The Middlebury Campus

Issue date: 3/30/06 Section: Arts

Acclaimed Writer-in-Residence Julia Alvarez '71 talks about her new novel "Saving the World." Alvarez has published many a celebrated novel, such as "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents" and "A Cafecito Story" as well as several collections of poetry and has garnered numerous awards including the Robert Frost Poetry fellowship from Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, 1986; the Third Woman Press Award, first prize in narrative, 1986; and a grant from National Endowment for the Arts, 1987-88.



The Middlebury Campus: How did you come across these 22 orphaned boys who were the subject of "Saving the World?"



Julia Alvarez: I was doing research for my last novel, "In The Name of Shalome." I was studying the history of the island of Hispaniola, and [I found a footnote that] said that, in the midst of war the French in the Eastern half fighting off the Haitians that had declared independence, and the Spanish island had been occupied by the French; it was just a mess. There was a little note that said smallpox had broken out, and it had been too bad that the smallpox expedition that was going around the world with the vaccine carried by orphaned boys had not been able to make a stop at the island, and I thought, what's this? I have a friend who's a medical historian, and I asked him about it, and he had no idea. So I went to the Armstrong library and took out every book there on smallpox and, in a couple of them, there was a mention about the Royal Expedition - not too many details. It happened that I happened on this topic right as I was beginning to ride the great wave of Google, and I Googled it in Spanish, and by God, there was a Web site on it in Valencia, where he was born, and the bicentennial of the expedition was going to be in 2003. The port city from which they sent out was having its big exhibition in commemoration. My husband and I had planned to go on a trip - we had pretty much settled that it was going to be Italy, but I said, 'honey, we're going to Spain.' I guess that's what happens when you're married to a writer! 'Honey, we're going to Spain, I've got a story I can't let go of.' You think you're going to hit your novel ideas, this great illumination, and then sometimes this little thing catches the corner of your eye, and those are the things that I think are important to follow. If you're doing it just to see what the market is, or to see what sells, or what you think your next book should be or what your readers think your next book should be, it'll fail. You've got to follow those things that really grab you or haunt you. That's how it started.

Continued...

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