Tuesday, February 23, 1999
‘Saints’ author finds magic, delight in everyday life
BOOKS: After garnering praise for film, Escandon to sign novel
on campus
By Megan Dickerson
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Of all the houses clustered by the Los Angeles Mormon Temple,
author Maria Amparo Escandon’s is the only one that screams yellow.
Instead of the maizy-stucco that passes for gold in most Southern
California suburbs, her home is the Yellow No. 5 that screams
canaries, "Yield" signs and Lemonheads.
The Overland Drive home marks a fitting spot for the Mexican
American author of "Esperanza’s Box of Saints," a vibrant tale of
everyday mysticism that Escandon will read and sign in the UCLA
Bookzone Wednesday.
Escandon’s inaugural publishing effort tells the story of a
grieving mother who turns to the icons of the Catholic faith for
help. While vigorously house cleaning after her daughter Blanca’s
death, Esperanza sees St. Jude materialize in a splatter of grease.
The patron saint of desperation says that her daughter is not
really dead and Esperanza must find her.
Such magical reality seems to come easily to a writer who keeps
iconographic portraits in her Los Angeles advertising business and
wears a gold St. Jude medallion around her neck.
"I address the magic that there is in real life," Escandon says,
leaning back before a purple velvet curtain at Westwood’s Gypsy
Cafe. "You find it on the street and in the newspapers and the
television – it’s very real."
Escandon’s unassuming ensemble of basic black belies the color
of both her personality and her writing style. The 41-year-old
writer, who also teaches a class through UCLA Extension, looks and
speaks the way one would imagine her main character, Esperanza,
would: lucidly and decidedly direct.
So, the manuscripts of "Saints" reached the publishers in a
manner very fitting for a book about supernatural bonds.
Escandon, who attends St. Timothy’s Catholic Church on Beverly
Glen, set out for the Mexico City shrine of Guadalupe to gather
armfuls of prayer cards, statuettes and milagros (portraits of
hands clasping heart vessels). Carefully placing the novel inside
handmade boxes, Escandon wrapped them in colorful tissue paper,
decorated the boxes in religious paraphernalia, and sent them off
to the dog-eat-dog world of publishing.
"Can you imagine a publisher in New York in his little 42nd
floor cubicle full of manuscripts getting this box full of saints?"
Escandon says, laughing. "And from there, they went on to read the
novel."
Esperanza’s story first emerged in Escandon’s screenplay
"Santitos," which she began as a dialogue exercise in 1995. After a
few months of screenwriting, Escandon began writing a novel, first
in Spanish, then in English.
The film came to life last year under the direction of Alejandro
Springall and garnered critical acclaim at last month’s Sundance
Film Festival. After a weekend of snowboot shopping and losing her
gloves in the snow with her artist boyfriend Benitor
Martinez-Creel, Escandon saw her first screenplay – the same story
as the novel – claim the Latin American Film Award.
"Every time people exploded in laughter," Escandon says
incredulously, "I thought, ‘Oh, I’m reaching somebody. This is
nice.’"
Touchstone Pictures screened "Santitos" for a packed audience,
which made the impact of both "Saints" and "Santitos" really hit
home for Escandon, despite the glitz, says Martinez-Creel.
"Sundance has this reputation for being this big Hollywood
thing, but I didn’t feel that," Martinez-Creel says.
The Hollywood life has yet to spoil Escandon, who was born in
Mexico City but has lived in Los Angeles with Martinez-Creel and
their two young children, Marins and Inaki, since 1983.
Martinez-Creel and Escandon run a Spanish advertising agency,
generating spreads for such products as Epson printers and laptops.
Yet they still find time to put their children to bed with tales
perhaps not so symbolic as "Saints," but just as magical. Young
Marins and Inaki drift to sleep to the adventures of "The King of
the Worms," Martinez-Creel’s ongoing story about a slithering hero
that lives in the garden of their big yellow house.
Although a Day-Glo house may raise eyebrows even in ethnic Los
Angeles, in the Mexican culture, such color is an everyday reality.
The Crayola-tone cars, the blaring murals and the myriad paint jobs
are a large part of "Saints" – and of Escandon, who lives with an
artist and paints her stories with the tints of her homeland.
"’Esperanza’s Box of Saints’ fills our souls with colors and
flavors," praises author Laura Esquivel ("Like Water for
Chocolate"), to which Escandon’s writing style has been compared.
"But more importantly with a sense of genuine, heartfelt candor,
born from true faith."
BOOKS: Maria Amparo Escandon will read and sign "Esperanza’s Box
of Saints" on Wednesday at 4 p.m. in the UCLA BookZone, Ackerman.
For more information, please call (310) 206-6822.Simon &
Schuster
Author Maria Amparo Escandon writes about what she calls
"magical reality" – everyday life with a colorful, quirky
twist.
Photo courtesy of Maria Amparo Escandon
Maria Amparo Escandon will be signing her book "Esperanza’s Box
of Saints" on campus.
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