Agustin Eliab Juarez

Yes. The very first story I ever wrote - in English because I was educated in Spanish - was about my summer vacation between sixth and seventh grades. It was about being in the forest for days, foraging for berries, making campfires, eating white rice with beans and tortillas, looking at the stars all night long, meeting a girl and jumping into the Colorado River; it was magical and believable such that teacher read it in front of class. It was my first recognition as a writer. My first story in Spanish was in the third grade when I wrote to my father tall tales of life at home as he was working far away. It was mostly a document about the orchard, my brothers fighting and the neighbors playing softball in the backyard while I watched atop a tree safe from the maddening crowd.

I write from the gut - from instinct, because through life experience the stories come to me. For example, I have lived in many places, all of which taught me something about the human condition. People are essentially the same everywhere they go - with their fears and passion, hatred for the opposition, angry, sweet, lonely but the region gives their story a different spice if you will. Language by far plays a part in every story what with Southerners talking a certain way, Mexicans with their humor, others with their daily life preoccupation of getting by in life doing what needs be done. In all, these stories come to me and I shape them. Everything in my writing stems from life experience.