“My three novels address the very different parts of my ancestry. I also hope to have this book in particular picked up by the Jewish reader interested in the Jewish diaspora from Spain, someone who realizes that an Eastern European background is not the only one.”— Kathleen Alcalá
A couple of decades ago, when I was beginning to publish my own work about Mexico, and editing Tameme, a bilingual English/Spanish journal of new writing from Canada, the US and Mexico, I had the immense fortune to meet some of the most accomplished and innovative literary writers from the US-Mexico borderlands, among them, Kathleen Alcalá. The author of several books of fiction and nonfiction, Alcalá’s work has been recognized with Western States Book Award, the Governor’s Writers Award, and a Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Book Award. In 2014 she was honored by the national Latino writers group, Con Tinta, and she has been designated an Island Treasure in the Arts on Bainbridge Island, where she lives in the state of Washington. When I first met Alcalá, her novel set in northern Mexico in the 1870s, Spirits of the Ordinary, based on the true history of Mexican Jews practicing their religion in secret, was then relatively recently published, and a sensation it was, for the history of the conversos of northern New Spain (Spanish Jews who had converted to Christianity at the time of the 15th century expulsion of the Jews) and the crypto-Jews (those who practiced Judaism in secret) was then little known. Spirits of the Ordinary received high praise, for example, from Publisher’s Weekly, which called it “A fecund fable about the convergence of cultures—Mexican, American and Jewish—along the Mexico/Texas border…. Alcalá’s seductive writing mixes fatalism and hope, logic and fantasy.” And no less a literary heavyweight than Larry McMurtry called it “continually arresting—a book in which passions both ordinary and extraordinary are made vivid and convincing.”
How delighted I was to learn from Kathleen that, for its 25th anniversary, Spirits of the Ordinary is back in print in a lovely new edition from Raven Chronicles Press, introduced by one of my favorite poets, Rigoberto González. Apropos of that, Alcalá agreed to answer some questions.
C.M. MAYO: What inspired you to write Spirits of the Ordinary?
KATHLEEN ALCALÁ: My first book was a collection of short stories in the manner of the stories told by my mother’s family. When I finished the last, long story I realized that I knew much more about these characters, based on my family’s history, enough for at least one novel. It turned out to be three novels.
C.M. MAYO:As you were writing, did you have in mind an ideal reader?
KATHLEEN ALCALÁ: I don’t know if I should be embarrassed to say that I expected my readers to be much like myself, people who grew up in the United States, but with our cultural roots firmly in Mexico. This comprises some of my audience. But a bigger part of it is the American readership that has good associations with Mexico as a vacation destination and the site of some of their fantasies.
Toni Morrison described this as writing under “the white gaze.” I had no idea how important this was for BIPOC (Black or Indigenous People of Color) writers. I was not writing the “poor farmworker makes good” narrative that was expected of me in the publishing world. As a result, around 25 publishers rejected the novel before Chronicle Books took a chance on it.
C.M. MAYO:Now that some years have gone by, can you describe the ideal reader for this book as you see him or her now?
KATHLEEN ALCALÁ: The ideal reader is now a generation younger than I am. It is a young professional or student who wants to broaden their perspective to include fore parents who loved the land, fought for it, died for it, and were often discriminated against by their own society. My three novels address the very different parts of my ancestry. I also hope to have this book in particular picked up by the Jewish reader interested in the Jewish diaspora from Spain, someone who realizes that an Eastern European background is not the only one.
C.M. MAYO:Can you share any surprises for you about the reception of your book’s first edition? (And has it been different in different countries?) Do you expect it to be different in 2021?
KATHLEEN ALCALÁ:Spirits received a number of awards right out of the chute. From manuscript rejection to publication and great reviews in a year really floored me. I was not prepared for the embrace provided by readers. I have to thank writers like Ursula K. Le Guin and Larry McMurtry, as well as booksellers like Rick Simonsen at Elliott Bay Books and Paul Yamazaki at City Lights for their kind words that helped propel this book out into the world.
C.M. MAYO:What inspired you to bring Spirits of the Ordinary back into print?
