Rediscovering Latinidad Season 6 Episode 2 Club de Lectura: Solis

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:13):
Dear listeners, we are excited to have you join us
for another season of Rediscovering Latini Dan. We hope you
enjoy this sixth season as we port a tremendous amount
of time, research, and loyalty into our episodes. We also
know that these are unprecedented times, and then many of
our listeners or their family members may be living in
fear and certainly anger about the recent developments with immigration, deportation,

(00:35):
and birthright citizenship. We hold space for all of the
emotions here, and we hope the information we provide you
will help you not only in your journey to discovering
your ancestors, but also leading you to documentation that may
secure your safety. We will list all resources in the
show notes and update them as we uncover more. Now,
we hope you enjoy this episode.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Welcome back everyone, Wow, welcome back.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
This is Rediscovering Latini Dad Season six, Episode two, and
today we are going to discuss the book so Lease.
But let's introduce our co host first. My name is
Brian Rose.

Speaker 4 (01:15):
I'm she Lisa, I'm Feustal, Hey, I'm Edward.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
Today we are going to discuss the book so Lease,
which was written by Pawell La Mendoza and Abby. Sure,
so this story is a little close to home right
now in the election, We'll just a little content with
a little bit of a trigger. But this is a
dystopian novel. I think it's marketed for young adults, which
is a little for young adults at heavy for the

(01:42):
young adults.

Speaker 4 (01:43):
I mean, but we live in a world.

Speaker 3 (01:46):
It is we're undocumented immigrants in this new Age, the
New Age America or New Age Republic what it was called.
But they are the New American Republic, New American Republic.
They are sent to labor and work camps and there's
also a mother daughter story in there. So anyway, does
anyone else would like to give a synopsis.

Speaker 4 (02:06):
New American Republic, which sounds a lot like New Founding
Fathers from the Perge, all of these things got Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:15):
Well, actually, you know what, I'm going to hand this
over to Julisa because Julie actually went the full mile
and she read the prequel.

Speaker 5 (02:21):
I read part one. Yeah, and it's actually a companion
story to the first book, Sanctuary, which I did. I
did my homework and I read the first book.

Speaker 4 (02:30):
And thank you for doing the extra credit, no problem.

Speaker 5 (02:33):
I'm curious so for those familiar with this story, it
does mention that this is a follow up to Sanctuary
and the character Valley, who I don't want to give
too any spoilers away, who joins the Condors. Let's just
say I'll give you that far. The first book follows
Valley's story. It kind of gives you a synopsis at

(02:54):
the very beginning that Valley and her brother Ernie have
to travel from Vermont to California, and book one follow
their journey and Jess, the character that we're introduced to
in this story. We see that interaction in the first
book where Vali, Ernie, and Malaccas get to I think
the Arizona border or the Colorado border, I forget, and
they interact with Jess. Jess, who is a DF officer,

(03:18):
is supposed to stop them, but at one point she asks,
she asks for their names, and Vali gives her so.
In the first book, Vallely is migrant from Columbia along
with her parents, and they have to have these chips
installed that get scanned and they tell you know someone's
name and their citizenship status. So obviously, being Colombian, she

(03:40):
was not given a chip, and so they have to
get ones implanted illegally, and her chip comes with a
fake name. We don't know who this person was, if
this person died, if it's a made up person. I
think it's like Amelia Smith is her name. It's like
a very generic American name. And after the long journey
of traveling, you know, three quarter of the country to
get to trying to get to California, they run into

(04:04):
this officer who asks for their name. And after her
entire life of giving this fake name Amelia Smith, whatever
her ID number is, she's had enough and she finally
gives her true name and her true date of birth.
And Jess has I think she was born one day
after Bali. And when she hears at this girl who
is ragged and malnourished and completely battered and bleeding, is

(04:24):
only one day younger than her, it kind of shocks
her into reality that I'm just a kid and you're
just a kid, and how can I report these people?
And she tells them, you know what, just just go
keep on going when pretend like I never saw you.
And that is the crucial moment for Jess and she
ends up this interaction ends up being monitored by like
a drone or something, and Jess also gets arrested and

(04:47):
she ends up in the camps along with with the
rest of the characters that we see, Yeah, Raina, Kenna
and the rest of the band that we come to
learn about in this book.

Speaker 3 (04:59):
Yes, So first thoughts, what does everyone? What did everyone think?

