La Bloga

Parking Lot Poets & Tongue-Fisting Guayaba Beauty Salons

2012-02-26T11:11:00.001-07:00

tatiana de la tierra

We were in a parking lot in Eagle Rock in a buzzed state. We were in my car by then; we switched cars after I accidentally spilled the container of pho on the floor. I stumbled out of the car and giggled while she cursed me and plucked the floor mat out onto the pavement, noodles and broth and all. As she walked away looking for a trashcan to throw the wet styrofoam mess in, I quickly assessed my intense desire to pee, pulled down my pants and squatted. My piss hit the edge of my red Mexican shawl, rolled over bean sprouts and Vietnamese noodles, and pooled at edge of a tire.

“Let’s roll,” I said casually. We got in my car and I drove across the lot, into another metered parking space. From here, we had a view of a dumpster and, just ahead, Colorado Boulevard. Willy Chirino’s “Mister Don’t Touch the Banana” blasted us. “... La banana es de Shangó, kabiosile Shangó ooooooohhh....” I get pumped up like that, salsa with words that set my imagination loose.

“Why don’t we write,” she yelled over the music.

“OK. Here’s the prompt: ‘It starts in a parking lot’.” We wrote. Turned the music down. She offered the next prompt: “sea foam green”. We wrote again, then shared our parking lot words and mused about our creative writing being-ness.

I think she said it first, who knows. But we came to the sober conclusion that we needed to be in a writing group. Again. We had drifted in and out of groups for years, and it was time. We pitched ideas about what we wanted--it should be small, focused, a space for workshopping and brewing metaphors. We came up with the names of a few writers we wanted to invite into our little group. Right then, I made a few phone calls, sent a few texts. Before the night was done, we had done it, created our new writing group, The Parking Lot Poets.

As I wait for our group’s first meeting, exactly a week from now, I’m thinking about groups I’ve been a part of in the past. While writing is a solitary act, I covet time spent with other writers, digging into our work, dishing on ourselves, doubting the process and embracing it all at once. I love to share with other writers. I am in awe of writing itself, of words pulsating in nerve endings, making their way through my body. As a reader, I linger on lines and scrutinize structure. As a writer, I marvel at the mystery of words that emerge from my fingertips. Sharing this magic with other writers--that’s ultra special.

My first writing group happened right after I got my MFA at University of Texas at El Paso. I graduated and headed east, to Buffalo, New York, where I would quickly become a librarian. There, I hooked up with a group of Latino graduate students; several of us, all writers, ended up at a bar one night, brainstorming ideas for some sort of group. The result was El Salón de Belleza, The Beauty Salon.

It was wicked fun. We met weekly in each other’s homes and offered our words as libations to each other. We did creative writing exercises or assigned ourselves poetic homework due the following week. (Haiku recipe: find bellybutton/ pour rum, bite lime, rub ice cube/ lick drink suck repeat.) Our salon got big, perhaps too big, and eventually petered out.

I moved to Long Beach in 2007 and clicked with a special group of women. We wanted to share writing and we became The Tongue Fisters. Us fisters, we had full course meals along with our poems. We took turns facilitating, cooking, critiquing, and coming up with writing exercises. Our friendships deepened in the process; they also got a little complicated. Food took over our group; I remember the day I spent hours cooking fresh spinach, stir frying onions and buttering phyllo dough for the spanakopita I baked for us. It was delicious, yet I was exhausted. At some point, we morphed into a dinner group. At another point, we ceased to exist.

Later on, a writer I respect conspired with me to form a workshop group. We carefully selected the writers we’d invite, generated a zillion emails back and forth between everyone, and scheduled our first meeting. She was adamant that we should share meals, and I, along with a few others, resisted that notion. Soon after we formed, and before we ever got going, she pulled out of the group, and the rest of us disintegrated as well. Months later, I discovered that she had started another writing group, without inviting me. That group lasted for a bit and then dissolved.

An email arrived from outer space one day and hit my inbox with an invitation to join a new writing salon. I’d met the writer just once before and decided that whatever she had in mind, I’d be there. Our first meeting took place right after I’d had major surgery, and I was in a fog of body and mind. Yet I was so happy to be there, in her home with hardwood floors, zany objects, rabbits and a collection of plates decking out the walls. We were all Latinas, and we became Las Guayabas. Us fruits, we met monthly and shared writings and resources. We did a few readings together and became friends. Over time, our meetings became sporadic. We haven’t really ended, I suppose, but we’re not really being Guayabas either.

The Parking Lot Poets is a continuation of that drive to exist as writers within some sort of community. Will we eat together or drink iced coffees or beer? Or will we just get down and dirty into our pages of prose and poetry? I don’t know, and I don’t care. I just can’t wait for us to get this group going. There’s a Guayaba and a Tongue Fister in the lot, along with a kick-ass poet I’ve never been in a group with. I know that groups come and go, like life, like a favorite fruit, like a song beating in my head. But it’s just so good for that moment.

it starts in a parking lot
you piss on concrete
your piss runs down asphalt
under the tire your piss
warm as you
jab your jeans back up.
who will know that piss but
you?

Don't thank your kid's maestro

2012-02-25T00:24:00.001-07:00

by Rudy Garcia

If I believed the establishment press, the politicians and the education conglomerate, I am one of the unclean, even though I bathe daily. I am one of the guilty, even though I pay my taxes and don't run stop signs. I am one of the problems, even though I go to work every day, work until I'm too tired to do more, and put in unpaid extra hours on weekends.

I rank only as medium among my colleagues, some of whom will go to early graves because of their commitment to teaching America's children. But the dialogue on the problems in education centers greatly on how teachers are the problem, especially in educating the children of the poor and working class.

Of course I don't fall for the teacher-problem propoganda. I ignore it to keep myself centered on the children's needs. And I don't hear much from colleagues about what the propoganda does to them. It's sort of an unspoken rule that we teachers avoid discussing what the political climate in this country is doing to our hearts, our sense of self-worth, our estimation of whether our country wants or needs us. To touch and share that subject might open our hearts too much. And--though not in my case--the underlying hurt is best kept hidden so we can all keep on.

Budget cuts, teacher layoffs, slashing of teacher benefits, school closings, privatized charter school take-overs of our neighborhoods, and increased class sizes are constantly in the news because, we are told, after bailing out the banks, mortgage companies and brokerages, there is no money to bail out children, especially the less prosperous.

Of course there is money in the vaults of the richest country in the world. It's just being used elsewhere. It's always been there--for the bailout of the 1%, for the senseless wars and for segregating the minorities into prisons and barrios, at least until the gentry desire the barrios.

The reality that the U.S. is one of the few countries in the world that finances public education by neighborhood instead of nationally, keeps our unfair system in place. It has been that way for too long for many Americans to demand another way. Until that is changed, all the debates about budget cuts and how to close the achievement gaps are relatively useless. And our teachers will just have to keep their hearts closed and struggle on.

Below are excerpts from a study of how local funding of public schools is increasing the education gap between the 1% and the rest of us, particularly the minority poor who I work with. You can go here to see the full article. And if you can read and understand it, there's no need to thank a teacher. We don't do what we do for the recognition, nor for our average salaries. What you can do is thank your lucky stars you at least were born before average, locally funded American schools were replaced by below average locally funded schools.

"A study has dug deeper into the value-added system [of education]. Professors Xiaoxia Newton of UC Berkeley and Linda Darling-Hammond, Edward Haertel and Ewart Thomas of Stanford have analyzed how ethnicity, English language ability, poverty and parental educational levels impact students’ classroom performance."

“The achievement gap between children from high- and low-income families is roughly 30-40 percent larger among children born in 2001 than among those born 25 years earlier,” Reardon wrote. At the same time, he said, “the gap between the rich and the poor has widened significantly, particularly among families with children.”

"The New York Times story cited a study by professor Meredith Phillips of UCLA showing that by the time affluent children start school, they have spent about 400 hours more than poor children in literary activities. All told, affluent children before the age of 6 have spent 1,300 more hours than poor children in places away from home, day care center or school. These places include shopping malls and museums."

"The unfairness of our economic system is a central point of the Occupy Wall Street movement."

For a deeper discusson of questions raised in that article, you can also:

Go here for Lessons from the New Corporate Schooling

Here for Testing, Privatization, and the Future of Public Schooling

Here for Militarism and Education Normal

And here for The Culture of Poverty Reloaded

Es todo, hoy
RudyG

Translations, Conjunto Music and Lit, New Theater

2012-02-24T00:01:00.005-07:00

Recent Books In Translation

The Third Reich
Roberto Bolaño
translated from Spanish by Natasha Wimmer
Farrar, Straus & Giroux
November, 2011

[from the publisher]

On vacation with his girlfriend, Ingeborg, the German war games champion Udo Berger returns to a small town on the Costa Brava where he spent the summers of his childhood. Soon they meet another vacationing German couple, Charly and Hanna, who introduce them to a band of locals—the Wolf, the Lamb, and El Quemado—and to the darker side of life in a resort town.

Late one night, Charly disappears without a trace, and Udo’s well-ordered life is thrown into upheaval; while Ingeborg and Hanna return to their lives in Germany, he refuses to leave the hotel. Soon he and El Quemado are enmeshed in a round of Third Reich, Udo’s favorite World War II strategy game, and Udo discovers that the game’s consequences may be all too real.

Written in 1989 and found among Roberto Bolaño’s papers after his death, The Third Reich is a stunning exploration of memory and violence. Reading this quick, visceral novel, we see a world-class writer coming into his own—and exploring for the first time the themes that would define his masterpieces The Savage Detectives and 2666.

The Potter's Field
Andrea Camilleri
translated from Italian by Stephen Satarelli
Penguin
September, 2011

[from the publisher]

Witty and entertaining, the Montalbano novels by Andrea Camilleri - a master of the Italian detective story - have become favorites of mystery fans everywhere. In this latest installment, an unidentified corpse is found near Vigàta, a town known for its soil rich with potter's clay. Meanwhile, a woman reports the disappearance of her husband, a Colombian man with Sicilian origins who turns out to be related to a local mobster. Then Inspector Montalbano remembers the story from the Bible-Judas's betrayal, the act of remorse, and the money for the potter's field, where those of unknown or foreign origin are to be buried-and slowly, through myriad betrayals, finds his way to the solution to the crime.

