Angie Cruz book reading, April 2, 2014

On Thursday, April 2, with a crowd of colleagues, former students and friends gathered on the Texas
A&M campus, author and former A&M professor Angie Cruz read excerpts from her newest work in
progress, In Search of Caridad, but also took some time to present selections from her former novels
and give some inside perspective on being a professional writer.
Cruz, a creative writing professor at Texas A&M who has spent the last two years as a professor at the
University of Pittsburgh, said she had mixed emotions on her return to Texas.
[Coming back to Texas] feels like a homecoming, which is weird because Im not from Texas, Cruz
joked to the audience. But it feels so great to be back in front of my friends and compatriots again.
Cruzs reading was sponsored by Brazos Valley Reads, a community effort started by Texas A&Ms
Department of English to bridge the gap between the university and the Brazos Valley community at
large through book reading events, in conjunction with other Texas A&M groups.
Cruz opened the reading with a reading from her first novel, Soledad, a novel about a young
Dominican woman returning to her home in the Washington Heights district in New York City. The
story, loosely based upon Cruzs own upbringing in the city, hit close to home with her family, who
thought Cruz had described them too liberally in her debut.
My mother was very embarrassed at the first reading of the book, Cruz said. She was saying, Why
are you giving everyones dirty laundry?
But, Cruz said, her novels arent autobiographies, and despite her focus on the neighborhood where
she was raised, all of the characters are completely fictional and the stories are meant for a greater
purpose.
Im trying to give a voice to what is the most invisible identity in the U.S. the Latina woman, Cruz
said.
The pinnacle of the night, however, was Cruzs reading from her upcoming novel, In Search of
Caridad, a book that has taken more than one unexpected turn in writing, she said.
After years of writing the book, she said, she had a dream to rewrite the novel in first person, and I
said This is what the novel needs!
The story, set in New York around the time of civil rights leader Malcolm Xs assassination on
February 21, 1965, investigates the role of Latin American women in the U.S. during this crucial period.

I wondered, What would it be like to write a novel from the point of view of an immigrant who had
no idea what was going on as historical events are happening around them, she said.
The author also took questions from the audience, many of whom asked Cruz for her take on writing
professionally, as well as the process of getting a book published and the daily life of a writer.
I think we all know that writers are a bit different in the way they do things, Cruz said. But it takes
writing honestly and writing with passion. With that, a writer can truly be successful.