Sept. 25, 2026

Something Followed Us Home With Cynthia Pelayo

Something Followed Us Home With Cynthia Pelayo
Apple Podcasts Spotify PocketCasts Overcast Castro iHeartRadio Castbox Podchaser Deezer Pandora Podcast Addict RSS Feed Amazon Music TuneIn
Apple Podcasts podcast player icon Apple Podcasts Apple Podcasts Spotify podcast player icon Spotify Spotify PocketCasts podcast player icon PocketCasts PocketCasts Overcast podcast player icon Overcast Overcast Castro podcast player icon Castro Castro iHeartRadio podcast player icon iHeartRadio iHeartRadio Castbox podcast player icon Castbox Castbox Podchaser podcast player icon Podchaser Podchaser Deezer podcast player icon Deezer Deezer Pandora podcast player icon Pandora Pandora Podcast Addict podcast player icon Podcast Addict Podcast Addict RSS Feed podcast player icon RSS Feed RSS Feed Amazon Music podcast player icon Amazon Music Amazon Music TuneIn podcast player icon TuneIn TuneIn

Cristina is joined by the one and only, Cynthia Pelayo, to talk about Something Followed Us Home, an anthology book full of Latine stories featuring Agustina Bazterrica, Monica Ojeda, Isabel Cañas, Gerardo Sámano Córdova, Leopoldo Goût, Mariana Enriquez, Cynthia herself and so many more! They talked about how the book came to be, how these stories explore identity, belonging, assimilation, history, all through the venue of horror. They also discussed Cynthia's journey as an author and shared a paranormal experience of her own. They ended with spooky recs, Cynthia's was Rooted by Leopoldo Goût and Cristina's was this book, Something Followed Us Home.

Something Followed Us Home is available 9/29/26, wherever you buy books!

If you have a spooky story to share, email Espookytales@gmail.com or leave us a voicemail at the Espooky Hot Line (360)836-4486. You can also submit it on Discord!

Join the Espooky Tales Book Club for Busy People: https://substack.com/@espooky?utm_source=profile-page

Listen to Carmen and Cristina's other podcast Historias Unknown

The next book club read is Monstrilio by Gerardo Sámano Córdova. If you would like to
purchase the book, check out our bookshop link https://bookshop.org/lists/espooky-book-club-list

For more spooky stories, check out the Tiktok! https://www.tiktok.com/@espookytales

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/espookytales/

Chat with us on Discord! https://discord.gg/cWk7CvVgaR

Want to be a Patron? Get longer episodes AD-FREE, listen before they are released to anyone else, get bonus episodes, exclusive stickers, virtual hangouts, and more! Support Espooky Tales. Learn more by visiting https://www.patreon.com/Espookytales

By joining, you can help Espooky Tales donate 20% funds to mutual aid.

Get Espooky Merch: https://www.bonfire.com/store/espooky-tales/

Find us on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@espookytales

WEBVTT

1
00:00:05.500 --> 00:00:08.619
Hola, hola, I'm Cristina and this is Spooky Tales, the

2
00:00:08.660 --> 00:00:13.310
podcast for all things spooky, haunted places, myths, legends, and

3
00:00:13.470 --> 00:00:17.969
sometimes horror books. And that is what we are doing today.

4
00:00:18.370 --> 00:00:22.929
There is no Carmen, but I was lucky enough to

5
00:00:22.989 --> 00:00:27.120
be accompanied in this episode by the one and only

6
00:00:27.600 --> 00:00:32.090
Cynthia Pelayo herself. For those that, for some reason, don't

7
00:00:32.149 --> 00:00:35.619
know who Cynthia Pelayo is, she is a Bram Stoker

8
00:00:35.700 --> 00:00:40.409
Award-winning and International Latino Book Award-winning author and poet, the

9
00:00:40.450 --> 00:00:43.469
first Latina and the first Puerto Rican to win the

10
00:00:43.509 --> 00:00:46.969
Bram Stoker Award. She writes fairy tales that blend genre

11
00:00:47.009 --> 00:00:50.490
and explore grief, mourning, and cycles of violence. She's the

12
00:00:50.590 --> 00:00:54.210
author of Loteria and so many of our other favorite books,

13
00:00:54.429 --> 00:00:58.909
but today we are talking about her newest work. Something

14
00:00:59.090 --> 00:01:02.770
followed us home. Or lo que nos siguió a casa

15
00:01:03.380 --> 00:01:07.040
en español. This book was edited by her. And let

16
00:01:07.060 --> 00:01:11.040
me just read you the blurb from Simon & Schuster here.

17
00:01:11.459 --> 00:01:14.719
Dive into the chilling depths of Latina horror with this

18
00:01:14.819 --> 00:01:19.049
groundbreaking anthology edited by Bram Stoker Award winner Cynthia Pelayo,

19
00:01:19.230 --> 00:01:23.469
where each story reimagines immigration, colonization, faith, and folklore as

20
00:01:23.510 --> 00:01:26.549
the fears we inherit and carry across borders and generations.

21
00:01:27.150 --> 00:01:30.409
Something followed us home. It crawled in with our prayers,

22
00:01:30.890 --> 00:01:34.980
slipped into our beds, watched from mirrors, waited in water,

23
00:01:35.560 --> 00:01:38.969
and learned our names. Gathering chilling work from some of

24
00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:43.159
today's most acclaimed Latina voices, this horror anthology moves through

25
00:01:43.200 --> 00:01:47.780
haunted households, brutal landscapes, sacred spaces turned dangerous, and bodies

26
00:01:47.900 --> 00:01:51.900
claimed by forces both ancient and intimate. The dead murmur

27
00:01:51.959 --> 00:01:57.099
behind locked doors. Bones rebuild themselves under merciless suns. Love

28
00:01:57.159 --> 00:02:01.340
becomes a doorway for demonic hunger. Blood, devotion, and memory

29
00:02:01.659 --> 00:02:06.329
intertwine as the past presses back with teeth. Something Followed

30
00:02:06.349 --> 00:02:11.370
Us Home is an unnerving, visceral, and impossible-to-shake collection that

31
00:02:11.430 --> 00:02:14.210
proves that what is carried forward does not remain quiet,

32
00:02:14.590 --> 00:02:18.259
and what follows us rarely leaves without taking something in return.

33
00:02:19.060 --> 00:02:23.000
And this book features stories by some of our absolute

34
00:02:23.080 --> 00:02:25.539
faves that we've already talked about in our other book

35
00:02:25.560 --> 00:02:31.300
club episodes. Agustina Basterrica, Isabel Cañas, Gerardo Samano Cordoba, the

36
00:02:31.340 --> 00:02:37.289
author of Monstrilio, Maria Enriquez, Leopoldo Gu, which we read

37
00:02:37.370 --> 00:02:41.849
piñata for the book club. Monica Ojeda, who is on

38
00:02:41.949 --> 00:02:45.349
our TBR. Of course, Cynthia Pelayo herself and so many

39
00:02:45.469 --> 00:02:49.240
other authors. There's a story in here for everyone. It's

40
00:02:49.280 --> 00:02:51.490
going to make you cry. It's going to scare you.

41
00:02:52.020 --> 00:02:54.900
Some stories are going to make you laugh. This feels

42
00:02:54.919 --> 00:02:57.430
like a must read for this spooky season, which for

43
00:02:57.490 --> 00:03:01.150
us here is 24-7. So I'm going to stop rambling now.

44
00:03:01.349 --> 00:03:05.349
And here is our episode with Cynthia Pelayo talking about

45
00:03:05.409 --> 00:03:08.770
Something Followed Us Home, but also her journey into becoming

46
00:03:08.810 --> 00:03:19.400
a horror author and a paranormal story of hers. So

47
00:03:19.520 --> 00:03:23.699
I'm here with Cynthia Pelayo, the author of so many

48
00:03:23.780 --> 00:03:25.199
of our favorite books.

49
00:03:25.800 --> 00:03:28.479
Thank you. Thank you. But today, we're here to talk

50
00:03:28.520 --> 00:03:32.370
about one specific book, a collection of short stories, which

51
00:03:32.409 --> 00:03:35.990
I have here with me, Something Followed Us Home. Yes,

52
00:03:36.349 --> 00:03:39.389
I like the English and the Spanish.

53
00:03:39.830 --> 00:03:42.629
Yes, I started reading some of them in Spanish, but

54
00:03:42.909 --> 00:03:44.770
I don't know. I feel like listening in Spanish is

55
00:03:44.810 --> 00:03:49.900
so much easier for me than reading in Spanish. But yeah, first,

56
00:03:49.969 --> 00:03:53.080
I just want to say how much we loved this book.

57
00:03:54.199 --> 00:03:57.300
For our listeners that haven't heard about the book, can

58
00:03:57.319 --> 00:03:58.800
you tell them a little.

59
00:03:58.639 --> 00:04:02.639
Bit about it? Yeah, so Something Followed Us Home, Lo

60
00:04:02.680 --> 00:04:10.099
Que No Sigo A Casa, it is a Latino, Latina

61
00:04:10.400 --> 00:04:15.020
horror anthology. But many of the authors here don't come

62
00:04:15.060 --> 00:04:17.959
from the tradition of horror. And that was very important

63
00:04:17.980 --> 00:04:22.620
for me. I wanted to connect with as many people

64
00:04:23.139 --> 00:04:31.639
like leading figures in Latin American literature. Because I wanted

65
00:04:31.720 --> 00:04:35.540
their perspective of a prompt that I had given them.

