In each encounter with the written word and illustration, Maria Fernanda Heredia, 52 years old, she listens to her inner child to create emotional, sensitive stories full of humor and love. Although at the beginning of her career she did not consider it, she is now one of the main references of children’s and youth literature in the country. Yours are the texts The Lemonade Club, I Never Say Goodbye, Upside Down, Santa Claus Wanted, Prince Charming Wantedamong others.
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In a warm conversation with this newspaper, he shares his experience with that little María Fernada whom he constantly turns to. “I think that that girl or that boy that we all have inside is always there beating, is always active, is always whispering something in our ear. What happens is that we are growing up and, somehow, life, the rhythm, the things that we adults are imposing on ourselves are silencing that voice”he thinks
“I think I try to get along very well with that girl I keep listening to, I think I keep feeding those ideals, I think I keep believing that the world can be more beautiful, fairer, more human”add in a Zoom from Madrid, Spain.
She also says that this girl has been the refuge in those gray moments that she has endured. “When the storm comes to life, I run out and take refuge in the memory of the girl I was. Having felt like a deeply loved girl gave me a refuge for life”he maintains.
As was the writing. “There has been no moment in my life -especially a difficult moment-, there has been no complicated question, existential question that literature has not helped me answer”.
For the woman from Quito, children have a condition of tenderness and ingenuity, but they are also carriers of ideals. “It is they who dream that they can transform the world; they are the ones who hope that this world, which they sometimes perceive as a world full of conflicts and problems, can change and can be better…”delimit.
Her texts may be aimed at children and young readers, but she emphasizes that, as a worker of the word, her base is literature. “Writing children’s literature is writing literature. That my works reach children is something that makes me feel happy; I am a lucky one. But I am a writer, and literature is what I must first face”He says.
“I am excited to work every day on a story that can be read throughout life, beyond age”Add.
That is why their stories also include themes of social reflection, such as harassment, violence, sexual abuse, death, abandonment and others. “Because it is children’s literature, it should not stop addressing issues of life that are sometimes thorny, complicated, painful, but necessary”he points out.
“By addressing these issues, my intention is that this reader or that reader at least feels accompanied, at least feels that in this painful transit there is a voice, or many voices that are saying: ‘You are not alone, you are not alone’. Literature suddenly opens up and ends up configuring a scenario for the reader where he can feel that there is a door that frees him”, he adds.
The approach to this type of issues has been done from the beginning. In his first story called Thank you, explores the grandparent/grandchild relationship. “I dedicated it to my grandfather when I was aware that life was about to take that grandfather away from me and I didn’t want him to leave without me thanking him for everything, because my grandfather filled my life, my childhood with most beautiful memories, reveals.
“When I got angry with life, because life took my grandfather from me, I found my way of saying goodbye in literature, my way of saying thank you, my way of saying ‘we’ll see each other again, grandfather,'” he adds.
Keys to speak to a child from literature
The writer confesses that she was not a reading girl, because at home there was no book and she considered reading something boring. “I started reading thanks to the fact that I got sick with hepatitis and I stayed locked in my room for a month and they gave me a book, that’s where everything started. That book opened my head, I felt that I forgot everything, my shyness, my loneliness, the harassment”
That is why he considers that the most important thing to reach a young reader is to speak in his own language. “That is to say, that the word be an instrument so that they, when entering history, feel that they can advance, that they can flow smoothly. That doesn’t mean ‘write easy’; sometimes writing using the simplest words is enormously complex”it states.
In addition, as is typical of his style, humor should not be missing. “I believe that humor is one of the most beautiful forms of love and intelligence. Knowing how to tell each other things, and for a smile to arise in between, is a beautiful way of understanding each other and understanding life”think.
And, of course, that this story delivers unforgettable and endearing characters. “Characters very well created, delimited so that the reader feels that he knows them”.
Currently…
Currently, the Ecuadorian writer is living in Madrid, from where she is working on some books for the United States. A few months ago she published her new book, titled When we see the sea again. “It’s one of the books I’m most proud of,” she confesses.
He says that it is a personal experience with the pandemic turned into a story. “Everything in my life that emerged from the pandemic: my reflections, my fears, my laughter, my illusions, my anxieties,” she says.
“I was living in Peru in confinement and I didn’t know when I would be able to see my family again. For almost a year I did not see my family in Ecuador, and I was overwhelmed”narrates.
The work is circulating throughout Latin America, except in Ecuador, due to a reality that publishers are currently facing. “My intention is to publish that book in Ecuador, and that makes me very sad. I understand that the situation of publishers in the country is not easy“, He says. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
