Reading While Black

1. How long have you been published?

I sold my first book in 1997 and it was published in 1998, so nearly ten years. I started writing seriously in 1987, so it was ten years before that I became involved in publishing. I’ve since published over 27 books with three publishers.

2. How do you feel your heritage has shaped your writing and outlook on the genre in which you write(themes, characters, settings, etc)?

I think that growing up in a neighborhood and family that embraced the cultural importance of family influenced my work the most. Both of the cultures that I come from—Italian and Cuban American—emphasize the importance of close family ties. My characters, therefore, usually always have a strong family influence in their lives and it’s often positive because that was my experience.

3. While you are obviously proud of your heritage, do you feel the ” Latina ” moniker can hinder your ability to reach a wider range of readers?

Yes, unfortunately, I do. The problem is that if you are tarred with that label—any label that is, unfortunately, exclusive—you risk potential sales from people who are not looking for that label of books. As a reader, I don’t go into a bookstore looking for any particular ethnicity of character. I go for the story. I think most readers are the same way. So if a good story that I’d like is shoved in the wrong part of the bookstore where I don’t necessarily shop, I don’t find the book. That said, I don’t know if that’s ever happened to me. I didn’t start out writing “ Latina ” fiction, but established my career where I still am—in the Romance section. Of course, the books I did where a Latina character was featured strongly did not sell well and the series has since been cancelled by the publisher, so what does that mean? A variety of things, actually…not all of them tied to the ethnicity of me or my characters. I wish it was that simple.

4. If you’re aware of the debate between Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez and Linda Nieves Powell over the use of the word “ Latina ” to describe themselves as authors, what is your opinion?

I’m somewhat aware of this and frankly, I see Alisa’s point. She is very proud to be Latina and anyone who says otherwise simply doesn’t know her or her work very well. She simply doesn’t want to be marginalized as only a Latina writer—her books appeal to everyone and by shoving her in a box, she loses potential readers. I’ve seen this happen to people. I know she’s right. I’ve gone into bookstores to seek out her books and found them shelved in the Hispanic Studies section or Spanish Language when she’s writing cool, hip, chick lit that just so happens to feature Latina characters. Her books have universal themes and shouldn’t be limited or boxed in. You don’t see the Harry Potter books or Bridget Jones shoved into some obscure section called British fiction, do you? That’s all she’s saying, IMO. She’s Latina , but she’s writing about the human condition. I’m not entirely clear what Linda Nieves Powell said on the matter, but my impression was that she simply didn’t have all the facts.

5. What is your reaction when a non-Latino author writes a successful novel featuring Latino characters?

Well, if they do it well, then I say, yeah! I don’t want people who are not ethnically Latino to feel they can’t write characters who are Latino…that keeps them from getting to know our culture, doesn’t it? Writers do research. Or they should. If they insist on writing stereotypes, then I think that’s wrong, but I had a non-Latina friend write a Latina character in a book and she consulted with me and with her publicist, who are both Latina . We had her change quite a bit, but in the end, the character was wonderful and the author in question learned a lot about what it means to be Latina . I think this is a good thing.

6. Have you, at any point in your publishing career, felt marginalized by your heritage?

No, not really. Most people don’t know, by looking at my last name, what my heritage is. Leto is not Hispanic. My Hispanic roots come from my paternal grandmother, whose last name was Gonzalez. Leto is Italian-American and most people don’t realize that, either. (It’s actually Greek by way of Sicily , which I suppose confuses things.) Anyway, when I started out, I wasn’t writing characters of any particular ethnicity. I mixed it up, so I was just put in the regular romance section of the bookstore, which was the right place for me to be since that’s what I was writing.

7. How have you or your books been marketed? Has the content of your books enabled you to market them towards a mainstream audience?

I’ve always written mainstream books, so again, I’ve never had a problem with my books being marketed as Latina until I wrote the series of books starring Marisela Morales (Dirty Little Secrets, Dirty Little Lies) for Pocket. My publicist hit the Latina angle hard on those books, but they didn’t sell well enough for Pocket to continue the series. I don’t know that the “mainstream” audience shied away from the books because of the Latina characters, but I suppose it’s a possibility. I’ve since written other books with Latina characters that have sold well, so I cannot say that “ Latina marketing equals bad sales” because that is just one factor in a hugely complex publishing model. I think the key to being able to market my books, even the Latina ones, to a mainstream audience is to write a book with mainstream appeal.

8. Do you feel that you are required, whether due to external or internal opinions, to write characters sharing your ethnicity?

No, I don’t, but when I do write characters who share my ethnicity, I do think I have a stronger expectation of being accurate in those portrayals. The thing is, growing up Latina is different for everyone. I don’t speak Spanish. The schools I attended from elementary school to high school were 85% (at least) Hispanic or Italian, so I was never in the minority. The city where I live, Tampa , was built on the backs of Cuban, Italian and Spanish cultures, so I’ve never been the outsider. Even my sorority in college had a lot of Latinas, which I understand now might have been unusual. My experience is vastly different from other Latinas, so I have to take that into account.

9. If there was a section in a bookstore marked for “Hispanic/Latino-American Fiction”, would you want your novels shelved there?

No. I understand that this is a controversial opinion, but it’s mine, so there you go. I don’t believe in bookstore segregation. I mean, would I have discovered the hilariously funny world of David Sedaris if he was shelved in “Jewish-American Fiction” rather than in general Fiction? I don’t think so. Everyone, regardless of their ethnicity, should read widely. If readers are looking for books by authors who share their ethnicity, they can do a little research. Maybe the bookstores can put appropriate search engines into their stores, but otherwise, I’d like the chance, at least, to be found by anyone and everyone.

10. Do you feel “neglected” by the fact that when it comes to race in romance novels, the conversation tends to veer towards black and white?

I think that used to be true, but not so much anymore. Most discussions are broad-ranged, I find. I do think that Latinas need to look at the black writer’s experience as a cautionary tale of what happens when your work is segregated by race. Too many good books are missed by the mainstream because mainstream readers simply do not know they exist. I think that authors like Terry McMillan have proved that black writers with black characters can appeal to non-black readers if the books simply have attention outside the narrow boundaries of segregated fiction.

Visit Julie at JulieLeto.com