WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.200 align:middle line:90%


00:00:01.200 --> 00:00:04.830 align:middle line:84%
Today, we have the honor of
welcoming two writers whose

00:00:04.830 --> 00:00:07.080 align:middle line:84%
presence would be impressive
enough on its own,

00:00:07.080 --> 00:00:08.850 align:middle line:84%
but we're even more
grateful for today

00:00:08.850 --> 00:00:11.730 align:middle line:84%
considering the long drive that
took them both to get here.

00:00:11.730 --> 00:00:15.078 align:middle line:84%
Loida Maritza Pérez and Denise
Chávez are both writers who,

00:00:15.078 --> 00:00:17.370 align:middle line:84%
if one were to sit around
lumping writers into specific

00:00:17.370 --> 00:00:21.227 align:middle line:84%
categories, both fit into the
boxes of female and Latina.

00:00:21.227 --> 00:00:23.310 align:middle line:84%
Upon reading their work,
however, these categories

00:00:23.310 --> 00:00:25.230 align:middle line:84%
quickly start to
seem insufficient.

00:00:25.230 --> 00:00:27.450 align:middle line:84%
To put them in the same
box doesn't give justice

00:00:27.450 --> 00:00:29.490 align:middle line:84%
to their considerable and
considerably different

00:00:29.490 --> 00:00:31.080 align:middle line:90%
strengths and voices.

00:00:31.080 --> 00:00:33.360 align:middle line:84%
Something the two
do share, however,

00:00:33.360 --> 00:00:35.760 align:middle line:84%
is an open embracing
of mythology.

00:00:35.760 --> 00:00:38.340 align:middle line:84%
Pérez said in an interview,
'To deal with horrible times,

00:00:38.340 --> 00:00:41.250 align:middle line:84%
nationally or in a family,
you have to mythicize them.

00:00:41.250 --> 00:00:43.980 align:middle line:84%
I do think something specific
to Hispanic culture is accepting

00:00:43.980 --> 00:00:45.390 align:middle line:90%
extremes.'

00:00:45.390 --> 00:00:48.360 align:middle line:84%
About Latin America, she said,
'Even weather-wise, everything

00:00:48.360 --> 00:00:49.260 align:middle line:90%
is extreme there.

00:00:49.260 --> 00:00:51.270 align:middle line:84%
It alters your
sense of reality.'

00:00:51.270 --> 00:00:53.610 align:middle line:84%
And reality is certainly
altered in her first novel,

00:00:53.610 --> 00:00:55.170 align:middle line:90%
'Geographies of Home'.

00:00:55.170 --> 00:00:56.970 align:middle line:84%
Though the story is,
at times, magical,

00:00:56.970 --> 00:01:00.420 align:middle line:84%
this isn't a familiar
brand of magical realism.

00:01:00.420 --> 00:01:03.180 align:middle line:84%
One critic called Pérez
not a direct descendant,

00:01:03.180 --> 00:01:06.900 align:middle line:84%
but a godchild to writers
like García Márquez.

00:01:06.900 --> 00:01:09.690 align:middle line:84%
Pérez explains it more simply,
'I'm coming from a culture

00:01:09.690 --> 00:01:12.780 align:middle line:84%
in which we know we can receive
information from dreams.'

00:01:12.780 --> 00:01:15.090 align:middle line:84%
And a variation on the adage
you can't go home again

00:01:15.090 --> 00:01:17.610 align:middle line:84%
in the novel, one character
warns the protagonist

00:01:17.610 --> 00:01:21.210 align:middle line:84%
on her return to her parents'
house that home is never fun.

00:01:21.210 --> 00:01:23.280 align:middle line:84%
With the immigrant
experience as a backdrop,

00:01:23.280 --> 00:01:25.980 align:middle line:84%
Pérez shows us the workings
of a family that falters

00:01:25.980 --> 00:01:27.420 align:middle line:90%
and, at times, fails.

