In honor of Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month, we spoke with four authors about how they foregrounded different aspects of culture and history in their new and recent books for young readers.
Alexis Castellanos
What was the catalyst for this book?
I needed some levity in my life. I had just come off writing Isla to Island, a very emotionally and physically challenging book. It was the height of Covid restrictions, and my fiancé was working at an ice cream shop, when I got the idea for Guava and Grudges. It was the perfect cure for my life at the time—a joyful romp in a fun fictional town full of vibrant characters.
How did you want to celebrate Cuban culture throughout the story?
I wanted to throw everything in—from the most mundane detail to Celia Cruz references. From food to customs to family relationships. I sprinkled in a little of everything. I live by the rule that specificity is the key to universality. The more sincere and genuine I can make my writing, the more connection a reader can find in it, even if they aren’t Cuban American.
What role does food play in Ana Maria? and her family’s life?
Food is such a perfect vessel for memory. I know I have certain meals that almost feel like time traveling when I’m preparing them and eating them. I think of when I learned how to make the dish from my grandmother, the special occasions we made the dishes together, and the first time I made it for friends. It’s a connection to my culture and heritage that’s easy to tap into, and that’s exactly how it works for Ana Maria and her family. Her father is trying to keep alive the slice of Cuba his family brought over when they came to this country, and changing that food in any way ruins this time capsule. This is why he and Ana Maria butt heads when she starts dreaming up new recipes. Food for her is less of a perfectly preserved memory, and more of an exploration of identity.
Guava and Grudges by Alexis Castellanos. Bloomsbury, $19.99 Sept. ISBN 978-1-5476-1371-7
J.C. Cervantes
What was the catalyst for this book?
I wanted to create an origin story with a different kind of magic, one that reflected a wider view of witchcraft beyond the European and of course, that was influenced by the stories I was told growing up—tales I wanted to see more of. It was such fun to play with a new mythology.
How did you want to highlight Mayan and Aztec mythology?
The Place of Agonized Souls and even the Valley of Ghosts were both inspired by the Aztec and Mayan underworlds (Mictlan and Xibalba), in which a soul must journey through many places and hardships to reach “heaven.” I’ve always been fascinated by after-death experiences, which were at the center of my family’s stories growing up.
Why was it important to center brujeria in the fantasy space?
It is such a rich and vibrant world, one that is centered on conviction and personal power, an anchor that allows us to believe in something so much greater than ourselves. So often we are presented with an ethnocentric version of witchcraft, when in fact, witchcraft was and is a powerful practice in many cultures around the world.
The Daggers of Ire by J. C. Cervantes. HarperCollins, $19.99 Sept. ISBN 978-0-06-331207-4
Edel Rodriguez
What was the catalyst for this book?
The catalyst for my book is my family’s migration from Cuba to America. I wanted to tell a story about the best friend I left behind and the place where we had built a magical world of our own.
Why did you want to portray your own childhood experiences for young readers?
There are many young readers who have gone through similar circumstances and others who are yearning to learn from a story like this one. I’d like readers to understand that children who arrive from other countries have many things in common with them. They want to have fun, play, and go on adventures. I hope this book helps young readers see that newcomers should be welcomed with open arms because they may have magical stories to tell.
What does the mango tree represent to you?
The mango tree represents home, safety, joy, and silliness. It was a place that felt peaceful, high above all the goings on in our village. It also represents a journey and a new start, planting roots in a strange new land and sharing what you can with others.
The Mango Tree (La mata de mango) by Edel Rodriguez. Abrams, $18.99 May ISBN 978-1-4197-4586-7
David Dorado Romo
What was the catalyst for this book?
I wrote this book because almost everything we hear and have been taught about the U.S.-Mexico border is wrong. I wanted to correct the record. I wanted to write a book that centers the histories and the viewpoints of the people who live in the borderlands today and whose ancestors have lived there long before borders existed—especially the stories of young Mexican Americans, who in the past have been left out of the history books. I don’t want young people to grow up, like I did, thinking that Mexican American history is marginal or insignificant. It’s not. Mexican Americans are central to the history and identity of the United States. It’s time that schools across the country start teaching it in a way that does it justice.
What kind of research was involved?
I have been conducting research for many years in dozens of archives across the United States and Mexico to dig up stories that haven’t been fully told before. Among the most important archives that I’ve visited are the Special Collections Department at UT El Paso, the National Archives in the Washington, D.C. area, and the Archivo General de la Nación in Mexico City. I love going to archives where you can pore through documents that are hundreds of years old. Today a lot of the historical newspapers, in both English and Spanish, are easy to access online as well, but I still prefer being able to hold the original documents. I have also conducted oral history interviews with many people who lived through some of the historical events that I write about. It’s hard to beat the power of a first-hand testimony.
What misconceptions around immigration were you aiming to correct?
When you watch TV news reports and read the newspapers you get a sense that the “immigration crisis” is something new that needs urgent and immediate solutions. No one seems to ask any deeper questions, such as how did the border become a border in the first place? El Paso, for instance, has been called the “other Ellis Island.” But the kind of back-and-forth transnational migration that has been going on along the south-north axis along the borderlands for thousands of years is fundamentally different than the unidirectional kind carried out by European immigrants, who crossed an ocean and joined the “melting pot.” This country has ignored or deliberately silenced the histories of brown people of mixed-Native and Hispanic ancestry in the borderlands because otherwise then the whole question of “immigration” becomes much more complicated. If you write these communities back into the national historical narrative, then we have to ask uncomfortable questions that the politicians who want simple solutions prefer not to.
Borderlands and the Mexican American Story by David Dorado Romo. Crown, $8.99 Aug. ISBN 978-0-593-56775-3
