Lucky Broken Girl

Although it’s almost March, I’ve succeeded in reading exactly one book from this year’s reading challenge. I went for what I thought would be an easy task: read a middle grade book that has won a diversity award.  Lucky Broken Girl by Ruth Behar is a quick read, but psychologically, it's a challenge.

Ruthie Mizrahi and her family are living in New York City after leaving Castro’s Cuba. Ruthie studies hard at school so she can go to the “smart class” and earns the respect of the neighborhood girls with her hopscotch prowess.

However, just as she is starting to fit into her new home, the family gets into a car accident. Ruthie wakes up to find she’s in a body cast from the waist down. Her world instantly shrinks to the confines of her bed. Although the cast is doing its job, ultimately it’s reading books, writing stories, and painting pictures that does the true healing.

When the cast is finally removed, Ruthie must learn to walk again. And the bedroom that once seemed like a prison cell now feels like a sanctuary she doesn’t want to ever leave. A strong-willed nurse insists that she try.

“The only way to deal with fear is to treat it like an unwelcome guest,” Amara tells Ruthie.  “If you keep entertaining it, you'll never be rid of it.”

Adam and Eve

Over the holidays I slowly made my way through Ahab’s Wife. I say slowly because there’s much to savor in Sena Jeter Naslund’s writing. However, when my professor referenced #3 on this list in his lecture last night, I wondered if cannibalism counts.  

In preparation for last week’s snow storm, yes, we did get bottle water. But more importantly we stopped at the library to stock up. So while the temperatures dropped, I found myself in a Middle Eastern oasis while rereading Naslund’s Adam and Eve.

Here’s what I said about this book in 2011:

Your mother is always right. Well, at least mine is. She's been recommending Ahab's Wife forever. And I keep relegating it to the bottom of the to-read list. But then I came across Sena Jeter Naslund's new book, Adam and Eve.

Lucy is a recent widow. Her late husband was a physicist studying extraterrestrial life. His work threatens those who believe proof of alien life forms would debunk their own creation myths. Just before his death, he leaves Lucy his flash drive containing his latest proof. Shortly thereafter, one of her husband's friends recruits Lucy to fly an ancient codex out of Egypt. Her enemies now have two reasons to find her.

Adam is an American soldier living in Eden. Having survived a brutal beating, he has made a primitive home for himself in a lost corner of the Middle East. His prayers for a companion are answered when Lucy's plane crashes into his midst.

Naslund's description of Adam's awakening breathes new life into the story as old as Genesis. Other authors have tackled the subject, but placing the characters in a future world reminds us we probably always strive for the forbidden fruits. And after we've taken the first bite, a mother will be there to say "I know." Then you will listen.

International Day of Prayer and Awareness against Human Trafficking

In honor of St. Josephine Bakhita's feast day today, I'm re-posting about two books which address human trafficking.

Sold as a Slave by Olaudah Equiano, an excerpt from a longer work published in 1789 called The Interesting Narrative, recalls Equiano’s capture in Africa, separation from his sister, and service –as a slave – in the royal navy, and treatment under various owners. He writes, “Every circumstance I met with served only to render my state more painful, and heighten my apprehensions, and my opinion of the cruelty of the whites.”

The mature tone of the narrative makes the reader forget that at the time these events take place the writer is not yet 12 years old. Remarkable is the number of times he mentions a kindness of his masters. After converting to Christianity in his later years, he seems truly puzzled that any man could think that holding himself above another was what God intended.

Tragically, this practice persists today. Kevin Bales in his TED talk "How to Combat Modern Slavery" tells us this:

“The average price of a human being today, around the world, is about 90 dollars. They are more expensive in places like North America. Slaves cost between 3,000 to 8,000 dollars in North America, but I could take you places in India or Nepal where human beings can be acquired for five or 10 dollars. They key here is that people have ceased to be that capital purchase item and become like Styrofoam cups. You buy them cheaply, you use them, you crumple them up, and then when you're done with them you just throw them away.”

Read more in Bales’ book Blood and Earth: Modern Slavery, Ecocide, and the Secret to Saving the World.

Dear America

Stop me if you’ve heard this one.

After living in Japan for a year, I flew home to Texas. While I was waiting in the “U.S. citizens” line to get through customs, I “saw” for the first time what a motley crew we were. It served in stark contrast to the faces I saw waiting in the citizens line at the Japanese airport.

What does it mean to be American?

That’s the question Jose Antonio Vargas poses in his book Dear America, Notes of an Undocumented Citizen. Born in the Philippines, Vargas was sent to live with his grandparents in California when he was 12. It wasn’t until he tried to get a driver’s license that he realized his papers permitting him to live in the country were fake.

With the help of friends and family, he manages to go to college and work as a journalist despite not having proof of citizenship. In 2001, he published his story in the New York Times.  

This memoir chronicles what his life has been since he “came out” and especially the uncertainty he’s faced after the most recent presidential election. Part of his mission, promulgated through the organization he founded called Define America, is to use “the power of story to transcend politics and shift the conversation about immigrants, identity, and citizenship in a changing America.”

That conversation starts with a few simple questions:

Why do people come to this country?

What does it mean to be undocumented?

What does it mean to be a good citizen?

What does it mean to be American?