I believe that even when life stops us from physically typing, we can be writing our novels in our minds, so don’t let the frustration of the former stop you from working on the latter. Start by changing the one thing, that one “bad” habit, that might be stealing your attention and time, to the detriment of a great habit like writing.
Well at its most basic, we are almost 20% of America; so if one believes that American Literature gives us a better understanding of who we are as a nation (and I believe this) then our representation is critical. Some of our American journeys might have begun with us, some maybe generations into being part of the fiber of this country. I write for the multifaceted Latinas and working women who have always been hustling in this country. We are an intrinsic political, economical, and social group that has long existed and enriched the culture of the world. So, how does that truth look like in relationships? At work and outside of it? In New York or in another country? I believe this is an urgent and ever-expansive project that has been unexplored and flattened for far too long.
Wow—too many to count! A huge triumph has been, of course, the publication of my two novels with the tremendous support of my publisher and team, as well as the incredible engagement and emotional reception from readers. So many of us have never read or seen our complicated, sometimes joyous reality in mainstream media. It’s been an uphill battle trying to bring our stories to the screen, however. The authenticity you can get away with in a novel is oftentimes not what Hollywood is looking to vouch for. I think our diversity—racial, cultural—is very challenging for some people to wrap their heads around. And so we often are only allowed to tell immigration stories, when in reality, many of us are second, or third generation in this country and have other day-to-day concerns.
I need to create characters that feel vivid and alive in order to explore such themes, not the other way around, which can just become polemic. An author can’t be afraid of their characters' ugly truths and deepest shames, because only through being compressed into facing them, as Toni Morrison so wisely said, can these complex themes honestly be dissected in relation to each other, to the characters, to the world created in the narrative and to our own world.
At its most simple, I hope that any commercial viability my work has helps open the doors of other Latinx writers with different experiences and with origins from different nations than me—because only in this way will we be able to assert our own definitions for ourselves. And I hope that for the non-Latinx readers out there, who relate to the dramas and emotional conflicts that my characters face—that this can help begin an un-othering of Latinidad for the average American. There’s a perpetual “foreignness” applied to us and our stories that I think keeps us on the margins of policy and cultural conversations at large. I hope that the reach of my work—Olga being taught in schools, or Anita being a Reese pick—helps to weave these heroines into the collective consciousness of “American literary characters,” while allowing them to be fully Latinx.
“Difficult takes a day. Impossible takes a week.” Everything is basically do-able if you focus on it.
Freddie Prinze (the father of Freddie Prinze Jr.), who was one of the biggest stars of Prime Time television in the 70s. I’m more than a little obsessed with the story of his life, cut short much too early. Dolores Huerta, to thank her for her work and also talk about her experiences as an activist/mother. And to be honest, Angie Martinez—Latinos had such a role in the development of Hip Hop and Hip Hop culture, and she had a front seat for so much of it but has also grown up with it.