KATHLEEN ALCALÁ: Almost twenty-five years later, crypto-Jews are no longer a secret. When I was researching and writing, no one knew what I was talking about except for a few Sephardic Jews. Now there is a substantial body of writing about the events leading to this condition, as well as critical analysis of both the events and the literature. I feel as though this topic has come full circle now that Spain has offered expedited citizenship to descendants of the Expulsion. This provides a much more complete context for my work.
C.M. MAYO:Which writers have been the most important influences for you when you were writing Spirits of the Ordinary— and subsequently?
KATHLEEN ALCALÁ: I have always read science fiction along with mainstream fiction. Some people look down on “genre” fiction as not true literature, but alternate worlds and points of view fit perfectly with my upbringing in the southwest, with cousins on both sides of the border. Our reality has always been alternative.
Other writers will tell you it is comics that sustained them when they were young, but that’s really the same thing, except in pictorial form: narratives willing to address the “what if.”
I studied with Ursula K. Le Guin, Joanna Russ, and Charles Johnson. I read Elena Poniatowska and Juan Rulfo in Spanish, and later my age peers, Ana Castillo, Sandra Cisneros and Denise Chávez, although they were way ahead of me in achievements.
More recent writers who have knocked me dead include Roberto Bolaño, Ruth Ozeki, Sabrina Vourvoulias, Isabel Quintero and NK Jemison. There are so many more. Books are my vice.
C.M. MAYO:Which writers are you reading now?
KATHLEEN ALCALÁ: I’ve read a lot of Greg Bear’s books because we are friends and he is very prolific. Nisi Shawl is an up and coming writer even though she has already received a lot of accolades. I have been reading a lot of indigenous writers recently, mostly poets like Laura Da’, but also fiction and essayists like Rebecca Roanhorse and Elissa Washuta. Every time I meet a new writer whose work I like, I try to let them know how great their writing is. I probably scare people at conferences because I am not cool— I am enthusiastic, especially with writers of color or those who otherwise don’t fit into the mainstream narrative.
This is one reason that, Phoebe Bosché, Philip Red-Eagle and I started Raven Chronicles Press. We wanted to provide a showcase for these wonderful writers. Currently, you can see much of this work in an anthology called Take a Stand: Art Against Hate. I am also working with Professor Norma Elia Cantú on an anthology of stories, essays and poetry about La Llorona— again, because there is so much talent, so many ideas that need to be published and shared.
C.M. MAYO:How has the Digital Revolution affected your writing? Specifically, has it become more challenging to stay focused with the siren calls of email, texting, blogs, online newspapers and magazines, social media, and such? If so, do you have some tips and tricks you might be able to share?
KATHLEEN ALCALÁ: All of this is terrible. I am so easily distracted. I will start laundry, open a file, take notes by hand, and forget what I had planned to do that day. For me, the best strategy is still the writing residency, away from home, where I don’t have any excuses and fewer distractions. This is especially needed when I am trying to organize large blocks of writing, such as the chapters in a novel.
C.M. MAYO:For those looking to publish, what would be your most hard-earned piece of advice?
KATHLEEN ALCALÁ: Before submitting anything, research the market. If looking to publish in a magazine, purchase half a dozen or so that seem to be likely venues for your work. Look at them carefully and see if you fit in. This is a good place to start, rather than submitting book length manuscripts to publishers, because book editors read these magazines, too. It also gives you a chance to learn how to work with an editor, to receive suggestions and shape the best possible piece for the magazine.
C.M. MAYO:What’s next for you as a writer?
KATHLEEN ALCALÁ: Surprisingly, after all these years, Spirits of the Ordinary and Treasures in Heaven (my third novel, which is about the feminist movement in Mexico) have been optioned for movie and television rights! We will see where that goes. In between distractions, I am foolishly working on two novels at the same time – one is set in 10th Century Spain, and one in a near-future west coast and Mexico. Oh yes, and I owe someone a short story!
Nope, that is not Francisco I. Madero, pictured right, but J.J. Kilpatrick, subject of Lonn Taylor’s fascinating article in this same issue of the Journal of Big Bend Studies, vol. 29, 2017.
