Caribbean Authors & Writers

[0:11] Natalie Saldarriaga: Okay so today we are here with author Yvette Canoura to talk about two published novels of her trilogy: Mediterranean Sunrise [Sunset], which won the 2019 Louisiana Author Project Award, and Children of Antarah. And we will also be discussing how she connects her personal life to her writing. So first of all Yvette I would like to thank you so much for sitting down and taking, you know, the time out of your day to talk to me [laughs].

[0:41] Yvette Canoura: Oh, this is one of the joys of my life to talk to people. Especially talk about my books.

[0:46] Natalie: [laughs]

[0:47] Yvette: Actually you’re predicting the future because it’s Mediterranean Sunset, but the last one is going to be Puerto Rican Sunrise.

[0:56] Natalie: Oh I said sunrise! [laughs]

[0:58] Yvette: Yeah that’s okay, but let me tell you I mean…

[1:00] Natalie: Sorry.

[1:02] Yvette: …sunrise, sunset… they are the two most beautiful moments of the day…

[1:06] Natalie: Of course.

[1:07] Yvette: …And I am looking forward to Puerto Rican Sunrise because Puerto Rico as you can tell behind me the flag it’s so dear to my heart. I’m here right now. And, I get such a joy to wake up every morning and see the sunrise and know that I am in Puerto Rico, so…

[1:28] Natalie: Oh beautiful.

[1:29] Yvette: …it was a beautiful reminder of what’s to come and thank you.

[1:33] Natalie: I’m sorry. No! Mediterranean Sunset, Sunset. [laughs]

[1:39] Yvette: That’s okay you…

[1:40] Natalie: But yeah it was like perfect…

[1:42] Yvette: Yeah. When I went to Syria for the first time and saw that sunset I was like,“Wow this is a beautiful title for a book.” I was in the Mediterranean watching the sunset. I said, “Mediterranean Sunset,” not really knowing what the book was truly going to be about, but that view was so romantic and touched my heart so we had to write about it [laughs].

[2:08] Natalie: Of course, of course. And also I want to let you know that I really enjoyed reading both the books and I’m excited for Puerto Rican Sunrise [laughs]

[2:18] Yvette: [laughs] Thank you…

[2:19] Natalie: Um…

[2:20] Yvette: …thank you.

[2:20] Natalie: I really love the messages behind both books. I think they’re beautiful.

[2:25] Yvette: Thank you. I appreciate it. It’s always interesting to see what other people are going to think about your work and sometimes people maybe don’t get it but I don’t know. It’s kind of like the people do get it you feel that immediate connection like you could read part of my soul through my books and when I see that kind of excitement in your face after you say that you read them and you enjoyed them I feel that we’re already connected at some level…

[2:59] Natalie: Yeah.

[2:59] Yvette: …and that’s for an author… I think the biggest joy of being an author is just knowing that people appreciate what you put out there for them to enjoy and to also learn from it.

[3:13] Natalie: Yeah, yeah. Cause also there’s always a part of you in the novel even if it’s a completely different world than what you live, right?

[3:21] Yvette: Exactly. Even though in some ways I do live these worlds. Maybe not that much in the second book because I’ve probably been to Washington, D.C. once or twice in my life, but I always liked that political world and that intrigue. Uh, but the parts of Antarah… Antarah is a fictitious country because my husband’s from Syria and I don’t want to be banned from Syria if they don’t really like all the messages in…

[3:57] Natalie: Oh, I see.

[3:57] Yvette:…the book. But I do feel extremely connected to the Middle East. I mean my husband’s from Syria. Syria was a country that opened its arms to me when I went about five times before all the political turmoil it’s going through right now. And the people of Syria were wonderful to me. His family, my husband’s family, was wonderful and to know that my child now has that piece of New Orleans which is where I live and has that piece of Syria and Puerto Rico… this perfect blend, merge of cultures and languages. And every place has its own beauty and the people of all three places are warm, are wonderful, and to be able to connect all those dots through my books is just a great feeling.

[4:59] Natalie: Yeah of course. How nice. And of course we are going to get into the book. We are going to get into all of that, but first I’d like to start with you and your beginnings. Which I think are really interesting. So, you were, from my understanding, you were born in the Bronx, but later you moved and basically you grew up in Puerto Rico. That’s correct, right?

[5:21] Yvette: Correct.

[5:22] Natalie: Okay…

[5:22] Yvette: Yes my…

[5:22] Natalie: Mhm.

[5:23] Yvette: My father is a professional musician. He’s gonna turn ninety this year which is exciting. And he still works and has his gigs. His life is music. And when I was three my mom and my dad decided to relocate to Puerto Rico. My father is from Spain. From Galicia. From La Coruña. And my mom is from Puerto Rico, or was, she passed away when I was twelve. But we came to Puerto Rico and that was the boom of the music industry in Puerto Rico. So my dad was able to play at all the clubs with all the stars that would come to entertain the Puerto Rican people here and he did TV shows and I was always in that atmosphere. He used to fix mus[ic]… instruments in Puerto Rico too. So my life was musicians coming in and out bringing their wind instruments for my dad to fix them so it was kind of exciting to meet all those people. Go to the TV stations and I became passionate about journalism so I decided to approach this editor from a newspaper when I was sixteen and she gave me the first opportunity to write and after that I really knew that interviewing, television, radio… that was what my life… what I wanted to do with my life. So I started at age sixteen at a newspaper then I relocate to New Orleans…

[7:01] Natalie: Yeah.

[7:02] Yvette: …to go to Loyola University where they started a new communications program with a new building so I…

[7:09] Natalie: Wow.

[7:09] Yvette: …was able to break it in which was great. And I understood that that was my passion. Uh, I never thought I would write books.That wasn’t really in my agenda because I consider myself more of an interviewer but…

[7:24] Natalie: Oh, I see.

[7:25] Yvette: …life changes and evolves and I had this opportunity and this idea and I decided well me see what happens. The worst thing that could happen is I start writing, realize it’s not for me and at least I have a small article. Let’s put it that way. But, uh, wow…

[7:45] Natalie: Yeah.

[7:46] Yvette: The journey of writing and that …

[7:48] Natalie: Of course.

[7:49] Yvette: …world that you could create and develop in your mind and all the things that you could say through a book and all the impact you can make was truly a surprise to me, but I always say that God touches you in some way. You don’t know sometimes what your purpose in life is, but then you come up with this crazy idea of writing a book and you don’t realize that there was a purpose there in educating. Talking to people about the culture, religion, food, so many things and…

[8:22] Natalie: Yeah.

[8:23] Yvette: …how that impacts others and that really blew my mind because I really didn’t know that that was part of my purpose and it has kind of has become like a crusade in some ways of education about Islam, and all the beauties culturally and religiously about the Arab world.

[8:45] Natalie: Yeah. Wow. Beautiful. And just to go back to your parent’s story. Just cause I find it so interesting that we usually hear the opposite, right? So we usually hear of Puerto Ricans coming to the US and staying in the US and making their lives there, but your parents kind of did the opposite, right? They immigrated to the US and then they decided to go to Puerto Rico. So how long did your parents live in the US and did they ever like talk to you about what their experience was like in the US?

[9:18] Yvette: To tell you the truth, the most fond memory that I have about when they were in the US… they both arrived when they were small. My dad was four years old and my mom might have been a teenager. You see she passed away when I was twelve unfortunately I wasn’t able to play journalist with her which would have been fantastic because I would probably have all these cool stories. But the story that always pops up is that my grandmother had told my mom not to go dancing at the Palladium and my dad was at the Palladium the night they met, so she went there. And the day before their wedding she mentioned to… someone asked, “How did you guys meet?” and my mom said, “At the Palladium,” and my grandmother stood up and slapped her and said, “Didn’t I tell you not to go to the Palladium?” So, that always was an impact to me because I was like that’s a crazy thought, but you know parents those days especially were very strict and I guess she was extremely bothered but who knew that that visit that was not supposed to happen brought her the love of her life and they had a wonderful marriage for the almost twenty five years that they were married before she passed away.

