This is a woman's testament to her sister who was murdered thirty years ago when she (Liliana) was a student in Mexico City. The author starts the book by going back and researching the police investigation and news coverage of her sister's death. This all centers on a man she had an on and off relationship since high school. (He becomes a stalker.) We learn about how smart and creative Liliana is through her writings and the words of her friends and relatives. This is a wonderful homage to a sister who was dearly loved. ( )

“I seek justice for my sister.”

In Liliana’s Invincible Summer, Christina Rivera Garza pays tribute to her younger sister, Liliana Rivera Garza who was a 20 year old university student in 1990 when she was murdered in her own home.

Drawing from paraphernalia that belonged to Liliana, including notebooks, letters, notes, photographs, and postcards, conversations and interviews with friends and family, and Cristina’s own memories, Garza shares an affecting portrait of her beloved sister and her too brief life.

“…it was so clear, that we knew very little. A naïve girl, prey to the daily abuse of a manipulator. A woman perhaps too free. A disciplined swimmer. A confused young woman ready to try everything. A good and docile youngster, exceptionally blind to danger. A customary liar. An outstanding student. An all too innocent teenager. A friend for life. A woman full of love. A sloppy kid. Someone with a past. The pictures painted by these stories, and even by my own memory, multiplied exponentially, contradicting each without so much as a blush.”

Liliana first met her killer when she was in middle school, and though he pursued her immediately, she was fifteen, and he seventeen, before she agreed to date him. Over the next four years theirs was an off and on relationship, Liliana struggled to seperate from him completely, and he, reportedly possessive and aggressive, refused to let her go. Just weeks before her murder it seems she had made the resolution to cut him from her life for good.

Sadly, Liliana is one of many women murdered in Mexico by an intimate partner. Garza discusses how the ‘machismo’ culture of the country, along with law enforcement corruption, has historically failed to protect women. Femicide was not incorporated as a federal crime until 2012.

Liliana’s killer, though identified as Ángel González Ramos, evaded the police in the days following her murder, and has yet to be brought to justice.

An eloquent, impassioned and poignant memoir, Liliana’s Invincible Summer is a powerful read. ( )

El 16 de julio de 1990, Liliana Rivera Garza, mi hermana, fue víctima de un feminicidio. Era una muchacha de 20 años, estudiante de arquitectura. Tenía años tratando de terminar su relación con un novio de la preparatoria que insistía en no dejarla ir. Unas cuantas semanas antes de la tragedia, Liliana por fin tomó una decisión definitiva: en lo más profundo del invierno había descubierto que en ella, como bien lo había dicho Albert Camus, había un invencible verano. Lo dejaría atrás. Empezaría una nueva vida. Haría una maestría y después un doctorado; viajaría a Londres. La decisión de él fue que ella no tendría una vida sin él.

Hace apenas un año decidí abrir las cajas donde depositamos las pertenencias de mi hermana. Su voz atravesó el tiempo y, como la de tantas mujeres desaparecidas y ultrajadas en México, demandó justicia.

El invencible verano de Liliana es una excavación en la vida de una mujer brillante y audaz que careció, como nosotros mismos, como todos los demás, del lenguaje necesario para identificar, denunciar y luchar contra la violencia sexista y el terrorismo de pareja que caracteriza a tantas relaciones patriarcales. Este libro es para celebrar su paso por la tierra y para decirle que, claro que sí, lo vamos a tirar. Al patriarcado lo vamos a tirar.