Lucrecia Guerrero
One of
the recent pleasures I’ve experienced as a result of being based in the
Washington, D.C. area is meeting Dini Karasik (my thanks to Dan Vera for
connecting us; see her bio at the end of this post). On the same day that Dan
had his DC book launch for Speaking Wiri Wiri, back in early April, Dini held an afternoon literary
salon in her home, featuring Lucrecia Guerrero, whose novel, Tree of Sighs, had been sitting my desk for months! After said salon,
both Dini and Lucrecia made their way into the district to take in Dan’s
reading, and I finally had the pleasure of meeting the author of Tree of
Sighs! Without further delay, please
find below a substantive interview conducted by Dini. Letras Latinas Blog is pleased to be able to make this conversation available to its
readers. Enjoy. —FA
*
Lucrecia
Guerrero is a Mexican-American author whose first novel, Tree of Sighs, won the
2012 Premio Atzlán Literary Prize. The
novel is about a Mexican girl, Altagracia, whose grandmother sells her into
indentured servitude in the United States. A year later, Altagracia escapes and
eventually finds a new life in the American Midwest. After a decade of
surviving hardships and keeping secrets from the people closest to her, she
finds her way back home to confront her grandmother and the life she left
behind.
Her
short stories have been anthologized in print and published in several literary
journals, including The Antioch Review and The Louisville Review. Her first
book, Chasing Shadows, is a collection of linked short stories set in a
fictional town on the US-Mexico border. In addition to writing, she teaches and
facilitates creative writing workshops in and around her home state of Indiana.
***
DK: Dini Karasik
LG: Lucrecia Guerrero
DK: You have written that your bicultural/bilingual background
often informs your writing but do you ever find yourself struggling with which
aspect of your background to draw from when you’re writing?
LG: I did grow up
on the U.S.-Mexico border with a Mexican father and an Anglo-American
mother. Although I would
eventually move to the American Midwest, when I began writing stories they
were, without design, set in the Southwest along the U.S.-Mexico border. After
a couple of stories, I started thinking about a linked collection of stories
and I intentionally set them along the border so they would be connected by
place. Eleven of those stories
would eventually become Chasing Shadows, published by Chronicle Books.
Before I began my novel, I wrote some short-short stories and
those do branch out culturally.
When I began my novel, Tree of Sighs, I thought it would take place
mostly in the Midwest, Ohio and Indiana, but before I knew it my protagonist
traveled back to her roots on the U.S.-Mexico border! So Tree of Sighs takes
place partly in the Midwest but mostly in the Southwest.
The novel I’m working on now features a Mexican-American teenage
girl from the Southwest who travels to the Midwest and meets up with a man of
Appalachian descent. I have not
yet set any stories in Kentucky although I have written characters who are
originally from there.
DK: What do you think your stories convey about bicultural
identity?
LG: When I was about seven, a Latina neighbor girl chanted to me
and my sister, “Half and half—makes me laugh.” Of course I understood that she intended to be mean, but I
remember thinking that “half-and-half” sounded kind of cool.
For me, being bicultural and bilingual has been a positive. I have experienced some bigoted remarks
based on my heritage—both from anglos and latinos—but it just hasn’t had that
much of an effect on me. Maybe
because both of my parents were proud of who they were. When I write, though, I don’t
consciously try to make my characters seem proud of who they are.I allow them
to be who they are.
I do believe that being bicultural and bilingual allows me to
better understand the point of view of a Mexican, an Anglo-American, and a
Mexican-American. And having grown
up on the border, well, that’s another culture. I will leave it up to the individual reader to say what he
or she takes away from the stories about cultural identity.
DK: You’re a very private person. Isn’t writing about exposing
one’s self on the page? Aren’t the best stories the ones that tap into our
darkest moments and greatest fears? How do you reconcile being a private person
with the inevitable? That when you write, you will reveal secrets and
vulnerabilities about yourself?
LG: You’re correct to say that as a writer
I reveal myself to some extent through my stories, for they all come from my
imagination and my experiences (my own or those I’ve witnessed). Also, when readers find recurring
themes and concepts in my stories those ideas reveal something about my concerns
and values. The only truly
autobiographical piece that I have written, however, is a short-short,
“Sisters,” which is the story of my sister Carmen Victoria as she lay dying.
Even with that story, I take poetic license.
