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An interview with Beatriz Rivera - Interview
MELUS, Summer, 2003 by Frederick Luis Aldama
FLA: In the epigraphs to Playing with the Light you quote from Roland Barthes, Umberto Eco, and others. It seems your experiences in Paris during the poststructuralist era seep into your fiction?
BR: This comes out of my readings now, actually. Well, I mean I knew Barthes, Derrida, Kristeva--but it doesn't come from long memories. I really wanted to do something on reading in this novel. I was wondering actually what had happened to me in my reading. I longed for this period in my life when I would read just for sheer pleasure. When I was young I would buy books to read only for pleasure.
FLA: Reading is central to the plot of Playing with Light. Can you talk about the long tradition in Cuba of public reading that is revitalized in this novel?
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BR: Well, I saw a photo of a reader in a tobacco factory, and that too reminded me of those times when I would read just for this pleasure. I wondered actually if the workers would sit there and listen. A lot of the cigars actually were named, like "Monte Christo" and "Romeo y Julieta" were named after famous works from the reading. I thought it was just wonderful that somebody came and read. Afterwards it became very political ...
FLA: After the Castro revolution?
BR: No, way before; in Cuba there have always been revolutions. In Playing with Light, I talk about the 1868 revolution, which was independence from Spain that ended up being a ten-year war. So it's always been very revolutionary. I mean there's always been some kind of war and conflict. As they say in Cuba, "We belonged to Spain for 400 years, to Russia for 60, and this is the first time we're alone." I don't know if they've done a good job of it.
FLA: Do you still have family there?
BR: Mm hmm. Almost all my mother's family is there. A lot of family actually. Not my father's family, but almost all my mother's family is there. I haven't gone back. I haven't returned. Also, you can't have a credit card there, so there's always this fear that I'll run out of money because everybody from the family wants money there, so you start giving out money.
FLA: Why did your parents leave?
BR: Well, they left for political reasons. First, my father left, and then my mother left with me six months later. I remember all that. It was very troubled. Those were very troubled times.
FLA: What year was that?
BR: 1960. May, 1960 ... Castro came to power that New Year's 1958-1959. But it was transitional. And nobody really knew what was going to happen. And then, at a given moment, people decided it's time to leave. It's time to go.
FLA: What happened to your family in terms of what they were doing in Cuba and what they ended up doing in Miami?
BR: My father had an insurance company in Cuba, and he started doing the same thing in Miami. I mean it took a while to get established, but it wasn't awful. You have some really awful stories. He was educated in Canada, so he spoke English. It wasn't that bad for him. My mother never really learned English. I shouldn't say that; if it comes out in print she'll kill me.
