Myriam Gurba, David Bowles and the rest of Dignidad Literaria are unbelievable hypocrites. I was paying attention to this whole issue over Twitter at the time. Contrary to their claims that they were just criticizing the writing, and focusing on latin representation, they spent the majority of their time sharing pictures of Cummins and making fun of the way she looked, the way she dressed, her ancestry (being "only" 1/4 Puerto Rican, while Gurba herself is "only" 1/4 Mexican, huh?), they put out calls to anyone who had worked with Cummins before to dig up dirt on her, they claimed she was a racist based on nothing but what they "felt". It came across as nothing less than bullying based on jealousy that she got a 7 figure deal and they didn't. They also expected that a thriller should be able to be replaced with their memoirs, which is not really how publishing works. They managed to score a meeting with the publishing house and squandered the whole thing by being belligerent the whole time. Gurba ended up screaming at them about her rape (!) and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (!!) and then they reported on this on Twitter as though it was a success. They were asked to go on Oprah to discuss the issue and refused, claiming that Oprah would twist everything to make them look bad, and then when the show went ahead without them, they claimed they were never asked. They are professional victims and bullies. They took what could've been an interesting discussion about the truth of what is going on at the border, what is good writing and latin representation in the arts, and turned it into some pathetic high school drama. Believe me, if you had watched it all unfold, you would've been disgusted.
Completely agree. It’s not hard to see that the author of the book comes from a genuine place of empathy, and what she depicted isn’t at all far off from the situation in Mexico. If they want to criticize the lack of Hispanic and Latin voice in the publishing industry, I’m all for that. But that’s not Cummins’s fault. I honestly feel disgusted by the way she was treated. As a Mexican who lives in Mexico and whose sister has interviewed children sicarios, I can say that Cummins did not misrepresented my country. She shone the spotlight on an issue that deserves more attention.
This isn't about censorship, guys! It's more that this pretty mediocre book got so much praise while Latino writers struggle to get their stuff out there. The publisher preferred to promote a stereotypical romance thriller that got a lot wrong about Mexicans. I'm personally glad that the book's publication has led to more attention on Latino writers, even if that's not exactly the issue the author wanted to raise awareness of. She seems well-meaning and just a bit ignorant. I think some people are being too hard on her, but her book is absolutely worth criticizing. Honestly, white people can write books about Latinos all they want if they can portray the culture accurately. I guess it's a lot harder for them to write authentically about experiences they've never had. Anyone who sent death threats to her was absolutely wrong in doing that, and they in no way represent the majority.
@@KellyODo Who the hell took my comment off? I made a little joke about you working at the White House--which your namesake does--and that broke some lame-ass rule?!?
My wife is salvadorian. I've spent the last 15 years with Latin people and there is no fucking way the folks I know are gonna adopt latinx because left wing ideologues tell them it's the right thing to do. Its incredibly condescending
Logical Gamer It was a term first used by Hispanic activists who wanted to be more gender-inclusive without going "Latino and Latina" all the time and to include non-binary folks in the conversation, as they do indeed exist. I've seen it pronounced "lah-TEENSH," à la various indigenous Mexican languages, but that seems to be kind of an in-joke of its own sort. This idea that it must be white people colonising your language if it's an idea you don't like is just pretentious as all fuck.
@@rogerroger2986 personally I'm not a hyphenated American. I'm an American. It messes with spanish speakers. They ask me in spanish, 'de donde eres?" I always tell them from the "Ustados Unidos." Then after being confused they ask where are my parents from. When I say Cuban, they lump me in as a Cuban.
Cummins is an artist not an activist and she has written fiction. Enough said but further, a controversial book is not necessarily an intentional political tool for the author. The story is an artist’s work. As such, Cummins owns the prerogative to wield her imagination over the moon. To assign serious political significance to the work is a reader’s prerogative, not the author’s. An author merely writes the book and sets it free for readers to glean from it what they may. I repeat: “An author is an artist not an activist.” Reader’s can only speculate a critical analysis of the book, but would be hard put to dogmatically judge it as a political tool by the author herself, which few books of fiction are actually intended to be.
