Desde ese día la abuelita está convencida, aunque esto sólo me lo dice a mí, de que la llevaron a otra casa, idéntica a la suya y que está en la misma cuadra que la suya o, y esto me gusta más, que su casa la han rodado, o sea que ésta es su casa de antes pero que la rodaron unos cuantos metros y aunque nadie se da cuenta ella sí. Yo imagino a Tía Celia con sus dos, tres, mil haitianos poniendo la casa sobre un conveyor belt para rodarla y confundir a la abuela, pero la abuela se las sabe todas y se da cuenta comparando el espacio que hay ahora en el callejón donde antes cabía un policía dándole macanazos a tres ramonas y ahora solamente cabe una bicicleta.

To the naked eye, Nombres y animals could seem like a simple book. It’s the story of the summer of a teenage girl where life simply happens. The girl is obsessed with finding the name of a stray cat. The girl makes new friends. The girl learns a family secret. The girl discovers love. It’s an ordinary story of a somewhat ordinary summer. Yet, it is a fantastic book.

Although the plot is fairly straightforward, the author subtly shows multiple issues of the Dominican life. Events that for the main character seem like part of the everyday life, hide a much deeper meaning. With these everyday scenes, Indiana criticizes “the normal” in her culture; from the Dominican Republic-Haiti relations, to how Dominicans deal with mental health issues, family dynamics, machismo, homosexuality, race and privilege. Something I found marvelous in this book is how characters relate to animals. The book is mainly set in a veterinary where the girl is working for the summer, and Indiana cleverly uses patients’ stories (and other animals in the story) to show the human nature of the people in the book.

The writing style is clear, fast and unpretentious and, without trying, it is extremely funny. The dialogue is in Dominican Spanish, which was incredibly entertaining. There’s a vibrant, fast beat rhythm to the reading that makes it sound like an empowering rap song. I knew Indiana, besides being a writer, had an alternative Merengue band so I decided to see how her writing style was related to her music. Since I’m completely Merengue illiterate, first, I listened to traditional Merengue, and, then, to Indiana’s band. It was funny to see how similar Indiana’s music is to the book. Nombres y animales is Merengue but with an alternative twist. With its beat and street language you get to grasp the culture of Dominican Republic, but seen through an upper middle-class teenage girl and not the average Dominican.

Sadly, this book is not yet translated into English, however Papi, Indiana’s best-known book, is. I’ve read it is even better than this one, so for sure I’ll give it a try.

And definitely listen to Indiana’s band; Rita Indiana y los Misterios.  It’s great!

About Rita Indiana

Rita Indiana was born in Santo Domingo in 1977. She is a writer and singer-songwriter. She is the author of five novels and three collections of short stories. In 2010, she decided to explore Dominican popular music, reinventing merengue music through her compositions and interpretations with the group Los Misterios. In 2011, she was selected by the newspaper El País as one of the 100 most influential Latino personalities.

Other books written by Dominican women:

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Dominican initiatives and projects that support and empower girls and women

Grito de mujer

Grito de Mujer is a literary festival with simultaneous events in more than 30 countries throughout the month of March. It is organized by the International Women Poets Movement founded in the Dominican Republic. This festival aims to bring together men and women poets and artists from various countries in solidarity towards women. They pay a well-deserved tribute to women by contributing socially with messages of self-esteem and respect for women, as well as messages against violence.