[from Publishers Weekly]

Camilleri’s clever 13th Inspector Montalbano mystery (after 2010’s The Track of Sand) opens with the discovery of an unidentified body, cut into 30 pieces, in a remote field near the Sicilian town of Vigàta, known for soil rich with potter’s clay. Montalbano, who has a knack for finding gallows humor in even the most grotesque situations, believes the hacked-up body signifies the 30 pieces of silver Judas was paid for his betrayal. Later, Dolores Alfano, a stunning woman whose skin has “the faint scent of cinnamon,” reports that her husband, a sailor with ties to a local mobster, is missing. That Mimi Augello, one of Mantalbano’s most trusted inspectors, is in a permanent rage complicates matters. As usual, Montalbano wants to wrap up both cases quickly so he can get back to his real work—sleeping, eating, drinking, and dealing with his long-distance girlfriend, Livia.

1222
Anne Holt
translated from Norwegian by Marlaine Delargy
Scribner
December, 2011

[from the publisher]

From Norway’s bestselling female crime writer comes a suspenseful locked-room mystery set in an isolated hotel in Norway, where guests stranded during a monumental snowstorm start turning up dead. A train on its way to the northern reaches of Norway derails during a massive blizzard, 1,222 meters above sea level. The passengers abandon the train for a nearby hotel, centuries-old and practically empty, except for the staff. With plenty of food and shelter from the storm, the passengers think they are safe, until one of them is found dead the next morning. With no sign of rescue, and the storm continuing to rage, retired police inspector Hanne Wilhelmsen is asked to investigate. Paralysed by a bullet lodged in her spine, Hanne has no desire to get involved. But she is slowly coaxed back into her old habits as her curiosity and natural talent for observation force her to take an interest in the passengers and their secrets. When another body turns up, Hanne realizes that time is running out, and she must act fast before panic takes over. Complicating things is the presence of a mysterious guest, who had travelled in a private rail car at the end of the train and was evacuated first to the top floor of the hotel. No one knows who the guest is, or why armed guards are needed, but it is making everyone uneasy. Hanne has her suspicions, but she keeps them to herself. Trapped in her wheelchair, trapped by the storm, and now trapped with a killer, Hanne must fit the pieces of the puzzle together before the killer strikes again.

[from the Washington Post]
It must be spooky in Scandinavia, but Holt, Norway’s best-selling female crime writer and a former minister of justice, has a goofy streak that changes the tone of this beguiling book. There are lots of helicopters toward the end and cops running around and worldwide implications (the only weak part is a contrived conversation about America as a world power). The fun goes on in the lobby, where peculiar people conspire, and just outside the hotel, where people hide corpses, or try to. I really loved this snowbound book.

The Fat Years
Chan Koonchung, translated from Chinese by Michael S. Duke
Doubleday/Talese
January, 2012

[from the publisher]

Banned in China, this controversial and politically charged novel tells the story of the search for an entire month erased from official Chinese history.

Beijing, sometime in the near future: a month has gone missing from official records. No one has any memory of it, and no one could care less—except for a small circle of friends, who will stop at nothing to get to the bottom of the sinister cheerfulness and amnesia that have possessed the Chinese nation. When they kidnap a high-ranking official and force him to reveal all, what they learn—not only about their leaders, but also about their own people—stuns them to the core. It is a message that will astound the world.

A kind of Brave New World reflecting the China of our times, The Fat Years is a complex novel of ideas that reveals all too chillingly the machinations of the postmodern totalitarian state, and sets in sharp relief the importance of remembering the past to protect the future.

[from The Observer]

Sitting in the comfortable west, it is easy for critics of China to be censorious about the way so many people accept the rush for wealth accumulation and close an eye to the regime's political record and its human rights abuses. But the crude fact is that, after a terrible century and a quarter up to 1978, in which China went through the worst protracted experience of any nation in history, the present era may, indeed, seem like the "fat years".

To touch on so many issues, either directly or by implication, in such a compelling narrative is a triumph, abetted by an excellent translation by Michael Duke. One can only hope that Chan, who was born in Shanghai and raised in Hong Kong, continues to write about the China of today from his current vantage point in Beijing. That will, in its way, be a test of whether the warnings of The Fat Years come true. We can only hope not.

All Yours
Claudia Piñiero
Translated from Spanish by Miranda France
Bitter Lemon Press
January, 2012

[from the publisher]

Inés is convinced that every wife is bound to be betrayed one day, so she is not surprised to find a note in her husband Ernesto’s briefcase with a heart smeared in lipstick crossed by the words “All Yours”. Following him to a park in Buenos Aires on a rainy winter evening, she witnesses a violent quarrel between her husband and another woman. The woman collapses; Ernesto sinks her body in a nearby lake.

When Ernesto becomes a suspect in the case Inés provides him with an alibi. After all, hatred can bring people together as urgently as love. But Ernesto cannot bring his sexual adventures to an end, so Inés concocts a plan for revenge from which there is no return.

Claudia Piñeiro was a journalist, playwright and television scriptwriter and in 1992 won the prestigious Pléyade journalism award. She has more recently turned to fiction and is the author of literary crime novels that are all bestsellers in Latin America and have been translated into four languages. Thursday Night Widows won the Clarin Prize for fiction and is her first title to be available in English.

Conjunto Music Festival Schedule and Call for "Conjunto Lit"

A note from Juan Tejeda of the Conjunto Music Festival:
Camaradas: just wanted to send you the official schedule for the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center's 31st Annual Tejano Conjunto Festival en San Antonio 2012 which will take place from May 15-20 at the Guadalupe Theatre and Rosedale Park. We hope that you and your familia can be with us in May. The new winning poster design for 2012 will be released in early March. I'm also looking for some literature on conjunto music: poetry, short stories, articles (academic and otherwise), etc., for possible publication in the TCF Magazine this year. E-mail me your favorite conjunto story to juantejeda@sbcglobal.net Please spread the palabra and schedule to your friends. Gracias. Juan

GUADALUPE CULTURAL ARTS CENTER

PRESENTS THE 31^ST ANNUAL

TEJANO CONJUNTO FESTIVAL EN SAN ANTONIO 2012

Tentative Schedule

Tuesday, May 15/Guadalupe Theatre/10am-12pm/Free for Seniors

Seniors Conjunto Dance

Los Conjunto Kingz de Flavio Longoria

with Rachel Longoria

Tuesday, May 15/Guadalupe Theatre/7pm/Free Admission

The Making of Juanito’s Lab

Producers/Directors Guillermina Zabala and Enrique Lopetegui

discuss the making of Juanito’s Lab, a new documentary film

about Juanito Castillo, the 22-year-old blind button accordionist

and musical wiz-kid konjunto jazz loko karnal de San Anto.

Some footage from the still-in-the-making documentary will be shown.

Wednesday, May 16/Guadalupe Theatre/7:30-11pm/$10 pre-sale $15 at the door

New Directions in Conjunto Music

7:30 Nick Gaitán and The Umbrella Man (Houston)

8:30 Piñata Protest (San Antonio)

9:30 La Santa Cecilia (Los Ángeles)

Thursday, May 17/Guadalupe Theatre/6:30-9pm/$65 & $100**

Special 31st Annual Gala Celebration Dinner & Baile

Honoring the Inductees into the Conjunto Music Hall of Fame

Best of the 30^th Annual Tejano Conjunto Festival 2011 CD Release Party

8:15 Bernardo y sus Compadres

9:00 Rick De la Rosa y Los D Boyz

Friday, May 18/Rosedale Park/6pm-12am/$15 per person*

5:30 Opening Ceremonies/Poster Contest Exhibit & Awards

Puro Conjunto Pesado: Dos de Houston, Corpitos y el Valle

6:00 Impozzible (Houston)

7:00 Los Tremendos Cinco (Corpus Christi)

8:00 Los Monarcas de Pete y Mario Díaz (Houston)

9:00 Los Fantasmas del Valle (Mercedes)

10:00 Boni Mauricio y Los Máximos (Corpus Christi)

11:00 Los Dos Gilbertos (Edinburg)

Saturday, May 19/Rosedale Park/1pm-12am/$18 per person*

Puro Conjunto Pesado: Hecho en Tejas

1:00 Student Showcase: Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center * Conjunto Heritage Taller

Conjunto Palo Alto/Palo Alto College * Estrellas de Acordeón/Houston Accordion Performers Palmview High School/La Joya Independent School District

3:00 La Familia Mauricio (Corpus Christi)

3:30 Crystal n The Crew (Pasadena)

4:10 Los Conjunto Kidz (Victoria)

5:00 Susan Torres y Conjunto Clemencia (Austin)

6:00 Conjunto Prestigio (Dallas)

7:00 Edgar Vásquez y sus Muchachos (Laredo)

8:00 Rubén De la Cruz y su Conjunto (Edcouch)

9:00 Joel Guzmán Sarah Fox y Conjuntazzo (Austin)

10:00 Rio Jordán featuring Juanito Castillo (San Antonio)

11:00 Albert Zamora (Corpus Christi)

Sunday, May 20/Rosedale Park/1-11pm/$18 per person*

Puro Conjunto Pesado: Así se baila en San Anto

1:00 Los Padrinos

1:40 Los Hermanos De León

2:40 Eddie “Lalo” Torres y Anita Paiz y su Conjunto

special presentation by Salvador García y Los Pavos Reales

3:40 Lobo IV

4:40 Eva Ybarra y su Conjunto

5:40 Max Baca y Los Texmaniacs

special presentation by Dwayne Verheyden

6:40 Santiago Jiménez Jr. y su Conjunto

7:40 Bene Medina y el Conjunto Águila

special presentation by Nick Villarreal

8:40 Mingo Saldívar y sus Tremendos Cuatro Espadas

9:40 Flaco Jiménez y su Conjunto

10:30 Accordion Conjunto Jam

WORKSHOPS

Saturday, May 19/Guadalupe Theatre/9-10:30am/$40

Accordion Tuning, Maintenance & Repair Workshop

Tim Schofield, Hohner Accordion Repair and Parts Supervisor,
will teach you how to tune the reeds of your accordion and
maintain it in tip-top playing shape. Accordion tuning kits
will be available for purchase. For registration, call 210.271.3151.

Saturday, May 19/Guadalupe Theatre/10:30am-12:30pm/$40

Button Accordion & Bajo Sexto Workshops

Master Button Accordion and Bajo Sexto maestros Joel Guzmán

and Max Baca will conduct this concurrent two-hour workshop.

Basic chords and scales will be explored, along with the playing and

accompaniment of different conjunto rhythms. The two workshops will

come together at the end for an impromptu performance and conjunto jam.

For registration, call 210.271.3151.

