QUESADA, Roberto 1962-

PERSONAL:

Born 1962, in Olanchito, Honduras.

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY. Agent—c/o Arte Público Press, University of Houston, 452 Cullen Performance Hall, Houston, TX 77204-2004.

CAREER:

Author and journalist. SobreVuelo (literary magazine), founder and former director. Delegate for the Honduras Embassy to the United States.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Latin American Institute of Writers in the United States Award, for El humano y la diosa.

WRITINGS:

El desertor, G. Fiallos Paz (Honduras), 1985.

Los barcos (novel), Baktun Editorial (Tegucigalpa, Honduras), 1988, translation by Hardie St. Martin published as The Ships, Four Walls Eight Windows (New York, NY), 1992.

El humano y la diosa (novel; title means "The Human and the Goddess") Cocolo Editorial (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic), 1996.

When the Road Is Long, Even Slippers Feel Tight: A Collection of Latin American Proverbs, Andrews McMeel Publishing (Kansas City, MO), 1998.

The Big Banana (novel), translation by Walter Krochmal, Arte Público Press (Houston, TX), 1999.

Nunca entres por Miami (novel), Mondadori (Mexico City, Mexico), 2002, translation by Patricia J. Duncan published as Never through Miami, Arte Público Press (Houston, TX), 2002.

Contributor of articles to El Tiempo.

SIDELIGHTS:

Award-winning author Roberto Quesada was born and raised in Honduras but has lived in New York City since 1989. His first novel to be translated into English, Los barcos—published as The Ships in 1992—deals with the travails of his troubled homeland. In the early twentieth century, the American-owned United Fruit Company, with the help of corrupt Honduran officials, essentially confiscated Honduran land for its fruit operations and forced indigenous people to work the plantations.

The title of The Ships implies reference to the three small caravels that made the voyage of discovery to the Americas under Christopher Columbus. In Quesada's story, however, they are the white ships of the North American Standard Fruit Company. To the poor plantation workers—among them protagonist Guillermo Lopez, a pineapple picker aspiring to be a writer—the arriving ships mean more work and a pittance more pay. Writing in Bloomsbury Review, David Unger noted: "In a neat example of how symbols change meaning, the ships—emblems of exploitation and slavery in the thirties, forties, and fifties—are now fondly awaited for the work, money, and entertainment they bring to the coastal regions." By the 1980s, however, the ships are U.S. naval vessels carrying military supplies for a civil war in neighboring Nicaragua, with the local population caught in the crossfire between the warring factions.

Quesada tells the story through conversations and comments exchanged by fruit pickers to amuse themselves during their long, tedious days. Jack Shreve commented in Library Journal, "It is this communication that gives the novel its special flavor." Unger had one criticism for the novel, noting that "in Quesada's desire to tell a complex story simply, he has understated, and to a certain degree, soft-pedalled, another tragic chapter in Honduran history." But Unger's overall assessment was positive, as he termed The Ships "a tiny gem of a novel."

In 1999's The Big Banana, Quesada brings aspiring actor Eduardo Lin from Honduras to the Bronx, where he is given his nickname because he hails from a "banana republic." Eduardo finds work in construction, charms all those he meets, womanizes prolifically, and develops friendships with a diverse array of fellow Latinos. "The group's basic modus vivendi is to uncork a gallon of cheap wine, put on some music and argue over which of their Latin American countries is most miserable," wrote Sandra Tsing Loh in the New York Times. Lawrence Olszewski commented in Library Journal, "Quesada is at his inventive peak when re-creating the bohemian Latino colony." Eventually, Eduardo gets an audition with film director Steven Spielberg and becomes Honduras's most famous actor. Loh commented that while the book "has very little real plot … there is a breezy literary self-confidence here that dares one to find fault."

In Never through Miami, published in Spanish as Nunca entres por Miami, Latin American sculptor Elias Sandoval arrives at Miami International Airport with a one-way ticket, sixty dollars, dreams of becoming famous, and no visa. There, he is confronted by grim immigration officials in a scene that Sheila Shoup, in School Library Journal, called "hilarious." Elias finally gains admission, and in New York he finds work waiting tables. He promised his girlfriend Helena in Honduras that, once settled, he would bring her and her mother to the United States. But Elias becomes attracted to a fellow worker, and his calls home become progressively more sporadic. By the time Helena and her mother reach the United States, Helena has lost faith in Elias and vanishes in Miami. Shoup commented, "Quesada shines with his gently satirical insight on relationships, the art world, and life as an immigrant." A Publishers Weekly reviewer called the book an "amusing story bolstered by its knowledgeable meditations on the Central American immigration experience."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Bloomsbury Review, March-April, 1993, David Unger, review of The Ships, p. 7.

Library Journal, August, 1992, Jack Shreve, review of The Ships, p. 151; February 15, 1999, Lawrence Olszewski, review of The Big Banana, p. 185.

New York Times, September 12, 1999, Sandra Tsing Loh, review of The Big Banana.

Publishers Weekly, July 27, 1992, review of The Ships, p. 50; February 1, 1999, review of The Big Banana, p. 77; February 25, 2002, review of Never through Miami, p. 43.

School Library Journal, December, 2000, Sheila Shoup, review of Never through Miami, p. 174.*