On Endurance and Mothering

with Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa, author of A Woman of Endurance: A Novel

May 10, 2022

#NuevasPaginasconLupita is a space that is both an archive and resource aimed to "spotlight" Hispanic/Latinx/e authors with newly published books. The goal is to connect readers to new and/or old favorite Hispanic/Latinx/e authors and their books! So give this & every post a share to help us reach more readers!

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Here’s the deal, I came up with a set of casual/random/funny questions to ask each Hispanic/Latinx/e author, I interview. For now, the questions will all be the same but maybe in the future I’ll launch this into more specific questions to the author or maybe I’ll turn this series into a mini-podcast, or maybe……well, you get it! The possibilities are endless.

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Hey Heyyy Book Franz!

Happy New Nuevas Páginas day :) Has it really only been a week since I last slid into your inbox? Because for me it feels like it’s been much longer! I had three bookish events last week which were incredibly fun and I am happy to report/remind you that I still have two more events coming up. So please join the conversations below if you can!

Monday, May 16th At 6 PM ET - Virtual book conversation and celebration with Natalia Sylvester author of Breathe And Count Back From Ten Hosted by @duendedistrict & @wordisdiversity Register to attend here.

Monday, May 23rd at the Hyattsville Branch Library at 6:30 PM ET - In-person author event & book signing with Reyna Grande author of A Ballad of Love and Glory hosted by @pgcmls! The title and author might sound familiar to you because she was previously featured here in Nuevas Paginas. Register to attend here.

Without further ado, our special guest author today is….Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa, author of A Woman of Endurance, which is now available in Spanish- Indómita!!

(Photo credit: Jonathan Lessuck @JLessuckphotography)

Could you tell me a bit about where this photo was taken? Is it special to your book in some way?

This photo was taken in my home in my favorite reading spot. I collect Buddhas because much of my creativity presents itself through my meditation practice. So, there is sure to be a Buddha somewhere near me whenever I read or write. In terms of A Woman of Endurance, my character Simón presented himself to me during one of my meditation sessions. He informed me that he was going to be in my novel, that he would speak directly to the reader, and that I should just stay out of the way. When my characters speak so directly to me, I listen.

Tell me about your book without telling me about your book - share any literary inspirations behind your book! If there are none, the gap you wanted to fill in the literary canon with your book.

Stylistically and aesthetically, my inspirations have been the work of Toni Morrison because of her fierce determination to tell the authentic truth about her people; Isabel Allende because her use of magic realism takes storytelling to another dimension; Piri Thomas because his was the first work I read that put Afro-Boricua issues on the page in English; Dolen Perkins Valdez because she was the first contemporary novelist I read who explored the neo-slave narrative from the women’s point of view. She also presented an aspect of enslavement that had not been explored in modern literature.

What are two central themes in your book that you connect with the most and why?

The two central themes that most connect with me are 1) the voyage of healing after catastrophic events, and 2) the different faces of motherhood. The entire narrative of A Women of Endurance examines the voyage of a female character after she has been treated brutally for many years. The question is can she heal and if so, what would it take for that healing to happen. The second theme of motherhood is very much tied to the first. Having lost her own mother and her children, how does this woman begin to redefine the role of mothering in her life. I have always been intrigued by what it meant for enslaved women to be taken away from the most nurturing figure in their lives. What does that do to her psychological and emotional landscape? How does that shape her own role as a mother?

Grab a copy of the book here!

If a book was home, where would your home be?

Its home is somewhere in the Northeast coastal area of Puerto Rico, Carolina, Piñones or Loíza, sitting on a porch, open and face down on a rocking chair, waiting to be picked up again by the reader.

If your book was a famous musician who would it be?

If we are talking about Puerto Rican musicians, I would pick Ismael Rivera because so much of his work was about his pride in being an Afro-Puerto Rican. His song Las caras lindas is a homage to our community and its people. But more than an individual artist, I think of individual songs by many artists, like Celia Cruz’s version of Encántigo, or Joe Arroyo’s La rebelión or Rubén Blades’ Plantación adrentro which explore the enslavement experience and are grounded in African rhythms. That would be my Afro-Latino playlist. If I were to pick an American musician, I would pick Nina Simone for her warrior spirit or Miles Davis for his introverted, controlled rumination. His music takes you to dark places, blue places and brings you back.

What comfort food could a reader pair with your book?

Definitely café con leche with cheese and guava empanadas or ensalada de bacalao con viandas (codfish salad with boiled tubers).

In what ways has access (or little to no access) to Hispanic/Latinx/e literature defined you as a writer?

I was a good student and an English major in college, but I didn’t exist in the world of American literature. The more I studied the literature of the US and Europe, the more I felt that the canon was incomplete. The few images of Puerto Ricans, and Latinos in general, were distorted and offensive. It was time to break the predominant stereotypes and caricatures, time to portray our lives with authenticity, respect, and humanism. We needed a face and a voice in the American consciousness. This gave me the impetus to write my own novels, my way. That’s when Toni Morrison and Isabel Allende and the rest came my way.

Where can readers keep up with your work?

Please visit my website below and join my newsletter mailing list to receive monthly news on my work and my events. Or check out my social media. I’ll be looking forward to seeing you at my live events.

https://www.dahlmallanosfigueroa.com/

Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.

Grab the book in Spanish here!

A huge thank you to Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa for taking the time to chat with me about her book! Please please make sure you purchase a copy (or request your local library carry a copy) of their book #SupportLatinxLit!

Author Bio from her website:

Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa was born in Puerto Rico and raised in New York City. She is a product of the Puerto Rican communities on the island and in the South Bronx. She attended the New York City public school system and received her academic degrees from the State University of New York at Buffalo and Queens College–City University of New York. As a child she was sent to live with her grandparents in Puerto Rico where she was introduced to the culture of rural Puerto Rico, including the storytelling that came naturally to the women in her family, especially the older women. Much of her work is based on her experiences during this time. Dahlma taught creative writing and language and literature in the New York City public school system before becoming a young-adult librarian. She has also taught creative writing to teenagers, adults, and senior citizens throughout New York while honing her own skills as a fiction writer and memoirist.

Synopsis for A Woman of Endurance Bookshop website:

Combining the haunting power of Toni Morrison's Beloved with the evocative atmosphere of Phillippa Gregory's A Respectable Trade, Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa's groundbreaking novel illuminates a little discussed aspect of history--the Puerto Rican Atlantic Slave Trade--witnessed through the experiences of Pola, an African captive used as a breeder to bear more slaves.

A Woman of Endurance, set in nineteenth-century Puerto Rican plantation society, follows Pola, a deeply spiritual African woman who is captured and later sold for the purpose of breeding future slaves. The resulting babies are taken from her as soon as they are born. Pola loses the faith that has guided her and becomes embittered and defensive. The dehumanizing violence of her life almost destroys her. But this is not a novel of defeat but rather one of survival, regeneration, and reclamation of common humanity.

Readers are invited to join Pola in her journey to healing. From the sadistic barbarity of her first experiences, she moves on to receive compassion and support from a revitalizing new community. Along the way, she learns to recognize and embrace the many faces of love--a mother's love, a daughter's love, a sister's love, a love of community, and the self-love that she must recover before she can offer herself to another. It is ultimately, a novel of the triumph of the human spirit even under the most brutal of conditions.

On Endurance and Mothering

with Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa, author of A Woman of Endurance: A Novel

Hey Heyyy Book Franz!

Without further ado, our special guest author today is….Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa, author of A Woman of Endurance, which is now available in Spanish- Indómita!!

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