* 3-Day Rosedale All-Events Pass

$35 GCAC Members

$40 Non-Members

** $65 Conjunto Music Hall of Fame Dinner & Baile,

plus, a Best of the Tejano Conjunto Festival CD and TCF 2012 Magazine

$100 Conjunto Music Hall of Fame Dinner & Baile,

plus, a 3-Day Rosedale All-Events Pass,

a Best of the Tejano Conjunto Festival CD and a TCF 2012 Magazine

For reservations call 210.271.3151. Limited Seating

For info, 210.271.3151

www.guadalupeculturalarts.org

Water & Power

BETRAYAL

A horrid double cross propels two brothers headlong into desire and revenge. A tale of the violence and corruption of L.A. politics and of ruthless ambition. Dark, hilarious, political, satirical and fearless.

Water & Power
Written by Richard Montoya for Culture Clash
Directed by Phil Luna and Anthony J. Garcia

March 8-25
TH., FRI., and SAT. 7:30 p.m.

$20 gen. $17 stu/sen COMADRES!!!! 12 tix - $12 each
2-4-1 Thursdays when you ask for discount (off of general admission).

Su Teatro Performing and Cultural Arts Center

721 Santa Fe Dr.

Denver, CO 80204

303-296-0219

www.suteatro.org

Gearing Up For Spring - photo by Flo

That's it for the exciting, cold, and wet month of February. Later.

Ópera afrocubana, y "Melissa's Gift"

2012-02-23T00:01:00.001-07:00

“Cubanacán: Una revolución de formas”

El compositor Roberto Valera en la reciente sesión de trabajo en La Habana

Foto por Charles Koppelman

Una ópera afro-cubana sobre la creación del Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) se dirige al estudio de grabación.

En el 2002, el cineasta de California Charles Koppelman descubrió el libro Revolución de Formas (Revolution of Forms), escrito por el arquitecto John Loomis, el cual describe el diseño y construcción del aún inconcluso Instituto Superior de Artes (ISA) en La Habana. Ahora, después de una década de desarrollo y experimentación, Cubanacán: Una revolución de formas (titulo de trabajo) se dirige hacia un estudio de grabación de La Habana.  Aunque Koppelman no había producido una ópera antes, él ya sabía que esa era la forma en que quería contar la historia.

"Eso no dista mucho de la producción de una película”, dice. "Hay aspectos que son propios de la ópera, pero los principios de hacer algo de la nada es creativamente similar".  

Además de ser la fuerza impulsora del proyecto, Koppelman escribió el libreto de la ópera. Sin embargo, el equipo creativo detrás de Cubanacán está formado principalmente por cubanos, incluyendo el compositor Roberto Valera y la directora musical Zenaida Romeu.  "Roberto vive en La Habana y ha estado impartiendo clases en el ISA desde hace muchos años, en la facultad de música", dice Koppelman.

"Es muy conocido en Cuba—no así en el exterior del país. Pero pronto lo será."

A pesar de que Valera ha compuesto una variedad de géneros musicales, desde música orquestal y de cámara hasta partituras para cine y televisión, esta es su primera ópera. Romeu, quien estudió en el ISA con Valera, proviene de un “amplio linaje de conocidos músicos cubanos”, dice Koppelman, y es la fundadora del conjunto femenino de música de cámara Camerata Romeu.

"El grupo toca regularmente en la Basílica de San Francisco, en La Habana", Koppelman dice, añadiendo que Romeu tiene su propio programa de televisión. "En Cuba, ella es una superestrella". . .

(De Cuban Art News; para leer más, pulse aquí)

*****************

Olin Dodson on his memoir Melissa's Gift

Melissa’s Gift is a memoir of a most unusual relationship set in Central America and the United States. It describes how, 43 and unmarried, I was found by my daughter, Melissa. She was 11 and lived with her mother in a small town in Costa Rica. I had no knowledge of her existence and my immediate reaction was shock, surprise and utter delight. There was fear, as well, because Melissa had the incurable genetic disease of cystic fibrosis. Our relationship was a painfully rewarding challenge until she passed away at the age of 18.

Significant portions of the book take place in Costa Rica where I repeatedly travelled to visit Melissa and her mother. The story combines the expected linguistic and cultural barriers with the complexities between me and Melissa, her mom and extended family, and the tensions surrounding my attempts to save her life and be a loving father. Numerous dreams are sprinkled throughout the narrative, providing an intriguing backdrop to the unpredictable twists and turns of the story.

After Melissa passed away, with the benefit of only 6 years together, I yearned to have more stories about her. Returning to Costa Rica-- and Nicaragua-- I was fortunate to have a series of experiences which transformed my life nearly as dramatically as the phone call which broke the news of my fatherhood.

Writing and shaping the story of my life with-and after-Melissa became an obsession for five years. Periods of every day were spent writing: before breakfast, during lunch breaks, after work and on weekends. I would wake up in the middle of the night to write down revisions and solutions to problems in the text. I took a journal on long hikes to write down ideas. Melissa was continually next to me throughout the writing process as my heart broke all over again. By the time the book was completed, my grief had been constructively repositioned in my life.

Melissa’s Gift is a testament to the power of love in my life and Melissa’s courage and integrity. The book also reveals her legacy, one that continues to impact the lives of myself and others in very concrete ways fifteen years after her passing .

Alfredo Vigil wrote this about the book: “Rarely have I encountered a story like this, told with such raw emotion and power.” Melissa’s Gift is published by Bay Tree Publishing.

Rudolfo Anaya to Receive LA Times Lifetime Achievement Award

2012-02-23T00:00:00.005-07:00

32^nd Annual Los Angeles Times Book Prizes Finalists Announced
Ceremony to Be Held at USC’s Bovard Auditorium with Tickets Available to Public

LOS ANGELES – February 21, 2012 – The Los Angeles Times Book Prizes today announced its 2011 finalists for honors to be unveiled at a public ceremony the evening of April 20^th at the University of Southern California’s iconic Bovard Auditorium. The event is the preface to the 17^th-annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, the nation’s largest public literary festival, to be held on USC’s campus in the heart of L.A.’s Downtown Arts & Education Corridor on April 21^st and 22^nd.
The Book Prizes recognize 50 distinguished works in 10 categories. The complete list of finalists in biography, current interest, fiction, first fiction (the Art Seidenbaum Award), graphic novel, history, mystery/thriller, poetry, science and technology, and young adult literature can be found at www.latimes.com/bookprizes.
National Medal of Arts winner Rudolfo Anaya is the recipient of the Robert Kirsch Award for lifetime achievement. New Mexico-born Anaya’s award-winning 1972 debut novel “Bless Me, Ultima” is the most widely read and critically acclaimed novel in the Chicano literary canon. It was followed by the sequels “Heart of Aztlan” and “Tortuga,” and Anaya’s compendium of works include “Albuquerque,” the Sonny Baca quartet of detective novels and a number of books for children and young adults. Throughout his career Anaya also served as a professor in the University of New Mexico’s Department of English Language and Literature.
The Innovator’s Award, which spotlights cutting-edge business models, technology or applications of narrative art, will be presented to Figment. Co-founded and led by Jacob Lewis, Figment is a digital writing community with connections to – and roots in – traditional publishing, a space where young writers and readers are encouraged to share and comment on each other’s creativity. An early adaptor of the digital landscape as a publishing and literary territory, Figment is a site in constant evolution, developing and expanding to meet both the needs of its users and its own digital imperatives.
Tickets for the Book Prizes ceremony will be available for purchase at 10 a.m. Monday, March 26^th, and additional information will be posted to www.latimes.com/festivalofbooks. Finalists and winners of the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes are selected by judging panels composed of writers who specialize in each genre. Further information about the Book Prizes, including past winners, is available at www.latimes.com/bookprizes.

New Books From Raven Tree Press

2012-02-22T01:40:00.000-07:00

THE RAIN FOREST PARTY
FIESTA EN EL BOSQUE TROPICAL

Written and Illustrated by Lorraine Dey

Full–Color • 9 x 11 • 32 pages
Jacketed Hardcover; Bilingual
Publication Date: May 2012

Hector–Armando was a little Armadillo who wanted to find his special talent that he could share with his friends at the big rain forest party. As he walked into the forest he noticed his friends were all busy collecting things and practicing their own talents to get ready for the big party. As he came upon his many friends, he would try to do the same things they were doing, but he just wasn’t fast enough, or his legs were too short, or he wasn’t tall enough. He tried again and again, but became sad to realize he may not have any special talents.

He curled up to hide and suddenly became aware of a hidden talent that was there all along. Something mother nature gave him but he forgot about. He would share a very special talent with friends at The Rain Forest Party.

PEDRO THE PIRATE

Written by Tim Hoppey
Illustrated by Dianna Bonder

Full–Color • 9 x 11 • 32 pages
Jacketed Hardcover; English (with Spanish clues)
Publication Date: May 2012

Pedro yearns for the pirate’s life. Though he is only the cabin boy on Captain Crossbones’ ship, he daydreams about becoming a real pirate. When that chance finally comes, Pedro steals a mermaid’s gold locket. The mermaid chastises Pedro, but he laughs and boasts, “It’s what we pirates do!” That initial boast, however, soon gives way to regret as Pedro contemplates his actions. He resolves to return the locket and to free the mermaid that Captain Crossbones holds captive. The outcome is a happy one as Pedro expresses his contrition to the mermaid, and assures her that the pirate’s life is not for him.

MR. BIGGS AT THE CIRCUS
EL SR. GRANDE EN EL CIRCO
Written and Illustrated by Kevin Bloomfield

Full–Color • 9 x 11 • 32 pages
Jacketed Hardcover; English and Bilingual
Publication Date: May 2012

Mr. Biggs is a very curious Sasquatch who has huge feet and an even bigger heart. One day, as he hikes next to a creek, he finds a bright and colorful circus poster. He has never been to the circus before and it looks like fun. He sets off to discover all of the exiting adventures the circus has to offer.
Come along with Mr. Biggs on his journey as he flips on the trapeze, dances with huge bear, stomps with elephants and much, much more. Will the giant Mr. Biggs find out he fits in a circus…or is he just too big? One thing is for sure… he’ll have tons of fun along the way!

Mr. Biggs at the Circus is a hilarious and heart–warming story for both the young and young–at–heart, with vividly wacky illustrations which will make you laugh out loud with every turn of the page.

THE ADVENTURES OF MARCO FLAMINGO IN THE CAVE
LAS AVENTURAS DE MARCO FLAMENCO EN LA CUEVA

Written and Illustrated by Sheila Jarkins

Full–Color • 9 x 11 • 32 pages
Jacketed Hardcover; Bilingual
Publication Date: May 2012

Marco Flamingo is off on a cave adventure in this fourth book in the Marco series. But this time, Marco’s friends—Coral, Shelly and Webb—join him. When Marco spots caves, he is eager to discover what he will find inside. Marco’s flamingo friends are timid and make excuses for staying safely outside the cave. But when they are scared by the sight of a leopard, a snake and a vulture will they take their chances inside the cave? And what has happened to Marco, the friends wonder. Why hasn’t he come out? Come join Marco’s friends as they explore the cave in search of Marco and discover what Marco finds inside the cave. You are in for a big surprise.

