New book is Downey author's first

Jessica Parra is author of “Ruby Ramos’s Recipe for Success,” available May 16. (Courtesy photo)

DOWNEY — Jessica Parra went to law school. It is what her parents wanted, but not entirely what she wanted for herself.

So, she sat down and started writing about a girl named Rubi.

In Parra’s new and first-ever book “Rubi Ramos’s Recipe for Success,” title character Rubi tries to navigate many of the complexities and struggles of being a young adult, including love, college admission, living up to parental expectations, and self-discovery.

“My whole thing with this book, you know, so often when we see BIPOC representations in media that aren’t penned by BIPOC creators, the focus is so much on BIPOC pain and trauma So for example, you know when we get stories about brown people it is so often about immigration, and crossing the border, and things like that,” said Parra. “I think those stories are very important as well, and there is still always a place for that stuff, but I wanted to spend [Rubi’s] joy and celebration and success for young people.”

Parra, 41, said that the book is partly auto-biographical, taking inspiration from real events and people in and throughout her own life.

“I think I needed to really work on some of my early childhood issues and stuff,” said Parra. “Like Rubi, I had parents who, you know, they’re immigrants – my mom is from Guatemala, my dad was from Cuba – so, for them the definition of success was going to law school or medical school.”

She became a lawyer, satisfying a debt she felt she owed to her parents for their own sacrifices, while suppressing a creative itch that she always had, but did not feel she could act upon.

“I’ve had readers from India, from Australia, readers from all over the world DMing me how they also feel that struggle, you know, of parents sacrificing a lot for their children to have a quote ‘better life;’ the pressure they feel to pay off that debt. For me, I felt that so much,” said Parra. “That was really the core question that I tried to answer with ‘Rubi,’ is what does that do to a young person…”

Parra hopes that ‘Rubi’ teaches her readers that they can “make new recipes for their life.”

“I could say that I lived some of Rubi’s journey in the sense that while she’s wanting to pursue baking, it could really just be like a metaphor for anything that anyone wants to pursue,” said Parra. “For me, part of it was writing, but also, it was me wanting to do some of the things that I felt I couldn’t do until I reached these milestones or whatever to make my parents proud, or make myself proud, or make society proud even.

“I like to think that Rubi just got there a lot quicker, because I eventually did end up getting there… If [the book] could just give a kid, or an adult a glimpse into ‘maybe I can go for this thing I’ve always wanted to do and put it on the backburner,’ then to me that was like worth those moments of going back and really having to dig into those wounds.”

“Rubi Ramos’s Recipe for Success” will be released on May 16, and will be available anywhere books are sold.