Lorea Canales
Standing in a room crammed with strangers coming for cocktails, Lorea commands every inch of the air. She is reading from her latest novel, Becoming Marta, in smart, sexy prose that silences even the jaded, that bends my ear forward to catch the full force of her voice, her words, shaping a character in front of me. Marta, and how Marta becomes herself.
Like her character, this novelist went about becoming Lorea in her home country of Mexico. One of the first Mexican women to be accepted at Georgetown Law School, Lorea came to Washington to study, then immigrated to the US to work in antitrust and electoral law in DC; finally joining the newspaper Reforma as a legal correspondent. She has taught law school in Mexico, worked on Mexican presidential campaigns, edited for the NYTimes in its Spanish news service.
But that's not all. Like all women who continue the quest, Lorea keeps moving forward. She returned to school at New York University to earn a Masters in creative writing and published the book I am now hearing her read, the one that has won the International Latino Book Award. I'm captured by it. I go home that night and order it, devour it, write to tell her my gratitude for a narrative that dares to be so ambiguous, nuanced, unfinished, and yet whole.
Like her character, this novelist went about becoming Lorea in her home country of Mexico. One of the first Mexican women to be accepted at Georgetown Law School, Lorea came to Washington to study, then immigrated to the US to work in antitrust and electoral law in DC; finally joining the newspaper Reforma as a legal correspondent. She has taught law school in Mexico, worked on Mexican presidential campaigns, edited for the NYTimes in its Spanish news service.
But that's not all. Like all women who continue the quest, Lorea keeps moving forward. She returned to school at New York University to earn a Masters in creative writing and published the book I am now hearing her read, the one that has won the International Latino Book Award. I'm captured by it. I go home that night and order it, devour it, write to tell her my gratitude for a narrative that dares to be so ambiguous, nuanced, unfinished, and yet whole.
It is the beginning of a friendship. Lorea has cultivated a passion for Ibu, as I have for her writing. She understands at an intimate level the efforts it takes for a woman in her home country to rise against obstacles toward self-sufficiency. So that when I asked her to be a Face of Ibu, she said Yes in a hungry way, hoping to highlight these women, to bring their stories to the world table. To make something of the something they are making is very important, said Lorea as to why she is behind this movement. I couldn't have said it better.
Today, it is a joy to make something of the something Lorea has made. A life between two worlds, both richer for it.
With admiration,
Susan Hull Walker
Click on the picture above to see Lorea explain why she chose to be a Face of Ibu.
Click to shop Lorea's Ibu Favorites
