Sister Chicas by Lisa Alvarado, Ann Hagman Cardinal, and Jane Alberdeston Coralin is part of my Year of the Latina, Part II.

The novel tells the story of three very different Latinas growing up in Chicago who find each other and create a familia of their own. It helps that each girl (Taina, Grachi, and Leni) are all only-children, but they soon grow to call each other sisters, thus the title: Sister Chicas. Each girl is written by a different author. I went to hear a book reading a few months ago and the authors let us know that they wrote each part on their own. Sure they called each other up while writing the difficult parts. There isn't a rape or murder in the book, but some scenes are autobiographical and were difficult for the authors to write about.

It is ironic that I chose this book during YotLII. A lot of scenes often felt autobiographical to me. Because of that, I was able to identify with each character on a different level. I guess that is the beauty and genius of these three writers.

Leni is the chica who attempts to not be so Latina. It's fairly easy for her to do as she looks more like her Irish mother than her Puerto Rican father. Her father died when she was a young girl, which is one of the reasons she shuns her Latina side. Grachi is the chica who embodies the hard-working, never selfish, always sacrificing for others Latina. She's an excellent student, a natural leader, and rarely takes time for herself. She knows that her parents sacrificed a lot to come to the States from Mexico in order for her for have a good life. She doesn't want to risk letting her parents down. Taina is the new chica on the block. Her and her mother moved from Puerto Rico during high school. Her mother is quite protective of her mija mostly due to the fact that Taina's father walked out on them and her mother needs to control something. Why not her only daughter?

The novel revolves around Taina's quinceanera - totally planned by her mother from start to finish. How does Taina, who doesn't quite feel right in her own skin and is paranoid that she will alienate her best friends by asking them to be in her quinceanera, get thru all of this? By falling in love of course!

Sister Chicas is written for the high school crowd. It's cute, it's somewhat predictable, but it's also pretty real in terms of Latina life and also in Chicagoness. There were a few parts where I thought, hmmm...that's so not Chicago, but I had to let them pass. So what if one of the authors called the El the metro?

There is a great smack down between Leni and Grachi that was just so hard to read. It felt so real and honestly, hit too close to home. Leni, the punk rocker, takes good girl Grachi to task for being too self-sacrificing. Grachi hits back by telling Leni how much it hurts HER to see Leni scoff at their shared Latinaness. "How do you think it makes me feel to see you push us away, me and taina and everything that's important to us, everything we love?" - Grachi to Leni (page 141).

The Chicas have it out. Down and dirty. Cleaning off all the crap that is on their respective chests. And you know what? They come out of it loving each other even more.

See, I told ya it's predictable.

But it was awesome to return to a good high school novel. It was PERFECT summer reading. And while the novel is being labeled as "Chica Lit", I don't think that it is just a story for us Latinas. So if you know of a teen-aged girl looking for something smart to read, why not get this? And before you have it gift wrapped, preview it for her.

I think this would be a great conversation starter for that hip aunt.

Labels: Books, latina