America Libre and Raul Ramos y Sanchez represent resurgence of Latino writers

May 5, 5:18 PMDC Publishing Industry ExaminerWendy Coakley-Thompson

Previous Next

2 comments Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the DC Publishing Industry Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

With Grand Central Publishing’s release of America Libre this summer, Raul Ramos y Sanchez is poised to cement his star status in the new Latino literary renaissance. The previously self-published version of the book won the 2008 International Latino Book Award for Best Novel-Adventure or Drama. In advance of the July 2009 re-release, America Libre has made it to USA Today’s summer reading list, out May 7. Moreover, America Libre resonates in this era of debates about border fences and immigration.

Ramos describes his book as “a romantic triangle in the middle of a revolution.” Here’s the author’s synopsis:

As the immigration crisis reaches the boiling point, once-peaceful Latino protests explode into rioting. Cities across the nation are in flames. Anglo vigilantes bent on revenge launch drive-by shootings in the barrios, wantonly killing young and old. Exploiting the turmoil, a congressional demagogue succeeds in passing legislation that transforms the nation’s teeming inner-city barrios into walled-off Quarantine Zones. In this chaotic landscape, Manolo Suarez is struggling to provide for his family. Under the spell of a beautiful Latina radical, the former U.S. Army Ranger eventually finds himself questioning his loyalty to his wife—and his country."

Ramos had originally written America Libre in 2004. He says that he had anticipated the recent immigration debates and ensuing rallies – not through any gift of prescience but through his role as a partner at an advertising agency. Marketing professionals track and study trends as par for the course. One particular trend that caught Ramos’s eye was the huge spike in the Latino population, revealed by the 2000 Census. However, the absence of Latinos in advertisements depicting American life showed a disconnect between perception and reality. Ramos explains it this way: “White male is the default setting in our culture.”

Ramos envisioned how this disconnect and resulting misconceptions could lead to turmoil. After all, Ramos says, the current immigration debate is an old one with new players. In previous years, other immigrant groups, such as the Germans, the Irish, and the Italians, were subject to similar treatment seen on display today. “This is not a new thing,” he insists.

Moreover, internecine nativist conflicts can be seen globally, most recently affecting the Quebecois, the Tamils, the Chechens, and the Palestinians. All of these developments gelled in Ramos’s mind to produce America Libre, “a cautionary tale to prevent the nightmare scenario from happening. As an ad man, I said ‘I’d better make it interesting. Otherwise who’d care about a dry academic treatise?’”

Raul Ramos y Sanchez
 

Ramos’s own story is equally as interesting as his fiction. Born in Cuba in the late 1950s, he relocated to the United States with his mother after his parents divorced. He grew up in Dayton, Ohio – not exactly a hotbed of Latino culture, but home to Martin Sheen, famously of Latino descent. “You are who you are,” Ramos says. “I don’t fit too many profiles.”

Ramos’s impetus for writing  America Libre was to share his unique perspective with the world. He has not seen a book like his – ever – and insists that only someone who is not completely a part of a community could write it. Case in point. His in-laws are Mexican. His relatives are Cuban. He has Anglo friends. He can walk into any community and gain acceptance. Such a perspective, Ramos says, enables him to project the humanity of immigrants. He wants the mainstream audience to feel their pain and to see what could happen if the roles of immigrant and native-born were reversed. “I don’t know if I had a message, but I had a point of view that was worth sharing,” he says. “It’s not a message book; it’s a perspective book.”

Still, even he, a Latino Everyman, decided to initially self-publish because the mainstream publishing establishment did not know what to make of America Libre. Even though a Latino author had written the book, the story had none of the metaphorical or magical realism artifacts present in work generally characterized as Latino fiction. The book, says the author, is “more Patterson or Baldacci than Hijuelos or Garcia Marquez.”

Ramos shrugs this off as just another hurdle. “Minorities have to prove themselves more.” Twenty-five years in marketing, along with his understanding of the power of the brand, enabled him to do just that – show the publishing industry that a thriving market for his work existed. Ramos made the rounds on radio and television shows and received volumes of press. America Libre then won the International Latino Book Award. Once the evidence had sufficiently convinced Grand Central Publishing, they bought both American Libre and Ramos’s second novel, El Nuevo Alamo.

When not writing about the plight of immigrants, Ramos hosts My Immigration Story.com, a portal for them to put a human face on the immigration debate. Ultimately, though, Ramos’s goal is to hang up the prosperous ad agency career and make a living as a full-time writer. In addition to the two novels acquired by Grand Central, Ramos has written Pancho Land, the last installment in the America Libre trilogy, as well as The Skinny Years, a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story set in Miami and Key West.

Ramos’s voice is unique among those comprising this new resurgence of Latino writers. Because of both demographic changes and economic factors, the ranks of these writers are sure to swell. Per Ramos, “Latinos are a growing market. There will come interest in Mexican culture from people who aren’t Latino… Americans [will] become interested in Latino culture and the differences between them, because America finds itself fascinated, and because it’s in [America’s] best interest.”
 

For more info: You may find more information concerning Raul Ramos y Sanchez and his books at his web site. You may also go to My Immigration Story.com to learn more about the project.