66
00:04:36.480 --> 00:04:41.740
And I am just thrilled. So overall, the theme was

67
00:04:42.259 --> 00:04:45.800
what haunts you from where you're from? Like what has

68
00:04:45.860 --> 00:04:51.959
followed you throughout your life? If you've left your home country,

69
00:04:51.980 --> 00:04:57.160
your ancestral home, like what story or stories do you

70
00:04:57.199 --> 00:04:59.139
feel like are always like in the back of your mind?

71
00:04:59.939 --> 00:05:02.279
And that was it. And I made it very general.

72
00:05:02.660 --> 00:05:04.879
And all of the stories are so, so, so different

73
00:05:05.319 --> 00:05:08.620
in the way they wrote it, in what they wrote about.

74
00:05:09.579 --> 00:05:13.000
And I am just like thrilled. So we have, I mean,

75
00:05:13.050 --> 00:05:16.769
we have like Mariana Enriquez, we have Agustina Basterica, we

76
00:05:16.790 --> 00:05:22.879
have Alex Segura, Leopoldo Gaut, Brenta Lozano, Monika Ojeda. It

77
00:05:22.920 --> 00:05:25.310
was just like, I feel like everyone I've ever read

78
00:05:25.790 --> 00:05:30.350
was in this book. It was, it was like a,

79
00:05:30.529 --> 00:05:33.930
you know, a project of a lifetime. There was like

80
00:05:34.230 --> 00:05:36.949
just one author. And I will say her name, that

81
00:05:36.990 --> 00:05:39.509
I couldn't get Samantha Schwiedman. I wanted to get her

82
00:05:39.529 --> 00:05:44.769
because she wrote and she was just finishing her last

83
00:05:44.810 --> 00:05:50.800
story collection. And I just remember like begging. And they

84
00:05:50.819 --> 00:05:54.360
were like, and she's literally wrapping up edits just because

85
00:05:54.399 --> 00:05:56.519
I'm like, I fever dreams like in the back of

86
00:05:56.579 --> 00:05:58.540
my mind all the time. And I would have loved

87
00:05:58.600 --> 00:06:00.620
to have, I mean, but she gave us the good

88
00:06:00.639 --> 00:06:05.379
and evil or her last story. But they all, they've

89
00:06:05.439 --> 00:06:08.470
all been so wonderful. And I'm so grateful to everyone here.

90
00:06:08.490 --> 00:06:11.610
I mean, Zoraida Cordova, I mean, it just kind of

91
00:06:11.629 --> 00:06:14.699
goes on. I'm like, thank you for trusting me. Yeah. Yeah, no,

92
00:06:14.759 --> 00:06:16.639
it truly is amazing.

93
00:06:16.680 --> 00:06:19.959
Like I said, almost like every we have a they're

94
00:06:19.980 --> 00:06:21.980
supposed to be monthly, but we take so long reading

95
00:06:22.079 --> 00:06:25.050
one single book that they end up being like every

96
00:06:25.110 --> 00:06:25.649
six months.

97
00:06:25.810 --> 00:06:28.569
But we have a book club, like specific book club episodes.

98
00:06:28.889 --> 00:06:31.050
And I feel like everyone, every author that we've had

99
00:06:31.129 --> 00:06:35.259
for a book club episode is in this collection of stories.

100
00:06:36.449 --> 00:06:38.910
That's very cool. I'm really glad. Yeah, it was just

101
00:06:38.949 --> 00:06:41.810
like I'm even like looking at Daniel. Daniel was older,

102
00:06:41.850 --> 00:06:44.470
who writes a lot of like young adult and fantasy.

103
00:06:44.509 --> 00:06:47.000
I was like, well, how would you approach this? So

104
00:06:47.120 --> 00:06:51.579
it's just been I'm sad that it's now going to

105
00:06:51.680 --> 00:06:54.759
go into the world because it's been fun. It's been

106
00:06:54.779 --> 00:06:57.620
like the best group project in the background. I've just

107
00:06:57.680 --> 00:06:59.850
been I've just had like a blast with all of them.

108
00:07:01.040 --> 00:07:01.500
I bet.

109
00:07:02.160 --> 00:07:04.899
How did this even come together? Did you just wake

110
00:07:04.939 --> 00:07:06.279
up one day and you're like, you know what we need?

111
00:07:06.300 --> 00:07:09.970
A collection of horror stories or just stories from Latin

112
00:07:09.990 --> 00:07:11.930
America about what haunts us.

113
00:07:12.250 --> 00:07:14.970
How did this come to be? I wanted it to

114
00:07:15.089 --> 00:07:22.069
be positioned more as a literary anthology. And the more

115
00:07:22.089 --> 00:07:25.649
that I kept thinking of, and this was when just

116
00:07:25.730 --> 00:07:28.540
a number of things started picking up in the news.

117
00:07:29.740 --> 00:07:36.269
Things happening. And I really wanted a literary approach to this,

118
00:07:36.290 --> 00:07:39.470
like more general fiction. Like I didn't want it categorized

119
00:07:39.509 --> 00:07:43.250
in a specific genre. And so like, I had been

120
00:07:43.269 --> 00:07:47.449
in touch with many of them and I, you know,

121
00:07:47.490 --> 00:07:50.430
kept saying, you know, I want it to be something

122
00:07:50.990 --> 00:07:55.139
connecting to where we're from. And I wanted that. But

123
00:07:55.220 --> 00:07:59.060
then the more that just the last few years have

124
00:07:59.100 --> 00:08:03.839
seen a lot of increased intentions. I just kept thinking

125
00:08:03.899 --> 00:08:06.540
of all the anxieties that we've been living with. And

126
00:08:06.579 --> 00:08:10.199
I started then being curious, like, well, you know, somebody

127
00:08:10.300 --> 00:08:13.529
from Argentina, like, what is, what kind of anxieties do

128
00:08:13.569 --> 00:08:20.689
you have? And like, Brenda Lozano wrote the introduction and she's,

129
00:08:20.709 --> 00:08:22.509
she lives in Mexico, she's from Mexico City and she

130
00:08:22.529 --> 00:08:24.269
lives in Mexico. And I was just like, I really

131
00:08:24.290 --> 00:08:26.439
wanted to like hear from her, like, what is going on?

132
00:08:26.500 --> 00:08:28.740
Like for you who live in Mexico City, how are

133
00:08:28.779 --> 00:08:31.339
you interpreting all of this. And so it kind of

134
00:08:31.360 --> 00:08:35.389
became this conversation of what are you experiencing there? Because

135
00:08:35.429 --> 00:08:38.149
this is what I'm experiencing here. And then it just

136
00:08:38.190 --> 00:08:40.009
kind of became like, all right, it's going to be

137
00:08:40.029 --> 00:08:46.429
more of this tension of what we're dealing with. And

138
00:08:46.460 --> 00:08:49.820
the publisher wanted it to be positioned more like framed

139
00:08:49.879 --> 00:08:52.399
more horror. But I think if you read it, it's

140
00:08:52.460 --> 00:08:56.759
just people think horror and they think like blood and

141
00:08:56.779 --> 00:09:01.789
guts and violence. And so sometimes that's not necessarily what

142
00:09:01.850 --> 00:09:05.029
horror is. Sometimes horror is the fear of not feeling

143
00:09:05.070 --> 00:09:10.549
like you belong or that you're not accepted or that people,

144
00:09:10.570 --> 00:09:15.330
Ananda Lima's story, that there's a lot about linguistics and language,

145
00:09:15.549 --> 00:09:20.970
how you're not understood. So I think, and it was

146
00:09:21.029 --> 00:09:25.970
important for me also that people saw us, people from

147
00:09:26.009 --> 00:09:31.460
Latin America, not as a single thing. Because we are so,

148
00:09:31.539 --> 00:09:34.500
so different. I was born in Puerto Rico. My husband's

149
00:09:34.519 --> 00:09:38.679
from Mexico. Even speaking Spanish to him. And I've known

150
00:09:38.720 --> 00:09:40.740
him for like 25 years. Even speaking Spanish to him,

151
00:09:40.799 --> 00:09:42.139
I'll say something and he's just like, what are you

152
00:09:42.200 --> 00:09:45.799
talking about? You know, he's taking me to Mexico. I've

153
00:09:45.840 --> 00:09:48.200
taken him to Puerto Rico. And so we both have

154
00:09:48.259 --> 00:09:51.759
experienced like our cultures are so different. And then when

155
00:09:51.799 --> 00:09:55.029
you come here to the States, it's even different. And

156
00:09:55.070 --> 00:09:57.980
we're different state by state. Puerto Ricans in New York

157
00:09:58.000 --> 00:10:00.570
are very different than Puerto Ricans in Chicago or Florida.

158
00:10:00.629 --> 00:10:03.970
And so I really wanted people to see we're not homogenous.

159
00:10:04.009 --> 00:10:09.399
We all have different fears. And we all, although one

160
00:10:09.419 --> 00:10:12.620
thing that I found that was really fascinating was that's

161
00:10:12.639 --> 00:10:16.299
why I wanted to kind of not push so much

162
00:10:17.279 --> 00:10:19.220
the prompt. I wanted to see what they came back with.

163
00:10:19.860 --> 00:10:23.220
So many of them, family and belonging just kind of

164
00:10:23.240 --> 00:10:26.080
seem to be a consistent theme throughout.

