Podcast Summary:

New Books Network - Ana Patricia Rodríguez, "Avocado Dreams: Remaking Salvadoran Life and Art in the Washington, D.C. Metro Area" (University of Arizona Press, 2025)
Episode Date: November 20, 2025
Host: Mary Reynolds
Guest: Ana Patricia Rodríguez

Episode Overview

This episode centers on “Avocado Dreams,” Ana Patricia Rodríguez’s new book exploring Salvadoran migration, identity formation, and creative expression in Washington, D.C. Drawing from literary texts, oral histories, art, and her own experiences, Rodríguez examines how Salvadoran individuals and communities remake themselves—transcending borders through cultural production, resilience, and the ‘avocado’ as an enduring metaphor. The conversation delves into local artists, student-driven digital storytelling, and the nuanced realities of diaspora life.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Ana Patricia Rodríguez’s Background and Inspiration

• Rodríguez as a “1.5 immigrant”—arrived in the U.S. as a child, with parents immigrating to California in 1969. (02:19)
• Became a professor at University of Maryland, College Park (since 1998), finding herself in one of the largest Salvadoran immigrant communities in the U.S.
• Her research naturally shifted focus from general Central American culture to the vibrant Salvadoran presence in D.C.
• Personal moment of inspiration:
  • An encounter in a park with an older Salvadoran woman walking parakeets—an embodiment of untold migration stories. (05:30)
  • “I was inspired by the community to…engage in learning their stories, collecting oral histories, and then following the production of artists in the region…” (07:40)

2. Approaching Salvadoran Storytelling: Literature and Beyond

• Rodríguez’s training is in literary studies rather than sociology or anthropology.
  • She blends ethnographic approaches with analysis of poetry, oral traditions, and oral histories.
  • “There is a lot to be told, not just by sociological research, but also…in the literary text.” (09:13)
• Emphasizes bringing academic research alive by working with living community members—artists, writers, and artivists.

3. Reimagining Nationhood and Identity - The Work of Kike Avilés

• Avilés’s poem “El Salvador at a Glance” lists Salvadoran cities and then includes U.S. cities (Los Angeles, D.C.), reframing the diaspora as “Department 15”—the virtual Salvadoran province abroad. (11:00)
  • Memorable quote: “He puts us on the map of being part of a larger nationhood of Salvadorans that don’t necessarily live within the country itself… we can be Salvadoran and live outside of El Salvador.” (12:48)
• Challenges traditional nationhood by showing belonging outside the homeland; D.C. becomes another Salvadoran city.

4. Metaphors of Marginality: “Last Call, Ripe Avocados”

• In another Avilés poem, Salvadorans are called “last call, ripe avocados”—signifying invisibility and marginalization. (13:16)
  • “To be a last call, right avocado, you can visualize that avocado that nobody wants, right? ... And yet, it’s probably a very delicious avocado. So he…elevates communities that have completely been marginalized and overlooked and invisibilized.” (14:26)
• The metaphor points to experiences with gentrification, economic precarity, and exclusion in the D.C. landscape.

5. “Juana’s Dreams” and the Heart of Avocado Longing

• The short story “Juana’s Dreams” by Mario Ben Castro is the emotional centerpiece for Rodríguez.
  • Juana, an immigrant who brought avocado seeds from El Salvador to D.C., cares for them as emblems of connection and hope; but the plants die in unfamiliar soil.
  • “It’s the death of the avocados. It’s the death of the dream. It’s the death of her connections to her country. ... It is the story of a lot of immigrants…” (19:39)
• The avocado becomes a poignant symbol of hope, nostalgia, and sometimes the unfulfilled American dream.

6. The Book’s Structure and Salvadoran Terms

• Four chapters, each titled with a Salvadoran cultural term (e.g., "Aguacatero") to root the analysis in local language and identity. (20:41)
• On “Aguacatero” and Avocado Dreams:
  • “To be a huacatero is to be of the land, El Salvador… But also, there’s an element of fiction, of inventing, an element of nostalgia. Oftentimes we have to create our notion of what the country is…” (21:09)
  • "El Salvador is an illusion of what she [Juana] kept her thriving and going while she was away.” (21:39)

7. Digital Storytelling as Diasporic Practice

• Rodríguez introduced digital storytelling in her classes to archive student and family stories using personal media: photos, sounds, concise narrative. (23:11)
  • “I wanted to find a way that we could use those photos that we have in our albums, the sounds that…we could capture and put into video…” (23:40)
• Produced ~100 short student-made videos, visualizing the multifaceted realities of Central American migrants and their families in D.C.

8. Memorable Student Projects and Everyday Placemaking

• Stories like The Lifeline (connection via cellphone between a cleaning worker and her daughter in El Salvador), The Traveling Cheese (grandmother bringing Salvadoran cheese in a suitcase), and Amor a Long Distance Love (parents reunite decades after fleeing war) exemplify “the art of everyday we is placemaking.” (26:34)
  • “Elements like that help you make place a transnational space, make it home—the cheese.” (28:37)
• Students use these stories to connect more deeply with their family roots, communities, and collective memory.

9. Art, Unforgetting, and Collective Memory

• The book closes by calling art a way of “unforgetting, unsilencing, and prevailing.”
  • “The larger narrative of Salvadorans is that despite everything we prevail, we’ve been just holding on and trying to…keep on living despite…civil wars, migration, separations…” (31:34)
  • The act of remembering—both the pain and the resilience—shapes the Salvadoran diasporic story.
• Teaching and learning become acts of community engagement and memory-making rather than just academic exercises.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “I felt like, you know, I had come home to a second home.” (Ana Patricia Rodríguez, 04:40)
• “When he calls Salvadorans last ripe or last call ripe avocados, he’s talking about communities that are highly invisibilized, highly marginalized.” (Ana Patricia Rodríguez, 13:25)
• “At the end, it’s the death of the avocados. It’s the death of the dream. … It’s a really touching story because I think it is the story of a lot of immigrants.” (Ana Patricia Rodríguez, 19:38)
• “You can read all the literature we want, but connecting with it, making it…make a difference, is something…we often work at. … For the Salvadoran diaspora…connecting is very important. Unforgetting…is an active act of remembrance.” (31:00)
• “This essential work reminds us that identity, like the avocado seed, is shaped by the soil it finds, the histories it carries, and the dreams it tries to root in unfamiliar ground.” (Mary Reynolds, 32:30)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:19] – Rodríguez discusses her migration background and arrival in D.C.
• [03:48] – Initial inspiration and connection to Salvadoran community.
• [05:30] – Park encounter with the parakeet lady: the power of everyday stories.
• [10:52] – Kike Avilés’s poetry and remapping Salvadoran identity.
• [13:16] – Avilés’s “last call, ripe avocados” metaphor explained.
• [16:56] – The core story: “Juana’s Dreams” and the symbolism of avocados.
• [20:41] – How Salvadoran language and chapter titles ground the book.
• [23:11] – Digital storytelling in the classroom: archiving and visibility.
• [26:34] – Examples of personal and student storytelling projects.
• [30:46] – Final reflections on collaborative memory, art, and diaspora resilience.

Closing Thoughts

Rodríguez’s discussion offers a nuanced view of the Salvadoran diaspora in D.C., blending scholarship with lived experience and centering art and storytelling as acts of survival and connection. The “avocado dream” extends beyond fruit or metaphor; it is the hope, memory, labor, and creativity that persist and transform across borders, shaping both personal and collective futures.

For more:
Read “Avocado Dreams: Remaking Salvadoran Life and Art in the Washington, D.C. Metro Area” (University of Arizona Press, 2025).