Kimberly Monserrat Vazquez

For as long as I have been able to use my hands, I have always been a writer. I first began with writing the typical romance, but then I delved deeply within myself, finding that I had millions of stories about my hometown and my Mexican American identity—and I’ve been writing about that ever since, in both fiction and nonfiction, in both English and Spanish.

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My hometown is an incredibly intimate topic for me; for this reason, I am currently writing a fiction novel-in-stories which details the interconnected lives of characters living within a growing border town. How is division enforced within a border town? How do people grow in an environment that, although is majority Mexican/Mexican American, discriminates on class and legal status? These are all questions explored within my novel-in-stories.

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In addition to my creative writing, I am also a journalist and an editor; I report on social issues and write opinion pieces because if there is one thing I am guaranteed to do is speak my mind. Of course, I love arts and culture so I report on that as well, mainly focusing on theater. I do all of this in both English and Spanish, of course, because bilingualism is the future: Spanish and English are opening many doors.

 

As for my writing process, that hasn’t always come easy to me. However, similar to Carmen Maria Machado’s writing method, I find being connected spiritually and physically to my body a major component in my writing process. I am not a brain in a jar—I am a human being with arms and legs and a heart and eyes and hands. I am whole when I exist within myself. I write because I can. I wish I had a profound answer to this, but I simply don’t. I like writing. I think it’s an important art form, so I write. As a bilingual woman, I am lucky enough to be able to write in two languages. I will write until I am no longer able to use my hands. But even then, I’ll still be writing, even if I have to use my tongue to press the keys or to hold a pencil.