Speaker 4 (05:04):
Well, one of the things that I really enjoyed was
the few times that you essentially got to see or
witness the same scene from different points of view, right,
And so it didn't register for me jealousa that because
I hadn't read the first book. I only read this
one that Vali and the and her brother and someone

(05:27):
else that she was were the three, right, those are
the three that from the first yeah chapter here, which
is named Jess right. So so yes, anyway, that was
just something that I feel like I haven't really seen
much in literature that I really enjoy that I thought
was you know, not necessarily innovative, right, But that was something

(05:48):
that was very unusual in this novel, in this young
adult novel. That's all. I just thought that was cool.

Speaker 5 (05:56):
Yeah, it was an interesting perspective because we don't know
just his name in the first book. We just know
that they are traveling and they come across this DF
officer quote unquote DF officer, and this person lets them go.
And then when I see when you read just his
name for the first time, it's not like, oh my god,
that was her, But it's when you read her account
that you realize, oh, that's who that was. And that's
the tie into the very first book. So yeah, the

(06:18):
book one starts with Liliana and her kids, and it
tells them the little you know synopsis. You kind of
get them about the origin. You see Valley going to
school with Kenna, and you see what it's like for
them in school before before the DF kind of comes.
I don't think the DF exists at the very beginning
of the first book. Like that is, there's like a
presidential announcement one day and Sunday it's saying, my fellow Americans,

(06:39):
we have decided to create this new force and we're
going to upgrade all the chips, and now all of
the chips that you know, the the legals have infiltrated
our country and we have to upgrade the system so
that we can flush them out. So we see that change.
So the first book starts kind of semi normal. Obviously,
there are chips, but it's kind of identific, you know,
just for id purposes. They I think they have the

(07:01):
chips from like the time Valley's a little girl too.
I think she's about fourteen or fifteen in the first book,
so maybe like ten years the chips are in existence,
and suddenly there's that announcement and the chips are upgraded
and we see the changes, and that is that. The
first book is that story. It's they are in Vermont's
living their life. Valley and Kenna are going to school
and everything's great, and Valley wants to be a scientist

(07:23):
and Kenna wants to be a doctor, you know, just
living their normal teenage lives and then boom, there's there's
the announcement about the girl crossing the border. That's how
the first book opens, stepping on the landmine, and that
kind of sets off all of the events that follow.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (07:37):
Sorry, fascinating. It makes a lot more sense for creative. Yes,
thank you for that very creative sort of story weaving
that again, I thank you for doing the extra credit work.

Speaker 5 (07:49):
It Kenna goes missing and we never find out what
happens to her in the first book, it's just like
one day Valley's texting her and she doesn't get an answer,
and we just we don't know. In book one, and
this is when we found out my god kind of
was taken to one of the camps because I believe
she was born in the United States. I think she
just kind of got like taken up with the rest
of her family, Like she wasn't even supposed to be,

(08:11):
you know, taken with these people. She was kind of
just collateral damage. But one day, Valley's mom's chip, you know,
it malfunctions one time, and they kind of like, we're
not going outside, We're staying in the house, We're setting
off the lights. You're not going to school. We're just
gonna lay low until we can figure out what to do.
Maybe we can get to California. And Valley's kind of
just home texting Kenna. Kenna is like I'm at school

(08:31):
and where are you and everything's so weird, and she's texting, texting.
One day just kind of stops replying, and then we
just never know what becomes of her until this story. So, yeah,
there are little I'm gonna have to know. I'm gonna
have to read the first Yeah, it makes a lot
more sense when you have the full context of the story, right.

Speaker 3 (08:49):
I would like to give out a shout out to
Penguin Random House, though the reason we even came across Solise.
I'm just going to pronounce Lise at all because so
many books come out every month, every week, and this
one was released in October of twenty twenty four before
the November election, and this book was brought to our

(09:12):
attention and we were able, we were very fortunate to
get copies of this book to be in for all
of our co hosts to be able to read this
ahead of time before publication. So we were able to
read this before the rest of before anybody else of
the public could read it. And man, it stays with you.

Speaker 4 (09:31):
Ahead of historical events, yes.

Speaker 3 (09:33):
Way ahead of a historical event. So reading this then
experiencing what the news brought in the remainder of the year,
it was a lot of it just hit close to home.
And as we will see in episodes four and five
this season, we're going to bring together the effects of

(09:54):
some of these cruelty of immigration, deportation and the treatment
of undocumented. Now, this is obviously a dystopian novel, This
is obviously marketed to get young adults more into activism
and saying that this isn't a society that you have
to live with, that you can inspire. The change is
obviously that's the lenses is going in, which is little,

(10:15):
It's lovely, it's wonderful. I think it's a little heavy
for teenagers because I wouldn't know what to do with
this at sixteen years old. But hey, but it is
not a bad book. It is actually really good, really heartfelt.
I will say the mom and daughter Engeld just kind
of hit a little hard for me. There the idea
that the daughter went in because she knew her mother

(10:36):
was there, right.

