1981_12 The Daily Collegian December 1981

              Peoe 6/December 4,1981 -Deify Collealan
Instructor
campus representative for the Latino
students during that time. She says
she has no regrets about those times
and would do everything all over
'I'm glad I was a part of that gener¬
ation,' she said, sitting in her office
chair. 'I look at them as-what word
could I use—hopeful times.' She
added, "Now I don't see a lot of hope
and that hurts the country.*
Ybarra-Soriano said that activism
is no longer a part of today's students.
'I feel the students today want to
get out quickly and get a job,' she
said. "They're not interested in social
issues. That's not to say no one is in¬
terested in these things, it's just not
She praised students who are ac-
'I admire the students today who
are involved who have kept that hope
alive, that they can do something,'
she said, straightening her velvet blue
blazer.
Being involved and striving for
higher education is an asset the youth¬
ful professor attributes to her parents.
She said her two sisters and brother
are also active in the community and
all have gone to college. She said that
through her parents constant en¬
couragement, she strove to get as much
education as she could   She added
with a laugh that her parents bragged
so much about her efforts in school,
that she had to succeed so she
wouldn 't let them down.
Before starting her doctorate de¬
gree, Ybarra-Soriano was a parole
officer. But she quit after being dis¬
illusioned with the system.
*l went into the job too idealistic,'
she said. *l thought I could change
the system.'
She said that because the parole
system is so entrenched in itself, she
could not change anything. One day
she decided she didn't care anymore,
and that's when she decided to hand
in her resignation.
She then decided to get her PhD.,
which she received four years ago.
Ybarra-Soriano tries to involve
herself in as much as she can. She is
in the process of editing a co-authored
fiction novel, which, she said, is a
multi-generational saga of a Chi¬
cano family in this country.
Ybarra Soriano is also starting an
analysis project of working women
in the United States. She pointed glee¬
fully to the foot-high stack of research
data that she had just received.
'I'm really excited about it,' she
Over the summer, Ybarra-Soriano
said that she also did some research
at the University of Michigan's re¬
search center. The dark-haired pro¬
fessor said she, along with others that
were selected from around the country,
gathered data on the Chicano family.
Ybarra-Soriano said this is the most
extensive research every done on Chi¬
canos in the United States and should
provide valuable information for
the future.
. When Ybarra-Soriano is pot doing
research, she is writing articles for
magazines, or speaking to educa¬
tors at conferences.
She said she also loves filmmaking
and was accepted to Stanford Uni¬
versity to study film. Even though
she did not attend, she still partakes
in the filmmaking process.
For example, she helped design a
slide presentation called Teach,'
which tells about the many contri¬
butions Chicanos have made in
. the San Joaquin Valley. She said she
has designed other learning materials
for the "Teach' project, as well.
Ybarra-Soriano said that she would
like to make a documentary film about
the history of Chicanos. She said little
has been written or filmed about the
race, and that the material that has,
is based on old stereotypical views.
'The most crucial medium today
is film,* she said. 'It's important be¬
cause it can serve to educate the public
about the positive as well at the neg¬
ative. They (the media) haven't done
that as much as they could.'
She said that both good and bad
should be depicted, but that it should
be balanced.
'No group is perfect, but we also
have well-educated individuals who
contributed a lot to the community
who haven't been recognized,' she
said.
As she speaks, one can see the
activist that was, the determined per¬
son that lives today.
Asked if she has ever 'dropped'
some of the activities she is involved
with, she says, 'I 've dropped some
things, but the trick is not to let people
know they've fallen."
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It
CSUF's writers
Crafting life
into fiction
Nineteen-year-old Creg Gatther has already
passed one of the tests that confront a serious
writer-the ability to accept a rejection slip.
The sophomore English major had some poetry
rejected by a magazine, but with a shrug of his
shoulders conceded, 'It's all part of the game.'
The first rejection slip was very hard,* he said.
'It was the first poem I had submitted and I haven't
triedinayearorso.'
The note read 'Poetry Northwest reads 40,000
poems a year...' 'It was a form rejection,' Caither
said. 'It was discouraging, but now I look back on it
and I look at the poems and I think, 'No wonder.'
They were terrible.*
If you could write a book with a simple formula
for becoming a best-selling author, you would
probably have a best-selling book.
The paradox is plain. But as Caither can tell you,
the formula is not.
CSUF English professors Charles Hanzikek and
Andrew Simmons list discipline, extensive reading
and writing, and life experience as important tools
for writers.
And while they and others in the Department of
English may be able to pass on some of the funda¬
mentals of writingt they can offer no guarantee for
success, even oh a limited scale.
As instructors, they tend to downplay the impor¬
tance of publishing at this stage, and instead en¬
courage the development of writing as craft.
