Happy Book Birthday, Natalia Sylvester!

Las Musas wishes the happiest book birthday to RUNNING by Natalia Sylvester!

​"Sylvester's YA debut embodies the theme of our decade: to stand up and speak up for what we believe in." — Mahjabeen Syed, Booklist

​When fifteen-year-old Cuban American Mariana Ruiz’s father runs for president, Mari starts to see him with new eyes. A novel about waking up and standing up, and what happens when you stop seeing your dad as your hero—while the whole country is watching.

In this thoughtful, authentic, humorous, and gorgeously written novel about privacy, waking up, and speaking up, Senator Anthony Ruiz is running for president. Throughout his successful political career he has always had his daughter’s vote, but a presidential campaign brings a whole new level of scrutiny to sheltered fifteen-year-old Mariana and the rest of her Cuban American family, from a 60 Minutes–style tour of their house to tabloids doctoring photos and inventing scandals. As tensions rise within the Ruiz family, Mari begins to learn about the details of her father’s political positions, and she realizes that her father is not the man she thought he was.

But how do you find your voice when everyone’s watching? When it means disagreeing with your father—publicly? What do you do when your dad stops being your hero? Will Mari get a chance to confront her father? If she does, will she have the courage to seize it?

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Francesca Flores interviewed Natalia Sylvester about Running.

I read and loved Running and had the opportunity to ask Natalia some questions about her inspiring, unputdownable book! To celebrate Running and learn more about this incredible book, register for the virtual launch event on July 14th!

1. What was your initial spark of inspiration for Running?
   
   During the months leading up to the 2016 election, I caught one of the candidates' concession speeches on TV. His daughter was standing in the frame, behind him in the background. Something about the look on her face got me thinking about what it's like to support someone so fully, to literally and figuratively stand by them through the good and bad of their greatest feats, while...what if inside, every part of you that wants to speak out feels silenced?
   
   2. Your pacing is incredible, and it was hard to put the book down. What were some challenges you encountered while writing Running? Did Mariana’s voice come to you easily?
   
   Oh my goodness, I'm so relieved you think so! The pacing was so important to me and so challenging at times, because the first pages I ever wrote were really voice-driven. I felt lucky that Mari's voice came through clearly from the very beginning, but I wanted to make sure to turn that into a plot.
   
   One of the biggest challenges I encountered is that in the first draft, I kind of wrote myself into a corner by having Mari make a very pivotal decision by the end of the first chapter—I thought, I'm starting this story right at the moment of action! When in reality I'd skipped over the real action before the action: all those smaller moments that build up inside of her, that make her go, wait, this doesn't feel right, and that she keeps pushing aside until she finally can't push them aside one minute longer. Once I figured that out, the plot and pacing flowed much more naturally, because they reflected the way that things going on externally were affecting Mari internally, and how she flips that inside out to create change in the world around her.
   
   3. Everything political in Running felt so real. Did you have to do a lot of research for the campaign details? Did any of it surprise you?
   
   I read so many articles, books (a lot of politicians' family members' memoirs!) and watched documentaries about elections, in addition to watching election coverage anywhere I could find it. Beyond the news, I sought out speeches and debates from past elections online. It was also really eye-opening to see friends and acquaintances newly inspired to run for office, and follow their journey in their campaigns.
   
   I think what was most surprising was just how personal it all is to candidates' family members. Which shouldn't be surprising because the political IS personal. So I ended up focusing on that in this story. Mari doesn't experience her father's campaign as this larger-than-life thing; she experiences it daily in small moments—in her kitchen, her family's living room, at school. And eventually that's how she figures out the effects of her father's policies. She doesn't read about them in an article; she sees them play out in her life and the lives of those she loves.
   
   4. I saw lots of elements of common Latinx family dynamics in Running, and I loved all the conversations between Mariana and her friends about identity and seeing the diversity within the Latinx community reflected through your book. What were some ways you found Mariana and her family’s identity influenced the way the campaign affected their family?
   
   Identity touches every part of our lives so in the case of Mari's dad's campaign, it's everywhere—from the fact that Senator Ruiz, a young, white Cuban-American conservative, rises so quickly to power within the GOP, to the pressures Mari feels to support him. Her fear to use her voice isn't just a general fear—it's rooted very deeply in that place of, you don't talk back to your father, ever, in a way that's culturally specific. The strictness of her family, and how "rebelling" looks different for Mari than it might look for her white peers. Even the way the campaign exacerbates her parents' concern over "what would people think?" so much that it makes them overlook what Mari thinks.
   
   And then (of course!) there are the actual politics among her family and friends of different Latinx backgrounds, which vary so widely. It's something we all know and experience, and it's made doubly frustrating when those who are not Latinx assume our community all shares the same views. And of course we don't.
   
   5. The inclusion of environmental activism felt so organic to your story. Is that something you’re naturally passionate about?
   
   Thank you so much! It is—and I'd say it's probably one of the first issues I got involved with in a direct way, starting when I was a teen and would volunteer to clean up our beaches and help at our local botanical center. So it felt like a natural place for Mari to start, too.
   
   Also, from a craft perspective, I'm always drawn to stories that have a very strong sense of place, and so far, all my books have been set in the places I've called home. I grew up in Miami and though it's been 10 years since I moved back to Texas (back, yes, it's complicated but basically I moved around a lot as a child!) I try to stay informed of local news, and my husband and I visit at least two or three times a year to see family.
   
   The thing about Miami local news is that it's not really local, not when it comes to environmental issues. Climate change, and the ways that developers are pushing out communities and harming the environment—these things are all linked and the way it's playing out in South Florida is similar to how it's happening and will happen everywhere. That's the thing about organizing for change—somewhere there's someone whose life is being affected by huge decisions in the smallest, everyday ways that are actually everything. By that same logic, small actions are capable of becoming huge changes that help people in essential, everyday ways. 
   
   6. Which of the characters, other than Mariana, were your favorite to write scenes with and why?
   
   Hands down, the scenes with Mari's new friends: Jackie, Didier, and Crissy. There's a scene towards the end of the book, a really important one that's the culmination of so many events...I put off writing it for weeks because it was a lot of pressure, knowing it had to hit some very strong, very specific emotional notes. But when I finally started writing it, these characters just took the lead and WENT. They felt kind of unstoppable. I don't want to give away any spoilers, but I loved writing them because they reminded me of how much is possible.

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About Natalia Sylvester:
Natalia Sylvester is the author of two novels for adults, CHASING THE SUN and EVERYONE KNOWS YOU GO HOME, which won an International Latino Book Award. RUNNING, her debut novel for young adults, is a 2020 Junior Library Guild Selection. Born in Lima, Peru, Sylvester grew up in Florida and Texas and received a BFA in Creative Writing from the University of Miami. nataliasylvester.com | Twitter/Instagram: @nataliasylv.