Interview with Victoria Buitron

I have social media to thank for bringing my attention to Victoria Buitron. I don’t know how our online paths crossed, but I’m grateful they did. That’s how her incredible memoir in essays, A Body Across Two Hemispheres, came on my radar.

The book chronicles Victoria’s migration from Ecuador when she was fifteen and her later return to the United States. It’s an absorbing examination of culture, identity, language, and immigration, showcasing her impressive range as a writer. Using a variety of narrative techniques—including collage documentary and abecedarian—the book is deeply affecting and beautifully written, and an important meditation on loss, love, belonging, and migration, while highlighting the convergence of the political and personal. (You can check out my interview with Victoria for Split Lip Magazine which dives deeper into the book’s themes here.) 

I’m so happy Victoria agreed to this interview!

Did you ever doubt this book would be published? 

That’s the beauty of writing a book—a part of you writes it for yourself, and another would love for it to be read by others. I started an MFA program in 2018 with the sole purpose of writing this book, and it ended up becoming my thesis to graduate from the program. Afterwards, I began to send it for consideration to a few contests, and ABATH became the first winner in the creative nonfiction category for the Fairfield Book Prize. From idea to publication, my path took about five years. Throughout that time, a lot of doubts crept up, but it was essential to go back to the early mindset of why I wanted to write this memoir in the first place. In my case, I knew that it was a gift to myself, and I had to continue going back to this kernel of truth many times.

Can you share any tips or tricks for staying motivated? 

• If there were no accolades and no publication, would you still enjoy writing? If the answer is yes—that’s all the motivation you need. You need to inherently love the act of writing and not see it as a chore.     

• Make writer friends and build community. Not only have I met great friends, but their support has been a great motivation.   

• Take breaks. You’re still a writer if you wrote one sentence six months ago. The page and the pen will always be there. There’s no use in berating yourself if the words don’t flow.   

• Attend generative workshops. Sometimes my mind is blank, and then I attend a workshop and a light turns on and the words begin to emerge.   

• Support others and don’t compare your paths. Your path is lovely because it’s all yours and no one can take it away from you.

Any reading recommendations? 

The last novel I read was Jawbone by Mónica Ojeda. It blew me away, partly because it brought me back to my adolescence in Guayaquil, Ecuador and how the heaviness of the city’s humidity holds so much darkness. I read the English translation by Sarah Booker, and now I’m excited to read the original version in Spanish. 

Can you recommend a song (or songs) that ties into your book in some way? 

Thank you, Victoria!