Sandra Cisneros, MARTITA, I REMEMBER YOU / MARITA, TE RECUERDO: A Story in English and Spanish
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[0:38]Enjoy the show.
[0:41]I'm so honored to have interviewed the legendary author, Sandra Cisneros
[0:46]about her latest book, Martita, I Remember You.
[0:48]And in Spanish, Martita, Tei, Recuerdo.
[0:51]Sorry, I don't speak Spanish.
[0:53]Sandra is a poet, short story writer, novelist, S.A.S., performer,
[0:57]and artist whose work explores the lives of the working class.
[1:00]Her numerous awards include NEA fellowships in both poetry and fiction,
[1:04]MacArthur Fellowship, several honorary doctorates,
[1:07]and National International Book Awards, including Chicago's Fifth Star Award,
[1:10]the Pan-America Literary Award, and the National Medal of Arts.
[1:14]Most recently, she received the Ford Foundation's Art of Change Fellowship,
[1:18]was recognized among the Frederick Douglas 200
[1:20]and won the Penn Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature.
[1:25]In addition to her writing, Cisneros has fostered the careers of many aspiring and emerging writers
[1:31]through the two non-profits she founded, the Macondo Foundation,
[1:34]and the Alfredo Cisneros Del Morales Foundation.
[1:37]She is also the organizer of Los Maccart, Turos, Latino MacArthur Fellows,
[1:42]who are community activists.
[1:44]And now I think I should go back to school for Spanish
[1:46]because French seems to have been a complete waste.
[1:49]Sandra, I am so honored to be talking to you today
[1:52]for moms don't have time to read books.
[1:54]Thank you for joining me.
[1:55]Thank you so much. I'm finally here.
[1:58]You're finally here, yay.
[2:01]Well, congratulations on Martita.
[2:03]I remember you, a story in English and Spanish,
[2:06]which conveniently I'm showing this on the screen comes both ways
[2:10]in English and Spanish in different sides, which was beautiful.
[2:13]So thank you for this beautiful story.
[2:16]And I'm just so excited to talk to you about your career and everything.
[2:19]But first, could you tell listeners a little bit about why this story?
[2:23]Why now?
[2:24]Well, because I had it stashed away like the famous dress
[2:28]that you want to wear one day.
[2:30]You always know that dress is in the closet.
[2:32]I've never worn it.
[2:34]And I had to finish it.
[2:36]So it was something that I started early 90s when I was closer
[2:41]to the experience that I had lived that started the story
[2:44]and the people that inspired it.
[2:46]And it was way back when I did a story collection
[2:49]called Woman Holering Creek.
[2:51]This was supposed to be one of the stories.
[2:54]But I didn't finish it or I handed it in with just the first portion.
[3:00]None of the Chicago portion was there.
[3:02]And my editor said, this is not done.
[3:05]I thought, well, OK, I put it away.
[3:08]And I always meant to go back to it.
[3:10]I just got busy with life, you know?
[3:13]That's how it is.
[3:14]It happens.
[3:16]So you dug it out and finished it up.
[3:19]And now here it is, beautiful.
[3:21]Did it always have?
[3:22]I know that a lot of this is dialogue,
[3:24]but a lot of it is also in letter form.
[3:26]And so you sort of weave in the epistolary.
[3:29]Was that the way you had always envisioned it?
[3:31]Or is that something a new wrinkle you've added?
[3:33]Yeah.
[3:34]You know, the original story was just the first part.
[3:37]And it ends with the first part in the middle section
[3:39]with the letters.
[3:40]And the end was there.
[3:42]And I just thought that was enough.
[3:44]That it wasn't.
[3:45]And I had to build a frame around it.
[3:47]You know, the character, the protagonist.
[3:51]She's raping the wood, the varnish off woodwork.
[3:56]Yes.
[3:56]And a lot of the apartments have that hutch.
[3:59]And I have scraped that woodwork.
