Interview with Victor Piñeiro, Author of The Island of Forgotten Gods

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Interview with Victor Piñeiro, Author of The Island of Forgotten Gods

Welcome to SmackDab in the Middle, Victor! Please tell us a bit about The Island ofForgotten Gods.

Thanksfor having me! Sure thing. The Island of Forgotten Gods is acoming-of-age adventure set in Puerto Rico, where thirteen-year-old Nico—a New Yorker who dreamsof being the next Spielberg—plans to make a film so brilliant it’ll get himinto LaGuardia, his dream high school. But when he’s sent to spend the summerwith his Abuela and cousins in PR, his project takes a wild turn: he stumbleson the chupacabra, who begins hunting him down. Soon, he’s not just making amovie—he’s fighting for Puerto Rico’s survival against the ancient Taíno godswho created the island.

The Island of Forgotten Gods blends contemporarycoming-of-age with Puerto Rican mythology. What drew you to weave Taínomythology and culture into a modern story about a young filmmaker?

Thebook actually started its life as a memoir. I wrote the first draft during anespecially dreary pandemic winter, reliving my favorite childhood summer as away to cope with the gloom. The young filmmaker is an amalgam of my brother andI, who spent all of our time making movies since we were old enough to hold acamera. We made one of our wildest films in Puerto Rico the summer before Iturned thirteen.

Themythology aspect was a happy accident. It came in partway through the firstdraft as I was studying myths for a completely different project and stumbledon a unique link between the chupacabra and ancient Taíno myths. (More on thatsoon!)

The book has been praised as "a love letter to PuertoRico." Can you talk about your personal connection to the island and howyou approached representing both its magical elements and real-life struggles?

Iwas born in Puerto Rico, but my dad joined the Air Force soon after I was bornand we started moving all over the US when I was two. We always returned toPuerto Rico for the summers, though—it was our anchor.

AsI was reminiscing over our greatest childhood vacations in PR, I was broughtback to the summer when my brother and I started noticing the cracks underneaththe idyllic exterior of the island. Walmart had recently opened stores inPuerto Rico, and our town plazas became ghost towns, which ultimately got ourparents talking to us about colonization. It blew our young minds to find outthat our summer playground wasn’t all sunshine and beaches. And as we grewolder we started to better understand the complicated history of the island,and how much pain it’s gone through.

COVIDwas rough on Puerto Rico, given everything else the island had recently beenthrough (from Hurricane Maria to Zika to earthquakes and constant blackouts).Writing the first draft of my book in lockdown, I felt powerless and unable tohelp. I hoped that by bringing awareness to the many issues Puerto Rico hasfaced in the past decade, it might help in some way.

This is your thirdmiddle-grade novel after Time Villains and Monster Problems. What keeps drawingyou back to stories that blend fantasy with family dynamics?

Onthe one hand, I like my books to draw deeply from my life and experiences sothat they feel more authentic. On the other hand, I love stories with bigspeculative hooks, so I love taking my life experiences and then blowing themup by adding fantastical elements. I also like balancing epic moments withquieter, family-centric moments that are very relatable. Something I love aboutthe upper middle grade audience is that they’re often torn between being closewith their family and adventuring out on their own. I try to reflect thatdynamic in my books.

The chupacabraplays a central role in the story. What made you choose this particularcreature from Latin American folklore?

Iwas not a fan of the chupacabra growing up. It had a cheezy name (a comediancame up with it!) and it was portrayed so differently by everyone who saw itthat it seemed both fake and lame. Decades later I made two realizations thatchanged everything I thought I knew about the monster.

1.The chupacabra craze was a nineties phenomenon, but a very similar creature hadbeen spotted twenty years before it, and then again just seven years ago.Though they had different names, sightings generally described them asbat-like, or gargoyle-like.

2.The Taínos believed that the first humans emerged out of a cave as bat-likepeople, until their wings were burned off by the sun.

I’venever seen a connection made about the chupacabra and the creatures the Taínosbelieved we evolved from, and I thought it would be so fun to tie those twostrands together in an epic fantasy story.

Your career hasbeen incredibly diverse: working at HBO Max and YouTube to designing games forHasbro and teaching third grade. How do these varied experiences influence yourstorytelling?

I’vebeen fortunate enough to watch a variety of storytellers spin their tales– from kids to game designers to showrunners to YouTube creators – and Ilove taking it all in and applying it to my writing. Stories come in suchdifferent shapes and sizes, and I like trying to figure out why some storieswork better as short YouTube videos versus HBO Max shows versus a book I’d readto my third graders. But mostly, I just love being around creative people whowork in different mediums, as it’s incredibly inspiring.

The relationshipbetween Nico and his Abuela Luciana is pivotal to the story. Can you discussthe importance of intergenerational connections in your work?

SomethingI explore a lot in The Island of Forgotten Gods is the very real threatof gentrification to Puerto Rican culture, and nothing exemplifies the culturewe’re losing more than understanding what the island was like 50-80 years ago,through the eyes of abuelos y abuelas. I wanted my abuela to be one of the maincharacters because she was iconic and incredible, but I also wanted her to showoff the culture we’re at risk of losing as Puerto Ricans leave the island indroves and billionaires are incentivized to settle into it.

You've mentionedthat reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in third grade sparked yourdesire to write. How do you hope your books might similarly inspire youngreaders?

Ihope this book inspires young readers to explore their homelands or familiesand see them through a new lens. But overall, I hope my books help motivatekids to create. Writing would be wonderful, but if my books push someone tocreate in any medium, I’d be happy. It’s harder and harder to push through thefirehose of passive entertainment we’re met with every minute of every day, andcreate something original. And when we create, then we’re in dialogue with eachother and the rest of the world. I think it’s going to get more and morechallenging to create art as technology begins doing a lot of the work for us.But there’s such a beauty and satisfaction that comes out of creating things.