The Making of Latino Literature

The publishing industry has discovered hispanic power

By Ilan Stavans

Approximately decade ago, I embarked on a project whose implications I

knew at the time would be far-reaching: editing The Norton Anthology of
Latino Literature. Now, after a titanic effort by a cadre of five period editors,
the almost 5,000 manuscript pages are at the publisher, being made ready
for publication in 2009.

Putting together such a mammoth effort entails attentive research into a

number of areas. Organized chronologically as well as by national
background, the antology includes almost 300 authors in some 2,300 pages.
In other words, readers will be able to peruse it to understand the entire
Latino literary experience in the United States, from the colonial period to
the present, with a focus on groups such as Mexicans, Dominicans, Puerto
Ricans, Cubans, etc. The volume has a section on oral traditions: chistes,
proverbs, canciones, and famous songs like En mi Viejo San Juan. It also has
a comprehensive historical chronology and an up-to-date bibliography.

The project is a response to the emergence of a new constituency: an avid

readership interested in Latino topics. Decades ago, books about Mexicans,
Cubans, and Puerto Ricans for the most part attracted a minuscule
audience. They were released by small ethnic presses. But in the early 90s a
dramatic change was evident: the New York publishing industry discovered
the Hispanic power. Imprints were established by major houses like HarperCollins and Penguin. Some of them manufactured books not only in English
but in Spanish, too. This double effort had never happened in American
publishing, at least not with the same impetus. Although Walt Whitmans
language is our lengua franca, Hispanics have established their immigrant
tongue as quintessential.

The story wasnt always happy. There was a thirst to find out more about
Latinos. But a sizable Latino audience wasit still isevasive. And elusive,
too. Do Hispanics read at the same ration of other ethnic groups? Studies
are inconclusive but the New York publishing business isnt. While Latinos
are entering the middle class in larger numbers than ever, reading habits
are established over long stretches of time.

Storytelling is at the heart of the Hispanic family. It might even be said to be

the glue holding it together. Parents tell their children stories before they go
to bed. The passing of knowledge from the older to the younger generation
also takes place through stories delivered at the dinning-room table. And
adolescents use storytelling as a tool to shape their identity. But from the
oral to the written word theres a gap. While cuentos might be the currency
at home, books (other than Bibles) are frequently absent.

In any case, from the 90s on, non-Latinos, especially of college age, have all
but compensated for the absence of a Latino readership. Consequently, a
new type of Latino writer has emerged, one becoming an asset for
publishers that organize popular appearances in schools, community
centers, and literary festivals. The autographing of books by Hispanic
authors is a lively activity these days across the country.

Only a handful of them actually make their living from writing alone. The
majority are teachers in universities. Some work as editors in New York City.
Others are lawyers, doctors, accountants, and activists. This, in my view, is
a double-edged sword. On the one hand, making a living exclusively from
literature is a sign of success. Philip Roth, Toni Morrison, and John Updike do
it. But the effort means that, with few exceptions, authors need to produce
constantly, at a rate of a book a year. On the other hand, the daily
immersion in an academic environment frequently brings along a solipsistic
style, hyper-intellectual, minimalistic, disconnected from the so-called world.
Whats worse?

The average printing of a Latino book released by a mainstream publisher is

7,500 copies. A handful of bestsellers are an exception. Sandra Cisneros
adolescent tale The House on Mango Street, originally brought out by Arte
Pblico Press in Houston and reacquired by Random, has been made
curriculum in high schools and colleges, resulting in far more than a million
copies in print. Equally successful is Rudolfo Anayas mystical novel Bless
Me, Ultima House, also brought out by a small regional house and
relaunched by Warner in the 90s.

In spite of the stress by the U.S. media that Latinos are a relatively recent
immigrant minority, the community dates its roots to Spanish explorers and
missionaries like Alvar Nez Cabeza de Vaca and Fray Junpero Serra. Their
journals of discovery are filled with wonderful anecdotes of estrangement
and reconsideration. The territories that today constitute the Southwestern
states are infused with rich, diverse mestizo roots that came about from the
hybridization of Iberian and pre-Columbian cultures. Only in recent times

has that past begun to be connected with the heterogeneousness of Latinos

north of the Ro Grande today.

