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July 2024

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Emergency Preparedness: Are You Ready?
05/28/2024

Farewell from the 2023/24 Social Work Interns
05/28/2024

Gina on the Horizon
05/28/2024

Mark Your Calendars for the Healthy Aging Research California Virtual Summit
05/28/2024

Meet Our New Development Associate
05/28/2024

Putting the Strategic Plan into Practice
05/28/2024

Washington Park: Pasadena’s Rediscovered Gem
05/28/2024

Introducing Civil Rights Discussions
05/22/2024

Rumor of Humor #2416
05/14/2024

Rumor of Humor #2417
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Rumor of Humor #2417
05/14/2024

Rumor of Humor #2418
05/14/2024

Springtime Visitors
05/07/2024

Freezing for a Good Cause – Credit, That Is
05/02/2024

No Discussion Meeting on May 3rd
05/02/2024

An Apparently Normal Person Author Presentation and Book-signing
05/01/2024

Flintridge Center: Pasadena Village’s Neighbor That Changes Lives
05/01/2024

Pasadena Celebrates Older Americans Month 2024
05/01/2024

The 2024 Pasadena Village Volunteer Appreciation Lunch
05/01/2024

Woman of the Year: Katy Townsend
05/01/2024

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Review: AMERICAN DIRT

By Ms Vyk
Posted: 07/02/2020
Tags:

AMERICAN DIRT by Jeanine Cummins

REVIEW BY MS. VYK for the Pasadena Village

 

Excellent writer. Excellent story. Excellent character development. Riveting and eye-opening. This author may not be Latina but she did her homework. She convincingly tells the harrowing story of what it must be like to live in a cartel-driven landscape. What it means to have to flee one's home and loved ones. What it means to suffer grief so deep it defies explanation. Some of the passages were weepingly beautiful. I was immediately transported to the plight of this mother and young son, their fellow migrants and their inner turmoil.  There was compassion, tenderness and love, too, that was expressed throughout the book.

There is substantial controversy surrounding this book. I do not agree that the author "appropriated the culture” or that there were stereotypes depicted. Not true! Everything she writes about is based in reality. Corrupt law enforcement. The deadly risk of “riding THE BEAST” (hopping freight trains). Rape, extortion and thievery.  The perils of crossing the border from Mexico to the U.S. and more. I learned so much. And although I was running to the Spanish-English dictionary every so often, that was okay. I did the same thing with LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA and THE HUMMINGBIRD'S DAUGHTER, learning mucho espanól in the process!

A couple of “yucky” moments particularly in this time of the Covid-19 pandemic:  I cringed when one of the characters gives his lip balm to a new friend to use on his chapped lips and then nonchalantly takes it back from him.  Another instance occurred when a harmonica was passed back and forth, sharing in some musical frivolity, and in the process exchanging major droplets of saliva. As the book was written before the pandemic, however, this can be forgiven.

All in all, I found AMERICAN DIRT to be a "must read" for any curious, intelligent reader who wants a glimpse into the life of migrants trying to escape their hellish lives. This book will inspire you (like it did me) to seek out other stories of this nature by Latino or other writers who may have experienced this same type of journey.

June 30, 2020

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