Guanabee Associate Editor Alex Alvarez interviews The Accidental Santera author Irete Lazo about her book, Santeria and advice on how you, too, can get your debut novel made into a movie. (Hint: Work your ass off.) And, after the interview, find out how you can meet Irete in person if you happen to be in New York. Try to leave your own manuscript for the next Great Latin American novel at home, though.
Guanabee: Thanks for joining us, Irete! On the simplest level, your book is about a woman’s experiences with the Afro-Cuban religion of Santería. Can you give our readers a deeper understanding of what your novel is about? If you had to place it any particular genre, which would it be?
Irete Lazo: The Accidental Santera tells the story of Gabrielle Segovia – a scientist and college professor who finds herself drawn into the secretive world of Afro-Cuban Santería. Her marriage is on the rocks, her career is being sabotaged by a colleague and she has suffered three unexplained miscarriages. She is in a desperate state when she goes to New Orleans for a scientific conference. On a whim, she has a reading at a voodoo shop from a Santero. That sets off a chain of events that leads to her reaching out to her Nuyorican relatives living in Miami who practice Santería. She agrees to go to Miami to have a reading and winds up being claimed for initiation into the religion by the Orishas, the Gods and Goddess of the Yoruba pantheon.
If it were up to me, the novel would be shelved with great American literary classics. Somehow I don’t think that’s likely. I’m not sure it’s Chica Lit, though it is definitely about a modern Latina. I guess we’ll have to settle for Latino fiction.
Guanabee: We’ve all found ourselves in a voodoo shop somewhere in the French Quarter during our darkest moments. Do you practice Santería yourself, or have you had any sort of personal experience with it?
Irete Lazo: This novel is based on my own experiences: I was trained as a scientist before switching careers to science writing. I began traveling to Miami when I started dating my Cuban-American husband. That’s when I looked up my Puerto Rican relatives. I had not seen my aunt and my cousins in 25 years. From our first meeting, my aunt began to change my life in profound ways. I am a practicing Santera. I was initiated by my aunt in 2006. She was my spiritual advisor from the day I met her as an adult until the day she died in 2007 as my godmother. Now, she is a member of the clan of ancestors and spiritual guides whom I treasure and call upon for guidance through prayer.
Guanabee: What made you want to focus on religion in your novel?
Irete Lazo: After leaving academic science, I trained as a journalist. I always had in the back of my mind that I wanted to write a book. What I had in mind was a multi-generational memoir that ended with my story. I was advised by then Simon & Schuster editor Marcela Landres, who is now a consultant and editor of the Latinidad newsletter for Latino writers, and others that the market was really itching for Latino fiction and not memoirs. Having already written more than 100 pages of a memoir, I knew that fiction was going to be much easier for me. The memoir, honestly, was emotionally difficult to write and a big challenge to a journalist consumed with accuracy. The end result was that I had a new goal: Writing a novel about a scientist who becomes a Santera.
Guanabee: How did you go about conducting research and gathering info for your story? How much of it draws from your own life or family?
Irete Lazo: My cousin, who is my second godmother or aguybona, fact-checked the story for me with the help of her husband, my godfather in Ifa, a babalawo. Ifa is also a Yoruba religious practice related to and intertwined with Santería.
Most of the characters in the story are based on real people. I made Gabrielle a university professor because I thought there would be more tension in that than in a freelance writer working at home deciding to enter a controversial religion. Gabrielle’s best friend Patricia is based on all my outrageous Latina girlfriends, some of them who are scientists like Patri! The husband is only loosely based on mine. Gabrielle’s husband, Benito, is much less supportive and way more macho (in a bad way) than my husband is.
Guanabee: Would you consider yourself a “Latina writer,” if that phrase is to mean anything at all? Does it mean something to you?
Irete Lazo: Yes, I consider myself a Latina writer. I am a writer and a woman of Latino heritage born in the United States. Note that I put “writer” first. I consider myself a storyteller, whether the story is fiction or one about the latest scientific findings. Second, I consider myself a Latina with a uniquely American story. Being a Latina writer means I have a unique American voice, one whose story has the capacity to ring true to segments of the Latino community and one that can enlighten fellow Americans to our Latino experiences.
