>> Amy Stolls: My name is Amy Stolls. I direct the Literary Arts Program at the National Endowment for the Arts. And I'm here to introduce our next session. And I could begin, as one often does, by saying I'm deeply honored to do so. But that would be an understatement. To the staff of the National Endowment for the Arts over the last decade or so Julia Alvarez has been and is a star. [ Applause ] She is to us both a monumental figure in American literature and one of the most gracious human beings many of us have ever worked with. Julia first came on our radar when we awarded her a National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing fellowship in 1987. Seven years before In the Time of the Butterflies was published. And we have an impressive track record, I will say, of finding and supporting writers who years later go on to fame and fortune, or at least fame. [Laughter]. In 2010, we added In the Time of the Butterflies to our Big Read initiative, which supports One Book, One Community read programs nationwide. And that means communities could select her novel as the focus for a month or months of dynamic events. And since 2010, 29 cities and towns across the country have been awarded grants to do just that with her novel. From large urban communities, like Boston, the Bronx, Milwaukee, and Austin, Texas to small and medium size communities like Stanford, Kentucky, Pueblo, Colorado, and Gurabo, Puerto Rico after hurricane Maria. And every time Julia visits a community as part of the Big Read, we hear back from the Grand Tia [assumed spelling] about how wonderful she is and what a remarkable impact she's had on her audiences. Said a Big Read participant in Dekalb, Illinois, after one of her visits, tonight we were touched by greatness. In a recently re-released -- [ Laughter ] >> Julia Alvarez: It's like I'm a fictional character. >> Amy Stolls: See. [Laughter]. In a recently re-released podcast available on our website at NEA Big Read.gov, you knew I was going to throw that in there. You can find lots of information on Julia and her novel there. Our media producer, Josephine Reid, interviewed Julia about her writing, about the story behind In the Time of the Butterflies and various other things and in that podcast, Julia said this, the way we live history is through personality, through ourselves, and our lens and that's already the province of novels. Because novels are the truth according to character. Does that still hold up? >> Julia Alvarez: Yes. That works. >> Amy Stolls: [Laughs]. How lucky we are to have Julia's lens and the lens of her characters and to have her with her today, Marie Arana, a distinguished writer and fierce advocate for literature in her own right. Exhibit A, this entire festival, the success of which is largely due to her hard work and curatorial eye. [ Applause ] I have no doubt you're about to hear a beautiful and quite memorable conversation. Enjoy. >> Julia Alvarez: Thank you. >> Marie Arana: Thank you. [ Applause ] >> Marie Arana: Thank you, very much, Amy. I don't know about you, but I feel a little like Alice in Wonderland. My feet are off the ground. These chairs are made for people with long femurs. And we're Latinas. I don't have long femurs. [ Laughter, applause ] But here we are, Julia. You -- you look at the credit of this 25th anniversary issue of In the Time of the Butterflies, which is an absolutely marvelous book. Landmark book, as you all know. And there's a whole page of all of -- this doesn't even record all of what Julia has done in her career. She's been a poet, a children's book writer. She's been a novelist. She's been a memoirist. She's been a commentator. She's been essayist. Always speaking for herself, of course, but then for so many of us who have lived something like her experience. And she is probably one of the most versatile writers I've ever known. She's received more prizes than I could mention. And she's also my friend. So, the great reward over the years has been learning really what we share so much in common. Of course, it started, for me, as it had started for you through her words and her literature and her language. We both arrived in this country at about the age of 10. We both confronted a new culture, embraced it, learned it. And learned to write, even prefer to write in the language of this culture. And we both care very deeply about America. And when I say America, [inaudible response] I mean all of the Americas. My grandfather used to say, that is the biggest identity theft ever. [Laughter]. >> Julia Alvarez: Yes. >> Marie Arana: So, we're here to celebrate this wonderful, wonderful re-publication of this marvelous book. She had already won hearts with the Garcia Girls Lost -- When the Garcia Girls Lost -- How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents. And then she would go on to win more hearts in her collections of poetry and, of course, her novels Yo and Salome [assumed spelling] and everything else that she came. But this was the groundbreaking book, I think. And this is why we are honoring it in this way. The