165
00:10:33.750 --> 00:10:36.070
Yeah, I noticed that there's so many of the stories

166
00:10:36.120 --> 00:10:39.409
are about either belonging, family or both. One of my

167
00:10:39.470 --> 00:10:43.149
absolute favorites, and I didn't even expect it, but where

168
00:10:43.250 --> 00:10:46.789
is it? Oh, Pomelo by Xochitl González.

169
00:10:47.789 --> 00:10:53.129
How beautiful. I... That was really, and I really wanted

170
00:10:53.149 --> 00:10:56.850
to include her. I was just like, and she was like,

171
00:10:56.870 --> 00:11:00.590
I don't write horror. I'm like, you have something. Yeah, yeah.

172
00:11:00.730 --> 00:11:04.269
When you write, she's a journalist and she covers like

173
00:11:04.500 --> 00:11:08.059
so many fascinating topics. I'm like, dig, dig. You have

174
00:11:08.379 --> 00:11:11.580
to find it. And she had this piece and she's like, well,

175
00:11:11.600 --> 00:11:14.279
it's not a short story. It's more like a novelette.

176
00:11:14.379 --> 00:11:18.679
It's a longer piece. And it was beautiful. It's so beautiful.

177
00:11:19.889 --> 00:11:23.309
I'm looking forward to people reading Fomelo, yeah.

178
00:11:23.429 --> 00:11:28.009
It was absolutely a gorgeous story. And another one of

179
00:11:28.049 --> 00:11:33.970
my favorite stories was yours. And it's not the only

180
00:11:34.009 --> 00:11:35.809
Puerto Rico one. What was the other one? It was

181
00:11:35.929 --> 00:11:39.110
also very fun. Her first cruise ship, the one with

182
00:11:39.149 --> 00:11:43.750
the zombies. I did not expect that. That was so good.

183
00:11:43.950 --> 00:11:46.950
And I just feel like I keep looking at Anne

184
00:11:47.009 --> 00:11:50.450
and I'm like, this story... It's going to hit the

185
00:11:50.549 --> 00:11:54.149
awards circuit. And I am predicting it's going to hit

186
00:11:54.169 --> 00:11:59.429
the awards circuit because it's funny, but the social commentary underneath,

187
00:11:59.529 --> 00:12:02.929
I'm like, it's so smart. Yeah.

188
00:12:02.990 --> 00:12:06.289
And it's so interesting to see two stories, both set

189
00:12:06.389 --> 00:12:08.460
in Puerto Rico, but very, very different.

190
00:12:09.049 --> 00:12:12.340
Yeah. Yeah. Hers is modern. Mine takes place. It's like

191
00:12:12.379 --> 00:12:15.519
a more historical piece. And it's very, yeah, it's much more.

192
00:12:16.610 --> 00:12:18.629
I write a lot of sad things. I was like,

193
00:12:18.649 --> 00:12:20.860
it was so sad. I cried.

194
00:12:21.559 --> 00:12:23.240
Actually, that leads me to what I was going to say.

195
00:12:23.480 --> 00:12:26.779
One of my absolute favorite things about reading horror is

196
00:12:26.840 --> 00:12:31.070
that it's used to explore themes. And yours is not

197
00:12:31.110 --> 00:12:33.230
the only story that touches on this, but it's used

198
00:12:33.250 --> 00:12:36.909
to explore themes on about imperialism, colonization.

199
00:12:37.629 --> 00:12:42.279
Historical injustices. Um, is this like, was this intentional when.

200
00:12:42.179 --> 00:12:44.460
You were reading, when you were writing your story and

201
00:12:44.539 --> 00:12:47.120
here out of the Puerto Rico, or did it just like,

202
00:12:47.139 --> 00:12:48.799
did it just happen? You were just like writing and

203
00:12:48.960 --> 00:12:52.220
it just, it's what came out, what came out. So

204
00:12:52.899 --> 00:12:58.419
I've never really written widely about Puerto Rico. I've written like,

205
00:12:58.440 --> 00:13:01.799
I did Loteria, but, um, that was my MFA thesis.

206
00:13:01.840 --> 00:13:03.960
I did Loteria, but that was like all different stories.

207
00:13:03.980 --> 00:13:06.259
I did that book, That was a.

208
00:13:06.360 --> 00:13:09.820
Special edition that had a lot of stuff about my family.

209
00:13:10.179 --> 00:13:14.139
And then I did something in the Stephen King End

210
00:13:14.159 --> 00:13:16.100
of the World as we know it. And I knew

211
00:13:16.779 --> 00:13:20.940
when I wrote this piece, I knew when this book

212
00:13:21.080 --> 00:13:24.559
came together, I knew I'm going to deal with the

213
00:13:24.620 --> 00:13:29.409
Ponce Massacre. And when I was younger, much, much... I

214
00:13:29.529 --> 00:13:31.220
shouldn't even say this, but I'm going to say it.

215
00:13:31.470 --> 00:13:35.919
So when I was much, much younger, I... would attend

216
00:13:35.980 --> 00:13:40.610
a lot of protests dealing with the bombing that was

217
00:13:40.649 --> 00:13:42.889
going on in Vieques. Yes.

218
00:13:43.090 --> 00:13:46.450
We have another history podcast called The Historias Are Known,

219
00:13:46.570 --> 00:13:49.279
and we've done an episode on Vieques. We did one

220
00:13:49.320 --> 00:13:53.940
about the Ponce Massacre, one about Lolita Lebron. So I

221
00:13:53.960 --> 00:13:56.240
know me and Carmen are more familiar with it, but

222
00:13:56.360 --> 00:13:58.000
I don't know if, I mean, we do have a

223
00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:00.440
lot of crossover with listeners that listen to both podcasts.

224
00:14:00.700 --> 00:14:02.720
So I think a lot of listeners are familiar with

225
00:14:02.860 --> 00:14:05.019
the Ponce Massacre because of that episode.

226
00:14:05.539 --> 00:14:08.210
Thank you. And so like, I was really involved with

227
00:14:08.250 --> 00:14:11.460
like a You know, a lot of local youth groups.

228
00:14:11.539 --> 00:14:15.379
I was involved with like developing a lot of youth

229
00:14:16.159 --> 00:14:20.259
initiatives to like foster education and whatnot. And one of

230
00:14:20.330 --> 00:14:22.399
the things that we wound up doing, we wound up,

231
00:14:22.539 --> 00:14:25.090
a group of us went to New York for like

232
00:14:25.129 --> 00:14:28.870
this huge protest about it. I mean, the military is

233
00:14:28.909 --> 00:14:33.549
no longer in Vieques. However, I wound up getting an

234
00:14:33.669 --> 00:14:38.230
FBI file. Oh my God. For many years because of

235
00:14:38.289 --> 00:14:45.090
my involvement. I went into the military when I was

236
00:14:45.110 --> 00:14:47.350
very young, when I was 17. And so I come

237
00:14:47.370 --> 00:14:51.029
from a military family. But at the time, I remember

238
00:14:51.070 --> 00:14:55.539
they're literally bombing. There's bombing exercises happening on our island.

239
00:14:55.620 --> 00:15:00.000
Children are developing really rare forms of cancer. Oh, yeah.

240
00:15:00.059 --> 00:15:03.220
And then like the fishermen, they couldn't do like sustain

241
00:15:03.379 --> 00:15:06.220
what they used to live on, like because of the

242
00:15:06.320 --> 00:15:10.590
chemicals affecting the water. Houses were being like like falling,

243
00:15:10.629 --> 00:15:13.950
caving in because of like the shaking from the bombings

244
00:15:14.009 --> 00:15:14.649
like so much.

245
00:15:15.710 --> 00:15:18.970
And I remember like recently I had heard somebody say, well,

246
00:15:18.990 --> 00:15:23.690
you know, the U.S. military would never turn on it's

247
00:15:23.730 --> 00:15:27.649
citizens and I was just like really you know we

248
00:15:27.750 --> 00:15:31.169
they literally were bombing on the island in the you

249
00:15:31.210 --> 00:15:35.490
know the nationalist the nationalist parties and so yeah so

250
00:15:35.509 --> 00:15:38.769
that's why I generally have been quiet about like my

251
00:15:38.789 --> 00:15:41.820
involvement with them because yeah when I would I was

252
00:15:41.960 --> 00:15:44.710
uh The FBI wasn't very happy with me for a

253
00:15:44.750 --> 00:15:48.409
few years yet. I bet. I bet. Yeah. Yeah.

254
00:15:48.600 --> 00:15:52.340
What I mean, what amazing work, really, because it's it's

255
00:15:52.399 --> 00:15:55.519
a scary thing to like, you know, stand up for

256
00:15:55.600 --> 00:15:56.399
what's right, really.

257
00:15:56.419 --> 00:15:59.480
Yeah. And I mean, and I won't go too long

258
00:15:59.519 --> 00:16:01.580
on a tangent, but like Puerto Rico is one of

259
00:16:01.600 --> 00:16:04.220
the oldest colonies in the world. They don't have water

260
00:16:04.299 --> 00:16:09.090
right now. Yes. And so, you know, you know, the the.

261
00:16:10.409 --> 00:16:13.740
But some of us have experienced, not just people in

262
00:16:13.820 --> 00:16:18.139
Puerto Rico, but like throughout Latin America because of imperialism. Yes.

