Interview: Michele Serros

           
             
           Talking to Michele Serros was like reading her work.  Witty, hilarious stories spewed out like they had sprung from a leak.  Her books have always felt like friends; warm, frank, endearingly eccentric, and funny.  She is all of those things.  I asked her about her newest books, what she's working on now, what she's reading and what her secret talent is (revealed later).
            Michele is an award-winning poet, a commentator for NPR and the author of How to Be A Chicana Role Model, Chicana Falsa and Other Stories of Death, Identity, and Oxnard, and most recently the Honey Blonde Chica Series.  
            Her work is used in many classrooms across the country.  Teachers are attracted to Serros' exploration of identity and her accessible prose.  Tracy Sprague, a teacher at West High School, in Torrance, CA says, “I think Serros can redefine reading for students. Reading her work will help students see reading as an activity that is connected to them, not something that needs to be connected to them.”
            Young girls approach Michele and talk about how happy they are to be able to read stories of young Latinas that they can relate to.  It makes her proud.  The Honey Blonde Chica series is certainly not a perpetuation of Latino stereotypes. “It doesn't have any drug cartels in it,” Michele says.
            I asked her what inspired the series.  Was writing young adult novels something planned or did she start writing and realize she had a y.a. series on her hands?
            “Actually it was on offer.” 
            Apparently, the people behind Gossip Girl approached her about writing them. 
            “They wanted a West Coast Latina Gossip Girl.  And even though I was burnt out on doing 'a version of,' I wanted to play around with the young adult market.”
            Michele said that the Honey Blonde Chica novels aren't quite as personal as her other works This was because they were commissioned so essentially she was writing them for other people.  For me, it was a rare peek into a successful writer's life.  To borrow from the movie world; sometimes you have to make the big, blockbuster film to fund the ones you really want to make.
            I asked her what she was working on now.
            “A pretty autobiographical...I don't want to say 'novel.'  I don't have the attention span for a novel.  It's a series of vignettes about living in New York after my divorce.” 
            Michele said she's read a lot of  New York stories that were strictly about downtown or other affluent neighborhoods.  She had lived in Washington Heights, a primarily Dominican neighborhood.  “It is funny how people assumed I'd fit in there.  I'm fourth generation Californian.”
            Writing, An Unmarried Mexican, has been therapeutic for her, though at times it may be, “painful to revisit.”  Michele was married to an recovering alcoholic and hard-rocker,  and after her divorce moved to New York.  It was an emotional time for her and writing about it has in some ways been revelatory. “I realized I was medicating myself through serial dating,” she says.
            I imagine An Unmarried Mexican will, like her other books, be playfully irreverent, well-crafted and enduring.  When asked to describe what the manuscript is like so far, Michele answers, “Not to sound cheesy, but it's sort of “Mex in the City.”  If anybody can pull that off, it's Serros.
           
            I wondered if she was consistently aware of being a Chicana role model, or felt pressure to specifically write for the Chicano market.  She told me about being interviewed for her first book.
            “A lot of questions people asked me had nothing to do with the book, but with my stance on some amendment or proposition that affected the Latino community.  I don't know.  I'm from the TV generation.”
            She retold a story about being interviewed by NPR right after comedian Paul Rodriguez.  They asked Michele how she felt about an issue and the interviewers were mightily confused.
            “Paul Rodriguez had a different view,” they said. 
            “What do I have in common with Paul Rodriguez?” Michele wonders.
           
