Writer and activist Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez’s sophomore book, Tías and Primas: On Knowing and Loving the Women Who Raise Us, examines the various archetypes of Latinas in our families and how these women shape who we become. Mojica Rodríguez meditates on the context and environments that carve our tías and primas, exploring their roles through stories and personal reflections.

I spoke to Mojica Rodíguez about how she approached writing this book that aims to bring some healing to the intergenerational trauma, ongoing sexism, and centuries of colonization that Latinas face.

She told me the concept came from her efforts to reclaim some of the narratives she was told about her tías and primas through the age-old Latina practice of “talking shit.” She asked herself, “What are these tías I grew up seeing and learning from and hearing about through other women in my life? And how do I get to pour into them?”

Through profiles of women like “The Childless Tía” or “Your Pretty Prima,” Mojica Rodríguez helps us see the beauty and complexity in these women’s experiences, the external factors that influence their behaviors, and how others see (and let’s face it, judge) their choices. Mojica Rodríguez helps us grow our compassion for the tías and primas in our lives, even the ones we don’t like or really know.

In the “Dignified Tía” chapter, Mojica Rodríguez writes, “This tía consistently moves with an air of pride mixed with rage. Imagine growing up as a formidable woman in a society and culture that prefers women to submit, and then imagine what that does to this formidable woman.” As I read this, I thought of all the women in my life branded “Sangronas,” a term I commonly heard to describe women who are uptight, unfriendly, or unapproachable. By taking the time to consider the world in which these types of women grew sharp edges, Mojica Rodríguez allows us to go beyond the one-dimensional depictions that unfairly masked our tías or primas.

With this book, Mojica Rodríguez, who has a master’s of divinity from Vanderbilt, also makes feminist concepts accessible, building upon the work of Simone de Beauvoir, Bonnie Bursto, and Clarissa Pinkola Estés. Reflecting on her own experience navigating dense literature in academia, Mojica Rogríguez builds a bridge between readers outside of that world and those who spend their days buried in fem-lit. “I wanted to invite more of us into the conversation when thinking about these women,” she told me.

This approach carries over from Mojica Rodríguez’s first book, For Brown Girls with Sharp Edges and Tender Hearts. In that one, she helps readers zoom out to see how our white supremacist, patriarchal society shapes our everyday experiences. We need writers like Mojica Rodríguez who help Latinas build empathy, community, and power amongst ourselves, even or especially when it means calling in the “Prima Who Doesn’t Like Other Women” or the “Estas Engordando Tia.”

Each chapter of Tías and Primas closes with what feels like a love letter, filled with past-due understanding and hard truths – the sort of words many of us wish we could say to our own tías and primas. The sort of words we may need to tell ourselves.

Readers will likely see themselves reflected in many of the attributes of the women Mojica Rodríguez describes in this book. And in reading the tenderness in which Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez writes, we may just feel invited to apply that tenderness to ourselves. And it’s this process that allows us to heal.

Tías and Primas: On Knowing and Loving the Women Who Raise Us is out September 10, 2024.