Ep. 35: Elevating the Chicana Experience Through Writing with Ana Castillo

Season #4 Episode #34

Today, we welcome Chicana novelist, poet, playwright, and independent scholar Ana Castillo who has been at the forefront of publishing works on the socio-political realities of the Chicana experience, including race and gender issues, since the 1970s.

  • Ana reflects on the timeless impact of her work and recalls with great joy how fans would reignite that fire within her whenever they approach her to share how Massacre of the Dreamers, The Mixquiahuala Letters, and her other works inspired them.

  • “It’s always a risk,” says Ana, referring to her spontaneous approach to writing her books. She talks about how she and women who look like her serve as her greatest inspiration for each and every single one of her works.

  • Ana speaks on how she digs deep to be able to write from different perspectives (ex. her own son, an Amazonian chief, etc.) for different genres, particularly when it comes to memoirs and poetry.

  • Ana recounts a particularly notable experience reading a poem for an African American woman during her inauguration as the new president of the state university she graduated from.

  • One of our members asks Ana: “Is it easier to write about lesbianism in Spanish versus in English?”

  • An immigration attorney specializing in asylum cases explains how writing legal briefs is often heart-wrenching work. She asks Ana how she is able to navigate the difficulty of writing heavy material.

  • Finally, Ana is asked, “Who [exactly] is the dead?” in the Book of the Dead.

“What I write,” says Ana, “whether it’s poetry, nonfiction, or a novel really comes from what I need to write at that time.” More specifically, she writes for women who look like her, at any point in time she is inspired to pen a new book. She hopes that, through her work, she continues to honor the Chicana experience.

 

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