Jenny Torres Sanchez writes poignant contemporaries young adult novels, usually centering Latinx teens who aren’t perhaps going through the best times. After learning of The Fall of Innocence, a YA focusing on a Latina recovering from the effects of a violent assault, I wanted to know more about Jenny’s work and what attracts her to writing stories about “difficult” topics.
You’ve never been afraid of tackling darker themes in your books like grief, depression, trauma, immigration… Why do you believe it’s important for young adults, particularly Latinx young adults, to find these topics represented in their literature?
I want those who have dealt with or are dealing with these kinds of situations to know they’re not alone. And for those who have not, to step out of their reality and know people do go through these things. Stepping outside of our existence, seeing the world from more than our own perspective is what fosters empathy and understanding and ultimately, that’s what I want my books to do. I’m also a big believer of not glossing over or minimizing things that must be dealt with. I don’t believe in pretending things that are hard to deal with don’t exist. And listen, teenagers are so damn smart and hate to be lied to. They don’t deserve to be lied to and I refuse to lie to them.
I think it’s particularly important for Latinx young adults to see these topics represented because many times trauma, depression, grief, dysfunction, are not openly discussed in Latinx households. It wasn’t in mine. Serious topics like these were completely dismissed or treated with dark humor. My parents had rough childhoods, and then suffered the hardships of immigration alone as young adults (my mother emigrated to the United States alone from Guatemala at seventeen years old, my father alone from El Salvador at nineteen). I think my parents thought of survival in very literal terms. Anything not obviously killing us was not a true hardship or threat, something trivial. I think that’s the case for many Latinx youth and children of immigrants. So I definitely think they need books that portray these things as serious topics—ones that must be treated and acknowledged because they are absolutely essential to our survival and well-being.
How do you come up with your story ideas? How do you decide which to develop and which to put in the back burner?
It starts with characters for me. I usually see a vague image of someone in my mind and I start trying to figure out their story. I might know immediately that they’re dealing with a dysfunctional family, or I might know right away that they’re grieving. But I don’t know the specifics yet, and they just kind of hang out in my mind while I try to figure out what they’re going through. If they’re not ready to talk, I put the story in the back of my mind. Usually though, they come back somehow. For example, Because Of the Sun started as a short story I never finished when I was about twenty years old. But that character, Dani, and her mom hung out in my head for about twenty years. When they were ready, when that story was ready to be written, they started tugging at me until I wrote it.
There are so many things happening in the world that it’s difficult to tune out and create in a vacuum. And yet, there are people who say that politics shouldn’t be in books. When our bodies are heavily politicized, do you believe in the possibility to separate fact from fiction in terms of politics?
Art is and has always been political. It doesn’t mean artists must make political statements in all they create, but absolutely art will always be a way to be political. And it should. It’s a way to bring light to what is going on in the world. Art is powerful and has the ability to inspire and bring about change. To believe politics has no place in art, that art is only meant to be beautiful, is a great disservice to art. And the world.
I also think it’s pretty impossible for any artist to not be moved by what’s going on around us politically—politics affect lives. And for me, writing is about the human experience. So I’m glad when there’s a surge of artists creating things that are also social commentaries. It means the darkness of the world is being brought to light and we are being asked to look at it and address it.
You have free reins to collab with another Latinx creative and they’re free and on board as well, who are you picking and what are you making?
I’m a huge fan of Yuyi Morales. I adore her art and writing—it’s so stunning and beautiful. I’d work on anything with her. I also love Guadalupe García McCall, Zoraida Córdova, Lilliam Rivera, and Mia García. Anything with these hermanas that would let us delve into a world of magical realism would be amazing.
How does your identity affect your writing?
I’m a first generation Latina born and raised in the United States with very traditional parents. I’m a kid who spent half my childhood in New York and then moved to the south for the second half of my childhood. I’m a brown kid who loved alternative, new wave, punk, and heavy metal music. My whole life has felt like a kind of duality—opposing forces that were both equally a part of me that and I needed to merge together. So I’m used to living a sort of conflicting experience and I think my books often convey a sense of duality and opposing forces. There’s a lot of that in my books—the beautiful alongside the ugly, love alongside hate, goodness alongside cruelty, despair alongside hope. I love seeing conflicting things like that together. For me, the juxtaposition of it all makes for intriguing characters and stories.
Who do you write for?
I write for anyone who isn’t afraid to look at those things that are difficult while also searching for hope, no matter how small or slight that hope may seem. I think teenagers are the ones most open to that kind of sensibility.
Shoutout a Latinx writer or creator whom you admire!
There are so many in addition to the ones I mentioned above, but especially and forever and ever Sandra Cisneros, Ada Limón, and Erika L. Sánchez.
Anything else you can share about your upcoming projects?
As of right now, my next book is known as IN EXILE, but it has a secret (and perfect) title. It’s a book about three Guatemalan teenagers making the treacherous journey to the United States on La Bestia—the death train that travels through Mexico to the US/Mexican border. It’s a book about journeys and survival and the truth of many Central American teens. It’s about hope and refusing to give up. It’s about being breaking apart and trying to stay whole. It’s gut-wrenching and hopeful and I hope it sheds light on the dark reality of many migrants seeking refuge right now. I can’t wait to share the new title and cover. And I really can’t wait for you all to meet Pulga, Pequeña, and Chico.
Jenny’s latest, The Fall of Innocence, is available right now, as are the rest of her books (Because of the Sun, Death, Dickinson, and the Demented Life of Frenchie Garcia, & The Downside of Being Charlie)!
You can add her upcoming book, In Exile, on Goodreads now and follow Jenny on Twitter and Instagram!
Jenny Torres Sanchez
JENNY TORRES SANCHEZ is a full-time writer and former English teacher. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, but has lived on the border of two worlds her whole life. She lives in Orlando, Florida, with her husband and children.