In ‘Ordinary Girls,’ Jaquira Díaz Explores the Dark Side of Youth
A look at how girls grow up and discover themselves in an unequal — and often cruel — world
Jaquira Díaz’s memoir, Ordinary Girls, takes us into the dark world of her youth. Growing up in the projects of Puerto Rico, she was exposed to violence and poverty, but found solace in her grandmother’s kitchen, where there was always something good on the stove. The family moved to Miami Beach when Díaz was in elementary school, struggling to make ends meet and adjust to a new culture. Díaz’s life was further destabilized by divorce and the onset of her mother’s mental illness, and she turned to drugs and street fighting from a young age.
Meanwhile, coming of age in a community characterized by homophobia, sexual violence, and strict ideals of femininity forced Díaz to keep her sexuality hidden from her family until she was nearly 40. Ordinary Girls weaves Díaz’s incredible personal story with historical accounts of Puerto Rico’s female radical independista and a Miami Beach mother on trial for murdering her baby. Written with raw honesty and lyrical integrity, this memoir is for the ordinary girls who, like Díaz, don’t see their lives reflected in the books at their library.
