Review of Catalina by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

*Catalina* by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio (2024). Published by Hanover.

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

I recently fell into a spell of unemployment probably during the worst time to be unemployed, as it was very hard to find a job. I was applying to hundreds of jobs, getting interviews, but no offer was manifesting for me in the near future. So during this time, I had a lot of free time, and spent a good chunk of it chipping away at the blog.

I’ve always and forever been a library girl from the bottom of my heart. When I was a child my mother would always take us to the library and I’d pick out a ridiculous amount of books, and I’ve continued that tradition when I moved home from New York City, after college, in order to keep picking my brain for new stories out there in the world.

I love stories, hence why I even became a writer. When I was unemployed during this period I found solace in books (and movies/television, too) because it fed into my own creativity and reminded me the options and world out there were limitless. The library is somewhere that is sacred to me, and I’ve been loving how my local system has been leaning hard into acquiring diverse titles.

For this round of reading, I was wandering in my library’s new fiction section. It’s small but mighty, and it’s often where I find the books I’m talking about, as their efforts to diversify are relatively recent in the grand scheme of things. I was thumbing through the books when I saw Catalina, remembered the press I was reading about it online, and decided to pick it up.

That said, I finished this book in one sitting. Sometimes it’s been harder for me to get through books if the pacing is too off or I can’t connect with the plot or writing. I’m very picky about the books I read, so if I’m not into what I’m reading at the moment, I can’t get through it. Many of these books I do often return to later, when I am in the right mood.

But this book? I flew through it. Let’s get into the review, as I can feel myself wanting to spoil my entire thoughts on the novel too early on.

For a golden Latina child who made it to Harvard, despite the circumstances, she grapples with the reality of being undocumented.

Our main character in this novel is Catalina, who was brought into the United States as a child to live with her grandparents. But there’s a catch: every single one of them is undocumented, Catalina included. Her grandparents raise her with a fervor to be successful in the United States, leading to some lingering feelings, but Catalina is successful.

She makes it to Harvard University, fulfilling her destiny for glory and making her grandparents proud. There, Catalina continues to thrive when she’s in Harvard, but by the time the book starts, she’s a senior and grappling with the prospect that she’s about to graduate.

So Catalina makes a decision: she’s going to find all of the elite spaces at Harvard and find her way into them. No longer is she going to be a nobody from the lower class on the campus; she’s going to mingle and elbow with some of the school’s richest individuals, finding out how they manage to navigate the circumstances they’re in.

She does this in a way where it’s almost like she’s an anthropologist. It’s an entirely different world when she enters these spaces; as we know, life is so much easier in some ways and full of access when you have premade connections and money (although we can’t entirely discount the wealthy are human too and have their own problems—I know the way I’m phrasing it can be a little harsh).

From parties to meetings with literary journals that seem slightly out of touch at times, Catalina meets others who she can connect with, especially a certain son of a famous filmmaker who wants to share the world of Latin America with her. This is sparked from Catalina’s desire to have romance and connect with someone else in a way she hasn’t before, which serves as an excellent distraction in some ways, but there’s something she can’t avoid: being undocumented.

Because she is undocumented, when she graduates, life is going to be so much harder for her. At the same time, back in Queens, trouble is brewing with her grandparents and their undocumented status as well. Deportation becomes a real threat, and what is going to happen is heartbreaking in so many ways, showing that even if she integrates in elite spaces, it won’t save them in the end.

Overall Thoughts

As I mentioned before, I flew through this book. It’s very well-written and paced, and I liked Catalina as a character. The author was one of the first undocumented graduates from Harvard University, so I can imagine how difficult it has been for her, and how much of the this book is an actual reality.

I have never been to an elite college, nor am I an undocumented Latina, so I can’t pretend to understand being in these scenarios. However, the way we’re dropped into Catalina’s world, her anxieties, her love life, and how we see her hopes for the future, you really begin to root for her and feel the tragedy of her situation early on.

All of this is to say that I think people should read this book if they’re interested in it. I enjoyed it a lot and considered buying a copy for my own collection when I have the money to do so. I am quite picky about what I add to my physical collection as well, so this is a compliment.

Go pick up a copy from your local indie bookstore or library when you get the chance! I think you’ll like this book if it sounds up your alley.

Follow me below on Instagram and Goodreads for more.