SPOILER ALERT! There may be a few spoilers in this blogpost.
Mariana Ruiz isn’t your average Cuban-American girl. For most of her life, her father, Senator Antonio Ruiz, R-FL, has been a politician. Now, in his most ambitious campaign yet, he is running for President. Mariana, a sophomore, has always blindly supported her father in all of his political endeavors. But as his presidential campaign gets underway, Mariana begins to realize how far her father is willing to go for the campaign. As Mariana comes to terms with the fact that she doesn’t agree with some of her father’s beliefs, she begins to step out from behind his shadow, and stand for what she believes. Natalia Sylvester’s Running is a poignant story of truth, lies, and learning to pave your own way.
At the start of the novel, Mariana really hasn’t ever thought about her father’s or her own stance on civil and environmental issues. After a few chapters, Mariana begins to realize that what her father mainly cares about is winning the election, and less about Mariana’s opinions and his relationship with her. When she ends up in the company of Jackie Velez, the charismatic senior and president of the student activist club PODER, Mariana begins to learn about her father’s political stances, which she never gave much thought to. When her father learns that Mariana is allied with Jackie, it drives an even bigger wedge between them, and he thinks that she wants him to lose the upcoming Florida primaries, which are crucial for him to win the general election.
Everything comes to a head when the aquifers that most of Miami Dade county rely on for clean water become contaminated due to a bill that was passed in the state congress a few years earlier allowing developers to pump non-potable water into the aquifers. As the mayor announces a boil water notice, PODER jumps into action, planning a protest and call to action for the situation. On the day of the protest, Mariana’s mother picks her up from school early, but then changes her mind and allows Mariana to go to the protest, where a huge contingent of the student body marches to her father’s local Senate office chanting and holding banners. Originally, Mariana doesn’t plan to say anything, just to participate in the protest, but when her father comes out of the building and tells her he wants to hear her opinion but then cuts her off, making it all into something politically advantageous for him, Mariana speaks up, voicing her opinion, in opposition to her father.
Mariana is a character who experiences a lot of development throughout the novel. It wouldn’t be too far from the truth to say that at the start of the novel Mariana was ignorant. She blindly believed all of what her father said, always believing he was keeping his word that the reason he was in politics was to improve the lives of his fellow Americans. But her father’s presidential bid brought Mariana’s life a new level of scrutiny, and she began to see the order of his priorities. At the beginning of the novel, she blindly believed and was mostly quiet and reserved, but by the end of the novel, Mariana knew what she stood for, and was not afraid to stand up for it.
From not having anything to say, to being silenced and ignored, to speaking up against her presidential-candidate father on national television, Mariana did something remarkable. Instead of just realizing she had an opinion that differed from her father’s and sitting tight with that knowledge, Mariana took action. To see what she could do to right the situation, to make things better, and to speak up. When everything came to a head with the boil water notice, instead of doing nothing and knowing her father wasn’t going to do anything but ignore the situation, Mariana stepped out of her comfort zone in order to try to make a difference.
In the end, Mariana’s father thought she got what she wanted because he lost the Florida primary. But Natalia Sylvester brings out the truth and universality of having mixed emotions about certain things, especially big life changes that one doesn’t always have control over. With most things, there are consequences either way and there isn’t a clear, black and white, right or wrong answer or choice to hope for. At the end of the book, the reader is left wondering how things will turn out, and what will happen to Mariana over the course of the next few years. Sylvester doesn’t quite tie up all the last strings, leaving the reader with the image of a confused Mariana, who isn’t sure what she wants or what outcome she should have wished for, or even if what she did was right. But unlike many, Mariana figured out what she believed, what she stood for, and instead of sitting, out of the spotlight, she stood up, stepped out, and at least tried to make a positive difference in the world.
Anyone who doesn’t mind that I spoiled the entire book in this blog post and who likes a good book about willful teenagers who know what they believe and are willing to stand their ground will enjoy this book, and I recommend it to anyone who fits the above description.
Roxxy,
