WOW Reads: Episode 6 - TRAP Reads Echoes of Grace by Guadalupe García McCall

Join the WOW Center Teen Reading Ambassadors (TRAP) as we discuss Echoes of Grace by Guadalupe García McCall.

Special shout out to Tucson Festival of Books!

This podcast was recorded in the Digital Innovation and Learning Lab (DIALL) in the UArizona College of Education with assistance from the UA COE Tech Team.

Co-Producer: Rebecca Ballenger, WOW Center Associate Director
Co-Producer: Sara Logan, RAP Literature Discussant and COE Graduate Student
Audio Engineer: Liam Arias, Student Employee and Radio, TV, Film Major
Coordinator: Vianey Torres, WOW Student Employee and Nursing Major

For more information on the WOW Teen Reading Ambassadors (TRAP), visit wowlit.org.

We Can Promote Global Literature Together!

The Worlds of Words Reading Ambassador program is completely free for participants who receive a book for themselves and a book to share with their school librarian, ELA/English teacher, or other school entity. If you would like to support this program, please make a gift on-line through the University of Arizona Foundation.

Thank you for listening and keep reading!

Transcript

Hello and welcome to Wow Reads, a podcast of the Worlds of Words Center of Global Literacies and Literatures, which is committed to creating an international network of people who share the vision of bringing books and children together, thereby opening windows on the world. We encourage thoughtful dialogue around global literature so that children can reflect on their own cultural experiences and connect to the experiences of children across the globe.

Worlds of Words Teen Reading Ambassador Initiative offers high school students a college experience within the University of Arizona College of Education that focuses on books for teens. Ambassadors learn about young adult literature under the direction of faculty and staff with expertise in children's literature, education, library science, and marketing.

We respectfully acknowledge the University of Arizona is on the land and territories of the indigenous peoples. Today, Arizona's home to 22 federally recognized tribes with Tucson being home to the O’Odham and the Yaqui. Committed to diversity and inclusion the university strives to build sustainable relationships with sovereign native nations and indigenous communities through education offerings, partnerships, and community service.

Okay, so. We are talking about Echoes of Grace by Guadalupe Garcia McCall, which is about a teenage girl named Grace, and she is going through tragedies of life and figuring out the history behind her mom's story while trying to figure out her own stuff. It flashes back between present and a year ago, which three years.

Oh, three years ago, which is kind of a tricky read sometimes because you don't know when she's talking about in some pages. Um, Grace goes through what her mom went through as a generational trauma situation where her grandmother is talking to her, but it's not her grandmother, it's her mother's story.

Um, Grace is, uh, I guess the word would be… How would you say? Um, like visuals? Like the echoes part? Yeah, the echoes part. What would you say that was? Is it like a visual representation? She has paranormal skills. Yeah. Paranormal, what is the word? Um, supernatural, clairvoyant, is that word? Yeah Clairvoyant. Yeah.

It's when You can talk to dead people. I thought that's kinda maybe just, yeah, it's like a mix of clairvoyant and paranormal situations, which is actually makes the book very much interesting because she feels all of it. She feels every emotion, she feels every fear, every happiness, and it's just her trying to grow up while her sister is dealing with the tragedy of the loss of her son.

And Grace just wants to re-bond with her and open up that relationship again, which is such a powerful emotion in the story. Oh, that's a great summary. Alessa, let's, how about, how about real quick? We, um, introduce ourselves and then get into it. That's, that's a, you gave us a lot of stuff to chew on. Want. I'm Rebecca.

I'm also Rebecca, I'm Sarah. I'm Echo. I'm Alessa, I’m Itzel. All right. So what, what was the most salient point of the book for you Itzel? I really like the aspects of, um, ironically generational trauma, only because I feel like, um, it's definitely real in all communities, whether you're a person of color, um, or not.

And so I really appreciated just like. Um, the aspects to generational trauma and like the bonds with mothers and grandmothers and stuff like that. And the way that, um, the author put it so delicately but also didn't shy away from sort of like pinpointing, um, the growth and kind of like setbacks that happen when you're dealing with that.

