Interview with Tita Ramírez
Tita Ramírez grew up in Miami, the daughter of a Cuban exile and a Kentucky native. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in LitHub, The Normal School, Black Warrior Review, and elsewhere. She currently lives in North Carolina with her husband and their two sons, and teaches creative writing at Elon University. Tell It to Me Singing is her debut novel.
To find out more about Tita Ramírez, visit her author page. DOVALPAGE: What was the initial spark, the inspiration for Tell It to Me Singing? RAMÍREZ: Tell It to Me Singing began as a short story about a young woman named Mónica who works at a dermatologist’s office in Miami and just found out she’s pregnant with her boyfriend’s baby. The character was based loosely off of a young woman named Mónica who worked with me at a dermatologist’s office many years ago. I published the story and thought I was done, but I couldn’t stop thinking about Mónica, or her family, especially her mother, who had played a small role in the story, but was taking on a larger role in my head. So I kept writing and soon realized I was writing my first novel! DOVALPAGE: I am happy you kept writing because by the time I finished the book, Mónica felt like a friend. And why the unusual title? How did you decide on it? RAMÍREZ: “Tell it to me singing” is the English translation of the phrase “Dímelo cantando,” which many Cuban people use as a funny way to answer the telephone or just greet each other on the street. (Fun fact: it may have originated from a 1940’s Cuban television program!) In Tell It to Me Singing, the main character, Mónica and her ex-boyfriend, Manny, used to answer the phone that way with each other. Instead of saying “Dímelo cantando,” however, they said it in English: “Tell it to me singing.” As for making it the title, well, it’s a classic Cuban phrase that I knew would catch the attention of any Cuban or Cuban-American readers (or any Latine readers in general, really), but it also points directly to the theme of storytelling, which is quite strong in the novel. At one point, Mónica, seeking answers about her mother’s increasingly murky and secret-filled past, says, “Mom, start from the beginning, and tell me everything.” |
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DOVALPAGE: The title certainly caught my attention. How do you see your work within the Cuban American literary tradition? Do you consider yourself as part of a literary movement?
RAMÍREZ: I admit that, as debut author, it’s hard to see myself as part of any kind of movement (unless you count the small but growing group of late(r)-in-life debut authors, of which there have been several over the last few years). However, I do see my novel as part of a larger collage of stories about Cubans, Cuban-Americans, and Miami, and hopefully in some part in conversation with the work of other writers like Jennine Capó-Crucet, Cristina García, Oscar Hijuelos, and Gabriela García.
DOVALPAGE: I think you are very much there. Por seguro. In our panel at the Miami Book Fair, you mentioned that it took you several years to complete the novel. What would you like to share about your creative process? Did you do a lot of research about life in Cuba?
RAMÍREZ: Yes, a ton. Most of it was about the anti-Castro movement. I knew, from talking with my father, and reading up on The Bay of Pigs, etc., that there had been a robust counter-revolutionary (a.k.a. resistance) movement in the years immediately following Fidel Castro’s takeover of the country (in the early-to-mid 1960s). However, the parts of my book that take place in Cuba happen about ten years after that, in the mid-to-late 70s, and I wasn’t clear about whether there was still counter-revolutionary activity happening then (spoiler alert: there was!). I also needed to learn about the anti-Castro groups that had formed in the U.S. and were at work primarily in Miami and New Jersey, so I did a lot of research on them. Much of it never made it into the novel, but I found the material so fascinating that I would lose days on the internet, reading old newspaper articles or now-opened CIA files, etc. Overall, my process was one of getting lost in the research, then writing a little, in between teaching my classes and parenting my kids. I have two boys who were born right around the time I started this book, so I’ve written parts of the book on the playground after school, during the kids’ naps, at night once they’re asleep, etc.
DOVALPAGE: All the parts about Cuba read as if the narrator had been there! Ay, it must have been difficult to parent two boys and a book at the same time. And now, what does your writing space look like?
RAMÍREZ: Right now it looks like a desk in a hallway outside my kids’ rooms. In the past it’s looked like the third bedroom in my house (before my second child was born and stole it from me!), my favorite coffee shop downtown, and a little office I rented for a while. But as I said before, my writing space has also been a park bench, the waiting room of the pediatrician’s office, even a local hotel where I would sometimes go to be away from everyone and get some work done.
