Rating: 4/5 Stars
Description:
Twelve-year-old Güero is Mexican American, at home with Spanish or English and on both sides of the river. He’s starting 7th grade with a woke English teacher who knows how to make poetry cool.
In Spanish, “Güero” is a nickname for guys with pale skin, Latino or Anglo. But make no mistake: our red-headed, freckled hero is puro mexicano, like Canelo Álvarez, the Mexican boxer. Güero is also a nerd—reader, gamer, musician—who runs with a squad of misfits like him, Los Bobbys. Sure, they get in trouble like anybody else, and like other middle-school boys, they discover girls. Watch out for Joanna! She’s tough as nails.
But trusting in his family’s traditions, his trusty accordion and his bookworm squad, he faces seventh grade with book smarts and a big heart. Life is tough for a border kid, but Güero has figured out how to cope.
He writes poetry.
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Review:
Güero lives in a town near the border between Mexico and the U.S. He’s constantly absorbing the way the border affects him and those around him. Describing himself as a border kid, Güero observes his family life, his friends, and has long accepted the way his identity is shaped by a culture divided by a border.
Though the book is written in verse, David Bowles manages to pack narrative and emotion to each of the entries, all from Güero’s point of view. In the opening poem, Border Kid, Güero’s dad says to him:
“You’re a border kid, a foot on either bank.
Your ancestors crossed this river a thousand times.
No wall, no matter how tall, can stop your heritage
from flowing forever, like the Rio Grande himself.”
This first poem reiterates that Güero, though he identifies as a Mexican-American, a border kid, he still struggles with coming to terms with such. Güero’s identity crisis happens a handful of times throughout the book, especially since he is white passing and the kids mock him for it.
There’s a conversation between Güero and his dad about a quarter of the way through, actually titled They Call Me Güero, where his dad confronts Güero’s light-skinned privilege in an honest and unflinching way:
“M’ijo, pale folks catch all the breaks
here and in Mexico, too. Not your fault.
Not fair. Just the way it’s been for years.
Doors will open for you that won’t for me.”
My eyes fill with tears. “But I didn’t ask
anyone to open them for me!”
Dad squeezes my hand. “No, but now
you’ve got to hold them open for us all.”
From the beginning of the book, his family’s already thrusting upon him all the wishes and desires of a first-generation student, and though they do so gently and in a loving way, it doesn’t become clear-cut until Güero listens to his uncle Joe’s stories. The following from Uncle Joe’s History Lessons:
“Don’t let them stop you, chamaco.
Push right through them gates.
It’s your right. You deserve a place
at that table. But when you take your seat,
Don’t let it change you. Represent us, m’ijo,
All the ones they kept down. You are us.
We are you.”
By the end, we don’t know if Güero actually comes to grips with his identity. However, we get the feeling that since he’s still a seventh-grader, still growing, still maturing, he’ll come face to face with many other obstacles. The ending is still hopeful. Güero still sees the beauty in everything that surrounds him.
The book is quite short, the ARC was less than 120 pages, and 100 of those were of poems, the rest with a glossary. I would’ve liked to see Güero develop more, because we did see an emotional arc between him and Joanna, I wanted to get more of his feelings towards his family. We get that he feels proud of and loves his family. In fact, there are times when he feels intimidated by family members. But I just wanted to read more. I don’t know if that’s me being greedy, but I loved Güero. He’s a child of a modern era; a boy growing up at the border and who’s learning about his place in this world of his. He’s soaking up online culture at the same time he’s learning about his own.
Maybe we’ll see more of Güero in the future as he continues learning and keeping his heart on his sleeve.
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An eARC was provided by the author in exchange for a free and honest review. Thank you!
The book has been delayed until October at the printers’ but if you pre-order/order it, maybe they’ll rush through the printing process. (amazon, barnes and noble, indiebound) Follow the author @DavidOBowles on Twitter to get updates on this and his next books.
Review available on Goodreads.
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