An Uninterrupted View of the Sky
Page 17
How much does a dream weigh? And how much, hope?
I tear open the rectangle with the academic seal and skim down through salutations and introductions.
We are pleased to accept your application to Universidad Mayor de San Simón. This fall, you will be assigned an academic advisor in the law department.
In the dim shack, stars swim in front of my eyes and a sigh as long as the winds carving down the peaks and running the length of the Altiplano leaves my lungs. It’s just a beginning, what I’m holding in my hands. But we need this beginning so very badly.
I open the other rectangle with Papá’s careful lettering on the front. I unfold the paper. My hands begin to shake.
Francisco,
Thank you for your letters. You cannot guess how good it feels to know you and your sister are safe and to know your grandparents are happy to have received you.
I don’t know what I have ever done to deserve such faithful children. Thank you for taking care of your sister all this time. Thank you for taking care of me all this time.
The page splatters as my heart drains. I turn it over. On the back, through blurry eyes, I see sectioned verses and clumping stanzas flowing like water down the page.
It’s a poem.
My father, the poet, has found his words again.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
More than fifteen years ago, I spent a summer during college volunteering in Cochabamba, Bolivia. I worked at a nonprofit facility that provided health care, meals, enrichment opportunities, and a safe place to spend the afternoons for children who lived in the nearby prisons alongside their incarcerated parents.
During my time there, I never met a Francisco, Pilar, or Soledad. These characters are my inventions. I heard stories like theirs, however, and I witnessed their truths in the lives of the young people I worked with. Unfortunately, the tragic effects of the 1008 and the United States’ role in both its passage and brutal enforcement are not fictitious.
Bolivia is a constitutional democracy. A law that violated citizens’ rights, as the 1008 did, should never have been allowed to stand. Over the years, reforms have amended the law, but not before Bolivia’s prisons were overfull and its justice system too bogged down to adequately remedy the damage done to countless families and communities.
In Bolivia, colonialism left behind an intensely stratified society that for centuries oppressed and exploited its indigenous peoples. To complicate matters, Bolivia has long been considered economically to be the poorest country in the region, the effects of which made it vulnerable to foreign intervention.
Today, the country holds the largest proportion of indigenous people on the continent. In recent years, the people of Bolivia have brought about wide-reaching reform to indigenous rights and representation, access to and equity in education, and more. As with any country seeking to create a more just society, however, change takes time, and as of the writing of this book, Bolivia’s prison kids are still waiting for justice to find them.
• • •
When I left Bolivia and returned to college and my privileged North American life, the human cost of my country’s war on drugs weighed heavily on me. The brief time during which I joined those pitting themselves against that particular tangle of crippling poverty, aggressive foreign policy, and persistent injustice has stuck with me.
I’m a writer. When confronted with what seems like an immovable obstacle, the only way I know forward is through story.
Thank you for reading and for sharing this one with me.
GLOSSARY
abuela/abuelo/abuelos: a grandmother/grandfather/grandparents
aguayo: a patterned, woven cloth from the Andes region, commonly made from llama wool
ají amarillo: a mild chili used to flavor many traditional Bolivian dishes
Altiplano: the high plains in the Andes region of Bolivia and neighboring countries
anciana: an elderly woman
ayllu: an indigenous community of the Andes region
Aymara: one of the groups of indigenous people of the Andes and their language
arroyo: a gully in an arid region that is usually dry except after heavy rains
Ballivián, José: a wartime general and the eleventh president of Bolivia
biblioteca: a library
boliviano: the currency of Bolivia
bruto: stupid, coarse
campesino: a peasant; the term preferred by many to replace the slur “indio” when referring to the indigenous peoples of the Andes region
cancha: a large market in Cochabamba
cárcel: a prison
charango: a small guitar-like ten-stringed instrument
cholita: a Bolivian woman who dresses in traditional indigenous clothing (Her attire indicates not only whether she is Quechua, Aymara, or a member of one of the other indigenous nations, but also which region of the country she is from.)
chu’lo: a knitted wool hat with earflaps
chuño: a dehydrated potato with a very long shelf life, a staple of the Andean diet
cobarde: a coward
coca: a bush commonly grown throughout the Andes with leaves that can be processed to produce cocaine but that, in their natural form, act merely as a mild stimulant comparable to coffee
cocada: a coconut cookie
cojudo: profanity; in Bolivia, an asshole
Cordilleras: parallel mountain ranges in the Andes
Día de los Muertos: the Day of the Dead
escabeche de verduras: pickled vegetables
fútbol: soccer
futbolito: a version of soccer played in small spaces
gato montés: a wild cat native to the Andes
gringo: in Spanish-speaking countries and contexts, citizens of the United States; particularly white people
hacienda: a landed estate
hacendados: people who own haciendas
indio/india: a slur used to label an indigenous man/woman
Inka: the largest empire in pre-Columbian America
ley: a law
mestizo: a person of mixed European and indigenous descent
oca: an edible South American tuber
Oficina de Tránsito: the division of police responsible for traffic and highways
Pachamama: Mother Earth; a goddess in Andean religious traditions
pan con queso: a cheese-covered bun or other variation commonly served for breakfast
picante de pollo: a traditional dish consisting of a spiced sauce and chicken, and served with rice or chuño
profesor/profesora: a male/female teacher
pucha: interjection; in Bolivia, an exclamation of surprise, frustration, or exasperation
puya: a bromeliad native to South and Central America
Quechua: one of the groups of indigenous people of the Andes and their language
quinua: a grain native to the Andes, internationally known as quinoa
quipu: a series of colored, knotted strings hung from a principal strand and used for counting and record-keeping in the Inka empire
salteña: a Bolivian savory pastry filled with meat, sauce, and vegetables
serenata: a serenade
singani: a type of spirits produced in Bolivia
sopa de maní: a soup made from peanuts and potatoes
tantawawa: a sweet bread baked to celebrate the Day of the Dead
Todos Santos: All Saints’ Day
trancapecho: a steak sandwich
ven: come
vicuña: a wild animal related to the llama that lives in the high alpine areas of the Andes
wawitay: a term of endearment
SELECTED SOURCES
Allen, Catherine J. The Hold Life Has: Coca and Cultural Identity in an Andean Community. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Pres
s, 2002. Print.
