MPR’s Euan Kerr interviews Chicago-based poet Ana Castillo about her novel "Peel My Love Like and Onion." The book tells the story of Carmen, a flamenco dancer who overcame the ravages of childhood polio.

Castillo has been praised for her examinations of race and gender in both her prose and poetry.

Transcript:

(00:00:00) She bends down and to tie her cross trainer trainers. She's taking on doing a power walk around six o'clock. Like a lot of people they get home from work and when she bends that down she has a brace on her leg and that's when I realized that this wasn't going to be a short story that's going to be a lot longer. And so that was the beginning of Garmin lock Ohio which translated as Carmen the crippled
(00:00:24) when there are many revelations in this book and the fact that she refers to herself or is invited. Hurting General and it's Carmen. The crippled is very very striking.
(00:00:35) Well, I don't know. I don't know where you come from. But where I come from which is actually from Chicago but Latino culture Mexican culture, and and I know other other Latinos or Spanish-speaking people have the tendency to name you in on your family by your most striking feature and you know, it could be in it doesn't necessarily have to be flattering, you know, it could be If you're short, they will call you, you know shorty obviously, but you know, I do remember for example when I was a teenager a boy who had a big birthmark on his face and they called him in Spanish to call him spot. He know I mean, I don't think we think you know, and and you know, Angela culture, maybe they think that's sort of cruel and this is what happens with Carmen our Cohen when a fan asks her, you know, why do you call yourself that well, she said well, that's okay because I am, you know, she's got a gimpy like that's the most Prominent feature. I mean she may have beautiful eyes and she may have beautiful hair and so on but what you remember about the person is what you would call them and and she doesn't have a problem with that and it's very important to it's been a very important part of our identity especially as a dancer that she had to do this with one bad leg
(00:01:50) on reading the book perhaps dancing is to her the most important thing and the the dance becomes Is metaphor for all the other passions in her
(00:02:03) life? I see Flamenco. I myself am not a you know, I'm a I'm an Aficionado but I'm not a dancer and I'm not part of that lifestyle, but I've been around it a little bit and and like most people we do see it as a very passionate art and it's a lifestyle. I compared to the way Tango came up from the slums of Buenos Aires and so Same thing with Flamenco Flamenco comes from the camps and you know people and you know, the fringes of society and so I wanted to write actually what I wanted to do was write a love story which is not easy for me because I don't consider myself that kind of a writer more lean lean more to having, you know political, you know views and you know, whether I clobber you over the head with them or I'm subtle about it. So I decided Well this novel I'm going to try my hand. Not this love story. So the Flamenco was very helpful for that in terms of creating a passionate atmosphere at the same time because I do tend to for myself I tend to have as my Personal Agenda the the politic I do used her dancing and her dancing with the bum leg as a metaphor for how she gets by what she gets to do and how she gets to do things in life and how people see
(00:03:28) her. It is a very political book and now the Lauren and particularly talking about gender Politics. The two main male characters are gypsy which brings in a whole new set of elements white. Why did you decide to use
(00:03:51) them? I'm very fascinated by the the dynamic of marginalized peoples. in mainstream Society what we assume in this country, for example, you assume that to be American has to be white skin we still do even in the year 2000 and what fascinated me about the wrong people is if if I feel that Mexicans are marginalized, you know, the ROM are even further obscured and so that idea that Dynamic of what the how we see ourselves and how we are perceived is like this this silent dialogue of see Society so here. We have a character who's been Mexican-American because of her working-class background because of her bad like she wrote doesn't really have a real Affinity with Mexico. She's from Chicago, but she understands that she's uh She's On The Fringe and then she gets together because of her dance with these men who are even further On The Fringe and then she has to negotiate race and culture and and gender even They're away from hers, which is already a very traditional culture and and very different from from mainstream Anglo culture and all that is going on in the year 2000 in
(00:05:11) Chicago. You book first came out last year. Hmm. It must be really fascinating going out and meeting people who have now had a chance to read it and respond to
(00:05:22) you and hear people really loved this character. It's a first person narrative Carmen as I said came. Me that night and she has a very lyrical quirky way of speaking and seeing things and so that's one one thing that people fall in love with Carmen listening to her. Also the fact that she is dealing with like a really bad stack of cards that were dealt with her, but she would be the last person I would probably get very angry if anyone felt sorry for her or should be the last person who Consider herself a victim and so I myself and reading out loud from from peel my love like an onion fell in love with Carmen because she just has this way of well she understands she does she mean she wears raggedy clothes and yet she knows she's beautiful and she's got this terrible brace or use crutches and yet she knows she's a woman who can elicit great Passion from people
(00:06:22) because she's very
(00:06:23) strong her thing is about living life doesn't matter. She lived in a in a one of these transient hotels for like 17 years of her adult life. That was her house her home. Nobody else had the key, but she in that was very important to her and and it was home for her and you know, and in those there certain things where you see like swatting a big cockroach as she's telling her lover off or something like that and it's not it's not about that. It's about her rich interior world and that she got to do something. That was so very important to her which was to dance and to be known for her. Dance, which is no small feat when you're doing it what Flamingo one leg, you know?