¡Ándale, Prieta!

When I tell people who don’t speak Spanish what “prieta” means—“dark” or “the dark one”—their eyes pop open and a small gasp escapes. … How do I tell them that now, even after the cruelty of children, “Prieta” means love? That each time “Prieta” fell from my grandmother’s lips, I learned to love my dark skin. My Ita called me Prieta. When she died, she took the name with her. Yasmín Ramírez spent her twenties feeling lost—working an intensely taxing retail job and turning to bars for comfort. When her beloved grandmother dies, she comes home to El Paso, Texas, where people know how to spell her accented name. As she pulls her life together, she finds comfort in celebrating her Ita, a resilient matriarch who was far from the stereotypical domestic abuelita. Yasmín remembers Ita wistfully singing old Mexican rancheras, her mastectomy scar, the hours they spent watching boxing matches at a dive bar, and of course, Ita’s lesson on how to ball a fist for a good punch. Interviewing her mom and older sister, Yasmín learns even more about why her Ita was so tough—the abusive men, the lost pregnancies, and the toil of almost literally back-breaking jobs. In time, the writer finds her grandmother calling her forth to live with the same bravery and tenacity: “¡Ándale, Prieta!” Adult and young adult readers alike can identify with her journey to find her identity and the struggle of growing up between two cultures as a Mexican American, with a story that brings comfort through the loving words of a grandmother and characters that feel like your own family. This autobiography presents a story of living on the border, first love, and the connection between women through generations. Yasmín Ramírez is a 2020 recipient of the Woody and Gayle Hunt-Aspen Institute Fellowship Award as well as a 2018 Dickinson House Fellow. Her fiction and creative non fiction works have appeared in Cream City Review and Huizacheamong others. She is an Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at El Paso Community College. She stays active in the literary community and serves on the board of, BorderSenses, a literary non-profit. Her memoir, ¡Ándale, Prieta! is slated for release spring 2021 by Cinco Puntos Press. For more information about Yasmín visit her website yasminramirez.com