first thing that I want to do is -- I'm going to let you speak, actually, Julia. >> Julia Alvarez: I love hearing you speak. >> Marie Arana: But here's -- I just want to say this before we start our conversation. This is what she wrote on the publication of that book, which was in 1994, 25 years ago. In 1960, a few months after my family fled the dictatorship of Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, the three Mirabal sisters were brutally murdered. Founders of the underground, [Spanish language] the Butterflies, which was their code name, had inspired resistance cells throughout the country. My father had joined one of those cells, which was cracked by the SIM, the secret police, in the summer of 1960. The reason we were forced to flee. This novel tells the Mirabal story through the lens of fiction. Needless to say, this book is one I felt compelled to write. So, Julia, the first question I want to ask you is, this is history. This is history. This is not only your history, your family's history, the history of a whole country, the history of a whole way that the Dominican Republic and Latin America, and all of that plays into lives today, played into lives then, in 1960. >> Julia Alvarez: Yes. >> Marie Arana: Tell us about how you feel looking back on that. >> Julia Alvarez: Well, it's a history that remains -- the jury is still out, so to speak. So many of these refugees, people that we see coming to this country, desperate to get out of their countries. It's situations we created in many instances, the United States with interventionists, kind of, international politics. In the Dominican Republic it was the Marines that had been occupying the country that set up Trujullo. And we, my immediate family, my parents and my sisters and myself, were lucky to get out. So, I understand the complex situation that brings people to the desperation where they leave their homeland. They don't want to leave their homeland, their families, their stories, their history. And to see it still playing out, it's -- it's bittersweet, you know. Because we hope that with the stories that we tell that somehow things will change, you know. We tell the story we feel people will understand. And so, at this stage of the game to look back and think, well, you know, it's a continuing saga that we're seeing now. But I also feel very heartened. First of all, in this day and age for a book to last 25 years is just, you know, it's like amazing that it's still alive. The lifespan of a book is not that long. So, that it's still out there. It's been very touching. And to see the things that it's brought about. You know, one of my favorite writer's, Rebecca Solnit, a favorite little book that I sent everybody to read when you despair of current politics, Hope in the Dark. It's all about activism in times of despair. And she talks about the indirectness of direct action. That you do something and you do this particular thing, like write this book, and from it you see that things have happened. People have gotten aware or inspired to do other things so that it keeps being passed on. And when it has a 25-year lifespan, I've seen that happen. >> Marie Arana: It's an endearing book, it's an endearing story. And maybe because it's cyclical in a way. I mean, we live through things -- through Trujullo regime and then we lived through the -- it seems we lived through it again. >> Julia Alvarez: Yes, and again, and again, and again. >> Marie Arana: Yes. >> Julia Alvarez: Well, and it's also what I found was that originally, I set out to write a history book about -- a biography of the -- about the sisters. But I became interested, as Amy mentioned, in character. The truth according to character. And that's more the province of the fiction writer. So, also, what's interesting to me and it still continues to be interesting to me is what politicizes people. And in writing about these women, I was interested in the female point of view of the history. But also, what politicized each one? What politicizes us? Why do we decide to do something that is terrifying? What they did, stand up to a dictatorship and look at what came about because of that. But what causes that in a person, in a community? What gets us going, you know? What's the last straw in what we say, [Inaudible], you know. A martin or -- [Spanish language]. Yes. >> Marie Arana: Well, it -- >> Julia Alvarez: And it's a very important question right now. >> Marie Arana: It is, it is. >> Julia Alvarez: We're all living. >> Marie Arana: When do you say, [Spanish language]? Well, for each of these sisters, the reason is different, somehow. They all come down in the place but not in the same way. >> Julia Alvarez: Right. >> Marie Arana: So, when you're talking about, what is it that prompts you, that indirect thing that prompts directness? It is, I suppose, when something hits home to the character that you are. >> Julia Alvarez: That's interesting. >> Marie Arana: I don't know. I'm just guessing. What do you think? >> Julia Alvarez: No, because I did find with each of the sisters it was