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EXCERPT! ZORAIDA & MARISOL BY SARAH RAFAEL GARCIA



The Latina Book Club welcomes Sarah Rafael Garcia and thanks her for sharing with us an excerpt 
from her exciting bilingual collection, SanTana’s Fairy Tales.


"Zoraida & Marisol" is one of six stories from the forthcoming bilingual collection titled SanTana's Fairy Tales written and edited by Sarah Rafael Garcia. The bilingual zines featuring one story a month through March 2017. This story was inspired by the life of transactivist Zoraida Reyes, and all profits for this zine are donated to Transgenero En Accion/Transgender in Action (TEA) in Santa Ana, California. More about the collection below.


Excerpt from "Zoraida & Marisol:”

I was inspiring so you kept saying when you spoke of me. But now, I appear in reflections, cupped hands and wishes.

For as long as I could remember, I wanted to twirl my long hair between china-red fingertips and blush when I cupped my breasts in front of the standing mirror. I wanted a man to caress my curves, from my hips to my puckered lips. But to most, my type of love was forbidden—cursed by society like the familiar tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.

Love—I thought I would find it.

But when my limp body was found, winded and pale as the ocean’s spume, it cast a shadow over those close to my heart, leaving only the jagged sounds of shattered dreams and a person by another name—the name I was given at birth, not the real me.

Before I tell you what is to become of you, please keep breathing. As painful as it might be, I plead for you to keep breathing—at the end I will ask for your wish, I promise you that.#

(This excerpt appears with permission of the author. Author holds all copyrights to this work.)




ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Sarah Rafael Garcia is a writer, community educator and activist. Since the publication of Las Niñas: A Collection of Childhood Memories in 2008, she founded the Barrio Writers, a reading and writing program aimed to empower youth through creative writing, higher education and cultural arts. Plus, she started hosting the Wild Womyn Writers workshops in 2010, which empower womyn to explore their creative spirits.  Sarah writes poetry, creative non-fiction and fiction. Her writing has appeared in various magazines including As/Us Journal and Latino magazine. And, she is a member of the Macondo Writer’s Workshop founded by Sandra Cisneros. Learn more about Sarah at www.sarahrafaelgarcia.com.



MORE ABOUT THE COLLECTION:

SanTana’s Fairy Tales is an oral history, storytelling project initiated by author Sarah Rafael García, which integrates community-based narratives to create contemporary fairytales and fables that represent the history and stories of Mexican/Mexican-American residents of Santa Ana (inspired by the Grimms’ Fairy Tales).

The forthcoming exhibit at Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana, California will present a multi-media installation, curated in collaboration with local visual, musical, and performance artists. The exhibit will showcase bilingual, single-story zines, a fully illustrated published book, an ebook, a large format classical book, graphic art by Sol Art Radio‘s Carla Zarate, an “open book” performance, along with composed music by Viento Callejero‘s Gloria Estrada, who is supported by local singer/songwriter Ruby Castellanos and members of the Pacific Symphony. The entire collection will be translated by poet Julieta Corpus and published by Raspa Press. The ebook will be produced by Digitus Indie Publishers.

SanTana’s Fairy Tales is supported in part by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, through a grant supporting the Artist-in-Residence initiative at Grand Central Art Center. The exhibit is scheduled for March 2017 with an open book performance on April 1st.

To learn more about Sarah Rafael García & SanTana's Fairy Tales, visit: https://sarahrafaelgarcia.com/santansfairytales/

To learn more about Raspa Press & purchase zine, visit: http://www.raspamagazine.com/shop/

Happy Reading. Read Latino Lit.