Guadalupe Garcia McCall is the author most recently of the young adult novel Shame the Stars. She also has written Under the Mesquite and Summer of the Mariposas. She is a high school language arts teacher. Born in Mexico, she moved to Texas as a child.
Q: You note that you were inspired to write Shame the Stars
after learning from your son about events that happened in Texas in 1915. How
did that lead you to write the novel, and how did you create your characters
Joaquín and Dulceña?
A: Joaquín’s character came to me fully formed the night I
read Revolution in Texas by Dr. Benjamin Johnson (the book my son gave me to
read). Joaquín woke me up in the middle of the night to tell me I needed to get
up and write his story. It was very much like a “visitation” in that I could
see him in my mind.
At first, it was just him, telling me about Rancho Las
Moras, his father’s friendship and faith in the Rangers, and his love of
Dulceña. The names came from him as much as the story did. The conflict, the
moral dilemma that he is facing, all came from him. It’s the rest of the story,
the scene by scene action/reaction, that came from me and my research.
Q: What kind of research did you do to write Shame the
Stars?
A: Once I had Joaquín’s story down, which he gave me in the
form of long, narrative poems, I went back and did more research. I went to the
Library of Congress online database and read newspapers of the time, printing
out headline and after headline, because they were pieces of the puzzle for me.
These headlines beefed up my plot, twisted it and shaped it
into something that tried to paint a picture of the rebellion that spawned La
Matanza of 1915. I also read many nonfiction books about the Mexican American
experience in the United States.
Something else I did was visit the Bullock Museum which, at
that time, had an exhibit called “Life and Death on the Border” which centered
on the Matanza.
I read every marker and took pictures of every artifact
because the authentic objects, like Pancho Villa’s saddle and a bride’s wedding
dress, fed my story. They were physical manifestations of the narrative Joaquín
wanted me to tell.
They were proof that what Joaquín was saying was true. I was
being called to action. The story had been consigned to me and I felt blessed
and honored to be entrusted with it.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the novel?
A: I hope that readers see that our history, the Latino
experience, in this country has been filled with struggle and conflict, but
also that we are gente buena. We are human beings with blood in our veins and
love in our hearts.
I hope they see that we are so much more than the
stereotypes which movies and hateful rhetoric would depict. Latinos are part of
the American fabric. We live in various parts of the country and move within many
social, political, and economic circles.
To believe the stereotypes is an injustice to us and to
themselves. As Latinos, we’ve suffered much, but we’ve never given up on our
country. We are Americans through and through.
Q: You've written a sequel, All the Stars Denied, which will
come out later this year. What can you tell us about that book?
A: All The Stars Denied is the story of Estrella, the
fifteen-year-old daughter of Joaquín and Dulceña. Estrella is a spirited girl,
a child of privilege, who understands that her parents and grandparents
struggled and lost much for her to live in comfort and safety.
As a descendant of heroes and sheroes, Estrella longs to
live up to her family’s legacy. She wants to impact the world in a positive
way.
But when she leads a peaceful march against the hateful
slogans that appear in every door and window of the businesses on the White
side of town, her family is targeted for repatriation, the deportation of over
one million Mexicans and Mexican Americans from the U.S.
Estrella and her family are rounded up, separated, and
dropped off on the other side of the border without the means to survive, much
less return to their home.
Like her father, Estrella is a poet, but her poetry is
filled with imagery from the natural world, the foliage and fauna of South
Texas, where she knows she and her family belong.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I have several projects on the stove right now. Some of
them are simmering on the back burner, some of them are bubbling over, and some
of them I am just now beginning to prep.
There’s a Borderlands Kaiju YA novel I’ve been stirring
around that I really like. There’s the finished, much beloved stew I like to call
my Grand Dish, a Borderlands Gothic novel, which I think has a lot of promise
and I hope to make into a proper dish someday.
There’s also the tender little petit-fours which I can’t
seem to master just yet, picture books, I’m trying to perfect. It’s slow going,
but I have faith. There’s lots to do, lots to play with, so I’m happy. I know
these things will feed me. I just have to stay in the kitchen and keep cooking.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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