Sabrina and Corina - Kali Fajardo - Anstine
Kali Fajardo-Anstine’s compilation of short stories reflective of Latinx youth culture constitutes for one of the most notable female-dominated narratives highlighting the honest realities between the dynamism of Latinx culture and womanhood.
First, it must be honored that Fajardo-Anstines publication was awarded in 2019 for the National Book Award Finalist for Fiction and rightfully so, as this book is one of the most gravitating pulls to the realities of the harsh issues in the Latino Community that have both been normalized in its culture and condoned in its behavior.
The first grappling connection I made to this book was Fajardo-Anstines depiction of women in every short chapter as both strong and resilient and also weak and vulnerable. In most books I’ve encountered that are centered around the Latina woman, and also written by a Latina woman, they are typically depicted as vulnerable not in the manner of strength or intelligence but because an attractive and knowledgable woman is an abomination to a male-dominated world. This is true in reality for many Latina women who were born into patriarchal fixated households and who grew up defending their strength and simultaneously exhibiting submissiveness when it was appropriate to.
The relationship between women and the society in which they engage in is a complex matter of contention as women of color historically tend to bear the brunt of oppression in the most normalized and integrated parts of society. Through Kali Fajardo-Anstine’s short stories in Sabrina & Corina, the layered complexity of these issues in the LatinX community come to surface through the author's depiction of women and their relationships with the world around them.
“I thought of all the women my family had lost, the horrible things they had witnessed, the acts they simply endured. Sabrina had become another face in a long line of tragedies that stretched back generations.”
-Sabrina & Corina: Stories by Kali Fajardo-Anstine
It is difficult to convey the complexity and allure of Fajardo-Anstine’s collection as each story shares a unique experience that ultimately intertwines into similar themes of toxicity in the community. One of the most prevalent undertones in the hispanic community is the acceptance of man to woman abuse.
In the short story “Cheesman Park”, the protagonist Liz, shares the conversations between her and her mother, both being victims of domestic violence cases.
“It’s not his fault, my mother would tell me.”
- Sabrina & Corina: Stories by Kali Fajardo-Anstine
The correlation between women and their abusers is not meant to portray the women as weak and submissive beings, but rather, it expresses the intersectional pieces of social standards that women are hurled into, and it opens up the sometimes painful realities of minority women. Character development is also one of the literary tools that Fajardo uses to express the legitimacy of roles in womanhood. At the end of the chapter Liz’s mother calls and tells her of a sadness she discovered in her eyes, and she poses the self reflective question; had that sadness only came into appearance when she had met her husband?
This story overlaps with the ongoing brutal experiences of the Latinx/indigenous experience, as men and women both participate in exacerbating the hetero-normative toxicity that prevails within both the post-colonial Hispanic and American society.
The highlighting end to one of the story “Sisters” between a conversation amongst Dotty and a stranger girl exhibits the same idea that stems from the potent hierarchal societal norm that even if assault happens, it could always be worse. As the girl mentions the bruises along Dotty’s face she tells her:
“I bet people say you’re lucky it wasn’t worse”, Dotty replies with, “As a matter of fact… no one says anything at all”
- Sabrina & Corina: Stories by Kali Fajardo-Anstine
Why is it so common that people are so hesitant to speak out against man to woman abuse? Is the issue so common that it has become normalized, or is there an internal ideology that women are to bear the brakes of sexism and abuse? This story reflects the domestic biases and toxicity that women are almost inherently trapped inside of, especially as byproducts of a post-colonial society, where both men and women are immediately introduced to a world that standardizes their agendas and emotions.
Sabrina and Corina reflect a myriad of issues that are inherent to womanhood in LatinX culture, but it is notably important to understand that while abuse, homophobia and sexism are constituted in culture, it is also only possible to trample toxicity by opening up first to our peers and community. As women, and especially women of color, we recognize that systems of male tyranny on the world and the house does not exist solely because of male abuse and power, but also because of those who are ignorant and silent when that power is being hurled back into the stagnant state of oppression. Latina women and men are not to be held responsible for perpetuating abuse, but society is to be held accountable for recognizing that the issue is grounded beyond colonialism, male gaze and media, and it is within all of us to break the cycle.