Photo by Cristie Reddehase
Elba Iris Pérez is the author of the novel The Things We Didn't Know, which is now available in paperback. She also has written the book El Teatro Como Bandera. She lives in Houston.
Q: What inspired you to write The Things We Didn’t Know, and how did you create your character Andrea?
A: I grew up in Woronoco, Massachusetts, a company town where my father worked in a papermill. With time, my father invited family and friends from Puerto Rico to work and live at the company town, and eventually, a Puerto Rican community thrived there.
At the age of 12, I returned to Puerto Rico, where I was born. Over 20 years later, I visited Woronoco and found that all the homes had been torn down and the papermill closed. I asked people I came across if they knew that a Puerto Rican community had been there during the 1950s and no one remembered them.
This inspired me to write a novel set in that place. The character of Andrea logically followed and is inspired by my journey and that of the many other Puerto Rican girls whom I knew as a child in Woronoco and neighboring towns.
Q: How was the novel’s title chosen, and what does it signify for you?
A: My publisher chose that title and I loved it. For me, it signifies everything you don’t know you’ll have to deal with when you move to another country.
In the character of Luis, the father of the protagonist, you see that he wants his children to live in the US so that they learn English which he believes will give them a better education and job opportunities than they’d have in Puerto Rico. However, he wasn’t counting on his kids wanting to be like the Americans in their community and school.
Luis has a conflict because he wants to live in the United States but also wants his children to preserve his cultural heritage. This presents a problem for the main character, Andrea, and her brother, Pablo, who feel that they live between two worlds.
Q: The Kirkus Review of the book called it a “coming of age tale that beautifully evokes the contrasting environments of Puerto Rico and Massachusetts.” What do you think of that description, and how important is setting to you in your writing?
A: I love the description Kirkus Reviews wrote about my book. I did strive to evoke the contrasts between Puerto Rico and Massachusetts.
One of the methods I used was to describe the setting, focusing on the differences. I describe rivers in several places and gave each one unique characteristics.
I also sprinkled Spanish phrases through the text to evoke the sound that comes across as being different from English. Food and cooking are another description I used to distinguish the two cultural environments.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the story?
A: When I recall Woronoco, I think of the hard-working men who came from farms in Puerto Rico in the 1950s to work in a papermill in the frigid mountains of Massachusetts. This is a stark contrast with the stereotype that Latinos come to this country to collect welfare.
What I hope readers will take away is that Puerto Ricans, like people from all over the world, come to this country to work.
In general, I strived to break with stereotypes. I’ve created characters who are nuanced with different personalities, goals and aspirations. I show a community where there are exceptional mothers but also, ones who aren’t. I portray machismo and racism as I remember it in the 1960s and 1970s. But also, a diverse, supportive and loving community.
This is also a woman’s story seen through the lens of various characters. Various characters represent the struggles women encounter to break free from patriarchal traditions.
This is also a story about brotherly love, and about children who are displaced and long for community and acceptance. It portrays the struggles children face when trying to fit into different cultures that are, at times, conflicting.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’m writing a novel set in the 1970s which is a romance with magical realism and it might end up being two books. In that novel a young woman is discovering that she has magical abilities while she is also falling in love with a street mime and trying to keep these new abilities hidden from him.
I’m also outlining a novel set in the 1930s during the tuberculosis epidemic in Puerto Rico where the main character loses her mother. So, it will be the coming of age of this motherless girl.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I have a fear of flying but made it through at least 10 flights on my book tour. The key for me is to get a window seat. That’s one thing I didn’t know!
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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