Location
El Paso, TX | Las Cruces, NM
Richard Yanez: "El Paso del Norte" (Spanish for "the Pass of the North") is the City of El Paso's historical name traced back to the Spanish conquistadores trek to the area in the sixteenth century. An expedition under Juan de Onate took formal possession of the entire territory drained by the Rio del Norte (the present-day Rio Grande) in a ceremony called "La Toma" ("the claiming").
I came up with the title after I wrote most of the stories and was conceiving the book as connected stories. Each story is named after a place (neighborhood, tienditas, church), and all the stories are grouped under the Spanish name for my birthplace. I wanted to give the landscape of the book a historical and mythical quality.
How long have you lived in El Paso? What high school did you graduate from? As a high school student did you feel that the area around you could influence your writing?
Richard Yanez: I was born and lived in El Paso for twenty-five years and attended Ysleta High School from 1983-86. "Once An Indian Always An Indian." In high school, I felt hidden from the world. While my friends and I explored the vast desert on the east side of town, I felt like we were in a perpetual black hole, where nothing that interesting happened. It wasn't until I left El Paso for graduate school and teaching jobs that I began to appreciate the Chihuahua Desert. Now, as an adult, having returned to the Border, I have a very different relationship to the desert setting. I better understand how I am a Child of the Sun.
If you were to personify the "Border", what would you refer to it as? Before you set the plan to write this book, were you familiar with any other stories (including myths, folklore, etc.) about the El Paso - Juarez border? Which Chicano writers, if any, were you familiar with growing up.
Richard Yanez: The Border is a real place, first. I am very aware of the harsh realities of the U.S. - Mexico Border. La Migra. The fences. The helicopters. And while I am able to access metaphors for the Border, I must remember that men and women die everyday crossing to the other side.
Yes, I was very aware of other stories from the El Paso - Juarez border. Luis Urrea, Alberto Rios, Gloria Anzaldua, and Norma Cantu have also documented la frontera, from Tijuana to Laredo, in their writing. More recently, writers like Oscar Casares and Lucrecia Guerrero, as well as poets like Carolina Monsivais and Ofelia Zepdeda have been inspired by this area Anzaldua calls "an open wound." Others have referred to it as the "second world" between the first and the third. I always think of myself of being in the middle. As Arturo Islas wrote: "We are children of the border. Between heaven and hell."
In addition to those that I mentioned, several Chicana/o writers made my literary journey possible. Arturo Islas's Rain God, Tomas Rivera's ... y no se lo trago la tierra, and Dagoberto Gilb's Magic of Blood all influence my work. I am very proud to be from El Paso, which has been home to many wonderful Chicana/o voices, including Islas, Gilb, Pat Mora, Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Ricardo Sanchez, Jose Antonio Burciaga. I am indebted to their courage to put words on the page.
Were there any other writers that had any sort of influence on the development of El Paso del Norte? If so, whom and how were they influential?
Richard Yanez: There are so many mentors that helped in the completion of my book. Significantly, Rick DeMarinis and Kevin McIlvoy were the first two writer-teachers who read my work. Each of them was very generous in the way he guided me to find my voice. Both of them are wonderful instructors that allowed me to discover so much about my vision for storytelling. There are also many peers - especially my best friend, Todd McKinney - from my writing workshops at New Mexico State University and Arizona State University who influenced the stories that appear in my book. I am definitely a product of a community of mentors, writers, and poets, who I acknowledge in my book. And, I should mention that my dad, Roberto Yanez, was also a great reader for this book and all of my work. The book is dedicated to him, my mom, my brother, and my paternal grandparents.
I'm going to quote a part from the first short story of the book, Desert Vista. "I tucked the note in my corduroys and opened my journal. I counted the check marks on the inside cover. Kissing for the ninth time was as good, if not better, as the first time. That was for sure. If it had been up to me I would've written about the sweetness of kissing, not "How I See Myself in Ten Years." Do you remember what your response was to this journal question back then? Where do you see yourself ten years from now?
Richard Yanez: I am not sure, but I imagine I saw myself doing something fun, like coaching basketball or riding motorcycles. Anything but the hard work that I saw my grandparents and parents do. I always had a big imagination. And although my junior high journals were pretty mundane, the day to day stuff, I know that I always had a sense of adventure. I wanted to have a life that made me happy (like kissing for the first time) not one that was hard (like tarring roofs). Ten years from now, I hope for more of the same. Writing, being around other writers/artists, and spending time with those I love. While I hope for more book publications, I envision that as one blessing among so many. Without human connections, a warm community, my words won't seem worthy.
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