BOOK OF THE MONTH: RADICAL HOPE: LETTERS OF LOVE AND DISSENT IN DANGEROUS TIMES, EDITED BY CAROLINA DE ROBERTIS
 |
| Vintage Books |
All is
not lost.
The future
remains unwritten.
It is ours
to shape.
---Carolina De Robertis
Love not
hate makes America great
Fight for
Democracy / Fight like a girl
I’m with
her & her & her & her & her & her & her & her &
her & her
Viva la
vulva
We can we
will
I have
been to the future and
We won
Resist
defend love
The seas
are rising but so are we
---signs from the Women’s March on DC
The
Latina Book Club has chosen RADICAL HOPE, an anthology of letters of “Love and
Dissent in Dangerous Times” as its Book of the Month. This anthology, edited by author and activist
Carolina De Robertis, is a “Symphony of Voices” of both Latinos and non-Latinos
written in letter-essays. The authors
are leading novelists, journalists, poets, activists and political thinkers. These brave, bold writers include Junot Diaz,
Reyna Grande, Christina Garcia, Aya De Leon, Jewelle Gomez, and Luis Alberto
Urrea, as well as Lisa See, Hari Kunzru, Jane Smiley, Celeste Ng, Viet Thanh
Nguyen, etc.
Carolina
De Robertis got the idea for this anthology following the 2016 election and the
wave of fear that swept across our nation following the results. We find it
apropos that she wrote the introduction to this anthology on January 16, 2017,
as the nation celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr., Day. It seems his cry of “Let
Freedom Ring” needs to be taken up again, and this anthology does just that.
RADICAL
HOPE is a collection of love letters because as De Robertis states: “love is
the blending agent that fuses the political and the intimate, providing urgency
to one and context to the other.” These
love letters are “verbal resistance” to the exposed bigotry rampant in our
nation. They are “the affirmation of our voices, of our worth.”
She has
divided the anthology into three parts:
Roots – letters to our ancestors; Branches – letters to today’s people
and communities; and Seeds – letters to the future generations.
These
letters speak of fear, despair, rage, danger, but underneath the overall message
comes across loud and clear: Yes, these
are dangerous times. Yes, there is much to fear, but All is not lost. Yes, the future remains
unwritten, and Yes, it is ours to shape. De Robertis says it best:
We are the majority,
the future is ours, and we are in this together.
“We are
in this together,” a sentiment that Junot Diaz echoes in his letter to his
hermana of the heart, Q. It is Diaz’
love letter that gives the anthology its name – Radical Hope. He urges his sister—and
all of us!—to face this “hard new world” and to cultivate radical hope. “Radical hope is our best weapon against
despair, even when despair seems justifiable; it makes the survival of the end
of your world possible…and (Diaz) believes it will help us create a better,
more loving future.”
Aya De León’s
“Dear Millennials” Letter is brutally honest: “We—as older generations—are anxious
and depressed as hell. We’re numb, isolated.
We’ve gotten used to the lives we settled for. Even though our choices
aren’t even available to your generation, still we push these myths as your
only options. Your high aspirations scare us and remind us of all the places
where we gave up.”
Reyna
Grande is more optimistic in her letter to her goddaughter about her
determination to push for bridges, and not walls, to be built.
Luis
Alberto Urrea wants all of us to realize that there are no Other, there is only Us.
He urges all Nasty Women and Bad Hombres to shine, to be the light.
Cristina
Garcia writes to her future granddaughter six generations into the future and
urges her to sustain the unbroken chain of hope, to live with “grace and
dignity and passion—and ensuring these possibilities for all.”
While
Meredith Russo asks her two-year old Jewish son in her letter for one promise: “please
promise me that you will, insofar as any person can, set your fear aside and
devote yourself to a full, honest life. That, my child, is the first and most
important act of resistance any of us can undertake.”
RADICAL
HOPE is an anthology full of passion and hope. The letters will make readers
cry and cheer, and, hopefully!, make readers think and act. Remember, this is our world, our nation, our
people, and We Are All In This Together. ###
ABOUT THE
EDITOR: Carolina De Robertis, is the
award-winning author of the novels THE GODS OF TANGO, PERLA and THE INVISIBLE
MOUNTAIN. A longtime activist, De Robertis spent ten years in the nonprofit sector
before publishing her first book, and during that time, she led projects concerning
issues including women’s rights, immigrant rights, and addressing sexual
violence. She teaches creative writing at San Francisco State University. Learn
more about her at www.carolinaderobertis.com.
READ
LATINO
WE ARE
ALL IN THIS TOGETHER
LET
FREEDOM RING