something different that stirred them. And, you know, when I talk about this politization, I just having an interview with Herbert from a program, the Wood Carver -- Book Carver. And he said, you know, what did you find is the answer? And I had to think about it. This is what I love about novels and Richard Ford addressed this last night in his talk, is that you don't find answers. Chekov said that the task of the writer is not to solve the problem but to state it correctly. You know, it's intricacies, it's complexities. So, there isn't just one thing that happens. But the whole story tells the story. And so each one, I found, as I became involved in their character was something different that drove them to do what they did. And not always something noble. It wasn't always something noble. I think it was Robert Kohls tells a story of an integration of a school someplace in Louisiana. And, you know, he was really interested in this one woman that sort of broke the barrier. You know, that brought her white kids to the school that was integrated. Because everyone else had been boycotting it. And, you know, when he interviewed her, she would say grand things like, oh, well, you know we're all equal, this is the United States. Something in it didn't feel accurate to him. So, he kept plying her and she finally said, I'll tell you what did it. She said, I had those three kids in the house for a week. [Laughter]. Had me up to here. And then one of them broke my favorite lamp. And I said, that's it, we're going to school tomorrow. And she hauled her kids to school and she broke that line. She took them in and then she looked behind her and other people that had been tenuous, and not knowing, began to go in. And so, you know, what drives us -- and that made her courageous when she saw, oh, there's a bunch of us. Yes, we can do this. >> Marie Arana: It's a matter of well. >> Julia Alvarez: Yes, yes. But what drove her was, she was fed up with fulltime mothering. [Laughter]. So, I love it. I love that -- that's why we're storytellers. Because it's not that, you know, kind of blanket this or that. It's nuance. It's -- I love what Richard Ford said, this is my second time I'm referencing that but it was so wonderful and it's not great learning, or that you know a lot about literature. But you feel you want to give attention to life, the life around you. Pay attention. >> Marie Arana: Sometimes it's small. Sometime it's just a little human tissue that you're trying to get across. >> Julia Alvarez: Right. Henry James said -- his advice to the young writer was be him, and I add or her, be him on whom nothing is lost. You know, you're constantly doing research as a writer. You notice things. You're curious. >> Marie Arana: So, I want to know about the little girl that came when she was 10 years old. To what extent, I mean, this was a terrible dictatorship, the Trujullo dictatorship. It was -- rabidly terrible, in the fact that he had, you know, personal excesses and he was predatory in the most disgusting human ways. And he had complete control of the country. And there you are, you're a little girl, and suddenly your father resists. Something moves him to resist. And then you are flung out of that happy family, that warm embrace. However terrible the country was going on, you're basically a member of a family in a happy place. >> Julia Alvarez: Yes. >> Marie Arana: What was that like? >> Julia Alvarez: Well, it was interesting because, you know, people say growing up in this terrible dictatorship, and it was horrible, 31 years of it. The whole generation of my parents are called [Spanish language] because, you know, they just were under this -- >> Marie Arana: Surviving. >> Julia Alvarez: Yes. Just basically surviving. But I grew up in this, you know, I was a kid in this. And that's not my experience. I had an extended familial. I had their love and protection, in the sense of belonging. I was surrounded by the world's best storytellers. You know, I wasn't a reader. I was bad at school. But I loved this culture. And then we come to the United States and we're told this is the land of the free. This is the home of the brave. This is going to be special. You're going to be free. And that wasn't our experience. You know, we were isolated, wasn't a multicultural culture. Kids made fun of our accents. And, you know, we just felt very isolated. You turn on the TV and there are black people being hosed down. >> Marie Arana: Exactly, yes. >> Julia Alvarez: There's little girls being bombed in a church. And I think, wait a minute, you know, this is the land of the free -- >> Marie Arana: This is a terrible place. >> Julia Alvarez: Yes. This is the land of the free but only of certain people that are free. And so, you know, it was very dramatic. But the indirectness of direct action. What it did is, it made me into a reader. Because I had to turn in and became an introverted kid. And it wasn't out there in the stories so I had to become a reader to get inside that world again and to feel like I was welcome and belonged. So, it's a -- again, the