Rudy Ruiz

Rudy Ruiz is an American author and social entrepreneur. He has written a collection of short stories, Seven for the Revolution, as well as two novels, The Resurrection of Fulgencio Ramirez and Valley of Shadows. The latter, published in 2022, received the Texas Institute of Letters Jesse H. Jones Award for Best Book of Fiction.

Quotes

• “We can’t forget our past. We must be vigilant of history’s injustices and atrocities. No matter what stone we turn, there is a story to be found. Sometimes it lies in plain sight on the surface. Other times it is hidden deep underground. And, more often than not, the architects of a place’s history have used the stone as a foundation upon which they’ve built a museum of illusions, an image of what they would like the truth to be, and how they would choose to see themselves—but also a structure that shadows and obfuscates the truth, leaving millions in the dark about their own proud histories.”
  • Publishers Weekly, December 2, 2022

• “As a native Texan, I was raised on the refrain of remembrance.”
  • Publishers Weekly, December 2, 2022

• “If we can acknowledge the failures of the past alongside its squandered potential, we can also remember and apply our insights and learnings to our present. It is a way we can envision becoming a better people, capable as a nation of emerging from the shadows of our own creation to fulfill the promise of liberty and justice for all.”
  • Publishers Weekly, December 2, 2022

• “Borders are a motif in my writing. I was born and raised on the border, and my writing always takes me back there. They say you can take a person out of the border but you can't take the border out of a person. That saying definitely applies to me. Growing up, the border was an invisible line my family and I crossed every day. Because of that, I see borders as porous membranes through which people, animals, goods, services, and the environment must continuously traverse and transmit back and forth.”
  • Latinx in Publishing, November 30th, 2022

• “When it comes to borders I see bridges instead of walls. I see beginnings instead of endings. I see an opportunity for people to come together and build something constructively and collaboratively.”
  • Latinx in Publishing, November 30th, 2022

• “When it comes to borders I see bridges instead of walls. I see beginnings instead of endings. I see an opportunity for people to come together and build something constructively and collaboratively.”
  • Latinx in Publishing, November 30th, 2022

• “When we understand our histories and we can process the traumas that might have been passed down through the generations, we can better face these issues and also begin to heal as individuals and families. And, if you're a writer or an artist, you might find yourself with a life-changing project on your hands that is both enlightening and empowering.”
  • Latinx in Publishing, November 30th, 2022

• “In the case of Valley of Shadows, I sort of imagine, could the situation have been different had there been more people of color in positions of power? So it kind of turns the Western on its head by having a Mexican American sheriff be the person that’s trying to solve these crimes and bring justice to his town. … And by doing that, I wanted to create a story where the people that have often been marginalized in the telling of these histories have an opportunity to reclaim their place and their role in history.”
  • My San Antonio, November 4, 2022

• “[W]e can have progress together, but we have to acknowledge the wrongs of the past and we have to work hard to make things better together.”
  • My San Antonio, November 4, 2022

• “Books can build bridges between worlds. When we travel across those bridges and walk in others’ shoes, our sense of empathy grows. Books are bridges that help us cross borders, bringing us closer together as human beings.”
  • My San Antonio, October 21, 2022

• “The ranches and their history at the crux of the U.S.-Mexico War play a palpable role in my novels. The ranches have personalities of their own. Caja Pinta is grand and majestic, a wide-open and spiritual place that connects its inhabitants to nature and to whatever lies beyond this material world. Some might call it magic. Others might call it God. Regardless, it is a place of boundless possibility. El Dos de Copas is small, scrappy and defiant. It is literally the lowest card in the Spanish deck of playing cards. But it keeps playing. It never gives up. It is a place of beleaguered hope.”
  • Compulsive Reader, September 1, 2022

• “The idea for the curse fit perfectly into my passion for magical realism, but it actually stems from a family legend that indeed the men in my family were cursed. Fortunately, for me, I believe it to be a very colorful – if symbolic – fiction, a more palatable way of explaining our human flaws and failures, our past inability to overcome the burdens of our own histories, social barriers, and bad habits.”
  • Compulsive Reader, September 1, 2022

• “The idea for the curse fit perfectly into my passion for magical realism, but it actually stems from a family legend that indeed the men in my family were cursed. Fortunately, for me, I believe it to be a very colorful – if symbolic – fiction, a more palatable way of explaining our human flaws and failures, our past inability to overcome the burdens of our own histories, social barriers, and bad habits.”
  • Compulsive Reader, September 1, 2022

• “I thought it would be fascinating to tell a story from the perspective of a Mexican-American lawman and an Apache healer. These characters come from communities that were facing tremendous hardships and persecution. Yet, they often fought for justice, stood up for their people, and even helped diverse communities survive at times when people had to band together – despite their differences – to overcome life-threatening situations. There are many untold stories of unsung heroes throughout the history of the Southwest. My hope is to help those forgotten people – that often gave their lives for their families and communities – attain a visible presence, an audible voice, and their respectful place in the modern American narrative.”
  • Compulsive Reader, September 1, 2022

• “If we can see into each other’s worlds, we can find common ground and appreciation and that can lead to good things: like lasting relationships, collaboration, love, and healing.”
  • Compulsive Reader, September 1, 2022

