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5	Calendar Outstanding events around the country. read more...

Latin Forum

Books
OUTSIDE THE LINES

The author of the graphic novel Mr. Spic Goes to Washington reveals the ideals behind the controversially titled book and tells us why he's
pushing the limit of political discourse.

By ROMINA RUIZ-GOIRIENA

Ilan Stavans is known as a man of many firsts in intellectual circles. The professor, author, PBS commentator and researcher is credited with groundbreaking studies on the uses of Spanglish and translated the fi rst chapter of the Spanish classic Don Quixote de la Mancha into that controversial language. Five years later, he promises to push the limits even further with his book Mr. Spic Goes to Washington.
The graphic novel follows the life of Samuel Patricio Inocencio Cárdenas, alias S.P.I.C., a former East L.A. gang member who makes a heroic conquest of the U.S. Senate only to suffer a tragic demise as a public fi gure. It calls upon infl uences from Stavans’ coming of age in 1970s Mexico, reading comic strips from Archie to Archie Archie Ka limán. In Mr. Spic Goes to Washington, Stavans wanted to pay tribute to those influences while also exploring Spanglish as a political tool.

“I’m fascinated with popular culture, always looking for ways to decode it,” says Stavans, a long-time cultural commentator and Amherst college professor in Latin American and Latino Culture.

Inspired by the 1939 film Mr. Smith goes to Washington, he hopes
to mirror the fi lm’s aim of speaking honestly about politics. His intention was “to reimagine Frank Capra’s movie in the context of the multi-ethnic America of the 21st century, an America where Latinos are yet to seize their own destiny,” says the author.

With such a hopeful goal, why use a derogatory term as an acronym for the main character’s initials? Stavans says the context is “a mere social convention ... The novel seeks to turn the nastiness infused in the term upside out.” This, it seems, is part of a trend. As such insults are adopted by the groups they were intended to offend, they lose their power However, as the book points out, not all is well in intercultural relations. For the fi rst time in American history, an African American could be president of the United States and at the same time, though seemingly paradoxically, anti-Hispanic sentiment is at an all time high.

“To be to be mexicano in the United States these days is to be the target of endless harassment,” Stavans says. “On the other hand, the U.S. Census Bureau recently announced that minorities will become a majority nationwide around 2045. Corporations realize that Latinos are a huge portion of the market. They say: We want your money! Mr. Spic Goes to Washington speaks to this bifurcated, hypocritical attitude.”

This novel, too, pulls double duty. It doesn’t relay a simplistic message of one man’s efforts to change the political system. Instead it illustrates Latino leaders like César Chavez and Lolita Lebrón, and in the same breath explores Mr. Spic’s past as a gang member, revealing complex moral dilemma and showing both the ugly side of American politics and a seedy side of the Latino struggle.

Stavans’ book makes a statement about the nature of politics, which he describes as the art of looking good while playing dirty, but Latino politics in the United States aren’t better,” he says.
The issues Mr. Spic faces hit home for Stavans, who says that his experience as a Mexican Jewish immigrant has tremendously infl uenced his work. Mr. Spic could very well be Stavans’ alter ego.

His work isn’t limited to self-reflection, and another novel isn’t out of the question, he says. “I’d like to do one about an American female superhero called La Tortillera in [Mexico's border town] Ciudad Juárez.” With a reputation as “an exuberant border crosser, an infl uential fi gure, and a virtuoso critic” according to The Los Angeles Times and The New York Times, it is expected that Stavans will continue his tongue-in-cheek work turning issues topsy-turvy.