mixtures that make a life interesting. The worst thing that could have happened was in some ways what led me to my calling. >> Marie Arana: Of course. But this was the culture shock. It was -- the shock was not experienced in -- >> Julia Alvarez: In the DR? No, no, no, no. It was here. It was experienced here. >> Marie Arana: So, you were actually of the vanguard, Julia, of the Hispanic writers' boom, shall we say. You were at the very beginning. So, there was not -- there were not many people that you could look at to say, well, you know, that's -- I identify with that. Who did you identify with? >> Julia Alvarez: Who did I end up -- >> Marie Arana: Identify with. >> Julia Alvarez: Ah, you know, we were writing -- we didn't know about each other. I mean, it was later that I connected with Sandra Cisneros and Ana Castillo, and, you know, that all came later. So, we were writing and what we would write was considered a province of sociology. You know, it's about those kinds of -- it's a study of people. It's not part of American literature. And then I read Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior. And I thought, you know, this was about a Chinese-American family in Sacramento and it could have been my family, including the first sentence of that memoir novel. It's a must read, really, which I thought every Latino woman could make that the first sentence of their novel or their memoir. And it was, my mother told me never, ever to repeat this story. [ Laughter ] And then she goes on to tell the story. And I thought, you know, it was just perfect. It was just like I get that. But the mixture of cultures, and you know, the visions, and the spirits, and the -- combined with SATs and, you know, poodle skirts or whatever they were called. You know, I mean, all that combination. It was just -- and I thought oh my, oh, this -- you can do this. Oh, you can do this. You know, it was -- I got to meet her finally, a few years back, here in D.C. And I just told her, you know, so many of us, Sandra, too. Sandra Cisneros talks about my -- >> Marie Arana: Me, too. Me, too. >> Julia Alvarez: Oh, my gosh. Yes. >> Marie Arana: That's a very strategic question. Because that was the book that for me -- it was like, why you can do this in fiction. You can speak in legends and mythologies and spirits, and you know, ghosts. >> Julia Alvarez: And combinations and straddle the cultures. >> Marie Arana: And it was so familiar. It was very familiar. >> Julia Alvarez: So, familiar, you know, the immigrant experience. The female experience, you know, those kinds of families that wanted to silence you because they wanted you to be safe. They wanted you to be a nice girl. And you were a woman warrior. You know, and so, yes. It was a -- >> Marie Arana: And different, too. I mean, you're different. I'm reminded of Gene Yang, who is the graphic novelist, a wonderful. He's done these wonderful books on the Chinese Boxer Rebellion. And his inspiration, which was so wonderful and surprising, was actually African-American. >> Julia Alvarez: Oh and that, too. >> Marie Arana: Comic book writers and graphic novelists. So, these crossings of culture are so interesting because what you're identifying with is kind of the outsider thing, perhaps. And the fact that you can do things differently in writing. >> Julia Alvarez: Right, right. That the margin, the Toni Morrison quote that we heard last night. That you don't move to the center. It's not, you know, you don't assimilate into the other thing that is pushing you out. You create where you are in the margin as a new center. >> Marie Arana: Right. >> Julia Alvarez: You know, and that's what a book like Woman Warrior did. It just said, you know, they don't allow you there. We create this culture. And then the multicultural boom has changed the mainstream American literature. You know, it's provided this richness and accessibility. And so, it's a wonderful thing to -- I was lucky that I happened to be on the cusp of that because my first novel, Garcia Girls wasn't published until I was 41. But I already had been writing for about 20, 25 years, you know. So, that it happened, I was lucky, because it could -- it could be 20 years from now or 25 years from now and I wouldn't have had that sense that I could participate in being a story teller in what became my language and culture. >> Marie Arana: So, how are you different from the writer who wrote, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent? >> Julia Alvarez: Oh, boy, Marie, that's -- [ Laughter ] You know, like, how to -- well, you know, I am coming out with a new novel next year. [ Applause ] >> Marie Arana: Does it have a title, yet? >> Julia Alvarez: Yes, which they tried to get me to change. And I'm -- that's changed. You know, when I first wrote, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, the title of that was Daughters of Invention. And I had a wonderful editor, Shannon Ravenel at Algonquin Books. And she didn't -- she was so good. As an editor, she let you hold on to your little, you know, what you need at your -- >> Marie Arana: Your little favorites. >> Julia Alvarez: Little favorites until she wrested them out of your hand when you were ready. [Laughter]. So, I was really connected to Daughters of Invention. And then at the end she said, Julia -- she has this wonderful Southern accent that could talk you into anything. She says, we're going to have to come up with some other title. That title is awful title. I said, Shannon, Daughters of Invention. She said, no, no, no. We went round and round and round. And I had lists. And then finally we would talk on the phone. We didn't have email then. Talk on the phone, talk on the phone. And she said, well, what do you think this novel is about? And I was just fed up and I said, it's about how the Garcia girls lost their accents. She said, that's it. [ Laughter ] So, the new title -- so I got convinced there. The new title that they tried to get me to change but I -- now that I'm [Spanish language] in this world [laughter] I hold on to, I get cranky and I hold on to it. It's called Afterlife. >> Marie Arana: Oh, beautiful. >> Julia Alvarez: All one word. Afterlife. >> Marie Arana: It's beautiful. So, you think they're going to stick with this or -- >> Julia Alvarez: Yes, they said, well, people will think it's a religious book. Well, people will think it's a gloomy book. Well, people will think -- I said, well, they'll have to read it to know what it's about. >> Marie Arana: So, maybe in the last 25 years or the -- you've gotten stronger. >> Julia Alvarez: Well, yes. You know, you sort of, as a writer, part of your handicap as a writer is that, you know, you want your other points of view. So, you're persuadable and you see points of view. And that's difficult. But also when you've been this long at it, you finally say, I've got this feeling about this and I want to hold onto this and you trust a little bit more your intuition, in terms of the writing. Because I mean, I've been in this craft and calling now for most of my life. >> Marie Arana: All of your life. >> Julia Alvarez: And so, I have to, you know, not that each book, as you know, you have to learn how to write that book. So, you have to start completely humbled into the process. But you have certain things you've survived in the process. And so, you have a sense of where you want to go with it. >> Marie Arana: Absolutely. So, the -- let's say, the young person who began writing -- actually, you began writing poetry, at first. Did you not? >> Julia Alvarez: Yes. >> Marie Arana: So, you were writing the line by line meter, which tuned you to language in the first place. You still have that because you still write poetry. Do you not? >> Julia Alvarez: Yes, yes. >> Marie Arana: So, that hasn't changed. Is there a sense of maturity or of a kind of will and determination? I just think sometimes getting older is -- makes you better, stronger, more honest, in a way. Would you say that you would have written How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent in your current sort of persona? >> Julia Alvarez: Ah, that is -- >> Marie Arana: Or when you read it now, should I say, when you read it now, does it feel true? >> Julia Alvarez: I don't like reading what I wrote. [ Laughter ] I mean, honest, I'm still working on it. Because -- >> Marie Arana: The rest of us love it. >> Julia Alvarez: Well, the thing is, and I used to think this was a bad thing but I've gotten to see that it's a good thing. I think, oh, that sentence. >> Maria Arana: Yes, you want to edit. >> Julia Alvarez: How did I think I could write that sentence? Oh, please, take that fifth use of ellipsis away from those three pages. You know, it just -- you see things. And I used to think, this is terrible. But then I thought what it means is that I've grown as writer. I know I would work things differently. But there's also a great deal of affection because you see your young writer self and there's a perspective in it. And you see how, you know, fiercely you're holding on to certain things and how much hope, ambition, desire to prove yourself and that you belonged in this culture and in this literature. And that wanes. That has waned, you know. And I think I can see that as a difference. In terms of the writing, I'm -- and how poetry is still impacting me is that it's my first love. It's still my first love. It's how I like to start the writing day. In part because, as Emily Dickinson said, there's no approximate words in a poem. Or it's less forgiving. So, you're sort of tuning your voice to a very exacting, you know, bar there. You know, when you read poetry. But I also think that coming from Spanish, in a very musical language, that's it's a way that I could continue speaking in Spanish and English. You know, that rhythmical cadence kind of -- >> Marie Arana: Has that music. >> Julia Alvarez: Yes, has that music. But I still -- I keep returning to it. And I think it gets harder and harder to write because that kind of exactitude. Pros is more forgiving. >> Marie Arana: It is, indeed. It is, indeed. No, poetry is like the white-hot bullet, I think, of