For those rusty on their borderlands and Mexican history, Francisco I. Madero was the leader of Mexico’s 1910 revolution– the first major revolution of the 20th century– and President of Mexico from 1911-1913. This was not only a transformative episode for Mexico, but also for Texas.
My book, Metaphysical Odyssey into the Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero and His Secret Book, Spiritist Manual, came out in 2014 (also in Spanish, translated by Agustín Cadena as Odisea metafísica hacia la Revolución Mexicana, Francisco I. Madero y su libro secreto, Manual espírita, from Literal Publishing.) So far so good: it has been cited already in a number of scholarly works about Madero and the Revolution.
Yes indeed, Metaphysical Odyssey is a peculiar title. In the article, I explain why I chose it and why, much as readers groan about it, I would not change it.
> Read the paper here. (I had posted an earlier only partially edited PDF at this link; in case you’ve already seen it, as of today, June 17, 2019, it has been updated.) And you can order a copy of the actual printed article with all photos, and of the complete issue from the Center for Big Bend Studies here.
A few of the photos, not in the PDF:
The first and definitively not secret book. This shows my copy of a third edition of the book that launched the Mexican Revolution: Francisco I. Madero’s La sucesión presidencial en 1910 [The Presidential Succession in 1910]. This third edition is from 1911. The first edition is dated 1908 and went into circulation in early 1909. Photo: C.M. Mayo.Advertisement in Helios, October 1911, for the just-published Manual espírita by Bhîma, that is, Francisco I. Madero. Photo: C.M. Mayo.The title page of my copy of a first edition of Madero’s Manual espírita of 1911. Note that it is stamped “Cortesia del Gral. Ramón F. Iturbe [Courtesy of General Ramón F. Iturbe]. Photo: C.M. Mayo.Frontispiece and title page of my copy of the 1906 Spanish translation of Léon Denis’ Aprés le mort, translated from the French by Ignacio Mariscal and sponsored by Francisco Madero and his son, Francisco I. Madero. Photograph by C.M. Mayo.My copy of the cover of the rare circa 1924 Barcelona edition of Manual espírita. Photo by C.M. Mayo.
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SPECIAL NOTE
Undoubtedly scholars, novelists and screenwriters will be producing works about Francisco I. Madero and the Mexican Revolution until Kingdom Come (or, perhaps I should say, the Reemergence of Atlantis); because I am a literary writer who roams over a wide variety of subjects, I do not intend to keep up with them all. That said, I regret that I could not cite in my article the book by Mexican historian Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller, Dos Revolucionarios a la sombra de Madero: A historia de Solón Argüello Escobar y Rogelio Fernández Güell(Mexico: Ariel, 2016), which I recommend as crucial for any bibliography on Madero, his Spiritism, the history of metaphysical religion in Mexico, and the Mexican Revolution itself. Gutíerrez Müller’s work should also be of special interest for anyone interested in current Mexican politics, for the prologue is by the author’s husband, now president of Mexico, Andrés López Obrador. This video on his YouTube channel shows the president and first lady discussing her book.
As those of you following this blog well know, I’m at work on a book about Far West Texas (that’s Texas west of the Pecos) and so reading deep into the history of the wider region that is now Texas and northern Mexico– for it all connects. I’m not reporting on each and every book I come across, but now and then I read one that, in taking both my understanding and my curiosity to a fresh level, prompts me to order my thoughts with a review and/or interview the author, should he or she be alive and willing. (See for example, Q & As with Raymond Caballero, Paul Cool, and John Tutino). Carolina Castillo Crimm’s deeply researched De León: A Tejano Family History is one of those.
