spanish but not really

 Mama Blanca's Memoirs by Teresa de la Parra was an interesting book, and I'm glad it was the first one we read. It's a novel written as a memoir - published without permission - of the young Blanca Nieves (meaning Snow White) who eventually becomes the titular Mama Blanca. It tells about life as a well-cared for daughter of a wealthy plantation, now living in a very humble house, and shame to her daughters-in-law. Two parts of the novel that especially stuck out to me: the discussion of curly vs straight hair, and the girls' attitude toward Vicente Cochocho. First off, the curly and straight hair thing. Of the six daughters, Blanca Nieves is the only one that has straight hair. Her mum puts in hours of work to get Blanca's hair to be curly, especially in front of guests, and takes pride in her daughters' curly hair. This was very interesting to me, as someone with curly hair. I grew up in an environment where straight hair was deemed the beauty standard, and al...