“Writing my Latino novel” is, naturally, the way we demonstrate exactly how absurd (and damaging) it is to portray Latinos from an outsider’s lens. While some critics slammed the disingenuous depiction of immigrants in the book “American Dirt”, many more opted to tweet these “novels” to show the author, Jeanine Cummins, the harm of using stereotypes to describe Mexicans. Outlets like BuzzFeed compiled lists of the tweets. Here are some of our favorites…
Cummins begins her book with a massacre at a quinceañera 🙄 which, by the way, has SIXTEEN PEOPLE in attendance. Ummmm that’s not a quinceañera. That’s how many people are in my living room right now 🙋🏽♀️
It’s frustrating to have our stories reduced to a few phrases or cultural references. But these tweets validate what many of us feel when we read generalizations about ourselves that exclude the nuance of our cultures.
Clearly, Jeanine could’ve used a conversation with some of these Latinx writers, who are so over the “crime-ridden Mexico” narrative.
Let’s all pray to Santo Ricky Martin 🤣 that these gems get published as their own book 🙏🏽
They exemplify our amazing ability to navigate through life with humor, no matter what the situation.
