What is “Santa Divina Niña” about? Why tell this story?
The story is basically a small, private view of a girl who’s trying her luck at witchcraft in her own ways and unsure about what will come out of it. I wrote it to showcase a bit of how Mexican witchcraft can kinda differ from American witchcraft.
Tell us a bit about your cultural and creative backgrounds. Does one influence the other?
I gotta admit that as a teen I was never really very interested in most Latino traditions and such, except thing likes Dia de Muertos or mythical creatures like alebrijes and so on. It wasn’t until adulthood that I finally started to see it in a whole new light, embrace a lot of it, and wanted to put it into my stories and characters.
I have always lived in Mexico, but since I grew up in a small city, if I started having particular interests, I was the one that had to search for them, either from here or from foreign sources. I grew up very interested in horror, mystery, and fantasy. I like cute and colorful things, but I loved when people would make stories or have art styles that were about uncommon, strange people and obscure matters (but not to portray them in a negative light). I think that was what made me realize later on that a lot of my myths and traditions actually had a place inside of me after all.
What motivated you to get involved with the anthology?
Like I said before, I’ve been trying to get more in touch with my own culture. When I found out about this anthology, I felt I could try making a story about my own interpretation that I’ve been creating for others to see and take interest (even if in a small way).
Finally, what are some of YOUR favorite stories about witches? Bonus points if the witches are also queer and of color!
This one is a bit hard because, while I have always been into fantasy, I am way more into inhuman creatures than people with uncanny skills. I did always like The Witches by Roald Dahl, The Craft, Suspiria, The Blair Witch Project, and Veneno Para Las Hadas by Taboada (that last one is by a Mexican director that made some other pretty good horror movies that I love, even if not about witchcraft).
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POWER & MAGIC: THE QUEER WITCH COMICS ANTHOLOGY - 15 comics about queer witches of color, created by 17 women, demigirls, and bigender people of color. - http://kck.st/2ctn9qe