We often hear about the Tejanos (Mexican Texans or, as you please, Texan Mexicans) in Mexican and Texas history, but who were they? Crimm’s De León provides an intimate glimpse of one of the first and most influential Tejano families though several generations, beginning with Don Martín de Léon and his wife Doña Patricia de la Garza, the founders of the de Léon colony and the town of Victoria on the coastal plains of Texas in the early 19th century. They and their descendants weathered Mexican civil wars; Comanche attacks; cattle rustlers; cholera; the Texas Revolution of 1835-36; the massive influx of “Anglo” immigrants; exile and legal battles to reclaim their land; the US Civil War and Reconstruction; and, into the late 19th century, the rise of the railroads and the cattle ranching industry.
C.M. MAYO: As historian Arnoldo de León commented, your study of a Tejano family “confirms what other historians have said (but not buttressed with this kind of detail) about Mexican Americans in history: that they are resilient in the face of adversity, that they adjusted to an Anglo American political environment after 1836 with a degree of success, and that their absence in Texas history books is explained by a neglect of the primary sources.”
CAROLINA CASTILLO CRIMM:
Thank you for the opportunity to talk about the De León family of Victoria,
Texas, one of the early founding families of Texas. As far as I know, Arnoldo
de León is not related to the De León family of Victoria although you never
know. He has been influential in encouraging many students to study the
Hispanic world both past and present.
I am grateful to be part of a growing field of
historians focusing on early Hispanic settlement in Texas. These so-called
Borderlanders were originally inspired by Arnoldo de León and David
Weber. Since then, there have been many more scholars who have delved into
this area and produced excellent studies on this period. Among them are Dr.
Frank de la Teja, Dr. Andrés Tijerina, Dr. Armando Alonso, Dr. Francis X.
Galan, among many others.
There are also dozens of new, up-and-coming young
historians working in the field of the Borderlands. It is thrilling to see so
many people searching through primary sources to discover the histories of
these early settlers.
C.M. MAYO: And a related question: You mention in your acknowledgements that Nettie Lee Benson had been one of your mentors. She was such a towering figure among historians of Latin America that the University of Texas Library’s Latin American collection is named after her. Can you share a memory or two about Nettie Lee Benson, how you met her, what you remember of her?
CAROLINA CASTILLO CRIMM: I
was fortunate enough to arrive at the University of Texas at Austin in 1989
while Dr. Benson, or Miss Nettie as one of my fellow students called her, was
still teaching her course on Mexican History and the Borderlands. I had
mistakenly assumed that the Latin American Collection at UT had been named for
her because she was the wife of some oilman who had donated millions to the
University. I was wrong.
As it turned out, she had been a librarian at UT
during the 1940s. She made it her mission to take the funds she was given by
the university and invest the money in books and materials from Mexico and
Latin America. Each summer, she would take what, in reality, was a pittance and
travel throughout Mexico. She bought, traded or salvaged materials everywhere
she could. On one occasion she found a stack of old dissertations from the UNAM
at a pawn shop. They were about to be destroyed but she bought them for fifty
cents each, thereby rescuing a precious heritage. Each evening, she would go
back to her room and wrap up her finds in brown paper and string and send them
back to the library at UT. She did this every summer for years.
At last, Eugene C. Barker (for whom the Texas
collection was named) encouraged her to begin work on a Ph.D. in Mexican
History. Working part-time, she completed her degree and became a professor in
the History Department. She continued to work at the library and to add to the collection
which eventually was renamed in her honor. Students still remember her falsetto
voice echoing through the stacks as she asked what each of us was working on
then led us directly to some seminal book on our particular topic. She spent
her life helping students explore the stacks that she created.
Dr. Benson was awarded the Aguila Azteca by the
Mexican government, the highest honor that can be given to a foreigner, for her
work on the Provincial Deputations of the 1820s. Her on-going encouragement of
students working in the field has led to the production of hundreds of works on
Mexican and Borderlands History.
There have been some Mexican scholars who have
resented the removal of so much material from Mexico. They maintain that the
books should be in Mexican libraries, not in the United States. As I have seen,
however, Mexican libraries often do not have the funding to protect these
priceless treasures. I have been in archives in Matamoros where there are bugs
eating away at the paper, or in Saltillo where burned archives were only
rescued by accident when a historian/diner at an out-door restaurant noticed
the bits of burning paper sifting down from next door. The material at the University
of Texas has been preserved and protected and is accessible to scholars from
all over the world. Admittedly, Mexicans do have to travel to Austin to find
the materials, but at least it is available.
