Complicate the Border: Octavio Solis Discusses ‘Retablos’
“Stand on the hyphen,” says to me in our interview. “Complicate the border.” The son of immigrant parents, Solis grew up in El Paso, TX. He watched migrants cross over the Río Grande in the light of day and under the cover of night. His mother arrived with papers, while his father did not. Solis spoke a broken English as a child, neither a native speaker in the States nor in Mexico, when he visited communities like Juárez. It’s these liminal spaces—physical, emotional, memorious—between the neither and nor, that he invites readers to. And it’s in these in-between places where Solis introduces you to the people who populate them, complicating the border many have tried to simplify.