[10:38] Natalie: Wow.

[10:39] Yvette: So, they… I remember them saying that they moved because they were already tired of the cold weather in New York so they came escaping the cold coming to the warm weather and I’m sure in some ways my dad being in the music business probably knew that a lot of things musically were happening in Puerto Rico. So he came to take that venture and he had recorded the “Watusi” with Ray Barreto. He’s the flute of the “Watusi” and he had a good track record as a musician. So my mom, who was the hustle and bustle person, basically went into a club in Isla Verde in Puerto Rico at a San Juan hotel, El Tropicor[o] . I don’t know if it was in San Juan or another hotel that was next to, I can’t remember the name. I think it was called Americana or something anyway there was this gentleman by the name of Pijuan and he had a sexteto so my mom went in there and said, “I have the perfect saxophone and flute player for you. He recorded the ‘Watusi’.” She basically was the manager and he was like, “Well bring him in and let’s see what he can do,” and of course he was impressed with my dad. And that’s where it all started. But my mom really… I wouldn’t doubt that she told my dad, “let’s go to Puerto Rico and don’t worry I’ll make things happen for you.” I mean, he’s an extremely talented man, but he’s also shy until he gets on stage and then he burst with all this beauty and all this talent which is fascinating to see, but in his regular day to day you know he’s an average just a nice little old man super cool and you would think that… you would never imagine that he’s such a talented musician. So, my mom did good by him and by us because thanks to that move I got to understand everything about Puerto Rico and I got to develop this passion that I never knew I would have because when you’re young you don’t appreciate what you have usually and then the longer I stayed in the United States and even though I enjoy my life and I am thankful to New Orleans for embracing me. And I have friends over there and I enjoy also this cultural blend that’s in New Orleans. I also longed the idea of being in Puerto Rico and being in a place that I consider my country. The only regret I have is not being born in Puerto Rico because I am so Puerto Rican that it’s kind of like a shame that I wasn’t born here, but in some ways it make it even more interesting because it shows that it’s not really where you’re born but the place where you grow up where you develop friends and connections and that’s what you call home truly. And Puerto Rico will always be my home. My first home and New Orleans is my second home.

[14:12] Natalie: [laughs].

[14:13] Yvette: And I love both of them but I’m just a beach person. I think if New Orleans had a beach maybe it would be a[n] easier sell but having the ocean in front of me that’s such an inspiration, that really makes… I never imagined the impact that this island would have in my life. Truly.

[14:35] Natalie: And where in Puerto Rico did you grow up?

[14:39] Yvette: I grew up in Santurce in an area called Miramar and then I would walk like two, three blocks to school. I went to Academia Santa Monica from kindergarten to my last year of high school and then from there I went to Louisiana. But Santa Monica was a great place for me. I cultivated good friends, teachers that are still today my friends. My Spanish teacher that taught me how to put all the accents, how to polish my writing. I mean she was harsh but thank to her I learned the right language and I’m proud of it. And she’s still a friend till today and I’m forever grateful of my education and the opportunities I had.

[15:29] Natalie: And did you have a favorite author or writer growing up that has influenced you now?

[15:36] Yvette: I mean I really can’t recall. My memory is kind of selective. It’s kind of weird in that way, but I used to do oratoria and we used to like memorize segments like I remember Los soles truncos. We used to memorize different segments from different books,plays, acts and stuff like that and I remember I always would pick something that would impact me and I really enjoyed that and then there was another section where you could improvise and that was also very interesting because I felt that then I could let loose because I started writing songs when I was twelve. So, but Gabriel García Márquez… I just remember like all these like literary geniuses that we had to, you know, read in school and just being fascinated by the writing and the messages but never really thinking that that would be something that I would be interested in at some point. Maybe I just thought about I would love to interview these people but never thought that I would do what they do because you know it’s just difficult to compare. How could someone put together all these beautiful books? All these ideas it’s something that is difficult to fathom you could one day try to, you know, do a portion of what they’ve achieved.

[17:06] Natalie: Yeah, hm definitely. So as you mentioned earlier by the time you were sixteen you were already a journalist. Which is extremely impressive [laughs].

[17:18] Yvette: Thank you. Thank you.

[17:19] Natalie: So when did you first…

[17:20] Yvette: So…

[17:21] Natalie: Yeah sorry. Go ahead.

[17:23] Yvette: No, I don’t know if there is any record of this, but at the time I was told that I was the youngest journalist in Puerto Rico which wouldn’t surprise me. I mean it was like ‘82-‘83. I was sixteen. And even at the TV stations when I used to go interview soap opera stars they would say like, “Why is a student coming to interview us? Can they get any younger their journalist?” And I would be like, “You know I have the same level of professionalism than any educated journalist,” if you want to put it that way. But it was something that was in me and I always enjoyed researching my subject and I was always full of questions and I felt that you always go from basic to complex and as their telling you the story of their lives you always will pick and choose things that are interesting and develop from there was just I feel that we all again have a purpose in life and knew that at that point in my life my purpose was to be a journalist and I was clear about it and that’s why I went straight to Loyola to study journalism because I knew that’s what I wanted to do with my life.

[18:39] Natalie: Yeah. Is there something specific in journalism that drew you to that career path at such a young age?

[18:46] Yvette: Well the thing I was very much into La Farándula, all the singers and soap opera actors. I was very into that. I would sit down since I was a small child in my grandma’s lap to watch novelas. So, the novelas were big influence in my life actually, probably even in my writing because I remember playing with Barbie dolls and creating dialogues between Ken and Barbie about love and all this stuff. And I think the novelas were a great influence and just the idea of meeting all of these people that I was a fan of, but at the same time I wanted a level of respect that a fan sometimes doesn’t get because they’re used to people saying, “Oh I love your work,” and “You’re so great and can I take a picture with you?” and all, but as a journalist I felt I would have certain control that I was doing something for their career so they would respect that and then taking a picture with them or just asking them questions didn’t seem like this young fan just that just wants to be close to me to take a picture and show their friends. You know? I thought it gave me this level of I could help you, you could help me and it felt great. I would go into TV stations with a press card in my uniform. It was kind of surreal when you think about it. I got some soap opera actors to come for career day at my school to talk to students about acting, you know. So I always took it an extra level. I always tried to find some common ground between an actor, an actress and myself. Such as at the time I was a strict vegetarian and it was when the movement of naturismo and everything natural and vegetarianism was a big boom in Puerto Rico at the time and a lot of these soap opera stars and singers were into the movement so that was a common ground that I could talk to them about. And that brought us together in some way and then I would feel more comfortable to [say] “Look our school is having a career day. Would you like to come talk to students about…” I mean I truly… it’s even a blur sometimes I recall these things. Sometimes my friends remind me, “Oh do you remember when you brought such and such?” and I’m like,“Oh yeah that’s true.” It’s real weird. I don’t know. I try to pin-point it at the… because my mom died when I was twelve, but then a lot of the things… I mean… I have always picked and choosed things that I remember or choose to remember… I don’t know if that experience made me want to block certain things but some of the things are good memories so I don’t understand how my mind works in many ways, but I’m so glad that I am surrounded by people who are my memory including my husband who tells me some things that I’m like, “Oh yeah I forgot about that,” and it’s great because if you leave it up to me, uh, I probably remember things about my characters and my character’s memories more than my own [laughs].

[22:17] Natalie: [laughs].

[22:19] Yvette: So…

[22:20] Natalie: It seems like it was always like second nature to you… for you to be like a communicator… would you agree with that?

[22:27] Yvette: Apparently so…

[22:28] Natalie: [laughs].

