2021: Ehh overall. But also I don't think I gave this book the time and space it deserved (considering I was in the middle of packing to move my entire live across the country and falling asleep in the middle of chapters of this book every night).

This book is a series of vignettes that all subtlety have to do with each other, but it was too subtle for me. I think Garcia's goal was to show how expansive and different Hispanic lives are from each other, that they don't fit into any stereotypes. In the end, it unfortunately felt like Glee, trying to include every possible complication that someone of Latino descent might possibly be dealing with.

There were certainly some unique perspectives in here, and I enjoyed reading about the time spent in a 19th century Cuban cigar factory. But books that I love keep me up at night, because I can't stop reading them. This book was literally a sedative; I couldn't keep my eyes open to finish a chapter.

The description on the back of the book calls it, "a story of America's most tangled, honest, human roots". It was TOO tangled in my opinion. Bless the editor that decided that the book needed a family tree, thank you for that!