Author Sandra Benitez visits Anoka Ramsey

Lucina Mendez
Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Author Sandra Benitez visits Anoka Ramsey Community College


The Two Rivers reading series and faculty of Anoka Ramsey Community College sponsored a lecture and Q&A of award winning author, Sandra Benitez on Tuesday.


The event, that took place in the Legacy room at Anoka Ramsey Community College , was split into three segments of an hour each. The 1st and 2nd sessions took place from 10am-11am , and 11am-12pm . At these sessions the author gave a talk about her past and did a reading from her book, The Weight of All Things. The third session was a more in depth Q&A administered by members of the faculty.

At the 1st and 2nd sessions Benitez read a few pages from the beginning of her book. The novel is about war in El Salvador as seen through the eyes of a 9-year-old boy. It takes place in 1980 and is set around actual events, namely the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero.

Benitez began writing at the age of 39. Her first novel, a mystery set on a farm in rural Missouri , was harshly critiqued at a writer’s conference, and never published. After this experience Benitez decided to try to write a book that mattered to her. “My brother-in-law worked at the hospital across the street from The Metropolitan Cathedral, and was one the doctors who pronounced the Archbishop dead. No one wanted to believe it.”

Following these events her brother-in-law was kidnapped and held for ransom. He was eventually returned to his family after what they paid what is equivalent to 2 million dollars today. Benitez who grew up amongst the elite in El Salvador knew many people who were tortured and murdered in the conflict in El Salvador.

Benitez explained that she is not a political writer. “I wrote a story about a boy living through these events.” She went on to explain that a person who wrote a book about living through 9-11 would not be a political author, although the events surrounding that tragedy were politically motivated.

Sandra Benitez was born Sandy Ables in Washington D.C. Her identical twin sister Susana died in infancy. Benitez was the daughter of a Midwestern father and Puerto Rican mother. Her father served as a diplomat in the Foreign Service, and moved the family to Mexico where her sister, Anita, was born.

The family was soon transferred to El Salvador where she lived until the age of fourteen, when she was sent to live in Unionville , Missouri with her paternal grandparents, to become, “Americanized.”

Benitez lives in Eden Prairie with her husband, Jim Kondrick. She is the mother of two sons from a previous marriage. Benitez has lived in the Midwest for over 39 years. She is the recipient of many awards, including the Barnes and Nobel Discover Award, an American Book Award, the National Hispanic Heritage Award for literature, and has been awarded honors through the Loft-McKnight Award, received a nomination for Great Britain ’s Orange Prize, a Bush Foundation fellowship, and has been named a USA Gund Fellow amongst other awards and honors.

“Growing up I never thought of being a writer. I was curious, I was always asking questions, I now see that curious is what a writer needs to be.” Benitez confessed while speaking of her writing process. “I force myself to sit and get through a chapter. I tell myself, okay, no watching Oprah until you finished writing this first chapter, I don’t watch Oprah anymore.”

The writing process is a hard one for Benitez; she gets very involved with them, and claims her stomach hurts worrying about her characters. Her concern for them fuels her story. When writing a book she conducts many interview, and after writing the first draft, makes several revisions that can take years.

Benitez has written four novels, her first A Place Where the Sea Remembers, takes place in Mexico , followed by Bitter Grounds which is a precursor to The Weight of all Things,. Her latest book Night of the Radishes takes place in Minnesota . She also wrote a memoir, A Bag Lady, where she chronicles her history, and fight with Ulcerative Colitis (a type of inflammatory bowel disease that affects the large intestine and rectum.)

The author concluded each talk by answering a few questions from the audience, and doing a book signing, which also took place in the Legacy room. The tech department at ARCC recorded the event so that future students can reference her speeches and interviews.