[22:30] Yvette: You know I’ve always loved to talk and ever since… when again I have to go back to when my mom passed away. I think I kind of came out of a bubble. Maybe I was trying to be more like she was, outgoing, because that happened when I was in eighth grade and when I started high school I started to become a student leader and I would get up and talk to groups and I just enjoyed that leadership part. Uh, I liked always also to find talent and have that talent blossom. Like I had a friend who was an artist and I felt that he was a little pushed to the side, people didn’t understand him, but I saw his talent his painting and now he’s a painter and he does very well for himself. You know, his art sells very well and he’s beautiful but I had him do like all the bulletin boards and murals at the school because I knew he had this talent and I wanted it blossom so I’ve always liked to find something that people are good at and try to help them discover how far they could go with what they have in them and that I consider… I mean I would love to be a talent agent in some ways because I would love to see just regular people walking down the street that I could see like wow she would make a great model or listen to a voice, wow we could take her all the way as a singer and even writers you know anything that I see that’s talent I feel that sometimes people are afraid to fail I guess… but the thing is that part of life is failure because failure helps you grow and sometimes you think you want something so bad and you realize that’s not part of the path. So, we can’t see failure as a negative thing. We have to see it as a part of growth and life and you know an opportunity that God gives us to open our eyes and see that there’s much more than what we thought is out there for us so, you know.

[24:58] Natalie: Yeah. It’s usually a blessing in disguise, right?

[25:01] Yvette: Exactly. At the time it seems like the end of the world. Just like I wasn’t supposed to go to Loyola. In my dream world I was going to go to Boston University, but things didn’t work out and I was like so upset. I didn’t know anything about New Orleans. I didn’t know anything about Loyola just that they had a good communications program that a new building was opening up and who knew? I had to be in New Orleans because that’s where I met my husband. He wasn’t going to go to Boston, he was coming to New Orleans because he had a family member there. So what seemed like the end of the world at that point because I wanted to go to Boston so bad and it didn’t work out and I was like oh you know I saw… I felt as a failure because I had done everything right in my book. All the leadership, the grades, everything but things didn’t work out and I really thought it was, at that point my life at age seventeen, the end of the world and look at all the doors that opened thanks to going to New Orleans so you know it’s difficult as a young person to understand God’s purpose but as we grow older and we go in retrospect and we look back on our lives we realize that God has a perfect master plan. And if we just listen and let things align themselves naturally and I’m not saying don’t go for your dreams, but if things don’t work out at the time it’s not the end of the road. It’s not the end of life. It’s just a new beginning to look at other options in your life.

[26:41] Natalie: Yeah definitely. When did you first consider yourself to be a writer?

[26:52] Yvette: Mmm…. well depends on what level because as a songwriter, when I was twelve, I already considered myself a songwriter even though no one was listening to what I had to say but I had a nice little file that kept developing and now it’s like a book this thick of songs that come to me with music. I do not know how to write music unfortunately and my dad when I said I wanted to play the flute he gave me the little piece of the flute where you blow and he says, “Blow for four months if you’re still interested in four months then we’ll talk.” So I did it for a day, I started getting dizzy and I was like, “This isn’t for me,” so I don’t know if that was the right advice on his behalf but obviously it wasn’t in my path to play the flute. But anyway music comes to me. My songs come with music so I record them so most of them have music at that point. I thought I was already a songwriter. Not on a professional level but I had that inspiration and I knew that I could come up with material that I thought was very romantic and very… that touches me til today when I you know out of the blue start singing my songs and I say like wow this is cool you know the emotions that you feel like as a teenager that you think that you found true love and you realize its not. But at least that emotion allowed me to feel inspired and to write those songs and then when I started working as a journalist at age sixteen that I realized my work was being published. If it was good enough for publishing and I thought well you know I’m a writer but then when I went to college and I realized that my English wasn’t as polished as I thought and I was doing direct translations and I kept getting D’s on my papers with red line and all this stuff and I was like so hurt thinking I’m a journalist in Puerto Rico how can I not cut it here? How can I get D’s in papers and all this? And then I found my papers twenty years later because I save everything and I started reading and I said, “This was bad.” I didn’t understand it at the time but I realized that that kind of criticism allowed me to become a better writer in English. So I do have to say that uh, my communication teachers at Loyola University at the time did me a great favor because again at the time it seemed like the end of the world, but thanks to that kind of harsh criticism I realized that I had to focus more in not direct translate from English… from Spanish to English and my writing eventually took off but you know… writing is like exercising like any process that you take on that you have to do it everyday you have to get better at it. You’re never good enough, there’s always so much to learn. Uh, we’re just as good as the last thing we write and we keep trying to push ourselves to be better writers, better people, allow experience in life to supplement our writing and again in my case just let God lead the way because sometimes I don’t even know how I come up with some of these things and I feel that God pops these ideas in my mind and I’m like this is crazy. Some of the ideas maybe he wouldn’t be that pro but you know I just feel like how else could this… it’s like divine intervention so I just go with it.

[30:44] Natalie: Okay, alright. So it’s kind of like an ever evolving thing?

[30:49] Yvette: Definitely. It’s ever… It’s just like spiritualism, like anything self improvement. It evolves everyday and some days you’re like, “This makes no sense it’s not good enough.” You question yourself… but I think that if you don’t question yourself consistently, you don’t push yourself to be better so you know it’s just.. I don’t know… throughout my life I just keep learning that we’re here to learn everyday something new. Nothing is set in stone, you’ll never know everything and maybe it’s alright. You don’t have to know everything but at least you have to be a better person, you know? I take it more like the work I do on myself as an individual as a human being at the end of the day that’s what you take with you and that’s what you leave for other people to hopefully admire from you because books, writings, articles all of this has it’s immediate high when everything booming and you feel so great about your accomplishments, but then at the end of the day all those things fade. But if you’re happy with who you are as a person and what you have been able to accomplish especially for others and as a giver that’s really what counts in your life. This is just like extra; this is just like icing on the cake a little sprinkles to make life a little more interesting. But life is about the journey of giving and being a good person and working on yourself to be the best person you can be. So all this is fluff. This is just fluff to keep you going to make you feel, you know, you have to have these feelings every once in a while that, “Oh I accomplished this and I set goals,” and you know but ultimately it’s just about your legacy. What you leave that you did good for others. That’s my opinion.

[33:05] Natalie: Yeah definitely. No, I agree, I agree. So, on to the books.

[33:11] Yvette: Yes.

[33:12] Natalie: Um, how, when did you decide that you wanted to write a book?

