Benítez, Sandra (Ables)
BENÍTEZ, Sandra (Ables)
Born 26 March 1941, Washington D.C.
Daughter of James Q. and Marta A. Benítez Ables; married James F. Kondrick, 1980; children: Christopher, Jonathan
Sandra Benítez may be little known because she only began writing at age thirty-nine. She did not participate in a national writer's workshop; her stories just came out at one point in her life as she reached back to her varied childhood experiences. She is of Puerto Rican descent through her mother and Midwestern descent through her father. She was born in Washington, D.C., where her father worked as a diplomat, then grew up in Mexico, El Salvador, Puerto Rico, and Missouri. She now lives in Edina, Minnesota. In 1994 she won the Minnesota Book award for her first novel, A Place Where the Sea Remembers (1994), which is based in a small village on the Mexican coast. Three years later she published her second novel, Bitter Grounds (1997), which spans three generations of women's lives in El Salvador.
Reviewers note Benítez's talent in describing the lives and telling the stories of native people and small-town life in Mexico and El Salvador. Chicana novelist Denise Chávez said the world of Benítez' first novel is "poignant, passionate, bittersweet. There are no small lives. Her characters are magnificent, merciful, soul-rooted creatures clinging to the shore." The Boston Sunday Globe called the novel "tender and gripping." Cuban-American writer Cristina García added that A Place Where the Sea Remembers is a quietly stunning book that leaves soft tracks in the heart."
The first novel weaves several characters' lives through the possibilities of work and life in a small coastal village. Love and anger, on the order of a Gabriel García Márquez story, influence the decisions of three principal characters, while each moves through the aspirations and disillusionments of their limited options. Candelario Marroquín is filled with pride and respect for his role when he is promoted to salad maker at the tourist-stop restaurant where he works. He feels he can finally provide well for his wife and the family they have always desired; since they have been unable to have their own child, they plan to adopt the baby his wife's younger sister will have. She was raped and now wants to leave the baby behind in good hands and go to the U.S., where she can earn good money. When Candelario is fired because of his boss' own error and embarrassment, he returns home to discover that his wife is now pregnant. He will have to return to a life of fishing and selling each day's catch to the restaurants in order to provide for his family. He and his wife know he cannot provide for two children. A quarrel ensues between the sisters, triggering a series of events that affect the lives of many members of their village.
The lyrical quality of this short (160-page) novel is reminiscent of Latin American literature of the 1950s and 1960s. Benítez writes only in English, but the essence of her stories is Latin American. She aptly paints descriptions of peasants, small-town life, and a people's rootedness to their land and their region, whether coastal Mexico or the small country of El Salvador. In her second novel, she contrasts the lives of wealthy women with their maids, but it is the servant women and their families whose portraits come alive, as well as their connection to their land. The 1930s' uprising and the revolution of the 1970s are only the backdrop to this story of the people. New Mexican writer Demetria Martínez called Benítez's second novel "a beautiful story and a major contribution to the literature of the Americas." Isabel Allende found it "a story of passion, politics, death, and love written with suspense; a country's tragic story seen by four strong women. This is the kind of book that fills your dreams for weeks." And Chris Bohjalian, a reviewer for the New York Times Book Review, found Bitter Grounds"like a recipe for a novel by Laura Esquivel, the rhythms reminiscent of Sandra Cisneros. Ms. Benítez certainly merits placement beside some of the mesmerizing new literature with its roots in Latin America." Her 445-page second novel is an epic that celebrates the Salvadoran people of the 20th century in their history, their land, and their beauty.
While Benítez seems difficult to categorize ethnically, she is truly a Latina writer: she writes in English and her themes are often of women's issues and Latin American origin. She has said that being an avid reader in her childhood helped lead her to story writing, and she seems to be collecting her Latin American experiences to share with a North American audience. Benítez has written several short stories, which have appeared in various anthologies, including Do You Know Me Now?, edited by Elizabeth Rosenberg (1992), and Speaking in Tongues, edited by Carolyn Holbrook-Montgomery (1993). Her awards and honors include the Loft Mentor award for fiction, 1987; Loft-McKnight award for fiction, 1988; Jerome Foundation Travel and Study Grant for literature, 1989; Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship for fiction, 1991; Minnesota Hispanic Heritage Month award, 1992; Loft-McKnight award of Distinction for prose, 1993; Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers award, 1993; and Minnesota Book award for fiction, 1994. Benítez is also a teacher of creative writing.
Other Works:
Women's Voices from the Borderlands (ed. by Lillian Castillo-Speed,1995).
Bibliography:
CA 144; WRB 15 (June 1998); PW (19 July 1993).
Other references: Boston Globe (19 Dec. 1993). Gac-Artigas, P., ed., Reflexiones: 60 Essays on Spanish American Women Writers (1999). NYTBR (31 Oct. 1993). WPBW (5 Sept. 1993).
—ELIZABETH COONROD MARTINEZ