As a young writer, I was on guard against the Latina in me, the Spanish in me because as far as I could see the models that were presented to me did not include my world. In fact, 'I was told by one teacher in college that one could only write poetry in the language in which one first said Mother. That left me out of American literature, for sure.
Julia AlvarezI think it is important to know how to teach new material to help young people grow and learn.
Julia AlvarezIt doesn't make any sense. If the SIM are policemen, secret or not, shouldn't we trust them instead of being afraid of them?
Julia AlvarezReading and thoughtfulness and openness are the best way, I should think, to begin to address the richness that is in each of us.
Julia AlvarezFor me, the writing life doesn't just happen when I sit at the writing desk. It is a life lived with a centering principle, and mine is this: that I will pay close attention to this world I find myself in. 'My heart keeps open house,' was the way the poet Theodore Roethke put it in a poem. And rendering in language what one sees through the opened windows and doors of that house is a way of bearing witness to the mystery of what it is to be alive in this world.
Julia Alvarez