[33:18] Yvette: Well, when I went to Syria for the first time with my husband Ibrahim in 2006 or 2007 as I told you earlier I see this Mediterranean sunset like, “Uh, this is a great title for a book.” More than likely romance, but then my favorite genre is suspense so I start concocting in a very mild way a possible idea for a book and then I guess when I got back to New Orleans I started to think more about, “Wow could this be a reality?” and I basically combined ideas of experiences that had happened in Syria. Um, I don’t know… I don’t know how to explain it. It just came to me at some point. I remember I’m a big notebook person writing ideas in notebooks. I know that when I went to Syria I was writing how did things sound in Spanish to help my pronunciation in Arabic so I would write it. I would put the accents. So I started first writing to try and learn some Arabic, then recipes, then I started listening to different anecdotes and things that happened to people from his family. So I started writing down some ideas I thought might work somehow and then I combined some of those ideas in some of my storylines. Uh, I fell in love with the culture with the people. After [9/11]… well this book started truly believe it or not the idea of writing per say might have started in around 2000 or so. Maybe I did come up with the idea that I wanted to write a book, but then I went to Syria I kind of came up with the title and I ke[pt] evolving with the idea then when 9/11 hit I was like, “Oh my god no one wants to know anything about the Arab world. This is going to be a super tough sell,” and I just left it there. Just waiting for something to happen. But I would take it out and I would tweak it here and there and somehow the story line evolved, came through. I have…one day, you know, I have like a pile of different papers, different ideas, like collect everything how I got inspired why did I get inspired and then I put it together and I had other people read it which is terrifying because you don’t know if they’re going to give you a true assessment of your writing or their just going to try to be nice so that was a little challenging. And then I met someone who did book editing and she said she’d give it a look and she really liked it, but she was more into Spanish and my writing comes in English first and then I do the translation with a friend, Marina Alemán , who’s been a blessing. God brought her to my life years ago but I never knew that the ultimate purpose was for us to work as a team translating and its really made our friendship develop and it’s been great, but this lady sent my work to another editing person who worked more in English and she really liked it, but she gave it you know… she felt that certain things needed to be developed. When you get for the first time in your life this critique that something that you thought was done ready to go and that it needs development… wow that’s like a total block. It’s like I can’t do this. I already finished with this book. I don’t want to revisit this idea and stuff like that. And then I said, “Okay Yvette take a deep breath and don’t take like the ten things at once. Go one by one.” So I would take an idea the first day and develop it and then when I really got what she meant like don’t show me tell me… don’t tell me show me. Show me why this person is so special just don’t tell me oh he’s a wonderful human being. No show me through actions what makes him a wonderful human being and I’m like, “Oh my god how could such a simple concept be,”… you know how could I…. Why didn’t I think about that? But sometimes you need something else with a fresh perspective and then who totally has nothing to do with the project to tell you these simple things. So I took each idea and I developed it and truly I mean that kicked up the book another notch and it was fantastic and I was able to track her down so when I worked on my second book I realized that she’s like in her late twenties, early thirties so when she did that editing she was still borderline teenager, but she was such an avid reader and she was so good at it that she had all these great ideas so now when I was able to… she came to Puerto Rico I was able to meet her because she’s from Puerto Rico but she studied in an all English school here and she went to college in the US and now she’s working for a publishing company also and it was so cool to finally meet her and to have her work on my second book because again she found those things uh, don’t tell me show me like I would… like lets say go into Children of Antarah there’s a scene where the father is with the daughter and I said that, “Oh they have such a wonderful relation[ship],” so she says, “Show me something that a father would have that would make this relationship special.” So I looked on the internet what things do fathers do for daughters for them to bond and they said braiding the hair and I’m like, “Oh my God! This guys is surgeon he has great hands. He could do all these wonderful things.” It was creating the special bond between father and daughter. And I have a son so I would have never thought about hair braiding but that truly made visually that relationship special.

[40:09] Natalie: Yeah.

[40:11] Yvette: And that the tip that she was able to give me

[40:14] Natalie: Hm.

[40:15] Yvette: That was extremely gratifying and I’m extremely grateful…

[40:20] Natalie: Yeah.

[40:21]Yvette: …for her.

[40:22] Natalie: Wow… wow.. So some of the main characters in the book share the same name as some of the real people in your life. So my question is um, are there therapeutic benefits to modeling a character after someone you know or is it like really difficult and you wouldn’t recommend it? [laughs]

[40:44] Yvette: I think it’s a beautiful thing obviously if you have a beautiful relationship and these people are special to you because in my books I kind of leave a piece of my history. It’s a forever reminding… reminder of who the real Ibrahim is, who the real Hasan is. Uh, I mean personally I wouldn’t have it any other way. I didn’t set out to do that but now I feel that I’m leaving a piece of my story not only for the reader but for my son for generations to come for Ibrahim’s family. Like, the family scenes in Syria all that I lived it and I say that all the beautiful parts in my book are me, my relationship, and all the not that beautiful that comes from the imagination which is kind of cool because you could combine something that would be totally not me with something that is me and I think it’s a great way to just leave on paper something that has meant so much to you and to your life…

[42:06] Natalie: Yeah.

[42:07] Yvette: …to be able to talk about Ibrahim the way that I do in these books to me it’s important because Ibrahim is a wonderful human being inside and out. And it’s a blessing. He’s a blessing in my life. God truly created this individual for me and he’s brought me great joy, great inspiration, he’s taught me so much and then we were both able to create this wonderful human being in Hasan. You know, our son is also a person that I pray and I know God’s going to bring a woman who will truly appreciate his value because he’s a wonderful human being and again it’s about you being able to instill all your beliefs, your morals, your ethics to someone that’s part of you…

[43:07] Natalie: Yeah.

[43:08] Yvette: …and to know that you’re leaving that human being for society to enjoy, you know, and for other people to model behaviors and things that you feel proud. And you know we were very fortunate and I wish God would have given me more children but I can’t complain because Hasan, you know, we waited 10 years to have Hasan because I wanted to enjoy our marriage and I wanted to travel and do all these wonderful things and then we final decided to have Hasan and I was like, “If it doesn’t happen now its not going to happen because we are having too much fun alone,” but Hasan was truly a wow… uh, I decided I want to stay home. I didn’t want to go out and work. I thank God Ibrahim was able to give me that gift of staying home to raise Hasan…

[44:07] Natalie: So… would you say that Fatima the main character is based off of you? Or some of her characteristics are based off of you?

[44:16] Yvette: Maybe some of the characteristics. I mean I really can’t envision myself as a character personally it’s kind of weird, but it does have a lot of you know because if Ibrahim is this wonderful person and Fatima and Ibrahim have this wonderful relationship well I guess there’s a lot of Fatima in me which makes the relationship work.

[44:41] Natalie: Yeah

[44:42] Yvette: So, the passion of the both of them cooking together entertaining. I mean that’s a passion that we share and that I think has brought us closer together as a couple, uh, you know again I model some of the feelings what I felt for the people of Syria when I went just like Fatima feels for Ibrahim’s family when she meets them you know. So, there are a lot of my feelings there and a lot of who I am, but…

[45:14] Natalie: Yeah.

[45:15] Yvette: But you know, Fatima is too, you know fabulous and has known what being wealthy means and all these things that are kind of cool you know for a character but, you know, they’re not necessar[ily]… what I like about Fatima is maybe even with her upbringing… ritzy upbringing she’s still a down to earth person. So she’s still Yvette even though she doesn’t have Yvette’s upbringing but I just think that that combination of ritziness and down to earth-ness is nice, you know?

[45:55] Natalie: Yeah, yeah. [laughs]

[45:56] Yvette: Best of both worlds

[45:57] Natalie: [laughs]

[45:58] Yvette: [laughs]

[45:59] Natalie: Yeah. And one thing I wanted to ask you about Fatima is that like I mentioned she’s the main character of the trilogy, right? And so she’s a Muslim-American girl who’s parents are from Antarah, right?

[46:11] Yvette: Correct.

[46:12] Natalie: And she was born and raised in the US. And in Mediterranean Sun[set], the first book. She finds herself in a position…

[46:18] Yvette: Sunset [laughs]…

[46:19] Natalie: Sun…

[46:20] Yvette: You love the sunrise!

[46:21] Natalie: Ah!

[46:22] Yvette: You love the sunrise!

[46:23] Natalie: I have the sunrise in my brain!

[46:26] Yvette: I know! Well it’s still day time.

[46:27] Natalie: I’m sorry.

[46:28] Yvette: That’s alright.

[46:30] Natalie: I’m so sorry. Mediterranean Sunset she finds herself in a position where she wants to abide by like her Muslim culture, but she feels like she’s going against how she envisioned her life would be, right. So my question is have you ever found yourself in a position similar to Fatima’s where like you want to respect cultural traditions, but they seem to go against your own feelings and your beliefs?