Speaker 5 (10:37):
And the first book, which was inspired by the first
election from What's This twenty twenty twenty twenty was when
the Sanctuary was released and the wake of the children
in cages. That was what inspired them to write Sanctuary.
And in Sanctuary, the family starts out I think they
from Columbia. They go to California, Balley's father gets deported

(11:01):
and they end up in Vermont because like, oh, there's
not many Latinos in Vermont. They're not going to come
looking for us. There will be safe there. So they
spend maybe like six or seven years in Vermont and
everything's nice and quiet. Then the changes with the chips happen.
Then they decide, okay, we need to get to California.
California has been you know, not excised. What's the word
they are.

Speaker 4 (11:21):
They've succeeded.

Speaker 5 (11:22):
They've succeeded from the United States, thank you, and they
are the beacon of hope. Everyone come, you can come
and be safe in California. So they start in Vermont,
they get and they're trying to get to New York.
Once they get to New York, they can find coyotes
that can get them to California. In Connecticut, Valley's mom
gets taken and we never hear from her again. In
the first book, and the two kids, Valley, who I

(11:45):
think is fourteen, Arnie's about eight, have to travel from
Connecticut to New York. They walk from Connecticut to New York.
They find the woman. The mom kind of ingrains themselves,
this is the woman. You have to find. Get to
this place. Find this woman. She will help you get
to California. Have and in California, who can help you.
They get to New York, they find the woman, they

(12:05):
get the coyote, they get in a truck and they
drive about halfway through and then things occur and the
kind of truck driver gets spooped and like, you know what,
this is not worth the risk. Good luck you guys,
kind of leaves them on the side of the road
in like Utah, and from there they have to make
their way to California. And that's the journey that we're following.
These two kids with their mom who'd gotten snatched two

(12:28):
thousand miles ago, trying to get all the way to California.
And as they're traveling, they pass through Arizona and Bally
sees they're on a train, like, how we're gonna get
to California? Oh, well, follow the railroad tracks, and so
they kind of hop on a train and they pass
through the camps that we see in the second book,
and Vali sees her mom like a blink. That was her.

Speaker 4 (12:50):
I know that was her.

Speaker 5 (12:51):
I saw her walking, Vali, she was dozens and dozens
of feet away. That you can't know that was your mom. No, no, no,
I know how my mom walks. I know that's her.
I saw her, I swear, And that's it. That's the
only piece of information she has that her mom's even
alive and that her mom's even in this camp, and
that's her motivation to join the condors and get on
this mission that she has and within sanctuary, within sobs. Yeah,

(13:12):
it's a very Yeah, with the context of the first book,
it kind of all makes sense because it does feel
very heavy, kind of going into this blind, but it
does have a slow progression into how, you know, kind
of twisted things get with the government.

Speaker 3 (13:25):
Yeah, to be fair to these, To the publisher under
the book, they do say it is a companion to Sanctuary,
But that being said, we had one ambitious co host.

Speaker 5 (13:37):
I'm curious. Yeah, it makes a lot more sense in
the wider scope of the story.

Speaker 4 (13:42):
Yeah. Yeah. And so I know that our first impression
is like, what, this is a book written for children? Yeah, yes,
And I think as visceral as that first reaction can be,
I think we also have to realize that what is
in this book is experienced by children right in real life.

(14:03):
And so I don't think it's at all traumatic to
explain to one group of children what another group of
children may be may be experiencing. Right. And the thing
with books like like these, right, with authors like Mendosa
and Share and you know, people like Octavia Butler as well. Right,

(14:25):
is that what they write down on paper, you know,
one year or in one instance, right, can be read
several years later, and then you know, people will be like, oh,
this is prophetic, right, Like, how prescient? When in reality,
nothing that has happened in this book was innovative or
like was new or came out of just their heads, right,

(14:46):
Like everything that was included in this book is because
it has happened.

Speaker 5 (14:49):
They stated, like, we saw children being put into caps
exactly the first Trump administration, and that is what inspired
the first book.