Unfortunately, not enough details are given here to judge whether to take seriously what is being said about the novel. No quotes are given, and there's literally not even the barest outline of what the story is about. (According to Wikipedia: a woman and her son are forced to flee Acapulco after her journalist husband publishes a story about a local drug kingpin.) There are a lot of assertions made about the low quality of the writing with no specific examples offered to support them. At 5:57 Sandra Cisneros says, "I knew the amount of work that it took to weave this from testimonial [or maybe she said 'testimonio', which is essentially the same thing] and to make it into a novel…". Does this mean the novel is based on a specific true story (as opposed to being just generally inspired by stories coming out of Mexico)? If so, that would have been nice to know.
Donald Lancon Jr Read the review published by Gurba that sparked this debate. It contains several examples taken from the book and explains how the author writes from a perspective of someone who is surprised to encounter certain aspects of Mexican culture that most actual Mexicans would not bat an eyelash at if they encountered it, and the author plays on many common stereotypes of Mexican people employed in US and gringo media.
@@Alex-xp9lu Gurba COMPLETELY exaggerates examples of Cummins being surprised in her review, based on her own issues. The example she gave of the ice rink in the mall: The book merely says that the mall is so big it even has an ice rink in it. Gurba decided that this meant Cummins was being ignorant and showing surprise that Mexicans could possibly have ice rinks in their country. When really it was just a sentence explaining that the mall was of a size big enough to contain an ice rink. Gurba has issues and she assumes the worst of everyone.
I've heard that American Dirt is a bad book in that it doesn't accurate portray Mexican life. But it raises a question: suppose the book was good. Is it still a problem that the author isn't latino because she's telling a story that isn't her's to tell? Or is it that publishers should publish more books from non-white authors? Or both? A lot of men write books about women, and vice versa, so I'm inclined to think it's a publishing problem, but I can see why the argument "that's not your story" is a powerful one.
Kyle I think the issue is precisely that a lot of Latinx folks and Mexican-Americans in particular feel that Cummins was trafficking in stereotypes and mediocre prose while being lauded by the largely white publishing establishment as a groundbreaking genius worthy of a massive advance and rollout where far superior works by writers from those backgrounds have all too often been ignored. Had she written an excellent and thoughtful book deeply informed by the actual culture and real experiences in a way which rang true, she (or rather, her publisher) might still get some flack for that gulf in representation, but not nearly to this degree.
@@ConvincingPeople all of that... and I'm also thinking there would be an issue if same sort of book was written by Latinx (or some underrepresented) person - and praised like this was. Because racism of low expectations.
No, the book would still receive criticism no matter how good it is. It's not about the content. It's being criticized because the author is white, no other reason. And anyone who denies that is kidding themselves at best and delusional at worst.
@@KellyODo No, the book is pretty bad. It uses a lot of racist tropes that are used to make 1 dimensional characters. It's like when you write a book with autocomplete on. But my point is that the hook shouldn't be criticized because the author is white non-Hispanic and writing about the experiences of Hispanic people. Issues of representation should be levied against publishers and a public that doesn't buy enough books.
For the people criticizing the book: either they haven’t lived in Mexico for a long time or they’re just pissed that Cummins is white. Because as a person who does live in Mexico, who was born here, and who has lived here almost his entire life, I can say that American Dirt is far from inaccurate. If you want to complain about the lack of Latin voices in the publishing industry, I am one hundred percent for that. But don’t do it by attacking an author who wrote a good and empathy book about a topic that doesn’t get talked about enough.
Ms. Gurba and Sr. Lovato if Latinx don’t have the talent to write their own compelling Mexican story and compete on same level with mainstream authors then at least let the “gabacha” write it for for you “guey”. I think you are just upset and jealous you didn’t write it yourself “mija”.
They would have if they had been commissioned to do such. You're missing the point if that is your argument. There are plenty of Latinx that could have written this but they were not asked.
