Kiara Alegría Hudes

But the reason I hadn't clocked it and the reason it was kind of invisible or hidden in plain sight is because other women took over the labor of raising those children.

An auntie, an abuela, a cousin, an older sister.

In one case, we thought of a father who stayed when the mother took off.

So...

I had really thought of it as kind of a fantasy in some ways when I wrote it.

And here was my mom actually pointing out to me, no, this reflects the reality you grew up in.

I think it's not an emotion I have such healthy and direct access to.

And so I wanted to explore that through a fictional character.

You know, what is anger?

What purpose does it serve in our lives?

It's mostly been the province of men in popular culture and in cultural narratives.

You know, what is an angry woman?

And is there a way that anger can be productive actually in addition to its destructive components?

And one of the things we discover in April's story is that as a child, she witnessed a pretty traumatic act of violence.

Now, those of us who are familiar with PTSD know that when faced with something that triggers that memory, it's fight or flight.

It's freeze or fawn.

And so I wanted to write this character who fought.

She didn't fight when she witnessed this violent act.

Instead, she got into schoolyard fights on the playground.

And she became a really good fighter.