Students and community members gathered in Long Beach State University’s theater on April 18 in anticipation of the artist, poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, translator and short-story writer Ana Castillo. Dr. Castillo was invited to the university as a part of the eighth annual Helena Maria Viramontes Lecture in Latina/o Literature.
Established in the Spring of 2015, the Helena Maria Viramontes Lecture in Latina/o Literature committee creates a space for university and community members to converse about Latina/o/x literature, culture and issues with prolific writers and scholars in the field.
“That’s a really exciting, unique opportunity. To hear from an author directly…we have Ana Castillo, right, like these two incredibly talented, self-identified Chicana(s) who have made waves in the upper echelons of literati, so to be able to host them it is an honor,” Stacy Macias, organizing committee member from the women gender sexualities studies department, said.
“To be able to have some sort of community claim to them in that we share a particular historical and cultural reality that other students and the larger community can also make both claims to that they can see themselves in these powerhouse authors who have often struggled for their art.”
Castillo has numerous awards such as the Sor Juana Achievement Award from the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum in Chicago, the Carl Sandburg Award, a Mountains and Plains Booksellers Award, and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in both fiction and poetry. Her awards come from discussing themes of rebellion, spirituality, gender and feminism in her work.
Her discussions of ‘controversial’ topics got two of her novels, “So Far from God” and “Loverboys”, banned by the Tucson Unified School District in Arizona. These type of discussions and topics made the Helena Maria Viramontes Lecture in Latina/o Literature committee seek her out.
“Whether it’s in a fiction or in a story or whether it’s in a report of a newspaper or magazine; to let people know what things that were of concern to me, for my communities and so on. That’s why I do it,” Castillo said.
“I know that there will be people that won’t agree with me, I know that and I’ve seen it and I felt it. I wrote a book called ‘The Guardians’ and it was mentioned a couple of times today when that book first came out in 2007 2008, everywhere I went in this country, at least first ten minutes, I had people getting up and walking out.”
Before Castillo’s lecture, Anna Sandoval, a committee member, gave a land acknowledgment speech. Then, Castillo took the stage to read some of her poetry work, in honor of it being Poetry Month.
An ASL interpreter was available for the entire lecture, ensuring Castillo’s reading was accessible. Poems she read included “Woman of Marrakech,” “In My Country” and “While I was gone, a war began.”
Castillo’s reading garnered emotional hums of agreement from the lecture attendees, many long-time fans of the author. The Helena Maria Viramontes Lecture in Latina/o committee hopes that attendees from the College of Liberal Arts feel inspired by Castillo to pursue a liberal arts career.
“So for students, go to school, get your education, do it in something that is practical so you can earn a living is a lot of the message that particular students who are immigrant and Latino get because they come from precarious working-class communities and home life. So I think it’s important to counterbalance,” Macias said.
“There can be a gap between what one student feels they should, pursue because it’ll mean a material outcome for them and what they maybe find more edifying, maybe more intellectually satisfying, and that gap is what faculty in these particular departments are interested in closing.”
During the second hour of Castillo’s lecture, the floor was opened up for questions. Attendees took turns walking to the front of the theater to speak, many thanking Castillo for her lecture and for how she’s helped them understand their own identities.
Some attendees even went forward just to say their thanks or share a story without having a question.
“Cases are always challenging. It’s always looking for ways to change. So I feel the same way with writing to this day. The novel that I’m working on right now is just taking everything out of me everything,” Castillo said.
“So I feel like every day I’m practicing. You’re always trying to be better, trying to get better trying to develop that. You’re only competing against yourself the best that you were before. And so that’s what I do.
The night ended with a book signing opportunity for those who brought their books or those who purchased books in the hallway. Although the release date is undetermined, Castillo looks forward to sharing the next two novels she’s working on to continue sharing her thoughts on the intersectionality of the many identities one can have.
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