Stereotypes In American Dirt By Jeanine Cummins

Mexican stereotypes are something that every Hispanic person Faces. The classic ones are ethnic foods like Tacos or Burritos, and sometimes the sombreros and maracas. Hispanic populations worldwide suffer from discrimination in many forms, such as the erasure of culture and identity which occurs in America the most. The country has a characterized view of the Hispanic population which leads to many media pieces in the U.S.A accentuating the stereotypes and characterizations that have been given to the Hispanic population. One of these media pieces is Jeanine Cummins's 2020 novel American Dirt. American Dirt is a novel that attempts to create an accurate representation of Mexico while balancing an effective drama that as the book states on

The public fallout this book received is proof that there is such a thing as bad publicity. Jeanine Cummins celebrated the book's release with two things, a barbed wire nail art, and a barbed wire centerpiece for the tables of her release parties. Barbed wire is a visual of keeping something out, it is created to entrap and harm anyone who passes through, people have died in the wire. Jeanine Cummins and the marketing team for this book believed that barbed wire, a symbol of oppression towards the Hispanic community, should decorate the cover of their book, the nails of its author as a fashion statement, and the centerpieces of a release party. It is disgusting to know how little self-awareness these people grasped as they already create a story that is not theirs to tell, which contributes to silencing the Hispanic communities' stories of immigration and celebrating their accomplishment by flaunting the symbol of oppression as the book's logo. Despite the controversy brewing around the book, Oprah had it appear on her show and in Oprah's book club reading list, which caused a huge marketing boom and an influx of positive reviews as Oprah's predominantly white audience consumed a story that was dumbed down to pander to their comfortability. This led to the suppression of negative reviews which is visible in an online interaction between a New York Times reviewer and the official

The smoking gun of this flawed writing is the climax of the story; the confrontation between Lydia and Javier. To drive home the idea that American Dirt is a deeply flawed piece of literature, a breakdown will be conducted to represent the flaws within the writing itself after stripping away the stereotypes implemented within the story. Lydia’s journey in American Dirt is a story of a woman overcoming all odds and defying a man's wish to have her dead, which is a simple but effective storyline that can in the right hands deliver a gripping drama with a strong theme of woman empowerment. Unfortunately, the book drags its feet with every step as the novel tells the viewer Lydia is capable and intelligent while showing the viewer for her to be naive and overly trusting. A prominent example is trusting Lorenzo even though he was a past member of the gang syndicates in Mexico. With Lydia's character already shaky at best, the situation that unfortunately buries her character is the aforementioned final confrontation of Lydia and Javier. Javier begins their interaction by stating “I never wished for your death. Surely