C.M. MAYO: You also write that Nettie Lee Benson set you on your path. Can you talk more about that, and what inspired you to write De León?
CAROLINA CASTILLO CRIMM: I
started on my Ph.D. at the University of Texas without any sure direction or
goal in mind. As a Mexican, I wanted very much to focus on the early Hispanics
of Texas. Miss Nettie Lee suggested I work on Martín de León, the only
successful Hispanic Empresario in early Texas. The problem then, and now, was
the lack of sources. There were no diaries or letters, but with Nettie Lee’s
help, I began to discover court records, county records, land records, and the
last will and testament of Doña Patricia de León. I was also fortunate to find
many of the descendants of the De León family who provided invaluable
assistance in writing the book.
C.M. MAYO: You tell the story of the matriarch of the de León clan, Doña Patricia, who lived a long life filled with success but also struggle and heartbreak. And one of the key contributions of De León is to underline the role of Hispanic women settlers in Texas and, by their example, their influence on Texas laws pertaining to women. Can you talk about that a bit?
CAROLINA CASTILLO CRIMM: I
had not originally focused on Doña Patricia or the women of the De León clan.
As with many studies of Texas history, the women were often relegated to
background roles. As I explored the sources, however, I began to see that the Victoria
settlement would not have existed without the efforts of Doña Patricia and her
daughters and daughters-in-law.
Patricia, evidently from a very good family at
Soto la Marina, had received an immense dowry of $9,000 pesos. This was at a
time when most dowries in Monterrey averaged less than $5,000. Some might say she
gave up the money to her husband, Martín, to fund the ranches in Texas.
Considering her later careful use of money, I prefer to think she invested the
money in the future of her family. And it paid off handsomely. She was able to
recoup the money when she needed it most by selling the Texas family ranch in
1836 to a New Orleans real estate broker for a handsome profit. But Patricia
also donated land. The lovely St. Mary’s Catholic Church sits on land donated
by Doña Patricia to the Catholic Church.
Doña Patricia taught her daughters to fight for
their rights when they returned to Texas in 1845. Not only did she enter the
American courts to regain family land, but she encouraged her offspring to
regain land that had been usurped by unscrupulous settlers. She held mortgages
on land and taught her daughters to do the same. Luz Escalera, wife of
eldest-son Fernando, and Matiana Benavides, a grand-daughter, held a mortgage
on land owned by an uncle. When he didn’t pay up, family or no, they foreclosed
on him, leaving him only the 20 acres around his ranch house.
At a time when Hispanics could not borrow from
Anglo banks, Hispanic women were often the money-lenders within the Mexican
community. They learned to be tough business women. It will remain a mystery
why she turned on her eldest son, Fernando. In her will, she forgives all the
debts owed to her by her descendants, except for the money owed her by
Fernando. That money was to be collected by his brothers and sisters.
C.M. MAYO: What comes through clearly to me in De León is that the early Tejano settlers, such as Martín de León, were neither wealthy nor campesinos (peasants), but part of an emerging and literate middle class. Yet throughout many decades of the 19th century the Tejanos had to fight both the Comanches and, depending on where they placed their loyalties, various factions for or against Spain, Mexico City, the Texians, and then the Confederacy. What stands out is that these decisions were not unanimous in the Tejano community, and they were fraught with terrible risk.
CAROLINA CASTILLO CRIMM: Yes,
as Dr. de la Teja has pointed out, the Texas ranchers were not wealthy but they
were not poverty-stricken either. The de León family employed a teacher on the
ranch to educate their children. And not all the children agreed on which side
to choose. I suspect Patricia’s Christmas gatherings were a trifle tense during
the years of Mexican Independence when some of her offspring sided with the
Liberals while others chose the Conservatives. Things got even worse during the
Texas Revolution.
Antonio López de Santa Anna
C.M. MAYO: Until recent times the story of the fall of the Alamo came across as a simple story of brave Texians vs dastardly Santa Anna. Do you see your book as part of the impetus to enrich that particular narrative?