The
first story I had published, “The Girdle,” had an abused woman as the
protagonist. I remember taking
pains to be certain that no one I had known would read the story and say,
“Ah-ha, that’s me she’s writing about.”
Ironically, when the story came out, a number of women who had lived
through abusive relationships thanked me for revealing that I’d been
abused. I have never been an
abused woman, but I have known many and I feel deeply for them. Readers sometimes confuse the author
with the character, but I try not to censor my plots or characters for fear
that readers will believe they find me in one of my characters.
DK: As a Latina, do you feel a responsibility to controvert
stereotypes about Latinos?
LG: Underdogs can be found in all cultures, and I guess you
could say that I am fascinated by the underdog and by the endurance of the
human spirit, no matter the culture, ethnicity, or nationality. In my novel, although I had characters
who were homeless Mexican kids, the novel also had homeless Anglo and black
American kids in the Midwest. I
have set many stories on the border and have created many Latino characters,
but I plan to write many more stories set in other places and peopled by a
variety of characters. If I am
true to human nature, I will create well-rounded characters that will not
stereotype any group of people.
I’ll sum up my answer with a quotation from Isabel Allende: “Write what
should not be forgotten.”
DK: What’s your
primary goal when developing characters?
LG: My goal is to
create well-rounded, conflicted, and complex characters. One-dimensional characters—all bad or
all good, no matter the ethnicity—are boring.
DK: What’s your process for creating characters?
LG: It depends. Sometimes I begin with a memory of someone, or a
composite of several persons, I knew well or briefly. As the story develops the character develops into his or her
own, someone who may end up being little like the original model. Other times, as a developed character
begins to grow and develop he or she will interact with someone who comes out
of nowhere. Now, this new
character starts developing and becoming more real.
DK: Do you write everyday?
LG: I try to, and usually early in the day. I do need to be alone in order to write
fiction; it’s the only way I can go into that other place.
DK:
What surprises you about your writing?
LG: I’m always surprised and fascinated by the way a character
or story can take a much different turn than I had envisioned. I create the characters, so I don’t say
that they suddenly take over the story, but what lurks below the surface of the
mind amazes me.
DK: What was the
inspiration for your first novel, Tree of Sighs, and your collection of short
stories, Chasing Shadows?
LG: The first story I wrote was “The Girdle,” which would later
be included in Chasing Shadows. It
was inspired by the gaze of a man I had met when I was a kid. Because he was in
a wheel chair, his gaze was level with that of a child’s so, unlike most
adults, he was not looking down at me. I never forgot the darkness and pain in
his eyes. I think most of my
stories grow out of an image I can’t forget. In writing the story, no doubt I explore why the image had
such an effect on me.
Tree of Sighs, being a novel rather than a short story, had its
roots in a number of images and ideas. As for the tree itself, a friend of mine
once told me about a farmer in Ohio who had hundreds of trees with bottles
stuck on the branches. I never saw that farmer’s trees, but I researched bottle
trees and came up with a vision of my own tree. As for the idea of a girl being
sold and taken away to live as a servant, well, I remember as a kid reading
about a girl on the border who had been given away by her grandparents to a
woman from the Midwest. The girl returned with horrible tales of abuse. I don’t
remember the details and didn’t try to find them, instead creating a character
of my own and imagining what her life would be like.
DK: How do you
write such authentic stories?
LG: I research when I need particular details—I don’t want to
lose credibility with a reader because I got my facts wrong. As for emotional
credibility, I am an observant and sensitive person and have always been
interested in others. Their stories add to my own bank of experiences and
emotions. For example, as teenager I worked as a waitress in a coffee shop
across from a Greyhound Bus Station. Teen runaways used to come in on the bus
and they’d come over to where I worked for a Coke or something to eat. I have never forgotten many of those
kids nor their stories. I included
composites of some of them in Tree of Sighs.
DK: When you start writing, do you already have the plot in
mind? Or does it evolve organically as you write?
LG: As for shaping the plot, it’s different for the short story
and the novel. Because a story is
shorter it’s so much easier to keep it all in your head and to get of sense
where you’re going. Because of its
length, for me, the novel requires a different tact. At least, with the one I’m writing now, I want to keep more
control over it than I did with Tree of Sighs. I have a pretty clear idea of
where I wanted to end, so every few chapters I stop and take stock: Is the
story still going where I think I want to go? If not, do I want to stay the course or change? If so, how much do I want to
diverge? Do I need the characters
I have? Where are they taking the story?