So I really appreciated those aspects. Um, So I kind of like the generation of trauma too, like as bad as that sounds, but it's because it resonates with me cuz they are, they, they're coming from a Hispanic household, or Grace is coming from a Hispanic household and it related to me because what her father does, my father does what her grandmother did, my family members do.

And it's just, it, it's amazing to see it written down and it's not. Perfect. It's not like the perfect fairytale story that you usually get when it comes to books of color that want to make it perfect At the end. It ends off on a, what will happens next, what's gonna, what's, what's the next tragedy gonna be?

So that's what I really liked. Yeah. Also, again, with generational tragedy, um, and also just beautifully how it's written and then how she incorporates the supernatural, where like she gives clear hints where you kind of like start to realize grace isn't herself, she's playing as her mother. When it goes back to like the three year time skips or like subtle little hints until like it's fully revealed and how it just plays into that toilet alert.

Yeah, sorry. Like how it just plays into that. It's just so beautifully written. And then kind of like when she goes back and tells her family, like what happens, how, like you see how it kind of helps them and then you see like how her relationship with her dad gets a bit better. How her, her, her and her sister get better.

And how like how they're moving on, they're feeling better and then her and sister go on and the goal of their life go to college, finally.

I really enjoyed. Meeting with the author of this book because we found out how much she incorporated of her own personal life into this book with her relationship with her siblings, and how um, she had a child at a really young age and had to. Work with her family and figure out how to manage that in college.

And a really big event that happens right at the beginning of the story was also inspired by something that the author witnessed, and she also incorporates her culture into it. So I really loved seeing that she really put so much of herself into this book. So yeah, we need to thank the Tucson Festival of Books for bringing, um, Guadalupe Garcia-McCall, to Tucson, where we got to meet her and talk about her process.

And that was not only a fascinating conversation, but we got to moderate one of those sessions, um, which was very, um, powerful for me for this group. What was your impression on meeting her? Um, I can go first, I think. What really resonated with me was just the advice she gave for young people, especially just like it resonated with me because I'm an oldest daughter, so, and I have a younger sibling. We're both very different, but she just kind of was like, you gotta do things for yourself, much like, um, Kind of what Grace is learning in her book. And so I think just like the advice that she gave and also just how vulnerable she was.

I think a lot of the times like authors are vulnerable, vulnerable in their stories, but not so much in real life. Like you can kind of feel the, Like the wall that they put up. But here it was very just like laid back low key. It felt like I was talking to one of my Tias, which was cool. Like she was just kind of like, she was just like a role model, which was really nice.

So I was able to take kind of what she said about her own life and her books and apply it to my life, which I really liked. Cool. Honestly, she was such a sweetheart. Um, like tell, said she was very, um, Talkative. She was very open about what she was feeling when she was writing, why it resonated with her.

And it did feel that way because when she did talk about, well, coming from a Hispanic household where you're the oldest daughter, you have to do so many things for your siblings. You have to be there for them more. And me being that for my family, it's, I know that feeling. So that's like, that was a resonate with her.

So I think that's why I saw her like you can. She made it seem like you can always see a piece of yourself in her, and that was like the best feeling from an author you can ever get. And then after the, the meet the, moderation session that we had with her, me and Echo were still able to talk to her and she was still opening up about why these are important topics to talk about and why we need to talk about them as a new generation.

I just saw how, with each question we asked she always went into like, explain like , into like very  detail into every little thing. Like the question could be like just something broad, but like she'll have something like deep to go into it and then like how it felt. Itzel said she felt like someone, how you already knew, like she was a Tia.

So it was just like really easy to talk to her.

Any final thoughts or reflections? Sara, we haven't heard much from you. Yeah, well, um, what I was really thinking about was kind of her message of sisterhood and female empowerment and shifting that narrative from telling. You know, young girls or women, be careful, dress a certain way, act this way so you don't attract, you know, the wrong…

She's like, it's not about that and we need to connect and be there for each other and, and kind of change these narratives. And then also what I thought was fantastic was how she talked about writing the characters. She wouldn't kind of force their story. She waited for characters to come to her and tell her their story.

