Another Brush with Fame

Worldly fame is but a breath of wind that blows now this way, and now that, and changes name as it changes direction.
Dante Alighieri

My good friend, Dr. Benjamin Murphy, who teaches Philosophy and Religion at Florida State University-Panama, honored me with this article which appeared in the December issue of The Panama Eagle.

Meet Me Under the Ceiba: Local Author Wins U.S. Literary Award

By Benjamin Murphy

Dr. Silvio Sirias is a teacher at Balboa Academy, occasional contributor to The Panama Eagle and an author. Actually, make that a prize-winning author. His second novel, Meet Me Under the Ceiba has just won first place in the annual Chicano/Latino Literary Prize organized by the University of California in Irvine. You won’t find Meet Me Under the Ceiba in the shops just yet – Dr. Sirias tells me that now that he’s won the award, he is negotiating with a publisher. His first novel, Bernardo and the Virgin, (which, like Meet Me Under the Ceiba is set in Nicaragua), is now available in paperback from Amazon. He is currently working on a novel with a Panamanian setting, The Saint of Santa Fe, which deals with the life of Father Hector Gallego, who disappeared in mysterious circumstances in 1971.

Meet Me Under the Ceiba is also inspired on a real event. On Christmas Day, 1999, Aura Rosa Pavon was murdered in the small town of La Curva. She was killed because she was a lesbian. Sirias was struck by the stark headline in the Nicaraguan newspapers: ‘Dyke Murdered.’ Three people were sentenced to thirty five years in prison, but were released on a technicality after three years. ‘The blatant homophobia shocked my sensibilities,’ he explains, ‘then as I read on, the bizarre circumstances seemed worth exploring. There is a lack of tolerance for any form of difference in Nicaragua, whether it be physical handicap, racial difference or sexuality. Because of the culture of machismo, homosexuality is an easy target. So most homosexuals tend to stay in the closet … Panama is slightly more tolerant than Nicaragua, but there is still considerable discrimination … Of course, discrimination is a problem in any society, not just in Latin America, but I wanted to understand the problem as manifested in Latin American society.’

Sirias was born in Los Angeles, California, to Nicaraguan parents, and when he was eleven years old, his family moved to Granada, Nicaragua. He spent the rest of his childhood in Nicaragua, returning to the USA for his college degree. Following the lead of novelists such as Julia Alvarez, he writes in English with a few Spanish words thrown in, like a dash of Ron Flor de Caña in a glass of coca cola. His sensibilities were shaped by the cultural melting pot of Los Angeles, but in writing about Nicaragua, he is writing about his own culture.

‘The novel is like a mirror, where Nicaraguans can see themselves, and a mirror is bound to reveal warts as well as beauty. The book deals with an ugly incident. But the people of the town are very likeable; it is not as though everyone stood up and cheered the murderers. On the contrary, I think Nicaraguans come out well. The book is up-lifting; despite the tragedy there is redemption.’

Indeed, he tells me that when the book is published, he hopes to present a copy to Aura Rosa’s sister, whom he interviewed as part of his research, to show that something of her sister lives on. But although the book was inspired by a true story, it was not his intention to recreate the actual events and people. The characters are given different names, licensing Sirias to invent freely as he tells the story. ‘I now find it difficult to remember what is fact and fiction in this book,’ he says, ‘more so than with my two other novels.’

In their letter of acceptance, the judges mentioned that the novel is very well paced. I ask whether this is something he paid conscious attention to while writing.

‘Yes. I’m having a lot of fun developing my craft as a writer. You never achieve a point of mastery, but there is satisfaction in knowing you are getting better. The structure of Bernardo and the Virgin owed a lot to Julia Alvarez’s Yo, and the structure of this novel owes a lot to Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Garcia Marquez … It was an exercise in keeping a brisk pace while presenting events in a non-linear manner … When you are faced with something senseless, it’s a puzzle, and readers have to work at making the pieces fit together.’

Finally, I gave Dr. Sirias the opportunity to sell his work directly to the public. Why, I asked, would anyone want to read this novel. ‘Because it’s a good story, well told.’ The judges of the Chicano/Latino Literary Prize seem to agree.