I know this’ll sound strange, but I just finished re-reading John Berger’s Ways of Seeing in English and now I’m reading it in Spanish before I start working on a collection of essays based on my family’s two suitcases full of photos from as early as the late 1800s. Hoping the Spanish translation shows me another “way of seeing”.
Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Writing is craft.
Become a recorder.
Truth is the answer.
Thoughts are fleeting.
Hear your voice and the voices around you.
See. Smell. Touch. Taste. Listen.
Know that you are beautiful.
I don’t write for a living although I think I’d like to; given another go at it, I’d be a botanist.
Ito Romo was born and raised on the border in Laredo, Texas. His recent work, dubbed “Chicano Gothic” and “Chicano Noir,” shows the dark and gritty life along Interstate 35 through South Texas, where his family has lived since 1750. He lives in San Antonio and is Professor of English Literature and Language at St. Mary’s University, where he teaches Mexican American Literature, Multicultural Literature, and Creative Writing. Romo received his PhD from Texas Tech University’s Creative Writing Program and was recently inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters. He is the author of The Border is Burning (2013) and El Puente / The Bridge (2001), both published by University of New Mexico Press. El Puente / The Bridge (2001) was also published in German by Europa Verlag, Munich. Romo is currently working on a novel, Filth Eaters.
