Comadres, stories and Latina life

Comai. Compa. Comadre y compadre. These are all words we use that designate a friendship that is more than just friendship. It signals a commitment to lifelong engagement emotionally akin to the one made in religious rites by godparents. For Latinos, to be someone's comadre or compadre carries not simply the promise of shared good times, but of serious responsibility.

"Count on Me: Tales of Sisterhoods and Fierce Friendships" (Atria Books, 2012) explores the dynamics of comadrazgo through short writings by 12 writers, including big name Latino authors and emerging ones. The book is the brainchild of Nora Hoyos Comstock, the founder and leader of Las Comadres Para La Americas (which brings together Latinas from across the nation in bookclubs and events that strengthen community and shared conversations about Latino writers) and was edited by Adrianna López.

The short pieces of creative non-fiction are distinct from one another but have a strong unifying link in that none of the friendships depicted are casual. Many of them cross generational and socio-economic lines, and demand that the protagonists learn tough truths about emotional availability, and the nature of giving and receiving.

Nora Hoyos Comstock

In Sofia Quintero's "The Miranda Manual," for example, the comadre relationship starts as commiseration between professional peers. With wonderful economy Quintero takes us through the deepening relationship — through cancer, perimenopause and a moment when each of them tells the other las verdades — while showing us the demands and, ulitmately, the resilience of friendships like this. Quintero is a New Yorker, with Puerto Rican and Dominican roots, and her piece has the energy, directness and also the distinct music of the city.

Reyna Grande's "My Teacher, My Friend" resounds with a different kind of music. Grande immigrated from Mexico as a young girl, to reunite with parents working here. She came to Los Angeles from desperate poverty to encounter a different sort of desperation. Her parents had split and the home she came to (her father's) was abusive. Her comadrazgo, with a teacher at the community college where she studies, is a testament to friendships that open — doors, hands, hearts and ways. Grande, whose most recent book was named a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in January, recounts it all with an engaging humility and directness.

Adrianna López, editor

Luis Alberto Urrea's piece is a unique offering in several ways: he's the only male writer included, and story touches on a number the social challenges including extreme poverty, narco violence and living centered on the dump of one of Mexico's border community. The stakes are so high in this story of Urrea's lifelong friendship — across more than one kind of border — with a resident of the dump community that its unfolding and eventual conclusion is nothing less than a triumph.

Hoyos Comstock and López have made some terrific editorial choices with the book. Some of them are unusual — like separately including the recipes referenced in Daisy Martinez's piece. Others are just smart choices — like publishing separate Spanish and English-language versions. 

But what really commends the book is the fact that it introduces readers to accomplished writers addressing a universal theme in distinctly Latino ways. Through Las Comadres para las Americas, the book does something else as well, it reaches a readership that is dreadfully underserved by mainstream presses — Latinas.

“Count on me” (and “Cuenta conmigo”) is available in ebook and print from Amazon. com. (To read this review in Spanish click this link: Comadres, historias y la vida latina en Estados Unidos.) 

Links: Comadres, Radio Times and Astrogator's Logs

Superficial Darkness and Luminous Ink

Scientist, writer and editor Athena Andreadis reviews my novel INK on her always fascinating blog Astrogator's Log:

"If Ink had been written in any language but English, it would have become a bestseller with reviews in the equivalent of the NY Times...."

Read in full by clicking here.

Talk about it with your comadres

In the March teleconference of Las Comadres para las Américas March teleconference, Nora Comstock  asks everything about INK, from nahuales to characters' voices. Listen to the half-hour interview by clicking here.

These are still radio times

I'm interviewed on the renowned Philadelphia NPR/PBS/WHYY  show Radio Times about the book I edited for Al Día, 200 Years of Latino History in Philadelphia, along with fellow guests: Erika Almirón of Juntos, and historian Victor Vasquez. Listen to the hour-long interview by clicking here.

Also from WHYY's Newsworks, Elisabeth Perez-Luna's short piece on the same subject. To hear it, click here.

My schedule at Arisia Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention in Boston Jan. 18 - 21

I'm less than a week and a couple of train rides away from landing in Boston for my first experience of Arisia, a Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention that appears to have something of interest for just about everyone — from otaku to costumer.

I'm delighted that I'll be participating in a number of panels with some absolutely amazing people:

Friday at 8:30 p.m. I'm the moderator for Species as a Metaphor for Race (Avatar, District 9, and even Star Trek are among relatively recent SF films that have offered us aliens who are arguably standing in for real races or ethnic groups. How does SF film handle racial issues? Is it a way of avoiding painful topics or a way of addressing them by other means?) Panelists include James Zavaglia, Catt Kingsgrave-Ernstein, Eric Zuckerman, and Andrea Hairston.

