Is This Just Fantasy?

Abstract

Is This Just Fantasy? Stacey Alex (bio) Woven in Moonlight Isabel Ibañez Page Street Kids www.pagestreetpublishing.com 400 Pages; Print, $10.99 For its engagement with cultural identity, the history of Latin American colonization, and contemporary Bolivian politics, Isabel Ibañez’s debut novel, Woven in Moonlight, is an exciting addition to the realm of YA fantasy. From page one, Ibañez creates a sense of urgency in the fictional land of Inkasisa with strong, capable women at the wheel. Having been overthrown by the indigenous Llacsans, the formerly elite Illustrians are forced to retreat to a magically protected keep and face starvation. Tension builds between the royal Condesa Catelina and her decoy, Ximena, as Ximena holds the authority to make decisions for which the the Condesa is held responsible and she feels the Condesa is too eager to please the public. Word arrives that their general, Ana, has been taken captive by the Llacsans and can only be saved if the Condesa marries the Llacsan King Atoc. Ximena has just weeks of wedding preparations to impersonate the Condesa in the Llacsan-controlled castle and plan a revolution. What ensues is a masterfully crafted story of a young woman determined to restore power to her people but challenged to reexamine her prejudices and worldview. Ibañez exquisitely incorporates Andean culture, Quechua, and Spanish to build a binary between Illustrians and Llacsans that the protagonist learns to question. The Illustrians pray to the moon goddess, Mama Killa, while the Llacsans worship the earth goddess Pachamama and the sun god Inti. The olive-skinned Illustrians wear white while the bronze skinned Llacsans wear bright colors and repaint the city surfaces with lush greens and murals. Ximena’s potential for bridging this cultural binary grows from affectionate memories [End Page 10] of her Llacsan nanny who taught her the Llacsan art of weaving. The loom, at first used to relay secret messages back to her Condesa, provides her first taste of culture shock with Llacsan norms, and eventually empowers Ximena to fully realize her magical abilities to create animated woolen animals that become her protectors. At a time when young readers are learning to flex and stretch their cognitive muscles, young adult literature often invites them to reshape the categories for understanding the realities that they have inherited. Readers may grapple along with Ximena’s internal struggle as the Llacsan people she meets challenge what she believes about the Llacsan people. Their kindness creates a cognitive dissonance that permits Ximena to recognize multiple cultural histories and the dehumanization caused by colonization. Her Llacsan maid’s Quechua name, Suyana, means “hope” and points to the transformative power of their human connection. Ximena learns that her guard, Juan Carlos, has a Castilian name because he is a mestizo, of both Castilian and indigenous heritage. This discovery works to further disrupt her binary understanding. When confronted by Rumi, a healer, about the mistreatment of Llacsans under Illustrian rule, Ximena clings to her own preconceptions: The Llacsans were never mistreated. It was their choice to stay up by the mountain, their choice to hold on to their old ways and not embrace the future. The Illustrian queen wanted them to assimilate. She wanted a unified country, and they ungratefully protested her rule. While Ibañez expressly draws on the marginalization of indigenous groups in Bolivia, readers in the United States from a wide variety of minoritized groups may hear their histories described in this racist mythology. Ximena steels herself to not care “un pepino” about the Llacsans and focuses instead on finding a magical relic capable of destroying them. Yet, as she is expected to take part in daily life in the castle, she is afforded unique position of an outsider experiencing an insider’s life and point of view. For example, she is asked to imagine what it must have been like for Llacsans to be prohibited from attending school. The elite Illustrians also continue to control the water supply and withhold it from Llacsans, perhaps alluding to the long struggle over natural gas in Bolivia and public rejection of its privatization. Slowly, Ximena begins to realize the role her own people...