“She sticks her hand through the fence and wiggles her fingers on the other side. Her fingers are in el norte. She spits through the fence. Only to leave a piece of herself there on American dirt.”
–American Dirt, Jeanine Cummins
Synopsis:
A bullet comes through the bathroom of eight-year-old Luca’s abula‘s house in Acapulco. His mother Lydia, who is standing outside the room scrambles to hide herself and Luca within the shower stall, in an attempt to hide from the perpetrator. The gunfire relentlessly continues in the yard, trapping their entire family in its violence. From the moment the first shot rang out, Lydia and Luca’s reality was obliterated and remolded into an ugly harshness that will have them running for their lives.
As Lydia comes to terms with the implications of the reasons for the butchery of her family and forms a plan to escape Mexico, the heartbroken and shell shocked mother and son meet many people in their flee for safety. Some who offer nothing but empathy, and others who have more ominous intentions in mind. Unsure of who lays within the pocket of La Lechuza, the hefe responsible for the murder of her family, Lydia is mistrustful, paranoid, and extra vigilant with every encounter.
For all the hardship they suffer, the greed they are victims to, and the risks they watch others take and fail miserably at, Lydia and Luca are also met with nuggets of kindness. They cross paths with two sisters, Soledad and Rebeca, who are both breathtakingly beautiful (though they view this as a heavy burden) and are running from their own devils. The sisters show Lydia and Luca the ropes of jumping trains and from there, they travel together through the dangerous plain of Mexico, and weather misfortune after misfortune with each other. They just need to make it to the rendezvous location where they will meet El Chacal, an infamous coyote who will bring all of them over the border into the United States.
The four travelers form an indescribable bond that binds them not only in the monotony of traveling by hitched train rides and walking beaten dirt paths, but in protecting one another from the human and geographical perils that line the way, and threaten their ultimate goal: to secure a life without fear.
Review:
I’m going to start this review in a less lighthearted way than I’m accustomed to because this is not a lighthearted book, and the controversy around the writing of it is thorny and draconian. I’ve read a few reviews bashing Cummins for cultural appropriation, and having the audacity to take on the voice of Central and South American migrants. This book examines the experience of people coming from devastated home countries, infested with cartel activity and violence in an attempt to make their way on the treacherous and precarious journey into the United States. A white woman wrote it, and that’s caused quite a stir.
Frankly, I’m not interested in bashing an author for researching and creating a phenomenal book, all in the name of political indignation.
It’s tired, it’s overblown, it’s played out.
As a reader, I found this book insightful. It’s the kind of story that will light a fierce fire in your soul and open your eyes to the many cruelties and kindnesses the human spirit has a capacity for. The lengths a mother will go to to save her only child. How sisterly devotion has the capacity to travel 2,000 miles. That the smallest, most insignificant act of generosity has the power to make a rough road that much smoother in taking another step.
I will not go as far as to say it made me feel immersed in the immigrant experience. Words act as a window, but they can never equate to the reality of such suffering. I think reviewers who have become so caught up in the argument that Cummins has painted a watered down version of an immigrant’s journey to the United States, thus romanticizes that struggle, are overlooking the other themes entirely.
My challenge to others who read this book is to do so with an open mind. Appreciate the writing for what it is, without viewing it through a personal political lens and muddying the waters.
My takeaways may be simplistic in the grand scheme of all this book entails, but they are meaningful. This is a book that has truly touched my heart, broken it, and gently cupped it back together with the salve of hopefulness, empathy, and love. This is a book I will cherish for years to come, not because of the upheaval surrounding it, but in spite of it.
Click here for your copy!
Happy & healthy reading!
Lexi