Speaker 4 (14:57):
Yeah, no, absolutely, And I think even before that, children
are being put into cages. Let's let's not let's not
kid ourselves at the United States government. Right. But but yeah, so,
I you know, it's I think that it's it's that
reminder that it can happen here. There were there were
so in cause I haven't mentioned this before, I have

(15:20):
exhausted my partner with every single World War two like
documentary that there is out there. I try to watch
it and he's just like, please, no more. But you know,
I think that what's fascinating to me at the very least, right,
is that there can be groups of people who can

(15:40):
take advantage of the law right and take advantage of
I guess of not superstitions, but of just god, what's
that word, not discrimination, take advantage of I guess, people's
hate right and use it to further their own sick

(16:02):
you know, sort of like twisted twisted ends. And there
were a lot of a lot of scenes in the
book that I was just like, Okay, well, yeah, I
kind of read this, you know, when I was reading
and Frank's diary, or yeah, I kind of read this
when I was reading a World War two.

Speaker 5 (16:18):
You know, like stereotypes and fears.

Speaker 4 (16:21):
Yeah, thank you, playing off stereotypes and fears, thank you, Gosh,
my goodness, you know. And then there's there was literally
I wrote on the margin at one point I was
just like, oh, that's a scene that I think I
saw in that film Shindler's List. Right, So these are
things that have happened right throughout experimenting on prisoners, yes, exactly, exactly,

(16:45):
not just in Europe but again and throughout the throughout
the world, right, And so I think it is important
that we, you know, discuss these really difficult topics with
our children and that they, you know, can learn from
an early, an early age that they should treat others
the way that they want to be treated, right, like,
like Jess, right like. I think one of the first

(17:07):
lines was just like, you know, I'm not supposed to
be here because she is a you know, a a
white a skinny white girl from Desert Hills. She says,
I'm not supposed to be here, but I am here,
right because and again right and the reason why she's
there is because she showed just a little bit of

(17:28):
compassion and sympathy and empathy for these group of kids
and was just like whatever. And then she was punished
because well, now you're going Now you're raging against a machine, right,
so it's a gun punch once her own beloved brother, yes,
turns out to be a prison guard and doesn't you know,
just views her as a prisoner as opposed to the

(17:49):
sister I love. But no, she's become dehumanized. She's now
just place to the.

Speaker 5 (17:56):
Wider story of when you hear those stories, when you
read about the stories, oh when we were kids, like,
he's never treated you well, this loved brother, he's always
been a jerk. Right, So I don't know, horrible brother
to you just like, this country, the way that it's
been treating these people has always been horrible, but now suddenly,
oh my god, she's just her eyes have been open.

(18:16):
Like your brother was always horrible, the way that you
were treating these people was always horrible, and now you're
just suddenly aware of what was staring you in the
face the entire time.

Speaker 4 (18:24):
It's almost kind of like what happened in twenty twenty
with the George Floyd thing, where for one glimmering second
people were like, oh, we don't scale in the eyes,
but then we never mind, like papered right over that.

Speaker 3 (18:36):
But I to end on twitch list were saying, is
that sometimes memory isn't our best source of reference. Like, yes,
it can be, but I feel like in our brain
and our emotional intelligence will only let us remember or
interpret things the way it's ready to. She wasn't ready
to see that the system was so much worse, that
her brother was so much worse looking like from the

(18:58):
outside looking in, we could see.

Speaker 4 (18:59):
It, right.

Speaker 5 (19:00):
I got my brother that used to spit on me
and write me all the time.

Speaker 4 (19:06):
Him.

Speaker 3 (19:06):
When you're in the midst of it, it's like, you
take you, how do I say this? You take the
breadcrumbs and you amplify them, so like they were probably
moments he was okay and they got amplified. But when
it's staring her in the face that no, this is
who he is and this is what he's always been like.

Speaker 4 (19:22):
And like you're saying, there there are hints from his brother,
there were hints from you know, the way that she
was brought up as well like them, and and the
mom's substance abuse issues, and then how she was abusive
towards well, mostly towards towards Chess, right, not so much
towards right, towards the brother, towards the brother Nick. But
but yeah, I yeah, I.

Speaker 5 (19:43):
H there's a lot of layers there.

Speaker 1 (19:44):
There's a lot of layers there and representation.