I don't think that's the point it's just that the book shows misrepresentation of the Mexican culture. so when you have a misrepresentation gaining critical acclaim its not fair for the book to be recognized with false information.
I can't remember the name of that woman who speaks first about the book but I feel like she's probably quite jealous. this is not a badly written book as she would have us believe..., it is full of beautiful poetry andl colourful prose.... evocative... intelligent... thought provoking..... beautifully expressed in every way.. my only criticism is the rhythm was little bit same same all the way through and could have done with a little bit more variation and fluctuation. I will not endeavour to comment on the political or representational aspect but I really enjoyed the story.Feel inspired to read list children archives.
Exactly! I'm just a reader, but next time I will be in a book store, I won't choose her book, because she's just an angry person who is jealous of someone's success.
You saw 'The Grapes of Wrath' on the book's cover and thought the book was about agriculture?? The Grapes of Wrath is a famous novel by John Steinbeck. A wonderful novel. Boy, oh, boy Ms. Magazine must be hard up for book reviewers. Yikes!
Why do Democracy now always takes an extreme stand at everything. It's a goddamn fiction. The reviewer is a known Mexican nationalist. But this gave the book a great boost.
more like systematic racism... oh how white people like to portray minorities in a poor racist way... normalize it so you don't even think it is racism
I read the first few pages of the book and she's right. The book is badly written and not interesting or gripping at all. Perhaps the writer had good intentions however.
@@KellyODo Oh yes I can. It’s the same thing with films. It’s pretty apparent if something is going to be good or not. I have no problem with a white person writing about the experiences of others... if it’s good... this was not the case.
@@mg2619 Then why is the book on Operah's book club list? Why did Stephen King love it? Why does it have 5 stars on Amazon despite the shills downvoting it who never read it?
Most news coverage includes a segment on art and culture. Democracy Now has also been talking a lot about public policy, different perspectives on the impeachment trial, and international news.
Look, I totally understand this, why are Latin people jealous about the book? is it necessary to criticize this book just because was written by a NON Latin woman? by someone who did not have the life of Lidia???? In my humble opinion this book is amazing, Janine said that she volunteered, she did a lot of research, so at least she did something right? I get it, she is white, she is not latin, so she doesn't have the right to write about Latin's life? I am a man and what if a write about a company that steal money from poor people, just saying, so are people gonna crucify me just because I wrote about something I don't KNOW???? I don't understand m, help me to understand. LATIN PEOPLE ASK FOR REPRESENTATION, PROBABLY AMERICAN DIRT EXAGGERATED PROBABLY YES PROBABLYN NOT, WHO KNOWS!!!!!!! ITS JUST A BOOK. BY THE WAY I AM A LATIN GUY.
Myriam Gurba, David Bowles and the rest of Dignidad Literaria are unbelievable hypocrites. I was paying attention to this whole issue over Twitter at the time. Contrary to their claims that they were just criticizing the writing, and focusing on latin representation, they spent the majority of their time sharing pictures of Cummins and making fun of the way she looked, the way she dressed, her ancestry (being "only" 1/4 Puerto Rican, while Gurba herself is "only" 1/4 Mexican, huh?), they put out calls to anyone who had worked with Cummins before to dig up dirt on her, they claimed she was a racist based on nothing but what they "felt". It came across as nothing less than bullying based on jealousy that she got a 7 figure deal and they didn't. They also expected that a thriller should be able to be replaced with their memoirs, which is not really how publishing works.
They managed to score a meeting with the publishing house and squandered the whole thing by being belligerent the whole time. Gurba ended up screaming at them about her rape (!) and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (!!) and then they reported on this on Twitter as though it was a success. They were asked to go on Oprah to discuss the issue and refused, claiming that Oprah would twist everything to make them look bad, and then when the show went ahead without them, they claimed they were never asked.
They are professional victims and bullies. They took what could've been an interesting discussion about the truth of what is going on at the border, what is good writing and latin representation in the arts, and turned it into some pathetic high school drama. Believe me, if you had watched it all unfold, you would've been disgusted.
