Centering the marginalized ... in fiction

 

According to Merriam-Webster.com, marginalized means "relegated to a marginal position within a society or group."

"Refugees are the world's quintessentially marginalized population: They are by definition located at the edge, beyond boundaries, on the outside."    — Tamar Mayer"… the domination and oppression of women and other marginalized groups within patriarchal culture."    — Susan M. Squier

Joanna Vassa's grave at
Abney Park Cemetery

Marginalized - the first image that comes to mind is a sheet of paper with margins. The margins are purposely blank. The important information is inside the margins. But what does it mean to be marginalized? Society deems certain people, certain groups, usually the oppressed, unfortunate, those struggling for equity and opportunity, and often people outside the bounds of "the norm" -- marginalized.Who says? Should we accept this relegation to the margins? No! I say let's shift our perspective. Maybe those who have been shuffled off to the margins should be in the center. And even more radical... maybe those consigning people to the margins should be marginalized themselves!Who is marginalized in American society today? Those who don't have a home or a job or hearing or vision or mobility -- they are identified by what they do not have rather than what they do have. Those who occupy an extreme... too dark, too small, too big, too flamboyant, too religious, too political. I've been thinking about the issue of marginalization in relation to the two novels I have written. My first novel, Remnant, a historical novel about the daughter (Joanna Vassa) and sister of Olaudah Equiano. Equiano wrote and self-published his autobiography in 1789 and became the richest African living in England in his day. He married a white woman, Susannah Cullen, and they had two daughters. By 1797 Equiano, also known as Gustavas Vassa, Susannah, and their firstborn daughter Anna Maria had all died, leaving Joanna Vassa a bi-racial two-year-old orphaned. Joanna could be the poster child for a definition of "marginalized" (except for the fact that her family had money and she inherited a tidy sum of £950 when she turned 21). Even the grave of Joanna Vassa was marginalized until Prof. Vincent Carretta discovered it covered in weeds and lying on its side, and brought it to the loving attention of the Abney Park Cemetery staff. He centered her grave. Additionally, Equiano's final resting place was unknown until recently, when Prof. Carretta aided by Equiano Society associate David Gleave found this record in church archives: “6 [April 1797] Gustus Vasa, 52 years, St Mary Le bone.” Equiano is buried in the cemetery next to the former Whitefield’s Tabernacle in Tottenham Court Road (currently the American International Church). Equiano's gravesite location has been centered.Susannah Cullen married Olaudah Equiano - interracial couple #1. Joanna Vassa marries Henry Bromley - interracial couple #2 (these are both historical). Olu (Equiano's sister) marries Teddy - interracial couple #3 (fictional). I'm moving the marginalized (interracial couples) to the center. I'm centering the marginalized in my writing.In my second, contemporary novel, Expecting, the main character Michaela is traumatized when her mother dies in childbirth, leaving her with a fear of childbirth and determination to become an obstetrician, and preventing her from accepting Victor’s advances…the Deaf man with whom she has fallen in love. My Deaf characters in the novel are in the center of the action, not on the margins. In Expecting, it is normal to be Deaf. I center the marginalized.How do you "center the marginalized" in your writing?

A Long Petal of the Sea : Why I love historical fiction

 “One of the most richly imagined portrayals of the Spanish Civil War to date, and one of the strongest and most affecting works in [Isabel Allende’s] long career.”—The New York Times Book Review

I'm a big fan of historical fiction. It's my favorite genre. A Long Petal of the Sea has all the elements I love in historical fiction: a good story, well told, set in a historical time and place, with both historical and fictional characters with whom I would love to sit down and have a cup of tea!

A Long Petal of the Sea covers the mid-1930s in Spain, to the 40s-90s in Chile (with brief stops in Spain, the U.S., and Venezuela). If you had asked me anything about the Spanish Civil War before I read this book, I would have a blank look on my face. Whether I ever learned about it (doubtful) or have just forgotten (possible) I could not have related any details whatsoever. Having lived through Allende's fictional retelling, I can now almost picture the war between the Catalonians and the Fascists - with Franco defeating the indefatigable Republican Spaniards. If I want the facts of the Spanish Civil War, I can read a book, or an essay (or Wikipedia!). I will learn about the two sides, the Republicans versus and Nationalists, with "communists" against "Christians" the rallying cry. But if I want to get a sense of history, and engage my senses, I read historical fiction. Through Allende's masterful writing I can smell the fires, feel the fear, cringe at the deprivation and cruelty, and see the destroyed city of Barcelona. 

The book is also a paean to Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet and diplomat. Neruda transported over 2,000 Spanish refugees living in sub-human conditions in concentration camps in France, having fled at the end of the Spanish Civil War, in a ship called the Winnipeg to their new home in Chile. The title comes from Neruda's poetic description of the country of Chile.

For more on this fascinating moment in history, read this: 

https://socialistaction.org/2019/09/25/the-ss-winnipeg-pablo-neruda-and-a-long-petal-of-the-sea/

It strikes me that this book is particularly apt in our present day when fascism and nationalism are on the rise in many countries, and the lines that so starkly divide us get wider every day, becoming more like chasms than lines. 

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." (George Santayana, Spanish-American philosopher, poet, and novelist).