Tumble

Tumble (2022) is a middle grade novel by Celia C. Pérez. It follows the story of 12-year-old Adela “Addie” Ramírez, who learns that her biological father is a famous luchador and belongs to a dynastic family in the wrestling world. The book explores themes of Understanding Identity vis-à-vis Family, The Weight of Family Expectations and Legacy, and Using Storytelling to Subvert Social Norms.

Celia C. Pérez is a Mexican American author who writes for young readers. Her debut book, The First Rule of Punk (2017), won numerous awards and accolades, including winning the 2018 Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award and being named the 2018 Pura Belpré Award Honor Book. Tumble is her third book (“About.” Celia C. Pérez).

This guide is based on the 2022 Penguin Young Readers Group, Kindle Edition.

Plot Summary

Twelve-year-old Adela “Addie” Ramírez lives in Thorne, one of two towns in the Dos Pueblos area of New Mexico, where lucha libre (Mexican freestyle wrestling) in the Cactus Wrestling League is all the rage. On her birthday, her mother, Lourdes, and stepfather, Alex, surprise Addie: Alex wants to officially adopt her. However, Addie is unsure because she does not know who her biological father is, and Lourdes refuses to talk about him. She is furious when she discovers that, in order for Alex to adopt her, her biological father has to give up parental rights; this means that Lourdes knows where he is and is in touch with him.

With her best friend Cyaandi “Cy” Fernandez’s help, she searches for and finds an old photograph of her parents together. They notice an Esperanza High School seal on Addie’s father’s sweatpants, with Esperanza being the neighboring town where Lourdes grew up. Addie and Cy look through old yearbooks preserved in the historical society and discover that Addie’s father is Emmanuel “Manny” Bravo, a luchador (wrestler) who wrestled as “Manny the Mountain.” The entire Bravo family, beginning with Manny’s father, Francisco “Pancho” Bravo, were famous luchadores, though they haven’t wrestled in a while.

When Addie asserts that she will not decide about the adoption until she meets her biological father, Lourdes reluctantly agrees to organize a meeting between her and Manny. After Lourdes makes some calls, Manny invites Addie to his family’s home in Esperanza one Sunday. However, Manny gets the timing mixed up and doesn’t pick her up. Alex drops her off instead.

Addie meets the family: Rosie Bravo, her grandmother; Pancho, her grandfather, who suffers from memory issues and headaches supposedly as a result of wrestling injuries; her dead uncle Speedy’s daughters, Maggie and Eva, who are identical twins and wrestle as a tag-team; and her uncle Mateo, who quit wrestling to make masks and costumes for luchadores. She only meets Manny when he arrives for dinner. Although they are initially awkward with each other, Manny asserts he is staying in Esperanza for good and will be around more.

Manny invites Addie to spend the next weekend in Esperanza. When they meet next, he reveals to her that he is currently wrestling as an enmascarado (masked wrestler) as a result of having broken a contract years ago with the Cactus Wrestling League. However, he will soon be unmasked and return as “Manny the Mountain,” which will give him a chance at winning the league and potentially the world championship belt, like Pancho once did.

Although Manny invited Addie to spend the weekend, he is gone for most of it, running errands and doing work. This continues through all of Addie’s weekends with the Bravos. Instead of getting to know her father, she learns more about the rest of the family: Rosie used to wrestle herself and won the women’s world championship belt, but she gave it up after she got married and had children; Eva and Maggie have very different life aspirations and dreams from each other; and Mateo is content with having given up wrestling for his artistic and creative passions.

Simultaneously, preparations begin for the annual seventh-grade production of The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. Addie is cast as Marie, one of the main roles, along with her classmates Brandon and Gus as the Nutcracker and the Mouse King, respectively. With Cy as the director, the four begin working on this year’s twist to the production, as per tradition.

One Friday, Manny surprises Addie by bringing her along to watch him wrestle; it is the match where he is finally unmasked and makes his return. This is also when a delighted Addie gets the idea to have a lucha libre match at the end of the school production, instead of a final battle. Her classmates love the idea, and Manny promises to teach them how to wrestle. However, to Addie’s disappointment, Manny gets busier with work and doesn’t show up for a single session. Instead, Rosie, Mateo, and the twins step in to help. On the rare occasions Manny is there on the weekends, he tells Addie of his own father, who was missing for much of his childhood because he was away wrestling. Addie realizes that Manny emulates his father but cannot relate.

Brandon sprains his ankle a few days before the show, and the group is forced to think of something else to keep the show going. They pull off an unscripted moment where Addie, dressed in Rosie’s old wrestling cape and a mask made by Mateo, jumps in and wins the match instead, receiving thunderous applause. However, after the show—despite all the other Bravos turning up—Addie discovers that Manny broke his promise to be there, and she is deeply disappointed.

Manny meets her the next morning for breakfast, telling her about a new job that will give him a shot at the championship belt but will require him to move to Delaware. A heartbroken Addie realizes she will never receive more than this from Manny as a father. Lourdes consoles her and finally tells her the story of how they were high school sweethearts, with plans to move away together; Lourdes went to college, as planned, but Manny never followed, unable to give up wrestling. As his career got bigger and he got busier, Lourdes gave him an ultimatum to either stay or never come back. Manny chose wrestling.

Addie cannot decide about the adoption yet, and Lourdes accepts this. She donates Rosie’s cape to the historical society, insisting Rosie is an important part of local history and the Bravos’ story. On Christmas Day, Addie and her family gather to take their annual photograph in front of a tumbleweed snowman statue; Lourdes invites the Bravos, too, and everyone except Manny turns up. However, Manny sends Addie a gift: a mask that Manny commissions Mateo to make. Addie wears it for the photograph, reflecting on how, to anyone watching the group, they appear to be a family, which indeed they are.