{"id":21481,"date":"2020-03-06T09:14:55","date_gmt":"2020-03-06T09:14:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cardiffstudentmedia.co.uk\/quench\/?p=21481"},"modified":"2020-06-18T19:46:40","modified_gmt":"2020-06-18T18:46:40","slug":"digging-out-american-dirt-what-this-controversy-tells-us-about-the-shortcomings-of-the-publishing-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cardiffstudentmedia.co.uk\/quench\/culture\/digging-out-american-dirt-what-this-controversy-tells-us-about-the-shortcomings-of-the-publishing-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"Digging Out ‘American Dirt’: What This Controversy Tells Us About the Shortcomings of the Publishing Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Luisa De La Concha Montes<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In early January, I woke up to find my\nTwitter feed flooded with very outspoken opinions about Jeannine Cummins’ most\nrecent book, American Dirt.<\/em> As I\nstarted interacting with the two main writers that reviewed and criticised the\nbook, Myrian Gurba de Serrano and David O. Bowles, I realized that I was\nwitnessing something quite revealing, and potentially, something that would\npush publishing houses to take a hard look at themselves and challenge their\ninternal structure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeannine Cummins’ book follows the story of\na \u00d4\u00c7\u00ffMexican’ mother (the deliberate use of quotation marks will become clear\nlater on), who, threatened by the drug cartel that killed her journalist\nhusband, is forced to flee the country with her son. As I read the synopsis of\nthe book, I started laughing while I muttered no mames <\/em>(a wonderful Mexican phrase that can be used in many\ndifferent ways, but in this context, I was using it for \u00d4\u00c7\u00ffno way’). Once more,\nthe story of Mexico was weakly summarised into a mishmash of drug cartel\nreferences, violence and yes, you guessed it, quincea\u251c\u2592eras<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Critics of the backlash have been quick to highlight\nthat the bad press surrounding the book is just a product of cancel culture and\npolitical correctness.They fear that\nthis type of criticisms will eventually lead to censorship. Latino readers that\nhave been outspoken about the stereotypes that this book utilises have been\nwidely questioned: What could possibly be\nso wrong about a white writer choosing Mexico as the setting of their narrative?\nAre white writers not allowed to write about other foreign countries anymore? <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a Latina reader and writer, I want to\nclarify that this is not a case of irrational political correctness. We do not\nwant to censor this book, nor we want to stop white writers from writing books\nset in Latin American countries. We never did. What we do want, however, is for\nwriters and editors to be honest about their intentions, and to write their\nstories with awareness of the topics they are presenting. After all, it is\n2020: writers will be held accountable for the depictions they create. Or, in\nwords of David Bowles: “authors definitely have the right to\nwrite outside of their identity. An absolute legal right. No one disputes that.\nBut there’s homework to be done. Questions to be asked.”<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, why did the individuals behind the\nwriting and publishing of American Dirt<\/em>\nfail to do their homework? They certainly didn’t fail because they set the book\nin Mexico, nor because it was written by a white author. They failed because\nthe book was promoted as a true depiction of migration, when in reality, it is\nvery far from it. A true depiction of migration would never have a wealthy\nmother getting on La Bestia<\/em> (the\ntrain that people from marginal backgrounds have to take to reach the U.S). A\ntrue depiction of Mexican migration would never have a drug cartel called Los Jardineros<\/em> (The Gardeners) \u00d4\u00c7\u00f4 in all\nfairness, that makes me giggle every time. A true depiction of a Mexican mother\nwould never get surprised when she finds out some Central Americans migrate by\nfoot. There are several examples like this across the novel, and I really\nsuggest you go read Myriam\nGurba’s review<\/a> of the book, which is a masterpiece in its own right.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alternatively, Daniel Pe\u251c\u2592a also described\nthe book<\/a> as being “totally on brand for the Trump era”, as it is a “lab-created\nbrown trauma built for the white gaze”, giving a highly curated “textural\nexperience” to those who don’t want to encounter the true depictions of\nmigration that other documentary books have achieved. As unfiltered as this\nopinion might seem, there is some truth to it. The audience that Cummins had in\nmind when she wrote it, clearly was not Latin American.