language, in way. Makes you pare everything down in such a way. >> Julia Alvarez: Right. And that's what I try to do with the new novel. I've always been impressed and love the short, lyrical novel, that really is participates in that Japanese sensibility in which you take more and more things away, so, that what remains gets charged. And I really admire those. So, part of Afterlife is I wanted to write a short lyrical novel before I go. You know, that's one of the things I've wanted to do. >> Marie Arana: That's dark. >> Julia Alvarez: And so -- well, but now, I think, gosh. This is really hard to do. You know that Pascal saying, had I had more time I would have written a shorter letter. [Laughter]. It's really hard to -- >> Marie Arana: Was that Pascal? >> Julia Alvarez: Well, you know -- >> Marie Arana: Mark Twain said that he wrote that. [Laughter]. >> Julia Alvarez: It's been assigned to Mark Twain. >> Marie Arana: So, did Aesop, I guess. >> Julia Alvarez: Yes, you know, I guess it's -- but if you go on -- there's a quote fact checker website. They trace it back to Pascal. But we are all ripping each other off anyhow as writers. [Laughter]. >> Marie Arana: I want to ask you and this goes to something that Garcia Marquez said. He said, you know, by the time you're eight you have the heart and the mind of the writer you were meant to be. And you are always working from that child's mind. And from that child's imagination. And you are really pretty much, you know, teachers alert. Because if that's true, wow. But this he -- I have a sense, too, that the things that I rely on most as a writer and a reader are things that I learned very, very early on, or feelings that I had very early on. So, I wanted to ask you in this next question, to what extent does that little girl who came over at the age of 10 live in your work? And so, does this make you a different writer from say, James Smiley writing, you know, about the West. >> Julia Alvarez: Well, it's interesting because -- that you mention eight-years old and what happened to you then. And I wasn't a reader. So, I wasn't, you know, I didn't -- I can't say that, you know, it was in me to be a writer. But I think coming from a story teller -- story telling culture, an oral culture. And the only book I remember being grabbed by and reading as a kid was given to me by my Auntie who lives in Maryland now. It was the Arabian Nights. And I remember it was a picture book. And it was wonderful because it had a brown girl on the cover. An Arabian girl. And she looked like a Dominican girl. And this girl, she told stories. And she saved her life and the life of all the women in the kingdom telling these incredible Aladdin and the Magic Lamp, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. Told stories and ended up changing the mind of the Sultan. So, I think this -- when we came to this country, we didn't bring much with us. It was a very fast exit. But that I carried in the bloodstream of my imagination this very luminous story. They gave me -- I couldn't even have set this this way. But they gave me the idea that stories have power. That they can change people. That they can save you. And so, I think that was in there. And so, I think, yes, to teachers it's amazing what, you know, a story or an event can become a kind of little blueprint through your life. And I still think so much Scheherazade, that's the girl that saved her life telling stories, as a kind of, I don't know, bedrock, mythic -- mythos, for me. If we had to choose myth or the story, that kind of, I don't know, it kind of warms up our soul, imagination, I would have to say it's the story of Scheherazade. So, I think that Scheherazade lives on in me. And that's, yes. >> Marie Arana: So, I hope you have questions. Please come up to the microphones if you do. I want to ask, because it's pressing and important right now, the business of being Latina in this -- or Latino, or Hispanic, or whatever you want to call yourself. But of being of Latin-American origin or Latin-American heritage. Where are we now? How are we doing? >> Julia Alvarez: Ah, Marie, yes. It's -- it's very disturbing. I mean, so much is very disturbing. It's hard to pick one thing out. You know, but to -- I think for those of us who came and who came because of a desperate situation, to see some of these footage of children who could have been us, you know, in these situations and to see what's happening is -- you don't even know where to begin to do something. I mean, I just felt like I wanted to get in the car and drive there. Like, they were going to let me in and say, I'll adopt them all. You know, I mean there's this sense of this couldn't be happening. So, it's why I re-read, Hope In the Dark by Rebecca Solnit and why activism, wherever we find ourselves, is so important. As a matter of fact, since I've mentioned Scheherazade, I had this idea but somebody needs to run it, called the Scheherazade Project. And what I wanted is for 1001 nights, a woman artist or dancer or story teller or poet or musician would go to the White House. This would