On Heartbreaks - Big and Small
with Matt Mendez author of The Broken Hearts!
#NuevasPáginas is a space that aims to amplify and spotlight Hispanic/Latine/x authors with newly published books. The goal is to connect readers to their next favorite Hispanic/Latine/x authored book through a mini casual get-to-know-the-book-and-author interview. So please help me connect to more readers. So that together we can continue to build the love/support of Latine literature!
Hey Book Franz!
I know I kinda of disappeared and I am so sorry for that. I’ve been juggling so much and mainly it’s things that bring me so much joy - like hosting events with authors in the DC, Maryland Virgina area! I can also admit, it can be draining and overwhelming. I’ve learned that maybe saying “YES” to everything just because I can figure out how to fit it all in and I don’t want to miss out on an opportunity to chat with an author I love, might not actually be the best approach. Because eventually something has to give to make space for everything I’ve said yes to! Taking care of myself and writing in this space to you all, were the things that gave in order for me to power through events these past few weeks. That said, we made it! Will I make sure to say “Yes” to less in the future? I hope so, though I don’t know! Because every time I’ve ran a marathon I’ve said “never again” and months later - I’m signing up for a new race. Hehe.
Anyways, I have one more final event to close out 2023 and it’s an event that is really near and dear to my heart. One that feels like it’s been years in the making.
This Saturday, October 7th at 3 PM #LaComunidadReads gets to welcome core members from El Gran Combo author series - Angie Cruz, Caro De Robertis, Lilliam Rivera and Jaquira Diaz! My heart is beyond thrilled and full. For those that might not be familiar with El Gran Combo author series,in the midst of the pandemic, Latine/x writers created this collective effort as a means to continue the support for bookstores and authors by building community through virtual fiestas/conversations. There have been a total of four events through this series, featuring so many amazing Latine/x writers and their books and the independent bookstores that support them. So my heart is really jumping with joy at the idea that in partnership with DCPL x DCPL Foundation and Loyatly, we get to continue this series and bring it to D.C. But remember if you can’t be there in person - you can still join us virtual via live stream here.
To celebrate El Gran Combo coming to DC and La Comunidad Reads series wrapping up in 2023, I am hosting a special giveaway for exclusive t-shirts (I designed myself). In addition to an assortment of goodies from DC bookshops, surprise galleys of some 2024 Latine authored books!
Heres how to enter: 1. Grab a copy of one of the books featured listed in the image below from Loyalty Books here. The top row of books (including the first one listed on the left) are coming out later this year & the rest are Latine books I’m super excited to read are coming out next year! Yay 2024 books & pre-orders are a great way to support Latine literature! After you’ve grabbed a book fill out the form here and that’s it!
I hope you will consider entering the giveaway and in spirt of El Gran Combo x La Comunidad Reads — help support Latine literature through a pre-order. At the moment, I only have five people that have entered :( and I’d really like to have at least a few more. So if you aren’t able to do a pre-order at the moment (I totally understand, no judgement at all), please consider sharing the giveaway details with a friend that might be interested<3
Thank you so much and see you at la biblioteca soon!
-Lupita
Without further ado, our special guest author for today’s Nuevas Pagina issue is…Matt Mendez author of The Broken Hearts!
Could you tell me a bit about where this photo was taken? Is it special to your book in some way?
It was taken at Ballet Folklórico Tapatio, in South Tucson. It’s the dance studio where my two daughters practice folklórico multiple times a week—they perform all the time and are amazing.
Most of The Broke Hearts was written here, while I sat in my car waiting for them. I have a laptop tray I connect to the steering wheel, my coffee tumbler ready to go, and the different playlists I went through as I wrote.
I also took walks around the neighborhood, sometimes taking photos and making notes. The neighborhood is much like the one I write about in The Broke Hearts, which takes place in El Paso. Being in the neighborhood really grounded me in the world I was writing.
I wrote most of Barely Missing Everything in a Denny’s and now The Broke Hearts in my car. I’m wondering where I’ll be when I write book three.
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
Fathers. Sons. Lotería cards.
Two big literary inspirations for me are Salvador Plascencia and Eduardo Galeano. The People of Paper and Century of the Wind: Memory of Fire, Volume 3 probably seem pretty different at first glance—an experimental novel set in a fictional town and a poetic history of Latin America that covers an entire century—but these two books take so many chances with form and style without sacrificing heart.
The Broke Hearts can be a bit of a wild ride. It has chapters—and art!—inspired by Lotería. The story is told in alternating points-of-view. And there is a screenplay embedded inside.
I definitely want to take big creative swings as a writer.
What are two central themes in your book that you connect with the most and why?
Heartbreak and friendship.
