me--bookish and poor and surly and Brown

is how Sánchez describes herself in the memoir's introduction. These are qualities that interest me in a writer (and as a friend [a:Celia C. Pérez|9838714|Celia C. Pérez|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] lol). The author of [b:I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter|29010395|I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter|Erika L. Sánchez|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1503003220l/29010395._SY75_.jpg|49254602] and a book (or two?) of poetry recounts her upbringing, depression, and good & bad choices with a nakedness that is masked only by potty-mouthed bravado. It really is surprising and fun that Sánchez's voice is so sassy--except when she's in a deep depression. That essay's language is the least adorned.

An example of the wicked-tongued essays

White supremacy is funny because it is stupid; it makes no goddamn sense. Basically, you're telling me that Stephen Miller is genetically superior to me? That bitch looks like a gland.

Descriptive! Accurate!

Further

If , for instance, I can't make fun of the Duggar mom's sloppy Republican vagina, I don't want to be a part of your movement.

I'm confident Emma Goldman would have agreed.

Sometimes she doesn't release her trenchant hot takes, so they probably burn her instead of the guilty parties.

Sometimes the locals laughed at my Spanish as if I were some sort of yokel. When I explained that I was Mexican American, Spaniards were often perplexed. How could I be both? they wondered. And why did I have a strange accent? I had trouble understanding what was so hard to understand. What I wanted to say was "Your people savagely colonized the New World, thus birthing mestizos in the land that became Mexico; then, hundreds of years later, thanks to neoliberalism and corruption, these Mexicans, searching for work, immigrated to the United States, where they are exploited for their labor and treated like animals. I am the daughter of these immigrants, which is why my accent isn't entirely Mexican. I struggled my way through college and now here I am on a fancy scholarship."

And sometimes a guilty party who doesn't mind being called out, but also isn't going to change their ways>

One afternoon my cat unearthed a used condom from under my bed. As I stared at it in the middle of the living room, I realized I wasn't sure who it had belonged to. I was slut-shamed by my cat.

Okay, so I have a bunch more passages highlighted, but I'm not going to share them all. Here's one that aches with truth, though

It's hard to date men when you hate men.

I also appreciate her telling of how having an abortion saved her and her future family's lives, how being forced to give birth when you're suicidal isn't good for anyone. And finally, the deeply relatable

All I've ever wanted was to feel alive.