Safiya Sinclair Talks to Erika L. Sánchez About Her Debut, Lessons on Expulsion

Erika L. Sánchez speaks Safiya Sinclair's language, says the latter in an interview at Lit Hub that explores Sánchez's debut collection, Lessons on Expulsion (Graywolf, 2017). "Here the tongue divides across countries, across centuries and continents, but in this painful forking Sánchez also finds the source of her immense power. Herself behind herself, concealed." From their conversation:

SS: So the present here is a deep mourning—a loss of language, a culture that widens the divide between you and history, you and your country, you and your family. “With your hybrid mouth, your split tongue.” How did you embody or embrace this mourning?

ELS: There’s a line by Gloria Anzaldúa: “this is her home / this thin edge of barb wire,” which encapsulates my reality as the daughter of Mexican immigrants. It’s a common story, the feeling of dislocation. We don’t belong to either culture. As I’ve grown older, instead of feeling resentful and frustrated, I’ve learned to make a home of this place. I have an accent in both languages, for instance, and that’s ok. However, I do mourn the inevitable loss of my Mexican culture. No matter how much I want to cling to certain aspects of it, my children will not experience it as I did. I suppose the book is both a way to explore the liminal space I’ve occupied and a way to preserve this very specific American experience. In a sense, I had to leave home to have perspective and better understand it. I also very much lament what the drug wars have done to Mexico. It has changed the landscape, instilled fear, and destroyed populations. It’s completely transformed since I was a child. Back then our hometown in Mexico felt like an idyllic place. Now people are afraid to be out after dark.

SS: I love the unapologetic way you write about the body—about female sexuality, desire, guilt, and the shadow of patriarchal shame around these themes. How vital was tackling these issues in the poems, especially as a woman of color?

ELS: Thank you. That is actually one of the many things I loved about your collection as well. “Center of the World” is one of my favorite poems of all time, and most recently the poem “Hymen Elegy” in Granta kicked me in the heart. I think we have similar experiences. I grew up feeling great shame about my body. I believe this internalized misogyny comes from many places. The virgin-whore dichotomy, for example, is deeply rooted in Latin American culture as a result of colonialism. This is not to say it was a heyday for women before the conquest—most indigenous civilizations also subjugated women—but Catholicism brought its own brand of patriarchy. The veneration of the virgen de Guadalupe really facilitated the hatred of women as sexual beings.

Find the full interview at Lit Hub.