When Pressed

Susana Chávez Silverman

SCS grew up (at least) bilingually and biculturally, in Los Angeles and Santa Cruz, California with extended stays in Madrid, Spain and Guadalajara, México. She teaches Latin@ and Latin American Studies at Pomona College in Claremont, California. Her book, Killer Crónicas:Bilingual Memories, was published by the University of Wisconsin Press in November 2004. The book’s genesis was in bilingual, code-switching Emails she wrote while living in Buenos Aires in 2000-01. She called these collective Email missives “crónicas” [chronicles], inspired by the rough-hewn, journalistic, often fantastic first-hand accounts of the so-called New World sent “home” by the early conquistadores. Her crónicas are anchored in an unequivocal at-homeness in both Spanish and English; her work is at home in U.S. Chican@/Latin@ literature, but navigates other transcultural terrains as well, such as Spain, Mexico, Argentina and South Africa, all places she has lived. SCS has travelled extensively in the U.S., to Spain, Argentina, South Africa and Australia giving performed readings from her work. Her second book of crónicas, Scenes from la Cuenca de Los Angeles y otros Natural Disasters, will be published spring 2010 by Univ. of Wisconsin Press.