Friday at 10 p.m. I'm on the panel for Papi Chulo to Papi Cthulu - Latinos/as in SFF  (An examination of the limits —and limited — depictions of Latino and Latina people in SF/F. We'll look at roles and characters in movies, TV shows, and books with a special — hopeful or critical — emphasis on Latino/as as written and directed by Latino/as in SF/F) moderated by Daniel José Older, whose book Salsa Nocturna (from Crossed Genres Publications) has gotten fantastic reviews since its publication in July 2012. My co-panelists are Jaime Garmendia and Julia Rios.

Saturday at 11:30 a.m. I'm on the panel for Sex, SF/F, & Racial Stereotypes (A discussion of the ways in which people of color are depicted in SF/F, and the sexual stereotypes that are often included in those characters. Is it really diversity when all you've included is a token character rife with harmful stereotypes? We will also discuss the roots of these tropes and why they're so popular) moderated by Mikki Kendall, with co-panelists Brandon Easton, Andrea Hairston and Tananarive Due.

Saturday at 5:30 p.m. Booksigning along with Adrianne Brennan and JoSelle Vanderhooft.

Saturday at 8:30 p.m. Reading. Robert V.S. Redick, Forest Handford and I will be reading from our work. Don't know yet what order, or what anyone else is reading. I'm reading from INK, of course. ;)

Sunday at 10 a.m. I'm on the panel for Contemporary Fantasy outside the City Limits (There's epic, or secondary-world, fantasy, and then there's urban fantasy, right? Well, what about contemporary fantasy outside the city? There's a growing strain of excellent rural fantasy, but has fantasy touched suburbs or small towns? Come discuss the best contemporary fantasy outside the city limits!) moderated by Vikki Ciaffone, with co-panelists Inanna Arthen, Trisha Wooldridge and Gail Z. Martin.

Sunday at 5:30 p.m. I'm on the panel for Avoiding Culturefail (How can writers best avoid creating simplistic or hurtful imaginary cultures? How can you portray real world cultures — and fictional cultures derived from them — without resorting to stereotypes? Is doing research enough? Where do you start?) moderated by Woodrow "asim" Hill, with co-panelists Daniel José Older and Vylar Kaftan.

Sunday at 7 p.m.  I'm on the panel for Race and Identity in SF/F (Does genre literature have tools and tropes uniquely suited to complex discussions about race and identity? How can authors create racially diverse characters while avoiding tokenism and stereotypes? Is a "multicultural" future enough? Is the very notion of a post-racial society hopelessly naive?) moderated by Kiini Ibura Salaam, with co-panelists Brandon Easton, Daniel José Older and Dash.

Monday at 10 a.m. I'll be moderating the panel for Caught in the Slipstream: Fiction between Genres (An increasing number of works don't seem to fit comfortably within genre boundaries—stories that use science fiction, fantasy, or horror tropes in combination or as an unusual aspect to otherwise non-speculative fiction. This is a discussion of crossover and interstitial fiction that points out the best of what's out there, why each piece succeeds, and how it expands the horizons of readers) Panelists include Daniel José Older, David Sklar, David Shaw and Daniel Rabuzzi.

In between I plan to be at more panels and the launch of Crossed Genres' anthology Menial: Skilled Labor in Science Fiction which includes my short story "Ember." I suspect I'll be physically exhausted but intellectually energized when I get back to Philadelphia Monday night.

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Two stray, INK related notes:

Mamiverse.com's Angela Lang wrote a lovely piece about me titled "Keyword Hope: Author, Blogger and Immigration Advocate Sabrina Vourvoulias." You can read it by clicking here.

In its sixth year of promoting diverse, compelling Latina and Latino authors, the national organization Las Comadres Para Las Americas has released the first three selections of the 2013 Las Comadres and Friends National Latino Book Club. The first Books of the Month and events are:
January 28 teleconference for Have You Seen Marie?, Sandra Cisneros (Random House/Knopf) and conversation with Maria Antonietta Berriozabal, Maria, Daughter of Immigrants (Wings Press)
February: 8 Ways to Say “I Love My Life,” edited by Sylvia Mendoza (Arte Publico) and conversation with Annie Mary Perez, Clay Hills and Mud Pies (Floricanto Press)
March: Ink, Sabrina Vourvoulias (Crossed Genres Publications) and Manuel Gonzales, The Miniature Wife and Other Stories (Penguin/Riverhead)