Review: Gilb stories. Things not said. Librotraficante Caravan. On-Line Floricanto

2012-02-21T00:01:00.596-07:00

Review: Dagoberto Gilb. Before the End, After the Beginning.
NY: Grove Press., 2011.
ISBN: 0-8021-2000-8 / ISBN-13: 978-0-8021-2000-7

Michael Sedano

Among my favorite smart-ass epigrams from back in high school is one attributed to La Rochefoucauld, Old men love to give good advice, it consoles them for the fact they no longer can set a bad example. That's the kind of thing a brash younger man might cavil at an elder, as I was wont to. My father would shake his head and proclaim, pa'lla va la sombra. Now I discover youth, aging, frailty, these are concerns of old men, and this is a country for sharing them. Dagoberto Gilb's collection of short fiction, Before the End, After the Beginning, a prime instance.

Before the End, After The Beginning stands among the most hopeful books written. The dustjacket says the stories come out of Gilb’s recuperation from a 2009 stroke. The dustjacket calls the ten stories “exquisite,” but that sadly understates the power of Dagoberto Gilb’s resiliency demonstrated across the collection's ten stories.

The opening pages deliver a frightening first person account of recovering from a stroke. The text reflects the miracle of surviving aphasia. Gilb's brain works against the damage, rewiring the connections bruised in the stroke. The prose begins atomistically, disparate words and patterns forming sensible phrases, grows more engaging, more elaborated as the pages turn. The title, "please, thank you" sums up the frustration disabled bodies extract from a person's outperformed language competencies. Gilb's long paragraphs suggest the overflow of thoughts and expressions working their way through stubborn fingers and ill-responding tongue. All you can do is ask and be grateful for whatever you get.

A post-barrio Chicano takes a sentimental journey home, in “The Last Time I Saw Junior.” Gilb crafts a delicious experience taking off on conventional wisdom that you can’t go home again, you can take the boy out of the barrio but you can’t take the barrio out of the boy, and home is where when you go there they have to take you in. Back on the block, the business-suited vato con el nopal en la frente strikes up an old partner and gets taken in. It’s a lot of fun watching this hapless vato get himself in deeper and deeper, getting what he gets for hanging around with tipos like Junior. A fancy suit and big salary no te quita lo pendejo.

“Willows Village” is an erotic piece about a shiftless guy who voyeurs his hot aunt, trysts on her couch with tia’s roommate, loses his job, promises his wife he’ll find work or come back home, steals money from the aunt’s bedroom. When he’s forgiven his trespasses he resumes that shiftless existence, a cipher.

Speaking of hanging with the wrong crowd, there’s the couple of “To Document.” They live with a dope dealer when they get mixed up with the people across the street, a retired military guy with his bubbly friendly wife. The neighbors want to swap partners, and the guy’s girlfriend doesn’t seem all that uninterested. But the guy doesn’t play along so the affable swapper drops a dime and the dope dealer’s busted, landing the couple in deep caca and dissolution. Years pass and the guy runs across the old military tipo who is about to die alone and unimportant, except as a perverse memory.

The collection closes with “Hacia Teotitlán,” another man who is about to die alone. He doesn’t make it easy on himself. He moves from California to Oaxaca into a cramped basement departamento. He doesn't fit without bending or scrapes. The man spends his days walking the streets, becoming a regular in his places, visiting with indios learning a few phrases, waiting until it’s time. When the time comes near he abandons the tomb. The space he occupied resumes its steady flow.

Maybe it's coincidence but I'm coming across numerous books about memory, aging, dying. Rudolfo Anaya's Randy Lopez Goes Home and his play, "Angie," revolve around transitioning. Walter Mosley's The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey is a 90-year old man finding old memories and making new ones. Now Gilb's Before the End, After the Beginning introduces as fabulous a collection of characters as Gilb has written, some not-yet-old men pursuing unthoughtful lives, and ways some old men come to terms with mortality.

I know it's crass to say I'm glad Gilb got well because I enjoyed his book so much and marvel at his recuperative powers. So, I'm crass. I'm glad Gilb got well because this is one fine book.

Things Not Said

La Bloga’s review last year of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian elicited an email from writer Carla Sameth. A few years ago she’d drafted what she terms a love letter to her homeboy Sherman Alexie—Sameth originates from Seattle, too—but held off mailing it. She took it public this month, as she explains at Sameth's South Pasadena Patch blog, Single Moms of South Pas.

Sameth’s 8th grade son, Gabe, found inspiration in Alexie’s novel. After giving it a second chance, Gabe saw Alexie's story was not some victim’s anguished lament but literature as equipment for living. The rez boy learns to deal with anglo culture, making it adapt to his presence. Inclusion among the whites means separation and exclusion from family and neighbors back where he came from, giving the novel a second inspiration.

Identity, injustice, intolerance, being happy are some of the crucial processes readers discover in literature. But literature's not universal, despite its themes. Gabe's a Jewish Afro-American kid exploring reading as a way of learning about confluences and incongruencies of his personhood. Gabe's mother suspects the author of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian could suggest a number of useful titles. Not asking a question comes with a 100% guarantee of not getting an answer. Would author Sherman Alexie have read Carla Sameth’s fan letter, had she mailed it? Would Gabe have devoured that list through the next grades, learning, testing, rejecting, persistently open to all manner of ideas? The question appears answered, at the moment, with now16-year old Gabe eschewing reading other books in favor of The New Testament.

Maybe Sherman Alexie will see Single Moms of South Pas and answer Carla Sameth’s request for a reading list for a kid like Gabe. Maybe not. Maybe La Bloga readers have an arresting multiracial kid’s reading list, or a worthwhile suggestion or two, that might engage a kid like Gabe once his current reading preference diversifies.

A couple of suggestions: Maybe there’s a video of 2009's play Palestine, New Mexico, Richard Montoya with Culture Clash’s intriguing treatment of krypto Jews, mestizaje, and patriotism. Gabe enjoys humor, so he might get behind Frank Chin’s Donald Duk, or Malín Alegria’s Sofi Mendoza's Guide To Getting Lost In Mexico. Then there’s the deadly serious shipwreck novel, Sacred Hunger, where the slaves and crew of a slave ship wreck in the Everglades, form a community for survival. A fabulous gender novel is Philip Wylie's The Disappearance, where we fall into separate dimensions, women make peace, men launch nukes at each other.

La Bloga readers may have a list or a title they recommend to kids like Gabe and his mom. Leave a Comment below to share.

Librotraficante Caravan Scheduled For March

Arizona's most egregious foolishness--banning books and intercultural communication--for all its unAmericanness, stands as law in that sadly benighted place. The State compiled its own Index Librorum Prohibitorum and then sent agents into libraries and schoolrooms to seize offending titles and pull them screaming off the shelves.

The State's ban won't prevent gente from celebrating banned books, banned ideas by seeking them out and giving them voices. One remarkable effort comes out of Houston, the movimiento Librotraficante.

Here's what Nuestra Palabra Latino writers having their say has to say about an inspired movement to restore banned books to idea-impoverished Arizona, the Librotraficante Caravan:

The Librotraficante Caravan will travel from Houston, Texas, to Tucson, Ariz., carrying a payload of contraband books, creating networks of Underground Libraries and leaving community resources in its wake. One of many responses to Arizona’s unconstitutional laws prohibiting Mexican-American Studies, the Librotraficante Caravan has captured the imagination and hearts of activists, writers, educators, and students from all walks of life who want to preserve freedom of speech.

The Librotraficante Caravan launches in Houston at 10 a.m. on Monday, March 12, from Casa Ramirez Folk Art Gallery (241 West 19th Street, Houston, Texas 77008.) It will stop in San Antonio and El Paso, Texas; Mesilla and Albuquerque, N.M., and culminate in Tucson, Ariz., on Friday, March 16. On St. Patrick’s Day, Saturday, March 17, we’ll host a huge literary celebration of El Batallion San Patricio at 6 p.m., celebrating Irish and Mexican collaboration of the past. The caravan celebrates Quantum Demographics, or multifaceted cultural unity, throughout its tour also highlighting African-American and Native American literary contributions along the route. The entire schedule is available online at www.Librotraficante.com.

LATE BREAKING NEWS UPDATE

The Librotraficante Caravan set to smuggle banned books back into Arizona has established a network of Underground Libraries in Houston, San Antonio, Albuquerque and Tucson.

The Librotraficante Caravan is partnering with nonprofit organizations to collect at least one complete set of the books banned by the Tucson Unified School District for each of these libraries. Find the complete list (.xls file) at www.Librotraficante.com.

Organizers ask multicultural writers to donate copies of their books, and continue sending newly-published titles. After filling the shelves of the Underground Libraries, public libraries may receive donated collections.

"You can bet I'll be donating my books to the Librotraficante Underground Libraries,” said Sandra Cisneros, author of HOUSE ON MANGO STREET, now prohibited by the Tucson Unified School District.

Beginning in Houston, at 10 a.m. on Monday, March 12, 2012, from Casa Ramirez Folk Art Gallery (241 West 19th Street, Houston, Texas 77008), the Librotraficante Caravan begins its trek to San Antonio and El Paso, Texas; Mesilla and Albuquerque, N.M., and arrives in Tucson, Ariz., on Friday, March 16. The entire schedule is available online at www.Librotraficante.com.

“Our literature and our history must never be at the mercy of political whim ever again. We ask supporters to donate copies of the banned books by the dozen to these Underground Libraries to preserve freedom of speech, so that all of us can tell our stories,” said Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante.

“Every great movement is sparked by outrage at a deep cultural offense,” said Tony Diaz, founder of Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say, which has led the charge, “When we heard that Tucson Unified School District administrators not only prohibited Mexican-American Studies, but then walked into classrooms, and in front of young Latino students, during class time, removed and boxed up books by our most beloved authors - that was too much. This offended us down to our soul. We had to respond.”

With its radio program and blockbuster literary showcases, Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say has 13 years of experience promoting Latino literature and literacy with authors and thinkers from across the country. This once informal alliance of artists, activists, educators, and professionals has galvanized to create cornerstone structures for a network that will remain in place for future causes as well.

