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Book Review: For Brown Girls with Sharp Edges and Tender Hearts

Editor's Note: This review was originally published in Seattle Book Review


 
Love of community and pride in culture are central themes in Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodriguez’s collection of thought-provoking and enlightening essays about identity and culture, as seen through the lens of a movement leader who has ushered a brand of activism that is brazen and confident. For Brown Girls with Sharp Edges and Tender Hearts addresses the struggle to directly confront racism, colorism, misogyny, and classism, armed with the power of liberatory approaches.

Rodriguez founded the Latina Rebels digital community, developing a strong following among Brown, bilingual queer women and allies. In the book, she shares her own racial awakening as a working class, Brown, immigrant Latina. While the book serves to inspire, it’s also a tool for education. Beyond love and affection for family and community, Rodriguez also displays righteous anger and frustration about the harms caused by whiteness to the ability of Brown and Black folks to find acceptance in institutions designed without them in mind.

For Brown Girls with Sharp Edges and Tender Hearts is beautifully and earnestly written to reach the hearts of women of color working toward justice and equity. The book may also be instructional for non-Latinx/a folks: it offers a valuable lesson in decentering our world view, so we may humbly listen and understand. 

 

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