These people are disgusting, indeed.
Completely agree. It’s not hard to see that the author of the book comes from a genuine place of empathy, and what she depicted isn’t at all far off from the situation in Mexico. If they want to criticize the lack of Hispanic and Latin voice in the publishing industry, I’m all for that. But that’s not Cummins’s fault. I honestly feel disgusted by the way she was treated. As a Mexican who lives in Mexico and whose sister has interviewed children sicarios, I can say that Cummins did not misrepresented my country. She shone the spotlight on an issue that deserves more attention.
This isn't about censorship, guys! It's more that this pretty mediocre book got so much praise while Latino writers struggle to get their stuff out there. The publisher preferred to promote a stereotypical romance thriller that got a lot wrong about Mexicans. I'm personally glad that the book's publication has led to more attention on Latino writers, even if that's not exactly the issue the author wanted to raise awareness of. She seems well-meaning and just a bit ignorant. I think some people are being too hard on her, but her book is absolutely worth criticizing. Honestly, white people can write books about Latinos all they want if they can portray the culture accurately. I guess it's a lot harder for them to write authentically about experiences they've never had. Anyone who sent death threats to her was absolutely wrong in doing that, and they in no way represent the majority.
Apparently the author didn't receive death threats and dignidad literaria did
Sedim Entari Si agradezco. No soy mujer pero yo se que es muy dura ser una mujer mexicana, y necesitamos más historias de este punto de vista.
@@snooopert1048 DIGNIDAD LITERARIA Y EL PODER DE LAS PALABRAS!
Did you read the book? Probably not. There are many Latino readers who enjoyed the book.
@@KellyODo Who the hell took my comment off? I made a little joke about you working at the White House--which your namesake does--and that broke some lame-ass rule?!?
from watching this, you could think that they are talking about "mein kampf".
Shows how little your critical thinking is used.
Yeah you're right man!
Latinex is not a Spanish word. Stop trying to colonize our language.
My wife is salvadorian. I've spent the last 15 years with Latin people and there is no fucking way the folks I know are gonna adopt latinx because left wing ideologues tell them it's the right thing to do. Its incredibly condescending
i say Latin american, central american, Hispanics, and Mexicans
im Afro-Arab :)
Logical Gamer It was a term first used by Hispanic activists who wanted to be more gender-inclusive without going "Latino and Latina" all the time and to include non-binary folks in the conversation, as they do indeed exist. I've seen it pronounced "lah-TEENSH," à la various indigenous Mexican languages, but that seems to be kind of an in-joke of its own sort. This idea that it must be white people colonising your language if it's an idea you don't like is just pretentious as all fuck.
@@rogerroger2986 personally I'm not a hyphenated American. I'm an American. It messes with spanish speakers. They ask me in spanish, 'de donde eres?" I always tell them from the "Ustados Unidos." Then after being confused they ask where are my parents from. When I say Cuban, they lump me in as a Cuban.
@@ConvincingPeople Just say Latin American pendejo 🤦🏽♂️
Cummins is an artist not an activist and she has written fiction. Enough said but further, a controversial book is not necessarily an intentional political tool for the author. The story is an artist’s work. As such, Cummins owns the prerogative to wield her imagination over the moon. To assign serious political significance to the work is a reader’s prerogative, not the author’s. An author merely writes the book and sets it free for readers to glean from it what they may. I repeat: “An author is an artist not an activist.” Reader’s can only speculate a critical analysis of the book, but would be hard put to dogmatically judge it as a political tool by the author herself, which few books of fiction are actually intended to be.
Please don’t call us Latinx. Just say Latin American or Latinos, thank you.
"Latin American" and "Hispanic" are already gender-neutral. "Latinx" has no actual function
Unfortunately, not enough details are given here to judge whether to take seriously what is being said about the novel. No quotes are given, and there's literally not even the barest outline of what the story is about. (According to Wikipedia: a woman and her son are forced to flee Acapulco after her journalist husband publishes a story about a local drug kingpin.) There are a lot of assertions made about the low quality of the writing with no specific examples offered to support them.