[46:55] Yvette: Not really, I just think that that part of the Muslim world has always been intriguing to me because I always consider myself a very self-assured, no one’s going to tell me what to do. I have… I could act on my own. You know, I am fairly liberal if you want to put it that way. But I find it fascinating how that level respect towards your elders, especially a father figure, would allow you to give up some of yourself to not disappoint someone who you admire and love that way. And I’ve always found that aspect fascinating and I know that many women have, you know, just followed what their parents want them to do especially in the Muslim world. Whether its because of financial benefits that in her case that wasn’t the case, but in her case was just like a loyalty and because her mom had passed away and she felt that her mom always told her, “Follow what your father tells you because father knows best.” I think that that level of double loyalty pushed her into doing something that went totally against what her heart told her, but I just think that that kind of dilemma is a heck of a dilemma to have and I wouldn’t want to be put in that kind of position so, I thought it was interesting to explore how my character would handle it and based on cultural tradition and religion I felt that most people maybe not today but this starts like in the eighties and then it keeps moving as our timeline moves with the last part of the trilogy from like 2015/16 to present time so we are going to cover everything that’s been going on in Puerto Rico in those years and COVID and all the everything that has… you know that’s contemporary to us. But in the eighties I think that, uh, that still people and maybe still till today would probably follow what their parents would ask of them because of whatever reasoning behind. And then of course you know its a slap in the face when she finds out the reasoning behind it later on in the book but…

[49:42] Natalie: Yeah.

[49:43] Yvette: …at that point she just had that blind faith in her father…

[49:46] Natalie: I see..

[49:47] Yvette: …and I could see that that’s very possible.

[49:51] Natalie: Yeah, yeah. And in Mediterranean Sunset um there are… There is like a symbolism with camels and I have a quote here which I thought was really interesting. It says, “Camels will not act immediately but will wait for years and turn on its abuser.” And then towards the end of the book when Fatima is preparing to flee with Brahim she packs a camel statue with her. So would you say that Fatima is the camel that turned on Fouad or on herself when she went against her own… her own beliefs?

[50:28] Yvette: Well that’s interesting. I never thought about it that way. I’m going to tell you the camel part and then we’ll get back to that. I coll[ect]… everyone in Syria always wanted to give me a gift and I’m like, “I don’t know what to tell them to send… I don’t know.” And I said, “Maybe I should collect something?” and I said, “Oh, Middle East camels.” And I like camels because I think their eyes are beautiful and the eyelashes and all the stuff. So, believe it or not, to find a camel in Syria is not that easy. It’s not a country that has camels all over or camel statuettes to collect to begin with so I was like, “Oh my God, another challenge.” But I thought I have a great camel collection so I wanted to include that as part of the gift but I never thought I found the story about the camels was super cool about, you know… my husband would say, “Never fool with a camel because they have this great memory and they’ll… you’ll think that everything is cool between you and the camel and one day he’ll turn on you and basically kick you to death,” and stuff and I was like, “oh my God! This animal to seems to me so gentle.”

[51:40] Natalie: Yeah.

[51:41] Yvette: Um, wow… That’s an interesting question. And it’s a great analogy. Uh, wow I think that she turned probably on both of them in some way. But I don’t think as vicious as a camel would with someone who has harmed them, but…

[52:04] Natalie: Yeah.

[52:05] Yvette: But uh, yeah I guess. That’s interesting. I’ll have to explore that. Think about it more because…

[52:11] Natalie: Okay.

[52:12] Yvette: But you see that’s a cool thing about the readers that they… I mean I’ve had four, five people approach me with these questions such as that one that I’m like, “Wow I never thought that.” “Oh that sounds cool,” this deeper meaning to… uh it was truly I came with the camel because of my camel collection which is something…

[52:35] Natalie: Oh wow.

[52:36] Yvette: …I’m proud of and very challenging. And I just thought that that idea of the camels turning on you I found fascinating, so…

[52:44] Natalie: Yeah.

[52:45] Yvette: …And I never saw as my character and that analogy which is fantastic so thanks for…

[52:53] Natalie: Okay.

[52:53] Yvette: …bringing that up

[52:54] Natalie: Great.

[52:55] Yvette: and, uh…

[52:56] Natalie: Yeah cause as I was reading I was realizing that there was camels mentioned and I was like okay you have to keep an eye on this, this means something but I guess not [laughs].

[53:03] Yevette: That’s great. I love it. See I love these discoveries but uh, I mean Fouad deserved to be kicked around till the end so, I think more…

[53:15] Natalie: Maybe you should have made a real camel just beat him up at the end [laughs].

[53:19] Yvette: I’m telling you, yup, yup [laughs].

[53:22] Natalie: Alright so now moving on to Children of Antarah. Which is a book that really kept me on the edge of my seat. I wasn’t really sure what was going to happen. Um, so what I found interesting was that Hasan had the most relation to Antarah and Fouad, but you chose Iman to be the one who plays with fire and discovering her parent’s past. So why did you choose her to have that role?

[53:52] Yvette: I just felt that she was spunky. She was everything Fatima couldn’t be at her age. If Fatima would have been like Iman at her age none of this would have happened. So, I just thought that Iman was a new generation that her mother had raised her as a strong independent woman and I actually thought Iman was willing to cross some lines that I would have rathered her not contemplate, but at the same time she had to be more fierce more independent. Uh, and it made interesting. Because a guy you kind of expect men would be maybe more adventurous, take more risks and stuff like that, but a woman and someone like her uh, I don’t know. I just thought that she was cool. I like Iman. Iman has a super cool personality and…

[55:00] Natalie: Yeah.

[55:01] Yvette: And you know you never know is she going to wind up here or there? Anything could happen with her and I kind of like that she plays the game and sets the rules at the pace she’s playing. It’s not… she doesn’t think a lot ahead of time of what she’s going to do. She just acts and that could be dangerous but it makes it interesting.

[55:26] Natalie: Definitely. And in the book in Children of Antarah there’s a quote that really spoke to me personally. I’m going to read it. So it says, “As the years went by I missed my life in DC. I didn’t realize how much I identified with the American culture. The only thing I knew and enjoyed for most of my life. I felt torn about leaving Italy and moving further away from Antarah, but I felt that that was our destiny, a place where we could make a difference. I had been abroad for too long and I missed what I once had. Maybe it was time to go back home.” So my question is is this feeling of enjoying where you are now, but wanting to return home one that’s familiar to you personally?

[56:11] Yvette: Definitely. Definitely. Although you know she felt that her purpose in life was moving to D.C. and also she wanted to make Brahim’s dreams come true and I think that was another part of her purpose. She was willing to sacrifice something that she thought might be better for her but that familiar space that she could give something back to her husband for everything her husband had given to her. Which I feel that way many ways. Brahim has given up many things to make me happy. And I wanted to give that feel, but you know coming back to Puerto Rico which is home if you wanna put like Puerto Rico as D.C. and New Orleans is everyplace else she was in. Uh, yeah nothing like the feeling of being home. In her case I mean that was her language. Also, the first language she spoke where she felt more comfortable with was English and her surroundings that was her life and she realized that she had these connections that she could make a difference. That her husband would be happier and could also make a difference. I mean she made a choice on where could their lives be more meaningful? And she chose the place that was more familiar to her. Um, of course Antarah was in chaos so going back to Antarah to try to make a difference in a place that… where you don’t have the kind of contacts. Even though she had presidential contacts, but the president at that point they wanted to get rid of him so she couldn’t make a difference there. She had to go where her life could be meaningful. And also give her children the best education, the best opportunities and all that so she made a conscious decision based on all those things, but always longing for home and I think most of us no matter from where we come. Even if we settle in a place that we’re happy there’s no place like home you know. And I’m fortunate that Ibrahim has felt so comfortable, the real Ibrahim, in Puerto Rico that he could visualize himself as Puerto Rico being home. Even though I could visualize also Syria being home because home is where the people you love love to be and are happy with you. So, this is all relative you know?

[59:09] Natalie: Yeah.