[4:01]So I know, I don't know how I remembered that.
[4:04]But I put that in there.
[4:06]So that became like the frame, the book end of the story.
[4:09]That was not something that was originally
[4:11]nor did I know it was going to be there.
[4:14]You know, I take little pieces of my life.
[4:16]You know, I remember something I happened to me
[4:18]when I was 25 and something when I was 28
[4:21]and something yesterday and something I happened to you.
[4:24]And I kind of put them like building a little puzzle,
[4:27]like whatever will fit and make the story believable.
[4:30]That's how I write.
[4:31]I write in little what I call little buttons.
[4:34]And I write the little buttons.
[4:35]Sometimes two people say, you know, a couple of phrases.
[4:38]That's all I have.
[4:39]I don't know who's speaking or a little memory
[4:43]or a smell of sensory details.
[4:45]And I saved them and put them together.
[4:47]Wow.
[4:48]I read in your memoir about when you were writing
[4:52]House on Megastry, never was asking if it was about you.
[4:55]And you wrote a whole essay about, well, is it me?
[4:58]Or yes, and no, right?
[5:00]It's about me.
[5:01]And there are things about me and my family
[5:03]and the people in the community.
[5:04]So is it me?
[5:05]It is.
[5:06]And it isn't.
[5:07]Well, you've talked about all the stories
[5:09]that you're witness to in one day,
[5:11]the things people tell you, the things you see
[5:13]and the way to work, the things that you remember.
[5:17]All of these things are part of you
[5:19]because you're witness.
[5:20]Some of them happen to you.
[5:22]And some of them happen to bounce into your heart
[5:25]and stay there.
[5:26]Some of them just lodge themselves in your heart.
[5:29]When someone tells you a story, you can't forget it.
[5:32]Those are the things I write about.
[5:34]I try to focus on the things I wish I could forget.
[5:36]Because I know that they are debilitating.
[5:41]I want to be released.
[5:42]You know, like that song, please release me.
[5:44]Let a lot of those in my heart catalog.
[5:50]And I just invite them because I just want to stop thinking
[5:53]about them.
[5:54]Even if there's something silly and small,
[5:57]I just want to get them out.
[5:58]So that's what I do.
[5:59]So stories are essentially your exorcism.
[6:02]Yes, that's or my lympia, my cleansing.
[6:05]Because I think they're transformational.
[6:07]You know, to write for me is my way of reducing stress
[6:12]in my life and making me understand things that
[6:15]happen to me and why they stay with me.
[6:18]And as it's writing for me is really good medicine.
[6:21]I agree.
[6:22]It's basically the best way.
[6:23]I don't know if like without this tool in my toolbox,
[6:26]I don't know how I would ever sort of make sense in my life.
[6:28]I know that periods that I have not had the writing,
[6:32]even just writing a little button.
[6:34]Because I know moms are busy.
[6:36]But if you just write a little button, you know,
[6:38]one sentence that helps me to get clarity about something
[6:42]that happened, something that's haunting me
[6:44]or something that I want to savor.
[6:47]So sometimes it's not that you want to extrapate it
[6:49]from your life.
[6:50]Sometimes that you want to savor something nice that
[6:53]happened to you or something nice that someone said
[6:55]or that you witness that was positive.
[6:57]It doesn't have to be negative.
[6:59]It could be neutral too.
[7:01]But it's about like a sitting, it's like a sitting meditation.
[7:06]And I wrote House in manga state when I was the busiest.
[7:10]I was teaching high school dropouts,
[7:12]but I would write a little button, you know,
[7:14]just a paragraph or two and save them up
[7:17]and put them together and that's how that book happened.
[7:20]Wow.
[7:20]That's amazing.
[7:22]And you also feel just especially about reading.
[7:25]I read in a house of my own, I'm going to mispronounce this.
[7:28]The chapter is titled Merike rogerada.
[7:31]Is that right?
[7:31]That's an answer.
