Pop Culture
The fiction of Serros is notably distinguished from the fiction of writers representative of the first wave of Chicana or Latina literature by virtue of the quantity, style and purpose of references to American pop culture. A writer of that first wave like Helena Viramontes could actually title one of her stories “Miss Clairol” with the expectation that its pop culture referencing of the company that revolutionized changing one’s outward identity by inventing the DIY hair dye industry would be recognized as a statement on the issue of immigrant assimilation into American culture. By contrast, Serros has no hidden agenda in referencing both the Brady Bunch and a cooking oil commercial (although she gets the product wrong, it was Wesson oil and not Pam non-stick spray); the point that she represents the assimilated next generation is not designed to be obvious. The whole point is that it is invisibly integrated into he narrative:
“One day a woman wearing a gauze dress and that bulky jewelry you learn how to make from Sunset magazine came into the store. She had a Florence Hendrson haircut; not the style she had during her early Brady Bunch years, but later, when she was pushing Pam nonstick spray on TV.”
Not Miss Clairol, but Mister Miller
Another bit of imagery makes an even stronger association with “Miss Clairol” and it is found in a Young Adult novel which Serros took on a work-for-hire assignment to create a Hispanic line of the popular Gossip Girl YA line of novels. The result is a work of fiction (actually two novels) that are missing just about everything which makes the fiction inspired straight from the imagination of Serros so vital and electric with reality. Honey Blonde chica isn’t bad writing, to be sure; it’s just not representative Serros writing. The plot’s heavy focus on the issue of dying hair is notable within the world of Chicana lit, however, and the Viramontes recognized that. The imagery that Serros creates is not a direct commentary upon the way “Miss Clairol” uses brand name recognition as a symbol of assimilation, but it does come the issue obliquely with its own updated brand name referencing and the revolutionary change in acceptable hair color:
“Evie looked beside her bed. Sure enough, a trail of small blue blotches stretched across the cream-colored carpet from her bathroom to her pillow. She hadn’t noticed them before. There was even dye on the precious Dean Miller plastic-grass bed skirt she had begged her mother to buy her for her last birthday.”
“God, it’s really a monster.”
The monster refers to a specific piece of furniture, but the metaphor is apt: that piece of furniture does become a monstrous entity in the author’s mind. Her mother excitedly buys the desk for the narrator because the narrator has ever since she was a small child bragged she was going to become a great writer. The desk is therefore a gift of love and, even more, an expression of belief from a parent to a child. But like everyone who wants to become a successful writer, the narrator confuses becoming a successful writer with becoming a writer, period. And the lack of success is what turns a simple piece of furniture into a metaphor rather than its expansive dimensions:
“`It’s not a monster. It’s a desk. But not just any old desk, this is a writer’s desk.' She pointed out that under the thick mahogany roll top there were secret compartments, so many spacious drawers, slots for letters, organizers…this desk had everything. She handed me a key that would lock my privacy away from the outside world and my sister.”
Narrative Poetry
The fiction of Michele Serros is not limited merely to prose. Her first collection is comprised of roughly half prose and half verse. But both the poems and the prose tell stories. The verse is narrative-centered, rather that poetry that makes it point obliquely through metaphor, symbol, and theme. In fact, at times, the poetry is even more direct and to the point in its imagery than some of the prose such as this example of a mother warning a daughter against the dangers of eating pork rinds:
“`That’s solid lard,
Pure grease.
That poor dead pig’s
Gonna have revenge on you yet,
Make you fat,
Make you fart,
Scatter your skin with
White-tippled pimples.
No man’s gonna want you.’”
