Dagoberto Gilb is the author, most recently, of the novel The Flowers, selected as one of the best books of the year by The San Francisco Chronicle. Anthologized widely, recipient of awards including a Guggenheim fellowship and Whiting Writers’ Award, his fiction and nonfiction have appeared in a range of magazines including The New Yorker, Harper’s, The Threepenny Review, and The Washington Post. The Los Angeles-born Gilb sat down with Zócalo before joining a panel on how Mexican Americans view Mexico.
Q. What do you wake up to in the mornings?
A. Right now, my [injured] leg. My leg, my leg. And I’ve been listening to Juana Molina. I have that one CD playing.
Q. What is your favorite word?
A. I don’t want it to be this word, but, invisible.
Q. Who is your favorite fictional character?
A. Huckleberry Finn.
Q. What is your favorite cocktail?
A. I like straight tequila.
Q. What is your greatest extravagance?
A. I feel like I’m Mormon, I do nothing. But I guess my greatest extravagance is coffee.
Q. If you could take only one more journey, where would you go?
A. I’ve been going to Mexico a lot, I love going to Mexico.
Q. If you could live in any other time, when would it be and why?
A. I think I would do better in the 1930s, but with my money.
Q. What profession would you like to practice in your next life?
A. An architect. I should have been an architect in this life. I was a builder and I think I would have liked architecture, I just didn’t know it existed.
Q. What is your fondest childhood memory?
A. I had such a screwy childhood. Going to Hollywood Park with my mom. I would collect betting stubs.
Q. Whose talent would you like to have?
A. Kobe Bryant, I admit it.
Q. What is your most prized material possession?
A. I don’t think I have one. I do like to wear my shirts and pants.
Q. Who would you like to have write your biography?
A. I’d be shocked if anyone wanted to write my biography. If anyone asks, and if they have written a book, I would say yes.
Q. If you were about to be executed, what would you want for your final meal?
A. Chorizo and eggs. Isn’t that stupid? And a beer.
Q. What is the greatest gift you have ever received?
A. Babies.
Q. Who is the one person living or dead you would most like to meet for dinner?
A. It’s a toss-up between Salma Hayek and Halle Berry.
To read about Gilb’s panel on how Mexican Americans see Mexico, click here.
*Photo by Miguel Izquierdo.