AUTHORS INTERVIEWING THEIR CHARACTERS: Ellen Meeropol
Interviewing the sisters in Her Sister’s Tattoo
On a hot August day in 1968, sisters Rosa and Esther march against the war in Vietnam with thousands of others through downtown Detroit. When they hear that mounted police are beating protesters a few blocks away, they hurry to help, to try to stop the violence. In the process, they cause serious injury to a police officer. They are arrested and charged with felonies. Rosa sees a trial as another way to protest an unjust war, but Esther accepts a plea bargain so that she can stay out of prison and care for her infant daughter, Molly. These choices rip apart their close sibling relationship and the damage is passed down to their daughters.
Author Ellen Meeropol interviews Esther and Rosa, more than half a century after the event that changed their lives, and their relationship.
Rosa, Esther, thank you both for agreeing to this interview, 52 years after the incident that tore apart your family.
Esther: Tore us apart for sure. After Rosa’s trial, our shared friends, our community, all blamed me for what happened. People in Detroit were so mean to us and I didn’t want Molly to grow up in that environment, full of blame and shame. We moved to western Massachusetts to try to start a new life.
Rosa: Are we supposed to feel sorry for you, Esther? After you betrayed me with your testimony at my trial, you think maybe you deserved that mean behavior? Because of what you did, I spent over a year underground and then nine years in prison.
Okay, let’s be civil, please. Rosa, what are you doing with your life now?
Rosa: I’m still an activist, if that’s what you’re asking. I’m 77 years young, working with women incarcerated in New York state prisons. I live in Manhattan. Allen still works part-time, but our daughter Emma has mostly taken over his law practice.
And you, Esther?
I paint. Jake retired a couple of years ago, and we turned our back yard into an organic vegetable garden. Molly lives nearby and we see her often. We haven’t seen our son Oliver in many years.
Can we look back for a moment at what happened to the two of you in 1968? I wonder how you see those choices now, half a century later.
Rosa: Which choice? To throw hard green apples at mounted cops who were beating up peaceful protesters? Or my beloved baby sister testifying against me at my trial? Choices or betrayals, what do you want to hear about?
Esther: Rosie, I thought we had made our peace with each other.
Rosa: Yeah, but sometimes my anger just comes flooding back.
So, let me rephrase the question. Rosa, was it worth it, what you did at the demonstration and then the trial and prison?
Rosa: Absolutely. Sometimes you have to take big risks to do what’s right. I don’t regret any of it. I don’t regret throwing those apples at the cops. I don’t regret trying to use the trial to talk about the war. I would have preferred not to spend almost a decade in prison, but I survived that. I think our protesting was a big part in ending the Vietnam War. We helped make that happen.
What do you think, Esther?
Esther: That’s the big question, isn’t it? How much are we willing to give up for our beliefs? I wish I was as certain as you are, Rosie. I don’t know if I would do it again. Throw the apples, I mean. I don’t think I would testify against you again, although I just told the truth. But if I went to prison, what would have happened to my baby? I guess I’m still conflicted about it. I can see both sides.
Rosa: You always were the wishy-washy sister!
I’m curious about how your daughters think about what happened in 1968. What lessons do they take from your experiences?
Rosa: Emma always knew our story. She was just a toddler when I went to prison and she went to live with her dad. She grew up visiting me in prison every week. She knew what I did and what Esther did. She always knew how important resistance is, how critical it is for people to stand up for what’s right. When she met Molly at summer camp, she couldn’t believe that Molly knew nothing of the family story. How could you keep our history from your daughter, Esther?
Esther: I know it sounds crazy. But my silence was so important to Jake. He didn’t want your name ever mentioned in our home, Rosa. That’s why I wrote you all those letters, even though I didn’t mail them. I wish I had stood up to him. I wish I had told Molly the story. But I was afraid, and more than a little ashamed. Sending her to summer camp, “our” camp, was the only way I could figure out to try to make things right.
Now, all these years later, do you forgive each other?
Rosa: That would be a spoiler! Read the book.
—
Ellen Meeropol is the author of the novels Her Sister’s Tattoo, Kinship of Clover, On Hurricane Island, and House Arrest. Her work has been honored by the Women’s National Book Association, PBS News Hour, The Massachusetts Center for the Book, and The American Book Fest. Recent reviews and essays about her new novel can be found in Literary Hub, Mom Egg Review, Lilith, Ms. Magazine, New Pages, and Lit Pub. Ellen is a founding member of Straw Dog Writers Guild and leads their Social Justice Writing project. She lives in Northampton, MA with her husband and gray cat.
For more information, visit:
Website www.ellenmeeropol.com
Facebook www.facebook.com/ellenmeeropol
Twitter @ellenmeeropol
Instagram ellenmeeropol
HER SISTER’S TATTOO
Her Sister’s Tattoo follows two sisters, Rosa and Esther, who march through downtown Detroit in August 1968 to protest the war in Vietnam. The march is peaceful but when a bloodied teenager reports that mounted police are beating protestors a few blocks away, the sisters hurry to offer assistance.
They try to stop the violence but end up escalating it; a cop is injured and the sisters are arrested. For Rosa, their arrest offers another way to protest an unacceptable war. Esther wants to avoid prison to stay home with her infant daughter Molly so she agrees to accept a plea bargain offer and testify against Rosa at trial.
The consequences of these choices lead one sister underground and into prison, the other to bury her past in a new town, a new life. Molly grows up unaware of her family history until she meets Rosa’s daughter, her cousin Emma, at lefty summer camp. Told from multiple points of view and through the sisters’ never-mailed letters, Rosa and Esther’s story is bracketed by the Vietnam and Iraq wars and explores the thorny intersection of sibling loyalty and political beliefs.
“The author writes knowingly about left -wing politics from the vantage point of an insider” — Kirkus Reviews
“A sensitive exploration of the excruciating dilemmas of seeking to end horrendous crimes while keeping to the principle ‘First, do no harm.’” —Noam Chomsky
“The elegant restraint of Ellen Meeropol’s prose and the painstaking precision of her vision offer us discerning glimpses over decades and generations into the complexities of political engagement—its big questions and especially its intimacies. At a time when radical movements are on the rise, we find in Her Sister’s Tattoo exactly what we now need: both caution and hope.” —Angela Y. Davis
“Her Sister’s Tattoo is a story of not just of two sisters but of our country, where politics have so often torn apart families, loved ones, and communities. This tenderly told novel brings humanity to all sides of struggle, lifting us with its grace, compassion, and hope for the future. I highly recommend.” —Rene Denfeld
“Her Sister’s Tattoo is an honest and riveting portrait of anti-war activists and the price individuals and families pay for their actions, no matter how just. It is also a portrait of how lies and secrets can eat away again at both individuals and everyone in their families, particularly children. Meeropol evokes both the fear and exhilaration of protest.” —Marge Piercy
“Rarely has the political been more heartrendingly personal than it is in Her Sister’s Tattoo. Within the story of these incandescent sisters, Meeropol contains a lifetime’s worth of devastating choices and the remorse that inescapably follows. At a time when politics are again threatening to rip the American family apart, this might just be the novel we need.” —Andrew Foster Altschul
Buy here: https://aerbook.com/
Category: Contemporary Women Writers, Interviews, On Writing
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