[7:33]Merse.
[7:34]Merse rogerada.
[7:35]You wrote, I often remember where I was when meeting a book
[7:38]that sweeps me off my feet.
[7:39]I remember the moment and the intimate sensation
[7:42]of devouring a beloved text as distinctly
[7:44]as I recall the most sensual encounters of my life.
[7:47]Is it like this for everyone?
[7:48]Or is it like this?
[7:50]Only for those who work with words.
[7:51]I want to believe everyone falls in love with a book
[7:53]and much the same way.
[7:55]One falls in love with a person that one
[7:57]has an intimate personal exchange, a mystical exchange,
[8:00]a spiritual and charge as the figure eight
[8:03]meaning infinity.
[8:04]Oh, I just love that.
[8:05]I just love that.
[8:06]I feel exactly the same way.
[8:08]I just love it.
[8:10]Oh, I love it.
[8:10]I love when I beat other people that are crazy about words.
[8:14]It's so great.
[8:16]I actually, I have a memoir coming out and like,
[8:19]this is my whole thing.
[8:20]It's like where I was when I read books
[8:22]because I also, when I see them,
[8:24]I remember like where I was, not just headspace,
[8:27]but physically a lot of the time or like where I carry it in.
[8:30]But what I'm hearing, do you remember like details
[8:33]of your clothes and I remember crazy things.
[8:36]And I think does everybody remember what you do
[8:38]with all that flotsam and jetsam, right?
[8:41]I know.
[8:42]What's the name of your memoir?
[8:43]It's called Bookends, a memoir of love, loss, and literature.
[8:47]It's coming out this morning.
[8:48]Oh, love.
[8:48]Great title.
[8:49]Thank you.
[8:50]I'll send it to you.
[8:53]No, I don't really remember as much what I'm wearing
[8:56]because I don't know.
[8:57]My brain never thinks about that.
[8:58]But I do remember how I felt or where I was
[9:01]when I cried while reading it or, you know,
[9:03]something that moved me about it.
[9:05]And I feel like just like touching and seeing it all the time
[9:08]then it like comes back in little snippets.
[9:10]But you're right, flotsam and jetsam.
[9:12]I mean, I keep worrying.
[9:12]I'm going to run out of room.
[9:13]Like where does it go?
[9:14]No.
[9:15]I know like what do we do with all this stuff
[9:17]that I've been lately because I'm going to turn 67
[9:20]in a couple of weeks.
[9:22]I've been thinking like, you know,
[9:23]you haven't written about that.
[9:24]And I'm one of those people that if you know me
[9:27]and you tell me a story, I'll say, have you written about that?
[9:31]I'm always reminded other people what they should write about.
[9:34]But lately, I've been asking myself,
[9:36]did I write about?
[9:37]I need to write about that.
[9:38]So I made a whole list right about.
[9:40]And then there's just so much.
[9:42]And even if I got put in prison for the rest of my life,
[9:44]I wouldn't have enough time to get it all down.
[9:48]So I just hope that I have a good health
[9:51]because we want to honor all the people we've met,
[9:54]the people that have brushed past us,
[9:57]the people that are in our lives and people we just.
[10:00]glimpse in the second. Now there's so much that we, that enriches in our lives, even if they're
[10:05]exploding cigar, sometimes those are the things that teach us the most. And we need to examine
[10:10]them to understand this thing called our life. And I hope by the time we get to the end of our lives,
[10:16]you know, that we're wiser and more brilliant and better human beings.
[10:22]So what's one thing on your list that you're going to write about? Oh, I just, I just write so many,
[10:28]there was this girl that I went to school with in seventh grade. I wrote a poem about her in my
[10:33]first book of poetry. And I just talked about this at the Miami Book Fair. She used to
[10:38]read this peanut butter cups in class and sneak them and go, and that, but she was not very
[10:47]popular. She was kind of golden with Ethan, a little chubby. And she had like shiny acne,
[10:52]shiny face and acne. And to the mass, you know, but I liked her. I thought I could see her inner talent.
