Bindle Punk Bruja
In 1920s Kansas City, a young woman with two identities and two names—Luna, who is Latinx, and Rosa, who passes as white—struggles to make a success of herself. Rosa wants to own her own jazz club; in her way are mobsters, the KKK, and her own feelings of inadequacy. Luna, the granddaughter of a “bruja” or witch, should be able to work magic, but the only charm she possesses is literally just that—charm. Men find her irresistible, which isn’t much of a gift since the ones who flock to her also want to dominate her. To protect her family, she must cultivate her other talents and find her true identity. Is she Luna or Rosa?
In the beginning, she feels like a stranger in her Mexican family. Her mother has groomed her to pass for white, but being white isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. As Rosa, she leads a double life. At her newspaper job, “she’s an accommodating cog who doesn’t talk back.” At night, she’s a tough-talking flapper running a speakeasy. A piano player with bootleg connections helps her navigate this perilous man’s world.
The supporting characters—family members, co-workers and friends—enrich the story, except for the villains, who are stereotypical gangsters and baddies. The historical details and dialogue generally ring true to the time period, and yet odd anachronisms pop up, such as when Luna realizes her friend Heck is “gay” but not in the sense of being happy, and he talks about a “queer subculture”—terms more appropriate to the latter half of the century. These misgivings aside, the book offers an original take on the struggles of immigrants, women, and queer folk in the early 20th century.
