This comics anthology makes the connection between food and sports within the Latinx community

An anthology of comics makes the connection between food and sports — specifically within the Latinx community. "From Cocinas to Lucha Libre Ringsides: A Latinx Comics Anthology" includes comics from many contributors, including Angela Sánchez.

Sánchez is an LA-based writer and the anthology’s co-editor. She says the collection is aimed at the Latinx community — but not exclusively. She hopes readers of all backgrounds will give it a read.

The Show spoke with Sánchez about what drew her to the combination of food, sports and culture.

Full conversation

ANGELA SÁNCHEZ: This particular comics anthology is based off of a comics anthology that Frederick Luis Aldama, affectionately called Fede, that Fede had created and edited himself a few years prior. It's called "Tales from La Vida."

When I saw it, I said, "Oh, this is really cool. I've never seen a comics anthology before. So many different art styles. Some are in color, some are black and white. It's all beautiful. "

And I wrote a review on it that's published on the website, Soul Rad. And Fede had seen that review of "Tales from La Vida" and said, "Hey, this is awesome. Thank you very much. Would you like to keep in touch?" We kept in touch and then going from there is when we coalesced around like, "Oh, would you ever do a successor anthology? What would that look like?"

And food and sports struck Fede and me as expressions of culture of which many people have their earliest visceral memories. So food triggers powerful memories tied to the senses, especially like taste and smell. Sports evoke all these big emotions, our first wins, our biggest losses, what it felt like being picked last, our team loyalties. That kind of fan fervor stuff. So together, food and sports always pack a powerful punch of nostalgia and accessibility for any reader.

MARK BRODIE: So what were you looking for when you were trying to put together this anthology? Were there certain themes or certain art styles that you were interested in?

SÁNCHEZ: I think honestly, we were looking for just folks who had a very strong connection to either of these two categories and some submissions to even be combinations of the two. We were able to invite both new artists, as well as ones who had contributed to the past anthology as well. And I think that gave us kind of a nice mixture of both first-timers who this would be their very first anthology, as well as folks who are a little bit more experienced, like, "Oh, I know exactly what I want to contribute to this."

BRODIE: Yeah. I'm wondering if there are any submissions you got that kind of surprised you or maybe like you had to read it a couple times and look at it a couple times before the connection to food and/or sports was clear to you?

SÁNCHEZ: I would say that everyone made the connections pretty clearly. The ones that surprised me, though, definitely were the ones that went in a different direction or something that's a little bit more unexpected. So for instance, there's always a very strong association, especially around food with something that's warm or nostalgic or something that's very friendly and fuzzy.

And it was surprising at first, because I hadn't expected it. But it was also very refreshing, I think, added more texture to this category as well, when we had submissions around food insecurity. And also maybe more traumatic or challenging experiences of food. Especially the first submission in "Tales from La Vida" is about trauma associated with food and shame that comes with it.

So, I think that that was a very big one to both start out the anthology wished with. It's called "La Mesa." And having that submission upfront, I think, drives home the idea that there are many different connections for food. And even within the broader Latinx community, food is — while it's something that connects us to our families and to our cultures, it's something that hasn't always been widely accepted within the context of the U.S.

BRODIE: So, let me ask you about one of your submissions to this anthology called “The Great Chili Standoff.” And I don't want to give anything away, but basically a kid who sort of defines himself as a nobody is invited to take part in a chilly standoff and does well and maybe changes his thinking about himself. I'm wondering about the process of conceiving of that story and of bringing it to life and sort of how you see it fitting ... with the rest of the submissions here and with sort of the theme that you were going for?

SÁNCHEZ: Yeah, so this submission is my co-editor story, Frederick Luis Aldama. And it was about him growing up, and that he was in the middle of nowhere and the weird group of friends that he had. And how this one schoolyard dare was basically his first shot to be able to feel like, ah, he was able to prove himself.

So, I had a lot of fun illustrating this piece because it's like, haven't we all been there at some point where you feel you have to do what feels like a very big giant challenge in order to just show your mettle? And I think that that's what I liked about this story. This is one of the submissions that is a weird cross between both the food and the sports side of things.

BRODIE: One of your other submissions was called “Nopal.” And this one, again, not to give anything away, but It sounds like it kind of plays off a stereotype among among certain people in the Latinx community. Is that a fair assessment?

SÁNCHEZ: Well, specifically, it's it's from a Mexican phrase: Tienes un nopal en la frente. So tienes un nopal en la frente is to say that someone is so obviously Mexican, they have a cactus sticking out of their forehead. And usually it's used derisively for folks who have tried to assimilate so hard — usually into U.S. culture — that they're unaware of how they present.

And for this comic is not very long at all. It's all six panels. But I drew myself with a with a little cactus coming out of the forehead. And the idea being of, you know, what would I do if I had a cactus coming out of my forehead? So It was kind of a fun, slightly surreal, slightly silly short piece to do.

BRODIE: So, you mentioned that while this collection is aimed at a Latinx audience, it's not exclusively. Like anybody can read it, and you hope that other people will.

So I'm wondering, what you hope that people who read through this and look at the comics and read the words, what do you hope they get out of it?

SÁNCHEZ: I guess, yeah. I mean, again, I want readers to take away the universality of these stories. And I would say as much as each of the stories in this anthology offer a little glimpse into a specific moment or culture, they each have a universally accessible core of humanity. So, my hope is that every reader can connect with that.

To me, comics are an interesting medium where representation can hit harder than strictly words on page, because the reader's brain is connecting both the illustrated artwork as well as a text that goes with a comic. So you can visually see the story as the author or creators envisioned it.

And to me, you get a lot within a comic's anthology because you're seeing the variety of different creators and each of their different perspectives made visual. So it's — you're getting hit with both the different art style as well as the different stories. And to me, that really helps show the diversity within, in this case, a Latinx anthology.