[11:00]And she always would eat these Reese's Peanut Butter Cups when she had her period.
[11:05]Because in seventh grade, and she already was a woman, whereas I was like a little boy,
[11:09]and I sat next to her. So I always associated like the smell of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups ever
[11:15]after with my period. And when I finally got my period, I had to run out and buy Reese's Peanut Butter
[11:21]cups. Yes, I always, well, I pick up tampons, pick up Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.
[11:29]Yes, you're right. You definitely have to write that down. That's hilarious.
[11:32]But I have to know, and I think I have like the power of a bloodhound to like capture sense.
[11:39]So that's in my writing a lot. And I think as writers want to be writers, I always tell them
[11:44]focus on smell, because that's the ancestral and scientifically proven to bring back the past.
[11:51]So I tried to focus on sense. I feel like I had COVID a year, almost a year ago. And I feel like
[11:58]my smell is still not 100% back. Oh, that's that. I know. I think it's close like taste and smell,
[12:05]but they're not like a hundred percent. Like everybody else is like, oh gosh, do you still, you know,
[12:09]then it just takes me that extra little bit. I'm like, well, no, finally, I do. But no, maybe you need
[12:14]to practice. I get big little bin of cinnamon. And you know, I'll put that on the calendar.
[12:21]Cinnamon inhalation, you know, smell sharpening session. I'll send you a picture with my nose and
[12:29]a dog. Do that with students to wake up their their senses of their five senses and their writing.
[12:37]And I would bring things for them to touch or smell. And you know, those little children,
[12:42]they had cinnamon at home. But everybody wanted to smell the little box with the cinnamon.
[12:47]Oh, they did. I guess it was very pleasant for them. Of course, cinnamon appeared in all their
[12:51]poems. Interesting. I love that. No, it's true. I mean, I think that's part of what makes your writing
[12:58]so vivid. And I was actually curious. I know I keep talking about sort of like obsess with your
[13:03]memoir and essays and everything in addition to this beautiful new story. But I was interested in
[13:08]the fact that you included so many photos because your words already are painting such a picture,
[13:13]right? It's already so vivid what you're saying. Why the photos? You mean, the visual photos?
[13:19]Yeah. I think that's how I view the world through images. And I could have been and should have
[13:26]been maybe a visual artist. I get along and have friends who are visual artists. And I understand
[13:31]them and their work. And I always think of that as the road not taken. If I hadn't been a writer,
[13:37]I would have liked to have done something with like textiles or fashion, clothing, textiles. I'm
[13:44]very fascinated with people who work with clothing and textiles and design. And maybe because my
[13:51]father was in a poster and he brought home scraps of fabric just like in the book. So I had
[13:56]wonderful, beautiful fabric from France and England. And you know, the best is my father worked with
[14:02]high-end interior decorators. And he would bring the little scraps for my mom to make
[14:07]dresses for my Barbie dolls. And so I got used to having really beautiful textiles at a very young age
[14:14]and loving their colors. And originally, you know, when we're writers, we all start as
[14:20]artists. We draw before we go into language. So that has stayed with me. It's something that I
[14:26]still love. And I still sketch and my book put on water chapel has my illustrations of my pets and
[14:33]pets of my friends. I still long and wish I hadn't enough time to start another career. And I
[14:39]would love to. I love the bells where people design clothing. You know, I like those. And I just feel like
[14:46]have the visual in me, the visual passion. And maybe that's why you see it on the
[14:53]in the story. Interesting. Well, I mean, you think it's too late. If I have time to stick my
[14:58]nose in a box of cinnamon, maybe you have time to just spend like an hour a week on making
[15:04]clothing. Well, if you're full disclosure, my friend Nancy Trow got from Homebrocks in Santa Fe.
