Race is a TOUCHY subject

Okay. I definitely slacked a bit on my blog posts. Once I got outta the groove, it was really hard to get back in it! And I have a lot of catching up to do.

So, my apologies.

In this post, I'm gonna talk about We Were Here by Matt de la Peña.

This one was a bit difficult for me to get into at first. But you know, I'm pretty easy to please. And I get rather sucked into books. So it didn't take too long for me to read, read, read and plow through the whole thing. No shocks there.

So QUICK SYNOPSIS.

A boy, Miguel, is in a group home because he did something bad. What? you might ask? Well, you find that out later. It gets juicy.

So he's in this group home with all these other boys and it's awful there. Not awful conditions, but just... awful. He has this counselor whose attitude is so positive, he might as well be vomiting rainbows and kittens all over poor Miguel. So Miguel generally hides away in his room reading. Because he finds that he loves reading (maybe he and I would get along swimmingly?).

Soon, though, he and two other boys escape and try and run down to Mexico to start a life of their own.

Tricky part is this- Miguel is half-Mexican. One of the boys (Mong) is Asian-American. Rondell (the third, who I love DEARLY) is black.

Tricky. Tricky.

It makes people FLIP OUT because since the three main characters are all minorities, this INSTANTLY becomes ALL ABOUT RACE. (Please hit your forehead against your keyboard... now.)

I hate, hate, hate when this happens. When books are GOOD BOOKS but all the focus is on is RACE. And okay, you may say that I hate this because I'm just a white girl. Sure. Go ahead and say that. I'm still gonna disagree with you.

I don't think de la Peña's intention when writing this book was to highlight race and racial differences and the injustice of being a minority. Sometimes, yes, that is the case of novels (such as Octavian Nothing, in my humble opinion). But that's NOT the case in We Were Here! Argh!

I'm not even discussing/arguing this with anyone and I'm already getting heated. Rawr.

The book is about growing up, about coming to terms with one's past, and about finding one's identity. It's as simple as that.

To ME... the whole race aspect of the book is totally secondary. I don't even know if that's the best way to describe it. I feel like de la Peña is trying to show that race DOESN'T matter. Kids of all races are in the group home. Rondell, Miguel, and Mong are of different races, but that doesn't hinder their friendship in any way. Yes, their skin is a different color. But it's not like that's stopping them from being friends. They accept one another EXACTLY HOW THEY ARE.

And isn't that how it should be? Shouldn't we follow the example of these "bad" kids?

Makes you think, doesn't it.

And I dunno... Maybe I'm crazy for thinking that the book isn't about race. Maybe I think that because I'm hopeful and optimistic.

Maybe I think that because I'm white.

Who knows?