by Marcella Ortega
Daily Lobo
Gene Guerin said he had no idea he was in the running.
Guerin, a documentary filmmaker and novelist from Las Vegas, N.M., has been selected by University Libraries at the University of New Mexico as the winner of the 2005 Premio Aztl†n Literary Prize.
"I didn't even know they submitted my name," he said. "It's certainly a great honor."
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The national literary award, founded by Rudolfo and Patricia Anaya in 1993, was established to encourage and reward emerging Chicana and Chicano authors. Guerin has been awarded for his debut novel, Cottonwood Saints, and will deliver a lecture today at 4 p.m. He will also speak to students at 11 a.m.
Cottonwood Saints is a fictional family saga.
"I tell people its 90 percent fiction, 100 percent true," he said.
The novel is based on a journal written by Guerin's mother before her descent into Alzheimer's disease.
"I just told her to write down some memories of her life," he said. "She wrote about 40 pages."
The story begins with the birth of the main character, Margarita, at a lumber camp in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains near Mora, N.M.
"My mom grew up in Mora," he said. "My grandfather had a lumber camp near Black Lake. My mother was born there."
Margarita, like Guerin's mother, was born prematurely and taken in by a wealthy relative. Guerin said it was a common tradition at the time if parents were unable to fully provide for a child. He said his mother was taken in by her aunt. "They were very, very wealthy," he said. "They didn't have children, so they took care of her."
The story follows Margarita through her life as she and her family are affected by the influenza epidemic of 1918, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan and the onset of World War II. Although the national events were blended into his mother's story, the main character displays her independence as a self-taught, determined individual.
Guerin said his mother, who dropped out of school in the ninth grade, educated herself and was independent, taking on challenges like building her own house.
"She read a lot," he said. "She wasn't going to let her lack of education get in her way."
Although Margarita has a son in the novel, Guerin said the character does a lot of things that never happened to him. He said the character is there to stand in for the author as well as narrate.
"That's really not me," he said. "Most of what happens to him is actually made up."
Guerin, who left New Mexico about 30 years ago, lives in Colorado and is finishing his second novel. Guerin's homecoming will recognize his mother's accomplishments.
"She passed away before I started writing the book," he said. "I'm really moved by the whole thing."
Willard Reading Room, Zimmerman Library
Today at 4 p.m. and 11 a.m.
Free