DOVALPAGE: I love the idea of escaping to a hotel to write. Now, your characters are so believable. Mónica, Mirta, Robert, Manny…they all feel real, the way they speak (and curse!), their memories…How do you shape them? Were they inspired by people you know?
RAMÍREZ: Of course! Aren’t all our characters inspired, at least subconsciously, by people we know? Mónica is a combo of me, my sister, my friend Nina (to whom, along with my parents, the book is dedicated), and my best friend Tony. Mirta, Mónica’s strong-willed but very loving mother, is based a little on my mom, on Nina’s mom, on Tony’s mom, and on all the Cuban moms out there who want the best for their daughters, even if it means having to let go of them a little bit. And the guys in the book are shaped by men I’ve known, the man I’m married to, the guy (whose real name was Robert!) that the real-life Mónica was dating, and by a combination of imagination and research. Manny, in particular, was a character I worked diligently to get right. He’s a vet and I wanted to make sure that element of his personality felt real and that it was portrayed respectfully and not stereotypically, so I read dozens of articles and listened to podcasts and then, most importantly, interviewed for many hours, a friend’s husband, who is combat veteran.
DOVALPAGE: Imagination and research, and a writer’s talent, do wonders. You teach creative writing at Elon University. What advice would you give to authors who are just starting their first novel?
RAMÍREZ: First: Keep going! Don’t stop! Who cares if you feel like you don’t know what you’re doing. You don’t. That’s okay. You’re not supposed to. All you need to do is get a first draft done. And once you do that, you have the first major step finished and you can exhale. Because now you’re a sculptor with a hunk of clay that kind of looks like something and you can start to shape it.
DOVALPAGE: So true. The results sometimes surprise ourselves…And anything else you would like to share?
RAMÍREZ: I’d love to talk briefly about the telenovela subplot of the book because I think it could be of particular interest to your readers. The novel plays heavily with the tropes of telenovelas—there’s a bombshell family secret revealed right away and several others that come to light as the plot thickens; there is more than one love triangle; there is betrayal and intrigue and bad guys. There’s even a coma! On top of all that, there is also an actual telenovela, Abismo de pasión, which Mónica and her mother, Mirta, watch throughout the book, and the readers get to follow as well. I’ve been asked more than once what the significance of the telenovela subplot is and I have to admit that one level, there is no significance—it’s just fun. I mean, it’s a Cuban mother/daughter duo in Miami—of course they’re going to watch a telenovela together! And how fun is it that we get to watch too? But on a deeper level, both the telenovela-esque plot of the novel itself and the Abismo de pasión subplot serve to highlight the fact that our real lives—the ones we think are so together and normal—are never as together and normal as they look. We’re all kind of one episode away from a freak encounter with our ex. We’re all still, on some level, hiding something from someone, even if that someone is ourselves.
DOVALPAGE: I am so happy you mentioned the telenovela subplot because it was fun to follow the adventures of Armando, Claro and Sebastián alongside with your characters. And of course we all love a good telenovela. Thank you so much for this interview. I can’t wait to read your next novel!
RAMÍREZ: I admit that, as debut author, it’s hard to see myself as part of any kind of movement (unless you count the small but growing group of late(r)-in-life debut authors, of which there have been several over the last few years). However, I do see my novel as part of a larger collage of stories about Cubans, Cuban-Americans, and Miami, and hopefully in some part in conversation with the work of other writers like Jennine Capó-Crucet, Cristina García, Oscar Hijuelos, and Gabriela García.
DOVALPAGE: I think you are very much there. Por seguro. In our panel at the Miami Book Fair, you mentioned that it took you several years to complete the novel. What would you like to share about your creative process? Did you do a lot of research about life in Cuba?
