Acclaimed Author Brando Skyhorse Delivers Assembly
Nationally-acclaimed author, editor and professor Brando Skyhorse visited Exeter to discuss his writing, which connects themes of inclusion and bigotry as related to his own search for racial identity. Skyhorse hosted a public reading in Phillips Church and a conference with senior fiction classes in Fisher Theater on Thursday night, in which he read a personal essay as well as excerpts of his book The Madonnas of Echo Park. On Friday, his Assembly speech received snaps of approval and a standing ovation, attracting many Exonians to his question-and-answer luncheon in the Latin Study that afternoon.
The Madonnas of Echo Park was awarded both the 2011 PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Fiction and the 2011 Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction. Set in Echo Park, the predominantly Mexican-American community in Central Los Angeles that Skyhorse grew up in, the book weaves Skyhorse’s personal memories of 1980s Los Angeles into his characters’ narratives. Between jacaranda blossoms, technicolor MTV screens, drive-by shootings and cheap margaritas, his characters grapple with neglect, repressive gender roles and racial, cultural and linguistic barriers in a “country where Mexicans are unseen and unheard when appropriate, and visible only when necessary.”
Like many of his fictional characters, Skyhorse had a tumultuous childhood. When he was three years old, his Mexican-American father abandoned him and his mother Maria Theresa Ulloa, who then assumed a Native American persona. She changed her first name to Runningdeer and her and her son’s last name to Skyhorse.
“My coming out as a Mexican was a slow process. Especially back then, when nobody wanted to talk about race, meaning nobody wanted to listen about race,” he said. “Those who listened made my name a question. Skyhorse? It’s been a question my entire life.”
“After my father left, my mother wanted to reinvent herself. She embraced this Indian-ness and expected me to do the same,” Skyhorse remembered. “To her, we were not acting as Native Americans. We were Native Americans.”
His struggle with racial identity and passing continued through young adulthood, during the college admissions process and beyond. As a senior in high school, he received generous financial aid and admission offers from colleges such as Dartmouth College and Stanford University, his alma mater.
“My assumed Native American-ness put me at the top of the affirmative action pool, especially at Dartmouth, with its founding charter explicitly outlining Native American admission as a priority,” he said. “Those offers belonged to someone I wasn’t. My biological Mexican-ness became a guarded secret in fear of being accused as a thief, a fraud, a liar.”
Today, Skyhorse identifies as a Mexican-American with a Native American last name.
“My coming out as a Mexican was a slow process. Especially back then, when nobody wanted to talk about race, meaning nobody wanted to listen about race,” he said. “Those who listened made my name a question. Skyhorse? It’s been a question my entire life.”
English Instructor Matthew Miller, who introduced Skyhorse at Assembly, appreciated his candid meditation. “I enjoyed so much about Brando’s talk, from the lyrical way he weaves a story to the honest and truth he imbeds within them,” he said.
After years of professional book editing, Skyhorse transitioned to book writing. “As an editor, I didn’t see many colored writers breaking through publication. My readers sometimes ask me if I write my books for colored people. I write for colored people, yes, but I also write for me,” he said. “The bookshelf is big enough for everyone.”
He ended his reading by emphasizing the necessity of perspective and empathy in countering bigotry. “People learn to convert fear to pseudo-informed hate and cynicism, with bigots selecting the parts of the world to listen to, and which parts to exclude,” he said. “We must see and hear what others ignore, listen to different voices who might not have had the opportunity to be listened to. Those voices have always been speaking to us but they didn’t have the power to get people to listen.”
Senior Nick Song thought Skyhorse’s story reflected the complexity of racial and ethnic identity in the United States, and demonstrated the impact that adults can have on children’s identity development. “As an Asian-American, it can be hard find that balance of immersing yourself into American culture while maintaining Asian heritage, which is really fostered by my parents,” he said. “Hearing about his childhood was riveting. Not only did he have to find that identity as a colored person in America, his mother forced him to adopt a false identity.”
Upper Ariane Avandi felt that his speech related to current socio-political attitudes and campus dialogue of diversity and inclusion. “We have a president who rose to office with a campaign of hate and then normalized that hate. Also, Exeter has an ongoing discussion of race and ethnicity,” she said. “There couldn’t have been a better time to hear Skyhorse’s words on claiming identity and helping people feel comfortable in their own skin.”
Students appreciated Skyhorse’s message, in his writing and in his speech. “He was a much-needed voice for us Exonians, as we get older and develop a stronger sense of self,” upper Chandler Jean-Jacques said. “His advice for acceptance, understanding and consideration is important today, and for the foreseeable future.”