We Are Not From Here by Jenny Torres Sanchez

 

We Are Not From Here by Jenny Torres Sanchez is a Pura Belpré Honor book published in 2020. I heard about this book on podcast, but I can't remember which one and then Stephany recommended it and I did the thing and added it to my library hold list.

(I am ashamed of myself that I've never heard of the Pura Belpré awards. Every year it awards a Latino author and a Latino illustrator whose work best portrays the Latino cultural experience in a work of literature for children or youth (age 0-14).  I honestly haven't even heard of most of these books or authors. It's possible that's because children's literature is not my jam, but that's not really an excuse. I'm glad I stumbled upon this award because I'm going to probably make this my next list to go through once I'm finished with the Women's Prize for Fiction.)

(Additional footnote. Because I had to go to the website for the Women's Prize for Fiction to get that hyperlink, I realized they just released the 2023 winner, which is Demon Copperhead and that's exciting because I've already read it! And liked it!)

If you haven't noticed, I'm procrastinating here. I'm procrastinating in the same way that I procrastinated actually reading the book. 

It's not that this wasn't a good book. It certainly was.
It's not that this book doesn't have delicious writing. It certainly does.
It's not that this isn't a book about something important, something we should all be paying attention to and thinking about every day. It certainly was.
It's not that this book doesn't have a powerful message. It certain does. 

The thing is that this book is purposefully hard to read. Three young people are forced to flee their home in Guatemala and try to get to the United States. This is the story of their journey. 

It's really a good book.  But it's challenging to read because with every page turn, you expect terrible things to happen. And sometimes they do.  And why should we expect that terrible things will happen to CHILDREN (or frankly, adults) who are trying to come to the United States as refugees? 

This is a great book for children of immigrants who might need to hear what their parents have been through. This is a great book for people who want to close borders and want to punish people who break immigration laws. This is a great book for people who think we could open borders a bit more, but question how much. This is a great book for everyone to read.

But, look, everybody. I didn't want to read it. I'd reach for another book before I'd reach to this one.

It was like the vegetables of my fiction reading.  Delicious, good for me vegetables that were roasted perfectly and drizzled with balsamic vinegar and Parmesan, but vegetables nonetheless. 

4.5/5 stars

Lines of note:

Maybe in other places, terrible news is unexpected. But here, it is not. Here we wait for it always. And it always comes. (page 34)

Reading about how these kids loved their families, loved their hometown, loved their home country, but how unsafe it was for them and their loved ones was heartbreaking. It was just heartbreaking.

You have to walk with your head down, Pequeña. Don't look around, she'd told me ever since my breasts started to develop and my hips started to fill out. And be more aware. Of everything and everyone.

She never explained how it was possible to be more aware of everything, take notice of everything, while keeping my gaze down. (page 113)

This is the distillation of the book. Everyone in this book was caught between a rock and a hard place. There were no easy answers or easy ways out. More heartbreak on every page.