[59:10] Yvette: But you know in my ideal world… four months in Syria, four months in Puerto Rico, and 4 months in New Orleans. You know that would be the ideal but the situation in Syria right now would be a little difficult to make that kind of adjustment. But when I’ve gone to Syria I don’t want to come back. I mean that sense because he comes from a big family. It’s ten brothers and sisters and although most of the nieces and nephews have left because of the situation, but his core family is still there except for his parents that unfortunately passed away and fortunately I got to meet them. Uh, but going with that big family being surrounded by that beauty because his city is Latakia by the beach.

[1:00:00] Natalie: Mhm.

[1:00:01] Yvette: So I feel like Puerto Rico… that’s why he feels the same way here. Like our cultures seem to be so far apart but they’re so similar and the beauties of our countries at least of his city and my island are so similar that we’ve been able to, you know, to merge everything and make happiness here in Puerto Rico. Always longing to go to Syria because I know that no matter what I mean your country is your country.

[1:00:34] Natalie: Definitely, yeah.

[1:00:35] Yvette: It’s a beautiful thing that love for country. Again, I never anticipated me feeling this way or understanding it until I started bringing Hasan when he was five years old to Puerto Rico. Ibrahim suggested it for him to learn the culture, the language, know what Puerto Rico is all about. And even though Hasan is passionate about New Orleans I mean there’s where he went to school, college, his friends, his whole life is there but he’s never told me I don’t want to go to Puerto Rico. He looks forward to…

[1:01:11] Natalie: Nice.

[1:01:12] Yvette: …this experience and stuff and I think that that was good that I was able to do that for him and he was able to go to Syria twice before the situation and he did enjoy Syria a lot also being with his cousins…

[1:01:29] Natalie: Of course.

[1:01:30] Yvette:…running on the streets with no, you know, no one having to watch over them…

[1:01:35] Natalie: Yeah.

[1:01:35] Yvette: …because at that point the situation, everything was so safe. It was a different lifestyle you know there’s, there’s a lot of beauty… beginning of civilization, the structures, uh… Syria’s very beautiful. Very meaningful to me. I mean without Syria I wouldn’t have Ibrahim, you know [laughs]?

[1:01:54] Natalie: Definitely.

[1:01:55] Yvette: Oh, and another thing I want to mention that you might have it in your notes, but I keep missing this when I’m talking about Children of Antarah. At the end of the book with the poems that were written by the character supposedly are really written by my husband…

[1:02:14] Natalie: I imagined, yeah.

[1:02:15] Yvette: Yeah the thing is that because they both have the same name the character’s Ibrahim Al-Kateb and my husband is Ibrahim Al-Shaer I put a little asterisks and it says these poems are written by Ibrahim Al-Shaer but maybe a lot of people just see that Al… Ibrahim Al… and they think it’s the character’s name but it’s truly my husband’s name. Um, when Ibrahim and I first got married, like the first five years probably he got super inspired. He used to write poetry in Syria also in Arabic but he started writing me poems. He used to work in the hotel industry and he would come back with notes from the note pads of the hotels and he would write these poems to me and I collected all those poems and every anniversary, every birthday, Christmas, whatever he would write these beautiful things to me and I collect everything thank God because in this particular moment it came in handy and I always wanted to do like a little book of poems you know. Of all his poems and stuff and then again, God touched me and he said, “You have the perfect opportunity,” you know,“use them as what Ibrahim wrote in his diary,” and I was able to take out all these poems and they fit so perfectly because they all are feelings of longing. At some point I was selling insurance throughout the United States and I would leave for periods of time to sell insurance and Ibrahim would come visit me, but he had to stay to keep working in New Orleans so all those feelings of longing came through that poetry…

[1:04:01] Natalie: Of course.

[1:04:02] Yvette: …and I’m like, “Oh my God this is such a perfect fit,” so it was perfect to leave again another piece of our relationship history in those poems and to just add another layer…

[1:04:18] Natalie: Yeah.

[1:04:19] Yvette: ..to the book.

[1:04:20] Natalie: Yeah, yeah.

[1:04:21] Yvette: It gave it something extra.

[1:04:23] Natalie: Yeah, how beautiful. Yeah,yeah. I imagined it was your husband’s poetry because of how, how detailed it was and how beautiful it was. Not to say that I don’t think that you could write poetry but it just seemed like…

[1:04:35] Yvette: No, exactly. But it was so…

[1:04:36] Natalie: …it came from like a very pure place…

[1:04:37] Yvette: …Yeah, yeah.

[1:04:37] Natalie: Yeah, yeah.

[1:04:38] Yvette: It was first of all very heartfelt, uh, yeah it’s difficult to force that kind of writing. I mean…

[1:04:46] Natalie: Definitely.

[1:04:47] Yvette: …you could get inspired to write it for someone, but to force it like this character’s also a poet and stuff that would have been

[1:04:54] Natalie: Yeah.

[1:04:55] Yvette: a little, not impossible, but a little more challenging and I love that um, the gentleman that did the layout for the book and the cover his name is Ángel Rivera he’s also a fellow writer. He said, “Let’s do it like if it’s handwritten,” which I loved…

[1:05:14] Natalie: Yeah

[1:05:15] Yvette: …cause it actually looked like pages off the diary

[1:05:17] Natalie: It did. It did.

[1:05:18] Yvette: So I gave it a very unique look so now, a question for you. Did you find that my writing evolved from book one to book two?

[1:05:31] Natalie: Yeah, especially because the… of course like the plotline in the first one was very intricate of course, but the second one was just like you weren’t expecting things to happen. And things were like hidden where you hadn’t realized that it was kind of like um, telling you that something was going to happen. So yeah, definitely the second one felt like it had a lot more storyline put together. Cause it was… it’s not only just creating the first storyline I imagine creating the first storyline and then having to include a storyline while trying to create another one in the second book is a bit hectic and crazy so definitely yeah you can tell.

[1:06:07] Yvette: I mean I truly feel that as a writer it’s like night and day when I read sometimes parts of Mediterranean Sunset for some kind of research or to refer to and then I see Children of Antarah I’m like, “Wow it’s impressive how you could evolve as a writer,” and its super cool you know. It’s thrilling because you realize that’s where I tell you that you’re never… Even if you write one book and you think wow what an accomplishment there’s so much to learn throughout the process and the level of research and the good thing as a journalist I’m a researcher by nature, So…

[1:06:47] Natalie: Yeah.

[1:06:48] Yvette: …research is one of the funnest parts of the experience to me is doing the research and uncovering all these new things. But I really really enjoyed writing the second book and as you say the… I was crazy to say I was writing a trilogy. I had never written a book and I announce that I’m writing a trilogy? Which at the time it seemed very, normal but then when I finished the first book you said, “Am I sure that I’m going to be able to develop a concept for the second book? And then for the third?” But thank God that it all flowed and again…

[1:07:31] Natalie: Yeah.

[1:07:32] Yvette: …the second book. Children of Antarah to me is like kicking it up several notches and I love it because it’s more my genre. You see…

[1:07:39] Natalie: Yeah.

[1:07:40] Yvette: …it goes more suspense with political intrigue with all these surprise twists and turns. I loved writing Children of Antarah and I’m working now on Puerto Rican Sunrise and oh my goddess…

[1:07:53] Natalie: Yeah.

[1:07:54] Yvette: …That’s going to have a lot of cool twists and turns and again my mind comes up with crazy stuff…

[1:08:01] Natalie: [laughs]

[1:08:02] Yvette:…because that’s what makes you know a page turner. That’s what you want…

[1:08:08] Natalie: Definitely, yeah.

[1:08:09] Yvette: …for people to turn and be surprised and intrigued and excited and on the edge of their seats and in reality my books were truly written with the idea of the big screen in mind. That’s why I try to make them very visual because I want to take you where I can see it as a film playing in front of you because that was truly… I wrote the books because I thought it would be maybe an easier stepping stone into the film industry.