My goal is for my fiction to resonate with all audiences. I wrote the story in first person, one girlfriend talking to another. It’s the kind of story telling in novels that I myself had enjoyed. The truth is, however, that I always had a wider audience in mind as I wrote. So, I tried to keep the Spanish from intruding on the storytelling, adding just enough to give some flavor. I have had great reaction from men and women on the book, and people of all racial, religious and ethnic backgrounds.
Guanabee: Speaking of white men and the way they ruin everything that’s good, do you think that a non-Latina writer tackling Santería would have handled the subject matter differently? Is there a certain way of looking at a topic that exoticizes it rather than merely providing information or a story about it?
Irete Lazo: Well, the truth is that I tackle more than Santería. I tackle cultural identity, science vs. religion, the minority experience in higher education and familial belonging as well. I think a non-Latina would have a VERY different story to tell. I think their view of Santería would not be tied up in family and culture the way mine is. This kind of story, since it involves choosing the religion and going through initiation, could only be told well, in my opinion, by a practitioner of the religion. That said, there are non-Latino practitioners out there and I would love to read novels about their experiences.
I personally don’t think this kind of book could or should be written by a person who doesn’t practice the religion. There’s too much you can get wrong. There have been plenty of people who have included respectful portrayals of Santeria in larger stories and those show how the religion can touch people’s lives at various levels of practice.
I guess there is a risk of making a topic seem exotic if a person uses his or her own frame of reference to define the topic. I guess objectivity should be the goal, though true objectivity is probably unattainable. I think in this case, it’s important to share the beliefs of Santería practitioners in their own words and not accept the definitions that have been placed upon them.
Guanabee: Your novel is being made into a movie! That’s got to be incredibly exciting. How did that come about?
Irete Lazo: I always saw the first book I was writing as a movie. I guess my writing developed that way because I have always seen this novel as a movie, too. I write in scenes and hear the dialogue playing in my head. I asked my agent to try to sell the film rights. She enlisted the help of a book-to-film agent who got early copies of it in the hands of people in Hollywood. One of them got the book to Elizabeth Peña, one of my all-time favorite actresses who was in two of my favorite movies, Lone Star and La Bamba. I am proud that this will likely be her first feature film as a director. She is even more impressive off-screen than on!
Guanabee: Do you get any say as to what the screenplay will look like? How involved will you be in the film’s production?
Irete Lazo: Elizabeth has promised that I will be very involved in the project. As an exercise, I will write my own version of the screenplay. How this will be used by an experienced screenwriter is anyone’s guess. It will help me decide what scenes and details of the story I am willing to fight for. Nothing says I’ll win those battles. I am realistic about this. My main concern is that the religion is portrayed in an accurate and respectful way. Since Elizabeth is more concerned about portraying Gabrielle’s journey, I think there’s a good chance we’ll both get what we want.
Guanabee: We certainly hope so. Can you tell us any ideas for future novels?
Irete Lazo: I am writing a sequel to The Accidental Santera called The Madrina. It is the story of how the new generation of Santeras are faced with the almost impossible task of passing on this religion in modern times.
I would also like to get back to the book that I began as a memoir. It is now in my head as a novel called Beautiful Little Sky and is the story of a Latina reporter who begins looking into the senseless killing of her great-grandmother and two of her children in 1930s Texas. The character reports on these kinds of crimes for a living, searching out answers at all cost—a practice that leaves her hating herself. She comes to realize she knows nothing about just such an incident that occurred in her own family and that this racially motivated killing has had a negative impact on her own life.
Guanabee: Quite a few of our readers happen to be budding and/or frustrated writers. Sometimes even of things other than personal blogs or slash fiction. Do you have any advice for these authors, specifically for Latina writers?
Irete Lazo: My advice to Latina writers is to carve out the time and emotional space it takes to write. I have met few Latina writers that comes straight out of MFA programs into a writing career that supports them. So, even if it’s a month here or an hour a day, find the time. I would also suggest making the time to write as early in life as possible, before demands of career and family make it that much more difficult. The goal of “being a writer full-time” may be unrealistic for most writers. The goal of “finding time to write” while establishing and maintaining a career that pays the bills is much more attainable. I began writing this novel in the middle of my second career and while I was pregnant. It took a little over three years to get a first draft. It took three years to write the first half. I moved cross-country twice, had a baby and worked full-time for the first of those three years. I tell this story just to encourage Latinas that no matter what your family or professional situation, you can find the time. We want to hear what you have to say, the stories you have to tell.
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