(C) El Paso Matters.org This story was originally published by El Paso Matters.org and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Q&A with ‘The Last Philosopher in Texas’ author Daniel Chacón [1] ['Cindy Ramirez', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width', 'Vertical-Align Bottom .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Vertical-Align Middle .Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar Is .Alignleft .Alignright'] Date: 2024-05-29 “Nepantla” is the word for “in between” in Nahuatl, the Aztec language. And it’s there that El Paso author and creative writing professor Daniel Chacón likes to live – in between physical and metaphysical borders that frame his work into what some call magical realism. “But I think if I had to use a term for the stories I write, it would be Nepantla Realism,” said Chacón, whose latest collection of short fiction stories blend both worlds. His book, “The Last Philosopher in Texas: Fictions and Superstitions,” is the latest pick of the El Paso Matters Book Club. El Paso Matters talked with the author about his book, his inspiration and aspirations, and why we sometimes ask ourselves, “Am I the dreamer or the dreamed?” El Paso Matters: For those who aren’t as familiar with you, can you tell us a little bit about yourself? Chacón: I’m a professor of creative writing at UTEP, a writer who has spent much of his life hopping around from obsession to obsession, live theater, political science, the Bible, mysticism, neuroscience, etc. I’ve also spent a lot of my life hoping around the world, China, Poland, Cuba, Argentina, Iowa, USA. This hopping made me the writer I am today, so even though my monkey brain might hop from branch to branch, when I write, I’m in my element. My work has been called magical realism, but I think if I had to use a term for the stories I write, it would be Nepantla Realism, the Nahuatl word for “in between.” We are not just in between physical borders, but metaphysical borders as well. El Paso Matters: What are some key themes you would like readers, particularly El Pasoans, to take away from your book? Chacón: Superstition and magic. I don’t care how scientific somebody is, how logical, how rational, how much they reject faith-based systems, there’s always room for a little magic in our lives. We think of somebody we haven’t thought of in years, and suddenly they call on the phone. Or we need money, desperately, and out of our mailbox we pull out an unexpected check. El Paso Matters: What’s your favorite line in the book and why? Chacón: “Am I the dreamer or the dreamed?” Sometimes when we write, we enter so deeply into our fictional worlds that we forget we’re writing and lose track of time. We look up and see we’ve been at it for hours. And when we spend hours in the imaginary realm and then come back to the physical one, the landscape has changed. If you’re writing about a father and a daughter, when you leave the story and enter into the city, you’ll see fathers and daughters everywhere – driving in cars, in line at grocery stores, walking in a park. It’s as if the real world wants to keep the story moving. Sometimes you have to ask yourself, “Am I the dreamer? The one writing a character? Or am I the dreamed?” See Also Q&A with ‘Trash’ author Sylvia Aguilar Zéleny A novel set in the Juárez landfill is the latest El Paso Matters Book Club selection. El Paso Matters: Some of your books and writings deal with El Paso, immigrants, Hispanic culture and growing up in a binational region. What is the key to keeping readers who are not from the area interested in these topics? Chacón: Although it’s true that I write about immigrants and the Latinx experience, I don’t write about them as topics, per se. In fact, I consciously avoid trying to write about topics. But being a Chicanx writer, being the descendent of immigrants, has clearly nuanced the topics that emerge from the stories in “The Last Philosopher” – things like serendipity and superstition. Whatever topics emerge are filtered through who I am. Daniel Chacón, a writer, professor and radio show host, is the author of El Paso Matters Book Club pick “The Last Philosopher in Texas.” (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters) El Paso Matters: What is something unique about El Paso/Juárez, the border or the Southwest region that inspired or is portrayed in your book? Chacón: El Paso is the Ellis Island of the Chicanx experience. You can go all over this country and look for Mexican immigrants and the children of immigrants and many of them have passed through Ciudad Juárez and El Paso. The energy that flows through the border is largely desire. The desire for desert plants to live, for the lilith that crawl on the desert ground to thrive, the lizards and spiders, the desire of deer for water, who will deny their fear and come down from the mountains and jump into our backyards to drink from our faucets; the desire to make a decent living, to feed your family no matter what you have to do. I hope the desire of our twin cities makes its way into the stories I write. El Paso Matters: As an author, what do you make of the national debate regarding the censorship of books at school libraries? Chacón: Censorship of books, especially Latinx books, is a patriarchal attempt to deny us our voices and intuitions, which often call out for justice. For generations, intuition has been the enemy of dominant systems. Women who have understood the movement of the planets, our first cosmologists, were called witches because their intuitions didn’t reconcile with doctrine. Of course, they want to ban our books. We’re a threat to their oppressive version of reality. See Also Q&A with ‘¡Ándale, Prieta!’ author Yasmín Ramírez ‘¡Ándale, Prieta!’ tells of the relationship between the author and her grandmother, Ita. It also speaks to embracing your roots – and your nickname rooted in love and on the color of your skin. El Paso Matters: What’s next for you? Any upcoming projects or aspirations? Chacón: In my next book, I’m taking many of my obsessions from my past lives, mysticism, brain science, psychology, etc., and tying them together in a single book – a hybrid of metaphysics and memoir, tentatively entitled “Nepantla Realism.” I’m focusing on consciousness and creativity. It’s under contract, and I have more than half of it written, but I’m really enjoying the research. “Geeking out,” as the kids say. El Paso Matters: Can you recommend three books by local authors for our readers? Chacón: “You” by Rosa Alcalá; “Trash” by Silvia Aguilar; and the new book coming from Tim Z. Hernandez, “They Call You Back.” [END] --- [1] Url: https://elpasomatters.org/2024/05/29/daniel-chacon-el-paso-matters-book-club-last-philosopher-in-texas/ Published and (C) by El Paso Matters.org Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND 4.0 International. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/elpasomatters/