An Eye for an I

Growing up with Blindness, Bigotry, and Family Mental Illness

James Francisco Bonilla

• Publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9781452973937
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

The personal story of a blind Puerto Rican boy in New York who transcends a harrowing childhood to become a lifelong advocate for social justice

 

“Jovencito, it’s going to be lonely being different and yet strong in this world,” James Francisco Bonilla’s grandmother told him when he was ten. He had come home after defending himself against a bully who had threatened him with violence, making it clear that he didn’t care that James was blind. But despite the isolation James felt in childhood, he would come to commit his life to leveraging his differences and strengths toward a collective fight for justice. James’s memoir, An Eye for an I, is an inspiring account of how he found a path through his own suffering to make a difference for others.

 

Born with congenital cataracts, James had limited vision in his right eye and none in his left. At age nine, after a classmate hurled a horseshoe at his face in a racially motivated assault, James’s right eye was injured and he became legally blind. At home, too, he feared physical violence, experiencing the unpredictable outbursts of a single mother suffering from severe mental illness. Throughout his youth as a Puerto Rican New Yorker, James was continually failed by educational systems that exposed him to one abuse after another. Searching for relief and inspiration, he discovered an unexpected solace in the natural world, spiritual encounters with Mother Earth that led him toward both personal healing and advocacy.

 

At nineteen, a breakthrough in medical technology restored the sight in his right eye, and James recognized his unique perspective on the struggles of the disabled and marginalized in American life—and his intense will to make a difference. He seeks to understand generational trauma, and in documenting his growth—physically, mentally, and spiritually—his memoir exemplifies the introspection necessary to participate in truly equitable and effective movement building. An Eye for an I presents both James and his aggressors with refreshing nuance and humility, inviting readers to empathize, be inspired, and consider their own potential to be of service in a broken, yet beautiful, world.

 

 

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Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1. The Knife
• 2. Locked in the Closet
• 3. Just Dee and Me
• 4. Our Lady Queen of Martyrs
• 5. “Lock the Doors!”
• 6. Doña Luisa, Mi Nana
• 7. My First Bike
• 8. Coindre Hall
• 9. Sammy, My Beagle
• 10. “Hey, Spic!”
• 11. “Sight Conservation”
• 12. Bullies
• 13. Puerto Rico’s Hatfields versus the McCoys
• 14. Camp Lighthouse
• 15. The Gift of Not Seeing
• 16. Mr. Norton, MSW
• 17. Florida School for the Deaf and Blind
• 18. Mugging on Friday the 13th, 1972
• 19. “But You Don’t Look . . .”
• 20. “Dad, I Can’t Play Golf.”
• 21. A Blind Messenger?
• 22. Stigma
• 23. Titi Anna
• 24. Clark Tower
• 25. “Oh, So Much Shame!”
• 26. Learning Grace from Mrs. Reed
• 27. The “Nearly Killed by Kindness” Blues
• 28. Seeing in Technicolor
• 29. Learning to Drive
• 30. “Crip Camp”
• 31. Stumbling into Spirit in Nature
• 32. “With Correction”
• 33. All Roads Led to Community Organizing
• 34. Dad and Son Reconcile
• 35. A Deepening Estrangement
• 36. Wrestling with Moral Outrage
• 37. Why Choose Dee as a Parent?
• 38. Temagami Vision Quest
• 39. Uncle Bim
• 40. Redefining Machismo
• 41. Dee’s Last Act
• 42. Riding the Waves
• Afterword: Insights from An Eye for an I
• Acknowledgments
• Resources: Seeing Beyond Our Blind Spots
• References