A love triangle, a coma, suddenly-revealed family secrets — all are common elements in telenovellas. They are also all elements in English professor Tita Ramirez’s debut novel, “Tell It to Me Singing.”
For Ramirez, it was important to parallel these themes in her novel. While the dramatics of it all aren’t always portrayed realistically in these shows, Ramirez said she wanted her book to draw attention to the “seeds” of these narratives found in everyday life.
“Our lives are sort of telenovelas and soap operas and real trashy TV,” Ramirez said. “Hopefully, none of us are getting kidnapped by our evil twin while our fiance is in a coma and then somebody else is being thrown off the building by a mafioso or whatever. But do people sometimes have relationships with people that are not the best idea and really they're secretly still in love with their ex? Every. Single. Day.”
“Tell It to Me Singing” follows 29-year-old Cuban American Mónica Campo. Mónica and her mom have always been close and the two watch telenovelas together every Friday. However, her mom needs an emergency surgery and while high on preoperative drugs reveals a previously well-kept secret.
As she tries to discern what’s true and what’s her mother confusing real life with her favorite telenovelas, Mónica is experiencing her first pregnancy and a love triangle of her own.
The novel centers around themes of agency, identity and power — especially as Latina women.
English professor Tita Ramirez’ debut novel, “Tell It to Me Singing,” pictured at her signing event held Sept. 10.
For the past two months, Ramirez has been on sabbatical as she travels to book signings throughout North Carolina and Florida, where the book is set. Her opening book reading was on July 8 at her local indie bookstore — The Country Bookshop — in Southern Pines, North Carolina.
It was the first time Ramirez saw someone she didn’t know holding her book.
“There was definitely a period of my life when I wasn’t sure it was going to happen,” Ramirez said. “There’s a part of your brain that thinks, ‘I’m just doing this. Nothing’s ever going to come of it.’ And something finally came of it. And people are wanting to read it and that’s amazing.”
On Sept. 10, Ramirez hosted a signing at Elon University. Several of her past students and colleagues attended the event, including junior Pat Probst. After taking two classes with Ramirez, Probst declared a creative writing minor and said he wanted to support her work the way she has been supporting his.
“It's very on brand for her and the kind of stories that she would share with us,” Probst said.
When writing the dialogue in “Tell It to Me Singing,” Ramirez said she had to strike a balance between translating and not translating what the characters were saying in Spanish.
“I’m OK with non-Spanish speakers not understanding every word of it,” Ramirez said.
She said while Spanish-speaking readers might understand more of the jokes and commentary the characters make, the use of Spanish was not intended to alienate non-Spanish speaking readers.
“You’re not going to get lost, you’re not going to feel left out, none of the plot is going to feel like, ‘Oh, wait, I don’t know what’s going on there,’” Ramirez said.
It was also important for her to not italicize the Spanish, a format sometimes used in English-language books to denote a foreign language.
“In my case, there’s no reason to italicize the Spanish. It’s not a foreign language for these characters,” Ramirez said.
While she’s been hearing a lot of positive feedback from Cuban Americans who saw themselves represented in her work, she said the novel’s overall themes led the book to connect to wider audiences.
“All of us have families. All of us have had to make tough decisions about our lives. All of us have felt stuck at times. Many of us have had relationships that have been complicated,” Ramirez said.
The narratives and conflict explored in the novel are rooted in elements of Ramirez’s own life, she said. Family secrets she’s learned, things that have happened to her friends and stories from former coworkers are all embedded into the novel’s plot.
Now retired Elon professor Cassie Kircher has known Ramierez for over 20 years — the past 14 of which Ramirez spent writing “Tell It to Me Singing.” Kircher said she had felt honored to have read an advanced reader copy before the book was published and said she was excited for more people to engage with Ramirez’s work.
“It's a love story, really, at its heart,” Kircher said. “So anybody that likes relationships and the messiness of life, I think they will like it too.”