“Everybody should read it. But Latinas are the protagonists.”
Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez on her book, Tías and Primas, and challenging publisher expectations.
For years before we officially launched La Cuenta, Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez has been a source of inspiration and guidance for our work. From founding Latina Rebels to her foundational 2021 book, For Brown Girls with Sharp Edges and Tender Hearts, Prisca’s work as an advocate and as a writer continues to inspire and challenge us.
In this first part of our conversation, Prisca shares the journey of publishing her most recent book, Tías and Primas: On Knowing and Loving the Women Who Raise Us, and the ways she makes sure her words spark change in her readers.
“I think my body of work is primarily about what it means to make academic jargon and academic theory accessible for people who just might not have access to it.”
ALIX DICK: What has the reaction been like for Tías and Primas?
PRISCA DORCAS MOJICA RODRÍGUEZ: People are really nice to my face, so that's a hard question to answer. But I will say, I read the reviews … They tell you not to read reviews for your book. But I read the reviews for For Brown Girls up until last week. I still read them. They're really, really overwhelmingly positive. But I don't read them for Tías and Primas. And I knew writing it that my methodology was different.
Tías and Primas is prescriptive in the way that Brown Girls isn’t. I don't respond well to prescriptive stuff, but it happened organically. One of my best friends growing up, came and visited me and she was like, "I read your book [For Brown Girls] and I can't believe how much of an asshole your dad was." Her dad is my dad's best friend, so they're the same person in the ways that they treat their daughters, their wives. Hearing my friend, I was just confused. I was like, “Wait, you thought this was a biography? You didn't reflect on similarity. I felt like I was missing a reader who maybe needs to be told more directly things. So Tías and Primas was a response to that. I was realizing that I was doing something intentionally with Brown Girls, but if I want to reach more readers, I needed to switch my method for a different kind of audience who wasn't going to see Brown Girls as a mirror.
“I was doing something intentionally with Brown Girls, but if I want to reach more readers, I needed to switch my method for a different kind of audience who wasn't going to see Brown Girls as a mirror.”
ANTERO GARCIA: For your first book there is a very intentional audience – it’s in the title. Who did you write Tías and Primas for and who should read it?
PDMR: Tías and Primas was for Latinas for sure. Brown Girls was supposed to be for Latinas, but the publisher didn't think Latinas were going to buy the book. They didn't think there was going to be an audience.
AG: Really?
PDMR: They forced me to say it was for women of color. And then they realized that the book sold really well with Latinas. I mean it really did sell well with women of color, I do have that kind of reach. But it is very Latina. It's my experiences as a Latina. When they realized that, for the second book I was allowed me to even just put Tías and Primas on the cover.
AG: They wanted it as “Aunts and Cousins” as the title?
PDMR: Exactly. They sort of were like, we don't know your audience. They weren’t sure if this audience would buy this new book as much as they bought Brown Girls--I think it's sold over 60K so far. It's a lot more than I think the top seller for my publisher.
So Tías and Primas has always been for Latinas, but with the intention that … I don't know, I read Ernest Hemingway and it was understood that I was just going to find something in there. Or any one of these Shakespeare or … fucking Milton. All these people that weren't talking to me. Even like Judy Blume--She wasn't talking to me, but I read it. I decided to make [Tías and Primas] centered entirely on the Latina experience, and people should do that work to make it make sense. Everybody should read it. But Latinas are the protagonists.
AD: I love that.
PDMR: Even though it was a marketing strategy from the publisher, I like it because I've gotten invitations to Southeast Asian book clubs and all Black book clubs because they love it. I'm like, "All right, let's go!"
AD: I know that the women in Tías and Primas are women who are in your life, your own tías and primas. I'm very curious, what was their reaction?
PDMR: I'm la tía loca through and through. My family has managed to dismiss me entirely. They don't read my work, they don't talk about my work. They don't congratulate or celebrate my work. It's like it doesn't exist.
AD: Wow. Even the people in the book don't acknowledge it?
“My family has managed to dismiss me entirely. They don't read my work, they don't talk about my work. They don't congratulate or celebrate my work. It's like it doesn't exist.”
PDMR: The cousins would, but it has to be translated to Spanish for them to read it.
AG: Does this new book feel like a prima to your other work? Is there a relationship between them in your mind?
PDMR: The books feel like primas to Latina Rebels. I think my body of work is primarily about what it means to make academic jargon and academic theory accessible for people who just might not have access to it. And so it's always strategizing, rethinking. I'm writing a novel right now, so it's always like, how do I just do this in a different way for a different audience to think about this stuff critically, reflect, and have their own conclusions?
The point isn't to tell them, “This is this and this is right and this is wrong.” The point is to get people activated to think more critically about life. That's what I intend for all of my work. They're all primas. And you might not like all the cousins, but they all have the same purpose.
AD: I'm curious about your process with research. Was there a specific methodology for this book?
PDMR: I don't know if I have a methodology aside from... I think I would call “my Bible text,” and you go to the back and see who they cite. You find the book that you like when you read all those books. And then you look at the back of that book and you look at who they cite. It is sort of a trickle. Also now my friends are professors and I get to ask them what they are teaching. I have a friend who's at Columbia teaching about fat liberation, and fat stigmatization. So I was like, “Give me your syllabus.” And so my friends will tell me, “This is the newest thing you should be reading.” It feels like I never know enough, that's the struggle that I'm constantly fighting against.
For the first book, I think I read a little over 100 books. For the second book, I read 87 books. So it just feels like there’s too much work out there. If I could, every sentence would be a footnote if they let me. But in trade publishing, they don't want that. But for whatever story I’m telling, I make sure I'm not saying anything that doesn't feel fully backed by something that I've read that's peer reviewed and researched.
Propina
We’ll continue our conversation with Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez next week.
Additionally, while we’ll be sharing our interview with comedian and artivist Che Guerrero in February, if you are near the Philadelphia area, he is performing a headlining set this Saturday at Punch Line Philly.
Lastly, we shared some personal words about the fires in Los Angeles earlier in the week:
If you have your own reflection about what’s happening in the world that you would like to share with La Cuenta’s readers, please get in touch.
We’ll see you next week.