THE MAGIC TOUCH

The Magic Touch

By NANCY REDWINE

CUIDAD LOS ANGELES

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Jamie Martinez-Wood mixes spells, drama, and growing pains

She writes about magic, but not the abracadabra kind, nor anything like what the sexy witches on Charmed would have you believe. Jamie Martinez-Wood’s brand of magia is earthy and rooted in her Latina heritage. She’s written many books on the subject, as well as a textbook with more than 100 biographical essays called Latino Writers and Journalists, which earned her a 2008 International Latino Book Award. At a time when Latina authors are just beginning to get the attention they deserve in the publishing world, Martinez-Wood stands out as a writer who focuses on what she loves, rather than what the publishers want Latinas to write about. In her new book, Rogelia’s House of Magic (Delacorte Press) Martinez-Wood explores a world of magic as three teenage girls spend a summer full of spells, drama, and growing pains (no, Kirk Cameron does not make a cameo). Here she discusses her new book and the magic that inspires her.—Ileanna Portillo

Where did you get the idea for the relationship between the protagonist, Marina, and her mother, an arrogant and pushy woman?

I think all Latina mothers are something like Marina’s mother.

Did you have a mother like that?

Totally! I actually had to tone Marina’s mother down. My first editor, who grew up in New York, said, “This is child abuse!” I’m like, “No, it’s just life in the 1980s with a Mexican mother.” I called her Juanita Crawford. She was so bad! My mom’s maiden name is Martinez, and when I took her maiden name she scoffed. She grew up having friends who couldn’t hang out with her because she was Hispanic.

So she thought you were doing yourself a disservice?

I think so. It also made her uncomfortable, maybe because she knew she wasn’t embracing [her Latin heritage]? I don’t know.

How is the relationship with your mom now?

I think you get to a point where you begin to accept [your parents] as human beings, as flawed human beings, as we all are. And who knows you better than your daughter? I can look at her inside out. But as a Latina, you can’t just let her go. My white friends ask me, Why do you have to call her back? You just have to!

Tell me about how you became a writer.

This is my first novel, but I’ve been an author for eight years. I quit work in 1997, when my first son was born. Before that I worked in the corporate world. I would get in trouble for not wearing the proper clothes. I wasn’t uptight enough for them. So I decided I was done with that, and I became a massage therapist. While I was building up that business, I found out an editor was looking for someone to write The Wicca Cookbook. I wouldn’t have called myself Wicca before that, but I was interested in that kind of thing because of my family. My mom never felt welcome in the Catholic Church, but she retained the parts of it she loved, like the saints and the rituals. Also, I never met my grandmother—like Marina in the novel—and I connected to her through a photo. My other grandmother was a tarot card reader, and from her I learned how to connect to the spirit world. In the novel, my two grandmothers inspired the character of Rogelia.

What are you working on right now?

I’m going to follow the novel route as far as it will take me. I have two ideas for books. I set up Rogelia’s House of Magic as a series based on the seasons. This book takes place in the summer, and, magically speaking, the season has to do with your life force, your drive, and power. That’s why the underlying theme of this book is to discover your gift and have the courage to share it with others. The next book will be set in the fall, which corresponds with water, emotions, and adaptability. Marina is going to try and open a MECha school. Xochitl starts school in America for the first time since leaving her home in Mexico. Fern has a relationship with a boy that she will have to deal with. I plan to take them through a whole year by the seasons.

What about the girls’ names? Do they have specific meaning?

Marina is water. Fern Fuego is fire. Xochitl is flower.

This is a young-adult novel. What do you want your readers to take away from the three girls’ stories?

I want young women to know there is something unique about them and this uniqueness is essential to the world. They have the job to cultivate the gift or talent that is in each of them and to find people who support it. This is important because I do get a lot of teen writers or readers who are so full of self-doubt. I would say self-doubt is the main antagonist in this book.

How did you research for the novel?

It’s set in Santa Ana, so I took a bus into downtown and walked around to get a feel for it. Walking to the bus stop I saw a monarch butterfly that had just died, and it had its wings closed. I picked it up and kept it. When the book came out I saw the cover art that was chosen. The butterfly I picked up on the street fit perfectly over the butterfly on the cover of the book. To me, magic is all about serendipity.

So the Hollywood version of magic is misleading?

Yes. I’m not going to make this pen fly across the room. But I can welcome the four directions and stay connected to Mother Earth and to other people.

$16. www.amazon.com.

Riverside native Ileanna Portillo is at student at Mount St. Mary’s, where she serves as editor-in-chief of the campus literary magazine.

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If you would like a press kit, please send request to maito:Jamie@jamiewood.com