CIara Romero is a 58-year-old Dominican, struggling to keep her apartment in a gentrifying Washington Heights neighborhood. At the height of the Great Recession, Romero lost her job at the “factory of the little lamps”—a job she’d held for 35 years. She finds herself at the employment office of the Senior Workforce Program to prepare her to reenter the workforce.
What ensues is a hilarious but also poignant account of Romero’s experiences coming to New York from the Dominican Republic and making a new life for herself and her young son, Fernando. Romero is a delightful storyteller, and over the course of her 12 sessions with the employment counselor, she reveals her characteristic charm, unstoppable spirit, distress over her son’s estrangement and the tenacity with which she performs the role of caretaker and support system for those around her.
Romero is masterful at weaving her life story into the humdrum tasks of filling out job applications and participating in intake interviews. I recommend listening to the audiobook to hear narrator Rossmery Almonte bring Romero’s irrepressible voice to life. Readers/listeners will root for her every step of the way.
For those interested in fiction and nonfiction book lists that might be of interest during September’s Hispanic Heritage Month, visit hclib.bibliocommons.com.
Tracy Hvezda-Lehtola is a patron experience supervisor for the Hennepin County Library–Excelsior. Read more at hclib.org.