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless\nof the divisive opinions of the book, one thing remains clear: the active PR\ncampaign of the publishing company Flatiron Books was, at its core, a\ncalculated process of manipulation. They actively tried to lead the American\npublic to believe that Cummins’ writing managed to depict what migration to the\nU.S. is really like, and in the process, it ignored all the Latin American writers<\/a> that had already written their own\naccounts of it. But they didn’t stop there, they also got on board high-profile\nfigures such as Oprah Winfrey<\/a> and Stephen King<\/a> to promote the book, alongside a Don Winslow\nquote on the cover, deeming it “A Grapes\nof Wrath<\/em> of our time.” Even more insultingly, the tables at the release\nparty, bore center pieces cladded with barbed wire<\/a>, and Cummins even had the nerve to\npost her barbed wired manicure<\/a> on her Twitter, demonstrating how\nthe writer, and the audience the book is aimed at is extremely desensitised to the migrant crisis in the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, why couldn’t it be promoted as what it really\nwas, a speculative thriller, not grounded in reality but in a dramatic\nreconfiguration of migration? It seems to me that it was deemed “the novel of\nmigration” to gain traction; it was a PR stunt to make it relevant to the\ntimes, which makes it even worse. They were trying to profit off something that\nhas killed\n2,243 people since 2014<\/a> \u00d4\u00c7\u00f4and continues to do so. They were trying to profit\noff something that in 2019 alone kept 69,550\nmigrant children<\/a> in custody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the editor’s letter<\/a> that was sent to reviewers, the\nExecutive Vice President of Flatiron Books argued that Cummins was concerned\nthat “migrants at the Mexican border were being portrayed as \u00d4\u00c7\u00ffa faceless brown\nmass'”, and because of this, “she wanted to give these people a face.”\nIronically enough, the publishing of this book actually managed to do that: the\n\u00d4\u00c7\u00fffaceless brown mass’ spoke up. Latino writers started\nthe movement #DignidadLiteraria, showcasing their own writing of their migrant\nexperiences in the hope to bridge the gaps that currently exist between the publishing\nindustry and writers from minority backgrounds. In response to this, Macmillan\ninvited the main figures of the movement to a round table discussion, and they\nagreed to increase\ntheir Latino inclusion.<\/a> However, even though the outcome (for now) is\npositive, this whole movement demonstrated two things that should not be\nforgotten. Firstly, it showed that publishing industries are willing to listen.\nEven though there are\narguments to suggest that this openness to criticism was an easy way out to\navoid bad press, this move towards inclusion could\nreally change the future of Latino writers. And secondly, the controversy\nitself raised very important questions about authorship, privilege and\nself-criticism that contemporary writers should be able to ask themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, the issue of migration is\ncomplex and painful. Because of this, it should definitely be written about,\nbut it should be done sensibly and carefully. As the petition to remove American Dirt<\/em> from Oprah’s\nBook Club<\/a> list put it: “When writing about the experiences of marginalized people\u00d4\u00c7\u00aa especially\nwhen these lived experiences are heavily politicized, oppressed, threatened,\nand disbelieved\u00d4\u00c7\u00aa the writer’s duty to imagine well, responsibly, and with\ncomplexity becomes even more critical.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some books reveal truth inside their pages,\nothers, however, reveal truth outside their pages, demonstrating faults and\ncracks about the readers they are aimed at. American\nDirt<\/em> belongs to the second category, it was tailor-made for those who don’t\nwant to see reality in the face (or for those who think some realities are\nfaceless). It truly belongs in the bookshelves of those who would rather\nsimplify the Latino narrative to a thriller of half-concocted references to Mexico.\nUltimately, it is a great representation of what creeps in the background of\nevery Trump rally: a clear disjunction between the America that is home to millions\nof migrants, and the false idea that America should only be home to a selected\nfew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is the real American Dirt. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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