Elizabeth Acevedo’s Ode to Adolescent Power: Culture, Conflict, and Reassurance in The Poet X Isabel Acedo College

Adolescence alone, as a transitional period from child to adult, marks a challenging time in an individual’s life. Often times, factors outside the mind and body seem to exist solely to aggravate this tremulous, question-filled period. Poet X’s Xiomara Batista may certainly be able to relate to such a sentiment. Xiomara’s narrative of her struggles as a Latina repressed by sexist sociocultural factors, along with the poet-identity she eventually embraces as her own through the emotional support of emotionally close family and friends, highlights the necessity of similar support systems in a young adult’s life. Adolescent Latinx—especially Latina—individuals who read Elizabeth Acevedo’s verse novel Poet X may emotionally connect with Xiomara’s emotional turmoil and, observing her success, may find Xiomara’s hope infectious; consequently, they may seek extracurricular activities that will imbue them with a likewise contented identity.

Acevedo does not shy away from depicting the realities of a society heavily influenced by a culture’s sexist ideals. For instance, there is certainly no lack of machismo, a term Latin American cultures use to describe the flaunting of “masculine pride” (OED, n.), in Xiomara’s life. During the work’s...