263
00:16:18.159 --> 00:16:23.159
Because of the U.S. involvement in other countries has created

264
00:16:23.320 --> 00:16:28.879
huge instability and huge economic, you know, difficulties that have

265
00:16:28.960 --> 00:16:33.440
rippled throughout generations. So I'm happy that I was able

266
00:16:33.480 --> 00:16:36.710
to write about the Bonsai Massacre in this. And I

267
00:16:36.750 --> 00:16:38.830
was just kind of like being careful because I'm like, well,

268
00:16:40.590 --> 00:16:43.129
We haven't had any trouble in a few years, but...

269
00:16:43.129 --> 00:16:46.649
In a few years, yeah. In a few years, but,

270
00:16:46.690 --> 00:16:50.750
you know, I... Yeah, yeah, so... And I hope that

271
00:16:50.830 --> 00:16:51.389
the story.

272
00:16:51.409 --> 00:16:55.309
Again, a beautiful story that made me and Carmen cry.

273
00:16:55.350 --> 00:16:56.990
We texted each other. We're like, oh my God, this

274
00:16:57.029 --> 00:16:59.570
part made us cry. But I hope that it leads

275
00:16:59.610 --> 00:17:04.210
people to read about the Ponce Massacre and Puerto Rican history.

276
00:17:04.230 --> 00:17:11.549
Yeah, I hope it leads people to see... how the U.S.

277
00:17:11.569 --> 00:17:16.990
has been involved and going in, taking people's farms, forcing

278
00:17:17.029 --> 00:17:21.869
them to work on their own land, you know, and that's,

279
00:17:22.269 --> 00:17:25.390
you know, and there's still like la aparición, you know,

280
00:17:25.410 --> 00:17:30.160
the forced sterilization of Puerto Rican women. Yes. Birth control.

281
00:17:30.240 --> 00:17:33.079
Anyone that's ever been on birth control in the United States,

282
00:17:33.140 --> 00:17:36.460
you can thank a Puerto Rican woman because they were tested.

283
00:17:36.920 --> 00:17:39.000
And they didn't know they were being tested, many of them.

284
00:17:39.079 --> 00:17:41.160
And so we've been used as guinea pigs. Yeah.

285
00:17:41.180 --> 00:17:43.289
What was it like a one third of the women

286
00:17:43.329 --> 00:17:47.250
on the island were sterilized through either like, I mean,

287
00:17:47.269 --> 00:17:49.630
through the birth, was it through the birth control trial

288
00:17:49.789 --> 00:17:53.029
or also just sterilized like because they were sterilized?

289
00:17:53.269 --> 00:17:56.230
Sterilized too. And so part of the practices were like

290
00:17:56.279 --> 00:17:59.279
they would go in for like an appendectomy or something

291
00:17:59.460 --> 00:18:01.640
and then automatically they would just be sterilized and they

292
00:18:01.680 --> 00:18:05.180
wouldn't even know. They wouldn't even tell these women. And

293
00:18:05.279 --> 00:18:10.490
so the suffering of the Puerto Rican people, I think,

294
00:18:10.549 --> 00:18:15.650
is something that's not discussed. I mean, again, throughout Latin America,

295
00:18:15.750 --> 00:18:20.509
it's just, I mean, Cuba. Oh, ni se diga. Yeah.

296
00:18:20.970 --> 00:18:23.660
This is the worst that they have been because of

297
00:18:23.690 --> 00:18:28.380
the United States. Like, it's the United States doing on

298
00:18:28.980 --> 00:18:31.799
purpose because they want to, I mean, what is the

299
00:18:31.839 --> 00:18:32.119
end game?

300
00:18:32.160 --> 00:18:38.369
To destroy Cuba? It's... Yeah, I have thoughts of what

301
00:18:38.410 --> 00:18:43.349
they want. But, you know, for another country to come

302
00:18:43.369 --> 00:18:47.670
in and prevent oil from coming into another country or

303
00:18:47.730 --> 00:18:55.240
medical supplies, I think, you know, the number of deaths

304
00:18:55.319 --> 00:18:58.099
throughout Latin America have been in the millions and millions

305
00:18:58.140 --> 00:19:00.640
and millions because of even recent because of the U.S.

306
00:19:00.680 --> 00:19:06.109
involvement and what they have done or not done. Oh, 100%.

307
00:19:06.109 --> 00:19:10.690
And I think that's why such a important piece of

308
00:19:10.730 --> 00:19:13.440
like work, this book is coming out in such an

309
00:19:13.460 --> 00:19:16.799
important time where it seems like things have not, it

310
00:19:16.819 --> 00:19:19.240
doesn't seem like things really have gotten more hostile, not

311
00:19:19.319 --> 00:19:23.299
only for like Latinx people in the US, but in

312
00:19:23.359 --> 00:19:25.380
all of Latin America, like Latin America has.

313
00:19:25.299 --> 00:19:26.099
Shifted, right?

314
00:19:26.720 --> 00:19:29.309
Of the, and it's of the US is doing really

315
00:19:30.509 --> 00:19:37.740
the meddling, the, yeah, And so a book that shares

316
00:19:37.839 --> 00:19:41.819
like so many different stories across all of Latin America,

317
00:19:41.839 --> 00:19:43.670
which you did on purpose, you got so many people

318
00:19:43.710 --> 00:19:44.589
from different places.

319
00:19:44.609 --> 00:19:46.490
I think it's such an important time for it to

320
00:19:46.529 --> 00:19:50.089
be coming out. Yeah, I tried to get as many

321
00:19:50.549 --> 00:19:54.809
people from Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico. You know, I tried as

322
00:19:55.890 --> 00:19:59.339
much as possible to Brazil, even Brazil, like throughout South America.

323
00:19:59.380 --> 00:20:02.900
So I wanted just a huge perspective. You know, people

324
00:20:02.960 --> 00:20:07.519
came back with true crime stories. People came back with,

325
00:20:08.079 --> 00:20:13.339
you know, what it's like to uh, like Diana's with

326
00:20:13.380 --> 00:20:17.440
the vampires that kind of has like, what's it like

327
00:20:17.480 --> 00:20:19.839
to like assimilate? Like, I kind of feel like that's

328
00:20:19.859 --> 00:20:23.220
like the underlying of that story. Like, what's it like

329
00:20:23.240 --> 00:20:27.150
to fit in? Yes. The last one, we are gathered

330
00:20:27.210 --> 00:20:32.789
here together. Yes. There's some, and that's, you know, I

331
00:20:32.809 --> 00:20:34.529
feel like I'm going all over the place, but like one,

332
00:20:35.630 --> 00:20:38.799
I remember growing up, we were not allowed to speak

333
00:20:39.039 --> 00:20:42.480
Spanish outside of the house. My dad was always scared. And,

334
00:20:42.660 --> 00:20:44.769
you know, he came here in the 50s and he

335
00:20:44.789 --> 00:20:46.849
would go back and forth. But I remember when we

336
00:20:46.869 --> 00:20:49.609
were out of the house, we do not speak Spanish

337
00:20:50.230 --> 00:20:53.710
because he was always scared that something, so someone would

338
00:20:53.730 --> 00:20:56.609
do something to us. And so like, I mean, he

339
00:20:56.650 --> 00:20:58.509
has stories. I mean, he had told me stories of

340
00:20:58.849 --> 00:21:00.329
he would go to like a diner to get a

341
00:21:00.349 --> 00:21:03.369
cup of coffee before going to work in the factory

342
00:21:03.390 --> 00:21:05.670
in the morning. And he wouldn't even say anything. He

343
00:21:05.690 --> 00:21:08.660
would just say coffee. And that was, and they would,

344
00:21:09.440 --> 00:21:11.839
he had a story with the waitress at a down

345
00:21:11.859 --> 00:21:14.319
and she kind of like looked at him and she

346
00:21:14.359 --> 00:21:16.599
could just tell, no. And she took the coffee and

347
00:21:16.619 --> 00:21:18.480
she's like, get out of here. And that happened in

348
00:21:18.509 --> 00:21:22.809
Chicago in the sixth. Oh my God. And so that's why,

349
00:21:22.829 --> 00:21:26.009
you know, I feel like we have the no sabe,

350
00:21:26.150 --> 00:21:29.779
no sabe, no sabe kids. Yes. I mean, my niece

351
00:21:29.819 --> 00:21:32.099
and nephew, they don't know Spanish, but you know, I

352
00:21:32.140 --> 00:21:36.480
think I feel bad that they are shamed. I don't

353
00:21:36.539 --> 00:21:40.130
think we should shame them for not learning Spanish. That's

354
00:21:40.269 --> 00:21:44.450
not their fault. And us who speak Spanish shaming them,

355
00:21:44.490 --> 00:21:46.930
that's not the way to go about it. It could

356
00:21:46.950 --> 00:21:48.470
have been a number of reasons. It could have been

357
00:21:48.490 --> 00:21:51.410
because of that. Their parents were scared that they didn't

358
00:21:51.450 --> 00:21:54.059
want their children to learn it. They wanted their children

359
00:21:54.099 --> 00:21:57.000
to learn English just so they could navigate better. But

360
00:21:57.140 --> 00:22:01.019
I mean, there are many of us that had to

361
00:22:01.079 --> 00:22:04.799
figure out when can I be myself in this situation?

