Gabriela Garcia will discuss "Of Women and Salt" at the Junior League of Richmond's 76th Annual Book & Author Event on April 29 at 7 p.m. (Photo by Andria Lo)
Gabriela Garcia’s debut novel, “Of Women and Salt,” explores the intensity and nuances of relationships between women, particularly between a mother and daughter. Understandably, the author felt terrified to share the book with her own mother — but not for the reason one might expect.
“The mother characters in my novel are radically different from my mother, so I wasn’t concerned she would think it was about her,” Garcia says. “I was terrified because I value her opinion so much.”
What did her mother think? “She was really excited about the book,” Garcia says. “She’s been my biggest fan.” Garcia’s mother isn’t her only fan — the book has been named a 2021 must-read by The Washington Post, The New York Times, Time and Harper’s Bazaar, among others.
“Of Women and Salt” centers on four Latina women at different moments in time: Carmen, a Cuban immigrant living in the U.S.; Jeannette, Carmen’s daughter, who fights drug addiction, and, in a fleeting moment, decides to care for the daughter of her neighbor; Gloria, a Central American woman taken into custody by immigration officials; and Maria Isabel, Jeanette’s great-great- grandmother, who works in a mid-19th-century Cuban cigar factory.
Although the book follows generations of women and explores intergenerational trauma, Garcia wants readers to know it is not a historical saga. “People try to find shorthand to talk about books and are surprised my novel is 200 pages long and takes huge leaps across time and has these different styles,” she says.
A published poet, Garcia plays with structure and style in sometimes surprising ways. “I’ve always admired writers who take on different writing styles and voices,” she says. “I wanted the structure of my novel to work and kind of feel kaleidoscopic.”
“I want to write something that is good structurally but ultimately is all about character and emotional connection.” —Gabriela Garcia
When Garcia entered the MFA program at Purdue University, where she completed “Of Women and Salt,” she had already written snippets of the story and standalone pieces that explored the novel’s probing themes. While working toward her degree, she figured out how to thread those together with freshly written material.
The stories were informed by her own experience as the daughter of Cuban and Mexican immigrants growing up in Miami as well as her previous work as an organizer with migrant justice and feminist organizations. “Ultimately, the book is not autobiographical,” Garcia says, “but it’s definitely informed by the things I’ve thought about.”
One of the central themes Garcia considers is the diversity of experiences of Latino immigrants. “I’ve always been interested in writing against the idea of a Latinx monolith, the idea that there is one single immigrant experience that pertains to all Latinx people,” she says. Latinx is a gender-neutral term for people of Latin American descent.
Bringing together different stories and writing styles in her debut enables Garcia to work against that myth. “Each chapter is written in its own style,” she says. “There are parts of it that are more fast-paced, and some are more lyrical.”
Several reviewers have commented on the poetic quality of Garcia’s debut, and she says studying poetry has opened up her fiction. “It led me to think microscopically on a sentence level and consider rhythm and sound,” she says.
While structure and language are important to Garcia, the story’s emotions drive her writing. “I want to write something that is good structurally but ultimately is all about character and emotional connection.”
Because she works so hard to foster that emotional connection, the act of writing can be emotionally exhausting for Garcia. “Of Women and Salt” addresses weighty issues, including addiction, separation of families and sexual abuse. “I’ve had to put myself in some dark places when I’m writing these threads,” she says. “It can be difficult, but there’s more to explore in a character when I allow myself to go to those uncomfortable places.”
