by Nicholas Frank
When Rafael Castillo (B.A. ’75) and Alex Salinas (B.A. ’11, M.A. ’19) entered St. Mary’s University, neither imagined they’d become published authors heralded by their peers. As students, both started on a political science track, thinking they might be lawyers one day.
But something about the siren’s call of writing kept drawing them forward into new futures. And, as it turns out, studying political science broadened their horizons.
“Majoring in Political Science really opened my eyes to a lot of different political thinkers,” Castillo said, mentioning Plato, an ancient Greek philosopher, Sun Tzu, a Chinese strategist, and the Civil Rights leader Malcolm X, as primary inspirations.
Salinas said he also enjoyed his political science education, but an internal shift in his sophomore year led him away from his earlier idea of law school. He stuck with his major, then, after graduation, began writing professionally as a journalist.
Later, while working full time for the St. Mary’s University Marketing and Communications Office, he enrolled in the graduate English Literature and Language program. His very first course was with writer Ito Romo, a former professor who has been inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters. This was followed by an influential course with poet Cyra Dumitru, also a former professor, whose memoir, published in 2025, is titled Words Make a Way Through Fire.
“Those two altered the course of everything,” Salinas said.
Today, both Castillo and Salinas are celebrating the releases of their newest books. Castillo’s The Language of Sparrows and Other Stories, published by Tiltwood Press, is his third short story collection, along with Dostoevsky on Guadalupe Street, a book of essays published in 2023. The 13 stories of The Language of Sparrows have been praised for their precision of language and lyrical simplicity.
While Salinas has published four volumes of poetry and a collection of short stories, The Dream Life of Larry Rios, published by FlowerSong Press, is his first novel.
Used to writing in much shorter forms, Salinas said he had to fool himself into writing a novel-length story. The character he named Larry Rios was born in an earlier, five-page short story titled The Consideration. At some point, Salinas said, he realized the character wasn’t done with him yet. Though even just the idea of starting a novel was daunting, he told himself to write 100 words on Larry. Those 100 words became Hide, the first chapter in the new book. Another 100-word chapter followed, eventually joined by 300 more chapters, all strictly keeping to that 100-word limit. The result is a rollicking romp through the mind of a hard-to-pin-down figure and his imaginary frog friend. Part of the fun is the elusive identity of his main character, which remains unresolved.
It took a year and a half to write the book, said Salinas, adding, “I’m still not quite sure who this guy is.”
The whole story is set up in Chapter One, he said, “and the rest of it is unpacking the mystery.”
Talking together in the St. Mary’s Cotrell Commons, Castillo said he has his own mystery to solve. In a 2021 Gold & Blue Magazine article, the prolific author told the writer of the article — none other than Salinas — that he wanted to publish another short story collection and a novel.
Now 75 years old, he has accomplished the first goal with The Language of Sparrows. Asked about the forthcoming novel, Castillo said he’s still working on it. At Palo Alto College, where he teaches many first-generation students to find their voices, he said he has all the inspiration he needs.
“What I learn from them is perseverance,” Castillo said.
St. Mary’s students can also learn from the alumni authors who have come before them and “consider where the study of writing and literature might take them, whether that’s at the undergraduate or the graduate level,” said Benjamin “Josh” Doty, Ph.D., Associate Professor of English, Literature and Language.
“Writers like Rafael Castillo and Alex Salinas demonstrate what a St. Mary’s education can make possible,” Doty said. “Their careers create a living legacy that current students can look to as they develop their own voices.”
