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Kathleen Alcalá
80 quotes
“Once we lost the keys to our houses in Barcelona during The Plague, or the Inquisition or whatever other excuse was given for taking our properties, all the world was our temporary habitation. We saw each place through the eyes of the stranger seeking that pocket of refuge where we could set up shop until the next disaster turned people against us.”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Road to Nyer" (after Isak Dinesen's "The Roads Round Pisa"), anthologized in Latinx Rising: An Anthology of Latinx Science Fiction and Fantasy edited by Matthew David Goodwin (2020)
“After all, what is the passing of time but a diamond turned to dust?”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“as time succeeded time into a whirlpool of eternity.”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) first seen 1992 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Taking Inventory" in Mrs. Vargas and the Dead Naturalist (1992)
“She could drop her shyness the way she dropped it to recite a speech or a poem, then step back into it like a cloak.”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) first seen 1992 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Gypsy Lover" in Mrs. Vargas and the Dead Naturalist (1992)
“When children went every day to school to learn to live in a world that no longer existed.”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: from "Deer Dancer" Short story anthologized in New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color edited by Nisi Shawl (2019)
“Tater was proud of her unusual name, and secretly hoped she was like them, ordinary at first look, but gem-like on the inside. Rooted.”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This is how they took back the world - step by step, song by song.”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This was new, the consciousness that she might have a future beyond herself.”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“By becoming a writer, you can rewrite history. ("Your Grandmother Might Have Been Mayor, or Why Write?", 1990)”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Writing about family history has taught me that much of who we think we are is based on the unexplainable. ("The Skeleton in the Closet" September 24, 2003)”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What I do know is that a writer's main job is to always be open to the possibilities of story. Like the interconnected lakes, old stories lead to new ones, and lead to new ways of seeing and living in the world. Like Amalia clutching her yellow roses, I will continue to follow these stories wherever they lead me. ("The Skeleton in the Closet" September 24, 2003)”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We each seek to retrace those steps that led us from where we once were, to where we are now. ("Found in Translation")”
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“Each of these women has a story. Each beat incredible odds to get where she is today. They, too, have given a helping hand to other women on the way up. That's what they have in common with the women of their grandmothers' and great-grandmothers' generations. They didn't stop worrying about equal rights and equal access when they made personal gains. They turned around and said, 'There's room for you, too.' ("Against All Odds," September 1992, Hispanic Women's Network, Olympia, Washington)”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“what doesn't seem like much to you now, could mean a lot to someone else. We each know what we went through, but we can only guess at the odds facing young women today. But from among them will come the next century's Sor Juana or Matilda Montoya or Hermila Galindo or Elena Poniatowska or Margarita Prentice or Hermelinda Gonzalez. We are here speculating on futures, gambling that they will make it, against the odds, but with our faith and support bearing them up on wings of success. ("Against All Odds")”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“this is the role of the writer. By telling stories, we weave a narrative thread that ties our experiences together. The aftermath of September 11th has been flooded with stories of heroic deeds, of mysteries, loss, and simple friendship. In other words, the full tapestry of the human experience. This is how we make sense of the world. Storytelling is the glue of civilization. ("Words That Heal, Words That Bind", 2001)”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We are not going to eradicate poverty by bombing people. ("Dear John: A Letter to a Friend Following 9/11")”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In this desert was my beginning. My ancestors were born here, lived and loved here, suffered loss here, and died. Eventually, war scattered us, and we have lived a sort of exile ever since. But in our exile, the stories of the desert have taken on mythic qualities. Nothing else can ever fill up the empty place in our hearts left when we departed this place. Only the deserts and the oceans, the places where the rhythms of the universe are most apparent, can assuage that ache for a few moments. ("The Desert Remembers My Name", March 24, 2000 at The Border Book Festival in New Mexico)”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“With our dreams, with our stories, with our tears, and with our hopes, we, too, scatter new seeds and harvest new beginnings. We gather outside-the sky above us, the earth below, and all of the ancestors watching. We gather in a place blessed by the sun, watered by the rain, and cooled by the wind. We gather in a place that has known fire, and survived. We are here to remember the future, and look forward to the time when the ancestors remember us. May they rejoice. ("The Desert Remembers My Name")”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One aspect of fantastic literature that must be noted is its political content. Starting with Alejandro Carpentier in Cuba, who probably first used the term "magic realism" to describe literature, such fiction has been used as a vehicle for conveying political and social truths that could be fatal if presented more baldly. In spite of their careful eloquence, many of its practitioners have lived out their lives in exile as a result of their work. This is the extraordinary power of the written word: that it can make dictators, surrounded by militia, tremble in their boots.”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In some cases, the stories take the reader right over the line to horror, the worst thing you can imagine fulfilled. In others, the fantastic elements are merely implied, and if the reader tried to pinpoint the specific elements that made the story fantastic, it would be impossible to do. Rather, the fantastic element lies in "the overall effect" that Edgar Allan Poe tried to infuse into each of his stories.”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In Latin America, there hasn't necessarily been a clear line between fantastic literature and literary fiction. This has allowed writers like Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel García Márquez and Clarice Lispector to be noticed by upstanding and respectable critics of modern culture, and has led to the eventual translation of their work, as well as that of many others. They now form a canon of work against which all the rest of us must be compared, although, in many cases, we have little in common with them other than the Spanish language.”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Writers collect things. We read magazines, we ride buses and eavesdrop on other people's conversations, we stop and read posters on telephone poles, we examine soup cans and old clothing stores and babies and pets and sewer covers and weather reports. We delve into ancient history, old gossip, rumors, hints of rumors, maps, brochures, irrelevant details, bad advice, good omens, lucky stars, and things that are nobody's business. In short, we are called to be witnesses. Things may happen, but unless someone takes note of it, it might not matter.”