The 19th century was defined by nationalistic unrest. Gaspar Betancourt

Cisneros, Ramn Emeterio Betances, Jos Mart, and Luis Muoz Rivera
orchestrated, in Florida, New York, and elsewhere in the U.S., stratagems for
the independence of their republics. But the acquisition of two thirds of
Mexico (land from Colorado and Arizona to Nevada and Utah), by
Washington for $15 million dollars as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo in 1848, which came immediately after the Mexican-American War,
also defined a collectivity that, from one day to the next, modeled a double
identity: Hispanic and American.

The literature produced by Latinos in the first half of the 20th century was
marked by a process of acculturation. In the work of Arthur Schomburg,
William Carlos Williams, Mara Cristina Mena, Jess Coln, and Jospehina
Niggli, the reader senses the desire to build a bridge between at times
incompatible sides. Where do we belong? Why is it that the U.S. refuses to
acknowledge our unique heritage?

These questions brought along a dissatisfaction that joined forces with that
of other marginalized minorities, notably Blacks, during the Civil Rights era.
Nowadays the picture students get in school of that moment in American
history is reductive. They hear about Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X,
and Rosa Parks, but are unacquainted with Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta,
Reies Lpez Tijerina, and Rodolfo Corky Gonzles, leaders of the Chicano
Movement whose influence during the late 60s and 70s is crucial in the
shaping of who we are at present.

The Hispanic literary tradition in the U.S. blissfully reaches across genres. It
has extraordinary examples of playwrights like Luis Valdez (Zoot Suit), Jos
Rivera (The House of Ramn Iglesia), and Nilo Cruz (Anna in the Tropics). It
has a lineup of provocative poets such as Victor Hernndez Cruz, Alberto
Alvaro Ros, and Ricardo Pau-Llosa. And there are also eloquent speakers
like Cesar Chavez. Those speeches have a unique power on the printed
page, as is proved in the compilation An Organizers Tale. Plus, the graphic
novel and its subsidiaries play an important role. For instance, Guillermo
Gmez Pea, a Chicano performance artist, co-produced an admirable
illustrated book called Codex Espangliensis.

Arguably, Latino fiction exploded into the mainstream in the late 80s.
Among the highlights was the awarding of the Pulitzer in 1989 to Oscar
Hijuelos, a Cuban-American, for The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love, the
first novel by a Hispanic to receive such a prize. The third took place just
last year to Junot Daz, a Dominican-American, for The Brief Wondrous Life of
Oscar Wao. (Nilo Cruz also won the award.) In the interim, luscious,
polyphonic narratives, a vast quantity of them made by female authors such
as Julia Alvarez, Ana Castillo, and Cristina Garca, have expanded the shelf
and reinvigorated a self.

If I could magically gather in a single stage the fictional characters in this

literary tradition that have emerged in the last couple of decades and ask
them about their personal dilemma, their response would be about
acceptance and rejection of what it means to be an American. No doubt the
astonishing growth of the Hispanic minority has made us more visible at the
national level, but that doesnt mean all doors are open.

On the contrary, the ordeal of immigrants and native-born is defined by

incessant xenophobia. Among the recurrent themes in Latino literature (and,
for that matter, of ethnic books in general) is the concept of home. From Piri
Thomass memoir Down These Mean Streets to Richard Rodriguezs Hunger
of Memory and Luis Alberto Urreas reportage on the perils of immigration
The Devils Highway, the questions are similar: Dnde est el hogar? Y
cmo es esa casa? In short, whats the difference between the ideas of casa
and hogar? This search for home isnt only present in plotlines. The
language of recent Latino writing is elastic, unexpected, and unsettling. A
portion of the books are written in Spanish, a majority in English, and a
decisive number appear in Spanglish, entirely or in parts. This verbal game
is rewarding. The sounds heard in the kitchen, park, classroom, church,
athletic facility, and political arena, are echoed on the page.

