Before I join the Zoomwith Sandra Cisneros, I hyperventilate for some seconds.
Addressed to Martita, one of the two women Corina befriended in Paris, its a story about sisterhood.
What in that draft was still alive for you that made you want to revisit it?
It was one of many things that I had in the cupboard.
I didnt realize so much time had passed.
When youre a writer, you live in dreamtime.
Twenty years, whats that?
We put our head down and then when we pick it up, a decade or two has passed.
Thats how I feel about my life.
I was still a person that was writing that story.
Time was good to me, so I could find an ending for the story.
The story began, like all my work does, from autobiographical memory.
Of course, when I finished it, the protagonist grew away from me.
It wasnt my story anymore.
Had you also been in Paris?
Yes, I was!
That trip was right after finishingMango Street.
Do you have a philosophy for how to turn life into fiction?
I think its important to start with things that you feel in your heart very strongly.
Its such a detailed story.
I do remember some of the god-awful sleeping places.
I always write about things I wish I could forget.
Thats a good place to start.
Write about the things you wish you could forget.
A lot of those awful memories are recorded here maybe so I could exorcise them.
I didnt realize I was writing such an anti-Paris story.
I dont love Paris.
I know what it feels like to be the unwanted in Paris.
I had to write my truth.
I wasnt trying to grind an ax.
These are my true memories.
I began from there and remembered people I had met in different regions.
The things they told me American women, Yugoslav women, Italian women, Argentine women.
Some of the stories are based on things that came out of two peoples mouths.
I think as women, were privy to certain stories that break your heart.
When those stories break my heart, thats when I know how to write about them.
But its kind of like a kite.
The more you tether it to your life, it wont go very far.
Ithasto begin from something constructed for me thats real, and then I just give it more string.
That moment when it becomes someone else is so crucial.
Has your writing process changed a lot since theWomen Hollering Creekera to now?
I felt I had this obligation thattenia que cumplir.
Get them in that book.
Of course, thats impossible.
I think that was in my head when I was younger.
Dont you feel like that?
I cant imagine the weight and the degree of obligation you must have felt at the beginning.
You were really in the forefront of Latina writers in the U.S.
I feel that weight and obligation, but I dont think to the degree that you did.
Maybe moving away was my way of disengaging?
I just felt tired of mothering.
I felt tired of everyone asking for letters of recommendation, blurbs.
I wanted to step back and work on my own things.
Id been working on it, but you know how it is when you travel.
Then you get back, and youre like, Where was I?
I think this piece was here.
Its so hard to go back!
To be anti-social as a Latina, its about not cumpliendo.
We always have to cumplir, porque tanta necesidad.
Especially during the Trump era.
Where we had to go out there and undo all the damage hed done.
Its so hard to balance out the call to cumplir with the community and also have artistic freedom.
Theyre really hard [to balance] because people dont realize.
People dont understand that.
When youre writing, people think youre not doing anything, youre not there laboring and screaming in pain.
Yesterday I got an email from the bookstore.
A tourist who is in town and wants to meet me.
Could they meet me tomorrow, today?
They have no idea that Im working.
Imrepairingby reading Chekhov, and I dont want to meet people.
Well, I dont know.
AfterWomen Hollering CreekI felt I had to write a novel, and thats what the publisher wanted.
It takes so long.
And you dont know if your prison sentence is going to be three years or 10.
Are you going to be paroled?
Some writers live to write.
I write to live.
Thats what I want in this lifetime.
The writing is a means to attaining that.
Ive always been fascinated that you write poetry, fiction, non-fiction.
How do they each feel to you?
Do you approach them the same way?
Theyre all kind of different.
If it starts singing, then its a poem.
[If] I have to say something really remarkable to shut you up, thats a story.
Theres so much listening in your process.
Well, I dont know if Im the greatest listener.
People tell me that they tell me things, and I go, When did you tell me that?
Did I say,Mm-hmm?I was writing in my head, you know.
Im not responsible for things told to me when Im not there, even if Im there.
Everyone should know that about writers.
I dont know if you were raised Catholic…
I was, partly.
Did you have to go to confession and they had a green light and you could go in?
And red if they were busy?
You dont have those confession booths in Colombia?
We had some high-tech ones.
They had a little stoplight.
And if it was green you could go, and if it was red, they were busy.
And I wish we had one on our forehead.
Yes, that would be very helpful.
Red, dont talk to me, Im thinking.
If youre thinking people think youre there, but you could be in another time zone.
Youareon another time zone.
Do you send letters still?
I do, not as much as I did.
Its a beautiful thing.
Its like writing a poem to someone.
The whole thing aboutMartita,which is an unsent letter, is that shesthinkingher letter.
We do that with people sometimes, with poems, and people weve lost in time.
Sometimes we know how to reach them, and sometimes we dont want to reach them.
This story is a letter that isnt mailed.
Do you write poetry?
I have written a little bit of poetry.
I find my way into writing through poetry.
And then once I find an entry into the world, I switch back to prose.
Yes, because poetry is kind of like a Ouija board, isnt it?
You start with some word or question and it really writes itself, like a Ouija board.
Theres something very magical, spiritual, and mysterious about writing poetry.
To me, its the most sacred of all the genres.
I always tell people who are prose writers to study poetry, read poetry.
It will make your work even more beautiful.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
This article was originally published onNovember 1, 2021