RAMÍREZ: Yes, a ton. Most of it was about the anti-Castro movement. I knew, from talking with my father, and reading up on The Bay of Pigs, etc., that there had been a robust counter-revolutionary (a.k.a. resistance) movement in the years immediately following Fidel Castro’s takeover of the country (in the early-to-mid 1960s). However, the parts of my book that take place in Cuba happen about ten years after that, in the mid-to-late 70s, and I wasn’t clear about whether there was still counter-revolutionary activity happening then (spoiler alert: there was!). I also needed to learn about the anti-Castro groups that had formed in the U.S. and were at work primarily in Miami and New Jersey, so I did a lot of research on them. Much of it never made it into the novel, but I found the material so fascinating that I would lose days on the internet, reading old newspaper articles or now-opened CIA files, etc. Overall, my process was one of getting lost in the research, then writing a little, in between teaching my classes and parenting my kids. I have two boys who were born right around the time I started this book, so I’ve written parts of the book on the playground after school, during the kids’ naps, at night once they’re asleep, etc.
DOVALPAGE: All the parts about Cuba read as if the narrator had been there! Ay, it must have been difficult to parent two boys and a book at the same time. And now, what does your writing space look like?
RAMÍREZ: Right now it looks like a desk in a hallway outside my kids’ rooms. In the past it’s looked like the third bedroom in my house (before my second child was born and stole it from me!), my favorite coffee shop downtown, and a little office I rented for a while. But as I said before, my writing space has also been a park bench, the waiting room of the pediatrician’s office, even a local hotel where I would sometimes go to be away from everyone and get some work done.
DOVALPAGE: I love the idea of escaping to a hotel to write. Now, your characters are so believable. Mónica, Mirta, Robert, Manny…they all feel real, the way they speak (and curse!), their memories…How do you shape them? Were they inspired by people you know?
RAMÍREZ: Of course! Aren’t all our characters inspired, at least subconsciously, by people we know? Mónica is a combo of me, my sister, my friend Nina (to whom, along with my parents, the book is dedicated), and my best friend Tony. Mirta, Mónica’s strong-willed but very loving mother, is based a little on my mom, on Nina’s mom, on Tony’s mom, and on all the Cuban moms out there who want the best for their daughters, even if it means having to let go of them a little bit. And the guys in the book are shaped by men I’ve known, the man I’m married to, the guy (whose real name was Robert!) that the real-life Mónica was dating, and by a combination of imagination and research. Manny, in particular, was a character I worked diligently to get right. He’s a vet and I wanted to make sure that element of his personality felt real and that it was portrayed respectfully and not stereotypically, so I read dozens of articles and listened to podcasts and then, most importantly, interviewed for many hours, a friend’s husband, who is combat veteran.
DOVALPAGE: Imagination and research, and a writer’s talent, do wonders. You teach creative writing at Elon University. What advice would you give to authors who are just starting their first novel?
RAMÍREZ: First: Keep going! Don’t stop! Who cares if you feel like you don’t know what you’re doing. You don’t. That’s okay. You’re not supposed to. All you need to do is get a first draft done. And once you do that, you have the first major step finished and you can exhale. Because now you’re a sculptor with a hunk of clay that kind of looks like something and you can start to shape it.
DOVALPAGE: So true. The results sometimes surprise ourselves…And anything else you would like to share?
RAMÍREZ: I’d love to talk briefly about the telenovela subplot of the book because I think it could be of particular interest to your readers. The novel plays heavily with the tropes of telenovelas—there’s a bombshell family secret revealed right away and several others that come to light as the plot thickens; there is more than one love triangle; there is betrayal and intrigue and bad guys. There’s even a coma! On top of all that, there is also an actual telenovela, Abismo de pasión, which Mónica and her mother, Mirta, watch throughout the book, and the readers get to follow as well. I’ve been asked more than once what the significance of the telenovela subplot is and I have to admit that one level, there is no significance—it’s just fun. I mean, it’s a Cuban mother/daughter duo in Miami—of course they’re going to watch a telenovela together! And how fun is it that we get to watch too? But on a deeper level, both the telenovela-esque plot of the novel itself and the Abismo de pasión subplot serve to highlight the fact that our real lives—the ones we think are so together and normal—are never as together and normal as they look. We’re all kind of one episode away from a freak encounter with our ex. We’re all still, on some level, hiding something from someone, even if that someone is ourselves.
DOVALPAGE: I am so happy you mentioned the telenovela subplot because it was fun to follow the adventures of Armando, Claro and Sebastián alongside with your characters. And of course we all love a good telenovela. Thank you so much for this interview. I can’t wait to read your next novel!
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