Salsa in the Suburbs

Salsa in the Suburbs is a story about a Latin-American family in Australia. The family has migrated to Western Sydney from Uruguay in the 1970s to escape a repressive military dictatorship. Decades later, Juan is in his early seventies and a widower. He misses his wife, does not know how to be alone, and has become dependent on his daughters, particularly Lola, who lives nearby.

Lola has her own battles living with an anxiety disorder and in her relationship with her Uruguayan musician husband, who connects her with the culture she lost when she migrated as a child. Her younger sister, Betty, is living an alternative lifestyle in Mullumbimby. Unlike Lola, who clings to her Uruguayan culture, Betty has removed herself from her cultural roots as she finds it oppressive and stifling.

A third daughter, Malena, is living in Italy with her husband. Fed up with Juan's dependence, particularly on Lola, Betty decides to place a personal ad in a Spanish paper on his behalf, without asking him, hoping that a new partner may help him move beyond his grief and dependency. However, he finds new love while walking the dog with a widowed Aboriginal lady named Frances. Their blossoming relationship becomes a trigger for Juan, Lola, and Betty to recalibrate how they measure their belonging across cultures.

The work presents a stunning and original overview of Latinx communities in both America and Australia, exploring how the family escape the civic-military dictatorship in the 1970s and find a home among the South American community of Western Sydney. Now, decades later, each member of the family reckons with the tension between the rich meaning they draw from their heritage and the human need for new experiences. Salsa in the Suburbs is poignant in its intersectional dialogue and inspiring in its well-developed characters that carry humour, trauma, and Uruguayan history with immense strength. — Maggie Ball, Fresh Ink judge and publisher of The Compulsive Reader