Book Review: Nilda by Nicholasa Mohr

Nilda: Ground-Breaking Book by Nicholasa Mohr

Reviewed by Thelma T. Reyna

Nicholasa Mohr (b. 1938) has been described as the most prolific and renowned Puerto Rican-American novelist. Born and raised in the Bronx, New York, she represents the “Nuyorican” writers (“New York Puerto Ricans”), a group that first rose to national prominence for their considerable talents in the 20th century. Puerto Ricans officially became American citizens in 1917.

Mohr grew up in the 1940’s, with World War II a gauzy backdrop, and suffered the proverbial slings and arrows of prejudice and discrimination. With the well-received publication of NILDA in 1974, however, she cemented her place in American literature as one of the earliest American Latinos to publish her writings in English in the United States and one of the first to write a young adult book in English.

Mainstream America at that time had little interest in publications about Latinos. But Nilda successfully crossed the divide. Since 1974, Mohr has been the most productive and renowned Nuyorican novelist, earning major awards and publishing in a variety of genres: novels, short stories, novellas, and nonfiction. Her influence in other authors’ development has been significant, not just through her 15 published books, but also through her workshops and university teaching.

NILDA recounts the life of a Puerto Rican family in the Bronx from 1941 through 1945, as seen through the viewpoint of the only daughter in the family and the youngest child, Nilda. Her family is poor, large, and as diverse in personality and outlook as her neighborhood. But these nine people, with their varying degrees of dysfunction and tension, are the source of stability and love that enable Nilda to navigate her childhood intact. She, as well as other Puerto Ricans, regularly encounters naked racism and marginalization, often at the hands of teachers and other authority figures who should, paradoxically, be protecting and nurturing her. Through it all, Nilda is alternately petulant and carefree, defiant and obedient, aloof and moved to tears, frightened and resolute. She exhibits the resilience of her mother and moves forward.

Nilda, as a pioneering novel, captures the unique cultural experiences of New York’s Puerto Ricans in the 1940’s and thereby secures a solid place in the history of our literature. It still resonates decades later because its cultural depictions of family, love, individual pride, and resilience in the face of hardship still matter.

Order from Libromobile or the publisher.

https://artepublicopress.com/browse-and-order-books/?swoof=1&woof_text=nilda

[Note: Originally published in March 26, 2012, in a prior version, in Jesus Trevino’s  Latinopia, www.Latinopia.com]