Family-inspired novel is a labor of love.
Story’s 22-year journey ‘theway it was meant to be’
The idea for “The Resurrection of Fulgencio Ramirez” came to writer Rudy Ruiz when he brought his newborn daughter Paloma home from the hospital.
“I remember walking up the stairs, and I felt a lightning strike of inspiration,” said Ruiz, who had long wanted to write a novel but felt he didn’t have enough life experience to tackle one before he became a father. “I started writing probably that night.”
That was 22 years ago. Paloma is now a senior in college and a writer herself. And the book her dad started writing when she was a baby was released Tuesday.
“It’s been a long journey,” said Ruiz, 52. The San Antonio-based author has a few books under his belt, including the awardwinning short story collection “7 for the Revolution,” which was named Best Popular Fiction book by the International Latino Book Awards in 2014. “The Resurrection of Fulgencio Ramirez” is his first novel.
The richly detailed book tells the story of Fulgencio Ramirez, whose entire life is driven by one thing: his deep, abiding love for Carolina Mendelssohn, the kind and beautiful daughter of the pharmacist in tiny La Frontera, Texas. She is the reason he devotes himself to becoming a pharmacist — to make certain her father approves of their relationship — and she is the reason he works so hard to become a success.
She also is the reason, at the start of the book, that he spends every morning eagerly scanning the obituaries, hoping to see one name — that of the man Carolina married when her relationship with Fulgencio collapsed.
The sprawling tale zigzags through time, exploring Fulgencio’s life and the arc of his romance with Carolina. Gracefully rendered elements of magical realism are threaded throughout the story as Fulgencio confers with the ghosts of those who advised him when they were on this side of the mortal coil, including his grandfather and a priest. The action also ranges back and forth across the border as Fulgencio seeks to break a family curse.
Ruiz wrote the first draft for the book in about six months, then began trying to get it published. He came close a few times, but those deals fell apart. When they did, he said, he would go back to the draft, reworking it over and over
He drew a lot of inspiration from his father, weaving traits and elements of his life story into Fulgencio. The book is dedicated to him.
“Just like Fulgencio, my dad grew up on the border,” he said. “My dad, as I was growing up, always shared a lot of stories about his childhood, being the son of parents that came from Mexico, being the first in his family to go to college. Like Fulgencio, he went to Ut-austin for college and returned home and owned his own pharmacy for the whole rest of his life.”
El Dos de Copas, the ranch just across the border that Fulgencio inherits from his grandfather, was based on a similar spread near Matamoros that Ruiz’s father inherited from his mother. The cattle brand on the book’s cover is the brand that was used on that ranch.
Another trait the character shares with Ruiz’s dad is a passion for Mexican music.
“My dad, just like Fulgencio, had a beautiful voice,” he said. “I integrated all the favorite songs I grew up listening to him sing into the novel, so they help chronicle his journey.”
His father helped with that part of the book. He
read an early draft, and Ruiz conferred with him on the songs’ lyrics.
“Now you can find them all online. And I put up a playlist on Spotify with the songs,” he said. “Back then, you couldn’t find them online, so I actually went over the songs with my dad and had him write down the lyrics for me. My dream had been to get him into a recording studio, but that never came to be. The Spotify list is the best approximation of that.”
The Spotify list, which can be found under the name of the novel, also is connected with another generation of the family: Ruiz’s son Lorenzo is a big fan.
“He loves to play the list,” he said. “It’s wonderful to walk into the living room and your 16-year-old is listening to traditional
Mexican folk songs that your dad used to sing.”
The writer’s father died in 2015. By then, Ruiz had set the draft aside, but he decided to pick it up again, partly because he missed his dad so much.
“It felt like I was spending time with him,” he said. “So I reworked the manuscript yet again, and that time, it finally hit. The publisher Blackstone (Publishing) loved it. I felt like the journey of the book was the way it was meant to be.”
A prequel focused on a different branch of Fulgencio’s family is already in the works, Ruiz said, titled “Valley of Shadows.”
He said it was because of his parents that he never gave up on the book. When he was growing up, they shared stories of the obstacles they had overcome. Those accounts helped him put things in perspective.
“That was very inspirational,” he said. “If your parents can do those things, then you can sit at
a computer in an airconditioned room and work on a book.”
The support of his wife, Heather, with whom he runs the advocacy marketing firm Interlex Communications, was also tremendously helpful.
“She’s the first one to read my work, and she always told me, ‘Don’t give up. This novel is going to inspire other people and kids are going to read it in literature classes, hopefully, someday,’ ” he said. “That was another blessing. It is hard to keep going completely on your own.”
Their company specializes in public awareness campaigns. It has been busy of late with public health campaigns pegged to COVID-19, including one for the city of Seattle.
Some readers may find some lessons for this fraught era in the book, he said.
“It’s a time where people are focused on the divisions in our country and the inequities,” he said. “I think it’s an interesting time for ‘The Resurrection of Fulgencio Ramirez’ because the book is all about healing.
“The border is obviously a division and can be symbolic of the divisions between us, and, ultimately, the novel is about trying to heal those divisions. Since the novel is written in the magical realism style, it allows me to envision a world where people could be brought together by love and healing and overcome those barriers to find peace and harmony and joy.”
“It’s a time where people are focused on the divisions in our country and the inequities. I think it’s an interesting time for ‘The Resurrection of Fulgencio Ramirez’ because the book is all about healing.”
San Antonio-based author Rudy Ruiz