Try To See the Best in People

11/15/2016

This is the first day that I have felt really down, and it's not because the KKK is planning a big celebration in North Carolina. That is actually not a surprise at all. Nor are Trump's cabinet appointments and projected appointments, which are terrifying. I am angry that instead of being their best selves, some administrators are squashing the democratic process at work or trying to.

It's like the election of Trump is giving people the right to be draconian in their fiefdoms. I mean, that has always been management's prerogative, to squash unions and faculty input, but in this political context, you would think they would want to actually build alliances, not take some gas and light a match and torch any semblance of democracy. I won't go into specifics because I am dealing with the issue.

Suffice it to say, that our voices need to be heard, especially when decisions affect our working conditions.

I don't have a writing goal set for this week. Actually, that's not true. This week, I will think about the plot line whenever I can and map out the next two chapters. I haven't been living with my characters as much as I should. That doesn't seem unreasonable given the amount of time I won't have.

That's all I got.

Today, see the best in people and be your best writing self.

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Dr. Jesú Estrada,
Chicago, IL

I grew up on the outskirts of Yuma, AZ, close to the Cocopah reservation. Because I was ever-bored, I became an avid reader of Spanish comic books and anything in English. Then I moved onto Steinbeck and Stephen King and now read international authors like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Atwood, and Roque Dalton. I also read a lot of coming of age fiction.

I have been writing stories in both Spanish and English since I was six years old. My fiction and poetry focus on working class issues, primarily about laborers in the Southwest. I also write non-serious fiction, like zombie fiction (I was into it before it got popular with the Walking Dead series, which I love) and dabble in magical realism with a fusion of cuentos and folklore.

I have a Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition from Washington State University, a Masters Degree in English from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelors of Arts from Northern Arizona University. I have also taught creative writing, and will do so, summer 2018. Currently, I live in Chicago and teach full-time at Harold Washington College to an amazing student population.

More about me. I am happily married, been so for almost ten years, and have a fabulous eight-year-old who makes my life phenomenal: He too is starting to write short stories. I had a second baby, Simona (3), which put a temporary set-back on the publication of my first book, but made my life infinitely more wonderful. My husband is also incredibly supportive, and I have enlisted him to market whatever I do that is worth marketing. He also books my readings.

That damned itch just won't let me be, so I'm back to my original love of words. Puro Amor!