Julia Alvarez
Progenitor of a Movement
This Dominican-American writer weaves passionate sensibilities
through her works with the gift of seeing through others' eyes
H
istory demonstrates that literary periods are launched by daring,
intrepid writers or poets who appear to have suddenly sprouted from
nowhere. Later these writers are acclaimed as initiators of movements,
but the many years they barely subsisted while writing tomes that
languished in wait for a publisher are rarely remembered.
Tliink of (Jahriel Garcfa Marquez, now recogiiized as one of the "fathers" of the socalled Latin American Boom of the late 1960s, when (mostly male) writers erupted
onto the international stage with their novels dubbed as magical realism. Or the two
Mexicans—Laura Esquivel and Angeles Mastretta—recognized for launching a "boom"
of women writers in the 1980s, when women's novels finally began to be published in
greater numbers. Just as Garcia Marquez and the writers of his generation were not
the first to create a great Latin American novel, Esquivel and Mastretta are not the
only significant women writers of the 20* century. But in each case they will forever
be remembered as those who launched a literary period.
Julia Alvarez occupies a siniilar place in U.S. literature as one of the initiators of
Latiyia literat.ure, principally novels written in English by women of Latin American
heritage. While members of the largest minority population in the U.S. had been
producing novels and poetry throughout the 20'^ century, few who published before
Sandra Cisneros' The House cm Mango Street or before the beginning of the nowrecognized Chicano/Latino era are famously remembered.
"I feel very lucky to happen to have been a writer at the watershed time when
Latino literature became a literature that was not just relegated to the province ol
sociology," Alvarez says. "But I still feel there is a certain kind of condescension
toward ethnic literature, even though it is a literature that is feeding and emiching the
mainstream American literature . . . [And], definitely, still, there is a glass ceiling in
tenns of the female novelists. If we have a female character, she might be engaging in
by Elizabeth Coonrod Martinez
Photographs by Bill Eichner
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•
-futia. Alvarez ouKnde her home near
Middlelniry, Vermmt in February W06
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something monumental but she's also
changing the diapers and doing the cooking,
still doing things which get it called a
woman's novel. You know, a man's novel is
universal; a woman's novel is for women."
The content of novels written hy women
may be different, but Alvarez feels that all
st.ories come from the same source: "The
great lesson of storytelling is that there is
this great, rivor t:hat. we al! are flowing on of
being a human being and a human faiTiily.
So, when the market comes up and says
'Latina writers,' and tliis is for this or that
market, it is [simply] part of how tilings are
broadcast out. there, but really, that's not
what the vvriting is about. It's about interconnectedness. And sure, Faulkner is from
the south, or such and such poet has an
Irish hackgi'ound and you can hear it in the
lines; that is a way to get a handle on this
mysterious current of narrative that is so
important to us."
.V
i.
T
of Dominican-American New York writers
(Angie Cruz, Loida Maritza P6rez, Nelly
Rosario, and Junot Diaz) now hopes to
achieve the success Alvarez has had.
A certain element of luck, and very
precise publicity, played a role in the now
easy recognition of Julia Alvarez and
Sandra Cisneros. In 1990 they and two
other writers—Denise Chdvez and Ana
Castillo—posed for a group photo arranged
by their New York agent. Sus;ui Rergliolz io
promote their forthcoming novels. The onepage photo article ran in the magazine
Vanity Fair under the title, "The Four
Amigas," a publicity stunt that helped
usher in a Liitino literjiry generation.
'That, was a shock to me," Alvarez says,
"One of the things that surprised me was
the publicity machine that happens around
books, and thai people !.ake pictures. 1 only
knew how to love a book and go to the
library and gel. the next book by the writer.
In Alvarez's case, she is the ubiquitous You don't think of all the publicity stuff.
Dominican-American writer. Her novel hi.
"I was just so happy that. 1 had tliis novel
ihe Time of the Butterflies, based on the coming out because ! w;is up for tenure,
heroic Mirabal sisters who lived in the Lime and n^ chainnan basically said, "you know
of the Trujillo dictatorship in the if you don't have a book, it's not going to
Dominican Republic, is now a staple of be a pretty story.' So when I heard that
college literature classes. Her first novel, Garcm Girls was taken and would Ije pubHoiv tJw Garcia Girls Lost Tfieir Accents, lished, I just thought of it. as the book that
published in 1991—along with Cisneros' would get me tenure. But then it did so
The House on Mango Street in 1984 and well that seven years later, I gave up
Cristina Garcia's Dreaviing in Cuban tenure to become a full-time writer."
