In the blistered fall of 1994, my dad thought a Mexican vampire was in Neil Jordan’s Interview with the vampire. I told him he was wrong under the old school movie house chandelier on Blackstone Avenue. Antonio Banderas is a Spaniard, you see. How could he get this wrong?
I saw in a TV interview that Antonio took speech classes to temper his accent when he came to Hollywood, but as soon as he put his fangs on, his accent came back in full effect. I’m glad it came back. Twelve years old, I burned my fingertips and a knit Contempo Casual’s sweater sleeve in a candle flame once trying to emulate Armand. You know, when he says, Or perhaps, this is the only real evil left.
Maybe I prayed to be a fledging, to know what it would be to float down into theater crypts and have a so-so entourage with donut powder puff faces. And to have a crew of never-ending to do my bidding, return my video rentals and hem my pants and run a lint brush through my velvet drapes before I go out to perform. But who wants all those friends and all that noise and adoration for an eternity?
Monique Quintana is a Xicana from Fresno, CA, and the author of Cenote City (Clash Books, 2019) and the chapbook My Favorite Sancho and Other Fairy Tales (Sword and Kettle Press, 2021). Her work has appeared in Pank, Wildness, Winter Tangerine, and other publications. You can find her book reviews and artist interviews at Luna Luna Magazine, where she is a contributing editor. Her writing has been supported by Yaddo, the Sundress Academy of the Arts, the Community of Writers, and the Open Mouth Poetry Retreat. You can find her on Twitter at @quintanadarkling and moniquequintana.com.