At 5:57 Sandra Cisneros says, "I knew the amount of work that it took to weave this from testimonial [or maybe she said 'testimonio', which is essentially the same thing] and to make it into a novel…". Does this mean the novel is based on a specific true story (as opposed to being just generally inspired by stories coming out of Mexico)? If so, that would have been nice to know.
Donald Lancon Jr Read the review published by Gurba that sparked this debate. It contains several examples taken from the book and explains how the author writes from a perspective of someone who is surprised to encounter certain aspects of Mexican culture that most actual Mexicans would not bat an eyelash at if they encountered it, and the author plays on many common stereotypes of Mexican people employed in US and gringo media.
@@Alex-xp9lu Gurba COMPLETELY exaggerates examples of Cummins being surprised in her review, based on her own issues. The example she gave of the ice rink in the mall: The book merely says that the mall is so big it even has an ice rink in it. Gurba decided that this meant Cummins was being ignorant and showing surprise that Mexicans could possibly have ice rinks in their country. When really it was just a sentence explaining that the mall was of a size big enough to contain an ice rink. Gurba has issues and she assumes the worst of everyone.
The book is wonderful, just read it.
I've heard that American Dirt is a bad book in that it doesn't accurate portray Mexican life. But it raises a question: suppose the book was good. Is it still a problem that the author isn't latino because she's telling a story that isn't her's to tell? Or is it that publishers should publish more books from non-white authors? Or both?
A lot of men write books about women, and vice versa, so I'm inclined to think it's a publishing problem, but I can see why the argument "that's not your story" is a powerful one.
Kyle I think the issue is precisely that a lot of Latinx folks and Mexican-Americans in particular feel that Cummins was trafficking in stereotypes and mediocre prose while being lauded by the largely white publishing establishment as a groundbreaking genius worthy of a massive advance and rollout where far superior works by writers from those backgrounds have all too often been ignored. Had she written an excellent and thoughtful book deeply informed by the actual culture and real experiences in a way which rang true, she (or rather, her publisher) might still get some flack for that gulf in representation, but not nearly to this degree.
@@ConvincingPeople
all of that...
and I'm also thinking there would be an issue if same sort of book was written by Latinx (or some underrepresented) person - and praised like this was.
Because racism of low expectations.
No, the book would still receive criticism no matter how good it is. It's not about the content. It's being criticized because the author is white, no other reason. And anyone who denies that is kidding themselves at best and delusional at worst.
@@KellyODo No, the book is pretty bad. It uses a lot of racist tropes that are used to make 1 dimensional characters. It's like when you write a book with autocomplete on. But my point is that the hook shouldn't be criticized because the author is white non-Hispanic and writing about the experiences of Hispanic people. Issues of representation should be levied against publishers and a public that doesn't buy enough books.
@@km1dash6 What racist tropes does the book use?
Is there any updates anyone can give as a result of the meetings at macmillan etc...
For the people criticizing the book: either they haven’t lived in Mexico for a long time or they’re just pissed that Cummins is white. Because as a person who does live in Mexico, who was born here, and who has lived here almost his entire life, I can say that American Dirt is far from inaccurate. If you want to complain about the lack of Latin voices in the publishing industry, I am one hundred percent for that. But don’t do it by attacking an author who wrote a good and empathy book about a topic that doesn’t get talked about enough.
sorry but it was poorly written. It got hyped for no reason.
Ms. Gurba and Sr. Lovato if Latinx don’t have the talent to write their own compelling Mexican story and compete on same level with mainstream authors then at least let the “gabacha” write it for for you “guey”. I think you are just upset and jealous you didn’t write it yourself “mija”.
They would have if they had been commissioned to do such. You're missing the point if that is your argument. There are plenty of Latinx that could have written this but they were not asked.
I don't think that's the point it's just that the book shows misrepresentation of the Mexican culture. so when you have a misrepresentation gaining critical acclaim its not fair for the book to be recognized with false information.
Ha, ha, “exactamente”.
