Award-winning writer Rudy Ruiz is a native of Brownsville who now lives in San Antonio. His writing employs magical realism, which is inspired by Gabriel Garc铆a M谩rquez.
鈥淲hen you first read his work you were just swept away and escape into this other world,鈥� Ruiz said, 鈥渂ut the more you learn about what he was writing about, you realize he was making a lot of sweeping commentary about the ills that he saw in society, whether it was class-related or...political or the violence in his native country of Colombia.鈥�
Ruiz was also inspired by African American writers including James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison. 鈥�(T)heir work was really, in many ways, a work of political protest.鈥�
Ruiz realized that literature and fiction could open people鈥檚 eyes to diversity in their own communities. 鈥淎nd if you can get someone to walk in someone else's shoes for a few pages, then maybe you can get them to see an issue differently and get them to change their mind, maybe.鈥�
Ruiz just signed a multi-book deal with , which acquired the rights to his novel 鈥淭he Resurrection of Fulgencio Ramirez.鈥� It will be published in 2020.
鈥�(T)hen within another year or two, a second novel that I've written will be coming out,鈥� Ruiz said. And they're both in the magical realism vein.鈥�
Ruiz says his newer stories are inspired largely by stories of his past. 鈥溾�楾he Resurrection of Fulgencio Ramirez鈥� was largely inspired by stories my dad would tell me growing up about his childhood on the border in the 鈥�50s,鈥� said Ruiz, 鈥渂eing the first member of his family to ever attend college, (and) being the son of immigrants from Mexico.鈥�
He says 鈥淔ulgencio鈥� was written about 20 years ago. 鈥淚 used to hear stories about writers having books published, and they'd say, 鈥業 worked on that book for a decade or two decades,鈥� and I'd say, 鈥榳ere they lazy?鈥� How can that happen? And then it happened to me!鈥�
But Ruiz is grateful for the wait. Over the years, he saw a change in the publishing industry, which started embracing Latino perspectives.
鈥淭wenty years ago, my agent actually had an editor from New York tell them, 鈥楾his is a great book, but we can't publish it,鈥欌�� said Ruiz. 鈥淢y agent asked, 鈥楬ow come?鈥� and they said, 鈥榖ecause Latinos don't read books.鈥欌��
Now publishers know Latinos read books, but more importantly, 鈥渙ther people are interested in our stories and our culture and understanding that culture better.鈥�
Ruiz says in the past, most readers were able to consume literature from Latin American writers translated into English, but 鈥渢hough there are some cultural connections to our origins, they're not exactly our stories of life within the United States,鈥� said Ruiz. 鈥淪o I think it's great the more that our own stories 鈥� homegrown stories 鈥� are being exposed to the world.鈥�
Norma Martinez can be reached by email at norma@tpr.org and on Twitter . Lauren Terrazas can be reached by email at lauren@tpr.org and on Twitter .
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