[1:08:40] Natalie: Oh wow.

[1:08:41] Yvette: Which there’s no easy stepping stones…

[1:08:43] Natalie: I can imagine its not.

[1:08:44] Yvette: …in the film industry. I mean this is another uphill battle but I work with a friend that I met her the same year that I met my husband in ‘89. Her name is Janette Praydor and we met in February same month and everything. I met her like a week earlier than I met Ibrahim and we’ve been getting together as long as I am in New Orleans every Thursday to work on our projects. So the minute…

[1:09:12] Natalie: Yeah.

[1:09:13] Yvette: …Mediterranean Sunset came to life she was my first editor, the first one to critique it to give me ideas and then after it was published we wrote the screenplay which I think came out real, real good. We made some changes here and there that make it even a little more exciting and then after Children of Antarah came out we worked on the screenplay. So we have the two books and the two screenplays ready.

[1:09:41] Natalie: Very nice.

[1:09:42] Yvette: And eventually for the trilogy also in movie format so that’s extremely exciting the thing is like…

[1:09:51] Natalie: Yeah.

[1:09:52] Yvette: …with anything else, you know, no one wants to read unless you come with a reference and how you’re gonna get a reference if that’s not your industry? So it’s an uphill battle, but you know these are again the interesting challenges in life that come…

[1:10:07] Natalie: Yeah.

[1:10:08] Yvette: with things… well you say like, “Wow it was worth knocking on the doors,” and I keep bringing it up because I feel that one day someone gonna listen [to] it … listen to this and say like, “Well I’ve been looking for something to make a film with a Middle Eastern twist with that Middle Eastern flavor,”…

[1:10:28] Natalie: Yeah

[1:10:28] Yvette: …Or something like that and maybe that person will literally come knocking and say, “I’m interested in seeing the screenplays,” you know?…

[1:10:37] Natalie: Hopefully.

[1:10:38] Yvette: …But I have them moving around. You know?

[1:10:39] Natalie: Yeah.

[1:10:40] Yvette: People looking at them. People who have some kind of ties to the industry and you know I really would love to make this happen because Janet has been by my side for thirty four years…

[1:10:55] Natalie: Mhm.

[1:10:56] Yvette: Working on these projects hoping that one day things are going to happen which I have faith they will…

[1:11:02] Natalie: [laughs]

[1:11:03] Yvette: And I want Janette to also have her moment, you know?

[1:11:08] Natalie: Yeah. Of course.

[1:11:09] Yvette: Sprinkled on top. Icing on the cake

[1:11:11] Natalie: Yeah.

[1:11:12] Yvette: That you accomplished something that you worked hard on a dream and making it come true for her.

[1:11:18] Natalie: Yeah.

[1:11:19] Yvette: And for us as a team would be something fantastic.

[1:11:23] Natalie: Yeah, yeah. You mentioned like the Middle Eastern aspect of it. I actually wanted to ask you a question about that. What made you choose a Middle Eastern/Islamic setting for the first book, you know, rather than choosing like a Caribbean/Latin setting that would be… would have been maybe more familiar to you?

[1:11:45] Yvette: To tell you the truth, the Middle Eastern theme follows me, you know. When I’m in New Orleans, Ibrahim gets together with his brother who was able to have the opportunity to move to the US and bring his family, which was great. His youngest…

[1:12:02] Natalie: Yeah.

[1:12:03] Yvette: …brother which is like a son to him. Uh, and all their friends they’re like Latinos in the sense that and probably most minorities are that they look for their group. So when I go to a house like his brother’s house or someone else’s house that’s from the Middle East… they speak Arabic, they eat their food, they watch the soap operas in Arabic.

[1:12:29] Natalie: Yeah.

[1:12:30] Yvette: They listen to Arabic music. So I am in the Middle East even if I am in the United States.

[1:12:34] Natalie: [laughs]

[1:12:35] Yvette: The Middle East in some ways has become more familiar to me. It’s like part of my daily routine. It’s crazy. So I felt…

[1:12:44] Natalie: But do you find an aspect where they collide?

[1:12:50] Yvette: Not really.

[1:12:51] Natalie: Oh, okay.

[1:12:52] Yvette: I try to feel that they compliment each other a lot because…

[1:12:55] Natalie: Ahh…

[1:12:56] Yvette: …you see… let’s put it in a Puerto Rican perspective. Puerto Ricans at least when I was growing up the religion is very important. The family is very important. The elder are very important. And those are the same important things to the Middle Eastern, to an Islamic family. So I felt that we were so similar in terms of values, morals, ethics, that to me it was a no brainer, you know? People thought, “Oh you’re crazy marrying someone from the Middle East! That culture that… that… religion,” and stuff and it shows how little do people truly know about the culture and about the religious aspect…

[1:13:44] Natalie: Yeah.

[1:13:45] Yvette: …because the media and its unfortunate and I consider myself part of the media have portrayed the Middle East as a place that hate Americans or are totally against any other religious beliefs that aren’t theirs and you know they focus on the negative bad apples…

[1:14:03] Natalie: [laughs].

[1:14:04] Yvette: …that every religion, every culture, every country has.

[1:14:08] Natalie: Yeah.

[1:14:09] Yvette: And they don’t focus on the people that are regular people like us that just wanna do good, love other people…live and let live…

[1:14:18] Natalie: Yeah.

[1:14:19] Yvette: …respect others…

[1:14:21] Natalie: Yeah.

[1:14:22] Yvette: And you know… and in Ibrahim I found everything I wanted inside and out. That the same values, the same way we wanted to raise our child, uh, I didn’t really see any dramatic difference truly and it was fascinating and I was a strict vegetarian from age twelve to nineteen. I wasn’t eating pork so when he says, “We don’t eat pork,” I’m like I don’t eat pork either.

[1:14:53] Natalie: Perfect.

[1:14:54] Yvette: The minor…

[1:14:55] Natalie: Yeah.

[1:14:56] Yvette: …differences…

[1:14:57] Natalie: Yeah.

[1:14:58] Yvette: or whatever didn’t exist and uh…

[1:15:02] Natalie: Okay.

[1:15:03] Yvette: …What else? It took me fourteen years to convert to Islam because in Islam you’re not supposed to push anyone to convert unless it comes from them because they have a legitimate relationship with God and they want to do it because God knows your heart so he’s going to know if you converted just to make people happy. So I went to Syria twice as a non-Muslim. They embraced me, they loved me, they loved that Ibrahim was happy and they knew that I was the source of the happiness and they admired and respected that.

[1:15:35] Natalie: Yeah.

[1:15:36] Yvette: And then when I became a Muslim well it was a big celebration because they felt that…

[1:15:40] Natalie: Of course.

[1:15:41] Yvette: That the whole relationship had come full circle, but I did it because I was clear that I wanted to raise my son Muslim and I was such an advocate about talking about Islam after 9/11 because so many people…

[1:15:55] Natalie: Yeah.

[1:15:56] Yvette: …were concerned about us because oh you know, “Everyone from the Middle East is being a target and this and are you guys okay?” and stuff and then I realized that Islam, you know, God had led me to meet this man from the Middle East who was Muslim because that was part of my path, but it took me fourteen years to come to that realization. And Ibrahim never pushed it. He always would answer the questions as he should about Islam or lead me to where to find the right answer if he wasn’t one-hundred percent sure, but I consider that he knows a lot about his religion which was a great source for me to, you know, to gain some knowledge.

[1:16:47] Natalie: Yeah.

[1:16:48] Yvette: I’m not a perfect Muslim but I try to be as close to the best, again, human being I could be.

[1:16:58] Natalie: Yeah.

[1:16:58] Yvette: And I embrace anyone in any religion who is just trying to do good to help others because God ultimately God knows your heart.

