#4: I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter

 

If I stop being angry, I'm afraid I'll fall apart until I'm just a warm mound of flesh on the floor.

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter

Erika L. Sánchez

 

Year Published: 2017

Pages: 344

Genre: YA fiction, contemporary realistic fiction

Topics: Immigrant families, mental health, coming of age, family secrets

Recognition:

    New York Times #1 Bestseller
    Shortlisted for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature, 2017

Summary

Olga Reyes is everything her fifteen-year-old sister Julia is not: tall, thin, light-skinned, modest, well-behaved. Julia is short, dark, surly, and rebellious. She wants nothing more than to move out of her south Chicago neighborhood and away from her parents—undocumented immigrants from Mexico who just want Julia to be more like her sister.

When Olga is killed in a traffic accident, Julia's relationship with her parents grows even more strained. She feels smothered by her grieving mother's expectations, while her father barely says a word to her. Her English teacher Mr. Ingman seems to be the only person who cares about her dream of moving to New York and becoming a writer.

But while grieving Olga's death herself, Julia makes a shocking discovery in her saintly sister's room: provocative lingerie and a key card to a room in an upscale hotel. Struggling with her own demons and determined to find the truth about her sister, Julia embarks on a path that upends her understanding of her entire family and her relationship to them.

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter and Me

I had seen Sánchez's novel in bookstore displays and knew that it had been nominated for some awards. When I started this reading project, it was one of the novels a mentor teacher recommended to me.

Julia Reyes is something of a contemporary Holden Caulfield—she even reads and references The Catcher in the Rye throughout the story. I don't love Salinger's novel, and there were times when Julia's dourness and belligerence were as grating to me as Holden's. But I found the larger context of Julia's feelings more engaging; in particular, I enjoyed the chapters set in Mexico, where Julia is able to develop relationships with characters other than her parents, friends, and boyfriend. And Sánchez does nail the signature Holden mixture of sensitivity and snark. She's also expert at interlacing humor with tragedy without being too precious about any of it.

Teaching Considerations

Young Adult: The novel takes place during Julia's junior and senior years of high school and deals heavily with themes of leaving home. Along with the candid discussions of mental health and sex, this probably makes the novel ideal for 9th-11th graders, although 12th graders and older readers could certainly enjoy it as well.

Small Group or Individual Read: While this novel could feasibly be taught in a whole-group setting, I think it might have more impact as a small-group or individual offering to students who might be able to identify with the main character Julia.

Pairing Texts: Because of its parallels to The Catcher in the Rye, educators could pair Sánchez's novel with Salinger's to explore similar themes (e.g., youthful alienation, family trauma) between classic and contemporary texts.

Sensitive Content: I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter includes some emotionally charged scenes of self-harm and attempted suicide. Julia and her friends also frequently use profanity—in English and Spanish—and have frank teenage discussions about sex. An accidental death is the inciting event of the novel, and there are also discussions of gun violence and sexual assault.

Read-Aloud Passages

• What's surprised me most about seeing my sister dead  ...  The idea would almost be beautiful if this weren't such a nightmare. (pp. 1-5)
• At Olga's funeral, Julia introduces the reader to her and her family. A good read-aloud passage for introducing both the novel's main characters and Julia's narrative voice.
  
  
• With these majestic violins, you'd think we were in some castle  ...  Lorena whispers as tía Milagros storms out of the bathroom. (pp. 153-157)
• Julia is angry and miserable during the quinceañera she was forced to have, cruelly lashing out at her aunt. This passage combines humor and anger in a very characteristic way for the main character, and it also shows some of her character flaws.
  
  
• When Connor asks to visit me, I make up some dumb excuse  ...  "Hurry up, before I really get stabby." (pp. 187-190)
• Julia and her boyfriend Connor visit a thrift store, where the difference between their class backgrounds makes Julia uncomfortable. Class isn't an overwhelming concern of the novel, but this passage highlights it in a nuanced way.
  

• My depression and anxiety have softened with the medication.  ...  I decide to believe her. (pp. 329-331)
• Julia realizes she's more successfully managing her mental health and reads a poem she's written to her therapist that reflects her journey and her vision of herself. The passage is worth reading aloud for the poem alone, but the broader context gives it even more power.

Liked I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter? Try These:

• The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger (1951)
  
• The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo (2018)
• Solito by Javier Zamora (2022)