CAROLINA CASTILLO CRIMM: Yes,
certainly. During the Texas Revolution, half the De León family sided with the
Texians while others supported the legally constituted Mexican government, even
if it was Santa Anna.
The decades from 1800 through the Civil War,
were a time during which there were dangerous decisions to be made. The wrong
decision could result in being shot by one side or the other. Many of the
Mexican ranchers learned from bitter experience to keep their heads down and
their mouths shut or get out of the way. General Joaquín de Arredondo’s 1813
attack at the Battle of Medina and the later executions of Liberals, or
Revolutionaries, in San Antonio was a difficult time for everyone in Texas.
Doña Patricia had good reason to insist on removing her family to Soto la
Marina for safety during these years, and again in 1836 to escape to New
Orleans during the lawlessness of the Republic of
Texas. But she always came back.
C.M. MAYO: You mention that during the US Civil War many Tejanos, including members of the de León family, engaged in the cotton and transport trades to benefit the Confederacy. I note that Evaristo Madero, grandfather of the subject of my recent book, also made his first fortune in this trade. My question is, do you see the de Leóns as part of the broader fabric of a culture of entrepreneurship found throughout the north of Mexico?
CAROLINA CASTILLO CRIMM: The
Spanish and then the Mexican government had restricted trade for generations
(1713 to 1821) thereby preventing much in the way of entrepreneurship for the
ranchers of Texas. They could sell hides and lard but there was little else of
value in Texas that could be transported and sold. The Anglo settlers, in
particular the Irish from the Refugio area, learned to profit from the sale of
cattle from their Mexican rancher neighbors.
Once the borders were opened to trade after 1836,
the Mexicans improved on their cattle trade and profited by selling corn and
vegetables to the incoming colonists. They also made a profit by carrying goods
in carts to the coast. As soon as the Texians saw there was a profit to be
made, however, the Cart Wars of
the 1850s broke out, and the Tejanos were cut out of the trade. They continued
to profit wherever they could, and wherever the Texians would permit.
C.M. MAYO: It is impossible to read Texas history without the mention of the strains and struggles between the so-called Anglos and Tejanos, as if the two communities were sealed off from one another under two bell jars. Yet of course they were not. You mention the tensions and the struggles the de León family faced in defending their dignity and their land titles against Anglo newcomers at various points in the 19th century, but you also mention their long-time friendship with the Linn family.
Can you talk a little more about the Linns?
CAROLINA CASTILLO CRIMM: Martín
de León needed settlers to establish his Empresario grant. He brought some from
Mexico, but there were some settlers already squatting on the land he had been
granted. Rather than get rid of them, he simply incorporated them into his
colony. Although some said he was a “cranky old man” as an Empresario (he was,
after all, in his 60s), he accepted people of all nationalities into his
colony. Fernando, his eldest son, became very close to the Linn family. Just as
the De León family helped the Linns during the Mexican period (Edward Linn
became their surveryor), they returned the favor when Texas became a State.
Fernando was able to count on the Linns (John Linn
became a Texas Senator) for help with legal problems.
I found that the early settlers, both Texian and
Tejano, who had helped each other survive Indian raids and droughts and hard
times in the years from 1821 to 1836 became loyal friends, regardless of
nationality. The arrival of new settlers after 1836, however, who had not
had those close relationships, created an atmosphere of antipathy and racial hatred
against the Mexicans. Fortunately, there were still a few of the supportive old
Texian families who protected their Tejano friends and called them the “Old
Spanish Families.” This didn’t prevent the killings of the Mexican families by
mobs during the 1870s or the mass murders by the Texas Rangers
during the 1920s.
C.M. MAYO: At various points you mention a slave owned by Fernando de León and later inherited by his adopted son Frank, and that Frank tried to manumit him but the laws of Texas at that time would not permit it. Do you know his name and what became of him?
