Xavier Garza
xaviergarza@hotmail.com

My research method is pretty simple. If its something I can relate to, I write about it. I love scary stories, lucha libre and the like, so they are a very big part of what I write about. I grew up with characters like Cantinflas, Sarah Garcia, Capulina, El Chavo/Chapulin Colorado and Tin Tan. I have no plans to touch on them just yet, but never say never, I always say. Pedro Infante for example gets mentioned a couple of times in Adventures in Mexican Wrestling.

4. Have you ever considered writing about current events that relate to our Mexican American culture and may have an impact on children or adolescent readers, such as the barrier that is being built along the border???

I actually touch on the border wall in the story, “Border Watch,” which will be found in my upcoming book, Kid Cyclone Fights the Devil and other Stories. One of the two main characters learns that there are something’s that a wall cant, and wont keep out. I also touch on the wall in the story of Charro Claus and the Tejas Kid.

5. Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?

My advice would be to never give up. It took me years to get published, but it can and will happen. Prepare your manuscripts and send them out. Go to book festivals and share your stories. You never know who might be there. In 2002 I was reading in Houston at the Edward James Olmos book festival, an event sponsored then by Talento Bilingue de Houston which was spearheaded by Tony Diaz. Tony is an incredible author, and a wonderful human being who has helped lots of aspiring authors. While reading there, I met Dr. Kanellos. He is the president and founder of Arte Publico Press, which is the oldest and largest publisher of Hispanic literature. That meeting led to my first book, Creepy Creatures and other Cucuys being published in 2004. Then in San Antonio I met Bobby Byrd from Cinco Puntos Press at the Guadalupe Book festival, and that meeting led to Lucha Libre becoming my second book. My message is to get your work out there, and share it with others. Don’t ever give up, keep learning and getting better at your writing, and I am sure that you can and will be published.

Xavier Garza
ps.
Sarah S. Yes,I remeber the wrestling ring. It was a lot of fun to do my stories inside of a wrestling ring!

1. Would the Mexican Wrestling Novela be related to the Lucha Libre book, with same characters and setting, or would it have a different twist to it??

Adventures in Mexican Wrestling I am treating as a separate book from Lucha Libre – The Man in the Silver Mask, but they will share some similarities. It is a book composed of 14 chapters that tells us about a boy named Margarito who idolizes lucha libre. The story has a few twists and turns that make hopefully for a fun read for both kids and adults alike.

2. Xavier, would you ever share your experiences about discrimination as you grew up? If you experience it through you teen or college years.

I grew up in the valley, where most of the population is Hispanic, so didn’t face much discrimination at home. When my parents migrated to work in the fields out of state however, this was another matter. There were certain restaurants, convenience stores and parts of town where my grandmother would say we couldn’t go. “They don’t want us there,” is what my grandmother would say. I didn’t know it back then, but it was because they viewed us as being illegal’s even if we were born in America.