And she talked about how sometimes they visit her in, you know, in the middle of the night she wakes up and she has this story she has to put down. And it was just this powerful, um, way that she, um, talked about her writing. So,

Um, to add on to that, she, you can tell that her writing is so very important to her and is a part of her major league because the whole waking up in the middle of the night, she talked about her characters as if they were a real person who had to really talk to her with such a wide stance of, I want you to know who I am.

And that was something that every Writer does, but not the way she said it. Like every writer was like, I wanted to write this story with this character perfectly. I wanted them to be their own person. The way she described it, they were their own person. It was something that really happened. It was someone who existed in the world.

Also adding onto what Alessa said, she also embraced like the characters' imperfections in a way, like they were actual people. And I think a lot of the times in YA, especially in like YA movie adaptations, like the people are like 20 years old and like flawless and like 120 pounds and I'm like, girl, um, excuse me, I am struggling in my actual life. Please. So it was like, It, it was real in a sense that like, yeah, I'm struggling with the things that the characters are struggling in. Like I look like those characters. I feel what those characters are feeling like. Um, it's not just about like finding the right guy or finding the right career. It was like all of the things in between that I really appreciated.

Alessa, it feels like you're not quite finished with the book. You're still... No, I finished it, but like there's no, I think… no, that's not what I mean. I mean, like you, it feels like you're reading it and rereading it and you like, it's like being a steady presence for you right now. Um, it's honestly because of how much the book meant to me.

We're taking a photo op real quick. It's honestly because how much, uh, meant to me in WOW, we read a lot of books. And it's not that they don't resonate with me guys. Um, it's more that all the books with people of color, they tend, well, except in one of them, they tend to be more of a male stance. Like Anger Is A Gift, was a male stance.

A lot of the stories in, um, I can't remember the title, what happened in the book? Oh, it was the different stories in, um, Native American. Oh, wait. Oh, the poetry book was Ancestors Approved. Yeah. By Cynthia Leitich Smith. Yeah. In Ancestors Approved. There was that, it's Ancestors Approved. I don't remember who. By, um, but there was so many stories and yes, there were some female stories.

It was mainly men, it was mainly men. And in, even in the female stories, um, there was some words that weren't correctly put in place. I'm not gonna lie, just because when you're analyzing a book the way I do, I tend to look at every small point. What did this word mean? Why was this word included? And that's just how my brain works, which is why this book means a lot.

Because every word was written so perfectly, so beautifully. It wasn't just, bam, this happened, or bam, that happened. It was like, a part of a bigger picture and I wanna find out, if this was a movie adaptation, I'd be the first one with tickets. Did you hear that? Hollywood? Yeah. I'd be crying my eyes out watching.

I would. I would. I would buy it like off the bat, no questions asked. Just rewatching and rewatching. Yeah. Pay the writers. That's right. We're in the middle of a writer's strike, a shout out to the strikers. Yeah. Don't cross the picket line, Alessa. Hopefully that they will negotiate something that is, you know, fair, $30.5 million.

You know, something well know. It's so weird. There's so many books that they make at, like, they're running out of ideas, so they're making some really awkward movies and there's so many books that deserve a movie shot. Like this one. Like this one? Yeah. Mm-hmm. I don't know. I thought Super Mario Bros was pretty cool.

Oh my God. Anyway, all right. Well let's say a big thank you to Guadalupe. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. You are now my new hero. Welcome and thank you to Liam Arias, our sound engineer. Thank you to Sara Logan, our lit discussant. Thank you to the Digital Innovation and Learning Lab here in the College of Education at the University of Arizona, where we get to record Wow Reads.

And one final note, if you are listening to this podcast and you have a question for one of our ambassadors or about the program, you can email wow@arizona.edu. That's w o w dot a r i z o n a dot e d u.