[15:09]She and I have a project that got delayed or detoured by COVID. And we were working on a text and
[15:17]text-style project where her clothing line would have some lines of poetry. And I
[15:24]and so I have fingertips and children's dresses and pillowcases with words, stories that I get
[15:32]other people to embroider because I can't even sew a button. But, you know, this concept of doing
[15:36]a show with text and text child and collaborating is something that then put on hold. But I still
[15:42]want to explore, you know, where we would display that where that would be. You know,
[15:47]don't exhibit. You should sell it. Well, no, this is the problem when I find a beautiful vintage
[15:52]piece. And I write on it. I give it to her. And it's one of the pieces in her shop and Santa Fe
[15:58]that most everyone wants to buy it. But the thing I make is not for sale. You know, for me, it's
[16:05]why would I want to sell that? It's one of a kind. Why don't you buy my books instead?
[16:12]Well, I mean, I think because what you're creating is so, I mean, the uniqueness of it,
[16:19]I think people want to share in that self-expression. What we can do so that I can satisfy my
[16:25]neat, keep it. We can photograph these items and put them in the book, you know, so that you could
[16:31]see the stories. They're on the clothing. They'll be like a wash towel and it'll be about my mother
[16:36]and how she is wash clothes until her hands blistered and she had an allergy because of the soap.
[16:43]And I'll buy these little vintage towels that, you know, she taught me how to rummage and buy
[16:48]old textiles. So there's stories on the cloth. And my idea was to hang them up with clips and,
[16:54]you know, display them somewhere. But maybe we can document them and photograph them and make a little,
[16:59]a little book. That would be not. That would be great. Okay, you planted that seat about a book in my
[17:05]head. Okay, you're going to do it. I'm so excited about it. It depends here with a thought. That's
[17:10]how I made my reality happen. I was in fifth or sixth grade when I visualized that a book on the
[17:17]shelf in the library with my name on it. And I tell young people, this is where everything happens.
[17:22]Everything begins with a thought. You don't have to tell anyone, but you have to hold it there
[17:27]and walk towards it every day. Wow. Well, I'm so excited. You have now another button to put on
[17:34]your to-do list. Well, it also sounds like you're such an inspiring teacher. I don't like teaching too
[17:42]much because I want to work on my own things. So I kind of retired from that. I only teach it. I used
[17:47]once in a while at my condo. The writing workshop I started, which people can apply to. I don't
[17:53]appear there anymore. I'm just the founder because I feel like now it's 66. I need to focus
[17:59]on my own writing because I don't know how much time I have left before my Uber driver
[18:04]honks the horn and says, let's go. I got a focus on my work. That is really elevating Uber
[18:11]drivers here to a quite a spiritual realm. They're honking all over the place around us with
[18:19]COVID, so we have to be very, very conscious and grateful and filled with awareness of the temporality
[18:26]of our times and the fragility of our lives and work on something like it's the last day on your life
[18:33]because sometimes it is. I totally agree with that. I constantly feel like I'm fighting against time.
[18:40]I const every day. I'm like, oh gosh, I hope I get to finish this. I hope I get to finish that.
[18:45]What if you feel like you're a bad person? If you haven't done something creative, if you've
[18:50]only done balancing checkbook or something like something domestic and you haven't done anything
[18:56]creative, don't you feel like a bad person when you go to bed and think, what did I do today?
[19:00]Oh, I answered. Oh, I unpacked. Oh, I cleaned the kitchen, but nothing creative. A lot of bad
[19:07]human being. I am very self punitive, but maybe not in the exact same way. I feel like it's
[19:15]more on those days. Those are the days when I say, oh, I didn't get anything done. And yeah,
[19:19]my husband will say something like, what do you mean? Like you were working out, you know,
[19:22]I'm like, no. And I think that's what it is. It's that like, what did you do? What did you put down
[19:27]in the world or what did what happened? What did you create? Because, you know, we're mothering
[19:33]art. We're mothering art. I always talk about my books as being my children. Yeah. And I know
[19:39]what it is to be a mother because I was nanny for my, my niece for the second, third and fourth
[19:45]month of her life. So I know how busy moms are. And it's exactly like that when you're a writer too,
[19:52]because you have, you know, life is pulling you in different ways. If you can just write one little
[19:56]button, it will indicate your day.