            “I was always concerned about how I would be perceived.  That I didn't seem Chicano enough.”
            At least one reviewer felt that she wasn't.  A review once described Michele Serros as “The Taco Bell of Latina Literature.”  Recalling this, Michele laughed heartily.  She said, “You know what?  I like Taco Bell.  Sometimes you want some Taco Bell.” 
            Michele talked chalupas (haha!) for a bit before returning to talking about her writing.
            “There are so many Latinas in my generation who can't relate to Chicano lit.  We want to embrace it, but it is not necessarily our story.”
            Michele has tried to tell that story.  It is the story of Latinos who are third or fourth or higher generation Americans, who catch flak for not speaking Spanish all that well, who as kids ate as much frozen pizza as they did tamales. 
             She said that the more well-known she becomes, the harder it is to simply write what she wants to write.
            “With Chicana Falsa, I had a lot of freedom.  Because of my anonymity.  What do I have to lose? I thought, my mother just died, what else could I lose?”
            Nowadays, Michele seems more content reading her Ebay buyer/seller reviews than those about her books, lest they compare her to comedians and fast-food joints. 
            “I love Ebay.  I love when people give me five stars as an Ebay seller or buyer.  My ego is soothed.”
            Having inspired so many people, I asked what writers inspired her.  She talked about Judy Blume, Ramona the Pest and S.E. Hinton.
            “S.E. Hinton actually inspired me to have a pen name.”
            I was suddenly afraid that I hadn't done my research.  Was Michele Serros a pen name?  Was that why there was only 'L'?  Had she written a slew of other novels under a different name?
            “When I wrote poetry in high school, I wrote as Michael Hill (Michael being the masculine version of Michele and Serros or Cerros being the Spanish word for “hills”)  It was the closest thing to a white name.  It wasn't until a Mexican-American Literature class that I realized I didn't have to change my name. I was 24 or 23.  It was so embarrassing.”
            More recently, Michele has read Notes on a Scandal which she described as, “sharp and funny,” Nickel and Dimed, and Candy Girl of which she said, “I was overwhelmed by quips after awhile.”  She talked about her love for Chuck Klosterman and Hunter S. Thompson.  Referring to Thompson, she said, “I always wanted to have a crazy, traveling mate like him.” 
            “One Halloween, I saw this guy dressed as Hunter S. Thompson, and I was really into it.  I thought it was so cool.”
            She quickly discovered that the guy was a bit of a poseur.  She rattled off a list of Hunter S. Thompson books and characters, only to see the decreasingly cute fellow's face go blank. Unfortunately, she didn't ask a very important question for literature-loving women seeking like-minded guys, “You dress like Hunter S. Thompson, but how much do you know about him?”
            With all the writing and the reading and the Halloween parties, Michele Serros still has time to contribute as a commentator for National Public Radio, which she describes as a family.  When  first asked to do commentary for NPR, she said to herself, “Hey, I got something to say.” 
            “I have a lot of fun with it and I like the instant feedback.”
            She mentioned that she sometimes gets hate emails.  I wondered how someone so sweet, with a voice that conjured up only cliché-filled metaphors (e.g. buttered velvet) could ever get hate mail.
            “I make too much fun of my culture,” she explained.
            A self-professed “jokester since middle school,” Michele confessed to getting into a lot of trouble because of her humor.  Maybe that's what she has in common with Paul Rodriguez. 
            Towards the end of the interview Michele talked about being self-conscious at book-related events where the only people of color are her and the wait-staff. 
            “I can't help, but wonder what they think or if they think I'm 'all that'.”

            It is an insecurity stemming from class and color issues, something she captured perfectly in How to be a Chicana Role Model.  Michele is extremely talented at choosing and telling stories that  sum up unwieldy emotions. She told one to me over the phone. 
            After going to New York to look for an agent, she was at a family holiday dinner talking about what she was doing over there.  The scene is described in such a memorable fashion it feels like it's my story, about my family.  Everything sticks, the ham, the room, the conversations, and her dying grandmother, who can barely speak, who somehow musters up the will to say, “You...are...showing...off.”
            You wouldn't think it fair that such a talented poet and prose writer should have a secret talent, but she does.
            “I'm a whiz at decorating cakes,” she says proudly.
             With books that have been described as “funny as hell” (Las Culturas.com) with “richly, crafted stories” (L.A. Times) and armed with “the genius to create full-blooded characters in just a few sentences,” (Si Magazine) why isn't Michele Serros more famous?  She doesn't even have a Wikipedia entry, for crying out loud.  Perhaps it has to do with current generations who are even more weened on TV than she was, or the lack of proper exposure in the media or, maybe it can all boiled down to a case of mistaken identity.
            “Sometimes I get a check for a book or speaking engagement and it'll say Michele Cisneros on it.”

SHELFLIFEMAGAZINE : issue #004