interpreting their father’s fate miles apart from each other without knowing each other elevates the emotions in this novel. The gravity of the situation also feels authentic as the main characters try to figure out what’s next for them at a time when they are preparing to enter the real world.

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