Hispanic Fiction Doesn’t Have to be About Suffering

Yesterday was International Talk Like a Pirate Day, so I be hoping you and yer mateys be having smooth sailing through ye weekend voyages.

I have a lot of nonfiction on my book pile, but right now I’m working on the next book in my Artemis Fowl re-read. Finishing up God of War still–almost cleared Niflheim, and I have two more valkyries to fight before the queen.

Hispanic Fiction Doesn’t Have to be About Suffering

As of this past Monday, it is Hispanic Heritage Month, so I want to let you guys in on a secret about fiction that features Hispanic people, and really any ethnic minority: it doesn’t need to be about suffering.

Do not mistake what I’m saying: I am not saying that we cannot have hispanic stories about trauma or suffering. Obviously those stories can exist, and those stories should exist, especially as we enter a time in which Hispanic people, including US citizens, are being rounded up and locked in illegal prisons on suspicion of being gangsters and terrorists for the questionable behavior of [checks notes] wearing a Chicago Bulls jersey. But I also think that it’s a mistake if we act as if the defining characteristic of Hispanic identity is suffering or hardship. 

[Again, this is true of any minority. Tor had an article, “The Role Publishing Plays in the Commodification of Black Pain” by Lila McKinney, which pointed out that people often use traumatic black fiction as a signal for support during big movements, but don’t show love to black fiction that is deserving of attention and respect because it doesn’t tackle the “Big Issues”.]

On the surface, this doesn’t sound like too big of an ask; there are plenty of fictional works centered around Mexicans that are a lot more upbeat, and aren’t about playing to modern traumas. Book of Life and Coco come to mind. They touch on big issues, yes, but they’re not films that are all about trauma or suffering–which is kind of impressive considering they both largely concern characters going to the land of the dead.

Where we start to really have this problem is when we talk about fiction about Hispanic people who aren’t Mexican. The one thing that comes up a lot for me is, “Where are the Puerto Rican characters who aren’t gangsters?” It’s astounding how rare this comes up. If Puerto Rican characters show up, they’re often gangsters, to show how they have to turn to crime to make ends meet. 

And, like… no? There are other stories you can tell about Puerto Ricans?

Now, I’m also worried that we’re going to get a ton of stories that characterize Puerto Ricans as being a people defined entirely by Hurricane Maria (today is the anniversary of it hitting the island, by the way). Which, again, I am not saying that those kinds of stories are bad, or even that they’re unnecessary. I think they’re very necessary–but they’re not the entirety of the Puerto Rican experience. It is a large part of my experience, but it is not the defining thing in my life.

Hispanic people, not just from Mexico, have varied lives and personalities! You can tell stories about all kinds of things that they go through. Not just horrible, cliched trauma. And also not just romance, but that’s going to take a full ‘nother Note to go through. I absolutely want to see more fiction featuring Hispanic people

“Why don’t you write it yourself?” I’m working on it, Bub, but I’m a very bad writer so it’s taking some time.

Hispanic books do not need to just be “issue books”. Those are fine in certain amounts, but we are not a people of just tragedy to be gawked at by audiences for approval that we’ve “suffered enough” to make touching literature. Hispanic books can be anything that we let them be, if we just open up to the possibilities.

And also, as long as we don’t assume the alternative to “Hispanic issue books” is “Hispanic romance.

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