Alliances for Hopeful Futures: Fostering Solidarity through Julia Alvarez's Young Adult Fiction

This article builds on previous scholarship on Julia Alvarez’s Finding Miracles (2004) and Return to Sender (2009) to explore the educational potential of these young adult novels, with a focus on the ethics of solidarity fostered as the main characters evolve into empathetic and socially-responsible individuals. Through a theoretical framework that examines solidarity from a decolonial and antiracist perspective, this paper analyzes how the boundary-setting and exclusion inherent in the protagonists’ Euro-American frame of reference are gradually replaced for a commitment to forge alliances with vulnerable others. These love- and hope-infused coalitions, which stress the volitional and ethical choice groups make to struggle together, rearrange the versions of identity imposed by colonial modernity, revealing new horizons against which we might not only imagine, but also produce new ways of being. This highlights the potential role of these young adult narratives in fostering solidarity among young readers and guiding them towards a fairer and brighter future.