362
00:22:05.279 --> 00:22:09.160
And when do I have to act like American? And

363
00:22:09.180 --> 00:22:15.700
that's kind of like Diana's kind of gave me that feeling. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

364
00:22:15.720 --> 00:22:19.710
And that's what's difficult about, I think people don't realize

365
00:22:19.730 --> 00:22:22.309
like that's part of the difficulty of being Latin American

366
00:22:22.349 --> 00:22:25.630
in this country. Sometimes it's like, who can I be

367
00:22:25.670 --> 00:22:27.269
right now in this room? You know, you have to

368
00:22:27.309 --> 00:22:30.880
assess the room. And so like, yeah. And then it

369
00:22:30.900 --> 00:22:33.200
depends like what part of the country you're in. Because

370
00:22:33.220 --> 00:22:36.079
like for me, growing up with my parents, my dad's

371
00:22:36.099 --> 00:22:38.380
from El Salvador and my mom is from Mexico. They

372
00:22:38.420 --> 00:22:40.500
met in English school in Oakland, California.

373
00:22:41.000 --> 00:22:43.799
But the part of Oakland we were in, it was

374
00:22:43.839 --> 00:22:47.369
basically like little Mexico. And my parents never had to really,

375
00:22:47.380 --> 00:22:51.690
they eventually learned English. Everyone spoke Spanish, basically everywhere, at

376
00:22:51.730 --> 00:22:54.829
the doctors, at school, and not even on purpose. But

377
00:22:54.990 --> 00:22:58.190
our first grade teacher was bilingual. And so, and almost

378
00:22:58.230 --> 00:23:01.819
all the kids spoke Spanish. Like I didn't realize that

379
00:23:01.839 --> 00:23:04.460
there was like, like, I just thought everyone was Mexican.

380
00:23:04.980 --> 00:23:06.119
And then I moved like as an.

381
00:23:06.099 --> 00:23:10.349
Adult later, I moved to Vancouver, Washington. And I was like,

382
00:23:10.369 --> 00:23:12.789
this is the whitest place I've ever been. Where are

383
00:23:12.849 --> 00:23:15.589
all the Mexicans? The first time I found a Mexican store,

384
00:23:15.630 --> 00:23:17.690
a grocery store, I walked in. They were playing like,

385
00:23:17.710 --> 00:23:19.109
I don't know, Mexican music.

386
00:23:19.190 --> 00:23:19.990
And I almost cried.

387
00:23:20.009 --> 00:23:22.089
I was like, oh, my God, there are other Mexicans.

388
00:23:22.549 --> 00:23:24.210
And then I felt so silly for almost crying.

389
00:23:24.230 --> 00:23:27.630
I mean, I don't want to like, I still live

390
00:23:27.789 --> 00:23:30.059
in the same neighborhood I grew up in. And I'm

391
00:23:30.119 --> 00:23:31.970
in Chicago. It's the same thing that there's neighborhoods in

392
00:23:31.990 --> 00:23:34.599
Chicago where you don't need to know English. You can just,

393
00:23:34.960 --> 00:23:37.700
the grocery stores and the signs are in Spanish. My

394
00:23:37.740 --> 00:23:41.579
neighborhood is about like 90% Latinx, Latin. And so it's like,

395
00:23:42.380 --> 00:23:46.200
we have people from South America, Central America. My neighbors

396
00:23:46.240 --> 00:23:49.579
are from Ecuador. Like neighbors across next door are from Mexico.

397
00:23:49.660 --> 00:23:54.460
And so I feel like, at home here. Like, you know,

398
00:23:54.519 --> 00:23:56.680
I feel like I can go out and I can

399
00:23:56.720 --> 00:23:59.220
just be myself. And then I go to another neighborhood

400
00:23:59.240 --> 00:24:01.900
where it's just like, okay, they don't, I don't hear Spanish.

401
00:24:01.920 --> 00:24:06.059
I have to be. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The, the switching

402
00:24:06.119 --> 00:24:10.460
back and forth, the switch. And then it's like the,

403
00:24:11.619 --> 00:24:13.859
you know, and I grew up very sheltered too. So

404
00:24:13.880 --> 00:24:15.599
that was another thing. So I grew up very sheltered.

405
00:24:15.619 --> 00:24:20.049
I grew up in the eighties. Um, and so, um, I,

406
00:24:20.150 --> 00:24:22.069
you know, I kind of, I didn't go away to college.

407
00:24:22.089 --> 00:24:24.410
You were not, as the only girl in the house

408
00:24:24.490 --> 00:24:26.910
for a bunch of Puerto Ricans, you were not allowed

409
00:24:26.950 --> 00:24:28.640
to leave. You had to sit in the house until

410
00:24:28.660 --> 00:24:31.279
you were married. And so when I did college, it

411
00:24:31.319 --> 00:24:33.900
was go to the college, take your classes and come home.

412
00:24:33.920 --> 00:24:36.940
Because that, you were not, there was no leaving the

413
00:24:36.960 --> 00:24:39.799
house until you got married. Yeah. So even after I

414
00:24:39.819 --> 00:24:44.609
got married, I got married young because traditional Latino Puerto

415
00:24:44.630 --> 00:24:47.769
Rican and my husband's parents are from like, from Mexico.

416
00:24:48.470 --> 00:24:52.759
And so it was like, we got married, what, 21? 21? 22?

417
00:24:52.759 --> 00:24:56.680
And so I've always kind of been, you know, in

418
00:24:56.700 --> 00:24:59.880
my little world. And even when I worked, it was

419
00:24:59.920 --> 00:25:02.079
like in my little world. And then kind of being

420
00:25:02.099 --> 00:25:07.240
an author now, going to different places, I'm like, oh, shit.

421
00:25:08.119 --> 00:25:11.660
I see what everybody's talking about even more now. Yeah.

422
00:25:11.680 --> 00:25:16.099
It's a little scary. Yeah. Speaking of scary and author,

423
00:25:16.119 --> 00:25:18.950
I was wondering, Did you?

424
00:25:18.970 --> 00:25:21.990
Because I remember, I think I was listening to Susto

425
00:25:22.170 --> 00:25:24.940
when he talked to you about, what book was it?

426
00:25:25.720 --> 00:25:28.900
The Peter Pan book, maybe? I can't remember what book.

427
00:25:29.099 --> 00:25:34.029
It was Forgotten Sisters or Vanishing Daughters. One of one

428
00:25:34.069 --> 00:25:34.329
of those.

429
00:25:34.369 --> 00:25:35.990
I can't remember what book he was talking to you about.

430
00:25:36.289 --> 00:25:39.029
But I remember in the episode you mentioned having been

431
00:25:39.049 --> 00:25:43.630
a journalist, like a crime journalist. But how did you

432
00:25:43.670 --> 00:25:46.410
like end up leaving that and becoming an author? And

433
00:25:46.450 --> 00:25:49.339
then did you just like say, oh, horror, I'm writing horror.

434
00:25:49.359 --> 00:25:51.259
Did this just happen? Like, how did that happen?

435
00:25:51.279 --> 00:25:54.519
Yeah, I used to watch a lot of horror movies

436
00:25:54.759 --> 00:25:57.579
growing up. I loved horror movies. I didn't read a

437
00:25:57.599 --> 00:26:00.740
lot of horror novels. I went to inner-city schools. My

438
00:26:00.779 --> 00:26:03.200
parents worked in factories. We were lucky if we got, like,

439
00:26:04.240 --> 00:26:06.309
a little golden book for, like, a dollar or somewhere.

440
00:26:06.329 --> 00:26:09.849
So whatever I read is whatever our inner-city schools had.

441
00:26:10.089 --> 00:26:11.950
And those were, like, mostly, like, the classics, like Huck

442
00:26:11.990 --> 00:26:15.990
Finn or something, or those types of books. And I

443
00:26:16.049 --> 00:26:20.519
wanted to be a journalist. And that's... My dad would

444
00:26:20.539 --> 00:26:24.180
always get the newspapers, reading the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune.

445
00:26:24.200 --> 00:26:28.349
And I loved... that. And I knew I wanted to

446
00:26:28.390 --> 00:26:29.829
go to college. And I was the first one in

447
00:26:29.849 --> 00:26:31.910
my family to go to college. And I was like, well,

448
00:26:31.930 --> 00:26:33.529
I'm going to write. I'm going to study writing. My

449
00:26:33.569 --> 00:26:41.049
dad's like, no, you're not. Journalism. And I covered crime,

450
00:26:41.069 --> 00:26:49.069
inner city crime. This was like in what, 2001, 2001, 2002.

451
00:26:49.069 --> 00:26:52.430
And around that time, a bunch of newspapers were for

452
00:26:52.490 --> 00:26:55.339
closing up shop. They're reducing their staff. It was not

453
00:26:55.390 --> 00:26:59.599
paying much. And so I was like, what else can

454
00:26:59.619 --> 00:27:02.259
I do for money? And somebody was like, get a

455
00:27:02.299 --> 00:27:06.819
master's in marketing. And I was like, okay. I got

456
00:27:06.880 --> 00:27:09.619
a master's in marketing because someone told me, well, you

457
00:27:09.640 --> 00:27:12.900
could do public relations. It's writing. It's still storytelling, right?

458
00:27:13.680 --> 00:27:16.990
And then nobody was going to hire a Puerto Rican

459
00:27:17.029 --> 00:27:19.970
girl to do public relations at that time. And so

460
00:27:20.009 --> 00:27:24.210
I wound up working in research, so data analysis and consulting.

461
00:27:24.230 --> 00:27:28.910
So I was doing that by day. researching, doing data

462
00:27:28.930 --> 00:27:31.119
analysis research by day. And I was still working as

463
00:27:31.140 --> 00:27:36.779
a reporter at night. And there was one crime, or

464
00:27:37.099 --> 00:27:41.200
one crime, one, yeah, it was a guy. Well, he

465
00:27:41.240 --> 00:27:46.039
was shot in the back. The police were just like,

466
00:27:46.160 --> 00:27:48.319
we don't know who shot him. And I was just like,

467
00:27:49.799 --> 00:27:52.900
you're the ones who are here with guns. But this

468
00:27:52.940 --> 00:27:55.319
was at a time where there was no cell phones, really.