[20:00]You can go to bed, peace, and think you did something positive in the universe.
[20:05]And yet, you have to balance actually getting new inputs from all of your experiences,
[20:09]but you can't just lock yourself in a room. You've got to be out and about.
[20:11]All is, and I've been doing this on my phone, is I write a list of things I must write about.
[20:17]You know, so there are just little notes that are buttons for buttons.
[20:21]They're not even a button. They're about a button, right? You know, the girl with
[20:26]chocolates on her period, you know, the little things like that that I remember.
[20:31]And so I don't lose them because in one day, you may have 15 or 15 million ideas,
[20:37]but you just got to document enough so that you'll remind you when you sit at your desk,
[20:41]you don't wait to get inspired. You go to the button jar and you pick out something and you
[20:47]write the one that's going to take off. Oh, maybe as part of your book on textiles, you should have a
[20:54]a jar of buttons. Well, I have an essay called writing my pajamas. That's another unfinished
[20:59]project about like things I share with younger writers about writing tips. So that's another
[21:05]unfinished manuscript. Nice. I think you should like get multi-color buttons and explain your whole
[21:12]button theory and you could have it. You know, I think elected works is going to be blurbs. I
[21:18]think I'm the one who wrote blurbs and any other writer in the universe. Wow. Do you read all the
[21:25]books? Yeah, I do. What are some of your goats to your favorite books or something? Or if that's too
[21:31]hard, just something recently that's really moved you. Oh, I read this book called Gordo. And I always
[21:36]forget Jaime Cortez, I think is the writer. Gordo, it's a short story about memories growing up
[21:42]as a migrant child. And they're so sad and funny. Because nothing can be funny unless it's sad and
[21:49]nothing can be sad unless it's funny. You know, to make a really great story, you have to have both.
[21:53]And that book is, you know, I blurbed it and it's on my bedside so I can read it again.
[21:59]And I just also blurbed a book called American Bastard by the poet Jan Beatty. And I just
[22:07]finished rereading that one again. Because, you know, she writes like a poet because she is a poet.
[22:12]So that's really great. And then I'm reading baggage by Alan Cumming, a memoir kind of follow up
[22:19]to his first memoir, not my father's son. And that's really great too. So those are all things among
[22:26]tens of thousands of books that are all clamoring around my bed for attention. Wow.
[22:32]In your memoir, you had one line that said, I guess it was some introduction. You were writing
[22:36]he said, I'm the only girl with seven brothers growing up in my house. Right. Six, I'm sorry,
[22:43]six brothers. You were one of seven. And you said, that's all you need to know about you.
[22:50]Why? Tell me about that. Well, I need to know because everything goes back to my six brothers.
[22:56]They're like in my head. You know, when you grow up with boys, they always make fun of you.
[23:00]You know, why are you wearing, why are you wearing princess? Why are you wearing braids? What
[23:04]those ugly glasses? They just make you whittle you down to nothing. And they're in my head. Like,
[23:09]when I write, that's a terrible line. Why did you think that was going to be good? I know you got
[23:14]to go back and rewrite that. That's trashy. You're terrible. You're nothing. You know, they're
[23:19]like in my head. And they have no idea that I've operated them as my personal editors.
