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I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter Essay

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The conflict with communicating with one’s family is not only generated by the occurrence of events in the present day but the unresolved events from the past. The novel I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika Sánchez demonstrates how previous trauma influences characters’ crucial decisions. It portrays the intimate conversations between a mother and daughter, where they each have different definitions of what it means to have the “perfect” identity, influenced by their history. If readers read the novel only through the lens of Julia, they would not be able to recognize Amá’s point of view and rationale for her treatment of her. In I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, the book exhibits how when trauma is passed down through generations, …show more content…

After Julia comes back from Mexico, she sees Amá face to face for the first time in a while who divulged that Mr. Ingman, “‘kept telling me you were the best student he’s ever had, that you’re an amazing writer. I didn’t even know. Why didn’t you tell me?’”(Sánchez 283). When Amá exclaims, “‘Why didn’t you tell me?,’” it proves that she did not try to hurt Julia maliciously, but didn’t know about her passions, that she wanted to prosper in New York. Julia’s way of “telling” Amá was through ways that she viewed as argumentative, as anytime Julia wanted to be different it was shut down. If Amá was able to know about Julia’s talents from the beginning, she could have grown to accept that Julia would live out her desires, and not the ones she wants for her. In an attempt to apologize to Julia, Amá explains, “‘You know, I hardly went to school. I had to drop out to work and help take care of my family when I was only thirteen. I’m ignorant, Mija. Can’t you see that?’”(Sánchez 283). Like Julia, Amá had to “take care of her family,” establishing how she viewed herself as the “perfect” Mexican daughter but always yearned for more. Amá did not realize these signals after Olga’s death, but now she sees much of herself in Julia and they can attain empathy toward each other’s

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