The Revolution of Evelyn Serrano (review)

Evelyn is at that point in her life where everything embarrasses her: her overweight, subservient mother; her name, Rosa María Evelyn del Carmen Serrano; and her abuela, who's just come to stay with the family. However, it's the year after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, and bigger things are happening outside of Evelyn's house, that will change her Puerto Rican neighborhood in New York City. First, a group called the Young Lords starts cleaning up the garbage on the streets. Then, when the city won't pick it up, they set it on fire. The Young Lords ask the church if they can use the fellowship hall to serve breakfasts like the Black Panthers are doing, but they are refused, so they persist, eventually occupying the church for several days, collecting clothes and distributing them to the poorer members of the community, providing health services and political education courses. As these events unfold, Evelyn learns more about her own family's past, finding things to be ashamed of as well as things to take pride in. She comes to a new understanding of her colorful grandmother, and she warms to her mother, who finally begins to thaw herself. Evelyn's journey combines a coming-of-age story with important lessons in Puerto Rican and Nuyorican history. Evelyn is an engaging character, and the straightforward prose and easy-to-grasp emotions render this a useful curricular addition to a unit on the civil rights movement that extends student's understanding of Latinos during that struggle. An author's note clarifies Manzano's personal experiences of the civil rights movement and distinguishes fact from fiction, as well as reminding readers that they might know her as Maria from Sesame Street.