Warm coconut y caramel bread pudding......
with Jamie Figueroa author of Brother, Sister, Mother, Explorer
#NuevasPaginasconLupita is an expanded edition of the mini get-to-know the book and author interview series on Instagram aimed to "spotlight" Latinx authors with books out in 2021. 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!
How does it work?!
Here’s the deal, I came up with a set of casual/random/funny questions to ask each 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.
If you are new here don’t forget to check out interviews with Elisabet Velasquez, Gloria Muñoz, Zoraida Córdova, Kirstin Valdez Quade and Jamie Figueroa! All of their books are currently available everywhere! We also have a really great line-up of guest authors coming up so make sure you don’t miss an interview by subscribing now!
Hey Heyyy Book Franz!
We have reached a new week in October and I don’t know about you but I feel like time is so quickly! That said, let time move quickly because that means, I get to bring you a new guest author. This week’s guest is a new-to-me author and one of the inspirations for starting this series. I read Brother, Sister, Mother, Explorer in one day and sat in silence staring at the book afterward wondering what it did to me. I still can’t exactly process what it did to me because it felt like it tapped into something so profoundly hidden that I don’t have access to the language to describe it just yet. But I do plan to re-read the book to better take in all its beauty again. Additionally, I was hit with concern that the book wasn’t initially on my radar. I kept wondering how I missed it’s release and why it was I personally didn’t see more readers discussing it. So, a seed was planted to figure out a way to let more readers know about this book and the author!
So without further ado…….JAMIE FIGUEROA!
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.
Brother, Sister, Mother, Explorer is about the weekend generational trauma shifts and the haunting of familial wounds finally begin to subside. It is about voice, human and non-human (nature/spirit), and a polyphony of often silenced perspectives that instead are centralized and amplified. It’s about time, naming, and the constant presence and force of the unseen.
Jamaica Kincaid’s A Small Place had a direct influence, as did Rigoberta Menchú’s I am Rigoberta Menchú, Medicine Stories by Aurora Levins Morales, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s, “A Very Old Man With Wings.”
What are two central themes in your book that you connect with the most and why?
Being othered/exoticized and being haunted by ancestral grief. Growing up in rural, central Ohio (Boricua de la Luna, Boricua by way of Ohio), as one of the few/only children of color meant I was constantly stared at, suspect because I looked differently. In addition, I was perpetually asked what I was and where I was from. Being objectified led me to crave the relational and interrogate false authority in addition to whose perspectives are lacking. I’m curious about terms like “body dysmorphia” and “disassociation.” It makes me wonder about bodies of color trying to exist and come of age in white body supremacy spaces where hatred and discrimination become internalized. I’m grateful for the ways Resmaa Menakem engages this and his work as a Somatic Abolitionist. I was fed generational grief through my mother’s milk—abandonment, longing, oppression, fractures of the heart/mind/soul—the trauma, as well as the survival and the joy, of her people. Through receiving grief fully, as painful as it may be, I am able to access other emotions fully, including authentic, expansive joy and dignity which are my birthright and part of my ancestry as well.
If a book was home, where would your home be?
Ogha Po’oge/Santa Fe, on Cerro Gordo past Upaya but before the hill and sharp curve, parallel to Upper Canyon.
If your book was a famous musician who would it be and why?
Lhasa de Sela, multilingual, mournful/tenderly haunting, soul resonant, familiar. Still powerful in her absence.
What comfort food could a reader pair with your book?
Mescal + green chile chicken enchiladas (flat not rolled) + warm coconut and caramel bread pudding with lavender ice cream (made by the Grandmothers-To-All).
In what ways has access (or little to no access) to Hispanic/Latinx/e literature defined you as a writer?
It’s the way in which Latinx literature was/is presented—as an accessory (tokenized) or supplemental to the dominant narrative told by the mainstream. This influences my devotion to, and experience of, an ongoing process of rematriation and decolonization through my writing/conjuring and honoring of who and what is too often mistrusted, silenced, and discarded. A sacred practice. Identifying as “Boricua,” I acknowledge and include my Afro-Caribbean and Taíno ancestors as valuable despite how they may have been treated. This is essential for me when creating worlds. Despite how the character animates on the page (who they are, what they look like), my ability to fully render perspectives—with complexity and compassion—is because of this ancestral acknowledgment and inclusion. It is a political act fueled by gratitude and love.
A huge thank you to Jamie Figueroa for taking the time to chat with me about Brother, Sister, Mother, Explorer! Please make sure you purchase a copy of her book in the link below #SupportLatinxLit.
Synopsis for Brother, Sister, Mother, Explorer from the Catapult website:
In the tourist town of Ciudad de Tres Hermanas, in the aftermath of their mother’s passing, two siblings spend a final weekend together in their childhood home. Seeing her brother, Rafa, careening toward a place of no return, Rufina devises a bet: if they can make enough money performing for privileged tourists in the plaza over the course of the weekend to afford a plane ticket out, Rafa must commit to living. If not, Rufina will make her peace with Rafa’s own plan for the future, however terrifying it may be.
As the siblings reckon with generational and ancestral trauma, set against the indignities of present-day prejudice, other strange hauntings begin to stalk these pages: their mother’s ghost kicks her heels against the walls; Rufina’s vanished child creeps into her arms at night; and above all this, watching over the siblings, a genderless, flea-bitten angel remains hell-bent on saving what can be saved.
Bio for Jamie Figueroa from her website:
Jamie Figueroa is Boricua (Afro-Taíno) by way of Ohio and long-time resident of northern New Mexico. Her writing has appeared in McSweeney’s, American Short Fiction, Agni and Emergence Magazine among other journals. Jamie received her MFA in Creative Writing from The Institute of American Indian Arts where she is now an assistant professor. Recipient of the Truman Capote award, and the Jack Kent Cooke Graduate Arts award, she was also chosen as a Bread Loaf, Rona Jaffe Scholar, and is a VONA alum. Brother, Sister, Mother, Explorer (Catapult) is her debut novel.
Friendly reminder that the best ways you can support Latinx/e authors and Latinx/e literature is by doing the following:
Leave a review for their books on any website that sells books
Request that your local library carry a copy
Purchase a copy of a friend, family member, your nemesis (hey! I’m sure they read too).
Shout about the book on any social media platform or to your friends and family!
Share this interview widely! Word of mouth does wonders for connecting readers to books.