![]() What has made migrants flee didn’t happen overnight. ![]() I also read a lot of Central American history to know where all this violence stems from. ![]() She did intake for migrant children, so she wrote down the stories they told her about why they had to leave their countries. Then there is Valeria Luiselli’s book Tell Me How It Ends, which is heartbreaking. He also wrote a book called A History of Violence-I relied a lot on that kind of journalism. I read a lot of nonfiction about La Bestia, especially a book called The Beast by Óscar Martínez, a journalist who took the trip many times, risking his life. And then it was about falling into the story as though I were one of the characters. But I did research the regions so I could be as accurate as possible. When I write, I picture things very vividly-it’s like a movie playing out in my head. The teenagers’ trek through Guatemala and the ride on La Bestia are all so visceral and detailed. Pulga says every beautiful thing turns black in his world, and that’s sort of how I feel in knowing what’s happening to that beautiful place that lives in my memory. And of going to the cemetery to visit my beloved Abuelo Ramon, and now learning there’s risk in just going there to grieve. Of driving to and from Honduras and being awed by the beauty of the landscape. My mind is filled with memories of passing the day walking back and forth to the store across the way, the store that becomes Don Felicio’s store in the book And of going to Rio Dulce with my family, a place that holds an important memory for Pequeña. I have beautiful memories of it and yet I also heard stories from my aunt about violence erupting there, although I myself never saw any violence on my visits. We often visited her family, so I set the book there because it was the first place that came to mind. My mother is from Puerto Barrios and her sister and brother still live there, although my uncle recently passed away. Puerto Barrios, where the book begins, is a real place, which you’ve visited many times, you write. But when I go back to New York, it also oddly feels like home-especially things like the smell of pizza. I write fiction because I like creating imaginary worlds. So I also had a sense of the border between reality and imagination. And finally, I was a kid who liked to imagine a lot and to read. Again, a sense of being part of two worlds. And I also experienced a split between the north and the south of the United States. I had never seen a Confederate flag before. Orlando is pretty diverse now, but 30 years ago, when we arrived, it was very much part of the Old South. We moved to the town of Uniondale on Long Island and lived there for seven years, and then moved to Orlando. I was born in Brooklyn and lived there until I was three years old. As a result, I can look at two different worlds and understand both. My parents didn’t quite understand my American thinking. ![]() So growing up in American culture, I didn’t feel like my peers. My mother was born in Guatemala and my father is from El Salvador. I always felt like a bit of an outsider, like I didn’t quite belong anywhere. The biographical note on your website says that you have “lived on the border of two worlds” your entire life. As I learned more and more about La Bestia and then thought about how kids had to figure out first how to get out of Central America and to the train, I realized I wanted to write a story that shed some light on all that. My parents are from Central America I myself am a mother-so it hit hard and it hurt. It was so heartbreaking to hear about such vulnerable lives being put at so much risk. The idea came from hearing all the news about children making the journey from Central America by themselves. I can’t pinpoint exactly when I began the book. Can you trace the build-up of inspiration? You also say that you’ve been “trying to write it” for five years. In your author’s note you say you began writing this book in 2015. Sanchez spoke with PW from her home in Orlando, Fla., about her affinity for those who feel like outsiders and the challenges of writing authentically about the experiences of Central American migrants. Jenny Torres Sanchez’s first YA novel, The Downside of Being Charlie, was published in 2012 in her timely fifth book, We Are Not from Here, she follows three teens attempting the dangerous journey from their violence-ridden village in Guatemala to the United States, on their own. ![]()
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