In the sixth grade, I had picked up the book I’m Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika Sánchez and had written a book review about it. However, it is best to say that the review wasn’t so good solely because my writing was disgusting and I was too young to understand anything. Three years later, I decided to pick up the book and write another book review about the book.
15-year-old Mexican-American Julia Reyes has trouble with identifying herself with her Hispanic family background and values. She struggles to live up to her parents expectations to be just like her so called perfect late sister, Olga who had passed away in an accident. Julia wants to go to college, extend her dreams and leave her small world behind. However, she struggles to do so. Julia often feels frustrated that she can’t be as perfect as her sister or that she can’t fulfill her dreams without her parents control. Carrying the regret of never having a close relationship with her sister, Julia decides to dig deeper in her sisters personal life hoping it would bring her closer to her sister. However, it had led to ups, downs and multiple plot twists in her life and helped her seek empathy for her parents, self acceptance, and breaking barriers from cultural expectations. Towards the end of the story, Julia realizes that although she might not be the perfect Mexican Daughter she was supposed to be, she can always stand up to the ethic of hard work, acceptance, love and empathy.
As a Nepali American, I found myself in Julia’s shoes. At times, we both struggle to fit into our cultural and familial values, we both have different dreams than others, we also have huge families, a snappy attitude, an ambition for writing and making a mark in our lives.
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