They live in a nicer shack than most of their neighbors due to Papi’s money. Camino says: “this thin body better fed than most, curved softly/ in the places that elicit whistles & piropos swimming/ has kept this body honed like Tia’s oft-sharpened machete.” In DR Camino lives in a poor barrio a short run to the beach. Dark like her father, she traveled the nation with him for her championship tournaments. Until recently, Yahaira has been a chess champion. Yahaira’s girlfriend, Dre and Dre’s mother, a doctor, are a second family to her. She’s a bit spoiled by her doting Papi and her angry Mami who manages a nail salon. She’s a good healer and an excellent student. In fact, Camino wants to study medicine at Columbia University in NYC. Camino accompanies Tia to births and visits to the ill. But her healing with herbs offers effective cures in the barrio where they live. Because she consults “the Saints,” some would call her a witch. But the plane crashes at the onset of “Clap When You Land” (Harper Collins 2020) by the remarkable poet Elizabeth Acevedo.Ĭamino has been raised by her aunt, Tia Solano, after her mother died. One girl, Camino in DR awaits her father to arrive for his summer-long visit where she will clap when the plane lands, as is the custom. One girl, Yahaira, in New York City says goodbye to her father, when he leaves on his annual summer trip to Dominican Republic.
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