Peel My Love Like an Onion by Ana Castillo

September 30, 2019

Peel My Love Like an Onion by Ana Castillo

I always try to read at least one novel that celebrates the yearly heritage months.  Peel My Love Like an Onion was my choice for Hispanic American Heritage Month 2019.  Set in Chicago, the main character is a Mexican-American (or Chicago-Mexican, as she calls herself) woman who had polio as a child and was determined to become a flamenco dancer.

Carmen Santos (aka Carmen la Coja, or Carmen the Cripple) suffered from polio as a child, which left her with a withered leg.  At her school for “special” children, a dance teacher encouraged Carmen to try flamenco as a way of strengthening her weak leg.  To the teacher’s astonishment, Carmen decides she wants to be a professional flamenco dancer.  She perseveres and is taken on by a professional flamenco company run by a male dancer named Augustin, who soon becomes Carmen’s lover.  She becomes famous in Chicago’s dance community, partly because of her unusual disability and partly because of her beauty, and she embraces the flamenco culture as a way of life.  Her family is always in the background like a Greek chorus, causing Carmen to feel guilty that she isn’t a better daughter.  But after 20 years as a dancer, Carmen’s polio resurfaces and not only forces her to retire from dancing, but to reconsider and recreate her life.

Carmen's love affairs are multi-layered and complicated, as are her feelings for her family, and some of her choices are hard to accept.  This title would make a good book club title since there is a lot of material for discussion, especially for either Hispanic American Heritage Month or Disability Month.  It’s also a very reasonable length for book clubs at just over 200 pages.