“College was a wake-up for me to the privilege and distinction of being a Latina,” said best-selling novelist Xochitl Gonzalez in a UCSB Arts & Lectures presentation on May 17 titled “Latinx Voices Are American Voices.”
Though this was her first visit to Santa Barbara, it was not The Atlantic’s Pulitzer Prize finalist’s first rodeo on the topics of representation and the importance of having a voice, and her rapid-fire exploration of the Latinx community’s history and contemporary experiences with popular culture made for a very compelling talk.
Reflecting on the 1974-1978 sitcom Chico and the Man and actor Freddie Prinze’s breakout starring role, and the fact that it took almost 30 years for another Latino man to star in a mainstream sitcom (George Lopez, who headlined The George Lopez Show from 2002-2007), Gonzalez said, “The truth is we Latinos have largely been cast as extras in the story of our American culture.”
Her broad discussion covered both the negative aspects and the necessities of labels, as well as how she sees her own two novels — Olga Dies Dreaming and Anita de Monte Laughs Last — as vehicles to bring important issues such as the shameful way the U.S. treats Puerto Rico and the dismissive discrediting of Latina artists into the light.
“We cannot afford to not seize the narrative,” said Gonzalez. “I believe that anger, when focused, can be a catalyst for change. The time of waiting to be welcomed is over, now is the time to demand more for our communities.”
After Gonzalez’s presentation, Dolores Inés Casillas, UCSB Professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies and Director of the Chicano Studies Institute, led a Q&A with the author that delved into some of her work at The Atlantic, including her 2022 essay titled “Why Do Rich People Love Quiet? The sound of gentrification is silence.” The essay, part of her Pulitzer Prize finalist package, inspired plenty of praise, but also quite a number of barbs, shared Gonzalez. “It’s the first time I’d really gotten that level of vitriol,” she said of the essay, which centered around the idea that, “… one person’s loud is another person’s expression of joy. As my grandmother used to say, ‘I’m not yelling, this is just how I tawk!’”
