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     I was first introduced to the text of Marisol as a nineteen year-old student. Fresh from Louisiana, a frightened, determined, angry kid. I was so angry because I thought so many folks in power were doing everything they could to oppress and suppress my voice a black queer artist/scientist. I often woke up gasping for air, paralyzed with uncertainty in what often felt like an apocalyptic nightmare.

     Fast forward to now. My life as an educator of young minds, and I hear them discuss some of those fame fears. I see them struggling to gasp for air in a world that, by their own accounts, don't always feel safe. What do these young people do when they feel abandoned by people in power? From where do they find their power?

     This is the world in which Jose Rivera, through poetic magical realism, transports us. He places us in a world where we no longer can simply endure, we have to fight. In creating young citizens of the world, that is a message that I will happily scream forever.

     Join the fight, don't just endure. As scholars, as artists, as citizens, let's get ourselves some power, whatever we do.

-Aejay Mitchell