UNL’s Great Plains Studies names first Student Storyteller – Lincoln Journal Star

Karla Hernandez-Torrijos knows she doesn’t look like the person one would expect to be chosen to tell the stories of the Great Plains.

Until recently the inaugural Student Storyteller in Residence with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Center for Great Plains Studies wasn’t sure she was the best choice either.

“A couple of years ago I would have said I’m not,” Hernandez-Torrijos said. “I think as I’ve gotten more comfortable in my skin as a writer, I figured I am the person to tell the story about the Great Plains because I don’t look like the people that come from the Great Plains, or at least the people we’ve been told come from the Great Plains.”

As a young child Karla Hernandez-Torrijos migrated to the small town of Crete from Mexico City with little understanding of the English language. She found sanctuary in picture books and the love of storytelling has been with her since.

“It was really easy to fall back into storytelling and characters as a place of refuge,” Hernandez-Torrijos said. “I’m really eager to be able to hopefully take my place amongst that and create some work with my own voice in poetry and literature to continue the tradition of storytelling.”

Hernandez-Torrijos hopes to use her work as a storyteller to amplify the voices of those who don’t fit the perceived stereotype of a Great Plains resident, and coming to terms with how audiences see her identity in tandem with her work has been an adjustment.

“I think when you come from a marginalized experience or a different experience and you write, people inherently see politicalness in that, which used to bother me,” she said. “Now, I embrace it, especially with poetry.”

Faculty at the Center for Great Plains Studies have been grounding forces for Hernandez-Torrijos in her time as Student Storyteller in Residence. She said she tends to fall into a “space cadet” stereotype — she has big, creative ideas that don’t always come with a how-to for deadlines and budget.

With Center for Great Plains Studies faculty such as associate director and communications coordinator Katie Nieland and the center’s director Margaret Jacobs, Hernandez-Torrijos is piloting a project tentatively called “Dear Great Plains.”

“Dear Great Plains” will feature a variety of postcards designed by Nieland and distributed in any way possible — thumbtacking them to corkboards, handing them out to passersby — with the hopes that those who receive one will answer two questions.

“What do you want to say to the Great Plains and what’s your relationship like with the Great Plains?” Hernandez-Torrijos asked. She isn’t hoping for letters that solely express love for the region. “I think with projects like these, people think that we want a positive response. But it can also be a conversation you want to have, where maybe there’s something about the Great Plains you wish would be different.”

Next fall, the responses will be hung from the ceiling of either the lobby or mezzanine of the Center for Great Plains Studies, 1155 Q St. Hernandez-Torrijos hopes the project will bring in a myriad of people who can represent the true diversity of the region. Representation of marginalized experiences, stories of ways immigrants have positively impacted their community and recognition of the region’s diversity are all important goals for her project.

Nieland was one of the selection committee members to find the first-ever student to hold the storyteller position. Though it’s open to both undergraduate and graduate students, Nieland said they were so impressed with Hernandez-Torrijos’ work and that the center and the poet were “a good fit.”

“Karla is very thoughtful about her own process and how to both use this platform to tell a story about the Great Plains, but also tell these more complex stories,” Nieland said. “A lot of what we do at the Center is trying to lift up these voices that maybe haven’t been heard.”

Before finding a place in the Center for Great Plains Studies, Hernandez-Torrijos worked her way into Lincoln’s writing community. Once she found a support system within the community, it became what picture books once were for Hernandez-Torrijos: a place of welcoming and support.

She has lived for short times in larger cities like Miami, where she found competition in writing communities.

“When I started reading at open mics, I just felt enveloped by (Lincoln) community members wanting me to return and read more writing,” Hernandez-Torrijos said. “When I lived in bigger cities it almost felt like you were vying to see who was the best something.”

Without that support, she never would have applied to be a part of the Heart of It — a writing retreat founded by California-based writer Desireé Dallagiacomo. The annual retreat allows Hernandez-Torrijos to work with authors who once held an exclusively celebrity status in her life. Now, they’ve become some of her closest personal mentors.

Hernandez-Torrijos has been attending the Heart of It retreats since January 2019, each year gaining more and more experience. Over the past summer at the most recent retreat, she spent 12 days independently writing a manuscript.

“She has worked very hard to get resources and community for herself,” Dallagiacomo said. “A lot of people have more privilege and access to those, but she is leaps and bounds ahead because of her passion.”

Finding community in a city where she once felt lost, Hernandez-Torrijos is empowered to use her passion for storytelling and for the Great Plains to create a project that represents the strength and diversity of the region.

“I think sometimes we love the Great Plains, and it doesn’t always feel like the Great Plains loves us back,” Hernandez-Torrijos said. Through her work she hopes to change this. 

“When you love someone, or something, you want to tell them the ways that they’re hurting you. Not out of a malicious intent but a desire, or rather a hope that you can create a connection and that you can create healing.”