JD and Danny are both grieving the loss of their best friend Juan, and while they are both dealing with grief and loss—and JD with trauma after watching him be killed by the police—their lives continue to move forward, even though they both feel stuck.
And the same goes for their friendship; it’s stuck. Both boys are starting new chapters in their lives after graduating from high school. Danny is off to college, and JD has joined the Air Force.
I’m connected to these themes the most because they are pretty central to being a person. We will all lose people we love, and we all make life choices that can pull us away from close friends.
There are heartbreaks, big and small, that we all navigate seemingly all the time, and I wanted to write a book about how we mend ourselves as we go. How we imperfectly find our way to joy and happiness until the next heartbreak.
If a book was home, where would your home be?
My home would be on The House on Mango Street.
Sandra’s book was the first book I read where I felt like my home could be in the world of books—this didn’t happen until I was in college and in my mid-twenties.
The House on Mango Street started my journey to becoming a writer. I will forever owe Sandra Cisneros.
If your book was a famous musician who would it be?
Can I go with a duo? I would say Run the Jewels. I listened to them before I write, keeping in mind the rhythms and repetitions and dissonance of the production and then the back and forth of El-P and Killer Mike.
The Broke Hearts has a distinct voice and rhythm that feels like a RTJ song.
What comfort food could a reader pair with your book?
Cocido!
I love caldos—and making them.
Slowly simmering carne and then tossing fresh veggies and spices into a big olla and warming the house on a cold day sounds like an awesome way to read The Broke Hearts.
In what ways has access (or little to no access) to Hispanic/Latinx/e literature defined you as a writer?
I didn’t discover books by Latine writers until was in college, and well into my twenties. So that has definitely affected the choices I make as a writer.
I write YA because I want young brown boys to find themselves in books—even if they aren’t necessarily looking for them. My hope is that Barely Missing Everything and The Broke Hearts will make their way into schools and school libraries and that they will be discovered.
I also write these stories because young boys are looking for answers about growing up and becoming men. We owe these boys better answers because right now the loudest voices reaching them are men who absolutely resent and hate women. Men who will turn our boys into insecure, fearful, and hateful adults.
Where can readers keep up with your work?
Readers can catch me on my website www.mattmendez.com, and I’m also on Instagram and Threads @mattgmendez
Thank you to Matt Mendez for taking the time to chat with me about his book! Please please make sure you purchase a copy (or request your local library carry a copy) #SupportLatinxLit!
Matt Mendez is the author of The Broke Hearts, Barely Missing Everything, and the short story collection Twitching Heart. The Broke Hearts was called “masterfully realized…with images that accrue ever more refined meanings” by Kirkus and Barely Missing Everything has been called a “searing portrait of two Mexican-American families” by Publishers Weekly and “tremendously real” in a review by Apple Books. The New York Times says [Mendez] “has an uncanny ability to capture the aimless bluster of young boys posturing at confidence.”
Barely Missing Everything was named a 2019 Best YA Book by Kirkus, Seventeen Magazine, NBC Latino, and Texas Monthly. It was a Georgia Peach Book Award for Teen Readers Nominee, awarded second place in the International Latino Book Awards, a Junior Library Guild Selection, and a Land of Enchantment Black Bear Book Award winner.
Like many of his characters Matt grew up in El Paso, Texas and continues to love and live in the Southwest, now in Tucson, Arizona. He is a military veteran and earned his MFA from the University of Arizona where he has taught creative writing. Matt is the father of two daughters that he loves fiercely.
Synopsis for The Broken Hearts :
In this piercing follow up to Barely Missing Everything, JD and Danny, still reeling from the gutting death of their best friend by police gunfire, grapple with life-changing decisions and the kind of people they want to be, for Juan.
A year after losing their best friend, JD and Danny are still brokenhearted. JD’s impetuous decision to join the Air Force only makes him yearn for “before” more than ever. Danny, who’d rather paint murals than open a book and certainly never thought of himself as college material, makes the equally impulsive choice to do what Juan will never be able to and enrolls in a community college.
Danny’s father, The Sarge, is proud of him for the first time ever for living out Sarge’s own dream of being a first-generation college student, but Danny can’t shake the thought that it should be Juan, not him. And studying hasn’t gotten any easier for him despite his new academic goals. When Danny is on the verge of flunking out and JD gets notified of imminent deployment, the two are forced to confront their shared grief that led them to these paths. Can they learn to live lives that are their own in honor of Juan, rather than for him?
This book/this series sounds great! I've suggested both to my public library. I think there are probably a lot of young people in my community who would enjoy reading them.
Gracias for this interview and your important trabajo, Lupita. Sending love and abrazos! 🌸❤️🔥 ~Emily Lupita