Hello Maria, welcome to the blog. First, please tell our readers what inspired you to write THE WAVES TAKE YOU HOME?
In 2020, my Abuela’s health declined, as she started to lose her battle with cancer. Due to the pandemic, I couldn’t visit Colombia and say goodbye. My worst fear had happened, and I was left with immense grief. My Abuela, and her stories, were central to my life and shaped my vision of the world. For me, she represented home and although I had left Colombia, it remained in my heart.
The idea for a novel started to take shape during that year as I reflected on how my relationship to my Abuela and her memory would live on. After she died, I was left with the idea of her as a ghost. Not in the classic sense, but she remained someone with whom I constantly spoke. I would wonder what she would do or how she would react to a situation, and sometimes I could sense her by my side. I wanted this book to embody that idea, that you always carry your ancestors with you, and even if you can’t see them, they’re still rooting for you.
I also knew in my bones I wanted this book to be inspired by the stories of the women in my family, and I wanted it to be centered around my interests and what I knew. Like Toni Morrison said, I wanted to write the book I wanted to read. So, I started writing about a family of women, food, cooking, Barranquilla and New York. This is what I knew. I also wanted to write about what scared me, and the feeling that my two lives were growing farther away from each other and the repercussions of this pull. There’s an immense amount of sacrifice with the decision of choosing one life instead of the other.
Doña Emilia, Vi’s Abuela, is central to the plot of the story. What do you think is the role of the matriarch in the book?
The matriarch in many Latin American cultures is everything. She is the center of the family, the decision maker, the voice of reason and warnings, and a representation of the past; how a particular family unit has lived until now. I think Doña Emilia is the key in acknowledging what has come before for these characters (a past of heartbreak, fear, and struggle), but she is also the one who ultimately leads Vi to examine her life and her choices, and to encourage Vi not repeat the mistakes she made.
Generational trauma is another theme discussed in THE WAVES TAKE YOU HOME. Why is this theme important to address?
It’s interesting because as I get ready for the book launch, I’ve been reflecting on my writing path. I didn’t grow up writing consistently like many other writers do, and I wasn’t a good reader until I was fourteen or so. But I was always a good listener.
My Abuela would tell me stories about her life, and the life of women in our family. And these stories were always so complete in my head, like the classic tragedies: they were stories with a beginning, a middle, and an end and with one single message: that’s what you get for trusting, for being a pendeja. There are stories about us and our families that we are always listening to, and that lead us to believe things about who we are, and who we could become. It makes it seem like we’re trapped in these ideas and concepts that sometimes aren’t the right fit.
I wanted to show the stories in the Sanoguera family that they tell each other, and I wanted Vi to confront them in order to finally ask a question that we sometimes never ask: What do I think? And what do I believe to be true? And now that I know that, how will I respond?
How did you approach the magical realism in the story? What was it like creating a ghost as a character?
I grew up surrounded by ghost stories. My Abuela was my best friend, and my caretaker during the day when I was a child. She would tell me all kinds of stories, but my favorite kind would involve ghosts. She had a very matter-of-fact way of talking about ghosts, as if they existed and were just another fact of life.
The greats of magical realism Allende, Marquez, Esquivel, always approach the magical elements in the story as they are, not as something to explain or dissect. Staying true to my Abuela, and my own family history, I also didn’t want to explain it. I was more interested in the readers feeling alongside Vi. I should add that this is the way of my culture. We tell ghost stories with interest and curiosity, without worrying about convincing the audience if they are real or not.
There are so many delicious dishes featured in the book! Are these family recipes? What made you decide to include them in your debut novel?
Yes! My Abuela’s side of the family is from Spain, and one of the things that was passed down from that heritage was the food. I grew up at my Bisabuela and Abuela’s side watching them cook sopa de bolli (a velvety broth with tender rib and a side of potatoes and green beans you bathe in olive oil), coca bread (a delicious thick pizza with onions, bell peppers, paprika and plenty of spices that give it a great kick!), the classic tortilla española with french bread, and more. We also had the succulent Colombian dishes at home, and since my Bisabuela had a very prominent sweet-tooth and was an incredible baker, she also made sure we had plenty of sweet treats: poundcake, pineapple-rum upside-down cake, black cake, hot flaky dough sprinkled with sugar, a homemade flan bathed in caramel!
