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INTRODUCTION

A richly imagined debut novel of friendship and forgiveness, Frontera Street explores the physical, cultural, and emotional borders that shape our lives. Carrying secrets and an unborn child, Dee Paxton leaves the affluent neighborhood of her youth and walks straight into Frontera Street Fabrics—a little shop in the barrio only blocks from her home, but worlds apart. Though Alma Cruz is not impressed with her new coworker, she can't help but appreciate her need for a friend. A single mother herself, Alma knows what it's like to raise a child alone—and she's not without her own secrets. But there is a price to pay for months of lies, and certain lines can be dangerous to cross.

ABOUT TANYA MARIA BARRIENTOS

Tanya Maria Barrientos, a journalist for more than 20 years, is a staff writer at the Philadelphia Inquirer. Her fiction was awarded a 2001 fellowship by the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts, and the 2001 Pew Fellowship in the Arts. Born in Guatemala, she grew up in a Texas border town like the characters in her book. She is currently working on her next novel.

AN INTERVIEW WITH TANYA MARIA BARRIENTOS

What inspired you to write a novel about the lives of such different women colliding in a border town?

Before I even considered writing a novel, I wrote a short story about Septima's miracle muffin. I also wrote a short story about Socorro as a much younger child and one about Alma when she was working for Mrs. Campbell. The short stories were really more like character-studies than anything else. So, I guess the novel developed when I couldn't stop thinking about these people I had created.

How did these stories turn into Frontera Street?

It took many drafts and six years of writing before work and on weekends to get it done. Along the way, I had a version that told the whole story from Socorro's point of view until I realized that a teenager would not be able to fully understand the psychological and sociological undertones of a border town like Los Cielos. So, I threw out that version and had each character tell the story from her own point of view.

How did you create Los Cielos? Is it based on a real place?

I grew up in El Paso, Texas, which isn't as racially segregated as Los Cielos. But it certainly shares an emotional divide that I think is common to all border towns. I haven't lived in El Paso since I was eighteen, but I did base some of the places in the book—the fancy high school on the West Side, the downtown plaza, the irrigated cotton fields—on my memories of life there. But, naturally, after all these years, even those memories are probably not very realistic. So, I'd say Los Cielos is mostly fictional.

Are there any other details that are drawn from your own life?

I studied ballet very seriously, for thirteen years, and really wanted to become a professional dancer. However, I only grew to be five feet tall and very few ballet companies would even consider such small dancers.

What do you consider the major theme of this novel?

Well, the word frontera means border in Spanish, and I wanted to write about crossing the invisible borders that often keep people from understanding each other. America is a place that was created, in part, to allow people to cross lines, to step from one world into the next. Here we can cross lines not just of race and ethnicity but of social class and culture. Alma knew that and chose, essentially, to put her own life on hold so that Socorro could be born in America and take advantage of this.

Socorro and Alma are not the only ones who cross borders, though, are they?

No. The borders that Dee crosses are as important as the more obvious ones of Socorro and Alma. Dee's assumptions about barrio life are shattered when she explores a world that had previously existed only parallel to hers. By stepping across that divide, she gains a true sense of community when she needs it most.

What are some of the other themes of Frontera Street and how did they evolve?

I live quite far from my parents and my only brother, and I don't get to see them as often as I'd like. Over the years, though, I have developed a community of friends who are as close and dear to me as family. I think that many people have created new families in this way and I wanted to emphasize the importance of this kind of community building. True friendship transcends racial, economic, and social divides—so I guess this circles back to the theme of borders, too!

What about multi-culturalism?

Yes, that is definitely an important theme within the novel. So often people are fearful of others' ways. Alma and Dee came from a generation that believed fitting in meant having to be just like everyone around them. But Socorro teaches them that it's possible to straddle both worlds. Embracing somebody else's culture doesn't mean you have to discard your own. It's not always easy to keep a foot in each world but it's done by millions of people from dozens of ethnic groups in America every day.

What are you working on now?

I'm writing a novel about three generations of Guatemalan woman living in the same house. I was born in Guatemala and came to the United States with my parents when I was three years old, so it's a story that is close to my heart.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Do you think Dee made the right choice in sending the invitation? Did Alma do the right thing in keeping the truth from Socorro? Is it possible to do the wrong thing for the right reasons, and are these examples of that?
   

2. Do you think La Llorona was a real apparition or merely a psychological manifestation of Alma's fears? Does it matter?
   

3. Discuss Socorro's role in this story. How does she serve as a bridge between old and new, Latina and American? Could Alma and Dee have crossed their personal borders without Socorro?
   

4. Talk about the borders you have crossed in your own life. Have there been times when you could not overcome the boundaries between yourself and someone else no matter how hard you tried? Can one person bridge a cultural divide without another's welcome?
   

5. Discuss the transitional moment when Alma starts to warm up to Dee. What are the factors that contributed to her ability to see past her preconceptions of Dee?
   

6. Are cultural differences meaningful? Discuss why they are important to our sense of identity. When do they become more burdensome than enriching? Can you show examples of this in the book? Examples that have come up in current events? Examples from your own life?