#algonquin teen
¡Qué bonita bandera! AKA what heritage(s) do you claim?
My mom is Mexican American, and my dad is half Puerto Rican and half white.
When was the first time you saw yourself represented?
With exactly those ingredients? Never. Before I was really into books and set my sights on being a writer, I was into music. When I was a teen, my goal in life was to join a rock band and tour the world. I played the bass. One of my idols was Cristina Martinez from the band Boss Hog. I don’t even know what her heritage is, but I saw her name and her long, dark hair and was in goo-goo eyes in love.
How do you connect to your heritage through your books (if at all)?
Most of the main characters in my books have some kind of mixed heritage. In A Fierce and Subtle Poison, Lucas is white and Dominican, and Isabel is white and Puerto Rican. In All the Wind in the World, Sarah Jacqueline is referred to as “mixed blood,” and you get the sense that a lot of people in her world are as well. I’m always interested in the ways in which multi-racial people can both claim their identity, but also be claimed by it. There are certain ways in which a person can exert power by controlling who they are and what they do, but also there are ways in which people’s bloodlines are inescapable. They call to you–tug at you–from the past. Well, I shouldn’t speak for everyone. This is just how it feels for me. I like to write characters that are both propelling themselves forward while being snagged on something from the past.
What do you hope for the future of Latinx books?
I hope that a wider variety of the Latinx experience can be explored. I once had a student tell me that she wanted to become more involved with issues that affected her community, but that she sometimes felt excluded or shamed, sort of like she wasn’t Latina enough because she wasn’t totally fluent in Spanish. To me, this is really frustrating, because there’s no one way to be Latinx. There never has been! We can continue to write past stereotypes and present varied experiences, and hopefully, that can make a difference.
What is the book that inspired you to write for kids/teens?
Imaginary Girls by Nova Ren Suma.
What are you writing now?
I’m working on a ghost story set in San Antonio. And also a story about bandits. They’re both coming along slowly but surely.
Samantha Mabry grew up in Texas playing bass guitar along to vinyl records, writing fan letters to rock stars, and reading big, big books, and credits her tendency toward magical thinking to her Grandmother Garcia, who would wash money in the kitchen sink to rinse off any bad spirits. She teaches writing and Latino literature at a community college in Dallas, Texas, where she lives with her husband, a historian, and her pets, including a cat named Mouse. She is the author of the novels A Fierce and Subtle Poison andAll the Wind in the World(on sale today October 10 from Algonquin Young Readers!). Visit her online at samanthamabry.com or on Twitter: @samanthamabry.
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