Laila Lalami

"Love is powerful. Love is honest. It is because I love America that I cannot be quiet about its faults. The price of my belonging cannot be my silence."

Organized around various topics related to citizenship, Laila Lalami's essays about belonging, both as a new citizen (she is originally from Morocco but became a US citizen as an adult) and a native born one, are illuminating and thought-provoking. I wish I had written up my thoughts sooner after finishing the book because it deserves a show more thoughtful response, and I fear I won't do it justice. It is a timely read, though it was published at the end of the first Trump administration, but like so many books of this sort, it likely won't be read by the people who need to hear its messages most. The final chapter is titled "Do Not Despair of This Country," and every day I try to take this exhortation to heart, but it has become increasingly difficult. She writes:

"Despair is seductive. It takes no effort and gives a way out. It says, Why bother. Look away, there's nothing you can do. Worry about yourself, forget everyone else. Sometimes, despair swaddles itself in cleverness. Then it speaks as a cynic. What were you expecting, it asks with a bitter laugh. It was ever thus...Every once in a while, despair betrays itself as fear. You will lose the fight, it says. You will lose time, money, maybe even friends or family. But despair is never without consequence. It is a gift to the status quo."

And so I bridle when good people tune out, refuse to remain informed, and cease to speak up because "it won't make a difference." But if those of us who most understand the importance of the fight don't participate, what hope is there? If those of us who maybe have the least to lose don't fight for those who have the most to lose, how can we call ourselves principled and good people? Despair wins all too easily so much of the time, and that selfishness and its effects are felt not by the people giving in but by the people who can't afford to. Lalami's book is a call to action and filled me with a renewed sense of purpose, and I am grateful for it. On we fight.

4.5 stars show less

“It was slowly dawning upon all of us that Apalache had no gold and there would be no glory. My fantasies of victory for my master and freedom for me had turned so completely awry that, for a moment, all my senses felt numb. I was rooted in my spot, unable to move, and my eyesight blurred. I thought about that night, long ago in Azemmur, when I had agreed to sell my life for a bit of gold. My father and my mother had both warned me about the danger of putting a price on everything, but I show more had not listened. Now, years later, I had convinced myself that, because I had been the first to find gold in La Florida, my life would be returned to me. But life should not be traded for gold—a simple lesson, which I had had to learn twice.”

This book is a fictionalized story based on a real expedition that took place in 1527 - 1536. Lalami creates a story around Mustafa, “The Moor,” a survivor of the Narváez expedition. His goal is to write what truly happened to the explorers sent to claim La Florida for the King of Spain. He intends to refute the “official” account, provided by Cabeza de Vaca, which leaves out anything that makes the explorers seem less than heroic.

As the story opens, protagonist Mustafa is living in Morocco with his mother, father, and brothers. He is an educated man who becomes a merchant, but when circumstances change, he feels he must sell himself into slavery to feed his family. He is renamed Estebanico by Spanish priests. He is purchased by a Spaniard who then offers him to Dorantes to pay a gambling debt. Dorantes takes him to the New World as part of the Narváez expedition.

This is the type of historical fiction I really enjoy. It is an adventure, filled with travels among the native peoples. We get a sense of what life was like in the 1500s in North America. It is believable that the official account would leave out anything that reflected poorly on those telling the story. It is based on the author’s extensive research, with sources provided in the appendix.

Toward the end, there are groups of Indians following the explorers, when they reconnect with the Spanish in Mexico. I felt like I wanted to warn them not to follow! Readers will know this part of history does not turn out well for them. The author made me care deeply about the protagonist and the native people of this historic period. I loved it! show less

she manages to speak about so much in such a few number of words and pages, and to to it so well. not comprehensively, obviously, but with depth and nuance. it's impressive. her writing is excellent, the topics are interesting, and it's all handled deftly. this is really well done.

"Naturalization would only become available to nonwhite immigrants, regardless of national origin, after the Immigration Act of 1965."

"The settlers [of the United States] didn't assimilate to indigenous tribes, show more learn their languages, and adapt to their cultural customs. It was the Natives who were assimilated, coercively and violently, into the settler's culture."

"If there was any instruction, it was restricted to religion and circumscribed in ways that did not threaten the existing social and political order. A special edition of the Bible, printed in 1807 for use by plantation owners to preach to their slaves, omitted mention of the Israelites' flight from slavery in Egypt as well as other references to freedom. The book - Parts of the Holy Bible, Selected for the Use of Negro Slaves in the British West India Islands - had only 232 verses, compared with 1,189 for a standard Protestant Bible. Assimilation of the races was never the objective of a system that was designed to maintain one race in absolute and hereditary servitude to another."

"White is a category that has afforded them an evasion from race, rather than an opportunity to confront it. To talk about white historical figures critically in schools - figures such as Christopher Columbus, Thomas Jefferson, or Andrew Jackson - is to saddle white children with the knowledge that their ancestors did not merely participate in the exploration, establishment, and expansion of the United States, but also in the genocide, enslavement, and subjugation of tens of millions of people, a process that accrued social, political, and economic benefits for the white majority. This knowledge is considered too heavy a burden. Instead, during the month of February, American children are taught inspirational stories about black historical figures - Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, or Martin Luther King, Jr. - who triumphed over injustice. The perpetrators and beneficiaries of that injustice remain largely unnamed. Whiteness is therefore perceived, experienced, and passed down as silence."

"But white privilege doesn't mean that white people have easy lives - it simply means that whiteness does not make their lives harder."

"...part of what makes the conversations on racial identity uncomfortable for so many people is the fact that transparency leads to accountability."

"...in 1898 the Supreme Court ruled...any person born in the United States was a citizen, regardless of the ethnic origin or legal status of the parents. However, indigenous people were still members of sovereign nations and remained ineligible for citizenship. Natives who were taxed, served in the military, or married white people could apply for citizenship, but this was only granted on an individual basis. It was not until 1924, through an act of Congress, that Native citizenship in the United States was established."

"But despair is never without consequence. It is a gift to the status quo." show less

This book left me with a sense of disappointment-- not with the novel, but with my own inaction as rights are slowly rescinded in our nation. The story is a chilling glimpse into our current and future justice systems.

The power of striking is brilliantly demonstrated within the "retention" facility, a contained environment that makes such collective action feel plausible in a way mass societal movements rarely do.

However, this freedom wasn't free. Characters faced monetary costs and lost show more basic human rights like library access by going on strike.

Also impactful was the insidious use of boredom as the ultimate, most traumatizing punishment. This weaponization of mental stagnation reveals a system aiming to control not just actions, but the very spirit of its captives, exposing the dangerous psychological tactics of a technocratic regime. show less