Magical realism as a declaration in the text is usually when someone can't speak and then they must be magically reinvigorated in some way.
Fred D'AguiarTo close the empathetic gap, you really want to get the person emotionally identifying [with your subject and characters], and then when you do that, then you want sneak in a lesson about history and about politics and whatever else you might think about.
Fred D'AguiarI'm interested in someone who's mired in grief: how do you get back to that thing that makes them warm? Because you know that's in there.
Fred D'Aguiar