A review by nfinitepages
Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina by Raquel Cepeda
4.0
This was a really good if you want to learn about DNA and ancestry, basically if you are looking to find your family history.
The first half of the book tells us of Raquel's childhood, the abuse she endured from her father, the abandonment of her father and life coming from the Dominican Republic to New York. I loved that she included the hip-hop era and how it influenced and affected her life. The first half also started to become a bit too much because it's almost like there was no hope for her with the way things were go, so much drama and tragedy, I wanted to get to something happier and positive.
The second half is where you will find history. History of her family, of the Dominican Republic, about Spaniards, slaves, Tainos. Statistics are provided, new family is discovered and this was extremely interesting in seeing especially how as Hispanics where categorized as white or black dependent on your skin color. So many interesting facts are shared and I appreciated every bit of it.
Definitely a good experience in reading about things I could related to as a culture (even though I'm Puerto Rican, there are similarities), about family, neighbors, music, the land and in particular the religious and spiritual aspect of things.
The first half of the book tells us of Raquel's childhood, the abuse she endured from her father, the abandonment of her father and life coming from the Dominican Republic to New York. I loved that she included the hip-hop era and how it influenced and affected her life. The first half also started to become a bit too much because it's almost like there was no hope for her with the way things were go, so much drama and tragedy, I wanted to get to something happier and positive.
The second half is where you will find history. History of her family, of the Dominican Republic, about Spaniards, slaves, Tainos. Statistics are provided, new family is discovered and this was extremely interesting in seeing especially how as Hispanics where categorized as white or black dependent on your skin color. So many interesting facts are shared and I appreciated every bit of it.
Definitely a good experience in reading about things I could related to as a culture (even though I'm Puerto Rican, there are similarities), about family, neighbors, music, the land and in particular the religious and spiritual aspect of things.