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No matter what the venue, we can be witnesses to our own existence. "If we do not define ourselves for ourselves," said Audre Lorde, "we will be defined by others- for their use and our detriment." Each generation must look around with a critical eye and ask, "Is this who I am? How will we be portrayed to future generations?”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Providing the narrative thread to life is one of the oldest functions in culture. People need storytellers. They make sense out of life. Instead of being an abstract concept, a road without an end, life becomes something that we can touch, hear, feel, taste, see. Chekhov gave us the Lady with the Dog, James Joyce gave us Leopold Bloom, Sandra Cisneros gave us Woman Hollering Creek, and by creating the specifics of a life, they give us a sense, they make sense of, life.”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In a way, artists are messengers between worlds, bringing ideas and symbols from one to the other.”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That's what we do as artists: we collect, we connect, we serve as scribes for the collective culture, and as messengers between worlds. Most important, we bring these symbols to the public. This is our gift, our regalo, our ofrenda. But it's up to the reader, the viewer, the listener, to bring out the power of these stories, to call out their names, and give them a place in the world.”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The writer and her language should be the humble servant of the reader. To me, the act of writing is not fulfilled until it is read. The words need to be read, digested, and assembled within the context of the reader's mind and experiences in order to be complete. In other words, every reader is "reading" a different story, because every reader brings a different set of experiences and sensibilities to the story.”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I want my writing to insinuate itself into the subconscious of the people of the Southwest, so that we might remember who we were and who we will be, since so little time is spent in the present.”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Even the doves were in mourning. The trees seemed to sigh at her leave-taking, and the windows of each building looked, to her, like sorrowful eyes. (first lines)”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[she] felt more at ease than she had at the hotel. The people there reminded her of who she was not. Also, she did not know why, but her mother's necklace had seemed to weigh upon her, like a burden from the past. In doing one more unforgivable thing, she felt that she had divested herself of a last anchor to the respectable life she had left behind. Estela slept well that night for the first time since arriving in Mexico City. (p12)”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A slight breeze entered the window and stirred the single rose in the vase on the table, causing the edges of the petals to quiver like the lips of a lover. (p 117)”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Even without legs, moving about by the propulsion of his strong arms in a crude, hopping motion, [he] seemed to have roots that extended far beneath the surface of the earth, and tied him to the memories that we all share. (p135)”
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“There was so much, he thought, of which she never spoke. (p172)”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[He] had another secret in his heart. Every night his heart spoke to him. He did not understand what it was trying to say. It knocked loudly at the inside of his chest, so loudly that he feared that it would wake his wife, sleeping gently beside him. (p173)”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Although his name would be forgotten, his family and belongings scattered, the ideas he helped to perpetuate would live on. The seeds of human dignity had been planted and were not easily stamped out. (p177)”
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“In the desert, deep inside the spiny center of the cactus, nests a bird no bigger than my finger. While the sharp thorns fend off animals that would eat the eggs, the parent birds come and go at will. And this was my mother's name, "living at the heart of the spiny cactus," Chiri, what others would call Hummingbird. The last time I saw her was on the way to Casas Grandes. (first lines)”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This is the story of my journey to Tucson, where I would find both happiness and sorrow. This is the story of my people, the Opata, who once numbered as many as the saguaro of the desert, and who once farmed many rancherías and had many villages, but are now just a few, and scattered far and wide from their home and the constellations that knew them. (p5)”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I knew that death had many faces but I had only one. And so I began to ask questions about the outside, about the future, about myself. (p22)”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That's how dreams are. Nothing ever quite happens, but you assume it's going to. It's as though your mind stops wasting energy on the image once it thinks you understand what's going on. (p163)”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The idea refused to wholly reveal itself, but continued to float just below the surface of my thoughts, like a ship just beyond the horizon of consciousness, or a rotten water lily sinking beneath the surface of a pond. (p164)”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Straightening the ruffles on the curtains, she could not forget it. Stirring the soup in the kitchen while Josefina bit her lips and waited for her to leave, she could not forget it. Sewing the torn lace back onto the hem of one of her daughters' petticoats, she could almost forget it, but Estela cringed every time she remembered the hurt, closed look on Zacarías' face as she tried to talk to him. (first lines)”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He was now in country which he had never before explored, the land of the Tarahumara, the indígenes famous for running long distances over the rough and unforgiving terrain, often, it was said, for the pure joy of it. (p134)”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If it doesn't exist, make it so. (2017)”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.” (madam mayo)”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every story that is written or told has the capacity to heal. (undated)”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In a novel or a movie, it’s often silence that communicates what cannot be said through words.”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“(In terms of telling stories based on cultural differences, do you consider yourself a “magical realist”?) The term became an easy way to classify a set of writings that didn’t match up with North American expectations. I ended up writing/talking a good deal about magical realism in relation to my work. I had already read One-hundred Years of Solitude when I was in college, probably because that was when it was translated into English. I sent a copy in Spanish to my parents, saying, “Look this is just like our family stories!” And they said, “Yes, this is like our story-telling tradition.”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fiction is all about that moment of transition from one to another state of being. If that metamorphosis doesn’t occur, the character doesn’t change. We, the readers, don’t change. This reminds me of Walter Benjamin, who observes that stories transform the storyteller as well as the listeners.”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Until quite recently, any Latinex writing had to be the same story about poor people who come up north to work on farms and make good and send their first child to college. That story falls within another story about the Protestant work ethic, the American Dream. This was the story we were allowed to tell. I don’t tell stories about earned success.”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“we celebrate survival, but being a survivor does not necessarily make you a good person.”
Kathleen Alcalá (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source