Letras
Latinas Blog:
First of
all, thank you for agreeing to this modest interview. Before we get to the
matter at hand—the Macondo Writers’ Workshop prospective re-birth—could you
briefly share with the readers of Letras Latinas Blog what the Macondo Writers’ Workshop
is, generally speaking. And more specifically, what it has meant to you?
Natalia
Treviño:
Francisco,
I’m thrilled to share the news we have about the developments about Macondo
here in Letras Latinas Blog because I imagine that many of your readers and
many Macondo members are already literary siblings, interested in letras, and
the life-changing power that these letras have when used in a socially
conscious way. It is with awe that I attempt to describe The Macondo Writers’
Workshop and what is has meant to me because it truly did generate a
transformation in my life, not only as a writer, but as a person. Generally
speaking, the Macondo Writers’ Workshop is a weeklong residency for writers who
are socially engaged and committed to changing the world through creative and
non-violent means. I can easily compare it to the pace and caliber of an MFA
residency, but with special perks that just do not happen in MFA programs. So
many members who have their MFA’s from all over the country, have told me the same
thing year after year: “I learned more this week than I did in my entire MFA
program.” Truly, they say this with a genuine look of astonishment in their new
eyes. That look has become the recognizable look of Macondo membership, a look
of warmth, disbelief, and relief all mixed into one soft expression.
At the
Worshop, there is a very tailored structure. There are multiple workshops where
writers are working on new material together, giving and getting necessary
feedback. The workshops are taught by writers like Sandra Cisneros, the founder
of Macondo, Luis Rodriguez, Ai, and many others. There is magic in these
workshops because of the special way workshop is introduced and carried out,
inspired by Sandra’s idea of an ideal homeland, a crucial space for a writer to
learn about his or her own writing gifts and limits with a supportive,
like-minded, and astute group. This is a place where writers are treated with
compassion, but it is with a firm commitment to improving the words on the page
as they appear, and for the thin-skinned, it can be a little difficult. It is a
place where ego must be left at the door. Sandra has always insisted on that
being the key to our mutual assistance of one another.
After
workshops, there are seminars which take on all kinds of subjects ranging from
how to address your spiritual life as a writer, how to address your health as a
writer, to how to publish your first book of poetry, and so on. There are also
readings and social elements, which are equally important to the week and allow
members a time to learn more about the culture of the host city, San Antonio,
and the culture of Macondo. Macondistas are tired by the end of the week!
But they are also extraordinarily energized by what they have experienced. I
went as an invited auditor as Sandra’s guest after I won the Alfredo Cisneros
Del Moral award in 2004, and then I became a full member the next year. What
has happened to me as a person and writer is that I went from being a teacher
who occasionally wrote poetry and short stories, to a writer with a burning
purpose and the ganas to get it down on the page before I die. My first book of
poetry, Lavando La Dirty Laundry is due to come out this year, and I am in the final stages of
completing my first novel, La Cruzada, which is something that would not have happened without the
Macondo Workshop experience. I met agents and authors at Macondo who told me it
needed more work, a better structure. I decided I needed to go ahead and get
the year-round support I needed to complete this novel by enrolling in an MFA
program focusing on fiction. Thankfully, the University of Nebraska at Omaha
accepted me, and now the novel is in a first draft stage, with parts of it
already published. But poems are coming again now as I have actually begun a
second book of poetry. I am now a writer who teaches from a whole new
perspective, and this is a shift that has been a long time coming. It is hard
to name what Macondo and Sandra Cisneros mean to me personally because it would
be like a healthy and emerging ear of corn saying how much it had been impacted
by the sun. Yes, I have to bring a lot to the table, but my growth would have
been slow and undernourished without Macondo.
Letras
Latinas Blog:
The Macondo
Writers’ Workshop is inextricably associated with Sandra Cisneros. Could
you share what Sandra’s involvement with Macondo has been over the
years, to the best of your knowledge? Will she have any role in Macondo’s next
phase?
Natalia
Treviño:
When Macondo was a literary partner to AWP a couple of
years ago, I spent quite a bit of time volunteering at our table at the book
fair, and after a few other questions about it, a writer said to me:
“Well, if I join, will Sandra be a part of it? I heard she’s getting out.” And
this statement jolted me, not because I knew Sandra wanted to step down as head
financial backer and administrative leader, but because there is no way to
separate Sandra from Macondo. I said, “Sandra is as much a part of Macondo as
the blood that is flowing through your body right now.” Macondo is Sandra’s
living novel. She has written it, but it is open enough to evolve in the hands
of responsible Macondistas who get her vision and want to carry it forward.
Over the years, Sandra has managed and overseen every single aspect of Macondo.
