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Sandra Benitez, author of "A Place Where the Sea Remembers" and "Night of the Radishes," talks to a class Thursday morning. Benitez is the fourth Latin American author to come to the UA for Hispanic Heritage Month.

Hispanic author reflects on life, writing

By: Traveler Staff

Posted: 9/28/07

By way of Mexico, El Salvador, Missouri and Minnesota, an author spoke Wednesday evening about the importance of sharing and looking for stories.

Sandra Benitez, author of "A Place Where the Sea Remembers" and "Night of the Radishes," was the fourth distinguished Latin American author to come to the UA, a tradition that has become a staple of the Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations.

"I am so impressed with your campus," Benitez said to the audience of about 300 people at the Union Theatre. "I am so impressed with your population, your international student population," she added, citing the more than 100 countries represented at the UA.

Benitez writes on the theme of separation and about having "one foot in one culture and one foot in the other," she said.

That is why "I love stories that unite us," she said. "It's our stories that bring us together."

Benitez was born in Washington, D.C., but moved to Mexico and El Salvador because her father worked with the U.S. State Department, according to SandraBenitez.com, her official Web site.

As a teenager, her parents sent her to live in a farm in Missouri, a complete switch from her life in San Salvador among the Salvadorian oligarchy, Benitez said.

Benitez praised Hispanic Heritage Month but also said "every single month and every single day, 24/7, could be a celebration of cultures, a mélange of cultures."

"It's a celebration," Benitez said. "And how do we celebrate ourselves but through story? That is why we e-mail, IM and gossip."

In her books, Benitez deals with some esoteric themes. In keeping with her writing style, Benitez told the audience she could see tongues of fire on their heads, which she equated with seeing their stories floating in the air.

"Sometimes a person needs a story more than food to stay alive," Benitez said. "Stories belong outside us, they shouldn't stay inside us calcifying."

After waking up to a foggy-turned-sunny morning Thursday, Benitez talked to a few Spanish students and professors in Sergio Villalobos' cultural readings class. She shared insight about how her writing process comes to life. She compared the writing process to walking in the fog: knowing something is there, but not seeing everything at once.

Benitez treats her characters as though they were real people, she said. She has to name them before setting out to write the plot, she said.

"It's like naming a baby," Benitez said about researching through phone directories from El Salvador for inspiration, adding that she also researches the origins of the name.

Another method she uses is interviewing her characters through her computer with all the lights off, Benitez said.

To the surprise of one student who asked a question, Benitez said she did not write as a young adult.

"I never wrote a thing till I was 39," Benitez said. "Nada, Rien de rien. Nothing. I was absolutely enamored, in love, with story. It never occurred to me that I'd be a storyteller."

Benitez wanted to be a doctor before writing. She includes a medical situation in every one of her stories "so I can be a doctor," she said.

Rachel Patrick, a graduate student in Spanish, was present at the Thursday morning presentation. Patrick, who also writes, found it encouraging that someone like Benitez could start a successful writing career later on in life and could do it with a unique style, she said.

"It was interesting to hear her speak about her techniques for developing characters and story," Patrick said. "She's inspirational. It shows you can go about doing things your own way."

Benitez lives in Minnesota with her husband, but during the winter she has gone to Manzanillo, Mexico, a beach city. Even during those trips, Benitez has gathered inspiration to write her stories, she said. Benitez then takes that inspiration and does not write until she is at her "sacred place where I write," she said.

"I have to be removed from a place in order to write about it," Benitez said. "I have to trust I can go to a place, live there and just allow the place to stamp itself upon me - the people, the conversations."