Héctor Tobar is an author, journalist, Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times Best Seller. He’s the son of Guatemalan immigrants and grew up knowing the violent history that has happened in Central America. By becoming a journalist in LA, he experienced violence first-hand. He has written four books, all related to Latin American culture and plans to continue writing books.
Being interested in politics and dealing with the loss of his friend, he was inspired to write his first book, The Tattooed Soldier. Published in 1998, it is a thrilling revenge story of a Guatemalan immigrant who fled his home for protection after the murders of his wife and child, only to come face to face with the killer.
Here at KU, a Latin American Studies class was able to skype Tobar and ask him questions about The Tattooed Soldier and his personal thoughts on writing.
The first question that opened the discussion up was how he came up with the main characters. He responded, “Fiction works when you can identify with the character.” He then goes on to say that he relates to both Antonio, the Guatemalan immigrant who has suffered loss, and to Longoria, the soldier who has killed many people. “I’ve never killed anyone,” Tobar says with a humorous tone, “but I understand how it feels when the world doesn’t take you seriously.” Being a Latin-American writer, he had to prove himself worthy when it came to writing.
He then goes further into explaining Logoria’s character and how he was able to murder people, many being innocent. From a young age, Tobar was interested in history, specifically the psychology of the Nazis. He questioned how it was possible for a large group of people to willingly kill six million innocent Jews. During the discussion, he explained how the Jews were made less human, thus the soldiers didn’t feel as guilty because in their mind they weren’t as human. “Do you know about the Tlatelolco Massacre?” he asked the class. “In 1968, students were protesting against the government and the army was sent in to control the crowd. The soldiers were forced to stay awake for three to four nights in a row. Because of the lack of sleep, they were able to shoot into the crowd because they were so agitated.” Tobar’s point is that no one is inherently evil, but that injustice brings out the worse in people.
Towards the end of the discussion, he is asked what he’s learned from being a reporter and how the 1992 riot compares to what’s going on today. “I was lucky to become a writer throughout the 80’s and 90’s in Los Angeles.” He experienced the racial tensions that occurred there and believed it was more intense than what has occurred today. “Yes, there have been riots going on every so often, but it’s much more organized today than how it was in 1992. The LA riots were spontaneous. Today, there are organized movements.”
He goes on to say that as a reporter your job is to listen and question. “Have you heard the saying, ‘write what you know’?” Many hands go up as he asked the question. “Well, I don’t believe in it. I think you should know what you write. If all you do is write what you know, you’ll never understand the world.”
Lastly, he tells everyone to humble themselves and admit how little you really know about the world.
Photo Sources:
http://lascomadres.com/latinolit/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/hector-tobar.jpg
http://images.macmillan.com/folio-assets/macmillan_us_frontbookcovers_1000H/9781250055859.jpg
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/.a/6a00d8341c630a53ef0133ec940c33970b-pi