Well, we’ll see if it works out!
DK: When did you first think of yourself as a writer?
I took one creative writing class as an undergraduate, and my
professor was so supportive and encouraging that he convinced me that I had
talent. Life happened, though, and I didn’t return to writing until years
later. At that time, I lived in
Ohio. I was fortunate to have the Antioch Writers’ Workshop
only miles away in Yellow Spring, Ohio. The first time I
attended, I didn’t even have a story to take with me, but after that first
session I was hooked, motivated and inspired by the community of writers. The next year, Joe David
Bellamy—writer, professor, and literary critic—was at the workshop and he
critiqued my first story. He was
so encouraging and suggested I write a collection of stories. He is also the first one to give me a
list of Chicano/a writers to read.
DK: You became a
writer later in life. Is it ever too early or too late to become a writer?
LG: Thank goodness
that unlike with so many professions, age and experience can be plus for the
writer. I would have liked to have studied writing earlier, which would have
given me the opportunity to see myself develop as a writer as I developed as a
person. But it is what it is, so I
don’t spend a lot of time regretting something I cannot change.
DK: How has your writing evolved over the years?
LG: When I first began, I was teaching myself (lots of writing
books and the odd workshop) the craft of writing. It really slowed down my
writing because I consciously thought about craft as I wrote. Now, many of
those basics have become second nature, and I no longer have to think about
them. As for themes, I believe they have been pretty consistent.
DK: How has writing
changed you as a reader and what are some of your favorite books?
LG: Once I began writing, I began to look
more closely at craft. Sometimes this is distracting! But it has also made me
more appreciative of good writers.
As for favorite books, well, that’s always tough. It seems it depends on my mood or
thoughts at the time I’m asked.
Generally, though, Demian by Herman Hesse is one of my favorites because
it was given to me to read when I was a teen who had lost interest in reading
and it renewed my interest in literature.
I earned a B.A. and M.A. in English, so I read and enjoyed many
of the classics. I love
Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, anything by Flannery O’Connor, Dreiser’s Sister
Carrie, and just about anything by Faulkner. Josef Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
was the book that led me to become an English major. I appreciate that you can
read his works just for the adventure if you so choose, or you can go all the
way with the story and savor all the deep and dark layers. I like the works of
English writer Graham Greene for the same reason.
These days I’ve been reading a number of Chicano/a writers, and
I’ll just name a few that I’ve read recently. I’m now reading Kentucky Club by Ben Sáenz and admire his
writing so much. I just finished Daniel Chacón’s Hotel Juárez and think it’s
wonderful. Xanath Caraza’s new
book of short stories is memorable.
I enjoy a good crime novel and really enjoyed Desperado: A Mile High
Noir by Manuel Ramos, Hell or High Water by Joy Castro, and Every Last Secret
by Linda Rodriguez. These are just a few I’ve read in the last weeks and I’ve
got a tall stack waiting for me.
DK: What advice would you offer to new and emerging writers?
LG: To write you must have a passion for it and you must be
willing to keep learning. I think that’s true for all of us writers. Oh, and
grow a thick skin; if you can’t take criticism and rejection, you won’t
survive.
DK: What’s next?
LG: There have been deaths in the family that have almost broken
me, but I tell myself that maybe my writing can do something to help someone
else and I continue on. Once I finished Tree of Sighs, I didn’t want to even
think of beginning another long project, so I wrote some short-shorts. I had so
much fun with them; they’re so short so it’s a good place to experiment.
I have also begun work on a new novel. I lifted a memorable
character from a short story I wrote years ago and she has come back for this
longer story. She is Mexican-American and another one of the main characters is
a male of Appalachian heritage.
There, you see, my heritage is showing on me again!
***
Dini
Karasik is a Mexican-American writer and lawyer. Her short stories and
poems have appeared or are forthcoming in several literary journals (Crack the Spine, The
Más Tequila Review, Red
Savina Review, Kweli Journal, Zombie Logic Review, Sixers
Review, and Bartleby Snopes) and she
maintains a blog (dkwritings.wordpress.com) that seeks to promote writing and
writers of color through interviews, book reviews, and short commentaries. In
addition to serving as a consultant to Narrative 4, a new literary non-profit
that marries storytelling with social change, she is at work on her first
novel.
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