Character Connection: Lucía Álvarez

Lucía Álvarez is the main character from The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez.

Through Lucía’s eyes, we experience the terror of the Cuban Revolution and the uncertainty of making a new home in a new country away from your parents.

Lucía is the perfect protagonist for this story because there is something in her that most of us can relate to. She’s not anyone particularly special. She’s a teenage girl who is looking forward to her first dance, loves to watch movies and hang out with her friends, and I believe she tries to sneak makeup and nail polish past her mom. She loves looking at teen magazines and she has a crush on the cutest guy on the class. Her younger brother can be a huge pest. How many teen girls does that describe?

So when she is confronted with the Revolution and the changes in her friends, her reactions feel very real because we’ve connected with her. She’s worried about her parents, who disagree with Castro. That’s not a safe stance to take. She sees things start to go horribly wrong in her community and she sees neighbor turn against neighbor.

When she’s alone with her brother in Nebraska later, she feels like such an outsider. She doesn’t speak much English and she’s worried about fitting in. She feels set apart by her accent. She also feels a little like her problems are bigger than her classmates. She’s worried about whether her parents are still alive and they’re still in the state of innocence where their biggest worry is who’s going to ask them to the dance.

I just loved Lucía. She has such a story to tell and she’s the perfect person to tell it. Go meet her for yourself and see if you don’t relate to her as well.

Who did you connect with this week? Link your post on Mr. Linky, then be sure to go check out the other Character Connections!

Don’t you just love larger-than-life characters? The ones who jump off the page and grab you? Whether you love them or hate them, you can’t be indifferent to them.

I would love to know about the characters who just won’t leave you! Most of you will probably post about how much you love (or loathe) each character, but this is a great place for the more creative ones among you to let go and have fun! Write yourself into a scene with Anne and Diana. Write a love poem in elvish for Aragorn. Draw a picture of Harry obliterating Voldemort. The possibilities are endless.

Be sure to post the book’s title and author, and be very careful not to give away spoilers while talking about how much you love your characters.

Mr. Linky will be posted here on The Introverted Reader every Thursday.

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