[23:25]Oh, well, you know, I guess I need therapy. Right. And there is great if you can. You know,
[23:36]I've gone through depressions when I haven't been writing. So I strongly recommend
[23:41]go to seek that therapist because it's like getting a professional story listener. You know,
[23:46]when you're right, you have the pages being your listener. But sometimes you need someone to
[23:52]to be your bruha, your shaman, your guide. So where did I hear someone recently told me on this
[24:01]podcast? No, I'm going to forget who it was that they were talking. They were talking to a friend
[24:05]of theirs. He was a therapist. And they said that, you know, I just think that everyone has the
[24:10]most interesting interior life. And like what goes on in people's brains, like everyone has these
[24:14]just amazing stories. And I guess the therapist said back to this person. Not true.
[24:20]When I was in therapy, sometimes I had nothing to say. So I would just talk stupidities.
[24:26]And I always thought, oh, I wonder if my therapist thinks this is a brilliant writer.
[24:31]And she's telling me about the last episode of Sex and the City.
[24:38]I once like, I saw this therapist a long time ago. And I was sitting in the waiting room and she
[24:43]was running late, but she never used to do. And the door finally opened and out walked this widow,
[24:49]a young widow of a very famous man who had just famously passed away. It was all over the news,
[24:54]right? Then. And she walked out. And I was like, oh my gosh. And I went in and said that. And I was like,
[24:59]actually, I'm fine. Like, how can I come back? And I have, how can I compete with that? Like,
[25:07]I, everything is good. I think I should just leave. And I was a kid. Sometimes we had to go
[25:11]to confession in Catholic school. And I haven't have enough sins. So I would make some up.
[25:16]You know, just decide to be nice to the priest. Well, I'll think of a couple of extra.
[25:21]You know, and I got that position with the therapist that I had to think of a good story,
[25:27]something to entertain her. You know, I think that's how you get when you're a writer. You feel like
[25:32]you got to always be like on and you've got to perform and you have to please others. And that's
[25:38]when you know what unique therapy, right? Maybe or you just, you know, go about your day and make
[25:47]lots of other people really happy. I need to write about that. Oh my gosh. Yes. This endless list
[25:56]of things to write about. I also do that with other people too. By the way, I'm always like,
[26:00]oh, that would be a great story. That would be a great story. That's a good story. When someone else
[26:06]seeds the conversation and gives you the gift of listening and silence,
[26:13]absolute silence. They're hanging on your words. That to me is a good story. And you know, I grew up in
[26:19]a house with everyone speaking at the same time. Nine people all talking at the same time are
[26:24]radios on televisions on. So when you could say something that would shut everyone else up in the
[26:30]house and they'd listen to you, that to me was like a sign, oh, power and storytelling. I've set
[26:38]something that's funny or that's captured their attention. I think that trained me to become a story
[26:43]teller. Interesting. Well, I guess then there's hope for one of my four kids because it's often,
[26:50]one time I was like, so sick of everybody cutting each other off all the time at dinner.
[26:53]I was like, okay, you have to be holding this slice of red pepper. I'm going to pass it like a
[26:58]microphone around the table. And you cannot talk if you are not holding onto this pepper.
[27:02]So that's like one minute. Maybe they'll be playbrides. You know, and our filmmakers and create
[27:10]all the dialogue, mishmushing and to each other. You hope. I hope. Yes. You. Oh my goodness.
[27:17]Well, Sandra, this has been so much fun. I have so that Diana Valenzuela translated my book and
[27:23]she's brilliant. And she's been my translator since since I met her in the early 90s. So do the math
[27:29]how long we've worked together. She's practically translated all my books, not all, but we met each
[27:34]other in Texas where she lives. And every time I work with her on a project, it's like going on a
[27:40]car trip with your best friend. So we really it is we we love so much. And she's also just the best
[27:48]poet. And so it's great to have a poet who is your translator because they pay attention to the
[27:54]same thing of poets. They attention to the syllable. And that's so great. And then she makes the
[27:59]lines sound beautiful and Spanish. So I just want to shout out to the Diana Valenzuela. And let
[28:05]readers know that, you know, even if they don't speak or reach Spanish, it's nice to take a look and
[28:10]see. It's also an audio, which I taped. Oh, good. Oh, I'm going to listen. Did you record it in English
[28:17]and Spanish or just English? I did the very first time. I did the Spanish for the very first time.