The caravan is intended to:

1. Raise awareness of the prohibition of the Mexican-American Studies Program and the removal of books from classrooms.

2. Promote banned authors and their contributions to American Literature.

3. Celebrate diversity. Children of the American Dream must unite to preserve the civil rights of all Americans.

4. Create a network of resources for art, literature and activism.

Specific outcomes:

1. Underground Libraries: Librotraficantes will donate copies of the banned books to a local nonprofit in Houston, San Antonio, Albuquerque and Tucson. These sites will not only be given copies of the banned titles, but from now on, all multicultural authors are encouraged to mail copies of their books to these sites when they are published, so that our community will always have access to our literature.

2. Teach-ins and a Supplanted Book List: Workshops that include free curriculum guides with literary excerpts and lesson plans that can be used in class and immediately applied to other works.

3. Network of Librotraficantes across the country: This is a case of new media saving the classic media of books. Had Arizona done this ten years ago, we most likely would not have heard about it until it had impacted a second generation of youth. However, because of new technologies and the network of writers and activists who are communicating on multimedia platforms, we were not only able to hear about Arizona’s actions, but to also utilize new media tools to organize some classic activist strategies to respond - from now on!

WEBSITES: www.Librotraficante.com and www.NuestraPalabra.org

ORGANIZERS: Tony Diaz, Liana Lopez, Bryan Parras, Lupe Mendez & Laura Acosta

To become a part of history in the making, visit www.Librotraficante.com and click on Donate.

Latinopia Features La Bloga Interview

La Bloga has been going strong over eight years now. This realization struck me recently when two cultural reporters requested interviews. In January, Sonia Gutiérrez shared her "face to face with La Bloga" as our guest columnist. And now, Latinopia, the fabulous video-based cultural experience, is sharing an interview with Michael Sedano.

Latinopia updates its offerings weekly. This week's features also include Diane Hernández recipe for Chicano Rice and compelling music from indigenous musical group “Banda Regional Mixe” combined with Macedonia's “Kocani Orquestra".

no longer forget who robbed me last year

I almost had the opportunity to meet Carl Sandburg. The poet visited the home of a University of Redlands professor whose son was a good friend. Sadly, his dad prohibited visits that week, so I missed those afternoons lounging about that living room, listening to old Carl talk to us teenagers.

Election season has come at full volume a year before the national elections. Carl Sandburg's poem should be "mic checked" at every political rally. Any candidate who can stand and recite this poem without spontaneously combusting probably deserves your vote.

I am the People, the Mob
Carl Sandburg

I am the people—the mob—the crowd—the mass.
Do you know that all the great work of the world is done through me?
I am the workingman, the inventor, the maker of the world's food and
clothes.
I am the audience that witnesses history. The Napoleons come from me
and the Lincolns. They die. And then I send forth more Napoleons
and Lincolns.
I am the seed ground. I am a prairie that will stand for much plowing.
Terrible storms pass over me. I forget. The best of me is sucked out
and wasted. I forget. Everything but Death comes to me and makes
me work and give up what I have. And I forget.
Sometimes I growl, shake myself and spatter a few red drops for history
to remember. Then—I forget.
When I, the People, learn to remember, when I, the People, use the
lessons of yesterday and no longer forget who robbed me last year,
who played me for a fool—then there will be no speaker in all the
world say the name: "The People," with any fleck of a sneer in his
voice or any far-off smile of derision.
The mob—the crowd—the mass—will arrive then.

On-Line Floricanto February Penultimate Tuesday

“I Still Take My Chicano Self Seriously” by John Martinez

“Chicana Warrior” by Elena Diaz Bjorkquist

"Chicano Blood Transfusion" by Edward Vidaurre

“We Are Arizona” by Andrea Hernández Holm

“Banned And Boxed Up Poem” by Francisco X. Alarcón

I STILL TAKE MY CHICANO SELF SERIOUSLY

by John Martinez

With the promise

Of two tacos de Chorizo

Pressed in foil paper

I took my Chicano finger

And wrote my name

In the hot sand,

I took my Chicano eyes

And beamed them

To the sad clouds,

The sizzling sky,

With the promise

That this row will end,

That the day

Will wind down

To a cool dark blue

Wind, that the moon

Is certain, I took my

Chicano self seriously

And dreamed

Of a better future.

And today, in a bar full

Of Gabachos, Jews, Blacks,

Koreans, Arabs,

All in the same suit,

Pen-stripe, white shirt,

All with that same whimper

Of "who am I,"

I think of that boy,

Shirtless and bronze

Seated in the hot earth,

Black hair crusted

With dry grapes,

Like a headset of feathers,

I think of being Chicano

And I write my name

On a bar Napkin,

And when addressed,

It's my Chicano self

Whose eyes are still black

As olives, whose skin

Is still of the earth

That responds,

Because I still take my

Chicano self seriously

And I don't complain

About who I am

Or what I am

I know what I am,

I am Chicano.

Chicana Warrior

When I was younger

My parents did not approve

Of my speaking out

Not because of my politics

Not because of what I said

But because they thought

It wasn’t proper for girls

To be outspoken

To call attention

To themselves

When I was older

And they older still

They accepted me with pride

As the child who took

Up my father’s struggle

As the warrior

The fighter of injustice

The one who could speak

For those couldn’t

Who could rally others

And lead them

With cries of

“¡Si se puede!”

And

“¡Venceremos!”

CHICANO BLOOD TRANSFUSION

by Edward Vidaurre

BANG!

I got shot in the gut and now I need a Chicano blood transfusion.

QUICK!

Promise me that the blood is from a Chicano mother. Alurista is coming down the corridor

and wants my hat for his collection and I can only come up with 180 reasons

why a Guanaco can't cross the border.

CLOSE THE DOOR.

Put a sheet over my body and tag my toe. My brown skin is hindered

by the loss of blood. Lie to my daughter and tell her I'm on vacation,

a long one. Continue reading her books at night for me mother.

HELP!

Minute men are looking for me and la migra has plans for me. I can't write anymore,

my pen has been taken away along with my grandma's recipe

for semita and chile rellenos.

I need them to help me break through the concrete wall mierda stretching

from Califas to Tejas.

I worry about my citizenship/permiso para jalar/needing a haircut on Sundays

I worry about people that drive small cars/con placas vencidas/con placas behind them

STOP!

Alright I think they're gone

breathe

breathe if you must

We are Arizona

You break my heart

When you shoot words like

Backwards, Dark Ages,

Hicks and Assholes, Nazizona

Upon us all, soaking us all in your accusations.

You point your arrows toward us

Turn your cynicism and frustrations on us

All of us

Even though we are not all

Backwards, Hicks or Assholes

In the Dark Ages, Nazizona.

Some of us

Many of us

Most of us

Are Love and Hope,

Hearts wide open,

Minds wide open,

Arms wide open.

Nosotros somos Arizona.

Andrea Hernandez Holm 2010

BANNED AND BOXED UP POEM

by Francisco X. Alarcón

this poem has

indigenous features

and a brown skin

like Mother Earth

always will be under

“reasonable suspicion”

this poem roams

the open desert before

any barbed wire

it runs tumultuous

like a creek after

a monsoon rain

this poem breathes

the air free of charge

like a cloud in the sky

it has no need

for any legal papers

because is borderless

this poem doesn’t

believe in any imposed

mythical melting pot

it dreams the dreams

of the Native American

and Chicano/a authors

whose books were taken

away from classrooms

and boxed up in Tucson

this poem is breaking

away from these boxes

and joining in walkouts—

truth, goodness, history

will overcome no doubt

lies, evil, and silence

© Francisco X. Alarcón

January 23, 2012

POEMA PROHIBIDO Y ENCAJONADO

por Francisco X. Alarcón

este poema tiene

facciones indígenas

y una piel color café

como la Madre Tierra

siempre causa será

de “sospecha razonable”

este poema recorre

el desierto abierto antes

cualquier alambre de púas

tumultuoso corre

como un arroyo tras

a una lluvia tormentosa

este poema respira

el aire libre de cargos

como nube en el cielo

no tiene necesidad

de papeles legales

pues no tiene fronteras

este poema no cree

en ningún crisol

mítico impuesto

sueña los sueños

de los autores nativos

y los autores chicanos

cuyos libros fueron

sacados de clases y

encajonados en Tucson

este poema se escapa

de estas cajas para unirse

a protestas de estudiantes—

la verdad, el bien, la historia

sin duda pronto vencerán

a mentiras, el mal, el silencio

© Francisco X. Alarcón

23 de enero de 2012

BIOS

“I Still Take My Chicano Self Seriously” by John Martinez

“Chicana Warrior” by Elena Diaz Bjorkquist

"Chicano Blood Transfusion" by Edward Vidaurre

“We Are Arizona” by Andrea Hernández Holm

“Banned And Boxed Up Poem” by Francisco X. Alarcón

John Martinez studied Creative Writing at Fresno State University. He has published poetry in El Tecolote, Red Trapeze and the LA Weekly and has recently published poems in Poets Responding to SB1070 and this is his fourth poem appearing in LA BLOGA. He has performed (as a musician/political activist) with Teatro De La Tierra, Los Perros Del Pueblo and TROKA, a Poetry Ensemble. He has also toured with several cumbia bands throughout the Central Valley and Los Angeles and is finishing his first Novel, Cumbia Days. He has worked for the last 17 years as an Administrator for a Los Angeles Law Firm and makes his home in Upland, California with his beautiful wife, Rosa America y Familia.

Edward Vidaurre Born in East L.A., His poems have been featured in the La Bloga, The Valley International Poetry Festival Anthology Boundless 2011, Writer’s of the Rio Grande, Harbinger Asylum’s Spring 2012 edition, and will be published in the “Texas Beat Anthology” out of UT Press in 2012. He is the host of Pasta, Poetry & Vino a monthly poetry reading featuring poets from and around the Rio Grande Valley in south Texas.

Francisco X. Alarcón, award winning Chicano poet and educator, is author of twelve volumes of poetry, including, From the Other Side of Night: Selected and New Poems (University of Arizona Press 2002), and Snake Poems: An Aztec Invocation (Chronicle Books 1992) His latest book is Ce•Uno•One: Poems for the New Sun (Swan Scythe Press 2010). His book of bilingual poetry for children, Animal Poems of the Iguazú (Children’s Book Press 2008), was selected as a Notable Book for a Global Society by the International Reading Association. His previous bilingual book titled Poems to Dream Together (Lee & Low Books 2005) was awarded the 2006 Jane Addams Honor Book Award. He has been a finalist nominated for Poet Laureate of California in two occasions. He teaches at the University of California, Davis.

Francisco recently participated in the First Children’s Poetry Festival in El Salvador (Nov. 8-10, 2010) and was able to visit Monseñor Oscar Arnulfo Romero’s tomb beneath the metropolitan cathedral of San Salvador. Monseñor Romero was killed saying mass in 1980 marking one of the most violent periods of the civil war in El Salvador.