Kohl, Benjamin H. and Linda Farthing, with Poma F. F. Muruchi. From the Mines to the Streets: A Bolivian Activist’s Life. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2011. Print.
Ritter, Martha, ed. Children of Law 1008. Cochabamba, Bolivia: Andean Information Network, 1996. Print.
Steele, Liza and Edward Telles. “Pigmentocracy in the Americas: How is Educational Attainment Related to Skin Color?” AmericasBarometer Insights: 2012, Number 73. PDF file.
Youngers, Coletta, and Eileen Rosin, eds. Drugs and Democracy in Latin America: The Impact of U.S. Policy. Boulder, Colo.: L. Rienner, 2005. Print.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
No matter how much research an author undertakes, there are nuances only an expert can understand. I am indebted to the following people for sharing their conversation, abundant knowledge, insight, and fierce love for the country and people of Bolivia with me: Flora Teran, Dr. Juan Carlos Madeni, Pamela Lagrava de Madeni, Anthony Choque, Dr. Carol Conzelman, Marcela Olivera and Lee Cridland. Any outstanding errors or omissions are my own.
Thank you to my brilliant editor, Liza Kaplan, who champions her projects with enthusiasm and absolute commitment. Thank you to the wonderful people at Philomel, and to the greater Penguin team that has worked so expertly to put this book into the hands of readers: Michael Green, Talia Benamy, Maria Fazio, Jenny Chung, David Briggs, Emily Rodriguez, Liz Lunn, Ana Deboo, Kathleen Keating, and Bridget Hartzler.
Thanks, as always, to my agent, Ammi-Joan Paquette. For their keen eyes and kind critique, I am grateful to my early readers: Lisa Schroeder, Kristin Derwich, Meg Wiviott, Laura Resau and Tiffany Crowder.
Finally, I could not do this work without the love and support of my wife. Truly, I’m the lucky one.
Read an excerpt from Melanie Crowder’s critically acclaimed novel
AUDACITY
clouds
Over the gray plain of the sea
winds are gathering the storm-clouds
Words
float like wayward clouds
in the air
in my mind.
Now his wing the wave
Wait—
or was it,
Now the wave his wing caresses
I dip a hand
into my apron pocket
unfold a square of paper
against my palm,
hunch my shoulder,
hide it from view.
Ah,
yes.
Now his wing the wave caresses,
now he rises like an arrow
cleaving clouds
and
The poem is ripped
from my hand
and the air,
where only wayward clouds
had been,
is full of shouting,
accusations
a hand raised in anger
ready to strike—
the world slows
in the second before
pain blooms
in my jaw;
a second
to hope
the poem is
safe
in my mind
where fists
and fury
cannot shake it free.
ordinary
Just because I am
small-boned
and short,
brown-haired
and brown-eyed,
just because I look
common
as a wren
meek
as a robin
that does not mean
what is inside me is also
common
as a wren
meek
as a robin.
Everything
I wish for
is strange
aberrant
even wrong in this place
but I know
I cannot be the only one
blanketing her bright feathers
hooding her sharp eyes
hiding
in plain sight.
My life
so far
has been ordinary
simple
small
but I cannot shake the feeling
that inside this little body
something stronger
is nesting
waiting
for a chance
to flex her talons
snap her wings
taut
and glide
far away
from here.
ACCOLADES FOR
AUDACITY
A 2015 National Jewish Book Award Finalist
A Washington Post Best Children’s Book
A New York Public Library Best Book for Teens
An IRA Notable Book for a Global Society
A 2016 NCTE Children’s Notable Verse Novel
A New York Public Library Best Book for Teens
An ALA Top 10 Best Fiction for Young Adults Pick
An ALSC Notable Children’s Book Nominee
A BCCB Blue Ribbon Winner
“Crowder breathes life into a world long past. . . . Compelling, powerful and unforgettable.”
—Kirkus Reviews,
starred review
“This book stands alone . . . an impactful addition to any historical fiction collection.”
—School Library Journal,
starred review
“With a thorough historical note, glossary of terms, and bibliography, this will make an excellent complement to units on women’s rights and the labor movement, but it will also satisfy readers in search of a well-told tale of a fierce heroine.”
—The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books,
starred review
“This is an excellent title that can open discussions in U.S. history and economics courses about women’s rights, labor unions, and the immigrant experience.”
—School Library Connection,
starred review
“Audacity throbs with the emotions of this exceptional young woman who fought for equal rights and improved labor standards in factories.”
—BookPage
“Brilliant, riveting, informative.”
—Cynthia Levinson,
critically acclaimed author of We’ve Got a Job
“[A]n evocative reimagining of a fascinating historical figure who should be remembered for her determination in the face of great odds and powerful opposition—and for her role in changing America.”
—Margaret Peterson Haddix,
critically acclaimed, bestselling author of Uprising
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