
|
IDENTITY
|
|
|
Julia Alvarez: Saving the World
2006-06-01
|
|
This article shared 3514 times since Thu Jun 1, 2006
|
|
BY MEL FERRAND
Julia Alvarez isn't just writing about saving the world, the title of her new release, but she may be doing just that, one reader at a time. Author of four books of fiction ( including How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents and In the Time of the Butterflies ) , a book of essays, five collections of poetry and five books for children, she has been hailed as a writer '... of rare generosity and courage' by the San Diego Union Tribune.
Her generosity was very apparent during a recent stop in Chicago. In addition to a reading at Women & Children First Bookstore, she was featured at an informal cocktail reception to benefit the Women's Voices Fund, which brings non-profit programming addressing women's interests and concerns to the greater Chicago community. True to form, she visited extensively with each person who asked her to autograph her book, and appeared undaunted by the seemingly endless line of fans. She has an internal warmth that is compelling and a 'human-sized' ego despite her success.
A large percentage of those waiting to talk with her were Latina women who had been personally touched by one or more of her writings. A common fan profile was a woman who had read one or more of Alvarez's books, and then had her mother read it, who then turned around and told all of her sisters to read Alvarez as well. It seemed as if all of them were there to meet Julia. Arriving in the U.S. at age 10, Alvarez said she 'came to the language [ English ] late, but to the writing early. And although she speaks Spanish, she writes in English and relies on translators for the Spanish versions.
During her introduction of Alvarez, Linda Bubon, co-owner of Women & Children First Bookstore, said, 'Her gift is to use history to illuminate the present.' Alvarez explains, 'The seed of my new novel sprouted in a footnote about an 1803 expedition to save the world with the smallpox vaccine. The vaccine carriers were 22 orphan boys, all under the age of nine. I could not stop thinking about these boys.' She further ponders, 'Must civilization always ride on the backs of those least able to defend themselves?'
The novel spans two centuries and features two remarkable heroines. It probes the depths of politics, medicine, activism and love. However, at its core is the true story of Spanish doctor Xavier Balmis and his expedition to free Spain's American colonies from smallpox by way of living vaccine carriers. Alvarez added this final thought: 'Embalmed in storytelling is everything we need to be humane human beings.' As I said—'one reader at a time.' |
 |
|
 |
This article shared 3514 times since Thu Jun 1, 2006
|
ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE |
---|
| 
|  | How Coming Out in the 1970s Helped Me Make Brave, Life-changing Decisions 2022-06-25 By Edith Forbes, author of Tracking A Shadow: My Lived Experiment With MS - As a child growing up in Wyoming in the 1960's, I did not know any actual person who was gay. I knew exactly one fact about gay people, a fact universally accepted but never talked about: Gay people were strange. Even ...
| 
|  | Five Worth Finding: WNDR Museum, Prince, queer books, flowers 2022-06-16 - WNDR Museum's Pride event "Crafting with Queens": The West Loop museum is usually entertainment and, um, wondrous enough on its ownbut during Pride Month, WNDR is queering things up with "Crafting with Queens" on Tuesday, ...
| 
|  | Northwestern University Libraries and Center for Applied Transgender Studies launch trans studies journal 2022-06-16 - Northwestern University Libraries (NUL) and the Center for Applied Transgender Studies (CATS) are now publishing the Bulletin of Applied Transgender Studies. The Bulletin of Applied Transgender Studies (BATS)the first journal ...
| 
|  | Catholic publisher cancels Chicago theologian's 'Queer God de Amor' book 2022-06-13 - On June 9, New Ways Ministry received the following statement by Miguel Diaz, a former U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See and the John Courtney Murray, S.J., University Chair in Public Service at Loyola University Chicago. ...
| 
|  | 34th annual Lambda Literary award winners announced 2022-06-13 -- From a press release - New York, NY, June 11, 2022 — Lambda Literary, the nation's premier LGBTQ literary organization, announced the winners of the 34th Annual Lambda Literary Awards (a.k.a. the "Lammys") at a live virtual award ceremony hosted by ...
| 
|  | TRAVEL Descanso is Palm Springs newest gay resort 2022-06-08 - Descanso is the first resort for gay men to open in Palm Springs in more than 10 years, and "The response has been beyond expectations," said general manager Kent Taylor. Weekends are already booked through June, ...
| 
|  | BOOKS Artist Sam Kirk talks 'The Meaning of Pride' 2022-06-08 - In the children's book The Meaning of Pride, Rosiee Thor pens an ode to LGBTQ+ culture and identity by celebrating the beauty, significance and many dimensions of the concept of Pride—and showing that the word can ...
| 
|  | Gerber/Hart unveils Pride Month events with 'Drag,' 'Bad Gays,' sneak peek 2022-05-30 - Gerber/Hart Library has revealed the events it will host for Pride Month. On Saturday, June 4, at 3 p.m., Gerber/Hart will celebrate the release of Legends of Drag: Queens of a Certain Age with Unabridged Books ...
| 
|  | SHOWBIZ Laverne Cox, PBS special, Ricky Martin, queer books/authors 2022-05-29 - Nouveau Productions and PBS announced a new collaboration for Pride Month, per a press release. The special True Colors: LGBTQ+ Our Stories, Our Songs will offer a unique look at the history of the LGBTQ+ community ...
| 
|  | State Farm drops GenderCool Project; Illinois General Assembly LGBTQ Caucus, Equality Illinois respond 2022-05-26 - This week in response to an outcry from a hateful few, Illinois-based insurer State Farm dropped their support for The GenderCool Project, which provides LGBTQ-affirming books to schools across the country on a voluntary basis. We ...
| 
|  | Actor/model David Pevsner challenges age and body stereotypes in recent book 2022-05-24 - When writing his recent bookDamn Shame: Desire, Defiance and Show Tunesactor/model/filmmaker David Pevsner noticed three themes coming to the fore: body shame, sexuality and ageism. "All three of those are ...
| 
|  | Gayla Turner talks new book uncovering her grandmother's secret queer identity 2022-05-23 - In Gayla Turner's debut book, Don't You Dare: Uncovering Lost Love (BookBaby, May 24), she reveals her Grandmother Ruby's (1896-1977) century-old secret queer identity that she hid from the wider world. This revelation became c ...
| 
|  | HIV/AIDS activist Rae Lewis-Thornton on her new memoir, 'Unprotected' 2022-05-18 - Emmy-winning HIV/AIDS activist, author, minister, political organizer, motivational speaker, life coach, jewelry designer and social media figure Rae Clara Lewis-Thornton's recently released book, Unprotected: A Memoir, is already a pre-release ...
| 
|  | TV Writer Joel Kim Booster, director Andrew Ahn take a trip to 'Fire Island' 2022-05-15 - Based on the classic Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice, the new Fox Searchlight film Fire Island has an important story to tell LGBTQ+ audiences specifically. In that story, there are plenty of laughs along the ...
| 
|  | BOOKS 'Tinderbox' author to appear in Palatine on June 14 2022-05-13 - Author Robert Fieseler will discuss his debut book—Tinderbox: The Untold Story of the Up Stairs Lounge Fire and the Rise of Gay Liberation—on Tuesday, June 14, at 7 p.m. at Palatine's Cutting Hall Performing Arts Center, ...
| |
|
|
|
|