00:01:27.420 --> 00:01:30.815 align:middle line:84%
The story is as relentless
as it is unforgettable.

00:01:30.815 --> 00:01:32.940 align:middle line:84%
Some of the writers in the
audience will perhaps be

00:01:32.940 --> 00:01:36.330 align:middle line:84%
heartened to know that Pérez
spent 10 years writing short

00:01:36.330 --> 00:01:39.090 align:middle line:84%
stories and receiving rejections
before she, as she put it,

00:01:39.090 --> 00:01:41.040 align:middle line:84%
stumbled upon
writing this novel.

00:01:41.040 --> 00:01:43.320 align:middle line:84%
These rejections, she said,
forced her to ask herself

00:01:43.320 --> 00:01:44.460 align:middle line:90%
why she was writing.

00:01:44.460 --> 00:01:47.550 align:middle line:84%
Her answer was to
fill an internal need.

00:01:47.550 --> 00:01:49.500 align:middle line:84%
Perez was born in the
Dominican Republic

00:01:49.500 --> 00:01:52.200 align:middle line:84%
but emigrated to the US with
her parents at the age of 3.

00:01:52.200 --> 00:01:54.240 align:middle line:84%
She was educated at
Cornell University

00:01:54.240 --> 00:01:55.830 align:middle line:84%
and considered
medicine and painting

00:01:55.830 --> 00:01:58.740 align:middle line:84%
before actively pursuing
her career as a writer.

00:01:58.740 --> 00:02:02.010 align:middle line:84%
On the opposite end of the
mythologizing spectrum is

00:02:02.010 --> 00:02:04.860 align:middle line:84%
Denise Chávez who writes, 'What
can I tell you about Pedro

00:02:04.860 --> 00:02:05.700 align:middle line:90%
Infante?

00:02:05.700 --> 00:02:08.730 align:middle line:84%
If you're a Mexicana or Mexicano
and don't know who he is,

00:02:08.730 --> 00:02:10.949 align:middle line:84%
you should be tied to a
hot stove with yucca rope

00:02:10.949 --> 00:02:13.920 align:middle line:84%
and be beaten with
sharp dry corn husks

00:02:13.920 --> 00:02:16.320 align:middle line:84%
as you stand in a
vat of soggy fideos.

00:02:16.320 --> 00:02:18.660 align:middle line:84%
If you're racial and
cultural ethnicity is other,

00:02:18.660 --> 00:02:20.910 align:middle line:84%
then it's about time you
learned about the most famous

00:02:20.910 --> 00:02:22.950 align:middle line:90%
of Mexican singers and actors.'

00:02:22.950 --> 00:02:25.350 align:middle line:84%
And what can I tell you
about Denise Chávez?

00:02:25.350 --> 00:02:28.830 align:middle line:84%
If you're one to keep an ear
to the literary world or simply

00:02:28.830 --> 00:02:31.330 align:middle line:84%
one who likes a good laugh
and a warm narrative voice,

00:02:31.330 --> 00:02:33.570 align:middle line:84%
you should know who
Denise Chávez is.

00:02:33.570 --> 00:02:37.320 align:middle line:84%
Called by one critic a
member of the Latina literati

00:02:37.320 --> 00:02:39.270 align:middle line:84%
and self-described
performance writer,

00:02:39.270 --> 00:02:41.560 align:middle line:84%
Chávez is the author of
'The Last of the Menu

00:02:41.560 --> 00:02:44.010 align:middle line:84%
Girls', 'Face of An Angel',
and, of course, her latest,

00:02:44.010 --> 00:02:46.890 align:middle line:84%
'Loving Pedro Infante',
which, as a true fan,

00:02:46.890 --> 00:02:50.310 align:middle line:84%
Chávez set to be released on the
anniversary of Infante's death.

