My mom read and recommended that I read a book entitled The Time it Snowed in Puerto Rico by Sarah McCoy.  Of course knowing that I love anything about Puerto Rico, I went to the library right away to pick it up. When I heard the title, I thought it was referring Doña Fela the famously popular first female mayor of a capital city in the Americas who brought in snow on an airplane to show the children of Puerto Rico who had never before seen or played in snow.

Felia Rincon de Gautier AKA Doña Fela

But, no, this book was not about that. It is a touching story along the lines of When I was Puerto Rican by Esmerelda Santiago or The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. A young girl named Verdita is in the awkward phases of moving from a child to an adolescent and trying to assert herself as an individual and become a woman. She is also in the transition between loving and hating the U.S. and fights for her independence at the same time that Puerto Rico tries to find its place in the independence movement.

The story takes place in the rural mountains of Puerto Rico in the early 60s. Some of the scenes are truly Puerto Rican such as when she goes (against her father’s wishes) to a cock fight -pelea de gallos or when she innocently learns what a puta is in the traditional sense of gender roles. It is lyrical and beautifully written. I could picture it all the way down to the homemade piraguas that snowed all around her.