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Saturday, June 27, 2020

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika Sanchez

This is a Young Adult book that is recommended as a way to better understand the immigrant experience.  I think that Black Lives Matter, and it is the moment to focus on racial injustice in this country, to dismantle the structural racism and to move forward with defunding the police and addressing these profound wrongs.
I do not want to forget about the immigrants, who just this week ICE made a statement that they are in no way responsible for the sexual abuse of children they have in detention.  The situation is inhumane, unacceptable, and morally wrong.  So I do not want ot completely interupt my education in this area.
Julia is a teenager in a traditional Mexican immigrant family.  Her parents came via coyote over the border, and now live in Chicago.  She lives in an a Central American ethnic neighborhood, but unlike her older sister Olga, who elected to skip college and go to work, Julia wants to go to college and to be a writer.  Her parents do not get her at all, and Olga is killed in a pedestrian accident that leaves Julia adrift and at odds with her family.  The story is a coming of age one that we can all relate to, and well worth reading.

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