In 'What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez,' a family struggles with a child's disappearance

NPR's Book of the Day

NPR

Books, Arts

4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 14 March 2023

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ruthy Ramirez, the 13-year-old middle child of a Puerto Rican family in Staten Island, vanished without a trace. But more than a decade later, as the family still feels the weight of her absence, one of her sisters spots a woman who she thinks might be her sister on a reality TV show. In her new novel, What Happened to Ruthy Ramirez, author Claire Jimenez explores the way loss, violence and spectacle impacts the women in the Ramirez family. And as she tells NPR's Ayesha Rascoe, there's a big divide in the way reality tv treats white women and women of color.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, I'm Kia Miyakina-Tees. This is NPR's Book of the Day. Poet Thomas Campbell once wrote,
0:10.5	To live in hearts we leave behind, is to not die. For the Ramirez family, the loss that lives in their
0:16.9	hearts is that of their teen daughter, Ruthie, who went missing after school one day.
0:22.4	The family of four, turned three, wrestle with Ruthie's 12-year absence until one day
0:28.5	when the oldest sister spots a Ruthie lookalike on a reality TV show.
0:34.6	Is it possible that this woman is her sister?
0:40.5	The family's quest for answers is at the heart of what happened to Ruthie Ramirez by Claire Jimenez. She spoke about her debut novel with NPR's
0:47.4	Aisha Roscoe. In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
0:53.8	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.
0:58.3	On our new show, Sources and Methods.
1:00.4	NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people
1:03.7	helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.
1:08.0	Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:13.8	The Ramirez family is incomplete.
1:17.1	There's a hole in the middle where Ruthie used to be.
1:20.6	Ruthie, the middle daughter who disappeared from a Staten Island bus stop when she was 13.
1:26.3	Years later, her sisters see her beauty mark, her laugh, her way of speaking, and a woman named Ruby on a reality TV show.
1:35.2	Could this be Ruthie found at last?
1:38.6	That's the question driving the novel.
1:40.7	What happened to Ruthie Ramirez?
1:43.0	It's Claire Jimenez's debut novel. She teaches
1:46.4	English and African American Studies at the University of South Carolina. And she joins us now.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.