According to Simmons, some students come into
the course with the idea they are going to 'write a
novel, get rich, make a million dollars and become
next year's Harold Robblns.' But they find it
does n' t work quite that easily.
'Publishing is the least important part,* said
Hanzlicek. 'They have to see writing as something
that is done for themselves, and that's pretty valu¬
able.'
'I don't think anybody should go into writing
thinking thev are going to have monetarv satisfac¬
tion," he said, talking of corporate takeovers of
publishing companies and the end of the family
publishing businesses.
'Harlequin romances are the envy of the publish¬
ing business because they make a lot of money.'
Simmons believes most of the students coming
through his writing classes recognize 'that the odds
against making a living at writing are fantastically
high.'
'I 'm not sure that there are that many students
who are looking for a career in writing,' Simmons
said. "You can't go out and apply for a job like you
can go out and apply for a job at IBM. It's an oddball
thing.
"There's no guarantee you re going to get paid
for it (writing), or you're going to get published or
read. If you stick at it three or four years, or even 10
years, and you don't get anything published, you
might get discouraged. There's no promise you'll
ever get published."
■t Hanzlicek, who has published a few poetry books
of his own work, said there isn't the pos.ii
making a living in poetry.'Not unless you're Rod
McKuen, and thereby you're not a poet by defini¬
tion,'he added with a smile.
Hanzlicek and Simmons seem to push the idea of
publishing away and concentrate on guiding stu¬
dents in developing their skills.
-I don't think a teacher caii make a writer,"
Simmons said. "You can help them, give them feed¬
back when they're going astray, when they are
using cliches.
"The work has to come from within.'
Hanzlicek agreed.
/'You can teach people how to use language more
effectively,' he said, but, 'talent, if you will. Is
The teaching of these courses is a little differ¬
ent than the teaching of other courses,' Simmons
said. 'You're trying to teach a skill. It's a little bit
like being an athletic coach. You can't give them
natural ability, but you can help them along."
"I try to get them to do the best they are capable
of doing,' Hanzlicek said. "Sometimes people who
are writing on their own don't know what they are
capable of doing. It's teaching them to be dissatis¬
fied.'
Part of the problem for young people who are just
beginning to write, according to Hanzlicek, is a lack
of subject matter. 'They haven't lived that much.'
He cites discipline as the hardest part in writing,
'Just realizing that you owe the reader some
work, that everything that comes out of you Is not
poetry until you shape it into a poem,* is difficult,
he said.
'People outside of poetry tend to think it's very
natural. The first thing that comes out is not poetry,'
Hanzlicek continued. 'It's only the idea. After that,
it's blood, sweat and tears. The longer they write,
the more likely It is to come out looking like a poem.
'It's like playing the piano; if you don't practice,
you can't play.*
Hanzlicek said improvement in students is some¬
times hard to detect, but at other times 'it seems
like lightning strikes. They get dramatically better
and stay that way.'
Writing generally gets easier with time, Hanzlicek
said, 'But it never gets easy.*
Caither has also written some short stories, but
is concentrating on poetry now.
*l would like to spend every day writing poetry,
but it doesn't work out that way,' he said. 'A lot of
times I'll sit down with paper and a pen and nothing
happens. Two or three nights a week I sit down and
get things done.
The easiness of his smile matched the intensity
with which he talked about his work.
-Sometimes I can spend three hours on some¬
thing and say, 'Cod! That's not going anywhere,'
and throw it away. Sometimes I think of an idea or
something that has happened, I just look at the
paper and let things happen.'
As a student at CSUF, Caither considers himself
lucky to have such poets on the faculty as Hanzlicek,
Philip Levine and Peter Everwine.
'I like all their stuff," he said, but added that he
had no particular "Cod-poet.'*
Caither's work has been evolving since his inter¬
est in literature started in junior high school.
"I'd get an assignment from an English teacher
and I'd make it into a story,* he said. 'I've always
been fascinated by literature. In junior high or the
ninth grade I started reading novels like crazy. In
high school, I started being exposed to poetry.
"lused to play with rhymes; that's what I was ex¬
posed to, the older stuff that rhymed. I look back on
some of the stuff I've written and laugh. It changes
with everything I write.'
Caither said his current writing includes some
childhood recollections and recent experiences.
'Last night I sat down and wrote about a small
town that I went through last summer," he said.
'Sometimes I get an idea while walking, and I think
that that would be a good subject.
"I 've got a lot of the world to see, and I think the
more things I see and the more I am exposed to
literature, the easier it will be to write. "
A future in writing depends on a lot of factors,
WRITERS continued on page 8
Some students
begin a college
English course
with the idea
that they are
going to 'write
a novel, get rich,
make a million
dollars and
become next
year's Harold
Robbinsl But
professors say
don't ask for too
mu6h, too soon.