An Interview with Ana Castillo

Abstract

Chicago novelist, poet, editor, translator, coiner of the term xicanisma,' Ana Castillo is the author of four collections of poetry, three novels, one collection of short stories, and one collection of essays. Her fourth novel, Peel My Love like an Onion, will be published this year by W.W. Norton, as will her next collection of poetry. Castillo's first novel, The Mixquiahuala Letters,2 received an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation and was selected by the National Endowment for the Arts for presentation at bookfairs in Frankfurt, Buenos Aires, and elsewhere. Her next novel, Sapogonia,3 was sprawling political work which showed great promise but suffered from lack of editing. But it was her So Far from God,4 novel that documented the spiritualism of the Chicano communities of northern New Mexico, that brought Castillo international critical acclaim. The Los Angeles Times raved that So Far from God was the U.S. equivalent of One Hundred Years of Solitude. The Washington Post called it a hymn to the endurance of women.5 Similar praise was forthcoming from Latin America and Europe, making Castillo one of the best-known American authors outside of the U.S.