Myriam Gurba has a vocal fry that any white Valley Girl would die for.
Jealous much O'Donnell lol?
She is an accomplished activist and pacifist. Share your accomplishements with the group please Kelley Odonnel
@@Bracero1990 pacifist? She's not a pacifist. She's definitely an activist.
I can't remember the name of that woman who speaks first about the book but I feel like she's probably quite jealous. this is not a badly written book as she would have us believe..., it is full of beautiful poetry andl colourful prose.... evocative... intelligent... thought provoking..... beautifully expressed in every way.. my only criticism is the rhythm was little bit same same all the way through and could have done with a little bit more variation and fluctuation. I will not endeavour to comment on the political or representational aspect but I really enjoyed the story.Feel inspired to read list children archives.
Exactly! I'm just a reader, but next time I will be in a book store, I won't choose her book, because she's just an angry person who is jealous of someone's success.
You are a screenshot of someone with blue eyes. Your representation doesnt matter here. Come get these lessons. -Dave Chappele
@@Bracero1990 The woman she's talking about, Myriam Gurba, also has blue eyes. Her dad is Polish.
You saw 'The Grapes of Wrath' on the book's cover and thought the book was about agriculture?? The Grapes of Wrath is a famous novel by John Steinbeck. A wonderful novel. Boy, oh, boy Ms. Magazine must be hard up for book reviewers. Yikes!
Haha! Exactly my thoughts!
Your kidding me right!? You thought it was about agriculture, BS. And I thought it was about grapes too.
This is so silly, those "mexican americans" dont even speak spanish, give me a break !
What we need are more historias reales de las mujeres mexicanas! Dignidad Literaria Adelante!
Why do Democracy now always takes an extreme stand at everything. It's a goddamn fiction. The reviewer is a known Mexican nationalist. But this gave the book a great boost.
more like systematic racism... oh how white people like to portray minorities in a poor racist way... normalize it so you don't even think it is racism
@* what about being proud of white culture. The proud boys? Are they just?
La Raza is rent-seeking again and Myriam Gurba is appropriating a valley girl accent.
I read the first few pages of the book and she's right. The book is badly written and not interesting or gripping at all. Perhaps the writer had good intentions however.
A NY times best seller though.
Theres so many books like that its irreprehensible
You can't judge a book by the first few pages. That's ridiculous. You just don't want it to be good because of your own bias.
@@KellyODo Oh yes I can. It’s the same thing with films. It’s pretty apparent if something is going to be good or not. I have no problem with a white person writing about the experiences of others... if it’s good... this was not the case.
@@mg2619 Then why is the book on Operah's book club list? Why did Stephen King love it? Why does it have 5 stars on Amazon despite the shills downvoting it who never read it?
Really focusing on the hard hitting issue aren't you guys? Solving the world's problems one day at a time. You should reward yourselves with a fresca.
Most news coverage includes a segment on art and culture. Democracy Now has also been talking a lot about public policy, different perspectives on the impeachment trial, and international news.
Please study "The Venus Project"! We need to go beyond politics poverty and war!
Look, I totally understand this, why are Latin people jealous about the book? is it necessary to criticize this book just because was written by a NON Latin woman? by someone who did not have the life of Lidia???? In my humble opinion this book is amazing, Janine said that she volunteered, she did a lot of research, so at least she did something right? I get it, she is white, she is not latin, so she doesn't have the right to write about Latin's life? I am a man and what if a write about a company that steal money from poor people, just saying, so are people gonna crucify me just because I wrote about something I don't KNOW???? I don't understand m, help me to understand. LATIN PEOPLE ASK FOR REPRESENTATION, PROBABLY AMERICAN DIRT EXAGGERATED PROBABLY YES PROBABLYN NOT, WHO KNOWS!!!!!!! ITS JUST A BOOK. BY THE WAY I AM A LATIN GUY.
bs
Me-hee-co.
A
What a cry baby!! It's a great novel. This woman is clearly jealous of a great writer. What a sad life she has.
First💯