Though Oprah had promised “a deeper, more substantive discussion,” I knew the conversation wasn’t going to be perfect. Two other Latinx writers, Reyna Grande and Esther Cepeda, would be on the panel alongside me, Oprah, and Cummins.

My major concerns addressed, I decided to go on the show because the conversation was going to happen with or without Latino voices, and given the concessions her team made, I felt comfortable enough. (I should note that beyond travel arrangements, I did not receive compensation to attend.) But because of the movement that has grown from the controversy, I felt empowered to negotiate aspects of the show with Oprah’s team. I was hesitant to accept because when the producer shared the format of the show, which he asked to keep off the record, I had deep concerns about some of the elements - one aspect was a deal breaker.

In an earlier piece, I had noted my criticism of the book, which is packed with harmful stereotypes of migrants and Mexicans and was written by Jeanine Cummins, a woman who, until recently, identified as white.Įsmeralda Bermudez, a staff writer at the Los Angeles Times, publicly declined an invitation to appear on the show others raised concerns that cofounders of #DignidadLiteraria, a grassroots social media campaign formed in the wake of the controversy, had not been invited to attend. A friend had floated my name as a potential guest. The event, which is streaming on Apple TV+ today in two parts, would be filmed in Tucson, Arizona. A month ago, I received a call from a producer at Oprah’s production company, inviting me to participate in a taping of Oprah’s Book Club to discuss the controversy around the novel American Dirt.

Book american dirt