• “In a way, diving into that Western and horror aspect of it, it felt like it freed me. It freed me up to have more fun with it in a way, maybe because I wasn’t taking myself or my writing as seriously and I was just having fun within those genres. I found it liberating. It’s weird to say, because you’re putting some constraints around yourself. But then within those constraints, you just opened up this universe within which I could have a lot of fun.”
  • Ideamensch, August 18th, 2022

• “When you’re a creative person the ideas come to you…it’s learning how to discern between the ideas I have that are just fun and fanciful but will never go anywhere, and the ideas that I have that might appeal to others.”
  • Ideamensch, August 18th, 2022

• “If it’s a good idea, you just can’t give up on it, and eventually other people will recognize that it’s a good idea.”
  • Ideamensch, August 18th, 2022

• “There’s so much competition out there for people’s time, and attention, and dollars. So whether it’s as a business, or whether it’s as a writer who writes a book, if what you’re offering is unique, it’s going to eventually stand out to people who are looking for that and you’re going to connect with your audience.”
  • Ideamensch, August 18th, 2022

• “[D]on’t get angry, don’t lose your temper, be patient, and try to see the other person’s perspective, try to find a positive way through the challenge.”
  • Ideamensch, August 18th, 2022

Valley of Shadows (2022)

• “Discrimination is evil, but evil does not discriminate.”

• “While I can bear to lose love, I cannot bear to lose honor.”

• “I need your help to find out who killed me.”

• “You don’t do the right thing because it’s easy. You do it because it is right.”

• “Justice is not for sale.”

• "Parting ways in the plaza, Solitario sat tall in his saddle surveying the changing cityscape. A ball of tumbleweeds rolled aimlessly across the deserted plaza, drifts of dead leaves chasing after it, rustling in the incessant wind. He squinted at the cathedral from beneath his broad sombrero. He saw cracks growing in it with every passing moment. Yes, we will build wells, he thought in response to Elias’ question. The water may keep us alive, but it will no longer protect us from our neighbor to the north. Nobody had mentioned it openly yet, but surely others were thinking about it just as he was. With the river rerouted south, they were no longer in Mexico. Their fate rested not on La Virgen’s apparition, but in America’s hands."

The Resurrection of Fulgencio Ramirez (2020)

• “Without love, we’re dead.”

• “Someone drew a line in the sand, and we crossed back and forth until it disappeared.”

• “The beauty of Catholicism,” he had pontificated to his grandson, “is that even if you spent your entire life sinning, you can die moments after repenting and still get into Heaven. So live it up, Fulgencio. Just don’t let death catch you by surprise.”

• “Don’t be afraid to love. If you love, you’ll never truly be alone.”

• “Standing in that same hut, all these years later, he fastened a bolo tie around his neck. He threw a black western jacket over his shoulders in one compact motion. He secured his gun in its shoulder holster. And he straightened his black Stetson with one hand while he combed his mustache with the other. He didn’t need a looking glass to tell him how he looked. It was high noon and time to go to the funeral. To meet Carolina once again. He kissed the ghost of his grandfather playing solitaire at the table. He plucked a single white rose that had sprung from the image of the Virgen de Guadalupe on the adobe wall. And he ducked into the blasting sun.”

• “His father had yearned to give his family the American Dream, to make up for the Mexican Nightmare he had lived as an orphan, roaming from town to town begging for food during the Revolution, sleeping wherever he could find shelter or work. And still he toiled in the darkness of his tire shop on the south side of the river to support the family he both adored and despised on El Otro Lado. But, it was obvious to Fulgencio that his father’s daily crossing of the river failed to cleanse him of his demons, failed to purify him of his tormented thoughts. There were times when his father just had to hit someone, anyone standing nearby.”

• “So strong had his voice become that people on neighboring ranches and farms would drag their rocking chairs onto their patios on the nights they knew he was visiting and listen to the corridos he and Fernando Cisneros sang, their voices carried on the gentle breezes of the Gulf for miles on end.”

• “But now those days seemed long gone, as distant as the feeble stars dimmed by the growing lights of the city. And although his father would assault him no further with his fists or with his belt, a lonesome wrath twisted through him like a venomous knife, like the hunger he had known as a child, eating the thrice-refried beans that tasted like the dirt that mingled with the tears on the floor beneath the kitchen table. Maybe he had been given a chance at this Sueño Americano, but he felt inexplicably robbed of something greater.”

• “If you’re not careful, the blood that you carry inside will turn those dreams that you so love into nightmares.”

• “I think we’re all a little bit crazy. But once we figure that out, we can start doing something about it.”

• “This place is too pure for the Church. No, let the Church own the giant basilicas and ornate cathedrals. Let the Church own altars encrusted with gold and chambers draped in velvet. This place is for God and His creatures...for you and for me. This patch of salt will be here still after we’ve all expired, and after the church bells have tumbled to the ground, and after the towers have crumbled and washed out to sea. And even when the sun is silent and nothing but a ball of frozen, burnt-out gas, we’ll roam these flowing wisps of grass....”

• “She remembered her father’s words one day as they sat alone in the drugstore. He had said, waving his arms in a grand gesture, ‘It took me years to figure out that what truly heals is not all these drugs and medicines. No, no señorita. Only love can heal. The love of between two people. The love of family and home. The love you hear in a song or see in a painting or design. El amor vive eterno.’ Love lives eternal.”

• “They felt as if they were two glasses of water being poured into one larger container. Swirling and settling in the darkness.”

• “What is a revolutionary…if not the architect of a new way of life?”