When the Moon Was Ours

Sam is a Pakistani, transgender boy living in a closed-minded, majority-identity town. He’s an outsider because of his dark skin as well as his non-traditional gender expression; other boys bully him because his soft features don’t align with what they believe to be traditional, heteronormative masculinity. Sam spends much of the novel caught between names and identities, living between Sam (an anglicized version of his birth name), Samir (a masculinized version of his birth name), Samira (his birth name), and Moon (his nickname in the town). His only close relationship is with Miel, who has been his best friend since childhood. They become part of a unit, sharing a deep, almost symbiotic connection, similar to what the Bonner sisters share; however, each holds the other at a distance because of their own individual struggles. While Miel navigates her childhood trauma and the responsibility she feels for others, Sam is on a personal journey of self-discovery regarding his Gender Identity, his family, and his changing relationship with Miel. Although Miel tries to be understanding and supportive, Sam feels hesitant to explore this part of himself with her before he fully understands it himself.

The tension Sam feels between his Gender identity and his relationship to his mother and his family heritage holds him back from fully acknowledging the person he knows himself to be. He finds a way to bridge this tension through the practice of bacha posh, which allows him to maintain a connection to his grandmother and her traditions while also giving him a safe way to explore his Gender Identity. He also connects to his Pakistani traditions through food, and through his work pollinating pumpkin blossoms, which mirrors his family history of harvesting saffron (notably, his work with the pumpkins also allows him to fill his physical education requirements so that he doesn’t have to face the gender stigmas of a boys’ locker room). Sam finds an unexpected connection with Aracely when he learns that she comes closer than anyone to fully understanding his internal conflict. The discovery of Aracely’s transformation leads him to give himself over to the river in hopes that it will decide his fate for him, an act that Miel sees as an attempt at suicide. While Sam spends much of the novel divided, by the end he is able to bring these disparate sides of himself together and lives as his true self, acknowledging where he has come from and where he is going.

Aracely is Miel’s guardian, a local healer specializing in cures for lovesickness. For the early portion of the novel, her past and the nature of her relationship to Miel is a mystery. She is a neighbor to Sam and his mother, and when they take Miel in after her emergence from the water tower, Aracely offers Miel a permanent home. Initially, she appears to be a solid and temperate figure in the community. She makes her living through an unusual therapeutic practice of removing heartache from both women and men, and though this practice elicits some stigma from the town, she is generally respected and has a secure place within it. Aracely exemplifies the novel’s theme of Transformation having been literally transformed by the river from her form as Miel’s brother, Leandro, to her current form as a woman. As Aracely herself acknowledges, the river simply revealed her true self—she lived as a boy because that was what her family needed her to be. When Aracely gave her life for Miel’s, the river revealed her true inner nature—a moment of literal and figurative rebirth. Aracely’s transformation and new connection to Miel was also the cumulation of a journey of redemption; Leandro failed to protect Miel from their father when their father abused her, even acting as an accomplice to her abuse, believing it was an act of protection. In this way Miel’s near death gave Leandro a chance to make a different choice. He willingly gave his life to protect her, and so was rewarded with a new beginning.

Like Miel, Aracely feels responsible for those around her. She extends her friendship and protection to Miel, Sam, Sam’s mother, and even Ms. Owens. As someone who has experienced family trauma, Aracely takes comfort in this ability to support others. When Sam begins acting out and gets into a fight at school, Aracely challenges him to embrace his true nature, which leads to conflict between them, and ultimately both renewal and healing. In her new shape and her new life, Aracely sheds the cowardice of her childhood self and becomes the powerful, maternal figure she was always meant to be.