The Traveler

Issue date: 9/28/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Gentry Lassiter 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.

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.

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools