Childhood Heroes

When I was a kid, I had really bizarre, diverse interests. My possible plans for a future career included but were not limited to: geologist, archeologist, veterinarian, artist, opera singer, fashion model, and children's book author. As such, I did not really have what you would call a "childhood hero," someone I looked up to and wanted to emulate. I just had a lot of really good ideas and people who inspired me... mostly dead people or fictional characters, and mostly people I would be ashamed to admit I wanted to be like now that I am grown (such as Wonder Woman! Although in my defense, I mostly just liked her outfit).

The cool thing, though, is that I got to meet one of those people on Friday, and he did not disappoint.

As I mentioned previously, I kind of wanted to be an author/illustrator of children's literature. I used to write books in my spare time, although they were all terrible and few if any survive today. One of my favorite children's authors and poets (especially as I moved into middle school) was Gary Soto. This is a photo from his official website.

Gary Soto is a Mexican-American author from.... drumroll, please.... FRESNO! Yay! Go home team! I remember having to evaluate "Canto Familiar" in English in High School, and I remember thinking how much his work moved me.

Later on, as I moved into college, I had to start doing social and historical criticism of different literary genres, and he started cropping up more and more as the definitive voice of Mexican-Americans in the later half of the 20th century. Since I grew up in Fresno, where the lines between different cultures blur very thin, I could identify with a lot of what he has to say, despite the fact that I definitely am not Mexican (although that fact seems to have eluded my 3rd period class recently). His poem "Oranges" moves me to tears nearly every time I read it, partly because it is so beautiful, and partly because when I read it, I am home.

He was the keynote speaker at a conference I went to on Friday. Afterward, I got to shake his hand and he autographed a book for me. I told him I come from Fresno, too, and we spoke a little bit about home. We laughed about a comment he made earlier during his address- that Fresno isn't hell, but you can see it from there (a joke that you probably won't appreciate if you haven't been to Fresno, but one that is very hilarious to those who know the town). He told me his wife went to Roosevelt Elementary and El Capitan Middle School.

It was neat. It was also cool to know that success hasn't affected him much- he is very humble and was willing to take a few minutes to talk to me, even though he had a very busy schedule. He was approachable and funny, and all-in-all, he has inspired me to start writing about my own experiences growing up.

Now if only I could think of something to say...