She has tirelessly lined up the major writers to come. She has approved of,
thought of, and imagined all of the special events associated with Macondo, the
seminar speakers, the Indigenous performers, the curandera, the after-parties,
the final fundraiser, the goodbye breakfasts. She has come out in full costume
to perform at readings, once as Luz, the Good Witch of the Southwest, with wand
and crown, for an auction to help a writer who had her belongings stolen that
year. Sandra has generously put herself in the place of the writer who needs
support and then fulfills the wishes she would have for herself, and so that
means all members are served, and served very well. She has described it as
being the mother of the bride for a wedding that lasts eight days. It is an
exhausting undertaking for her. Now she is taking time to regroup and write
after spending so many years helping other writers, and yet, she is being
briefed about every meeting we have, and she is making suggestions from afar.
She is intimately aware of what is happening, and her input is very important
to the decisions that will be made. She is frequently in direct contact with
Bill Sanchez, the president of the Macondo board, and she is also in constant
contact with many other Macondistas, her friends and loved ones. She wants this
to succeed. Sandra will always be the face and heart of Macondo, but she needs
to nourish her own writing and her own needs right now. Her vision has helped
so many Macondistas in what they all say are immeasurable ways, and they in
turn, want to keep that alive and provide it for future members.
Letras
Latinas Blog:
It appears that
the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in San Antonio will be the institutional
home of Macondo (which is a nice twist since it’s my understanding that
one of the reasons Sandra came to San Antonio so many years ago was to
work at the Guadalupe!) Can you comment on how that relationship came
about, and say a little something about Orlando Graves Bolaño and his
role in Macondo’s transition to this institution?
Natalia
Treviño:
It is true that destiny has come to play a role in this
amazing cuento. In a letter to Macondistas recently, Orlando wrote, “We are also
thrilled to discover the many ways this story has come full circle! The
Macondo archives have come to rest in the exact same place where Sandra had her
first office at the Guadalupe when she moved to San Antonio to take up
her position as Director of the GCAC’s Literature Program.” That story sent
chills through me. That exact little room, that space at the Guadalupe was
sanctified and occupied by Sandra years ago! And now this institution she
created is housed right there.
Sandra has always had a strong relationship with many
cultural centers here in San Antonio, the Guadalupe, Gemini Ink, and the
Esperanza Peace and Justice Center to name a few. I would be hard pressed to
think of a literary or cultural institution here in San Antonio that did not
enjoy
a visit or a symbiotic relationship with Sandra. Our universities work with her
regularly, as recently as this spring during Poetry month. It is my
understanding that the board made strong recommendations for the new home to be
at the Guadalupe, and with Sandra’s final blessing, this happened. Patty Ortiz,
Bill Sanchez, and Orlando have been working on this for months, and it is here!
It is alive and happening! Orlando’s role has been to assist with this
transition and carry out a full scale Macondo week in 2014. He is taking his
personal time to familiarize himself with Macondo, and then he is taking his
professional time for budget planning with his team, programming, and
envisioning how the Guadalupe can synergize best with the Macondo vision. He is
open to receiving the Macondo spirit and programming content from several local
Macondistas who are meeting with him regularly to ensure that the pace,
inclusions, and flavor of Macondo stay intact. He is so perfect for this role.
He is a great listener, a visionary in his own right, and he understands the
physical and metaphysical choreography of planning cultural events. Already his
ideas have us excited, and his flexbility has made us feel at home with this
transition.
Letras
Latinas Blog:
My understanding
is that this past May 25th, there was a meet and greet at Macondo board
president Bill Sanchez’s home. Could you share with our readers what that
meet and greet consisted of, and how it unfolded?
Natalia
Treviño:
Absolutely. Bill Sanchez is dedicating himself to being
a board member who not only dreams and theorizes, but takes action for Macondo.
He values the ideas Macondo represents; as Sandra’s close friend and assistant
for over fourteen years, he knows her extremely well, and he attends to so many
aspects of the incredible mosaic that is her life, even in helping her plan her
garden, her rockwork, her estate sales, and he listens to her early drafts of
new writing projects. He has listened to her hopes, fears and dreams, and every
year Macondo was in session, he and his partner in business, Roger Solis, took
a week off just to volunteer at Macondo, to give rides, to help plan, to do
anything that was necessary to make it happen and give writers what they needed
so that they could focus on their work. All of his life, Bill has been a
supporter of cultural arts events. This is something he made sure his children
saw growing up, and he is still in awe of what Sandra has created in Macondo
because he understands its incredible potential to change lives for those who
cannot speak for themselves. He literally tears up when he talks about it, and
while he runs his own business to this day, he is helping in minute tasks of
all kinds to ignite this flame and keep it lit. After the paperwork was
completed, and Macondo was officially housed in the Guadalupe, Bill made phone
calls to the local members. He told us what had happened, and he asked that we
meet with the members of the Guadalupe who will carry this flame forward into
the future. He offered his own home for a “meet and greet,” so that the
personal space that Macondo creates for writers was present from the beginning
of these meetings. He wanted the people to meet the people, and he knew that
this was the best way they could appreciate what Macondo is about. It is not a
business. It is about the business of helping writers reach their potential
through both craft, personal, emotional, and spiritual development.
