Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of self-harm.

Catalina is a novel about the power of storytelling and controlling one’s own narrative. Stories construct reality and shape identities, so whoever tells our collective and individual stories has immense power. Catalina argues that marginalized people are often denied the chance to self-narrate both their personal stories and collective histories, resulting in a loss of agency and a crisis of identity. However, this can be reversed by reclaiming one’s own story.

As a young undocumented woman, Catalina Ituralde has spent much of her life at the mercy of others. She was shuttled between her parents, her aunt and uncle, and her grandparents, and now her fate rests in the hands of politicians debating immigration reform. She also has little to no firsthand experience with her own history and ancestry. Apart from a few early memories, all her knowledge of Ecuador and Latin America comes from her grandfather or her Harvard professors and classmates. Nevertheless, Catalina tends toward “self-protagonism” and wants to become a writer to retell her story on her own terms. She sees literature as a “beautiful” alternative to the “sad” “real world” (8), capable of reshaping reality into something more attractive.