Michael Jaime-Becerra is a native of El Monte, California. A graduate of UC Riverside’s Creative Writing department, his early work was first collected in 1996 as Look Back and Laugh for the Chicano Chapbook Series, edited by Gary Soto. He is author of a collection of inter-related short stories, Every Night Is Ladies’ Night. Before speaking on Zócalo’s panel about how Mexican Americans see Mexico, Jaime-Becerra stopped to chat.
Q. What is the last habit you tried to break?
A. Being lazy on Sunday mornings.
Q. Who was your childhood hero?
A. Richie Valens.
Q. What do you believe to be the greatest simple pleasure?
A. Music.
Q. What do you do to clear your mind?
A. Listen to music, usually one song over and over again. Right now it’s “Hey Sis” by the Dum Dum Girls.
Q. What do you wish you had the nerve to do?
A. Travel more in countries where I don’t know the primary language.
Q. What was the last thing that inspired you?
A. A concert I went to in San Diego – this group called Crocodiles. They play music that sounds like it’s from 1985. To see that and relive what I experienced in my youth was fun.
Q. What do you wake up to in the mornings?
A. The sound of my wife getting ready for work.
Q. Who is your favorite fictional character?
A. Neddy from “The Swimmer” by John Cheever.
Q. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A. First it was a cowboy, then it was a writer.
Q. What is your favorite cocktail?
A. I don’t drink anymore, so I’ll say Cheerwine soda.
Q. What is your guilty pleasure?
A. Converting vinyl records to MP3s.
Q. Whose talent do you wish you had?
A. William Trevor, the Irish writer. He’s amazing. His book of collected stories is like 1,100 pages long.
To read about Jaime-Becerra’s panel on how Mexican Americans see Mexico, click here.
*Photo by Miguel Izquierdo.