Takeaways from our charla with D.C.’s Diana Rojas, author of “They Hold Grudges”
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Our monthly charla returned last week with Washington, D.C. author Diana Rojas, who read from and discussed her novel “They Hold Grudges,” a psychological drama centered on family.
Interviewed by Hola Escritores column editor Michelle Benitez, Rojas explained how the original idea for the novel’s main themes — gossip and grudge holding — was sparked by the scoldings that her mother gave her as a girl.
The novel, released in September by Arte Público Press, follows Rob, who tries to avoid family conflict by not confronting his cousin Pablito after Pablito makes a scandalous accusation against him. As the accusation is turned into weaponized gossip by Mara, Pablito’s mother and Rob’s aunt, Rob’s reputation and his perfect family are torn apart.
After reading from the book, Rojas told Benitez how she started writing fiction when she turned 50. She had worked for years as a journalist and she became “rebellious” and decided to write fiction for fun. Her first book, “Litany of Saints,” covered by Hola Cultura, is a collection of novelas about immigrants caught in the constant battle between “who they want to be versus who they are supposed to be.”
Ideas often come to her on walks, Rojas said, and she doesn’t take notes. She stalls as long as she can, she elaborated, before sitting down and letting the voices in her head stage what she calls “a mutiny,” taking over the page to become the characters we read. Throughout the charla, Rojas recollected memories and thoughts to explain how her latest book was shaped.
Calling herself “grudgy” and “judgy” and saying she is prone to seeing things in black and white, she invited us into the creation of her novel. Here are four takeaways from the Oct. 15 charla.
Keeping the peace
The novel has been described as a tale of the Latine family ideal of keeping the peace, but Rojas said the book is not a commentary on any one family, and she’s heard from non-Latines say they can relate to it, too. In the novel, a family myth holds that love means never showing negative emotions. She also said that even the best presenting, “good” people can have the most “putrid” of thoughts. She likened these myths of perfect goodness closer to magic, a force she said she doesn’t believe in.
The power of chisme (gossip)
While the book is about a big family and having come from one too, Rojas said the book is not autofiction though lived experience helped her with that aspect of the story. What she is most interested in, however, is the powerful role of gossip and how, in family settings, it often works to enforce, influence or shape conduct — as a “tool that is used to guide people, to lay down the rules … We learn how to live within our group’s expectations through this gossip,” she said.
To her, chisme is many things: An anthropological tool. Entertainment you turn to when you’re bored. A cautionary tale about what not to wear. Or a malicious way of turning people against someone. She described it as human nature. Gossip teaches a group’s expectations, she said.
“As a reporter, you know we traded in … chismes,” she said of her time as a journalist.
The crows hold grudges
Rojas described herself as someone who holds grudges and does not understand how other people can always forgive and forget. She said she doubled down on her skepticism of forgiveness after attending a reading of the nonfiction book “American Mother” by Colum McCann with Diane Foley, mother of journalist Jim Foley. The book narrates the three days Foley spent in a Virginia court house with her son’s murderer seven years after her son was beheaded by ISIS in a livestream spread across the internet in 2014.
Rojas questioned whether she could forgive someone who killed a loved one. While on one of her walks, she wondered “What would it take for someone like her to not forgive; to not be able to?” That question led her to create a character conditioned by the forgive and forget mentality — someone determined not to hold grudges. She wondered what might happen to someone’s soul if after being grievously harmed, they could not forgive.
For years, the book’s working title was “Chisme,” Rojas said, until editors persuaded her to change it. While she was considering other titles, she found herself in the midst of a war with some crows, who had colonized the roof deck of her Washington D.C. home. They threw dirt on her plants and cawed at her plastic owl once they realized it was fake. After failing to drive them off, she eventually found herself trying to make amends, but it turns out crows hold grudges, she said. Rojas credited her husband for coming up with the book’s title, referencing her battle with the crows.
“They hold grudges” and so do humans, she observed.
Her biggest takeaway?
Toward the end of the interview, Benitez asked what writing the book had taught her. Rojas paused and then answered with a straight face, “nothing.” She then laughed lightly, repeating the word “nothing” three more times. For her, “They Hold Grudges” cemented her beliefs about human nature, gossip and forgiveness.
Read our review of “They Hold Grudges”
– Story by Marvin Juarez
– Copy edited by Valerie Izquierdo
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