Story by Sherry Mazzocchi
Photos by Sherry Mazzocchi and Isaacc García
Rosanna Cuevas, of northern Manhattan, was one of about 200 people who crowded into the Gregorio Luperon High School to hear Junot Díaz speak this past Fri., Jan. 27th.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao was in town for a Family Literacy Day event.
The afternoon forum, organized by civic group Acción Comunitaria La Aurora, Teatro Las Tablas, Word Up Bookstore, The Manhattan Times and The Bronx Free Press, also featured free books provided by Barnes and Noble.
Cuevas brought her daughter, Rossaura, 9, hoping the talk would inspire a love of literature.
And much of what Díaz spoke about was directed at parents such as Cuevas.
If you are here with children, he told the audience, then you believe in the power of reading. His parents, he explained, would tell him that education was a wonderful thing, but they didn't act on that idea.
When caught reading books, his mother instead told him to go out and play.
Díaz said that no one knows what a child will eventually become—and they shouldn't be judged quickly. Instead, Díaz said it's better to keep ideas about your children flexible and not label them.
During his high school senior year, Díaz was absent 130 days. He had a GPA of 1.7. But his mother never called him stupid or told him he would end up in prison.
Instead, she kept saying, "This kid is going to be brilliant."
Because she never condemned him for not doing well in school, Díaz said that created a space for him to change and become an academic and a writer.
When a teacher in the audience asked him what would have motivated him—and children like him—to come to school, the answer was revealing.
"Remember that person that you loved the most and who absolutely broke your heart?" he asked. "And remember how useful and productive you were the six months after your heart was broken?"
Kids in school are getting their hearts broken all the time, by parents, friends or just life.
"And then we expect them to be kicking a** in school," he said.
But they need time to mourn.
Díaz's father left their family the same year his older brother got cancer.
"There was no teacher in the world," said Díaz, "who was going to keep me from a dysfunctional heart break in my senior year."
But schools are like stopwatches, he said. If kids don't mend according to the school's timetable, they're labeled as "bad" students. But in reality, they are just sensitive.
"The only reason kids act tough is because they are protecting something very delicate inside. Who acts tougher than the black and Latino community? I don't know any communities who act tougher than us," he said, "besides some communities at war."
Rosanna, who arrived early and sat close to the front, said Díaz's books resonated with her, especially the themes around growing up in a poor neighborhood. Like Díaz, she is also from the Dominican Republic. She especially likes the strong female characters in his work and says they were true to life.
"He definitely portrays the Dominican immigrant community in a funny and lively way," she said. "All my friends who read the book [Oscar Wao] loved it and swear by it," she said.
Díaz was her adviser at Syracuse University.
"I thought he was a great role model," she said. "He was funny, laid back and very approachable."
Caroline Peralta, who grew up in Morris Heights in the Bronx, is an aspiring writer and also looks up to Díaz as a role model. She said that reading about the Trujillo era in Oscar Wao filled in part of her own heritage.
"My mom doesn't talk about that," she said.
The founder of Word Up bookstore, Veronica Liu, was also in the audience. She found the talk very inspiring, and said Díaz has a profound impact on the community. When she first decided to open a bookstore in the Heights, the first thing everyone mentioned was Junot Díaz and his work.
"He hasn't been to the bookstore," Liu said, "but he's kind of like a...patron saint."
To hear directly from the Pulitzer Prize winner and his ruminations on keeping your ideas “plastic,” please visit:
http://bit.ly/MT_023
http://bit.ly/MT_024
http://bit.ly/MT_025
http://bit.ly/MT_026