CAROLINA CASTILLO CRIMM: Unhappily,
I do not know what happened to the slave. It is possible that Frank’s will, if
one were able to find it, might indicate a name or what happened to him. Most
Mexicans were opposed to slavery which made the years of the Civil War
difficult for them. Unlike the Germans, however, they kept their opinions to
themselves and avoided getting hung. They created guard units to protect the
coast from Union troops, but only one of the de León grandsons actually fought
with the Confederate troops.
C.M. MAYO: You managed to keep straight several generations of a sprawling family. I can only begin to imagine how much work it must have been just to keep your research in order! For readers who may be working on their own opus, can you offer your best organizational tip?
CAROLINA CASTILLO CRIMM: Any
genealogical study that covers several generations is challenging. Rather than
just tracing one line, where one can safely ignore all but one of the children
of each generation, I created a large wall chart with all of the various
children, each of their spouses, and their descendants. Where it gets
complicated is with the families of the in-laws who are equally important as
brothers- or sisters-in-laws. More charts, more wall space.
As anyone in South Texas will tell you: “Todos
somos primos.”* And it is true. Once you connect in-laws and
godparents, the network of relations is truly a Gordian knot. I found out, to
my surprise, that my Castillo family who lived in the Refugio area from the
1790s to the 1870s, were distantly related to the de León family as well.
*We’re all cousins.
C.M. MAYO: Your book came out in 2003. What are the reactions that surprised you, and what are the ones that gratified you?
CAROLINA CASTILLO CRIMM: I
was very pleased to receive several awards from the Sons of the Republic of
Texas, from the San Antonio Conservancy, and from the Catholic scholars. To
have Arnoldo de León say such kind things about the book was a real
honor.
I should probably not have been surprised to find
that some Tejano scholars were opposed to my book. They felt that a blonde
Gringa should not be writing books about Mexican land loss. I don’t “pass”
since I don’t look Hispanic. I had a rather heated altercation with one of my
colleagues at a conference about whether I understood how difficult it had been
for Mexicans in Texas at the time. They were certain I was just another
do-gooder Anglo trying to put a better light on the challenges facing Tejanos
during the 1800s and their survival in spite of the difficulties. I was glad to
be able to prove them wrong.
In the course of my research, I had learned that
my Castillo family had lost their Refugio land in an 1870s court case to a
(now) wealthy Texan family. A gunfight resulted in which one of the Anglos was
shot. A lynch mob was formed and the Castillo brothers had to make a run for
the border to avoid the noose. The Castillo family left Texas and lost their
land. Some say it was sold, others that it was stolen. They reestablished a
large ranch outside Reynosa at Charco Escondido on the Mexican side and
continued to prosper as ranchers until the Mexican Revolution when they
returned to the United States. So, yes, I may not look Mexican, but my family
does understand land loss.
C.M. MAYO: What are you working on now?
CAROLINA CASTILLO CRIMM: As you can imagine, my interest is still focused on writing about Hispanics on the border and in Texas. I have started to write the story of the Castillo land loss and have already gotten several chapters into it. However, inspired by Americo Paredes, I wanted to go back and look at what formed the early Tejanos. Luis Alberto Urrea’s The Hummingbird’s Daughter has certainly helped.
Bernardo de Gálvez
Scandalizing though it is for a historian, now
that I am retired, I have kicked over the traces and turned to fiction. I am
working on a series of three novels on the 1770s in New Spain and the impact of
the Bourbon Reforms. I’ve based my characters in large part on the social gulf
that existed between the criollos
or mestizos,
like Martín who may have been a low class muleteer who made good, and
Patricia, the daughter of a wealthy Spanish family. Since the story (in the
third book) carries us into 1777, Bernardo de
Gálvez and his defense of the American Revolution plays a part as
well. The first two novels are finished and are in the editing stages. The
third should be done soon. Now, I just need to find an agent and publisher. My
usual publishers–the university presses–don’t do fiction.
Thanks for the opportunity to share the story of
the De León saga with your readers. My website is at www.carolinacastillocrimm.com
and De León is available through my web site or through amazon.
C.M. MAYO: Immense thanks to you, Carolina, and mucha suerte with your novels.
