Staff Pick - Darkroom: A Memoir in Black & White by Lila Quintero Weaver

[Brian Bess]

Viewpoint from a rarely heard demographic

I have rarely read any graphic novels or non-fiction and read this at the suggestion of a co-worker. The subject matter is intriguing as it is a true immigrant's story from a different location than one would expect from this ethnic group.

Lila Quintero was a small child when she, along with her father, mother, two older sisters, younger brother, emigrated from Argentina to the United States, not only to the U.S. but to the small town of Marion, the county seat of Perry County in Alabama. They arrived in 1961, just at the cusp of a sequence of years that were at the center of the civil rights movement. For each child the experience was a different journey. The oldest sister, Ginny, had been born in America from an earlier stay in the U.S. for the parents, spent formative years there and for her it seemed to be a homecoming. The second sister, Lissy, was born in the U.S. just before they moved back to Argentina and her only memories were of that country. Lila started school in Marion and knew immediately that she was different. Stares and ignorant questions ('Do you speak MEXICAN?') reached her frequently and she was often asked by a teacher to say something in Spanish. Her father had been a pastor and teacher and got jobs teaching Foreign Languages at the two local colleges in Marion. He was always restless and looking for something new to learn. He took up photography as a hobby and recorded huge segments of the life of the family.

Her life at school where English was spoken and taught was radically different from her home life where both parents spoke Spanish constantly. She knew that if her father knew more details about what she was actually being taught he would voice his disapproval of the quality of the education she was getting. She heard racist remarks every day and understood the unspoken code of behavior to not seem to be sympathetic to Negroes. While she witnessed expressions of racism every day, she raided her older sister's book and record collections, reading books like 'Black Like Me' and listening to albums by Harry Belafonte and 'Joan Baez In Concert', including a singalong of "We Shall Overcome". For a few years she lived a double life, trying to accept the southern dietary choices (daily bacon) and lying to her teacher that her parents were too sick to attend the Christmas pageant for which Lila drew and painted most of the scenery.

She learned the back story of her parents' earlier sojourn in Alabama, when her father was a pastor of a Birmingham church and was scolded for his equitable treatment of black people and was on the receiving end of a slightly less severe flavor of racism when he was expected to live in substandard housing based on the assumption that because he was a foreigner he shouldn't mind living in such conditions.

By February of 1965 it was impossible not to be aware that civil rights activism was soon to be tested in an extreme way. Voter suppression of blacks by requiring more stringent testing than the standard tests offered to whites led to marches and protests for voter rights at the courthouse. On the evening of February 18 the state troopers unleashed billy clubs and beatings as protest conditions escalated to riot conditions in the eyes of the authorities. Richard Valeriani of NBC was seriously injured while he was reporting on the activity. Lila's father was there with his camera just as the situation was growing completely out of control. When he saw Valeriani hit in the head and bystanders being shoved he knew that he and his camera were at risk and retreated quickly. A state trooper shot a young black man named Jimmie Lee Jackson, who was trying to usher his mother and grandfather to safety inside a church. He died of his wounds a few days later. This incident sparked the Selma-to-Montgomery march of April after the state trooper was exonerated.

Over the next few years, after the schools were forced to integrate and Lila was in junior high school, she grew bold enough to be friendly with her black classmates. She witnessed her younger brother being surrounded to a group of taunting boys. She stared at the boys and told her brother to come back to the classrooms. Later she learned that he was harassed because of his 'n—lovin' sister'.

This memoir is a perfect example of a work that reaches maximum impact because it is graphic non-fiction. It is a picture book in which the words are supporting players to the pictures. And the pictures are all black ink drawings, very evocative of images from the time such as news articles, school pictures, cans of soup, scrapbooks, etc. She even includes portions of text from 'Know Alabama', the standard textbook used in the 60's to teach Alabama history, including its idyllic depiction of life on the plantations before the Civil War and the evil destruction enacted in the era of Reconstruction by northern Carpetbaggers and southern Scalawags. As with many graphic books, the illustrations could serve as storyboards for film adaptations. She actually uses the filmic device of rewinding film for flashbacks and alternative scenarios.

This memoir is powerful largely because of the impact of the illustrations as well as the fact that it depicts an immigrant experience that has been told rarely, if ever. It's a quick reading experience that I would recommend, especially to those who feel disdainful about engaging in such a trivial, childish act as reading 'comic books'. There may not be as many of these reluctant readers as there used to be (hopefully another fading prejudice) but I know you're out there. Read this one. It's good for you.