DH Comic Book of the Month (January 2019)

The authors reiterate a lot of Taino mythology, what do you make of these mythological allusions as a narrative thread throughout the story? Are they effective in capturing the cultural backdrop of Puerto Ricans, or do you feel there’s something missing, if so, what?

Tory: Being born on the West Coast, I did not grow up with a lot of Puerto Rican exposure. I knew about America's history with Puerto Rico from school, but textbook knowledge was the extent of what I knew. I knew there had to be natives to the island, but that was always something our textbooks seem to tip toe away from. That being said, I really enjoyed the weaving in of Taino mythology. There were several covers to stories that I found myself thinking "wow this would be a great anime!" I think they are successful in capturing the Taino blood and pride that remains on the island still. I don't know if it is something that is missing, or not even on the radar, but I would have like to see some type of American splash within the narratives. America has had a really rough history with Puerto Rico (still not a state), I would have liked seeing a story where people struggled with their identity, and the insecurity America provides. This is all touched upon slightly or indirectly, but I think given the political climate and the hurricane that a mirror being held up to America's face would have been a nice rhetorical touch (a look at the state of your people)

Jennifer: I think the Taino mythology that runs throughout the anthology feels like an attempt to unite all of these stories under this banner of a greater cause. I think it almost wants to erase all of the bad in trying to connect it to this greater purpose and heritage. I don't know if it rings false, but it certainly feels like an aggrandizing gesture. My mom is a fan of telling me that everything happens for a reason, and having the Taino mythology in the background feels very much an echo of my mom's mantra.

Brenda: Cultural mythology a lot of times helps us understand what values a group of people prioritize and what natural phenomena they are most impacted by. Throughout Puerto Rico Strong, there’s obviously a number of call backs to Hurracan, the hurricane god, but also a number of the Taino gods whose legacy has been erased and destroyed as a result of colonialism. The thing that I found most intriguing, though, is this sense that the Taino gods aren’t gone, but rather sleeping and waiting to return. I think this speaks to the respect of a cultural past that I think we can all relate to. We look to our own past to understand and strategize ways in which we can contend with the present and future, so I love that and I think moments like this in the book add a universality to the story that I appreciated.


“La Operación” outlines a dark history of the island in which American doctors sterilized countless Puerto Rican women, the art and coloring of this story mimics an infographic, what do you think the effect of such a rhetorical choice has on the reader? What is the author attempting to suggest about this period of Puerto Rican and American history?

Tory: This story captured what I meant in the first question about holding a mirror up to America's face. I like the attention being drawn here. I like that it is used as a pamphlet and that the colors are dull. for me, it was both informative and a slap to the face, and I like that rhetorical move in story telling. I think this story does a good job at showing our dark past together. I would like to think that this story would serve as a collective awakening to apologize to the generation and work on building a better relationship.

Brenda: Given the gravity of la operación and its long lasting effect on the island, I thought it was jarring to see such a clinical...I guess? take on such a blatant abuse of power. I absolutely hated that, but I thought it was rhetorically powerful in capturing how colonial powers desensitize themselves to the human impact and consequences of such actions. I think that for any conscious reader the juxtaposition of such bright colors with such a serious and dark event is grating. 


What are your thoughts on how this book narrates immigration stories?

Tory: I really loved "Stories From My Father." It really spoke to me on deeper level. I liked the idea of being a child/grandchild of immigrants and hearing colorful stories about "home," but upon returning these colorful stories feel black and white because you do not have the connection your parents/grandparents have to their mother country. I liked the sense of wanting to belong, but feeling like an outsider. It is hard to have pride in the motherland when you feel disconnected from it.

Jennifer: The same story that Tory mentions struck a chord with me as well. I've grown up with so many of my mother's stories of El Salvador. She always speaks of childhood with the golden tinge of nostalgia that makes El Salvador seem like a wonderful and idyllic paradise. But like that girl in "Stories From My Father," I find myself feel disconnected. I want to partake, and I want to feel the same love my mother does for her home country, but I always feel just outside of that idyllic paradise.

