Ana Consuelo Matiella will broadcast from Radio Tierra, KZAS, on Friday, Nov. 11 at 6:30 p.m. on Alejandro Aguilera Cano’s Entérate show. Tune in on KZAS 95.1 FM Hood River, 95.9 FM Stevenson, 96.7 FM Carson, 107.1 FM
Parkdale or 107.7 FM The Dalles.
The Hood River Library hosts Portland author Ana Consuelo Matiella on Saturday, Nov. 12 for an author talk and book reading — the second time she’ll have presented in town in less than a month.
Matiella was in Hood River on Oct. 20 to meet with students at Hood River Valley High School. The goal was to not only present stories from her new book, “Las Madrinas: Life Among My Mothers” — which had been released nationwide that day — but to encourage students to write about their own lives and experiences.
“Any time I have a chance to impact a high school student, I take it,” Matiella said. “It is a privilege and my way to give back some of what I got from a handful of teachers who cared what happened to me.”
Matiella grew up in Nogales, Ariz., having moved from Nogales, Mexico — the two share a boarder — when she was 7 years old. A simple chain link fence separated the two parts of that community, and people would often go back and forth to visit family who resided on either side.
“My grandma was on the Mexico side, and we were on the U.S. side,” she explained. “Now it’s a gigantic steel barrier. It’s changed a lot.”
Her grandmother is just one of the women she writes about in “Las Madrinas,” a collection of stories based on the different women she’s encountered and who have influenced her life, and how they have changed her.
There’s another theme in the book as well — that of defining yourself. For Matiella, that’s a difficult question. Because she lived on the boarder, “I’m not a Mexican and I’m not an American,” she said. “I live between the lines.
“This work, in translation, made me feel more in-between the lines than anything else I’ve ever done,” she said, referring to working with the book’s Spanish translator, Claudia Montaño, research and grants manager at The Next Door.
Following her introduction, Matiella read two stories from her book, walking around the crowd to engage the students. She also left would be writers with a tip:
“The number one rule for wanna-be writers is to write,” she told the students. “Go to the Dollar Store and get yourself a notebook and pens and write … Write the stories that make up your life.”
And, said HRVHS English teacher Gabe Judah, she inspired them to do so.
“I have heard from a number of students (since the presentation),” he said. “(She) really motivated some kids to write more, and connected with others in positive ways.”
Now the rest of the community has a chance to hear her speak. Matiella will hold another two presentations on Nov. 12: In English at 1 p.m. and in Spanish at 3 p.m. The book will be for sale, with all proceeds donated by Matiella to the the Nuestra Comunidad Sana program of The Next Door; she is a health communications consultant working in Portland.
The programs are free and open to the public. For more information, contact the Hood River County Library District at 541-386-2535, info@hoodriverlibrary.org, or visit hoodriverlibrary.org.
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