FGG: So this story is actually the first story that I ever wrote in Spanish. So the Spanish title was “El Zapote Prieto” but I just couldn’t find a translation for “prieto” that kind of conveyed the same connotation or the nuance that the word has for Mexican people with mixed blood. When I translated the story, I decided on “The Blood Zapote” because it still conveyed the idea of the violence that seems to have been inherited from the Mexican Revolution and that’s an important theme of this story. I chose a zapote tree because, in the village where I come from, there were stories about a zapote tree, which was the largest one in our surroundings. The stories were about how it was used to hang people during the Mexican Revolution. I can’t confirm that these stories were true, but it really intrigued me to hear about that tree. And I also wanted it to sound very Mexican as opposed to an “oak tree” or something like that. I didn’t mean for it to be an allusion to the blood diamond and I was wary, up until the end, about using that title for fear of seeming to take a cheap ride on someone else’s fame. But ultimately, it felt like the appropriate title for this story. … It was quite a struggle to arrive at that title but I liked it in the end. I wrote all the story in Spanish and the first thing that came in the Spanish was the title. I know I have had this idea from the poem about the child meeting death but then when the idea of the tree came about I knew that was the title. It’s got to be El Zapote Prieto. But for the English version, I translated everything and it was at the very end that I struggled with the title and then I settled for “The Blood Zapote.” 

 

14H: Have you shared the story in Spanish with your family as well? 

 

FGG: I did read it to them in Spanish and it was an interesting experience because usually I tell them I'm getting something published, and they [ask] “can you read it to us,” but it’s difficult to translate and get the same feeling. So this one, there was a time when my siblings came over and I started reading it to one of them then the other ones just kind of gathered around a little bit. It was my mom and three of my siblings and I got to read it to them. It was nice and they told me, “that’s your best piece, the best thing you’ve written.” And I [responded], “yeah, I think I agree.”

 

14H: What theme/s do you feel drive this piece? How does that resonate with you? 

 

FGG: As you pointed out earlier, loss and memory are important themes and so is violence and community. This story, for me, is more about the stories of my father, the stories of my mother, the stories of rural Mexico. Also about a big disconnect that I see and that I used to see and that I continue seeing between our older generations and younger generations. It’s sort of about the threat of a collective forgetfulness and dismissal of a historical moment in Mexico’s history that was full of violence but also full of compassion. A moment filled with poverty but also, not to be chessey, but a richness of the soul. It was a moment filled with ghosts and legends that lend small Mexican villages their identity. I think those are some of the important elements to this story that I really wanted to convey. 

 

14H: This story engulfs you with the first sentence into this haunting memory of this village and legend that carries you through to the very end. Especially with your use of symbols such as blood, water and the moon. Can you tell us more about how you brought these detailed elements to life? And how do they help you tell this story of "The Blood Zapote?" 

 

FGG: As I mentioned earlier, this story was the first one I wrote in Spanish, and for me it was quite a liberating experience because it gave me a voice I didn’t know I had. Even though Spanish is my native tongue and the language that I use to speak to most people when given a choice. A big influence for the development of this story was also reading the works of Juan Rulfo. In terms of the symbolic qualities, I love Garcia Lorca’s use of the moon as a presage of tragedy. So I also do use the moon and the color silver in my stories quite often to indicate impending tragedy but also as a comment on beauty. At the end of the story there is a line that says that “the raindrops on the blood zapote shone with a passionate red,” and that’s making an allusion to the color of blood. Blood is not just a symbol for violence but also of life and a life full of passion. Water erodes, it cleans, it brings both destruction, purification and also beauty. Time also erodes and destroys memories but it also allows for a sort of redemption, if you will, and some sort of communion. That’s how I tie those ideas there to try to make meaning. I do borrow, for this story, a lot from my personal experience. I'm the youngest out of nine children, so my parents are fairly old so they have really old memories. Memories seem to erase over time and that’s a big concern for me in this piece. 

 

14H: My favorite moment within the piece was when the narrator was talking to their mother and she said, “The names, the stories, the lives of the poor only get written in water.” To then end  on a beautiful affirmation of this. How did this line come to be and did you know it was how you wanted to end this piece? 

 

FGG: So the poet whose work I admire the most is John Keats and his tombstone reads, “HERE LIES ONE WHOSE NAME WAS WRIT IN WATER.” The idea that our names and all we represent in life can be so easily erased by time really struck me as I wrote this story. This holds true especially for poor people. People who come from the same place where I came. My mother used to tell me stories and she told me a story of witnessing when a young man killed another one over the girl the first man was going to marry. She recalled the dying man calling for “Sara” and I mention Sara in the story. I wanted the story of this man and Sara to continue existing so as to not be forgotten but even if, by some miraculous reason, my story were to live in posterity, there are still so many stories that have not been told, that should have been told and that will never be told and will eventually be erased like a name in water. This was, I think, one of the most natural endings in my writing. When I got to that line I knew it was the end of the story, but I didn’t necessarily plan it. I knew that the mother was going to say the line but I didn’t plan that it would be the ending. When I got there, I was like, “This is it, this is the end. I want to stop right here and have it be as is.” 

