and Jane Link

Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa is a veteran of historical fiction whose pioneering work has put Afro-Latinx history on the literary map. In this interview, this unique author tells us more about the power of historical fiction and its demands on the writing process.

Your 2009 novel, Daughters of the Stone, is a multigenerational, archive-based work of historical fiction that seeks to repair the ruptures of colonial history in the New World, specifically Puerto Rico. Why do you think historical fiction is an effective genre for us?

I love the African proverb “you’ll never know what happened on the hunt until you speak to the lion.” I think many readers realize that, for the most part, the story we have gotten has been from the perspective of the conquerors. That is why is it so important for us to tell our own stories. What we have been taught has been distorted, one-sided, self-serving, and incomplete, at best. I think readers are thirsty for another narrative, one that feels more authentic and truthful.

What inspires you and who influenced you?

I’m inspired by the stories of the elders and the ancestors. I sat in doorways and shadows listening to my grandmother and her friends talk about ‘the old days’, and I soaked it up. I couldn’t have known back then that those stories were the foundation for my writing career. I still seek the narratives of the oldest folks I can find to feed my need to know what came before.

In your author’s note, you mention having done a lot of research and archival digging in preparation for this novel, which some have called near-autobiographical. How did you balance research with imagination?

I began with the stories of the elders and then went to more traditional research methods. Oral histories were a great source of day-to-day information: I interviewed archivists, scholars, architects, archaeologists, and historians. I visited restored plantations and hacienda ruins. And always, always tempered the historical record with personal narratives. The picture presented by archives kept by the owners of those plantations is different radically to the oral histories. I learned to read between the lines. I learned to read what was omitted.

I sat in doorways and shadows listening to my grandmother and her friends talk about ‘the old days’, and I soaked it up.

While the nature of Fela’s historic debt to Mother Oshun seems unclear, the ways in which Mati’s supernatural powers operate are also hard to grasp. Some might attribute these shadows to archival gaps, and others to the genre of magical realism. How would you characterise your approach to narrative conventions?

I trust my readers to make the connections that interest them. I am a fiction writer and therefore, I have a lot of latitude. I can bend time, moving historical events like natural disasters from one decade to another, in the service of my narrative. Some interpret my work as being grounded in the Latin American school of magical realism. That’s fine. Practitioners of traditional African religions recognize themselves in the symbology of my work. That’s fine too.

Many have criticised the publishing industry’s preference for stories of our trauma. Why do you think it is so important to engage with our history, no matter how discomforting?

We need to keep telling this story, and many others, because they explain who and how and why we are here today. The problematic part of these stories is not that we have had centuries of suffering and trauma. The problem is that the storytellers, usually not us, have told only half of the tale. Yes, we have been enslaved, abused, and violated. But, more importantly, we have, not just survived, not just endured, but thrived. We found a way where there was no way. We need to hear the lion’s story.

We have, not just survived, not just endured, but thrived. We found a way where there was no way.

DAHLMA LLANOS-FIGUEROA was born in Puerto Rico and raised in New York City. She is a product of the Puerto Rican communities on the island and in the South Bronx. She attended the New York City public school system and received her academic degrees from SUNY at Buffalo and Queens College(CUNY). As a child she was sent to live with her grandparents in Puerto Rico where she was introduced to the culture of rural Puerto Rico, including the storytelling that came naturally to the women in her family, especially the older women. Much of her work is based on her experiences during this time. Find her on Twitter and on her website.

JANE LINK is the founder of bigblackbooks. She is also a publishing professional holding two master’s in literature from The University of Edinburgh and SOAS. Find her on Twitter @verybookishjane.