[28:24]It was a it was scary because I had the practice practice practice. And we had two actors that
[28:30]did the letter portion of Marititat and Paola. And I also had to practice like accents, you know,
[28:38]I had to practice Argentine Spanish. And I had to practice Paola's, you know, way of speaking
[28:44]English. And I had to practice French words that I'd never set out loud in my life. And, you know,
[28:51]so it was a lot of stress. And it came out so beautiful. It's like a radio play. It's the right
[28:58]land that you could just, you know, put it, listen to it. And it's like going to a play. It's just
[29:04]the right length of what you're, you're seated behind will withstand, you know, just about an hour
[29:12]and a little bit longer than an hour, maybe an hour and a half. Really great, great project. And
[29:18]I just heard it a couple of weeks ago when I was in the car. I had not heard it since I was in
[29:23]studio. And I was mesmerized. So I encourage everyone out there to take a listen. Excellent.
[29:31]I can't wait. I'm going to go back and do that. Thank you. Thanks for chatting with me today.
[29:34]This has been so amazing. And now I'm just like going to be eagerly waiting to see what else comes
[29:39]out of that. Well, I have a new book of poetry that I'm just reviewing the galley this week.
[29:46]Fall. It's called Woman Without Shame. And it's about 30 years since I've come out with a book of
[29:52]poetry, not because, you know, I don't write poetry. I write it all the time, but I don't publish it
[29:58]and, and finally, gat.
[30:00]during a collection that I like.
[30:01]And so it will be out next fall,
[30:02]Leejana, Valenzuela,
[30:03]is going to be working on translations.
[30:06]It will be two volumes, one in English, one in Spanish.
[30:09]And I think that if those of you who don't know,
[30:12]I'm a poet, take a look.
[30:14]And those of you who remember,
[30:15]you have not seen poems like this in 30 years.
[30:18]So please follow me on Instagram or on my website
[30:21]to see where and where and when I'll be appearing.
[30:24]Oh, so exciting.
[30:25]Women without shame.
[30:27]No, woman, singular, woman without shame.
[30:31]Yeah, woman without shame.
[30:32]This is what happens when I try to take a note
[30:34]at the same time that I'm talking about.
[30:35]Anyway, multi-tasking, failure.
[30:38]Well, I'm excited for that then.
[30:39]Fantastic.
[30:40]And now this time, your memoir,
[30:42]I look forward to getting a copy.
[30:44]Oh, I'll send you one.
[30:45]As soon as I have the final gallery, I will send you one.
[30:48]Find it to me, please.
[30:49]I'd like to have them personalized.
[30:51]I will sign you.
[30:52]I will sign it to you.
[30:54]I would be honored.
[30:54]Thank you.
[30:55]That's a lot of years being by yourself
[30:58]to write some, a lot of hours.
[31:00]People don't realize that, right?
[31:02]Each book, every page is a lot of hours spent by yourself.
[31:06]So let me see how this celebrate.
[31:09]Eat a donut.
[31:10]Eat something you're not supposed to eat.
[31:12]Just celebrate.
[31:13]Okay.
[31:14]All right, you too.
[31:17]Don't ask for us.
[31:18]Okay.
[31:20]Bye.
[31:21]Thank you.
[31:22]Bye.
[31:23]Bye.
[31:24]Thanks for listening to this episode
[31:25]of Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.
[31:27]Don't forget to follow me on Instagram,
[31:29]at zebiowans, and at Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.
[31:32]Also sign up for my newsletter at zebiowans.com
[31:35]and sign up for my virtual book club
[31:37]and meet lots of authors on Zoom every other week.
[31:39]Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan.
[31:41]Heck, texture sound for the sound editing.
[31:43]And thank you to Morning Moon Productions
[31:45]for providing this fantastic intro and now trim music.