📕 Title: Cruzita and the Mariacheros
✏️ Author: Ashley Granillo
📖 Genre: Middle Grade Fiction
⭐ Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Cruzita is going to be a pop star. All she has to do is win a singing contest at her favorite theme park and get famous. But she can’t go to the theme park this summer. Instead, she has to help out at her family’s bakery, which has been struggling ever since Tío Chuy died. Cruzita’s great-uncle poured his heart into the bakery―the family legacy―and now that he’s gone, nothing is the same.

When Cruzita’s not rolling uneven tortillas or trying to salvage rock-hard conchas, she has to take mariachi lessons, even though she doesn’t know how to play her great-grandpa’s violin and she’s not fluent in Spanish. At first, she’s convinced her whole summer will be a disaster. But as she discovers the heart and soul of mariachi music, she realizes that there’s more than one way to be a star―and more than one way to carry on a legacy.

REVIEW

Thank you to Hear Our Voices tours and Lerner Books for the copy of this book! I loved Cruzita and the book was so fun. Middle schoolers who dream about being famous will relate to her efforts to win the Rising Star Contest, as well as her frustration that her parents don’t take her ambitions seriously.

Cruzita’s interest in music was a big part of this book so I appreciated the references to Mexican musicians throughout the book, like Vincente Fernández, Selena, Ritchie Valens. Music becomes a way for her to connect with her culture and feel more confident in her Spanish.

Family was a major theme in this story. Cruzita’s family owns a panadería, and her work at the bakery plays a big role in her bonding with family after the death of her Tío Chuy. This story also deals with friendships, and Cruzita learns what’s really important in a friendship.

I related so much to the struggles of being a Mexican American who isn’t fluent in Spanish, of not feeling Mexican enough, and feeling estranged from your culture. Cruzita’s experience felt so authentic to me. I wish I had a book like this to read when I was in middle school.