Fernanda Melchor: "I had to write the story behind the crime" | Books | '
"Cyclone Season", first published in Mexico in 2017 as "Temporada de huracanes", is set in a world of violence and superstition. La Matosa is the name of the village in the dry coastal hinterland of Veracruz, where the murder of a woman, all known only as a "witch", leads to a many-voiced Sodom and Gomorrah.
‘: What message was it that made you research the stuff for your novel?
Fernanda Melchor: After studying journalism in Veracruz, I worked in the public relations office of my university. There I read every day in the local newspapers all the reports of violent crime in this area. From 2009 to 2013, many crimes were reported with passion or a misconception of love. And then I saw this message about a woman who had been found dead in a small village in the canal.
The journalist wrote that this crime was motivated by witchcraft. It read as if it were something completely natural. The killer killed the woman because she wanted to make him fall in love with her through witchcraft. This information captured me and did not let me go. I had to write about the story behind this crime.
Did you think of a novel from the start?
Actually, I wanted to research locally, but in these small villages, the Narcos hid to handle their drug trafficking. I would have noticed immediately if I had asked questions there. I did not want to put myself in danger. So I consoled myself by saying that I could be telling something as interesting as fictitiously exposing myself to the inner lives of those who committed this crime.
Shopping street of a mexican small town
They have written about violence against women, women trapped in a life of poverty, perverse sexuality and superstition. To what extent does this reflect the reality of Mexican society?
The Mexican society is very diverse. But it is true that there is a perverse inequality that leads to really dark and dangerous circumstances and causes crime. I wanted nothing more than to show what can happen in a very small place, forgotten by the state and society. What happens to people nobody cares about.
Is Mexico in your perception on the way to the abyss?
I would like to draw a more optimistic picture. So many things go wrong in Mexico, especially how unfair the wealth is distributed. Millions of people simply have nothing, many young people have no future because they have no opportunity to escape from their misery.
Where are love and friendship in your novel? Is there no room for empathy?
There's bound to be love and friendship in the fictional village of La Matosa, but the characters in my novel are trapped in a vicious circle. Each of these protagonists is looking for love, but since they have never been given any, they do not know what love is. They confuse them with greed, gratitude or desire. It's hard to seek love when you're about to drown, on the verge of losing everything, even your own sanity. I think they confuse everything, but I have always thought that "Hurricane Season" was always a novel about love.
The people who represent the state, police, a social worker, politicians, are either brutal, heartless or corrupt. Where is the state?
He is absent, as in so many ways in Mexico. For example, if a woman in Mexico is raped or sexually abused, and she wants to bring it to justice, it means she is being victimized a second time. Mexico has the highest rate of teenage pregnancies in the world. There is no right to abortion. You can do it at most in Mexico City, but then you have to pay for it yourself. In the character of the 13-year-old Norma I wanted to tell about it.
Prostitution in Mexico
They tell in a very fast rhythm and follow the thoughts and images in the minds of their protagonists without ever pausing. They reproduce the extremely vulgar language of their characters in a highly artistic way. How did you find your narrative perspective and this breathless language?
I believe that three-quarters of my work on this novel was to find that voice. As I started to write, over time I heard the voices of the different characters telling me their story. But I did not want the book to be just a collection of testimonies, it should be a unit. That's why a friend advised me to read Gabriel García Márquez's "Autumn of the Patriarch" at exactly the right moment. A book that has a narrative perspective that came very close to what I was looking for. So I tried to find a narrative voice that should be in and out of the characters at the same time. And an alternate sequence of voices telling their story – and like the game Silent Post, the story changed every time.
There is much talk of witchcraft and magical apparitions in your book, but it is not a novel of magical realism. Would not that have worked well?
I think it was a Mexican journalist who told me, "You're writing a nightmarish realism." Of course, I grew up with García Márquez, and I've read a lot of horror stories, Stephen King's novels for example. I myself do not believe in supernatural things, but I am aware that many people in Mexico, especially in the Veracruz area, believe in spiritual things, or even UFOs.
I wanted to portray this strange form of spirituality that I find very interesting in my novel. The described rituals are actually those of the witches in Veracruz.
How was your novel recorded in Mexico?
Very good, especially from young people. And that is something special, because it means that it ties in with something that touches young people. For a literary book, he has sold very well with 15,000 copies so far.
For journalists, life in Mexico is often dangerous, there were many journalist murders. Are you sometimes afraid?
I no longer work as a journalist, and writing books is not so dangerous, because one is much less the center of attention than Investigative Reporter. I therefore believe that apart from the daily danger that all the citizens of Mexico live with, I am safe.
What does the International Literature Prize mean for you?
I am truly honored and grateful. When I learned that "Season of Hurricanes should be translated into German, I was wondering how that worked, and then the publisher told me that Angelica Ammar was an excellent translator and I could count on her.
The award-winning German translation by Angelica Ammar
I feel less alone in Germany now. The price means that more people will be interested in my book. And maybe they'll find a way to relate what's happening to the characters in my book to their own lives. Because, let's be honest, even if you live in a privileged country, you sometimes have problems and are depressed.
Having a book in one language is like fighting alone. Now, with the German translation next to those in other languages, it seems to me that I have more and more company.
Fernanda Melchor, born 1982 in Veracruz, Mexico, worked as a journalist and published short stories and reports. "Hurricane season is her second novel, awarded by PEN Mexico for her outstanding literary and journalistic achievements in 2018. She received the Anna Seghers Prize in 2019. On June 18, 2019, she and her German translator Angelica Ammar were from the Berliner Haus of the world's cultures was honored with the International Literary Prize.
Fernanda Melchor: Hurricane season. Novel. From the Spanish by Angelica Ammar. Publisher Klaus Wagenbach, Berlin 2019. 240 pages
The interview was led by Sabine Peschel.
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