Junot Díaz, famed Dominican-American Pulitzer Prize winner, has written short stories and novels and is best known for his works The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Drown, and This Is How You Lose Her. His success has empowered many Latino writers, but it has also left a bad taste in the mouths of some Latinos; one of those individuals being writer Alisa Valdes. Cuban-mixed heritage Valdes, author of The Dirty Girls Social Club and a writer whose been called the 'The Latina Terry McMillan', recently wrote a personal critique about Díaz, the New York literary establishment and the Dominican ruling in an op-ed piece published in RICA Magazine, where she acts as Editor and Chief.  

Valdes has a 20 year history with Díaz that began when she was a writer at Boston Globe and Díaz was a fresh writer with a newly-released collection of short stories. She sat down with him, ate Dominican food and wrote out a profile on him. Without surprise, the two became friends. As friends, Valdes shared a pre-published draft of The Dirty Girls Social Club with Díaz, and he returned those pages to her, saying that it was an "important and original, and written in a voice that had not yet been heard in American letters." When that work was published, it was immediately slotted as "chick lit" because she, as an author, had a vagina. According to Valdes, her writing is similar to that of Díaz, yet he won a Pulitzer Prize -- embraced by the New York literary establishment because he's male and "more exotic" than she is.

Valdes, once a writer of what was expected of her, wrote "exotic and foreign in a way that comforted white liberals," making her likable in the eyes of those who could judge her to be nominated as a Pulitzer Prize winner. Yet, she would never peak while under the thumb of white liberal New York literary establishments that are sexist, classist and racist -- causing resentment. She states that Díaz plays into the idea that Latino writers must write characters that live the "immigrant experience." She rebels, and avoids presenting writing that has an "exotic or foreign veneer," which makes her writing less desirable, but not less valuable, as a writer.

While she doesn't blame Díaz for this, she does blame what she calls "the American Disease," which is the notion that if Latino writers/writers of color aren't "unique," then they shouldn't be heard. She states that Díaz is an impressive writer, but he plays the role, he "fits into that box."

"Latino writers are only embraced by the elites when we're exotic and depressing. Junot fits into that box, by chance. I don't think he does this on purpose, nor do I think he is insincere." Valdes said in the article entitled "Is Junot Díaz un-Dominican, or Just Sane." "Rather, I think Junot by happenstance cleaves to a required exoticism that I do not, and that for this reason and this reason alone (well, maybe also coupled with my having lady parts and a lack of a filter sometimes) I will never be nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for fiction even though I am not a shabby writer at all and in fact might be a great writer too."      

The literary establishment has been charged with sexism time and time again. Writers such as Jennifer Weiner, Jodi Picoult, Virginia Woolf and countless others have drawn attention to the industry-wide adoration for the "white male literary darling." And, often, comments of sexism are denounced as paranoia, and called belly-aching.  Writer Julia Fierro said that women's work is often "genre-ghettoized," and given overly feminized book covers to pigeonhole female writers, and market everything under the all-encompassing 'chick lit' genre. And, as a writer of color, creative works are overshadowed by color -and writers of color are forced to take on the overbearing role of socially responsible representative.

"We (in publishing) seem much more willing to address the gender problem than the racial inequities that are rampant. It's like we must address one issue before getting to the other," said Roxanne Gay, African American writer of whose been feature in Best American Short Stories, Oxford American, and has published a novel, An Untamed State. "I try my best to think about inequality in publishing intersectionally-trying to increase representation and visibility for all underrepresented populations."

Valdes seems to indicate that her troubles with Díaz himself are less sexist and more personal; never specifically accusing him of abusing his male privilege, she does believe that he certainly benefits, and functions under that mindset. She stated that he is no longer friends with her because she dares to believe that she's as good a writer as he is. Her confidence as a female writer (and the torrid affair that the two shared many years ago) divides them.

"I tell you all of this by way of letting you know that I have lots of reasons to personally dislike Junot Díaz, and plenty of ammo to envy the crap out of the fact that the precious and powerful tweedy establishment loves him and assumes I'm shallow as shit because of the candy colored stripes marketing departments have slapped onto the covers of my books, even though Junot's last book, written in the voice of a character a lot like my Usnavys character, isn't all that different from what I do," Valdes said. "In some ways, Junot is the celebrated Salieri to my maligned Mozart. But, even so, I still admire him as a writer and, after the past few weeks, wish to congratulate him for standing up to the government of the Dominican Republic for their racist and genocidal attack upon Haitians and Haitian-Dominicans."

In the article, she went on to praise him for using his position as top-tier writer to speak on the situation in the Dominican Republic. She noted how he's even braved criticisms from Dominican officials who blast him for his opinion. She does this in spite of the fact that he's apparently never been nice to her, and despite the implication that she's meant to support someone just because they're Latino. She empathized, and revisited a time that she was once attacked by right-wing Cuban American blogs after she dared to write about child prostitution on the island. The Cuban government even banned her.

She concluded her article with a rounded statement that clarified her thoughts on Díaz saying that she wasn't intending to criticize his writing, but to comment on her issues with the NY literature industry and their characterizing him as exotic, and exploiting that. She also states that her article was to comment on the fact that she will forever be ignored because of her "aggressive lack of such exoticism," a defiant act that means to speak on justice, fairness, racism, and perception.