Thread by @AskAngy

OMG OK HERE WE GO BUCKLLLEEE UP 👂

https://twitter.com/LatinoUSA/status/1222665803801165824

this is an hour long lemme get comfortable. are you all ready?

It starts W/context to the convo for folks who have not seen it. @ lesbrains review going viral. the "narco novela" sentiment. the plot of the book itself. M.Hinojosa even references the previous comments made by Cummins about her race& how it is part of the convo now/THE deal

.@lesbrains is interviewed first. After being declined (see also: silenced) on Ms. I appreciate their voice.
They come in with the 🔥"violence is the main character"
apparently #AmericanDirt opens with a mass shooting at a quinceanera😐

This is weird...to make a book that is actually a romance thriller about the border / immigration / narcos #americandirt

oh man up next is sandra cisneros *burns my copy of mango street, house of my own, and loose women* #americandirt

why did she endorse it bro? why she endorsed that other border patrol book. these old school chicanas are so outdated. :( disappointed.

Cisneros says she wanted to endorse this book because it is an issue that is important to her. and because the plot was believable. and because cummins would reach a "different audience" cmon girl. all this brown power shit and people cannot say WHITE PEOPLE. #americandirt

.@Maria_Hinojosa asking Cisneros to specify who is the "different audience" Cummins will reach. #americandirt

Me waiting on an answer:

one second Cisneros says POC need the push because there arent a lot of voice... and then the next she says there are "a lot of us next to cummins telling these stories"
girl. what. #americandirt

Cisneros basically saying Gurba is projecting.
and that we all "should write our stories"
ma'am. people are doing that for years. books we support and reach and circulate because ya don't care. #americandirt

This is so disappointing to hear esp from someone like Cisneros. she said if you are upset about the book go write a poem.
LMAO #americandirt MA'AM!
Guess a house of my own was only to welcome white folks into it :(

Bitch!!!!
Cummins took someone's actual story from their book about theirrr life and put it in hers?!?!?!! i did not know THAT #americandirt

i'm so glad nobody ever needs me to read a damn thing or provide blurbs of support because. lmao. #americandirt i would not go do interviews for you

Luis Alberto Urrea, a Mex-American author who has written extensively about border life, talks about his exp writing about his life....and how #americandirt seemed to be "inspired" by his book. His book was rejected for 10 years. this is exactly what the #ownvoices convo is about

me writing a poem when I have been discriminated against because Cisneros said

ohh mannn here comes Cummins herself.
#americandirt
Me:

Cummins says her father passing away is what catapulted her to finish #americandirt

@Maria_Hinojosa is like; why didn't you consider using a different voice to write this story.

👀

one thing here. they have conflated latino = mexican = immigrant

and that is not it.
#americandirt

Cummins says she knows the center pieces were in poor taste....but did not recognize it at the time..... because the publisher sent the book jacket to caterers and they created that....and she didnt realize it was a border wall.....-.- huh #americandirt

Cummins says it is not her nails also on twitter.... girl? lol. this is a whole lot of non apology and non responsibility. #americandirt

so basically you wrote a book for white americans ...where the story is a thriller ....of a migrant almost dying on their journey........ so basically.... this is a book for CBP -.- #americandirt

.@Maria_Hinojosa is like: did you copy Luis Alberto Urrea YES OR NO
#americandirt

Cummins says Urrea told her he felt happy to see himself in the book.....but.....he said he didnt know her...... so
#americandirt

"do you think you will write about migrants again?"

"nope."

LOL

Cummins said she already sold her next book? Even with this massive backlash? wow. the access.
#americandirt

:( No undocumented authors were interviewed. sigh.

#americandirt

i think beyond the conversation on "our own latino voices" we need to move to "our own undocumented voices" because at the end of the day.....undocumented people still end up being the source material. the research content. "the field" people study.
#americandirt

how do you all critic this book for naming migrants as a brown mass of people...then do the same by not uplifting undocumented and migrant writers specially.

Not all latinos can write about the migrant experience. because both are not the same.
#americandirt

The tea

https://twitter.com/Flatironbooks/status/1222638362894438406?s=19

Support children of the land
By @marcelo_H_

#ownvoices
goodreads.com/giveaway/show/…

Cummins trying to manipulate me through my headphones with the anecdote about her father

Me the listener: