Underneath the Palm Trees

A raw and captivating exploration of what it means to live in the in-betweens of the American dream

Arts and culture writer Eva Recinos came of age in the towering city of Los Angeles, fed the story of the American dream. A daughter of immigrants, Recinos grew up facing the dichotomy of that dream: experiencing what it was like to live in South Central LA right next door to one of the wealthiest private universities in America—which Recinos herself would eventually attend. Navigating depression, anxiety, grief, sexuality, and the pressures of being a first-generation daughter and student, Underneath the Palm Trees examines the dissonant effects of straddling two disparate worlds. Recinos’s is an emerging and powerful Latinx voice that uses this engaging collection of essays to capture America’s idiosyncrasies, the complexities of girlhood, and how we find ourselves in art.