[1:17:10] Natalie: Yeah.

[1:17:10] Yvette: …and he knows who you are and the reasoning why you’re doing things. So in that sense you know. My son went to an Islamic school the first seven years of his life and then I put him in a prep-Catholic school.

[1:17:23] Natalie: Okay.

[1:17:24] Yvette: And he learned about Catholicism. I wanted him to use it as a history class for him to understand the history of Catholicism and everyone in his school knew he was Muslim. If he had to do book reports he would do them with an Islamic touch so that…

[1:17:41] Natalie: Yeah.

[1:17:42] Yvette: they could look how the religions are similar and how they differ. And I thought that it…

[1:17:47] Natalie: That’s interesting.

[1:17:48] Yvette: Yeah and all his friends now basically are Catholic or Chrisitian but they all respect that, “Oh, we got a pizza… oh we have to order it no pepperoni for Hasan,” or they…

[1:18:00] Natalie: [laughs] How nice.

[1:18:01] Yvette:…just very conscientious of, you know, not eating pork and all the different things that he follows. And I’m very very grateful…

[1:18:09] Natalie: Yeah.

[1:18:10] Yvette:… for that level of respect among his friends and his friends’ parents which is fantastic.

[1:18:15] Natalie: Very nice, yeah. So how do you think growing up in Puerto Rico has influenced your writing?

[1:18:24] Yvette: Well, first of all Puerto Rico was the first source of inspiration from the songwriting to being able to write articles. I mean seriously Puerto Rico was where it all happened. This was the place where I learned for the first time that I wanted to be a writer, an interviewer. That this was my life and my passion and from here it just grew. And coming to Puerto Rico to write, which I have been spending more months than usual in Puerto Rico because I sit on my balcony with ocean view. You know, I rent this apartment every year. The view is fabulous. Uh, wow this is inspiration to me to sit with this kind of peacefulness and to see…

[1:19:19] Natalie: Yeah.

[1:19:19] Yvette: …the view that I love and now writing Puerto Rican Sunrise and knowing that any moment in time if I choose to wake up early which I’ve been kind of lazy with that but I will…

[1:19:30] Natalie: [laughs].

[1:19:31] Yvette: …eventually, again. You know I could walk and see the sunrise and the spectacular you know it’s…

[1:19:39] Natalie: Yeah.

[1:19:40] Yvette: …something that fills my heart with joy and to have, again, Ibrahim back up this dream of mine and sacrifice time that we could be together and money for me to live my dream and have this balcony and get inspired I mean truly…

[1:20:04] Natalie: Yeah.

[1:20:05] Yvette: …what a person, what a human being. Seriously. I’m extremely blessed and happy with…

[1:20:10] Natalie: Yes.

[1:20:11] Yvette: …my life and grateful to God everyday for the opportunity.

[1:20:16] Natalie: Beautiful. So final question. Why did you decide to end the trilogy in Puerto Rico?

[1:20:24] Yvette: It just makes a hundred percent sense to me because it comes… it’s our story full circle you know? It’s kind of like it starts in the Middle East which is where Ibrahim comes from. What inspired me to write the books and then it comes at the end to Puerto Rico. Another great source of inspiration where I’ve done probably some of my best writing and there’s a lot of issues uh, whether politics, social things that are happening and that have happened in Puerto Rico from the earthquakes to the hurricane to getting a governor out of power and be part of that movement. Being with nearly a million people in a highway protesting that this person… you know. I just lived so many iconic moments in Puerto Rico in the past seven, eight years that I felt these are problems world wide in many ways that people should learn about. And also the big Arabic influence in Puerto Rico that when I was growing up I didn’t understand that all these last names are of Arabic descent and the amount of Syrian Lebanese and Palestinains in Puerto Rico I’m like, “Oh my God this has been around me all my life and I did not know it.” And just to…

[1:22:03] Natalie: Yeah.

[1:22:04] Yvette: …bring all that to light on one last book and bring my life full circle from all the different aspects that have made my life complete. I just don’t see… It’s a great tribute to Puerto Rico. To the people of Puerto Rico and just to my life you know? To put all that together and finish it in a place that you know I’m gonna bring up things that are positive and negative, but that’s part of life and that’s part of countries. No country is perfect and as people we try to make it the best we can, but sometimes you know there’s so many outside influences that we can’t control but we just have to bring to light everything and let the people take action and work towards a better Puerto Rico even throughout all the things that we’ve gone through as a country.

[1:23:09] Natalie: Yeah.

[1:23:10] Yvette: So I think it’s a great way to just bring another layer of education, inspiration, and just, you know, see what happens.

[1:23:27] Natalie: The journalist in you is still there even if…

[1:23:30] Yvette: Definitely.

[1:23:31] Natalie: …you’re writing a fictional novel [laughs]. Alright, Yvette thank you so so much for your time it was so lovely to talk to you and thank you for being so open and sharing so much about your own life [laughs].

[1:23:43] Yvette: Thank you, thank you. You see the thing is that the idea of being open is because when you’re open people tend to listen and when you say things honestly it triggers things that we all have in us and sometimes we need someone else to say something that’s like a little voice inside you to make a change or to know that any dream is possible as long as you put the effort into it. And never close yourself to anything and any obstacle see it… always see things as a positive not as a negative because we grow from that. And if I could give that message throughout talking about my books and other things and someone’s life could change from it then my purpose is being fulfilled even if it is in a small way. But I feel that I am doing something for society as a whole.

[1:24:47] Natalie: Exactly, exactly. Is there a date where we can expect the last book? [laughs]

[1:24:54] Yvette: Well I’m kind of putting a date. And not necessarily it will be finished obviously before but 2025 because I wanna do a companion cookbook.

[1:25:07] Natalie: Oh…

[1:25:08] Yvette: That’s going to be a fusion of Mediterranean, Caribbean, and New Orleans food. Because the first book that I wrote with Ibrahim is a cookbook in 1999 we started the cookbook venture and I thought that that was what I was going to write, a cookbook, but then I realized oh but we’re not chef and this is going to be a difficult this and that but we are great… you know, we’re not chefs on paper but in terms of how the critics of everyone who’s eaten the food we are…

[1:25:43] Natalie [laughs].

[1:25:44] Yvette: …so this is a way to bring… It’s going to be a When Harry Met Sally type format where we start talking about how Ibrahim couldn’t even fry an egg when he came from Syria to New Orleans and now he cooks these elaborate beautifully decorated tasteful menus and its incredible. And our passion for cooking together so it’s going to be a closer insight to who we are as a couple and how cooking for others has brought us closer and is going to have all these fantastic recipes that are from the different areas that are going to be brought up in the books. So it’s like a unique concept of a trilogy with a cookbook companion, so…

[1:26:37] Natalie: Oh my goodness [laughs].

[1:26:38] Yvette: We’re excited about it. Yeah, yeah. When it comes to creating like strange concepts I mean I give myself kudos for that because again but it’s not me it’s God. Because I never… the… I mean that cookbook was going to come out sooner or later but I never thought and it suddenly came to me to tie everything together. So I am real excited about that. That’s why I put it 2025 because we need to work on polishing up the recipes. And you know, there’s more work than I would want but I think it’ll be worth it and it’ll be something unique and different and I’m just looking forward to it. It’s going to be cool.

[1:27:24] Natalie: Awesome. Me too now oh my goodness. [laughs] We get a little extra in every book, right? Well with the second one we get a poetry… we get some poetry now a cookbook. But that’s awesome. Well congratulations!

[1:27:37] Yvette: Oh thank you.

[1:27:38] Natalie: On everything and your trilogy and…

[1:27:40] Yvette: Thank you for your invitation and for your time and for listening and…

[1:27:43] Natalie: [laughs]

[1:27:44] Yvette: No, I’m very happy. Thank you.

[1:27:48] Natalie: Thank you so much.