Why Not Enjoy Yourself?

2012-02-20T00:01:00.003-07:00

Let the Younger People Take Over, You Have Paid Your Dues

Guest essay by Rodolfo F. Acuña

Chicana/o Studies at Cal State Northridge will be taking close to sixty Latinos and Asians students to Tucson later this month. It will be our third trip as a group within a year. Friends keep saying, “That is a big responsibility; you have paid your dues; why don’t you slow down and enjoy life?” In other words, take it easy, and let the young people clean up our mess.

Some make ridiculous statements such as that you must enjoy the pressure. What is probably meant to be a compliment is an insult. Only someone who is nuts enjoys constant stress and sleepless nights.

Frankly, I would be delighted if others would step up. No one enjoys constantly working as if there were no more tomorrows. No one enjoys sandwiching in writing and teaching, and never having enough time to edit and reflect – the tension of being constantly on stage gets to you.

I often wish that I would have become a monk. But, as a member of a community – a husband, father, grandfather, and teacher – I have no choice but to fight. The bottom line is that I care about the kind of world we leave behind.

Many of my Latino friends tell me not to worry; the Latino population is booming, and we are the future. Today Latinos are just over 15 percent of the population – over 50 million. If we were a nation, we would be the second largest Spanish-speaking country in the world. By 2050 Latinos will be almost a third of the U.S. But will it really make a difference?

Knowing history I realize that what we do today will affect 2050. Population is not a silver bullet, and this growth is precisely what worries me.

In the 1970s, I had a conversation with the late Willie Velásquez, the founder of the Southwest Voter Registration Project, who was at the time leading a drive to register more Mexican Americans. I asked Willie if he were not being overly optimistic about the importance of registering and voting Mexican Americans. We could register more Latinos, but what was being done about the quality of representation once we turned out the voters?

Willie responded that everything went in cycles, and we first had to register our people. Over the years I have thought about this conversation. Looking at the outcome, I think Willie is probably turning over in his grave when he sees the quality of our political representives, especially the trend of some Latinos running as Republicans. Who would have thought in the 1970s that Mexicans and other Spanish-speaking people would today be Hispanics?

As a group Latino politicos have not been especially progressive. Indeed, they have been less than courageous when it comes to police brutality and capital punishment. Latino politicos have been invisible during the escalation of tuition that is killing access to higher education for most. Few have spoken out on the Middle Eastern wars thus empowering President Barack Obama as he wags the dog’s tail.

In 2050, the Latino population will reach 30 percent. Surely, the gene pool will get darker; today in Los Angeles the probability of a first grade male marrying or partnering up with a Latina is about fifty percent. The only factors slowing down this process are where people live, go to school and economic class.

Has the political awareness of Latinos and Mexican Americans grown proportionately? I don’t think so! Political consciousness is like vocabulary -- it is learned and acquired, and it is not cultivated through the use of third grade clichés such as the Decade of the Hispanic or Chicana/o power. It is learned through political education and awareness.

The growth or development of political consciousness depends on individual and group experiences. The media has a lot to do with this socialization process.

However, when we look at the content of most programs Latinos have access to, it is disastrous. Univision, the largest of the Spanish language networks, is run by conservative investors, and its content is heavily influenced by right wing Cuban Americans in Miami. Consequent to this, the most informative pundit is Jorge Ramos, a Mexican transplant who is progressive on immigration but to right of center on Latin American and domestic issues. This begets programs such as Don Francisco that features contests such as Señorita Colita (Miss “Little Tail”).

The Democratic Party and the left have done very little to fill the vacuum in the Latino’s political education, although it is becoming its largest bloc of voters. It takes Latinos for granted because they have no other place to go, given the racism of the Republican Party.

Truth be told, the left media like poverty has fed off the Latino’s misery while reaping the benefits of their votes. It sheds tears over racism and inequality, theorizing about it and doing little more.

Aside from “Democracy Now,” there is not a prominent Latino writer nurtured by this gaggle of left media that includes The Nation, Mother Jones as well as others. The tragedy is that, if and when the Latino community votes Republican, there will be expressions of shock and blaming the victim.

What I have learned during my years of struggle is that I don’t have enough money, or prestige to change the group. I probably would have even less influence if I were at a a pampered professor at a prominent university, so I make changes through teaching working class students and by example.

At the moment I am concentrating on Mexican American and Central American students, a sector that includes most Latinos. According to the 2010 Census, Mexican Americans are officially 63 percent, and could be as high as 70 percent of the total Latino population. The Mexican origin population will grow the fastest during the next forty years due to Mexico’s proximity to the United States and the median age of Mexican women.

U.S. births are disproportionately Latino, accounting for one-in-four of the nation’s newborns in 2008. The growth is driven by Mexican Americans women who account anywhere from about 20 percent to 50 percent more children than non-Mexican Latinas.

The median age of Mexican origin women in the U.S. is 25, compared with 30 for non-Mexican-origin Latinas, 32 for blacks, 35 for Asians and 41 for whites. The typical Mexican American woman, ages 40 to 44, gives birth to 2.5 children versus 1.9 non-Mexican-Latinas.

Demographers predict that most future growth in the U.S. among Latinas will come from women with documents. Most of the growth within the Mexican American community will be poorer, less educated and concentrated in the working class sector.

The reality is simply that it is becoming more hazardous and costly for working class Latin Americans to migrate to the U.S. through the Mexican corridor that has been closed to them by drug gangs spawned by U.S. policy that has channeled the drug trade through Mexico.

In this scenario, the Mexican American middle-class plays an exceedingly important role. Necessarily they have to advocate for the civil rights of those not enjoying their privileges. However, the increase in tuition is threatening the stairway we built in the late 1960s for more Mexican Americans and Latinos going to college. There are also class divisions that occur among people of all color.

The only factors slowing this down assimilation are food and group consciousness, which lasts only so long.

Arizona as in the case of California Proposition 187 (1994) reminds the group that racism still exists. It defines who the bad guys are. However, this political education has to go much further.

In the past couple of years I have been writing pieces on Arizona to educate a small circle on the importance of that struggle. Good education is often a case of redundancy. It is the practice of constantly deducing and then applying lessons – much like the conjugation for verbs in Latin.

That is why we are taking students to Arizona. We want to educate them, and the best way is for them to experience it. In the last two trips, we have also been taking Asian students with us because we live in a multi-racial society, and we have to learn to work together. We share humanity.

Many of the students who have gone on the trips had never been out of California, some had never been out of LA. This effort will pay off because they in turn will use a more sophisticated political vocabulary, which they will teach their family members and eventually their children.

[Rodolfo Francisco Acuña, Ph.D., is an historian, professor emeritus, and one of various scholars of Chicano studies, which he teaches at California State University, Northridge. He is the author of Occupied America: A History of Chicanos, which approaches the history of the Southwestern United States that includes Mexican Americans. It has been reprinted five times since its 1972 debut (the sixth edition was published in December 2006). He has written for many publications including the Los Angeles Times, The Los Angeles Herald-Express, La Opinión, and numerous other newspapers. His work emphasizes the struggle of the Mexican American people. Acuña is also an activist and he has supported the numerous causes of the Chicano Movement.]

◙ BOOK CLUB NOTE: I am delighted to say that my novel, The Book of Want (University of Arizona Press), was chosen by the Stanford Chicano/Latino Book Club for this weekend. I will be there to enjoy the discussion. Even if you did not attend Stanford, you are more than welcome. Details:

DATE: Sunday, February 26, 11:00 a.m.

PLACE: Private home in Monrovia, 731 Montana St., Monrovia CA 91016

PRICE: No charge

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO: RSVP to Concepcion Valadez, PhD '76, at
cmvaladez@gmail.com

EVENT DESCRIPTION: The book to be discussed will be The Book of Want by Daniel Olivas, '81. As a special bonus, the author will be attending to discuss his book!

Questions? Contact Concepcion Valadez, PhD '76, at cmvaladez@gmail.com

"Doing the Work That Matters"-- The Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa by Amelia M.L. Montes

2012-02-19T01:17:00.025-07:00

Gloria Anzaldúa (1942-2004)

Imagine being at a conference. It is crowded but you don’t have a conference guide. You decide to go where the crowds are gathering to hear a panel presentation on the latest topic, or to hear someone speak. People are sitting on the floor, crammed against the walls, standing outside waiting to see if they can get in or to see if they can at least hear from a distance. There’s a buzz, an excitement about what is being discussed. You know that the discussion is of importance and will have an impact. I’m describing what has occurred at conferences when the topic of Gloria Anzaldúa’s work is discussed.

Conference crowd!

Professor Norma Cantú found herself more than once in such crowds. At the American Studies Association (ASA) Conference in 2005, (a year after Anzaldúa died) a session on Gloria Anzaldúa was standing room only “although people were also sitting on the floor too,” she says. At the Modern Language Association (MLA) Conference in 2006 and at other conferences the same occurred. Cantú found herself in packed rooms with people from various parts of the United States, Latin America, Europe—all wanting to hear and discuss Anzaldúa’s work. “These sessions were unbelievably crowded and that’s when I knew,” she said. “I knew that there needed to be a space for these people to continue their discussions.”

Dr. Norma Cantú

And what exactly were these discussions about? --Gloria Anzaldúa and her book, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987). This experimental book (called "experimental" at its inception due to the use of various writing genres within one text: theoretical, historical, creative inclusive of poetry and memoir) continues to be at the center of these discussions. Borderlands has been translated in over 30 languages and this June 2012, the fourth edition will be published celebrating twenty-five years of this book's existence. Aunt Lute Press is celebrating by posting "weekly quotes about the enduring importance and beauty of this groundbreaking work."

Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (soon to be in its fourth edition)

Professor Norma Cantú, longtime friend to Anzaldúa and scholar of her work, writes that "her ideas . . . reach out across cultures, across nations, across many borders. As Czech scholar Tereza Kynclová notes, Anzaldúa speaks to the borders we all inhabit . . . the lens of border theory, a theory that asks that we situate ourselves on both sides of a bridge at once. A bridge signals that there is a border to traverse, yet it is also meant to unite, not divide.” Scholars, creative writers, artists, healers, musicians, dancers who invoke Anzaldúa's words speak of resistance to injustice: injustice against women, queers, all marginalized individuals. And in that resistant voice, they also look inward. "The struggle is inner: Chicano, indio, American Indian, mojado, mexicano, immigrant Latino, Anglo in power, working class Anglo, Black, Asian--our psyches resemble the bordertowns and are populated by the same people. The struggle has always been inner, and is played out in the outer terrains. Awareness of our situation must come before inner changes, which in turn come before changes in society. Nothing happens in the 'real' world unless it first happens in the images in our heads . . . I am possessed by a vision: that we Chicanas and Chicanos have taken back or uncovered our true faces, our dignity and self respect. It is a validation vision." (Anzaldúa, "La conciencia de la mestiza/Towards a New Consciousness").

