Hello to March, and hello to you!
I hope you are well and not suffering from the cold or flu in this cold, rainy weather. The weather these past three months is unusual for California. Most of us don’t have umbrellas, and I only have a raincoat because I use it for travel.
With Spring coming, I’m hoping for drier weather and a chance (believe it or not) to get out to my front and backyard gardens to pull weeds.
Another event coming soon is my new book, and with that, I sometimes get interviewed about writing and why I wrote a specific book. These are a couple of interviews about my first novel, THE GARDEN OF SECOND CHANCES, about an incarcerated teen mom on Saralynn Buck’s blog and Women Writers, Women’s Books.
A question that stumped me a couple of years ago was when I was asked, “Why do you write.” Saying because I like to write is superficial, although true. It took much longer to find my answer. When I began, I think I looked like this:
To understand why, I examined the novels or movies I love, and a good portion of them are underdog stories—situations in which people with less power, money, or influence believe in their ability to attain their goals and defy others’ low expectations.
When I finish an underdog story, I’m inspired by the characters' resilience and capacity to recover from difficulties. Faced with seemingly insurmountable obstacles, the characters struggle to reach their dreams. It’s the resilience the character shows that captivates me.
How do they develop this resilience? Faith, teamwork, belief in self, having a mentor role model, or, as Mr. Escalante says in the movie Stand and Deliver, you must have ganas. A bit of luck helps, too.
The way a person develops the trait is different for everyone.
When I thought about my favorite books and movies, I discovered that very few featured a protagonist or cast of characters with my heritage.
If you’re a writer, you’ve probably seen the Cooperative Children’s Book Center diversity statistics on books by and about people of color.
In the category of a Latino/a/x central character written by a Latino/a/x author is 6%. Animal stories make up 22% of the books.
Why is it essential to significantly increase this percentage of Latinx stories?
I posted about this in Window, Mirrors, and Sliding Glass Doors. Dr. R. Sims Bishop put it like this:
Literature transforms human experience and reflects it back to us, and in that reflection, we can see our own lives and experiences as part of the larger human experience. Reading, then, becomes a means of self-affirmation, and readers often seek their mirrors in books."With decades of life experience, I could quickly come up with hundreds of people in my neighborhood, social circles, and career who demonstrated resilience and had stories worth telling.
My motivation for writing is these statistics, and my tiny part in contributing to the windows, sliding doors, and mirrors for young people is writing about Latinx characters and culture and using the sometimes untranslatable Spanish language.
Here’s my why:
I write to amplify the stories of underrepresented or marginalized young women, especially Latinx women.
Book News
I’ve received two wonderful author blurbs and a positive Kirkus Review for my upcoming book, A BRIDGE HOME.
Authors are so busy with their full-time jobs, writing careers, and lives that it’s not easy to read a book and send in a blurb. Here’s the first one (I’ll keep the newsletters short).
“Bravo for Jacqui! Jaqueline Bravo is a teen heroine for our times, even as she lives through the 1970's. I loved watching the activism of a teen in the 70s mirror the teen activism alive and well today. She reminds us that we all have to stand for something, including ourselves!
I was inspired by watching Jacqui take control of her life by both sneaking a part time job to pay her tuition, and getting active in the rising civil rights movements. These are stories that need to be told!” Melissa Coss Aquino, author of Carmen and Grace.
Bookstore of the Month
This is a place to browse, find your vinyl, and visit nature all in one place. Plus you can buy books and plants! Even the ceiling has greenery.
It was great to hear your 'why' behind writing. Those statistics are horrible...