00:02:50.310 --> 00:02:52.590 align:middle line:84%
She is the winner of
the American Book Award,

00:02:52.590 --> 00:02:55.920 align:middle line:84%
recipient of a Lila Acheson
Wallace Reader's Digest Funds

00:02:55.920 --> 00:02:58.860 align:middle line:84%
Writers award, and founder
of the Border Book Festival

00:02:58.860 --> 00:03:00.960 align:middle line:90%
in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

00:03:00.960 --> 00:03:02.760 align:middle line:84%
She holds both a
Bachelor's and a Master's

00:03:02.760 --> 00:03:05.503 align:middle line:84%
of Fine Arts degree in Drama, in
addition to her Masters of Arts

00:03:05.503 --> 00:03:07.920 align:middle line:84%
and Writing, which she received
from the University of New

00:03:07.920 --> 00:03:08.880 align:middle line:90%
Mexico.

00:03:08.880 --> 00:03:10.980 align:middle line:84%
Her other awards,
publications, and honors

00:03:10.980 --> 00:03:13.560 align:middle line:90%
are too numerous to mention.

00:03:13.560 --> 00:03:16.020 align:middle line:84%
'A writer, actor, and teacher
who's even been anthologized

00:03:16.020 --> 00:03:18.870 align:middle line:84%
by Norton,' Chávez gives us
this description of watching

00:03:18.870 --> 00:03:20.790 align:middle line:90%
the legendary Pedro Infante.

00:03:20.790 --> 00:03:24.835 align:middle line:84%
'God help us if he
takes off his shirt.

00:03:24.835 --> 00:03:27.210 align:middle line:84%
Who would have ever thought
a man's nipples could express

00:03:27.210 --> 00:03:27.710 align:middle line:90%
anger?'

00:03:27.710 --> 00:03:30.270 align:middle line:90%


00:03:30.270 --> 00:03:32.250 align:middle line:84%
Writing in both
Spanish and English,

00:03:32.250 --> 00:03:34.770 align:middle line:84%
Chávez's voice is
distinctly American.

00:03:34.770 --> 00:03:37.260 align:middle line:84%
She takes her less than
glamorous protagonist

00:03:37.260 --> 00:03:40.980 align:middle line:84%
Terry Avila through themes
which anyone from a border town

00:03:40.980 --> 00:03:43.890 align:middle line:90%
or not can easily identify.

00:03:43.890 --> 00:03:46.020 align:middle line:84%
'All my characters are
seeking that elusive state

00:03:46.020 --> 00:03:47.898 align:middle line:84%
of grace,' she said
in an interview.

00:03:47.898 --> 00:03:50.190 align:middle line:84%
'That inner balance in their
lives that will allow them

00:03:50.190 --> 00:03:52.180 align:middle line:90%
to become themselves.'

00:03:52.180 --> 00:03:55.140 align:middle line:84%
She also said that, in the early
stages of her writing career,

00:03:55.140 --> 00:03:57.630 align:middle line:84%
she didn't spend a lot of
energy trying to get published.

00:03:57.630 --> 00:03:59.670 align:middle line:84%
'I was just trying to learn to
write and doing a lot of other

00:03:59.670 --> 00:04:00.452 align:middle line:90%
things.'

00:04:00.452 --> 00:04:02.160 align:middle line:84%
Tonight, we have the
privilege of hearing

00:04:02.160 --> 00:04:05.580 align:middle line:84%
her unique and memorable voice,
the fruit of what many of us--

00:04:05.580 --> 00:04:07.830 align:middle line:84%
of what to many of us
is a familiar labor

00:04:07.830 --> 00:04:09.240 align:middle line:90%
of learning to write.

00:04:09.240 --> 00:04:12.390 align:middle line:84%
I only hope that those of
us who are still trying

00:04:12.390 --> 00:04:14.490 align:middle line:84%
can somehow master
it the way she did.

00:04:14.490 --> 00:04:17.760 align:middle line:84%
Please join me in welcoming both
Denise Chávez and Loida Maritza

00:04:17.760 --> 00:04:19.310 align:middle line:90%
Pérez.

00:04:19.310 --> 00:04:21.334 align:middle line:90%