Attendees were Macarena Hernandez, a long time
Macondista, Maria Limón, who participated in the earliest days of Macondo and
drove down all the way from Austin, Rachel Jennings, a wonderful Appalachian
poet, Orlando Bolaños Graves, the new education director at the Guadalupe, Bill
of course, and his business partner Roger Solis, who has always helped Sandra
and Macondo with her events. It turned out that his father was on the original
board for the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center years ago. The time we spent
visiting each other over a very generous taco feast provided by Macarena and
her friend Lila gave us the opportunity to envision what we wanted the summer
Macondo to be, a short time where the members talk to the Guadalupe, and help
plan the full fledged 2014 week, but members also said that the Macondistas who
take the time to come also need time to talk to each other, to reacquaint
themselves with one another and provide the support we have always given each
other. We do not need to pack a busy schedule. We need a comfortable pace and
space so that we can really hear what the members want, share what they are
willing to do to make this happen and hear what the Guadalupe has to offer.
Mention of all kinds of possibilities emerged. It was very exciting.
Letras
Latinas Blog:
Finally, what’s
the next? Mention was made on facebook of a possible Macondo weekend
this July? What will take place? Is the plan to have a full fledged Macondo
workshop next summer?
Natalia
Treviño:
A full-fledged workshop next summer is what we are hoping
for, Francisco, and we are doing a Macondo Summit this July. The dates in July
are being decided as I write this, but the programming will consist of some of
the very important elements that have always been a part of Macondo, a welcome
dinner, possibly some time for peer group meetings, and finally, a collective
capstone visioning session in which members will have a dialogue with the leadership
at the Guadalupe about the future of Macondo. This dreaming and planning
session has always been an important part of the Macondo week, and it is why
Macondo has taken the shape that it has—the members’ experience and creativity
come together to discuss improvements for the next time and voice their vision
of what Macondo can become. Changes are always made based on these sessions.
Administrative decisions are made such as choosing the selection panel for new
Macondistas, and volunteers emerge to take jobs on such as community event,
performance, and workshop planning. The Guadalupe understands that the mission
of Macondo has always been to attend to the whole writer in a way that Sandra
had always hoped she had been attended to on her journey when she was earning
her MFA. It has also attended to serving the community in some way, offering
workshops to those in detention centers, in underprivileged schools, or to shoe
shiners from the community. Macondo is rich in its gifts. Sandra wanted to
create an educational center where the mentees/students/participants and the
teachers wanted to be—a home for writers to grow.
*
Born in Mexico City and the
mother of one, Natalia Treviño was
raised in San Antonio, Texas and is an Associate Professor of English at Northwest
Vista College as well as a member of the Macondo Writers’ Workshop. She
is a graduate of UTSA’s graduate English program and The University of
Nebraska’s MFA in Creative Writing Program. Natalia is the recipient of an
Alfredo Moral de Cisneros Award, the Wendy Barker Creative Writing Award, and
the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Prize and most recently, the 2012 Literary
Award from the San Antonio Arts Foundation, which is allowing her the much
needed time to complete her first novel, La Cruzada. New essays, "The Naturalization" and
“Crown Our Good” appear in the anthologies Shifting Balance Sheets: Women's
Stories of Naturalization and Complex
Allegiances, respectively . Her first
book of poems, Lavando La Dirty Laundry, is forthcoming from Mongrel Empire Press.
4 comments:
There is much to comment on in this interview, but I want to focus on one element: Bill Sanchez. I am so glad that Natalia has described all he does for Macondo and Sandra. He is our behind-the-scenes hands-on angel. I am as grateful to him as I am to Sandra. Many thanks to Bill for all the sombreros he wears!
Thank you Natalia for describing Macondo and all its bounty for writers. There is much to comment on, but I will focus on one element: Bill Sanchez. Thanks for summarizing all he does for us. He is our behind-the-scenes hands-on angel. I am as grateful to him for Macondo as I am to Sandra. Viva Sandra! Viva Bill!
Ditto, Liz, on Bill's (and Roger's) crucial contributions to the Macondo mission.
GREAT ANALYSIS THERE NATALIA U REALLY DID A WONDERFUL JOB. THANKS FOR SUMMARIZING WHAT HE HAS DONE FOR US. VISIT WWW.UNN.EDU.NG FOR MORE
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