Crowds of excited fans began filling Memorial Chapel at 7:30 last Wednesday evening, and by eight, the Chapel was completely full, brimming with the energy of students, faculty and Middletown residents in awe of Junot Diaz’s innovative work. A head-count revealed that 458 people came to see Diaz, who was named as the English Department’s 2009 Millet Writing Fellow. Diaz’s most famous book, “The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. New York Times critic Michiko Kakatuni called his writing “a sort of streetwise brand of Spanglish that even the most monolingual reader can easily inhale… he conjures with seemingly effortless aplomb the two worlds his characters inhabit.” Diaz’ brilliant writing blends English, Spanish, street-slang, science fiction, graphic novel references and poetry to create a frenetic, humorous and touching account of a Dominican immigrant family’s multigenerational experience.
Born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic in 1968, Diaz immigrated to New Jersey when he was seven. Today, Diaz speaks of his two homes with a mixture of love and annoyance. “Santo Domingo… is the New Jersey of the Caribbean,” he commented during the question and answer section. “[But] I find both places deeply, deeply beautiful and important.”
Dressed in a sweatshirt, jeans, and glasses, Diaz was laid-back, charismatic and friendly. He seemed to be enjoying himself immensely at all points during the reading, even when he was asked difficult questions. After reading from his newest work, a collection of short stories about infidelity (“I’m smiling because I look around and I see some of you like ‘yeaaaaah,’” he joked), he answered questions from the audience. In his responses, Diaz displayed ease and a particularly honed skepticism of institutions and institutional power. “How many of you have taken creative writing classes?” he asked the audience. A few people raised their hands. “I’m sorry. I wouldn’t let my kids take a creative writing class.”
When one student asked him where he gets inspiration, Diaz explained that his motive comes from being “an obsessive reader living inside a dynamic community that doesn’t consider itself worthy of creating art. Growing up, we were like ghosts. Growing up Dominican and nerdy, there was nothing in the culture that reflected us back.” He went on to explain that in American folklore, the distinguishing feature of a monster (like vampires, for instance) is that they have no reflection. He went on to connect this with comments on how underrepresented smart youth of color are in American culture, saying, “If you want to produce monsters, guarantee they have nothing reflecting them back to the world.” Because of this lack of representation in contemporary media, Diaz said he writes stories so that his readers can see themselves in his work and realize, “I’m not just a monster without a reflection.”
Diaz deflected difficult questions about race and ethnicity with both intelligence and humor. When asked to explain the reccurring stereotype in his book that all Dominican men are womanizers, he laughed, “Just look at that guy behind you,” pointing out a man flanked by women. “He’s nodding his head.” Diaz went on, “Believe me, I am not the problem. I mean, there are a lot of other ways I am the problem, but… to put it shortly, representation does not equal approbation.”
After the reading, audience members waited almost two hours to speak to Diaz and have him sign books. He greeted each person warmly, joking in both English and Spanish, giving off the air of a humble rock star enthused to meet his fans. In an age where Dead White Men still hold a monopoly on the literary canon, Diaz has strode in and wreaked much needed havoc.
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