Behind the Story: The Eloquence of Love

La Imagen de La Madres en la Literature, el Cine, las Artes, Escenicas y las Artes Visuales.

In 2018, I was invited by the editors of an anthology to contribute a story about “mothers.” In my collection, My Daughter’s Eyes and Other Stories, one of the recurring themes is mother-daughter relationships. I was thrilled when I received the query because I had a story that fit perfectly: The Eloquence of Love. This story explores a child’s experience of feeling that her mother loves her brother more than her. To capture her mother’s attention, the child tells her micro-stories, knowing her mother has little patience for her longer tales.

Initially, I almost published the story in another anthology, but the editor wanted it restructured to fit a more traditional narrative arc—beginning, middle, and end. However, the story had its own voice and stream-of-consciousness style, and I didn’t feel comfortable altering it. In the end, I withdrew it from publication. The editor was gracious, and I held onto the story for a few more years.

When the editors of this collection reached out, I knew it was time to share the story. I sent the English version to Paquita, one of the editors, and she translated it into Spanish. Interestingly, the story was originally written in Spanish after I attended a week-long annual Focusing conference, where I participated in a workshop called “Thinking at the Edge” (TAE).

TAE, developed by philosopher and psychologist Eugene T. Gendlin, is closely connected to his Focusing method. Both approaches emphasize tapping into the implicit, bodily-felt sense of experiences to articulate new concepts or resolve emotional conflicts. TAE helped me access the deep, pre-verbal knowledge that inspired me to write my stories in Spanish, my mother tongue, before translating them into English. This process opened something profound in my soul, and from that experiment came The Eloquence of Love and Butterfly Kisses, the latter published in the Riverine anthology.

When Paquita translated my English version back into Spanish, her translation made the story feel even more eloquent and alive. It was an incredible experience to see my words transformed in this way. I hope you enjoy reading it.

Reference

González, S. V., & Valdez, P. (Eds.). (2022). La imagen de la madre en la literatura, el cine, las artes escénicas y las artes visuales: Memorias del VIII Coloquio de LART. Centro Español de … | 22-24 de octubre 2018 (Spanish Edition). Paperback – August 31, 2022.