Be that as it may, this explosion is being seen as an overall renewal of

American letters. Where it has created discomfort is south of the border. It
used to be that a fair number of books in Spanish by authors from Colombia,
Argentina, Mexico, and Cuba, to name the four most prominent Latin
American countries where literature is, in actual and metaphorical terms, an
institution, would be brought out in English translations in the U.S. by
important houses. But that river is almost dry now. The mentality of New
York publishers is organized around quotas. If they bring a novel by a CubanAmerican, it is needless to do another one by a Cuban because the market,
in their view, is small. But is it? Its a chicken-and-egg paradigm, of course:
Is the readership of Latin American titles small because less than a dozen of

them are released annually, or is the fact that there are such limited number
of titles what makes the readership small?

Among my own concerns regarding the development of Hispanic literature

in the U.S. from colonial times onward is the emphasis on fiction and poetry
but the relative quiet in the area of nonfiction. There is, to be sure, a
plethora of autobiographies. Indeed, the memoir is a favorite genre.
Hispanics, just like everyone else in the U.S., love to transform their
experience into a performance. What Im talking about is something
different: nonacademic critical explorations about gangs, drugs, bilingual
education, and affirmative action. Scholarly volumes are regularly published
on these subjects but they are destined for a tiny readership. Im talking
about well-crafted meditations that draw a larger readership and that have a
critical tone.

By critical I dont mean negative. To have a critical eye is to appreciate the

world not as it is but as it should be. Fine fiction achieves that: it challenges
the reader to rethink the immediate surroundings. Nonfiction ought to do
the same. Its absence, it seems to me, strives from the fact that Hispanics
are known as voracious dreamers and not as thinkers.

Having read widelyand wildly to select the content of The Norton

Anthology of Latino Literature, Ive learned one thing: authors are surveyors
who help us figure out where we come from, why were here, and what we
want. Needless to say, the art of editing such an ambitious anthology comes
at a cost. To be in charge of establishing a literary canon is a responsibility.
Obviously, editing is about selection. The hope is that what makes it in is far
superioreach and every one of the contributions and the composite as a
wholeto what is left out.

Needless to say, the tradition encompasses it all: the good, the bad, and the
unexpected.

MIAMI BOOK FAIR

Mitch Kaplan, owner of the independent bookstore Books & Books, is one of
the founders of the Miami Book Fair International. This year the fair, which is
sponsored by Miami Dade College and is celebrating its 25TH anniversary,
runs from november 9-16.

[ILAN STAVANS] To what extent are the two tracks taking place
simultaneously at the Miami Book Fair, one in Spanish and the other in
English, a wise strategy?

[MITCH KAPLAN] One of the reasons for the success of the fair is our
acknowledgement of Miamis cultural diversity. From the outset we wanted
to produce a fair that had something for everyone. The Spanish
programming has been an extremely important reflection of this, and its
growth is a testament to how receptive our audiences have been. Weve
gone from a few programs in Spanish to now presenting extensive offerings
throughout the eight days of the Book Fair.

[IS] As a bookseller, have you noticed a change in reading habits as a result

of the Book Fair?

[MK] Yes, I have. The fair has helped develop audiences for the visiting
authors. Our sales often spike after the fair with fairgoers wanting to buy
books by authors theyve discovered there. The nurturing of literary culture
that the Book Fair has been engaged in has, similarly, had a profound affect
on Books & Books, from developing audiences for readings to helping to
make Miami a hospitable place for a vibrant community of writers.

[IS] In the age of depersonalized mega-stores, what is the role of the small
independent bookstore?

[MK] At a difficult time like now, independent bookstores provide the sense
of community that people need. Great, good places provide a comforting
refuge from home and work spaces, giving people an opportunity to feel a
sense of belonging in what are often very impersonal public places. Also, as
disseminators of information, its incumbent on us to present a wide range
of books reflecting local concerns and interests, while at the same time
providing programming which is relevant and provocative. In this very
competitive retail environment, we need to show why we have value, and
that value should not only be measured by price. If we can articulate all of
this to our customers, independent bookstores will continue to have an
important role.

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