 

14H: What would you like readers to take away from “The Blood Zapote?” 

 

FGG: I would want readers to experience a unique moment in Mexican history, that transition between revolutionary times and modern times and how it transcurred especially in small villages. The places that tourists often don’t get to see. I want them to see the nuance that violence is not in our blood, it’s a product of history. Community was and continues to be important in Mexican society. I also want them to enjoy a ghostly story in which no ghosts walk. 

 

14H: What have you taken away from the piece yourself? 

 

FGG: I’ll start by talking about a concept that John Steinbeck had, [he] had a concept that he referred to as breaking through. He explained it, more or less, as a mirror that reflects who we are and what we know and if you scratch through that mirror sometimes you can see through to the other side. He referred to that as breaking through. This story, for me, felt like a personal breakthrough. Where I was able to scratch this small mirror and see through to the other side, beyond my selfish emotions and perspectives but nevertheless I do feel personal gratifications for keeping my parents memories alive to a certain degree before they also fade away from my own memory. I feel like I have paid homage to the stories they used to tell me and, as a teenager, I used to ignore and now I value so much. 

 

14H: When writing, what does your creative process look like? How do you take a story from idea to finished work? 

 

FGG : This is a tricky question because I don’t know if I have developed a specific process. I have written some things in the spur of the moment that I’ve sent out and they’ve gotten published. But in general, I do take a lot of time to develop a story. We talked about “The Blood Zapote,” how it’s [a memory] from the 1990s and then 2008 a poem and finally when I wrote the actual piece was in 2023 and it got published this year, [2025]. So it does take a lot of time for me to develop an idea. I’ll let a story brew in my brain for months or even years until I have something concrete. Whether it’s a line, an image, an event or a character that comes to life. Once I have something concrete to work with, that’s when I begin writing. It also has a lot to do with the fact that I’m a teacher. So at the end of the day, I’m drained. I don’t have energy to do the creative work, so I usually tend to wait for the summer break or winter break to do the writing. 

 

14H: As a creative, is there a piece of feedback or advice that has helped you develop your writing? How did you grow from that? 

 

FGG: A few years ago I saw an interview [with] Kurt Vonnegut where he relates an anecdote where he and other writers were expressing how difficult and unpleasant writing was. He mentions how it was no fun but the only writer who actually thought [it] was fun was the one who was not the best writer, he was the worst writer of the lot. So what I took from that is that now I don’t look at my stories like a proud father looking at their little toddler taking their first steps but rather like a coach trying to make a professional athlete. If I don’t see any promise then I discard it. It has allowed me to be a little more objective when revising and editing. I see writing more as a second job than as a hobby. What that has done is that it has improved the quality of my sentences [and] the quality of my writing overall. 

 

14H: What’s been inspiring you lately, any good books, shows/movies or music/art? 

 

FGG: Currently, I usually tend to have two reading things, a long term project and then a short term. Long term is Don Quijote. I'm reading it for the first time. [For the] short term, I’m reading the novel Rebecca. I’m constantly rereading Juan Rulfo nowadays, I really like his work. His work and voice inspired The Blood Zapote a lot so I keep going back to it. My evergreen reading is Wuthering Heights, it’s my favorite novel of all time. I also like to watch the different film versions of it, although I’ve got to say, I’m not too thrilled about the trailer for the new version coming out next year. The art of John William Waterhouse has also been on my radar, I really like his paintings and how he relates them to literature. 

 

14H: What moves you as a creative person within other people’s work? 

 

FGG: I think what moves me most about other people’s work is just raw emotion. Such as we see in Wuthering Heights, this primal almost malistic passion that makes us do irrational things much to our bane sometimes. I also have a big affinity for fantastical qualities such as the modern novel, The Snow Child, Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Paramo and if you go much farther back, The Scarlet Letter. [They have] magical qualities that I really like. Those three works I just mentioned are some of my favorite works and I really encourage anyone to read them. Especially The Snow Child [by Eowyn Ivey], it's a modern retelling of a fairytale that I don’t think gets enough attention or credit as it should. Those are the things that really draw my attention; raw emotion and fantastical qualities. 

 

14H: What are you currently working on? 

FGG: I’m revising a few short stories, primarily, so nothing really new in particular. Though I do have mentally brewing a story that also features a zapote tree. I really want that one to be a novel or a novella, that’s something that I really want to come to fruition. But, those long term projects are difficult to achieve. That’s something that is mulling in my brain. In terms of the concrete things that I’m doing is revising the already existing short stories.