in 1992—officially launched the new
Her first novel was followed by
movement of Latina writers. Their Butteyfl,ies in 1994, a sequel to Garcia
"hyijhen" experience, straddling borders or Girls called iYo! in 1997, and another
cultures in the U.S. as people of Latin historical novel, In the Name of Salami,
American or Caribbean descent, foments in 2000. In a period of fifteen years Alvarez
new critical ideas. The current generation has released fifteen books; four books of
I
J U I I d A l V a r S Z I was passionate about
this calhng... I was 41 when Garcia Girls was
published, so I had been writing for a while
poetry, a collection of essays titled
Som.ething to Declare, four children's
boiiks, and A Cafecito Story, which counters global capitalism and demonstrates
the need for a slow process of growing and
preparing excellent coffee beans. Last
April, she embarked on a multi-city book
tour to promote her latest, novel, Saviv/j
the WorUi. Il was a grueling schedule, wth
24 stops in five weeks, but she appeared
radiant late in the tour, sparkling with
enthusiasm during her readings.
T
he slender woman vidth dark, curly
hair and hazel eyes is a vegetarian,
which may account for her physiciil
stiuiiina, iiut she also possesses a vibrancy
of spirit that draws people in. Her ophthalmologist, husband, Bill Eichner, accompanied her on the tour. At. each juncture,
they presented a gift of organic coffee,
brewed and served to those who turned
out to hear her. She explained how she
was researching a new historical novel
when the SepUnnht-r 11 t^xgedy occurred
in 2001 and that that occurrence had influenced her to create a second story, alternating a contemporai7 character's angst
with the tiistorical journey of a small expedition that transported the smallpox
vaccine across the world. She quotes from
Dante, stating that her modem character
is experiencing a "dark night of the soul,
which we now pathologize and c;ill depressiori." Alvarez's voice is soft but her words
are very clearly enunciated: "It is about
being a human being. With stories we have
these ways of deeply connecting as human
beings."
After the reading, she takes (jurstions,
and responds candidly to each. Does her
sUiry have a moral or a message?
"Sometimes things happen to us, and
[since] we humans have created narrat.ive, at times like this we bring it to bear
on whal has happened. I do think narratives are important and powerful, but
novels don'l answer questions, they're
not solutions."
Someone asks whether she first writes
in English or Spanish. When Alvarez
responds, "1 am not truly bilingual, 1 am
English-dominant," there Ls silence in the
room, as t,hough the audience is sun^rised
by that revelation. Her works, like those of
many other Latino writers, are translated
to Spanish by other individuals.
Despite the fact that she and her husband purchased far inland in the
Julia Alvarez and her hiLfband, Bill
Eickner, spend tinw at Alia Qracin., Ihe
organic coffeefarm in the Dominican
Republic, above. She received the
prestigous Hitpanic Heritage Aivard in
Literature in 2002, left, in a ctrenumy
held at the Kennedy Centerfor the
Performing ArUi in Washington, D.C.
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Dominican Republic in 1996 to help
foment a cooperative of independent coffee-growers, they do not visit the island
regularly. In 2004, they sold some of the
tracts to others who wanted to help in
the project, and Alvarez spends most of
her time at her permanent residence for
nearly two decades in Weybridge,
Vermont. It is quite near the Canadian
border, and there are many more residents of French and German heritage
than Latinos; her reality is more of a
snowy setting than a tropical one. She
frequently states, "I live in sleepy
Vermont. I live on a dirt road." The surrounding conmiunity consists mostly of
farms and the nearest town is
Middlehury, where Alvarez holds the
position of Writer-in-Residence at
Middlebury College. She describes her
routine as time spent in the college
library or in her home office. "I go to
work every day and 1 do the work, the
same way that my neighbor goes and
takes care of his sheep, and Bill goes to
the office. That's just what I do, and what.
I am focused on."
It was some ten years ago that she came
upon the idea for her latest novel. "I was
doing research for In the Narn,e of
Salome, studying the history of Hispaniola,
and |saw] a little footnote that mentioned
smallpox had broken out. The Eastern half
[of the island] was occupied by the FVench,
the western half was in revolution, and
smallpox was raging among the troops. A
smallpox expedition that was going around
the world with carrier orphan boys had
just arrived in the New World with the
vaccine, but unfortunately it was not able
to make a landfall in the Dominican
Republic. And 1 thought, what.'s this? So
that's how [the idea] started, I didn't say,
here is my slory, I just thought, oh my
gosh, I have never read this before.
"First I called a friend who is a medical
historian, and he had never heard of it; he
thought 1 was making it up. LSO I went to
the college library and took out every book
on smallpox that was there. TWs was soon
after 9/11, when Homeland Security wanted
librarians to t\irn over everybody taking
out questionable books, and here I was
with 30 titles on smallpox."