469
00:27:55.339 --> 00:27:57.769
This is like It wasn't the way it is today.

470
00:27:58.410 --> 00:28:01.339
Today where everything's recorded and we have like evidence of

471
00:28:01.380 --> 00:28:02.119
who did it.

472
00:28:02.259 --> 00:28:04.700
Yeah. Sometimes, but yeah. And so I was like, I

473
00:28:04.759 --> 00:28:06.500
need to shut up or something bad's going to happen

474
00:28:06.519 --> 00:28:10.400
to me. So I was like, okay. And I remember

475
00:28:10.420 --> 00:28:12.940
there were a bunch of people in the community, like

476
00:28:12.980 --> 00:28:16.029
people from like neighbors and they were shouting at me.

477
00:28:16.410 --> 00:28:19.490
And that's when I felt like, I just felt my

478
00:28:19.549 --> 00:28:22.069
heart break because they were shouting at me and they

479
00:28:22.089 --> 00:28:26.410
were like, you see what we see. You cannot go

480
00:28:26.470 --> 00:28:29.410
home and write something what they're telling you to write.

481
00:28:30.170 --> 00:28:33.690
And I was like, fuck. And I just remember calling

482
00:28:33.730 --> 00:28:36.430
my editor as I was walking back home. And I

483
00:28:36.430 --> 00:28:39.390
was like, I quit. I was like, I quit. I

484
00:28:39.450 --> 00:28:42.039
can't do it. And I'm scared. I don't know what's

485
00:28:42.059 --> 00:28:43.599
going to happen. I see what I see. And I'm

486
00:28:43.619 --> 00:28:44.940
going to give you a story. And you're not going

487
00:28:44.960 --> 00:28:47.759
to want to publish that story. So I quit. And

488
00:28:48.359 --> 00:28:50.359
later I realized, oh, it's PTSD is what I have.

489
00:28:51.460 --> 00:28:53.490
But I knew I wanted to... I didn't write. I

490
00:28:53.509 --> 00:28:55.609
wasn't writing. I was really depressed because I wasn't writing.

491
00:28:56.170 --> 00:28:59.210
I eventually applied and got into a Master's of Fine

492
00:28:59.269 --> 00:29:02.950
Arts in Writing program. And it was there that I

493
00:29:02.970 --> 00:29:06.900
just started kind of writing. I was thinking I wanted

494
00:29:06.920 --> 00:29:10.119
to do creative nonfiction. I wanted to do like longer

495
00:29:10.779 --> 00:29:13.940
think pieces, like, you know, like social, you know, like

496
00:29:14.079 --> 00:29:19.329
more pieces. But every time I would start writing, ghosts

497
00:29:19.349 --> 00:29:23.339
would start appearing in my room. essays and I'm like

498
00:29:23.460 --> 00:29:27.660
what is happening and my graduate advisor was like you're

499
00:29:27.680 --> 00:29:29.750
a horror writer who doesn't know she's a horror writer

500
00:29:29.829 --> 00:29:31.789
and I was like is that a bad thing like

501
00:29:31.809 --> 00:29:35.599
that's bad he's like just go with it and that's

502
00:29:35.700 --> 00:29:40.099
sort of where I got into it. Because it's essentially,

503
00:29:40.140 --> 00:29:44.119
I think every story is me saying something that I

504
00:29:45.220 --> 00:29:50.670
can't comfortably tap into without including a ghost. Because I

505
00:29:50.690 --> 00:29:53.569
would just cry and cry and cry. You know, like,

506
00:29:53.990 --> 00:29:56.970
you know, the Ponce Massacre. Like, I could have written

507
00:29:57.009 --> 00:30:00.279
that story as a historical piece. But I think I

508
00:30:00.319 --> 00:30:02.160
would have been like in a ball in the corner

509
00:30:02.200 --> 00:30:04.890
of my room crying for a long time. Yeah, no.

510
00:30:05.029 --> 00:30:07.509
And the way it was done for the book here,

511
00:30:07.970 --> 00:30:10.630
I was in a ball in the corner crying. But

512
00:30:10.670 --> 00:30:11.990
it was it was it was so good.

513
00:30:12.009 --> 00:30:14.369
It's such a beautiful way to just tell like, again,

514
00:30:14.630 --> 00:30:18.720
tell people about the Ponte Massacre, but also like these

515
00:30:18.759 --> 00:30:23.640
things happen and they leave behind. wounds that last like

516
00:30:23.700 --> 00:30:26.859
a lifetime. People move on, but this thing still happened

517
00:30:26.880 --> 00:30:29.220
in this town. And there's still, I don't know. I mean,

518
00:30:29.269 --> 00:30:30.970
like maybe I'm being a little like too spiritual, but

519
00:30:30.990 --> 00:30:33.690
there's still like remnants of whatever happened, right?

520
00:30:33.710 --> 00:30:36.309
In these places. And what a way to just convey

521
00:30:36.349 --> 00:30:39.250
it in your story. Like, oh my God. Like I'm

522
00:30:39.329 --> 00:30:42.750
trying to, you know, I think everything I write, I'm

523
00:30:43.869 --> 00:30:47.980
always trying to get better. And I've done, I've written

524
00:30:48.039 --> 00:30:50.579
things where I'm like, it didn't hit the mark for me.

525
00:30:51.519 --> 00:30:53.880
But my goal is to be able, if I can

526
00:30:53.980 --> 00:31:00.069
write something and communicate to somebody, here is what really happened.

527
00:31:00.250 --> 00:31:03.329
And you can feel that. And I feel like I've

528
00:31:03.390 --> 00:31:06.109
accomplished my goal. And that's all I want to do.

529
00:31:06.170 --> 00:31:09.140
I want to, I guess I'm still a journalist, right?

530
00:31:09.220 --> 00:31:12.220
I'm still covering crime. I'm still talking about these really

531
00:31:12.259 --> 00:31:15.660
bad things that have happened to people who didn't receive

532
00:31:15.720 --> 00:31:20.109
any type of justice when they were alive. And my

533
00:31:20.190 --> 00:31:22.630
goal is to at least be like, I see what

534
00:31:22.690 --> 00:31:25.430
happened and I hope that I can share your story

535
00:31:25.470 --> 00:31:30.470
with other people. So, I mean, it's the writing world.

536
00:31:30.549 --> 00:31:34.619
It's frustrating because, like I said, every every new book,

537
00:31:34.660 --> 00:31:36.940
I'm like, OK, how can I say this better so

538
00:31:36.980 --> 00:31:39.220
that somebody is like, it's boring or how can I

539
00:31:39.240 --> 00:31:42.160
say this better? So the action moves. But underneath, I'm

540
00:31:42.200 --> 00:31:47.170
hiding the story, you know, that I. Yes, absolutely. Yeah.

541
00:31:47.349 --> 00:31:52.130
What a, what a challenging task, really. Yeah. I mean,

542
00:31:52.210 --> 00:31:56.380
you know, sometimes I, I hit it a little bit.

543
00:31:56.410 --> 00:31:59.460
Sometimes I, it didn't come out at all. And I'm like, well,

544
00:31:59.640 --> 00:32:03.079
I just keep doing it. And, um, I just keep,

545
00:32:03.980 --> 00:32:07.079
you know, this is my, this is my full-time job

546
00:32:07.140 --> 00:32:12.019
right now. Um, I've been a full-time writer for three years, two,

547
00:32:12.099 --> 00:32:15.910
two years, which is scary, but, um, I keep telling

548
00:32:15.950 --> 00:32:18.630
myself it's bigger than me. What I'm trying to tell

549
00:32:18.670 --> 00:32:20.690
people is bigger than me. So how can I do

550
00:32:21.250 --> 00:32:24.430
this the right way? How beautiful. Oh, my gosh. Yes.

551
00:32:25.150 --> 00:32:25.670
Thank you.

552
00:32:26.539 --> 00:32:29.660
Before we go, I did want to ask, because everyone

553
00:32:29.680 --> 00:32:31.440
that comes on, I always ask, but do you have

554
00:32:31.559 --> 00:32:33.359
a ghost story that you want to share with us

555
00:32:33.380 --> 00:32:33.819
that happened?

556
00:32:33.859 --> 00:32:36.859
Well, first, I guess, do you believe in ghosts?

557
00:32:39.000 --> 00:32:39.380
I don't know.

558
00:32:39.400 --> 00:32:41.339
For a long time, I said, no, I don't believe

559
00:32:41.359 --> 00:32:44.460
in ghosts. But I think that's a lie because I

560
00:32:45.019 --> 00:32:50.839
believe we never, we never go away. I believe that I'm, I'm, I'm,

561
00:32:50.960 --> 00:32:55.660
I'm a, you know, I'm a practicing Catholic. And so I,

562
00:32:56.279 --> 00:32:59.240
I'm liberal and I believe everybody should love everybody and

563
00:32:59.299 --> 00:33:01.309
we should, you know, everybody has the right to love

564
00:33:01.420 --> 00:33:04.950
and live their life in accordance with the way it

565
00:33:04.970 --> 00:33:08.869
doesn't hurt people. But I, I kind of struggle with that.

566
00:33:08.890 --> 00:33:11.289
I'm like, well, my belief tells me we don't end.

