I was raised in Chicago, so always used Latina. It's what my Father and brothers called ourselves, when we meant the entire Spanish-speaking community of Chicago.

Mexico is only a memory of childhood safety.

I learned when I was a student in Connecticut. I had an Italian-American teacher who gave me classes for a week, and then said, "Okay, you're ready." And I wasn't ready. I didn't know how to drive!. But he knew the policeman who gave the test. And that's how I got through.

I think no matter what you do you can't please everybody. You have to ask yourself, "Did I do what I set out to do?"

The ideal for me is to mix it up. When I have a writing workshop, I like to have people that are anthropologists and people who are poking around in other fields, I like to have them all in the same workshop, and not worry about genre.

To me, the Virgen de Guadalupe is just a vessel for me to recognize my own God within myself.

San Antonio drives me crazy, but Chicago drives me crazy in a different way.