The heroes in Saving the World are
numerous real-life orphans, first 22 who
travel from Spain to the Americas, then 26
who travel from Mexico to the Pliilippines,
in each case accompanied by their
teacher/caretaker (a woman), and the sc-ientific doctor (a man) who is credited with
the mission. The orphans are employed as
Julia Alvarez teaching a "Writing in
the Wilds" workshop to her
Middlehury College studentt, above,
and enjoying an evening of
storytelli))ff wilh her )iei(}hbors, right,
in tlie Dominican Republic
10
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live carriers of the vaccine, a feat that did
nnl luimi them, "One of the reasons Ihat. I
wani ed t.o write the book is that the child
carriers are all but forgotten and deserve a
place in human recollection, Some of the
names, we know, jallhougli| often just first
names.
"We think about civilization and its great
projects and the things that are cuttingedge and move us forward as a human
family, [Often] we know the architect, or
the great doctor that led the expedition,
bul really, the actual work was done by the
little guy who put the stone in the cathedi"il, by the carriers of the vaccine, or the
anonymous person on whose back rides
our progress. The same could be tnie of
the novelist: they get their name in the
book, they get to be the star, but you're
standing on a lot of shoulders, that's how
you got lo touch the sky. So I feel like we
need In give credit where credit is due."
Dominican Republic) consistently asked Bread Loaf Writers Conference, where she
his various grandchildren what they began crafting novels, and the following
wished to become. On a first occasion, she year she received a gnuit from the Nalional
replied, "a bullfigliter," but he informed her Endowment for the Arts.
that only men could be bullfighters. Next
Her earliest forays into creativity were as
she said, "a cowboy," and he replied that a poet.. Alvarez'sfirst,small book of pttetiy,
she meant "cowgirl." The next time a trip Thf Housekeepim] Book, was publisheil
was made to New York, relatives brought in 1984. It was a collahoration with
hack child cowboy outfits for the boys and Dominican poet Sherezada "Chiqui"
a cowgirl outfit for her. She was greatly Vicioso, who founded a circle of women
disappointed because instead of the toy poets in New York in 1980 to help fIedgUi\g
guns and ropes that complemented the authoi's gel published. These poems were
hoys' outfits, she received a strap-on purse joined with new poems, often celebrating
and mirror. Later on she told her grandfa- nature, in an edition titled Homecoming,
ther she wished to become an actress, published in 1991. And in 1996, Alvarez
because they got. to know the world, try all Issued Homecoming: New and Collected
modes of travel, leam other languages, and Poems, including poems that are expreswear all sorts of costumes. Where do you sions of daily life and domestic chores, of
get these ideas? he replied. Then her finding ritual in the mundane. Her poems
mother told her she needed to eat more, often explore family stories from the
because she was too skiiuiy to become an perspective of Lhe woman, her search for
actress, and that she must learn to sing ident.ity, and her views on patriarchal priviand dance. None of these things interested lege. The "homecoming" is also a return to
Alvarez. By the end of the; essay, she tells the home of language, significant for those
ow does a writer gel noticed her grandfather Ihat she will become a living in exile. Another collection, The
iind onto the path to published poet, and he replies, yes, that is a very Otlier S'i/ie/El otro kido (1995), explores
works and fame'? And what good choice. Her childhood observations the lives of the people in the lowest
ins[)ires and guides them toward this path'? reveal the curiosity for life and people that economic (rlass in the Dominican countryOden the work is produced iii anonymity creates a great vnit,er.
side. These poems are sensitive ;uid introfor years. "I was passionate about this
spective, touching on the plight of field
calling. You know, I was 41 when Garcia
Winning awards is always a significant workers and household maids, many of
Girtsi was published, so I had been writing element in an author's success, and it whom are Iransitioning from life on
fora wliile,"
helpsfinanciallyas well. Alvarez received Lhe island to life in New York and are
Alvarez's hook of essays, published in literary awards and fellowships early in her struggling to acquire a new language.
1998, explores and explains many of the career; poetry awards in 1980, 1982, and The immignint voice is primary.
occurrences behind the creation of her 1984-86; and a PEN Oakland Award as well
novels. In the first chapter, titled as a prize from Berkeley's Third Woman
Alvarez's recent book of jioems. The
"Customs," she describes her grandfather, Press in 1986. That same year she was Woman. I Kept to Myself (20()4), is a selfwho (during her earliest years in the awarded a fellowship to participate in the reflection, where cultural practices are
H
I fed very lucky to happen
to have been a writer at the watershed time when
Latino literature became a literature that was not
just relegated to the province of sociology
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11
interwoven with images of isolation and
nature, from the perspective of a woman
who chooses writing over traditional roles
like motherhood. This poetic voice is
discernible in Alvarez's novels, which
explore in greater detail the heritage of the
Doniini can-American.
