“I think it's really important to be transparent about the place from which you write and the way that place determines your relationship to that which you write about,” award-winning author of Lost Children Archive Valeria Luiselli tells Alicia in this provocative conversation about the meaning and limits of identity. Luiselli, a green card holder, fully recognizes she is “someone who has enormous privilege and therefore also enormous responsibility toward my community.” That sense of duty compelled her to volunteer as a court translator for Central American children who were being processed as asylum seekers during the Obama administration. And it continues to help her interrogate her place in the world as an artist.

Follow Valeria on Twitter @ValeriaLuiselli and IG @valeria.luiselli. If you loved this episode, listen to to-latina.simplecast.com/episodes/how-author-frances-de-pontes-peebles-finds-power-in-writing">Frances de Pontes Peebles and to-latina.simplecast.com/episodes/carmen-maria-machado-is-bending-queer-narratives-to-fit-her-reality">Carmen Maria Machado for more on summoning the muse.  Show your love and become a Latina to Latina Patreon supporter!