be the demonstration. And would tell the story or do something that night and then the next night. I don't think it would change the mind of the Sultan. [Laughter]. But it would be a way to combine creativity and activism, which is so much something that I've always felt as an immigrant writer, fell on my lap. I don't think I would have naturally been an activist or -- but there's something about writing from a margin gives you then this orientation of being opening up the circle and opening up -- being more inclusive. It just puts you there. So, to, you know, say that when I want to be Scheherazade for one night in front of the White House, that's how desperate I feel. [Laughter]. You know. I'm no longer the eight-year-old. I would hide under the bed skirt and tell stories and I would imagine that unless I told a good story, my head would be chopped off in the morning. And I sometimes, I feel I'm back in that head again at 69. >> Marie Arana: Well, I have to say, you have helped a lot of people. Julia doesn't talk about it very much but she has been a philanthropist in so many ways to people in the Dominican Republic and elsewhere. But I would open this up to you. To question, please. Step forward. We have little time. >> Julia Alvarez: Hi. It's hard to see you. This is why I'm doing this. >> Marie Arana: You're shiny. >> Julia Alvarez: The light is right there. Right. >> Thank you both so much. You mentioned teachers earlier. And when I was in middle school English teacher, I taught before we were free to my students, including Dominican students. >> Julia Alvarez: Where? Here in D.C? >> In Boston. >> Julia Alvarez: Oh, of course. >> Yes. I'm really proud of how much we learned together. And I'm curious if there's any one particular thing that you are most proud of in your career and in the works you've written? >> Julia Alvarez: Actually, I don't know if it's pride but just immense gratitude that I've had the opportunity to do what I love. You know, there's this little roomy quote that goes, let the beauty you love be what you do. But not everybody gets the opportunity to do that for any number of reasons, including where you're born on this earth and what situation you're in, you know, what -- you know, how the culture you're in allows you opportunities. So, I just feel immense gratitude to be able to do that and to have all this attention and all of you here. I mean, without you I wouldn't be here. You're my readers. You take what's on the page and you bring it to life in your imaginations. Just immense gratitude that that has been possible for me. And also, very -- as I, you know, live and experience so many things, awareness that this isn't a given, you know. In this culture and especially in other cultures. So, I feel gratitude for that. And I guess, if I have a pride thing is that I didn't give up. You know, Garcia Girls, 41 years old. That [foreign language], you know, my mother would say. You know, you don't have -- who is going to take care of you. You don't have -- I didn't -- I wasn't living the conventional life that -- she wanted for me to be safe and that I -- I don't know how I kept going. Because I didn't have loads of self-confidence. But this was something that I wanted, that I loved, and that I held on to. So, I guess pride, if that's the right word, just, you know -- yes, that I did that. And I also taught for so many years. That was the career I earned a living at for many years and so, great -- gratitude to teachers and the fact that I was able to in a classroom connect with young people and survive. So, yes. >> Marie Arana: Thank you. Over here. >> My book club is reading In the Time of the Butterflies and will be discussing it in a couple of weeks. And I was wondering if there was a question or topic that you would recommend that we discuss at our meeting? [ Laughter ] >> Julia Alvarez: Oh my goodness. It's so -- you know, when they came out with the new edition, they had me look at the back, at the questions that they ask. And they said, well, if you want to add anything. You know, when you write the story, you're not thinking about it in those analytical ways. It's all like it was a piece. So, you're the worst person [laughter] to ask people what, you know, or give any suggestions. But maybe some of the things we've talked about here on the stages. Marie's wonderful questions. She's a great interviewer. I was kind of worried. What are Marie and I going to talk about, you know? And no problem. But some of the things she's asked about -- and, of course, this is 25 years old. You know, how is this relevant to us now? You know, what -- that term that's now used so much. Take away. What's the take away for us now? Because we go into a story and we come out of it slightly changed as a person. I think if it's gotten in our system. So, what is that change in sensibility and how does it apply to the times we're living in now? >> Marie Arana: Yes. The book is filled with history and you're living history as you write it. Last question, please. >> Thank you so much for being here today and for all