Latinx Heritage in Horror Month 2024: An Interview with Daniel A. Olivas
What inspired you to start writing?
I had always loved telling stories going back to when I first learned how to read and write. Through grammar and high school, college, and even law school, I worked on journals where I could write and also draw (I was a prolific cartoonist back in the day). But when I became a lawyer, I focused on my profession as well as raising a family though I did write essays on the law quite often for the Daily Journal, the well-established newspaper serving the Los Angeles legal community. But then at the age of 39, my wife suffered the fifth of what would be seven miscarriages. I supported her and our young son in their grief, but I was not handling my own grief very well. So I started to write what would eventually be my first book, a novella titled The Courtship of María Rivera Peña, which is now out of print. That book was loosely based on my grandparents’ migration to Los Angeles in the 1920s and addressed both the joys and hardships of life. Writing it was quite cathartic. But then the floodgates opened and I wrote short stories and then poems and essays which got published in literary journals, newspapers, and magazines. I’ve now published a dozen books—not counting two anthologies I edited—as well as plays. I will stop writing when I die or lose the mental capacity to create.
Tell us about your work in 25 words or less.
I write horror, magical realism, fabulism, social realism, science fiction, etc. My characters and themes are deeply steeped in my experiences as a Chicano.
What was it about the horror genre that drew you to it?
I love writing in many different genres, but I was inspired to write my first horror novel, Chicano Frankenstein, as a response to the anti-immigrant political rhetoric of the 2022 midterm elections. Over the course of my 25 years of writing, I had previously addressed such bigotry in short stories, essays, poetry, and even in a play. But this time, I became fixated on how politicians and certain voters “othered” immigrants as “invaders” yet those very same immigrants are needed to do the work that “real Americans” would never dare do. In many ways, our country created this “monster” of undocumented immigration. So, Mary Shelley’s iconic novel quite naturally became the inspiration for my novel but rather than the lone creature, my novel imagines a near future where reanimation has been perfected, and 12 million reanimated people now live among us in the United States. But a far-right President Mary Beth Cadwallader uses her bully pulpit to rile up the midterm electorate with a plan to outlaw reanimation, curtail the rights of the so-called “stitchers,” and Make America Safe Again.
Do you make a conscious effort to include LatinX characters and/or themes in your writing and if so, what do you want to portray?
My LatinX characters and themes come quite naturally out of my life as a Chicano, so I don’t have to make a conscious effort to include them in my writing. I simply want my characters to portray life as I know it.
What has writing horror taught you about the world and yourself?
We live amongst monsters of all shapes and sizes.
How have you seen the horror genre change over the years? And how do you think it will continue to evolve?
Certainly, we’ve seen greater diversity in who gets published. As a Chicano writer, I’ve been particularly pleased by the success of LatinX writers. I’d like to see more of their work adapted into plays, television series, and movies. A major television studio has optioned my novel, Chicano Frankenstein, so there’s hope even for old dogs like me!
Time to daydream: what are some aspects of LatinX history or culture – stories from your childhood, historical events, etc — that you really want our genre to tackle?
I was born in Los Angeles and lived through the turbulent 1960s and early 1970s as a pre-teen and teenager. Though young, my memories of what was happening in our country are so vivid: the Vietnam War and college protests, the civil rights marches including the Chicano Moratorium, the murders of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, the music, hippies, Watergate, the moon landing, etc. I haven’t written much fiction set in that era, but I plan to! It’s all a perfect setting for horror, no?
Who are some LatinX horror authors you recommend our audience check out?
Some of my favorite horror authors are Gabino Iglesias, Silvia Moreno-García, V. Castro, Cynthia Pelayo, to name but a few. Their novels will keep you up at night!
What is one piece of advice you would give horror authors today?
I’d say the same thing that I tell all writers: Don’t let anyone tell you that your stories don’t matter. And if you don’t write your story, someone else will, and they’ll get it wrong.
What is one piece of craft advice you’ve gotten that has really worked for you? Alternatively, what’s one that you’ve happily rejected?
The best suggestion I received early in my writing career was to lighten up a bit on describing characters: sometimes it’s better to leave something to the reader’s imagination. The worst advice came from an agent I queried who complimented my writing but suggested that I write something more commercial. I asked what would that be, and she said that if I could write a Chicano version of Waiting to Exhale by Terry McMillan, she could sell that. I said that if I wrote such a novel, I’d get it to her. That was over 20 years ago, and I haven’t written it yet. I doubt I ever will.
And to the LatinX writers out there who are just getting started, what advice would you give them?
There are too many people out there who want to silence us, so find a community that is supportive.
Daniel A. Olivas is an award-winning author of fiction, nonfiction, plays, and poetry including, Chicano Frankenstein: A Novel (Forest Avenue Press), My Chicano Heart: New and Collected Stories of Love and Other Transgressions (University of Nevada Press), and How to Date a Flying Mexican: New and Collected Stories (University of Nevada Press). Olivas co-edited The Coiled Serpent: Poets Arising from the Cultural Quakes and Shifts of Los Angeles (Tía Chucha Press), and edited Latinos in Lotusland An Anthology of Contemporary Southern California Literature (Bilingual Press). He is co-editor (with poet León Salvatierra) of the new book series from the University of Nevada Press, The New Oeste: Literatura Latinx of the American West in the 21st Century. Widely anthologized, he has written on culture and literature for The New York Times, Los Angeles Review of Books, Los Angeles Times, Alta Journal, Jewish Journal, Zócalo, and The Guardian. Olivas received his degree in English literature from Stanford University, and a law degree from UCLA. By day, he is a senior attorney with the California Department of Justice in Los Angeles.