Gloria Anzaldúa near her home in Santa Cruz, California

National organizations such as the MLA offer various “one author societies” for national and international scholars/writers to gather and share their work on a certain author. There’s the Virginia Woolf Society, the Cervantes and Melville Societies, the Ernest Hemingway and Robert Frost Societies, etc. For Chicana and Chicano scholars and/or creative writers—a look at the long list of societies reveals that we are not well represented. Enter Dr. Cantú who saw the crowds for Gloria Anzaldúa but knew that if there was to be an Anzaldúa Society, it had to be somewhat different from the Frost, Woolf, and Hemingway-type societies. It had to be a space not only for literature scholars. Anzaldúa’s work also attracts fiction and non-fiction writers, poets, artists, healers, musicians, linguists, geographers, eco-critical scholars—the list is long!

Then in November 2007, “The Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa” (SSGA) was born---

At The Society for the Study of American Women Writers (SSAWW) in 2006, I remember being with Dr. Cantú on an Anzaldúa panel and from there I joined her to begin the SSGA (along with other founding members Norma Alarcón, Sonia Saldívar-Hull, Rusty Barceló, Antonia Castañeda, Claire Joysmith, and AnaLouise Keating). We began distributing flyers announcing a one-day symposium which Cantú named “Gueras y Prietas” to mirror a similar conference on Anzaldúa (same name) that had taken place in Mexico City the year before. Cantú believed this would make way for a transnational exchange of ideas.

Dr. Norma Cantú introducing a panel at the one-day symposium

The one-day symposium took place in San Antonio and indeed it was transnational and multi-disciplinary. The symposium was a good beginning because we gathered as one group throughout the entire day. As a unit, we launched the Society and from there, 18 months later, our first Anzaldúa conference was born: “El Mundo Zurdo International Conference.” Since then, two others have followed and the next one is this May 2012 in San Antonio.

Dr. Norma Cantú and "Mundo Zurdo" panel participants

The conferences have grown from 200 to 350 registrants from more than 7 different countries and have yielded the anthology El Mundo Zurdo: Selected Works from the Meetings of The Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa, 2007 & 2009.

Authors in this book are writing from various states in the U.S. (California, Chicago, Idaho, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Texas). They also come from Austria, Israel, Chile, Iraq, Spain, Mexico. A new anthology which includes the proceedings from the 2010 conference is also soon to be published.

SIGNS: the Journal of Women in Culture and Society (University of Chicago Press) devoted their August 2011 issue to The Society on the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa focusing the essays on international perspectives from Austria, the Canary Islands, Czechoslovakia, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Spain. “Around the globe,” writes Dr. Cantú, “across diverse spheres of influence, scholars write, teach, and work for social change using the border theory lens that Anzaldúa’s writings offer. In the Mayan areas of Mexico, for example, Papusa Molina employs a pedagogy with her Mayan students based on Anzaldúan thought: a different border, the same issues. ‘Linguistic terrorism,’ as Anzaldúa called it: not allowing the Mayan languages in the schools, dictating what is acceptable to the state.”

Artist Santa Barraza with one of her paintings, and Amelia M.L. Montes

Some of the artists influenced by Anzaldúa’s work are Santa Barraza (pictured above), Deborah Kuetzpalin Vasquez, Liliana Wilson. They are examples of what Cantú describes as “interlocking communities” around Anzaldúa’s work.

Cantú: “It’s been a real experience and has opened up a lot for me—just to have all these scholars and artists coming together. I feel like my role is to be a facilitator—like a midwife or like the ‘matachines’ who, before they dance, someone sweeps the space, prepares it. That’s what I’m doing: preparing el terreno for people to come and do their thing.” Their thing is what Gloria Anzaldúa wrote in her last essay: "The work that matters."

You are more than welcome, Queridas y Queridos Bloga Readers—to join in this year’s Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa “Mundo Zurdo Conference.” This year’s theme is “Transformations.” In the SSGA Newsletter, the “Transformations” theme is described as “a dominant motif in Anzaldúa’s writings . . . [which] suggests multiple processes of consciousness formation, ideology shifting, and physical and spiritual healing.”

Gloria Anzaldúa, la Tejana

I asked Dr. Cantú what she thought Gloria would think about all of this attention on her work. “I think she would be blown away. Joan [Pinkvoss, Senior Editor at Aunt Lute Books who worked with Anzaldúa on Borderlands] never thought that Borderlands would have the impact it did, but she valued Gloria’s work enough that she knew her work would have an impact at some level.”

El Mundo Zurdo Conference (Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa)-- May 17-19 in San Antonio, Texas. Contact: gloria.anzaldua.society@gmail.com or Dr. Cantú at norma.cantu@utsa.edu

Arellano curses the names

2012-02-18T01:55:00.000-07:00

New book:
Curse the Names by Robert Arellano
Mystery/Fiction
Trade Paperback l 200 pages | $15.95
ISBN-13: 978-1-61775-030-4

If any of my novels ever get published, my favorite publisher will either be whoever published my first book or whoever published my latest. In the meantime, Akashic Books out of NY keeps making me wish I had more time to read. I love their slogan: "reverse-gentrification of the literary world," resonating with chords of Euro lit, instead of the egocentric thing we call American. Plus, nobody likes the gentry in us, except the gentry.

Anyway, La Bloga has featured some of Akashic's best, like Go the Fuck to Sleep by Adam Mansbach & Ricardo Cortes, and Like Son (here and here). Since we're just getting review copies of Robert Arellano's new book, below is a preview from the publisher. It reminds of Rudy Anaya's Sonny Baca battling the Raven, which makes me wonder if Arellano was influenced any by Anaya. Maybe we can ask in a future interview.

From the publisher:
"Robert Arellano, author of the Edgar-nominated crime novel Havana Lunar, returns with another spine-tingling noir from Akashic Books.

"High on a mesa in the mountains of New Mexico, a small town hides a dreadful secret. On a morning very soon there will be an accident that triggers a terrible chain reaction, and the world we know will be wiped out.

"James Oberhelm, a reporter at Los Alamos National Laboratory, already sees the devastation, like the skin torn off a moment that is yet to be. He believes he can prevent an apocalypse, but first James must escape the devices of a sensuous young blood tech, a lecherous old hippie, a predator in a waking nightmare, and a forsaken adobe house high away in the Sangre de Cristo mountains whose dark history entwines them all. A massive bomb is ticking beneath the sands of the Southwest, and time is running out to send a warning. James has to find a way to pass along the message--even if it ruins him."

Robert Arellano is the author of the Edgar-nominated noir Havana Lunar and two earlier novels, all published by Akashic Books. Writing as Eddy Arellano, he collaborated with three artists on the graphic novel Dead in Desemboque from Soft Skull Press, and as Bobby Rabyd he created the Web's first interactive novel, Sunshine '69. He lived for seven years in the small mountain town of Dixon, New Mexico, and he now teaches in the College of Arts & Sciences at Southern Oregon University.

Reviews:
"In this unsettling mix of noir and paranormal obsession . . . Arellano displays a sly, Hitchcockian touch." – Publishers Weekly

"Arellano pulls off the not-inconsiderable feat of making the disintegration of his hero more compelling than the end of the world as we know it." – Kirkus Reviews

"Readers, fasten your seat belts for this one. Arellano's novel is a dizzying Thompsonian concoction of noir crime thriller and alternately nightmarish and comic surreal psychodrama, spiced up with a heaping handful of local northern New Mexico flavor. A noir novel short enough to read on a two-hour airplane ride and sufficiently satisfying to make you feel glad you read it." – Albuquerque Journal

Events for Robert Arellano & Curse the Names:
Mon., March 19, 7:00pm
St. Mark's Bookshop, 31 Third Ave., NY, NY
Akashic All-Stars event featuring Robert Arellano, Bernice L. McFadden, Eliza Factor and Sterling Watson

Tues., March 20, 7:00pm
Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard St., Brookline, MA
Akashic All-Stars event featuring Robert Arellano, Bernice L. McFadden, Eliza Factor and Sterling Watson

Thurs., March 22, 7:00pm
Books on the Square, 471 Angell St., Providence, RI
Akashic All-Stars event featuring Robert Arellano, Eliza Factor and Sterling Watson

Sitting for Margaret Garcia

2012-02-17T00:00:00.007-07:00

Melinda Palacio at the studio of noted Chicana artist Margaret Garcia

photo by Michael Sedano

What was supposed to be an hour of looking at possible cover art for my new poetry book turned into a two-day inspirational experience with noted Chicana artist Margaret Garcia.

The excitement began as Luis J. Rodriguez sent off a series of emails in anticipation of Tia Chucha’s presence at the AWP conference in Chicago February 29-March 3. Buried in the details of dinners, panels, and off-site readings was a single sentence where Luis mentioned he would put together a flyer announcing my new poetry book, How Fire Is A Story, Waiting as a Fall 2012 Tia Chucha Press release. My experience with Bilingual Press left me open to publication delays. I was pleasantly surprised when Luis asked for information for the Northwestern University Catalogue, the umbrella publisher of Tia Chucha Press. Instead of a publishing delay, my book would be out on schedule, if not early.

Here’s where note taking comes in handy, whether it’s on your phone or in a little notebook you carry in your purse, I prefer the latter. Thanks to Luivette Resto’s La Palabra poetry series, I often check out what’s happening at Avenue 50 studio in Highland Park. I jotted down the exhibit, “Brushes with Fire,” featuring Margaret Garcia’s work. Of course, the little piece of paper with the title of Margaret’s painting is long gone, but I remembered Margaret’s name and her exquisite work. I carried this information with me even before my poetry manuscript found a home with Tia Chucha Press. The positive comments the cover of Ocotillo Dreams has received prompted me to make cover art decisions a priority.

I tried the phone number for Margaret Garcia and was pleasantly surprised when the artist herself answered, and even more delighted when she invited me to visit her studio. More thrilling was when Margaret suggested that I needed a more personal cover for my poetry book, a portrait, of me. An email to Luis Rodriguez gave the go ahead for the project. I was going to have my portrait painted by Margaret Garcia for the cover of my new poetry book.

The artist’s studio on North Figueroa in Highland Park is on a busy street, next door to a mechanic and tire place.

