Side Chick Nation is the second book I've read by Puerto Rican author Aya de León. I read Uptown Thief last month. I loved protagonist Marisol Rivera and her band of female vigilantes. I knew I wanted to read another book in the series, and the one that called to me was Side Chick Nation. It's the first novel taking place during Hurricane Maria and its aftermath. I thought it would be powerful and authentic, and I was absolutely right.
The books in Aya de León's Justice Hustler series are categorized in different ways. Her publisher says they are romantic suspense. De León calls them feminist heist novels. I would place them in the feminist vigilante category which is broader and shows their commonality with other books I've been reading lately like Sinister Sisterhood which I reviewed on Flying High Reviews here .
The portrait of Puerto Rico provided in Side Chick Nation makes me feel that this particular book in the Justice Hustler series should be called contemporary fiction rather than romance. Romance is a major element in the book, but the Puerto Rico content defined the book for me and lent it significance.
This is not to say that a romance novel can't be significant. Some romance novels have dealt with important issues. In fact, Side Chick Nation does engage with how women in the sex industry are viewed which is probably a major focus in the entire Justice Hustler series since the protagonists have had various degrees of involvement in the sex industry. It also addresses the issue of how women who aren't in primary relationships are exploited. These women are referred to as "side chicks".
Yet what is unique to this novel is the way the personal becomes political with regard to Puerto Rico. It expands the definition of "side chick" to make it a metaphor for the relationship of Puerto Rico to the United States. Statehood would place Puerto Rico in a primary relationship, but Puerto Rico is a territory. As a territory, the United States should protect Puerto Rico from exploitation, but instead a particular U.S. law has facilitated exploitation of Puerto Rico. I wasn't aware of this law until I read Side Chick Nation.
The Jones Act of 1920 signed into law by Woodrow Wilson mandates that anything transported to U.S. ports, which includes Puerto Rico, must be shipped on vessels made in the U.S. which are owned and operated by U.S. citizens. This has kept Puerto Ricans poor and debt ridden because they can't get cheap goods, but in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, the Jones Act prevented other countries from shipping them aid. (When it came to aid from neighboring Cuba, there was also the problem of the U.S. Cuba embargo.) I found out from Wikipedia here that John McCain and fellow Republican Mike Lee tried to repeal the Jones Act with their Open America's Waters Act that never passed for a variety of reasons mentioned in the Wikipedia article. After reading about it, I would agree with those who think that Puerto Rico should be permanently exempt from the Jones Act.
Climate change caused Hurricane Maria along with other major disasters that the U.S. has faced. This issue is only briefly addressed in Side Chick Nation, but it's made clear that it's an urgent one for Puerto Rico just as it is for the entire world.
Getting back to the romance, I would like to discuss the central character and her relationships.
Protagonist Dulce Garcia had managed to get herself away from an abusive pimp, but she'd been in the sex industry so long that she didn't know how to have a relationship with a man that wasn't transactional. This becomes problematic when she meets a man who genuinely cares about her. My only problem with Uptown Thief was the romance which I felt wasn't viable. This relationship was moving. The man she met ended up nourishing her self-esteem and gave her a sense of purpose. He was a wonderful character.
Marisol Rivera, and a few of the other women who engaged in vigilante justice in Uptown Thief , did play a role in Side Chick Nation. There was a heist, and it was one of the many highlights in this book.
I intend to give Side Chick Nation five stars when I post a review on Goodreads. In my book journal where I use school grades, I gave the novel A for amazing!
No comments:
Post a Comment