María and her husband Michael live in Norman, Oklahoma, with their four children and Siberian Husky named Lobo.

Interview

Where are you from? How-if at all-has your sense of place colored your writing?

I was born in Pinar del Rio, Cuba, and grew up in the neighboring island of Puerto Rico, so I am truly a Caribbean, "island girl!" My place of birth and the way that my culture weaves itself within a Catholic reference is an essential basis of all my writing -- whether news or feature stories, essays, columns, or fiction. But perhaps what colors my writing the most is not my sense of "place," but my sense of "home," in a spiritual and physical sense--and how that understanding and that reality was shaped by the fact that I am a refugee, an immigrant. That reality will always be at the heart of who I am.

When and why did you begin writing? When did you first consider yourself a writer?

For the first 13 years of my life, Spanish was my first language. I still have the "books" that I would put together as a young child, filling them up with my own poems and thoughts, essays and pictures--quite often relating to what it felt to be a Cuban living in Puerto Rico or to some of the religious events that our family participated in. I honestly don't know when I actually "defined" myself as a writer, but I think my heart, my spirit, always knew it. I heard somewhere that it's not so much that we are what we do, but that we DO what we ARE. I truly believe that.

In a sentence or two, what is the point of your book? Why should someone read it?

The Seeker's Guide to Mary is an introduction to Mary of Nazareth, the mother of Jesus. My hope is that it opens up for readers a new understanding of this wonderful woman -- and that it invites every Christian, not just Catholics, to examine and define their personal relationship to Mary. Anyone who is a follower of Jesus should get to know his mother better!

Are there any personal experiences that were important in inspiring you to write this book?

As a Hispanic, Mary was a natural and prominent part of my growing up. We celebrated Marian feasts and we remembered Mary as a family, but more importantly, we saw Mary as an important and natural part of our Catholic faith experience. The Hispanic sense of family, and the beautiful role of mothers and grandmothers within that cultural and ethnic community, is an important element in my approach to writing about Mary.

Why do you think that religion and spirituality has been the fastest-growing part of the publishing business in recent years?

Spirituality--and how it expresses itself through religion--is the essence of who we are. Even when we are not aware of it, even when we deny it, our spiritual self remains the heart of our being. I hope that the fact that this area has been the fastest growing part of the publishing business in recent years means that we're finally acknowledging and granting spirituality the central place it has in our lives, not only as individuals, but as a culture and as a generation.

What books have influenced your writing most strongly in recent years?

Madeleine L'Engle's understanding of story as truth and in particular her book Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith & Art (Harold Shaw, 1980), deeply shaped my understanding and formation as a Christian artist. I see reading fiction, of various styles and genres, as a fun and important part of my "continuous education" as a writer.

I also believe that the reading I do for my "spiritual" growth is integral to my writing. I regularly revisit the poetry of John of the Cross, for example, and I love--and continually struggle through--Teresa of Avila's writings. Perhaps the contemporary writer that I have read the most in recent years has been Henri Nouwen. Several of his books have deeply influenced me as a person and as a writer, among them: Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World (Crossroad 1992); The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming (Image/Doubleday 1992); and The Inner Voice of Love (Image/Doubleday 1996).

What are you reading now--both professionally and for relaxation?

At any given time, I enjoy having several books in progress. I recently finished reading Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet (Vintage 1984) and I am reading a book of his selected poems. Alongside Rilke, I read Richard Rohr's Discovering the Enneagram and Elizabeth Kübler-Ross's Living with Death and Dying (Touchstone 1997), but I just finished both of them. I am now concurrently reading the Tracy Chevalier's novel Girl with a Pearl Earring (Plume 1999) and the parable St. George and the Dragon and the Quest for the Holy Grail (Forest of Peace 1986). This weekend I also picked up Thomas Keating's The Better Part: Stages of Contemplative Living (Continuum 2002).

What trends do you see in religion in the coming decade?

One of the developments in publishing spiritual themes that fascinates me is acknowledging as a culture the reality that our spiritual, physical and emotional "selves" are all related, interwoven and naturally embodying a whole. I think at some level we know this is true, but we often lack the awareness of the depth of this reality. Just as my spiritual life and my writing life are not only parallel paths, but truly one "whole" and sole journey, my sense of self as spirit, mind, and body HAVE to be part of my "whole" and holy development!

I think Kübler-Ross tried to acknowledge this through her numerous writings about her experiences with the dying. Recent books such as Anatomy of the Spirit and the popular The Power of Now (New World 1999), both attempt to present and develop this concept--but do so from a totally "secular" or non-religious point of view. At their essence, they lack the Christian and Catholic spiritual maturity that Paul describes in his letter to the Thessalonians: "May the God of peace make you perfect in holiness. May he preserve you whole and entire, sprit, soul, and body, irreproachable at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thess 5:23).

What book would you like to read that no one has written yet?

Based on my answer to the previous question, I would love to read a book that brings together not only an understanding of what we have come to know about our common physical, emotional, and spiritual developments, but also one that presents it within our rich and deeply contemplative Catholic spirituality. Our life journey is all about coming to know the "whole and entire" being that makes us what and who we are, as we were and continue to be created by our loving God.

What is your favorite book? Who is your favorite author?

I have no doubt that I would answer all these questions about titles and authors different every month of my life! But as of today, this is my "current" answer. Besides Henri Nouwen and some of the spiritual masters like Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross that I have already mentioned, I have to add another contemporary author as one of my favorites: poet and essayist Kathleen Norris, especially her book The Cloister Walk (Riverhead 1996).

Yet if I had to pick ONE book as my all time favorite piece of writing, it would be the 1955 classic Gift From the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh (Pantheon 1996). Did I mention I am at heart a Caribbean "island girl?!"

Reprinted from Loyola Education Group