ROOTS

Quote in typewriter font printed on a brown paper back. Quote from Tiffany D. Jackson, author of "Monday's Not Coming." Quote reads, "Kids tend to forget their roots. but roots are always the first to carry you back home."

This brown bag background and quote from Tiffany D. Jackson’s YA novel Monday’s Not Coming are a combo that punch me in the gut.

The quote really hits home about why I’m writing this book, about why I care so much about a heritage that largely wasn’t taught to me. I believe that we pave our own destinies and can carve out our own successful lives if we find the means to. However, I believe that our identities do impact how we see and achieve success.

I also think that, for those of us that feel almost nomadic in our identities and spaces, we want a place that feels like home. I feel like our roots take us there.

I believe this for a few reasons:

• When I cooked Pollo Guisado for the first time, I didn’t know if I’d like it. I had never even heard of it. But when I took that first bite, I felt like I was wrapped in a hug or a blanket or something. I felt like I was home when I ate that stew.

• When I told my dad I made Tostones Fritos, he got excited about my new recipe and asked me how I made them.

Bad picture, but this was my first attempt at making tostones fritos. Clearly I was so excited I was shaking! And they got a little dark.

Tostones Fritos are refried plantains. They can be sweet or savory (I prefer savory). To make them, you have to fry 1-inch slices of plantain in hot oil, then take them out of the pan and squish them with all your might, and then you fry them again. They’re like banana chips, except way better.

My aunt told me to put them in aluminum foil after the first fry, then to squish them in the foil. They were difficult to flatten with my fists. Also, they were really hot, even through the foil. I had to use a mason jar to pound them instead…

When I told my dad this, he laughed. He didn’t laugh because it was particularly funny; he laughed because my story transported him.

Illustration of New York City in the Past.

This brings me to the other part of the Jackson quote, the paper bag in the background. Dad told me he remembered Grandma always being in the kitchen. She would hum when she cooked, and he loved how happy she was then. He also told me that when she made Tostones Fritos, she put them in a brown paper lunch sack and smashed them with that.

That would have been so much harder to smash the plantains with, but it was what they could afford. And to my dad, that memory from his roots had brought him back home.

That put things into perspective for me. Despite the broken bits of my family and the tragedies of my grandparents, it’s so good to know that my roots aren’t just rotted or broken. It reminded me of how versatile how roots are, how strong, how joyous.

These are roots I’m proud to have carry me home.

Interesting in buying and reading Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson? You should be. It’s one of my favorite reads of 2021. Buy her spectacular novel here: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mondays-not-coming-tiffany-d-jackson/1126314365

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