Brenda: I was shook by the almost eternal connection that one has to one's country of origin. Even when a family lives somewhere else for multiple generations, there's this call back home that I thought this book captured well. So my family immigrated from El Salvador and while I haven't been down there in about 10 years, when I think about the larger picture of "home," I think about my grandfather's house. While I've never lived there, it's one of the few places in which I feel comfortable enough not to ask for permission to open the fridge. It's really home. A lot of the narratives in this anthology revolve around returning to an abuela's house and finding the structure completely decimated, and I think about the psychological ramifications of an event like that on the individual and the family and how overwhelmingly sad such a loss can be (I would not handle it half as well as most of the characters in the novel do. I'll tell you that much). Having that place to return to, for any immigrant, I think, is like a lifeline. So to answer the question, I like how the book outlines these stories, and it makes my heart ache for these families.


This book has more than forty individual stories, which one resonated with you that most and why?

Tory: I think my favorite story was "La Casita of American Heroes." This one clocked with me because in addition to being a strong Puerto Rican story it was also an American story. For me, this story was the perfect blend of American and Puerto Rican. I think the strong connection to the military helped in the pathos of the story. There is something about seeing a family (marked as the "other") defending our country that creates a stronger bond. This was paired with her not knowing if her parents were alive or not after the hurricane. Strong familial bonds and a military history tend to follow inline with how the rest of the world sees the typical American. I liked this unifying theme in this story that we are all one through the story of a woman going back after the hurricane to see if her family survived.

Brenda: For me, it was "La Operacion" and [INSERT TITLE]. While I don't even know if I want children, the idea that someone would arbitrarily decide something like that for me because of my nationality is so demeaning and dehumanizing that I found myself having to put the book down for a minute. So perhaps, "resonated" is the wrong word to describe this, but it was certainly jarring.

Jennifer: "La Operación" hit home hard for me too. I think you've aptly described what was so devastating about that story Brenda. The omission of the ramifications of this operation is horrifying. The fact that all these women lost the ability to procreate in the name of scientific advancement brings back all the colonizer paradigms that normalized eugenics, unlawful experimentations, discrimination, genocides and much much more.

Do you think anthologies like these are important reads? Why or why not?

Tory: I think they are important reads. If I am being honest, I would not have picked this book up on my own. I'm really glad Brenda chose it because it pushed me out of my reading comfort zone. There was something magical about 40+ different writers and 40+ different artists coming together for the exigence of an anthology like this. I think it is important because I personally learned so much about the culture and history from this anthology. Visibility is the difference between life and death for many minority groups (arguably all), and an anthology like this really puts Puerto Rico front and center. Additionally, it puts Puerto Rico in a light that isn't "run down, victim, dirty, non-American," and I really enjoyed learning about all the culture and similarities we share.

Jennifer: I think anthologies like this are absolutely important. We're all literature majors here and we've spent the past decade reading anthologies put together by white people, for white people, and about white people. While I do not regret exposure to the literary canon, I do critique the canon for its exclusivity with regards to race and class. What Puerto Strong presents is an opportunity to think of anthologies as not a mutually white endeavor, but instead as a genre vehicle that can and should communicate Latinx histories. I think anthologies like Puerto Rico Strong are important because it communicates the nuance within Puerto Rican culture. More generally, it shares the nuance within Latinx cultures in visually explicit way. Within each of these stories the message echoes strongly, we are connected in our shared trauma, but we are different.

Brenda: Writers much wiser than I have discussed the role stories like these play in creating empathy within readers and the value of sharing said stories to create mutual human understanding, so I absolutely think these stories are worthwhile and important to share. When thinking about climate change for example, it is often difficult for people to think outside of their own lived experience and consider what the reality is like for other groups of people. In looking at the devastation that something like Hurricane Irma and Maria cause, we have the opportunity to see what it is like for people in different parts of the world and what extreme weather actually looks like and its human cost.