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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Apr 2023, 352 pages
Paperback:
Jul 9, 2024, 384 pages
Book Reviewed by:
Lisa Ahima
Buy This Book
Elizabeth Acevedo has said that reading Lorraine Avila feels like an "uppercut to the senses." You've never encountered an author with prose of this sensitivity and fire.
Yolanda Alvarez is having a good year. She's starting to feel at home Julia De Burgos High, her school in the Bronx. She has her best friend Victory, and maybe something with José, a senior boy she's getting to know. She's confident her initiation into her family's bruja tradition will happen soon.
But then a white boy, the son of a politician, appears at Julia De Burgos High, and his vibes are off. And Yolanda's initiation begins with a series of troubling visions of the violence this boy threatens. How can Yolanda protect her community, in a world that doesn't listen? Only with the wisdom and love of her family, friends, and community – and the Brujas Diosas, her ancestors and guides.
The Making of Yolanda La Bruja is the book this country, struggling with the plague of gun violence, so desperately needs, but which few could write. Here Lorraine Avila brings a story born from the intersection of race, justice, education, and spirituality that will capture readers everywhere.
1
THE CARDS DON'T LIE
I am panting, sweat accumulating at my edges, hands eagerly searching for the water bottle inside my Telfar bag. Thank God, I put on that edge control that keeps my baby hairs laid no matter what. I pat the small crown of cornrows on the front of my hair as I gulp down some water. Victory did them just yesterday after school, so they're still a bit tight. the bright lights turn on as we step into the small school bathroom.
"Come on girl, just read 'em for me," Victory says. She looks at the old deck of tarot cards Mamá Teté handed down to me two months ago in preparation for my sixteenth birthday. "Is this white boy sus or nah?"
Although we can't be in the bathrooms during lunch, we've snuck to the third floor of our school building again. the cream, glossy paint has long been chipping off of the bathroom walls, revealing the old brown color the walls used to be. there are messages written on the walls in Sharpie.
Taking another big gulp of water, ...
The description may lead readers to believe a major point of the plot hinges on whether Yolanda can convince people not only that she has visions but of what the visions entail: a premonition that Ben will shoot up the school. However, the conflict Yolanda encounters concerning her visions is internal and more about whether she believes in herself, as she seems too terrified to tell people about them in the first place. Nonetheless, I was fine with how the direction of the narrative steered. I appreciated Avila's focus on Yolanda's journey as a person — she juggles so much trauma while coming to terms with her evolving identity, even as someone who is already more confident and self-assured than most teenagers her age. The author's ability to weld a beautiful character into an even more impressive one over time makes the read rewarding...continued
Full Review
(779 words)
(Reviewed by Lisa Ahima).
In Lorraine Avila's The Making of Yolanda la Bruja, Yolanda's mother and grandmother guide her as she becomes fully absorbed in her family's traditional religious practices. While she's lighting candles, reading tarot cards and immersing herself in her grandmother's bath mixes, Yolanda's rituals celebrate her spirituality and bruja culture. What does it mean to be a bruja? The answer to that question has many layers, but some Latin American youth today are turning to brujería as a form of healing, cultural preservation and revolution against oppression.
The concepts of brujas and brujería — "witches" and "witchcraft" in Spanish, respectively — have existed for centuries. How people practice brujería varies ...
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