Speaker 4 (19:48):
Initially, when I first read it, I was just kind
of like, okay, doesn't really go too deep into things.
It's kind of like kind of shallow. But I also
was kind of like, oh, yeah, actually this is what
like like there shouldn't be too much trapped up right
or too much to sort of like dissect, like it's
it's just very visceral. That is what I kept thinking.
That was the word that kept coming to mind. Was

(20:09):
just like, what a visceral description right of of the
way that Jess was treated, What a what a visceral
description of the wounds on people's you know, arms, when
they're when the chip was cut out? What a visceral
description of the beatings of the smell of death right?
And you know, again, there leaves little to read between

(20:30):
the lines, but I think it was it. Yeah, it
had enough, It had just enough nuance, But but it
was also just clear, like this is what's going on,
this is what we should be standing against. I wonder
if this is going to be added to one of
those banned books lists.

Speaker 5 (20:47):
I wonder. I guess we're going to wait and see.

Speaker 3 (20:52):
Has Sanctuary been at I don't know, but I do
know that this author, Paula Mendoza, She's from Colombia and
she was one of the co founders of the twenty
seventeen Women's March. Really huh, she caught a good fight,
she puts in the work.

Speaker 2 (21:09):
Okay, I'm gonna keep it one hundred. It's interesting because
I found the descriptions of Colombia to be extremely generic,
Like I think she was.

Speaker 3 (21:19):
Trying to make it like a little bit more universal
that's what I got, Like, I think that that's my impression.
But yeah, she's for she was born in Bogodo.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
Okay, because it's it's you know, an tangent. But it's
funny they mentioned this rio it has is the one
clue where they are, and it turns out it's this
teeny creek in Antiochia. It's not like a huge river,
but like beyond that, I don't know, I thought the
description of like that's how the Aurepas smelled in Colombia,

(21:51):
I don't know, it just struck me as a little generic.

Speaker 4 (21:53):
They were sometimes just thrown in these little details, yeah, right,
but now with much context.

Speaker 5 (21:57):
Yeah, there was a bit more of that in the
first book, because again they start with normal life. So
there's scenes of Valley coming home from school and her
mom's in the kitchen cooking, and there's scenes of them
praying before school and how her mom would pray before
they would leave the house and make sure. So yeah, there,
while life is still normal, it is like this is
like the extreme of the abnormalcy of their lives now.

(22:19):
So but in the first book, it is you know,
Valley's going, you know after school with Kenna to go
get French fries at Uncle Jimmy's, the local diner, and
Ernie's going to go play soccer in the field and
then they come home and mom's making at it and
she's making soup, and so yeah, it does start more.
There's it's more grounded in the first story, and now
it's just kind of slowly, slowly dissolving into madness.

Speaker 4 (22:42):
I mean, in their defense, it did have to sort
of pack. Yeah, there was a lot going on. Yeah,
short amount of.

Speaker 3 (22:48):
Lin h.

Speaker 4 (22:51):
Making sure that it was visit context points of view.
So that that is my defense of them.

Speaker 5 (22:56):
The first story does take its time a bit more.

Speaker 4 (22:59):
Yeah, yeah, I mean I would recommend it to children
grades seven and up.

Speaker 5 (23:06):
Yeah, that's thirteen year olds.

Speaker 4 (23:08):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean in New York City, that's
around the time we started studying like world you start
with everything the Holocaust and with the and that seems
the atomic bombs over Herosia, Maynagasaki. Yeah. I remember seeing
Barefoot can that was an interesting experience.

Speaker 5 (23:26):
I don't know how too much that saw I got,
so I got okay, all.

Speaker 3 (23:30):
Right, so I think just a little housekeeping, yes, yes,
just a little bit of housekeeping.

Speaker 4 (23:34):
So if you love our podcast, Rediscovering Latinidad, Please hit
follow or subscribe. It is different from downloading, and please
leave us a five star rating and review. For more
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(23:55):
an email at Rediscovering Latinidad at gmail dot com, or
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redisc Latinidad on Blue Sky and x and Rediscovering latin

(24:16):
on Reddit. Join us next week as we discuss Jelissa's
trip to Abou Dabis.

Speaker 3 (24:25):
Y'all, this one, we're going to see a new part
of our season. Everyone. This will be our travels episode
starting this season because.

Speaker 4 (24:33):
We get around, Yeah, we do.

Speaker 3 (24:36):
Everywhere, you know that everywhere. That's right.

Speaker 5 (24:39):
I went to the desert and found lots of latins.

Speaker 3 (24:41):
Oh and by the way, listeners, enjoy your Valentine's Day tomorrow,
all right.

Speaker 4 (24:45):
Happy Valentine's Day, y'allay, bye bye, We love you.

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