“If you are looking for some inspiration right now, look no further! You’ll fly through the empowering story of the shy Midwestern girl who grew up to be the first Latina on the United States Unlimited Aerobatic Team.” Ms. Magazine
Description
The daughter of a Chilean father and a Filipina mother, Cecilia Rodriguez Aragon grew up as a shy, timid child in a small midwestern town during the 1960s. Targeted by school bullies and dismissed by many of her teachers, she worried that people would find out the truth: that she was INTF. Incompetent. Nerd. Terrified. Failure. This feeling stayed with her well into her twenties when she was told that “girls can’t do science” or “women just don’t know how to handle machines.”
Yet in the span of just six years, Cecilia became the first Latina pilot to secure a place on the United States Unlimited Aerobatic Team and earn the right to represent her country at the Olympics of aviation, the World Aerobatic Championships. How did she do it?
Using mathematical techniques to overcome her fear, Cecilia performed at air shows in front of millions of people. She jumped out of airplanes and taught others how to fly. She learned how to fund-raise and earn money to compete at the world level. She worked as a test pilot and contributed to the design of experimental airplanes, crafting curves of metal and fabric that shaped air to lift inanimate objects high above the earth. And best of all, she surprised everyone by overcoming the prejudices people held about her because of her race and her gender.
Flying Free is the story of how Cecilia Aragon broke free from expectations and rose above her own limits by combining her passion for flying with math and logic in unexpected ways. You don’t have to be a math whiz or a science geek to learn from her story. You just have to want to soar.
Praise
“If you are looking for some inspiration right now, look no further! You’ll fly through the empowering story of the shy Midwestern girl who grew up to be the first Latina on the United States Unlimited Aerobatic Team.” Ms. Magazine
“Aragon writes with endearing honesty, humility, and vivid detail…Aragon shows how passion is the ingredient that powers people to action, allowing them to reach great heights.” New York Journal of Books
“Flying Free is no fairy tale. Cecilia Aragon has carved out a big life for herself with persistence, determination, hard work, and intention while continually quashing a deeply instilled message to stay small, stay safe, stay in the passenger seat. The vivid details of her flights allowed me to fly vicariously through her. I could feel the exhilaration of a stall or spin or loop, the pressure of the g-forces alternating with weightlessness, the blood rushing to my head as I hung upside down, the smell of sage or pine rushing up at me. Cecilia’s story shows us how empowering and rewarding it is to be in the pilot’s seat, and that we can do it, not fearlessly, but in spite of our fear, flight by flight.” Jan Redford, author of End of the Rope: Mountains, Marriage, and Motherhood
“Flying Free is a memoir that will absolutely transport you with its spellbinding, page-turning story, a story that insists your own dreams are achievable if you—like Cecilia Aragon—break them down into small steps and use logic to face down your fears. Flying Free offers us an adventure of a lifetime and a plucky narrator who just keeps picking up each time she gets knocked down. Cecilia Aragon is a master storyteller who reminds us that a bigger life is possible for each of us. Read this book!” Theo Pauline Nestor, author of Writing Is My Drink
“[Aragon] describes her feelings and experiences, particularly in flight, with great emotion…A message of inspiration for those seeking to break free from societal norms.” Kirkus Reviews
Details
| Language | English |
|---|---|
| Release Day | Sep 21, 2020 |
| Release Date | September 22, 2020 |
| Release Date Machine | 1600732800 |
| Imprint | Blackstone Publishing |
| Provider | Blackstone Publishing |
| Categories | Black Friday Sale, Biographies & Memoirs, Professionals & Academics, Women, Adventurers, Explorers & Survival, Sports, Nonfiction - Adult, Nonfiction - All |
Author Bio
Cecilia Aragon is an author, air-show pilot, and the first Latina full professor in the College of Engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle. She coauthored Writers in the Secret Garden, has worked with Nobel Prize winners, taught astronauts to fly, and created musical simulations of the universe with rock stars. Her major awards for research, and a stint at NASA designing software for Mars missions, led President Obama to call her “one of the top scientists and engineers in the country.”
Narrator Bio
Roxanne Hernandez is an audio narrator and a top narrator choice for young adult, adult drama, and Latin American/Chicano literature. She was a finalist for the prestigious Audie Award for best narration in 2011.
Overview
The daughter of a Chilean father and a Filipina mother, Cecilia Rodriguez Aragon grew up as a shy, timid child in a small midwestern town during the 1960s. Targeted by school bullies and dismissed by many of her teachers, she worried that people would find out the truth: that she was INTF. Incompetent. Nerd. Terrified. Failure. This feeling stayed with her well into her twenties when she was told that “girls can’t do science” or “women just don’t know how to handle machines.”
Yet in the span of just six years, Cecilia became the first Latina pilot to secure a place on the United States Unlimited Aerobatic Team and earn the right to represent her country at the Olympics of aviation, the World Aerobatic Championships. How did she do it?
Using mathematical techniques to overcome her fear, Cecilia performed at air shows in front of millions of people. She jumped out of airplanes and taught others how to fly. She learned how to fund-raise and earn money to compete at the world level. She worked as a test pilot and contributed to the design of experimental airplanes, crafting curves of metal and fabric that shaped air to lift inanimate objects high above the earth. And best of all, she surprised everyone by overcoming the prejudices people held about her because of her race and her gender.
Flying Free is the story of how Cecilia Aragon broke free from expectations and rose above her own limits by combining her passion for flying with math and logic in unexpected ways. You don’t have to be a math whiz or a science geek to learn from her story. You just have to want to soar.