The love language of the women in my family was food. I wanted to incorporate that rich and proud heritage of food in the novel because I think you can tell a lot about someone’s culture and background in the spices they eat, how they approach food and cooking (do they do it in a relaxed manner? Is there pressure around it?), and the legacy that this food carries. I wanted Vi
to explore the complicated relationship she had with her family through food and cooking—I also wanted to feature the delicious food I grew up eating!
A lot of the novel takes place in Barranquilla, Colombia. What is something you wish readers will take away from visiting this place?
This book is centered in a real neighborhood, “Barrio Prado,” which is an epicenter of culture and art deco architecture in Barranquilla. Walking there, you can see the beautiful big roble trees and the flowers that the florón trees spread in the streets, that smell like vanilla. Every house in that neighborhood is different and unique. I wanted to share the magic of this neighborhood, both in how it looks and through the wonderful community of people who live there. Everyone is in everyone’s business, but at the same time, everyone cares so deeply about Caminito and the Sanoguera Family. I wanted to show that side of us, while also showing the beautiful beaches and delicious food.
And the heat! I want people to feel the scorching heat that we get all year round.
The relationship between Vi and her mother is tumultuous, to say the least. What do you think they have to learn from one another?
Vi needs to learn to see her mother with all of her history. As I was writing this book, I was thinking of my own experience growing up. I grew up surrounded by women: by their voices, their recipes, their advice, and their warnings (there were plenty!). I think for a long time, I was just thinking about this on the surface, and thinking that their voices in my head were leading my life and were so loud in my head I couldn’t really hear what I was thinking and feeling. And yes, that’s part of it. But on a deeper level, the heart of the novel (and my discoveries) is that the women that came before us have a whole life, with pasts we don’t know. And once we see them for how their lives have shaped them, we see them and ourselves in a kinder, more certain light. I think this discovery leads Vi to steer away from being caught up in paths of judgment that can be less productive.
Vi’s mother, Paula, needs to learn to see her daughter too and respect her vulnerability. Vi is a very fragile and tender character, and the matriarchs in the family are strong, and don’t see these traits in a kind light. Paula needs to learn to understand that in a family where strength is expected, a touch of vulnerability can be a welcome and necessary addition.
There is a love triangle in the book between Vi and Liam, her serious boyfriend in New York City and between Via and Rafa, her first love in Barranquilla. What does this love triangle represent?
One of my first intentions with this book was to give Vi, a young brown woman of color, two great loves. I didn’t want to compromise and make one of them bad or “less” in any way. I wanted them both to be excellent human beings, who loved her, and were good for her but were different in the lives that they represented.
They also represent feelings – forbidden love, desire, safety – that can be linked to different times in our lives. At the end of the day, I wanted Vi to make a choice. And just as in real life, one choice was easier or safer but not necessarily better. I wanted her to choose a specific path, one that was not influenced by her family or society but that her heart told her to follow.
This book is about choices and choosing between two different lives. What do you hope is something readers of THE WAVES TAKE YOU HOME learn from these choices?
At the center of the book, there’s the idea of acknowledging family history and legacy, while also learning to listen to ourselves and to make decisions based on what’s in our hearts, not based on fear.
I hope readers take away from the book the importance of learning to trust themselves. I do think life has a way of taking us where we need to be.
Thank you so much for joining us today. Readers, here’s a quick look at THE WAVES TAKE YOU HOME, which releases today.
Violeta Sanoguera had always done what she was told. She left the man she loved in Colombia in pursuit of a better life for herself and because her mother and grandmother didn’t approve of him. Chasing dreams of education and art in New York City, and with a new love, twenty-eight-year-old Violeta establishes a new life for herself, on her terms. But when her grandmother suddenly dies, everything changes.
After years of being on her own in NYC, Violeta finds herself on a plane back to Colombia, accompanied at all times by the ghost of her grandmother who is sending her messages and signs, to find she is the heir of the failing family restaurant, the very one Abuela told her to run from in the first place. The journey leads her to rediscover her home, her grandmother, and even the flame of an old love.
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