On Tuesday afternoon, Love Library at San Diego State
University was standing room only with students and faculty packed in, shoulder-to-shoulder,
providing a very “warm” welcome for Children and Young Adult author, Isabel
Quintero.
SDSU professor, Dr. Phillip Serrato, introduced “the
talented, awarding winning author” and “sharp and savvy teacher” by revealing a
little yarn about how Ms. Quintero saved the day and a certain professor’s
craving for a chocolate chip cookie. The story fired up the crowd for the guest
speaker and Professor Serrato proclaimed, “it really does take a village!” when
thanking the many organizations and individuals for helping make this special event
happen.
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| Prof. Joseph Thomas, Isabel Quintero, Prof. Phillip Serrato |
When Isabel Quintero, the daughter of Mexican immigrants and
sister to her “little, baby brother” [shh! we won’t tell him you called him
that in public], took to the podium, she discussed her upbringing in the Inland
Empire and the struggles her family endured during her childhood. She disclosed
her father’s battle with alcoholism and how it influenced her debut novel, Gabi, A Girl in Pieces. Quintero also
spoke about the tender moments between mother and daughter during their bedtime
story routine, reading the Amelia Bedelia
book series and expressed how “words became love” in those evening hours.
Books and words were a way of “connecting” for Quintero. She
shared how e e cummings’s “[anyone live in a pretty how town]” made her realize she
could “own the language and do whatever she wanted on the page,” no longer bound
by the rules of grammar and punctuation. Quintero amused the audience when she
said this recognition marked her path into writing “angsty teen poetry…horrible, horrible
poetry!” which she claims is “all gone now, thankfully…no one has to witness
that!”
But this moment was a telling reveal for the future author,
who would go on to win the William C. Morris YA debut novel award and Tomás
Rivera book award. Quintero is, at heart, a poet. But anyone who has read Gabi, can see the lyrical rhythm and
flow by the way she writes her characters’ thoughts and dialogue.
When Quintero attended college, she took her first Chicano
literature class and tells the crowd how it was the “first time I’d ever seen
myself in a book. It was [also] the first time I knew Mexicans could be
writers, professionally…I didn’t know we [could do] that, because all we had
read [were] dead white guys and dead white women.” Here she corrects herself
and says, “Emily Dickinson…one dead white woman…and Langston Hughes,” to which everyone
chimed in agreement as they remembered their own high school literature
curriculum. She described how reading Chicano authors, like Michele Serros,
“opened her eyes to what [she] could do and how [her] culture could be
celebrated”.
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| Quintero reading "Dead Pig's Revenge" |
With that, Quintero pulled out Serros’s “Dead Pig’s Revenge,”
another defining piece of poetry that helped shape the author she was to
become, and read to her audience. Later, she described how Serros’s writing helped
her grasp the idea that she didn’t have to write about “things that were
foreign to [her],” she could write about “chicharrones and tacos de lingua.”
Quintero then began writing in “English, then Spanish” although she admits that
her Spanish is “not academic, but her Spanglish is awesome!” raising another bout
of laughter from the room.
Quintero went onto another adolescent tale about breaking curfew
at home to attend an “open mic” poetry night where she performed her first
reading. This instant became her motto for how “strongly she feels about poetry
and writing: yeah, I’ll break curfew for that!” Quintero exclaimed. She also
believes writing is a “constant investigation of the self” and cites Gloria
Anzaldúa
as another influence in her work. Anzaldúa taught her about “responding
to whiteness…and how [people of color] are taught to see themselves through a
white lens. And when we are taught to do that we don’t see ourselves as a
whole…we are white-washed, and often times we are stereotyped.”
She also spoke to the audience about her collaboration with artist and friend, Zeke Peña, on their Getty-commissioned
nonfiction graphic novel about famed photographer Graciela Iturbide. Quintero
has another title release coming out next spring, the second in her children’s
book series about Ugly Cat and Pablo.
She discussed how her time as a library technician taught her how to write for a
younger audience.
During the Q&A session, Quintero discussed how she
started the Zine prior to writing Gabi, but completed it while she was in the process of finishing the book. She also
disclosed how the novel was originally written in verse, but was advised by an
editor to rewrite it in prose and took inspiration from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid’s format.
A lyrical essay concerning her father’s relapse with
his addiction will be coming out soon, and Quintero confessed how hard
it was to write about her family and emotionally revisiting that occasion
in her life. Her voice saddened when she said “I still feel it sometimes” when
recalling the fearful moment and knowing her father could “die from this
disease.”
Quintero imparted writing advice to the aspiring
authors in the crowd telling them to “be prepared to be emotionally exhausted”
during their creative endeavors, and how Professor Julie Paegle from the
California State University at San Bernardino was an inspiration for pursuing
her craft. She told them how “there is no right way to be a writer” and
that “writing is activism.” Quintero stressed that when writing for a younger
audience she believes “we have a responsibility for truth and authenticity” and
how “we don’t need to talk down to [children or teenagers].”
She recalled one of the first times she spoke for a class at
a Lincoln Heights’ high school. One student questioned how she could be “proud
of [her] culture, [when] she talks bad about it in her book (Gabi, A Girl in
Pieces).” Quintero remarks how she thought it was a good question, because even
though she may criticize her own culture, one has to realize that it isn’t
“perfect, because there is going to be things we need to change and be better
at” just like any culture.
One of the most profound moments during the
event occurred prior to the Q&A session, when Quintero took on a more
serious tone and told the audience what she has learned about her own authorial
voice. "Being able to write and tell your own stories is a powerful
act," she explained, "especially [for] people of color and [those in
the] queer [community]." "We need to hear your stories,” she continued,
"because when you don't write you give someone else the power to write for
you."
Many thanks again to everyone who attended the event and especially to Isabel Quintero! We wish Ms. Quintero the best on her future writing endeavors and look forward to reading more of her work. You can follow her on Twitter @isabelinpieces
Stay tuned for NCSCL's exclusive interview with Isabel Quintero coming in mid-December!
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