Palacio Podcast
For writer liz gonzález, a Taco Best Describes her Creative Self
Long Beach-based writer liz gonzález has a simple and surprising answer when you ask her to describe her creative self. “Taco.” It took me a second to absorb her answer. “Taco?” I asked.
“The taco with, of course, my culture Mexican…and it would be a vegetarian taco with pinto beans de la olla…and then with some other things that aren’t considered Mexican.”
liz gonzález
It was these deep, often funny, insights that come across in a conversation with liz gonzález, a fourth generation Southern Californian. gonzález grew up in the San Bernardino Valley with her mother and grandparents. Her father died when she was three and her mother moved in her mother and father. In her writing and the conversation with liz gonzález, it’s obvious that her grandmother played a large role in her life.
“My grandmother started babysitting me since I was born. During my elementary school years, we all moved into a house together, the house that my mom bought. My grandparents moved in…and so my grandmother was my mother…she was my second mother.”
The affection for her grandmother is obvious in some of the poems from liz gonzález in her new book, Dancing in the Santa Ana Winds: Poems y Cuentos New and Selected from Los Nietos Press.
liz gonzález sat down with PalacioMagazine.com at the Michelle Obama Public Library in north Long Beach to talk about her family, life in the San Bernardino Valley, the easy and hard parts of writing, and share some of her poetry from Dancing in the Santa Ana Winds.
Excerpt from Dancing in the Santa Ana Winds by liz gonzález
Jovencitos and viejos circle her
Their hands reaching out in request
Cumbia? Salsa?
A little cha-cha-cha?
She rules the Crescendo dance hall
Down with more than moves
She’s got attitude
That never-make-eye-contact
head swivel,
adamant right arm v slope,
and hips—
chiquito swish side to side
Her body whispers a secret
The other mujeres sit
and watch
and wait
as she twirls by in gold
flecked pink chiffon
Puts family women to shame
Pray they’ll look so good
when they reach 83
with knee arthritis
Her chongo remains
raven black
She sways floor-boards
’til the band’s
last cumbia
Go girl, Grandma
From lizgonzalez.com
liz gonzález writes poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, and her work has been published widely. Her work will appear or recently appeared in Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California, Inlandia: San Bernardino, the City of Los Angeles 2017 Latino Heritage Month Calendar and Cultural Guide, Litbreak Magazine, Cultural Weekly, Voices from Leimert Park Anthology Redux, The Coiled Serpent: Poets Arising from the Cultural Quakes and Shifts of Los Angeles, and Wide Awake: The Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond. liz gonzález is the author of the limited edition poetry collection Beneath Bone (Manifest Press 2000).
Recent awards include a 2017 Residency at Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, a 2017 Arts Council for Long Beach Professional Development Microgrant, and a 2016 Incite / Insight Award from the Arts Council for Long Beach for her work through Uptown Word & Arts. Past awards include a 2014 Irvine Fellowship at the Lucas Artists Residency Program at the Montalvo Arts Center, several Arroyo Art Collective’s Poetry in the Windows awards, a Macondo Foundation Casa Azul Writers Residency, a residency at Hedgebrook: A Retreat for Women Writers, an Arts Council for Long Beach Professional Artist Fellowship, and a fiction writers grant from The Elizabeth George Foundation.
liz gonzález directs Uptown Word & Arts, promoting literacy and the arts in North Long Beach and beyond since 2015; is a member of Macondo Writers Workshop; and serves on the Macondo 2018 Ad Hoc Advisory Board. She is a creative writing instructor for the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program.
