Author(s): Canizales (Illustrator)

Graphic Novel | Colombia | Children's & YA Graphic | Social Issues & Relationships | Young Adult | Politics

Andrea, a young Indigenous Colombian woman, has returned to the land she calls home. Only nineteen years old, she comes to mourn her lost child, carrying a box in her arms. And she comes with another mission. Andrea has hidden a camera upon herself. If she can capture evidence of the illegal mining that displaced her family, it will mark the first step toward reclaiming their land. This socially conscious thriller from graphic novelist Canizales examines the injustices of his home country in a stark, distinctive style.

Review:

Colombian creator Canizales's heart-rending graphic novel recounts 19-year-old Indigenous Colombian Andrea's quest for closure and recompense following an attack on her village, Amazona. After miners arrive in Amazona to conduct an illegal operation, resulting in her husband's death, Andrea and the village's remaining survivors are displaced to Cali, where she and her people are reviled. When the organization that rehomes them decides 'it was better to keep us hidden, ' all 38 villagers are placed in a 600-square-foot space with no windows. There, Andrea's infant daughter dies, and she travels back to Amazona, hoping to bury her child in their native soil. Andrea also carries a camera, determined to capture proof of the mining operation so as to reclaim her people's land. Rendered in bold ink washes with vibrant red accents, characters' expressive faces expertly convey anguish. In a text that pulls no punches in its depiction of heavy topics such as sexual violence, Andrea's desire for--and journey toward--justice, which is portrayed via simultaneously harrowing and tender flashbacks of her life with her husband and baby, proves a powerful exploration of hope amid displacement and despair. A contextualizing author's note concludes.--Publishers Weekly

The displacement of Indigenous peoples across the world, in the name of capitalistic progress, is a horrific, well-documented reality. It's the source of compelling stories of suffering, resistance, and occasional victory in the face of a massive opponent. This is a bold imagining of one such tale. Hard-eyed heroine Andrea, 19, has been displaced from her village in the Colombian rain forest and resides in a miniscule apartment with 37 others. Her husband was killed amid the violence of their removal, and her baby died from their inescapably squalid urban living conditions. Her quest for retribution is fueled by fury borne of this pain--she must return her baby's body to their native land and bring back evidence of the injustice that has destroyed her world. Canizales's shadow-filled, jungle-focused, black-and-white art captures the pain of displacement from one's physical and spiritual world; flashbacks to the horrors of Andrea's past, set against black backgrounds, are especially effective. Andrea's plan to deceive the site guards and document her home's destruction feels less grounded in reality--the moral simplicity of the suggestion that retribution is possible once she uncovers their wrongdoing feels too easy in an otherwise complex story. Scenes of violence, death, and attempted assault may disturb some readers. VERDICT Canizales presents teens with many compelling visual and emotional moments, but a simplistic search for justice leaves the story feeling unfinished. Perhaps that incomplete quest is a reality on a societal level as well.--School Library Journal

Chased from her village in the dead of night by men wearing camo and brandishing guns, Andrea, a young Indigenous Colombian woman, and her fellow villagers are passed from one agency to another, ending up in a stuffy two-room apartment in the city, so small and so full of people that her baby dies from a lack of oxygen. Having dreamed of a jaguar that tells her to return to her region of Amazonia and reclaim what is hers, Andrea arrives at the gates of the illegal mining camp that has replaced her village with two goals: to bury her child in sacred land and to photograph enough evidence to prove the land was stolen. Canizales creates a bleak landscape by using a palette of blacks and grays broken only by splashes of red, pink, and orange. His figures look as if they've been created using woodcuts, the starkness of the artwork emphasizing the trauma experienced. With characters sympathetic but never pathetic, the story--part thriller, part political drama--will grip readers from page 1.--Booklist

To reclaim her village, a young Indigenous Colombian woman returns to confront the violent forces behind an illegal mining operation.

Armed men crept into the village during the night, and the villagers fled into the jungle for safety. Displaced from their land, they traveled for miles, seeking refuge from the indifferent local government in Cali, which relocates Andrea and the rest of her community into a single, small, unlivable house. Inside this suffocating 600-square-foot dwelling, Andrea's baby daughter dies. Andrea undertakes the long voyage from the city of Cali back to the Amazonia region with a small casket in her arms, on a mission to bury her daughter in the land where her village previously stood. She also secretly carries a camera, her tool in gathering photographic evidence in the fight to reclaim her land. Arriving at the wire fence surrounding the destructive mining operation, Andrea contends with two armed guards: One offers little sympathy; the other comes from her distant past. Simply powerful, Colombian artist Canizales' illuminating, expressively rendered graphic novel translated from the Spanish contains moments of great beauty (particularly Andrea's memories of her husband and father) among numerous scenes of deep anguish, including instances when the threat of sexual assault arises. Stark flashbacks and revealing backstories lead to an overall sense of temporal unsteadiness, creating unease in a way that invites readers to stop and consider. A brutal, vital text.--Kirkus Reviews