“I’m always a writer writing in between two languages,” author Ingrid Rojas Contreras said at the Living Writers event which took place on Thursday, Oct. 31.
While on campus, Contreras delved deeper into her novel, sharing her own experiences and her process of writing a novel in both Spanish and English.
“Fruit of the Drunken Tree” is a novel inspired by Contreras’ personal life and the experiences of Colombians living an Escobar-era Colombian childhood. Contreras began to write the novel as a way to combat homesickness and work through her own experiences from childhood. What she soon realized is that staying true to her experiences limited her creativity and made her feel like she was sharing parts of the story that she was not entitled to.
“When two people are involved, you own part of the story and the other person owns the other part of the story,” Contreras said.
By deciding to tell the fictional version of the story, she was able to explore her childhood and add elements of other Colombians’ experiences. The end product was “Fruit of the Drunken Tree” as it stands: a captivating novel about love, friendship and hardship.
“[Contreras] has woven a story that is both haunting and beautiful,” Professor of English and creative writing Jennifer Brice said in her introduction of the event.
The novel details the experience of seven-year-old Chula who lives in a gated community in Bogotá with her mom and older sister. The threat of violence, car bombings, kidnappings and assassinations threaten to upheave Chula’s entire life. When Petrona, a live-in maid, comes to work for her family, Chula and her family’s lives are fundamentally altered.
The story is told through Chula and Petrona’s points of view, with distinct stylish and linguistic features of their chapters making their voices come through. When writing, Contreras revealed that she would think in Spanish and do a quick inner translation to English to write. Through these translations, she maintained a lot of the Spanish language’s scaffolding in her writing.
“I would see where the poetry [in the Spanish language] is and where I can save this poetry in my translation,” Contreras said.
To get into Petrona’s mind and heart, Contreras would write her chapters longhand in Spanish. Her chapters consist of no quotation marks, giving them a different feeling from Chula’s chapters.
“There is something quieter about italicized dialogue that reflects Petrona’s inward nature,” Contreras said.
Contreras chooses to focus on a different element of this time in Colombian history. While most authors focus on Pablo Escobar, she chose to focus on a regular girl and wrote the story from a child’s point of view. Contreras wanted to capture the way young people view times of upheaval as there is an innocence and feeling of curiosity that shields them from the brutality of conflict.
Throughout her writing journey and for “Fruit of the Drunken Tree” as well, Contreras focuses on tailoring her work primarily to her family and other Colombians. Oftentimes, Contreras felt that people wanted her to explain her culture in a way that would take away from the essence of her writing.
First-year Gabriella Moreira, a student in the Living Writers class, heard Contreras speak at the event.
“I was inspired by the use of multiple languages in her writing and the unique techniques she uses. I learned to see the English language from a different perspective,” Moreira said.
Other than “Fruit of the Drunken Tree,” Contreras has published a memoir called “The Man Who Could Move Clouds.” As an author who dabbles in both non-fiction and fiction writing, she is looking forward to writing pieces in both forms.
