First published 2012
The Martinez family lives caught between two worlds in 1980s Brownsville, Texas. Each family member wages their own battle to shed their border town identity and transform into what they believe real Americans should be. The parents push their children toward assimilation while struggling with their own sense of belonging. The children navigate school hallways and neighborhood streets where speaking Spanish marks you as different, where success means distancing yourself from everything that came before. As the family members pull in different directions, their shared history becomes both anchor and burden. The pursuit of the American dream threatens to tear apart the very bonds that define them. Martinez captures a family's desperate attempt to reinvent themselves while the weight of their heritage and the reality of their circumstances press down on every choice they make.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, coming-of-age, family-drama
Vibes: intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-secrets, fish-out-of-water
Setting: Brownsville, Texas
Period: 1980s
456 pages · Kindle Edition · Lyons Press