567
00:33:11.589 --> 00:33:17.250
We always continue on. And so I've had some weird

568
00:33:17.309 --> 00:33:22.190
stuff happen. Oh, okay. So I grew up in a

569
00:33:22.210 --> 00:33:24.640
haunted house that they would say was a haunted house.

570
00:33:25.799 --> 00:33:30.420
I remember that there would be people upstairs. It was

571
00:33:30.440 --> 00:33:33.619
my grandfather and my aunt would leave. And you would

572
00:33:33.660 --> 00:33:36.599
hear people running back and forth. running back and forth,

573
00:33:36.660 --> 00:33:40.559
and then you hear the doors slamming. And I remember

574
00:33:40.579 --> 00:33:42.759
when I told my dad, and my dad's dead, but

575
00:33:42.779 --> 00:33:44.940
I remember when I told my dad that, and I

576
00:33:44.960 --> 00:33:47.200
must have been five, I was like, I hear somebody

577
00:33:47.240 --> 00:33:49.670
running and I hear somebody slamming the doors. And my

578
00:33:49.710 --> 00:33:52.910
dad was like, you don't talk about those things because

579
00:33:52.970 --> 00:33:56.230
to talk about those things is to give those things power.

580
00:33:56.349 --> 00:33:58.450
And I was like, oh, and I still remember that.

581
00:33:58.539 --> 00:34:01.630
I still remember. So if you see something, don't say it.

582
00:34:02.440 --> 00:34:02.799
Yeah.

583
00:34:03.039 --> 00:34:05.480
But then I remember, and another, there's a few weird

584
00:34:05.519 --> 00:34:08.059
things in that house. One of the other weird thing

585
00:34:08.219 --> 00:34:10.920
was I was in my bedroom. I must've been like

586
00:34:10.920 --> 00:34:14.250
10 or 11 and my bedroom door was open and

587
00:34:14.289 --> 00:34:15.989
my mother was washing the dishes and I could hear

588
00:34:16.050 --> 00:34:19.590
her washing the dishes. And then the water stops and

589
00:34:19.630 --> 00:34:21.289
she still has, because she used to do like the

590
00:34:21.329 --> 00:34:26.110
yellow gloves, like down and she's standing in my door

591
00:34:26.150 --> 00:34:28.489
and like her face is like stunned. And she was like,

592
00:34:29.099 --> 00:34:31.800
did you just walk into the kitchen right now? And

593
00:34:31.820 --> 00:34:34.010
I'm like on my bed, I'm like reading or something.

594
00:34:34.090 --> 00:34:36.409
And I was like, no. And she was just like,

595
00:34:36.449 --> 00:34:38.449
and I was like, what happened? She's like, I saw

596
00:34:38.590 --> 00:34:42.630
you in a white dress walk into the kitchen. And

597
00:34:42.849 --> 00:34:48.010
I was like, oh, so that. Oh no. Really, really like,

598
00:34:48.030 --> 00:34:51.159
like my, like I, yeah, that was a really scary thing.

599
00:34:51.219 --> 00:34:56.000
And I just remember how like terrified she was. And

600
00:34:56.039 --> 00:35:00.190
then later on they would have like, an exorcism in

601
00:35:00.230 --> 00:35:04.550
that house. Oh, wow. So there was a series of

602
00:35:04.889 --> 00:35:08.289
prayers that were prayed. I was told not to be

603
00:35:08.329 --> 00:35:11.090
in the room, but I remember being in the kitchen.

604
00:35:11.110 --> 00:35:13.139
I mean, I remember, I have a memory of a

605
00:35:13.280 --> 00:35:16.219
lot of people being in the living room, doing a

606
00:35:16.239 --> 00:35:18.639
lot of prayers. And I was very, very little. So

607
00:35:18.679 --> 00:35:22.780
it was a weird house. So I don't know. I

608
00:35:22.820 --> 00:35:25.260
think you never end. I think we always continue on.

609
00:35:25.809 --> 00:35:28.000
And I think it's important that if you love someone

610
00:35:28.019 --> 00:35:32.989
and they're no longer here physically to continue talking to them. Yes.

611
00:35:33.269 --> 00:35:35.010
Ask them for guidance. You wake up in the night.

612
00:35:35.170 --> 00:35:38.010
My dad died in 2020. I used to talk to

613
00:35:38.050 --> 00:35:39.429
that man every day. I wake up in the morning.

614
00:35:39.889 --> 00:35:42.780
Oh, my mom does the same thing for my grandpa.

615
00:35:42.840 --> 00:35:45.179
She wakes up, she's like, hi, how are you?

616
00:35:45.199 --> 00:35:46.300
Blah, blah, blah.

617
00:35:46.360 --> 00:35:49.280
She has this picture and there's like, it's decorated with

618
00:35:49.300 --> 00:35:52.099
like a rosario hanging on there. And like every morning

619
00:35:52.119 --> 00:35:54.070
she passes by and she's like, buenos dias.

620
00:35:54.929 --> 00:35:57.989
So yeah, that's me. Every morning I wake up, I say,

621
00:35:58.010 --> 00:36:00.969
good morning, dad. I take my, because we would always

622
00:36:01.010 --> 00:36:03.610
drink coffee together. Before my first sip of coffee, I

623
00:36:03.610 --> 00:36:05.519
was like, I always say, thank you, dad, for taking

624
00:36:05.559 --> 00:36:12.039
care of me. Yes. Yeah. Everything is energy. I'm like

625
00:36:12.059 --> 00:36:15.349
very spiritual too. Kind of like, whoa. But I think

626
00:36:15.389 --> 00:36:19.750
we never, we never end. So. Yeah. Yeah. No, I

627
00:36:19.809 --> 00:36:20.690
completely agree.

628
00:36:20.710 --> 00:36:24.429
Um, one more thing about my grandpa, when the world

629
00:36:24.449 --> 00:36:27.550
cup was happening, I, I took his picture with us

630
00:36:27.590 --> 00:36:29.300
to watch like one of the watch parties for the

631
00:36:29.340 --> 00:36:29.909
Bexley game.

632
00:36:29.969 --> 00:36:31.510
And then I was like, how could you lose in

633
00:36:31.530 --> 00:36:35.420
front of my grandpa? Yeah.

634
00:36:35.699 --> 00:36:38.940
I was like, you're supposed to win for him.

635
00:36:40.199 --> 00:36:44.500
He's here watching. I think they're here. I really feel

636
00:36:44.539 --> 00:36:49.510
like they're here. You just have to talk to them. Um, It's, yeah.

637
00:36:50.710 --> 00:36:52.449
So I guess I do. I guess I do believe

638
00:36:52.510 --> 00:36:56.679
in ghosts, but friendly, friendly ghosts. Friendly, yeah, friendly.

639
00:36:58.719 --> 00:37:01.940
Yeah, no, I think there's something also like beautiful about being,

640
00:37:02.039 --> 00:37:06.010
it makes it easier to like, not cope with, but

641
00:37:06.030 --> 00:37:09.389
maybe deal with eventually the passing of someone like I

642
00:37:09.429 --> 00:37:12.780
know my family believes like they'll visit you in your

643
00:37:12.820 --> 00:37:16.539
dreams um and my twin has uh seen my grandpa

644
00:37:16.579 --> 00:37:17.039
and I'm like.

645
00:37:17.099 --> 00:37:19.739
Why haven't I one day one day but and.

646
00:37:19.679 --> 00:37:22.199
So I has my mom in dreams like he'll just

647
00:37:22.219 --> 00:37:24.150
be like sitting in a bench and they're like oh

648
00:37:24.170 --> 00:37:26.389
we saw him and I'm like I'm so happy for

649
00:37:26.429 --> 00:37:28.570
you yeah.

650
00:37:27.610 --> 00:37:29.929
My dad came to me I remember because I was

651
00:37:30.250 --> 00:37:31.789
you know when he died in the house because he

652
00:37:31.809 --> 00:37:34.619
wanted hospice in the house We sat there with him

653
00:37:34.679 --> 00:37:36.619
with his body. We did like the last row. It

654
00:37:36.639 --> 00:37:38.860
was like intense. I remember we had the priest come

655
00:37:38.900 --> 00:37:41.739
in with the last rites. And then I sat with

656
00:37:41.780 --> 00:37:43.980
him after he died. We sat with him for like

657
00:37:44.000 --> 00:37:46.340
a few hours. And I just remember holding his hand.

658
00:37:46.360 --> 00:37:48.199
I just remember being scared. I'm like, papi, please don't

659
00:37:48.239 --> 00:37:51.300
come to me in a dream. I'm so, so, so scared.

660
00:37:51.889 --> 00:37:54.010
And he still wanted to come to me in a

661
00:37:54.030 --> 00:37:56.110
dream because he told me he sent me a message

662
00:37:56.150 --> 00:37:57.610
that I sent to my mom. I was like, dad

663
00:37:58.349 --> 00:38:00.610
wants me to tell you this. And she was like, OK.

664
00:38:01.710 --> 00:38:04.949
So he's come to me in two dreams. And I

665
00:38:04.949 --> 00:38:08.289
always get so scared, but when he comes to me

666
00:38:08.309 --> 00:38:13.960
in dreams, he's in his 30s. Oh, wow. That's so interesting.

667
00:38:15.199 --> 00:38:18.739
He's how I remember him when I was a five-year-old.

668
00:38:18.760 --> 00:38:23.059
That's exactly how he looked. Oh, my gosh. 35, 40, handsome.

