Seeking Sisterhood
* This is a book revelation of Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo. It is comprised of my own thoughts and personal connotations. My book revelations and reviews are not designed to sway your personal views, but to always encourage others to read more to form their own opinion.
Seeking Sisterhood: Using Love to Mend Betrayal and Heartbreaks
Elizabeth Acevedo created a riveting experience for me as I read through Clap When You Land. Unsure on whether I loved Acevedo as an author after reading, With the Fire On High, she definitely catapulted me into the threshold of fandom with the complicated story of Yahaira and Camino Rios.
The unprecedented death of the Rios Sisters’ father due to the plane crash of Flight 1112 allowed baggage to float to the surface that had been packed and tucked away so tightly for years. The unraveling at the seams could only be betrayal, why else would a father not be able to give his full self to his daughter?
As I read this story I could not help but to think of the refuge that I seek out in my sisters daily. How grateful I am to have each of my siblings, but more so the bondage that is fostered in sisterhood with Desiree and Ja’Kayla. I lost count way before the age of 10 of how many times I nestled my head into the tiny space between the chin and chest of my sisters as I weeped about even the mildest inconveniences. I know the novel only focuses on the bilateral sisterhood of Yahaira and Camino, but I could not help but to see myself and my sisters rotate in and out of their stories.
Just like the Rios sisters, us Reid sisters know that our father loves us. He loves us to the best of his ability - although he still walks this earth, we may not ever be able to fully get through to him or see him for who he really is. The frustration and agony that we sometimes feel towards our parents, especially as young women trying to decipher the relationship with our father can be one that brings great strain. As I grow older I’ve obtained the maturity to actually step outside of myself and realize that with a father trying to fulfill his duty to provide, he just might have to cut corners and appear absent in other aspects as a means to shape our futures and dodge the potholes of stereotypes.
Dawnshaee Reid, Kierra Harbin, Sydney Harbin, Desiree Reid, & Rukiya Scott. June 2019.
But, this is not a blog to berate my father rather it is to highlight the miraculous way the love rooted in sisterhood can heal betrayal and heartbreak. Sisterhood is a contingency of womanhood. If you are not able to relate to the bond of sisterhood, take a look at the women who surround you - rather it be your mother, auntie, grandmother, cousin, best friend, co-worker, and so forth, there is a sense of sisterhood embedded into our existence.
One specific moment from Clap When You Land, brings together Yahaira, Camino, Tia, and Zoila to stand on the solidarity of womanhood to confront a predator and prove to any reader how strong love can be when love is at your core. There is a reminder in that scene that flooded me with an unequivocal emotion that I too am a QUEEN, and it is my responsibility to have autonomy over my elegance even in moments where my dominance has been severely underestimated. In this sisterhood, we see displays of a higher level of self-regard, not as a means to intimidate but to empower other sisters when their levels dwindle. This moment linked me back to a strong reminder from an earlier excerpt of Yahaira’s thoughts: “Playing chess taught me a queen is both: deadly & graceful, poised & ruthless. Quiet & cunning. A queen offers her hand to be kissed, & can form it into a fist while smiling the whole damn time.”