Several of the poems are in bilingual
form. In one, the speaker imagines "a literary border guard turning you back to
Spanish," a likely comment.ary on Spanishlanguage critics who call for proper use of
iSpanish. In another, the line, "Tu tiempo
ya llego" indicates acceptance of the bilingual U.S.-Latino personage. Another poem
is similar in context to an essay in
Something to Declare, stating that the
J U L I /\
ALVAREZ
SAVING
THE WORLD
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against Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo.
As with each of her novels in Spanish
translation, this one has gameretl considerable attention on the island. It niay have
even inspired Peruvian novelist Mario
Vargas Uosa to write his novel set in the
Dominican Republic, La fiesta del chivo
(200U), As early as 1969, however,
Dominican Pedro Mir (of Puerto Rican iind
Cuban parents) had published a long
poem, "Am6n de mariposas," celebrating
the Mirabal sisters of Alvarez's novel.
Now, Sar^ing the World joins several of
ber themes: women's roles in society, how
human beings interact and change societies, and the severe t;ontrasts between life
in the first and third worlds.
Latino is "all-American."
"Certainly, it's a novel about the huge
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their discrepancies that exist between different
Accents highlights the differences between parts of the world. Now that we're [so]
Caribbean and V.S. cultures thai impede mobile, we know and cai'r>' within us those
assimilation as well as the contradicting kinds of discrepancies, unsettling differgender messages immigrant girls hear from ences in which people get to have what.
their two cultures. Racial aspects not And of course, that's very much part of the
discussed in Dominican society are novel, in terms of what happens when the
broached here. Wlien the Gai'cia girls visit desperate rise up.
relatives on the island each summer, they
"There was always the option of just
see that light-skiimed babies—especially telling Isabel's story, the epidemic story,
male babies—are considered a great trea- which is engaging and riveting enough.
sure for a family. Donmiicans are said to Ttiat's all I was going to do, and then 9/11
have a cafe-con-leche or a "caramel" color, happened, and I think a lot of us writers,
while those of darker complexion are and a lot of Americans, suddenly started to
called Haitians. The present generation of ask ourselves: Oh my goodness, what is
Dominican-American viriters has contin- this world we are living in? Where are we
ued on this theme with even more overt headed? How can we tuni this around, if
descriptions of racial discrimination.
there is so much liatreij, so much division,
Alvarez's best-known work is in the that nobody's safe any more? And one of
Time of the Butterflies, a tribute to the things I asked myself as a vniter, like
women heroes and others who struggled my [other character) Alma, is, wliat are
stories for? What does it matt.er that you
read a story, and it. moves you, and makes
you feel the feelings that enlarge your spii'it when things happen in your life? What
does it mean t,hat you are a carrier, like
the boys with the vaccine, of a narrative
that you know about, either historical or
because you read a source?
"That's wliy I have Alma so obsessed
and taken with Isabel's story and the epidemic, and then things start, to happen to
her. That was the impetus. How does she
take t.his story? Wltat does that do for her?
1 didn't have an answer. You write novels
because you want to find things out.
I didn't know anything. I just wanted to follow that track. So in part. Saving the
WorUi is also a novel |asking] what stories
can do. Can they save us?"
L
ike other well-known writers at
the inception of a literary period,
Alvarez will forever be remembered as the first Dominican-American
writer and one of the first Latinas in a
decade of a great deal of attention for
this group. What is her impression of the
critical reception of her work?
"You know, you move intuitively as a
writer, using craft. Then later people wilt
see or point out, or you yourself will see a
couple or more basic themes running
througli there, but you didn't know you
were spinning it, even intentionally."
It is the reader that matters most to
her. In fact, she feels that no slory is
"alive" until the reader has absorbed it.
"What you hope for with a story is that it
opens up some little insights, some
what does U matter that
you read a story, and it moves you, and makes you
feel the feehngs that enlarge your spirit when things
happen in your life?
knowledge of character and of self that
wasn't there before, that it nurtures the
human spirit and gets passed on, so that
we're able to make different choices and
be a little more aware of each other, of
the human experience.
"Why does Whitman say, 'Look for me
under your boot soles' at the end of
Leaves of Grass? He doesn't mean that
literally. He is dead, he is under our boot
soles, or our shoes, but he is alive wlule
we are readiiig this poem, he's inside us.
At the end of The Woman I Kept to
Myself, there's a poem entitled 'Did I
redeem myself^ and the last two lines
are: 'And you, my readers, what will you
decide when all that's left of me will be
these lines?'"
i|
Elizabeth Coatirod Martinez 'is Professor
of Latin American Literature/Spanish
and Chair of the Department ofChicano
and Latino Studies at Sonoma State
University in northern California. Slie
is a regular contributor to Americas.
Book covers appear courtesy of
Algcrnquin Books in Cfiapel Hill
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