From: Lyn Miller-Lachmann <lynml_at_me.com>
Date: Fri, 09 Dec 2011 16:12:39 -0500

I've also enjoyed hearing the favorites and apologize for being one of the last to chime in. I was out of town with limited email access. However, that gave me a chance to look over all the lists and see if there were any books I loved this year that others seem to have missed...and there was one at the very tippy top of my list that no one has mentioned:

Resau, Laura and Farinango, Maria Virginia. The Queen of Water. New York: Delacorte, 2011.

This fictionalized memoir of Farinango's childhood as the indigenous servant of a mestizo family in Ecuador portrays the subjugation, exploitation and self-loathing experienced by generations of indigenous children. Promised an education, a regular salary, and visits home, young Virginia received none of these, but in secret she taught herself reading, writing, math, and science from textbooks left in the house by her employers, both teachers. She also endured beatings from the wife and sexual overtures from the husband, but felt the tug of affection for their young boys, which made it difficult for her to run away. When she did manage to flee, she did not find universal support from parents beholden to the local landowners, relatives of Virginia's former employers. Nonetheless, the young teen, who had worked as a servant since the age of seven, found a way to attend school and through a friends and a local festival began to take pride in her heritage and traditions.

If you haven't read this one yet, you should.

Lyn Miller-Lachmann MFA student, Vermont College of Fine Arts Editor, Once Upon a Cuento (Curbstone Press/Northwestern University Press, 2003) Author, Gringolandia (Curbstone Press/Northwestern University Press, 2009)
Received on Fri 09 Dec 2011 04:12:39 PM CST