Achy Obejas

Achy Obejas (June 28, 1956) is a Cuban-American writer and translator.

Quotes

 * Memory, about the futile struggle to remember. It’s a eulogy to all the people who flee the terrible conditions in their home countries, desperately hoping for a better life here, and never make it.
 * On her story “The Collector” in the short story collection The Tower of the Antilles in “Q&A: ACHY OBEJAS ON BEING CUBAN-AMERICAN, SEXUALITY, EXILE, AND HER SHORT STORIES”


 * Cuba is at the heart of my fiction, even when it’s just an echo, like in “Kimberle.” I don’t think a day goes by that I don’t remember in some conscious way that I’m Cuban. But my relationship with Cuba changes as time goes by, not just because of changes in Cuba but because of changes in my own life. When my son was born almost six years ago, it totally altered everything. For example, instead of going to Cuba, I spent a great deal more time in Miami, because that’s where my mom lived, and I really wanted my son and my mom to have a relationship…
 * On how her native country Cuba fits into her fictional works in “Q&A: ACHY OBEJAS ON BEING CUBAN-AMERICAN, SEXUALITY, EXILE, AND HER SHORT STORIES”


 * What I’m most obsessed with is the tension between the private and the public self. In Cuba, we call it a “doble moraleja” but in reality, it’s more than that. It’s like people have two completely different realities. That’s very hard. Everyone says that it’s a political situation, but in reality it totally affects your life in every way. You start to become complicit in things that are quite terrible…
 * On what she obsesses the most about as a writer in “THE WRITER’S BLOCK TRANSCRIPTS: A Q&A WITH AURORA ARIAS AND ACHY OBEJAS” (2017 Jan 9)