Tony Diaz, the self-described librotraficante (book-trafficker) who led a caravan of “wet books” into Arizona following the state’s 2012 ban on Chicano lit in the classroom, recalls the hell he caught whenever he used Spanish words in his fiction workshop.
“I remember being at the University of Houston’s Creative Writing Program and the only time aesthetics were brought up was when I dared use Spanish in a story,” Diaz said. “So the rest of the time, you were never supposed to bring up ‘intended audience.’ When I would write in Spanish, the whole class would lose its mind.”
Diaz was quick to call B.S. on the not-so-subtle double standards held by his fellow MFA candidates. “It seemed like an emotional response. And I would have to say, ‘Yo, when this guy wrote in French, you didn’t have a problem with it!’”