669
00:38:23.139 --> 00:38:25.699
He still had his hair and his black suit. And

670
00:38:25.719 --> 00:38:27.710
it's just really interesting that that's how I see him

671
00:38:27.730 --> 00:38:33.449
in my dreams, too. Yeah. No, that is. Wow. Yeah. Yeah.

672
00:38:33.530 --> 00:38:38.949
Also beautiful though. Wow. Amazing. Yeah. I, it makes sense

673
00:38:38.989 --> 00:38:43.929
to me that they, that, you know, it gives me comfort.

674
00:38:44.030 --> 00:38:48.679
It gives me hope. This world is, it's difficult. Even

675
00:38:48.719 --> 00:38:51.139
if you live like an easy life, there's always every difficulties,

676
00:38:51.820 --> 00:38:57.099
but I think turning to, your ancestors like that has

677
00:38:57.139 --> 00:39:01.380
been a huge sense of comfort for me. Yeah. Yes. Yes.

678
00:39:01.599 --> 00:39:02.699
I completely agree.

679
00:39:02.719 --> 00:39:05.789
And then one more thing before we go, I always

680
00:39:05.909 --> 00:39:09.230
also ask people if they have a spooky recommendation for everyone.

681
00:39:09.570 --> 00:39:13.030
For me, it's this book. Something followed us home.

682
00:39:13.329 --> 00:39:17.130
But anything spooky, any spooky media that has been like

683
00:39:17.309 --> 00:39:18.949
on your mind that you would recommend to people?

684
00:39:19.260 --> 00:39:22.420
Oh, Leopold of Galt's Rooted comes out, I think the

685
00:39:22.440 --> 00:39:27.230
same week. Really? The same day? I think. So Leopoldo

686
00:39:27.269 --> 00:39:32.000
got his next routine. comes out as well in September

687
00:39:32.159 --> 00:39:33.239
so check that out.

688
00:39:33.219 --> 00:39:36.260
Okay yes that's on my list um I read Piñata

689
00:39:36.320 --> 00:39:39.139
and it was uh amazing yeah so I think so

690
00:39:39.179 --> 00:39:40.079
I'm excited.

691
00:39:39.739 --> 00:39:43.659
Excited that we um yeah I really get same day

692
00:39:43.679 --> 00:39:49.280
September 29th so um yeah check that out so Very cool.

693
00:39:49.320 --> 00:39:49.679
Very cool.

694
00:39:49.719 --> 00:39:52.599
And thank you so much for doing this. I would

695
00:39:52.619 --> 00:39:54.480
say with us, but it's just me because Carmen's not

696
00:39:54.519 --> 00:39:56.239
with me. So thank you for doing this with me.

697
00:39:56.260 --> 00:39:59.769
I was very excited to talk with you about this book.

698
00:39:59.889 --> 00:40:01.670
Thank you so much. And I'm definitely going to check

699
00:40:01.730 --> 00:40:04.369
out the show that you did when you talked about

700
00:40:04.389 --> 00:40:05.710
Puerto Rico. I would love to hear that. So I'm

701
00:40:05.730 --> 00:40:09.070
going to check that out. Yeah, we've got several. The

702
00:40:09.179 --> 00:40:11.909
Birth Control... Trials.

703
00:40:11.949 --> 00:40:13.969
We did one on that. And then, yeah, like I said,

704
00:40:13.989 --> 00:40:17.570
the Ponce Massacre. Lolita Lebron was another one. I have

705
00:40:18.090 --> 00:40:21.389
on my list, like my white whale of research is

706
00:40:21.409 --> 00:40:26.739
a full episode on Pedro Alviso Campos because he was

707
00:40:26.760 --> 00:40:27.699
done so wrong.

708
00:40:27.719 --> 00:40:32.739
They experimented on him. Yes. And that's on my list

709
00:40:32.920 --> 00:40:36.480
to tackle one day. But so much. I have to

710
00:40:36.500 --> 00:40:39.110
look up so many things. Yeah. There's a lot. Yeah,

711
00:40:39.130 --> 00:40:40.769
if you were... Another one to add to your list,

712
00:40:41.230 --> 00:40:44.369
the Puerto Rican race riots in Chicago that happened in

713
00:40:44.389 --> 00:40:46.309
the 60s. There was a huge thing in the 60s

714
00:40:46.349 --> 00:40:49.000
where the police shot and killed a Puerto Rican during

715
00:40:49.019 --> 00:40:52.639
the Puerto Rican parade. The first one. During the parade.

716
00:40:52.659 --> 00:40:54.920
It was like the first parade they shot and killed

717
00:40:55.059 --> 00:40:58.940
one young man and then like this huge riot just

718
00:40:59.000 --> 00:41:02.010
happened for like Days and nights. And my dad was involved.

719
00:41:02.170 --> 00:41:06.199
So I remember. Oh, wow. They rioted for a few days.

720
00:41:06.219 --> 00:41:08.300
I remember my dad was attacked by like a dog

721
00:41:08.559 --> 00:41:13.059
in a fire. Oh, my God. And yeah, I mean,

722
00:41:13.960 --> 00:41:16.380
the Puerto Rican neighborhood was like under surveillance for a

723
00:41:16.409 --> 00:41:20.409
long time. Cultural Center of Chicago, people like me would

724
00:41:20.429 --> 00:41:21.409
get involved with them.

725
00:41:21.469 --> 00:41:26.650
And then later on, like, great. So I'm definitely going

726
00:41:26.670 --> 00:41:28.820
to add that to our list. And before I take

727
00:41:28.840 --> 00:41:30.639
it up any more of your time, thank you again

728
00:41:30.719 --> 00:41:34.320
so much for making this happen. And everyone else, make

729
00:41:34.340 --> 00:41:38.760
sure you check out someone, not someone, something followed us home.

730
00:41:38.780 --> 00:41:39.480
Thank you.

731
00:41:50.320 --> 00:41:53.320
I hope that this episode has inspired you to go

732
00:41:53.460 --> 00:41:56.829
out and check the book out. It is available September 29th,

733
00:41:58.389 --> 00:42:02.739
which will be in like five days. And again, it's

734
00:42:03.460 --> 00:42:07.960
really the perfect read for this spooky season. All right,

735
00:42:08.000 --> 00:42:10.579
stay spooky and we'll catch everyone next time.

736
00:42:11.079 --> 00:42:11.460
Bye.

737
00:42:12.280 --> 00:42:15.079
Spooky Tales is hosted by Christina and Carmen, produced and

738
00:42:15.159 --> 00:42:18.639
edited by Christina, researched by Christina, Carmen, and with the

739
00:42:18.679 --> 00:42:19.400
help of Dawn.

740
00:42:19.500 --> 00:42:20.480
Shout out, Dawn.

741
00:42:20.699 --> 00:42:23.420
If you're enjoying the podcast, consider leaving us a five-star review.

742
00:42:23.480 --> 00:42:25.320
We would really appreciate it. If you don't want to

743
00:42:25.340 --> 00:42:27.469
do a five-star review, just don't leave a review, but

744
00:42:27.489 --> 00:42:28.969
don't leave anything lower than that, please.

745
00:42:29.170 --> 00:42:29.650
I'm just kidding.

746
00:42:29.849 --> 00:42:33.369
You can reach out to the podcast at spookytales.gmail.com you

747
00:42:33.409 --> 00:42:36.289
can go to our website at spookytales.com and fill out

748
00:42:36.309 --> 00:42:38.860
the contact form if you want to support the podcast

749
00:42:38.900 --> 00:42:42.280
you can join our patreon where we send exclusive stickers

750
00:42:42.519 --> 00:42:46.269
have bonus episodes eight dollar members get an exclusive keychain

751
00:42:46.349 --> 00:42:48.329
it's super cool i you got new ones and these

752
00:42:48.409 --> 00:42:51.110
ones are huge and if you want to support but

753
00:42:51.150 --> 00:42:53.170
you can't or don't want to join the patreon that's

754
00:42:53.210 --> 00:42:56.269
fine too you can also get some merch you can

755
00:42:56.329 --> 00:42:59.849
find shirts that say espuki in old english letters there's

756
00:42:59.909 --> 00:43:02.380
a beanie i love the beanie there's also a hat

757
00:43:02.639 --> 00:43:07.360
there's a no mammoth shirt which is a fan favorite

758
00:43:07.619 --> 00:43:10.099
There's a lot of options, crop tops, sweaters. It's almost

759
00:43:10.119 --> 00:43:13.559
sweater weather. We're nearing a spooky season. So yeah, get

760
00:43:13.579 --> 00:43:15.380
your hoodies. You're going to need them. If you don't

761
00:43:15.400 --> 00:43:17.340
want to do all that, that's fine, too. You can

762
00:43:17.360 --> 00:43:19.969
just listen like you're listening now. And that's the best

763
00:43:19.989 --> 00:43:21.710
support that you can give us, like I always say

764
00:43:21.909 --> 00:43:24.409
in our ad break. And yeah, if you like history,

765
00:43:24.449 --> 00:43:28.590
you can follow Historias Unknown, mine and Carmen's other podcasts.

766
00:43:29.400 --> 00:43:31.440
And you can find Spooky Tales on all of our

767
00:43:31.460 --> 00:43:34.760
socials at Spooky Tales. All this is in the show

768
00:43:34.800 --> 00:43:38.969
notes and we appreciate every single listen. Thank you so much.

769
00:43:39.230 --> 00:43:39.789
Stay spooky.
Send a Voicemail