Crenshaw's Books & Decks

Darkroom is not your usual graphic memoir. 

Despite the author being a female, Quintero's Memoir is not the usual female memoir in vogue. I have read a good deal of graphic novels by female artists and, most of them, seem to share common themes: sexual identity, troubled childhood, Mental or psychological problems, love and relationships, or women issues in general. Quintero's Memoir in that regard is a different league. Dark Room connects more with a group of graphic memoirs coming from artists who immigrated into the USA and tell their story of struggle or just their experiences adjusting to the new culture and country. Quintero's Memoir relates to those, but the fact that she comes from a well adjusted family with no neurosis or mental problems, and Racial Segregation forms a good deal of the Memoir puts it on a different league as well. 

Quintero's Memoir deals with immigration, race, social upheaval and identity.  Not white, neither black, the Quinteros arrived from Argentina in 1961 and settled in the Alabama Black Belt area, in a time when segregation and Civil Rights libertarians were going to change the course of History in America. Lila and her family view and dealt with Segregation in a way that was not what it was expected from them, but they could not but be appalled by the reality of Segregation and life conditions of Afro-Americans, and they indeed were supportive of the Civil Rights movement.

Dark Room is both a personal and family memoir. It is also a memoir about the troubles of immigration, of being always The Other. The book it is perfect to illustrate Alterity processes. In a way, it is just normal that the Quinteros would see "the others" in American society, the Afro-Americans, with empathy and humanness and with empathic eyes. They themselves were "the others" to both white and black people. This gave them an unique vantage point, and also created trouble for them in their personal relationships. I also like the fact that we witness the different fortunes of the Quintero's siblings, as immigration affects differently to the members of the same family because people are, after all, individuals.

Dark Memoir is a lovely Memoir that goes from the personal to the familiar, stopping at the historical. Quintero herself reveals that memory is not the only source of her Memoir, as an historical approach is given to the narration of some of the horrific events happened in Alabama during the 1960s. Moreover, she was academically advised and supervised to produce a Memoir that is clear about the value of our personal memory in a Memoir, especially when dealing with historical events. I think that shows. There is some sort of detachment in the narration at times, that comes from a sound approach to the genre.