Jesús Rosales - Thinking en español: Interviews with Critics of Chicana/o Literature

New Mexican de hueso colorado

IT MUST HAVE BEEN THE 1970s when I first met Erlinda Gonzales-Berry. No, I did not travel to New Mexico, and I did not have the opportunity to listen to her at a particular conference where she presented her research. I was aware of Erlinda when I was doing graduate work at Texas A & I University in South Texas and reading the works of such literary icons as Rolando Hinojosa, Toms Rivera, and Felipe de Ortego y Gasca, among others, all at the height of the Chicano movement. As a student, I also read Erlinda's work and it definitely spoke to me, for I remember her as a critic/creative writer who spoke of an alienation and discrimination in her native New Mexico that was similar to the painful sentiments I faced in the South Texas border area.

As I ponder over thirty-five years in academia, I realize that I've had the opportunity to read, review, and teach about a scholar who has valiantly fought to bring awareness of the social realities of la raza in the United States. Her novel Paletitas de guayaba is still a subject of research in the field of Chicano studies, and her pioneering work on New Mexico's literary tradition has left an indelible mark on Chicano literary history.

It is my belief that Erlinda's work embodies the philosophical motto of don Jos Vasconcelos: Por mi raza hablar mi espritu.

Juan Antonio Gonzlez

Erlinda Gonzales-Berry (1942) was born in a rural region northeast of New Mexico, where her ancestors had lived since the last decades of the nineteenth century. She holds a doctoral degree from the University of NewMexico and has taught at various institutions including Earlham College, in Richmond, Indiana, New Mexico State University, the University of New Mexico, and Oregon State University. Gonzales-Berry's interest in Chicano literary history, specifically that concerning her native New Mexico, led her to edit, Pas por aqu: Critical Essays on the New Mexican Literary Tradition, 15421988., a collection of essays dealing with the state's literary tradition. Erlinda Gonzales-Berry's commitment to Chicano literature has led her to expand her regional interests to the Mexicans and Chicanos who have immigrated to the Pacific Northwest. Gonzales-Berry is also the author of Paletitas de guayaba, a novel that has contributed significantly to Chicano literature written in Spanish.

The interview with Erlinda was conducted through a number of e-mail correspondences from 2008 to 2012.

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Erlinda, where were you born? Describe your childhood and the place where you grew up.

I was born in Roy, a small town in New Mexico. This place is located on the northeast part of the state, almost bordering with Texas and Oklahoma. My father had a ranchito that he had inherited from his parents in a place called Bueyeros. My great grandparents settled there in the 1880s and were granted government land through the Homestead Act. Before arriving in Bueyeros they had lived for several centuries in Jmez, and from there they moved to the northeast in search of pasture and water. My great grandparents from my father's side of the family owned large sheep herds. After the Santa Fe Trail was opened, thousands of saleas would be sent to the market in St. Louis, Missouri. In his ranchito my father and mother owned an orchard and several animals. That's how both my grandparents and my parents made their living. My parents always spoke of their ranchito as if it were their Garden of Eden. They worked hard and loved their life and freedom.

Describe your family life. What impact did your parents and your environment have on your early life?

I spent the first four years of my life in that ranchito and I remember very beautiful things from that pastoral lifestyle. But in 1946 a flooddestroyed the atarque, the handmade dam that stored the water that we used for our personal needs, and we had to leave the rancho. We moved to Roy, a small town that was divided into two parts: the americanos (Anglos) who lived on one side of town and the mexicanada who lived on the other. My three sisters and I, like most Mexican children, attended a Catholic school run by nuns. With the exception of the nuns, we had limited interaction with the americanos. Therefore, I was raised in an environment that was distinctly Hispanic. Spanish was spoken at home with the grandparents and relatives. We were taught to respect our elders and to be gente. That meant to be nice, courteous, and respectful. Among our community an anciano would always be present to narrate stories from the past: of witches, of goblins, of bultos, and other fantastic things. I grew up in an environment rich in folklore, in traditional customs, in believing in the supernatural and the mystery of the world. This aspect of my upbringing has influenced my creative work very much. My mother was a teacher before marrying my father. At the age of seventeen she was offered her first job in a small isolated town in northern New Mexico. She worked as a teacher for the Mexican children that now we call Hispanics. In those days the word Mexican was not stigmatized, at least not in our communities. In English, however, it was another matter. The word Mexican was never used. In that language we identified ourselves as Spanish or Spanish American. My mother did not get married until she was twenty-eight years old because as a young girl she had promised herself not to marry until all of her brothers had finished school. They were fatherless, and she took the responsibility of helping her mother raise the family. After marrying my father she stopped working to raise her five daughters. Since she was a teacher, my mother insisted that we learn English and I remember that she read and told us stories in English. By the time we entered school we were the only ones who were fluent in English. Of course, this skill gave us an advantage in our studies.