My Body Is Blue By Elizabeth Acevedo

Elizabeth Acevedo’s works give a sense of representation to young women struggling with their identities and religious beliefs in a world where being yourself is criticized heavily. Similar to Jason Reynolds, Acevedo not only represents the youth but also demonstrates her understanding of young live’s through the use of slang and informal vocabulary which gives this familiar and relatable feeling to the reader forming a deeper connection. Acevedo, whose poems and novels have made a huge impact in the lives of Women of Color mostly in the Afro and Latinx communities, has been bringing hope to many through her powerful works that depict the hardships experienced as a woman and also being of Latinx heritage facing the struggles living in America.

This novel focuses on a fifteen year old Dominican girl, Xiomara, who feels her body is emphasized rather than her voice. She feels ashamed of her body as she was taught, especially since her Catholic mother’s worries get proven everyday; she explains how her body developed early and explains how she had “known since my period came: my body was trouble… My body was a problem. And I didnt want any of these boys to solve it. I wanted to forget I had this body at all.” (151) At home, her Catholic mother teaches her to be ashamed of her own body and is proved right when the men in her community harass and catcall her. Xio is unable to express herself and explore without feeling guilty thanks to the Church and her mother’s beliefs. Her mother’s view on her sexual expression reflects the Latinx views on that topic, influenced by the Catholic Church. Elizabeth Acevedo does a great job at illustrating this image of significant aspects of the Latina girl’s life which is not commonly represented in everyday media. She focuses on the issues about sexuality, making the woman feel heard since these are usually disregarded in Latinx

In her spoken-word works such as “The Rat Ode”, “Hair”, “Afro Latina” and “Unforgettable” she also focuses on the critics against the nature of a woman though it is more focused on her black features. In “ The Rat Ode” she addresses the topic of those who “aren't noble enough creatures for a poem” (“The Rat Ode”); an ode inspired by her professors' comment about rats in literature, in art. When presenting this poem, she gives this background to explain the inspiration for such a powerful poem; the comment made her, as an Afro-Latina, a woman of african descent, feel identified with the rat. The rat in the ode is a sort of metaphor that represents oppressed groups, “and remind them that you, that I, we, are worthy of every poem here” (Elizabeth Acevedo at The Summit on Inequality & Opportunities”) as she mentions when wrapping up the story of how this poem came to