of your work. I actually want to build off a previous question and something you mentioned before. I'm currently a 4th grade teacher. And so, you talked about protecting the childhood imagination and you talked about, also, some negative experiences you had in school. What do you wish, especially in this disturbing moment, that we public school teachers do in the classroom and do for our children? >> Julia Alvarez: Oh, that's such a good question. As you know, I'm seeing two minutes are left here. I have a problem because I give these long answers. But I think, you know, one of the reasons that I got involved in writing for kids is I live in Vermont. Not a very diverse state. But all of a sudden we started noticing in our county and influx of undocumented Mexican migrant workers. And they -- turned out they were doing the milking on all the farms. But they were an underground population because they would be very visible, in a non-diverse state, if they were out in public. And their kids started to come into the school system. And the kids were terrified because they were afraid of what would happen to their parents if they went home and their parents weren't there. And the farm kids were alarmed because they were true Americans and their parents were doing something illegal, you know, hiring these people and what was going to happen and what did it mean to be patriotic? And so, I was called into the schools because there weren't that many Spanish speakers in my county to help with these new kids coming in. And when I walked in, one of the reasons that I wanted to write Return to Sender, is because I thought we need a story to understand what is happening here. So, that in story form kids can participate in some of the issues and some of the struggles that they're going through and see how it plays out in a fictional landscape. And therefore, be able to integrate some of these confusing things in their minds and in their little communities. So, I think finding books that address issues that the kids are facing and that, you know, you go to those gray areas, not black or white, where kids can -- you know, when you read a story, it's not like you understand it analytically. But in that integrated way that story does, you know, with your mind and your heart and your spirit. And to be able to read books that engage them with what they see that's disturbing on the news, you know. And so, I think that's sometimes you want to protect the kids, you know, they've got enough of this, you know, they don't need to know about gun violence, you know, or they don't need to know about this refugee crisis. They don't need to know about the environment. And look who is leading us. Greta Thunberg. You know, a kid crossing the Atlantic on sail ship. [Applause] Who got people really riled up about gun control? The kids at Parkland, you know. They're saying you're not -- we need you -- you're not taking care of us. We're taking this up. And as my friend Bill McKibben says, it's not okay to let kids do this all by themselves. So, you know, to engage them because it's going to be their world. I'm going to be gone. You'll be an old lady. [Laughter]. But they're -- it's going to be their world. And they need to be understanding it and story gives them a safe container in which to understand it. So, yes. And boy, this book festival should be a wonderful place to find all these different writers that are addressing these issues, you know, and what they're writing for kids. So many great children's book authors here. Yes. >> Marie Arana: Julia, I want to -- wonderful answer. >> Julia Alvarez: And I'm going to -- no. I want to -- She doesn't want me to do this. This was born two days ago. And I am with an old lady book here. [Laughter]. You know. And this book is a history. Silver Sword in Stone. It's a history of Latin-America that is -- it was just sent to me by the publisher. They didn't ask for a blurb. Usually writers are so busy they don't want to be asked for a blurb because they have enough reading to do. And I read this, and I contacted her publisher and I said can I please write a blurb for this? [Laughter]. It's an amazing book. I understood the Southern part of the Americas and the United States so much better because of this book. So, I'm sorry, Marie. Okay. I'm not saying this because we're friends. But it is a wonderful book and it is the moment for us to all read this book to understand us, as one reviewer said, immigrants can now hold up a sign saying, I am here because you were there. [Laughter]. >> Marie Arana: What a friend. [ Applause ] >> Julia Alvarez: So, this is the new born and it needs godparents. So, go buy it. >> Marie Arana: That's not the way this was supposed to end. [Laughter]. This was supposed to be -- >> Julia Alvarez: Yes, she said well, if you mention it just, you know, like be tactful. Am I tactful? [ Laughter ] [ Spanish language ] My mother told me never, ever to do this. >> Marie Arana: Congratulations to Julia for the 25th anniversary of her book. Wonderful. >> Julia Alvarez: I love this. [ Applause ]