Garcia grew up in East L.A. and would’ve been a contemporary of my mother, Blanca Estela Palacio, who also studied art and was very interested in local murals. As a child, I accompanied my mother to many art museums and street corners where she would photograph East L.A. murals for her research. She and Margaret would’ve gotten along famously. Even though I’m not an artist or an art history major, when Margaret talked about the painting techniques of Picasso and Vermeer, I understood where she was coming from. It wasn’t a stretch to realize that much of Margaret’s painting philosophy applies to writing.

More than a portrait session ensued over the next two days. We shared stories as Margaret attempted to discover as much about me as possible. Garcia explained,

“The portrait reveals who you are. The likeness captures the essence of you, inner beauty. The personality shines through the manifestation of the work.”

Then Margaret quoted Picasso, “ A painting is never finished, only abandoned,” a maxim that easily translates to novels and writing.

What impressed me most about Margaret is her ability to work quickly and her desire to foster young artists in her community. She doesn’t fear competition; rather, she creates opportunities for fellow artists. Her sense of community and desire to lift up Chicana artists is why she decided to paint an original portrait of me, rather than license a piece from her collection. “The poetry is about you,” she said. “Your book cover should be personal, should reflect you.”

* A photo of the portrait by Margaret Garcia and cover of How Fire Is A Story, Waiting will be previewed on La Bloga soon.

Margaret Garcia’s numerous art commissions, fellowships, and exhibits include the Los Angeles County MTA Universal City Metro Station, the J. Paul Getty Trust Fund for the Visual Arts Fellowship, the Watts Towers Arts Center, and the current group show, “Breaking in Two: A Provocative Vision of Motherhood at Santa Monica Art Studios, a walk through with the curator and artists will take place Feb. 26 from 13-3pm at 30206 Airport Avenue, Santa Monica CA 90405. Margaret will be in attendance. She’s very proud to be part of the exhibit that features her esteemed mentors. “I am in this exhibit with Ruth Weisburg and Margaret Lazzari, two of my former senior advisors from USC,” she said. “I was blown away by their work. The depth is profound in Lazzari’s work whereas Weisberg’s work is effervescent.”

"They Dream Together" by Margaret Garcia on view at the "Breaking in Two" exhibition.

Upcoming events for "Breaking in Two" at Arena 1 Santa Monica Art Studios:

Feb. 26, 12-3 pm Walk through with curator and artists.

March 17, 3-5 pm Mothers on Motherhood Dance and Spoken Word Performance.

March 31 2-5 pm Panel discussion the social and esthetic implications of Motherhood: a scholarly interaction.

April 14, 6-10 pm Exhibition closing celebration.

In print this month:

The Mas Tequila Review is out and feature two poems by Melinda Palacio.

Eleven Eleven features a prose piece I wrote about my grandmother.

Hinchas de Poesia features, “Sin Vergüenza Swagger,” a poem inspired by the trip I took last February to visit relatives in Panamà.

Fellow Bloguero Daniel Olivas and I will be on a panel at AWP, please see www.melindapalacio.com for more details.

Chicanonautica: A Trail of Tears Through Cyberspace and Back

2012-02-16T00:01:00.012-07:00

by Ernest Hogan

Ay! What a wild ride! Blake M. Hausman’s Riding the Trail of Tears is just the sort of novel that this sci-fi Chicano loves. It’s hard to describe in the conventional language of book reviewing, but then, that’s part of the fun.

The back cover blurb says: “Sherman Alexi meets William Gibson. Louise Erdich meets Franz Kafka. Leslie Marmon Silko meets Philip K. Dick.” I took it for hyperbole at first, but it's true. I would even add Ishmael Reed and myself to that list, if I could be so bold.

And the title is accurate. It literally is about riding the Trail of Tears. In a near future north Georgia, there’s a tourist attraction -- the Tsalgai Removal Exodus Point Park, or TREPP, where the price of admission buys the experience of being a Cherokee on the Trail of Tears, in virtual reality, of course.

The main character is Tallulah Wilson, a one-third Cherokee guide at TREPP. The viewpoint character is -- well, problematic to say the least. It says it’s a Nunnehi -- a Little Little Person, but then we are warned about Homeland Security, and the possibility of terrorists -- or others hacking into the system . . . readers with different backgrounds will end up arguing about it.

Which is why Riding the Trail of Tears is so hard to categorize. As a writer who’s sold to Analog Science Fiction & Fact, I find Hausman’s technical conceptualizations to be state of the art for that genre. The word “surrealistic” appears on the back cover, but I’ve found from living in Aztlán, reality is often close to surrealistic satire: An Elvis impersonator gives helicopter tours of mystical sites in Sedona, other tours feature New Age guides who plug distortions of Hopi beliefs into the 2012 Mayanoid delusions, tribal-owned casinos suggest that their gambling will be a mystical experience . . .

Combine that with an honest, and often hilarious, portrayal of impure Cherokee characters -- the East Coast equivalent of mestizos -- and the border between Native American Lit and sci-fi has been breached. I’ve dealt with this when writing about modern technology hooking up with ancient belief systems -- it gets hard to sort out. Fantasy? Reality? Myth? Religion? Politics?

Looks like another 21st century identity crisis. Better call Homeland Security, or the Nunnehi.

And maybe for marketing’s sake we should call it dystopia, because the kids dig dystopia these days. It would make a kick-ass movie, and we do have the technology. And so many Americanos carry Cherokee DNA -- people who are now classified as “white” and “black” could discover a new common identiy as Cherokee Americans.

See? Reading this book gets the imagination raging -- ideas erupt. Yeah, I know. Dangerous.

Maybe I should just put on my HOMELAND SECURITY -- FIGHTING TERRORISM SINCE 1492 T-shirt, shut my mouth, and await further instructions from headquarters.

Ernest Hogan’s first novel, Cortez on Jupiter, will very soon be available as an ebook. And that is only the beginning.

New Children's Books From Lectura Books

2012-02-14T22:51:00.000-07:00

Lectura Books make it possible for parents and their children to learn together. Reading bilingual books is one of the most effective ways to acquire transferable literacy skills. Explore what Lectura Books has to offer.

Quality Bilingual Books Telling Culturally Relevant Stories for Latino Families

I See The World /

Yo veo el mundo

By Tom Luna, Illustrated by Christina Song

Whether in the sky or on the ground the world is filled with beauty, animals, toys, and the joy of seeing what the world has to offer.

Ages: 2-5, 27 color pages,10” X 8”

Birdie Flies Away /

Pajarillo se va volando
By Kat Aragon, Illustrated by Andrea Yomtob

This is a story about how we all grow at our own pace. Some are ready to leave the nest early, while others need a little more time.

Ages: 2-5, 27 color pages,10” X 8”

The Many Faces Of Max /

Las muchas caras de Max
By Katherine Del Monte, Illustrated by Susan Arena

Max is a dog who loves his family and they love him. He wears his feelings right on his face. If he’s sad, you know it. If he’s happy, you can tell. Sometimes silly, sometimes sad, Max is always loveable.

Ages: 2-5, 21 color pages, 8” X 10”

The Oldest House In The USA /

La casa más antigua de los Estados Unidos
By Kat Aragon, Illustrated by Mary Jo Madrid

The oldest house in the USA was probably built in the thirteenth century. Over time it has been home to many different people and perhaps most famously, a ghost or two.

Ages: 5-8, 21 color pages,10” X 8”

Letters Forever /

Cartas para siempre
By Tom Luna, Illustrated by Laura Alvarez

When Camila’s grandfather moves to Mexico they write letters to each other. The letters help ease her pain.

Ages: 5-8, 28 color pages,10” X 8”

Valentine's Day Floricanto

2012-02-14T00:01:00.351-07:00

Saying Love Out Loud

Michael Sedano

St. Valentine’s Day is perfect for poetry, music, flowers, and sweets-for-the-sweet. Here's a bouquet of early-blooming sweet peas, imagine the gorgeous perfume as you listen to a medley of love songs and enjoy reading--to yourself or aloud to a favorite valentine--a trio of powerful love poems.

Happy St. Valentine's Day.

Michael Sedano

One of the best love poems I know yearns in the voice of a regretful lover who hid his passion while other suitors showered her beauty with praise. Of all those importunate swains he alone loved her for her spirit. So she will grow to be an old woman, sitting alone next to dying embers.

That’s When You Are Old, by William Butler Yeats, published in 1893. Eleven years later, 1904, a chastened Yeats offers one of my second-favorite love poems, Sweetheart, do not love too long. Is the speaker one of those glad grace Sanchos who thought he’d scored? Could it be she got around to the quiet guy in the corner, they sang in the sunshine, then she moved on, even though he wasn’t done loving her, and still isn't?

WHEN you are old and grey and full of sleep,  

And nodding by the fire, take down this book,  

And slowly read, and dream of the soft look  

Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,  

And loved your beauty with love false or true,  

But one man loved the pilgrim Soul in you,  

And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,  

Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled  

And paced upon the mountains overhead  

And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

  --William Butler Yeats, 1893

SWEETHEART, do not love too long,  

I loved long and long,  

And grew to be out of fashion  

Like an old song.  

All through the years of our youth  

Neither could have known  

Their own thought from the other's,  

We were so much at one.  

But O, in a minute she changed-  

O do not love too long,  

Or you will grow out of fashion  

Like an old song.

--William Butler Yeats, 1904

Another of my second-favorite love poems comes with a multicultural sizzle, Ina Cumpiano’s Metonymies. Readers don’t discover this as a love poem until those intense final lines. Each stanza offers up a piece of fractured love: letting go; intimations of unfilled space; abrupt finality; regaining control. It's a poem that fits perfectly into anyone's literature curriculum, except that line about saving birth certificates will probably get Metonymies banned in Arizona.

LAST JULY, they loosened their grip, let go--

plum, sweet plum--until the grass

was bloody with the warm flesh. Months later

the finches, purple fruit, hide in what's left of leaves

so that only when they fly off,

when the branches bounce back to true

is their presence known. They will not outstay

the leaves, the thin white light disclosing

those empty hands, the tree, against the sky.

This trip south, the egret questions the lagoon:

the white curl of its own back is the answer.

No matter how many times I return, this shallow inlet

to the sea will be here; and the egret, long gone,

will grace it with presence.

In "The Blind Samurai" the camera zooms

to the old man's clever ear: a double metonymy

that links our deafness to his danger. By the time

we catch on--snap, snap, footsteps

in the underbrush--

he has done battle and

bandits litter the forest like cordwood.

The camellia loses its head

all at once; it does not diminish

petal by petal

so for weeks the severed blossom lingers

as moist as pain, at the foot of the bush.

If the police ordered me to evacuate,

what would I take with me?

Baby pictures, computer disks, the silver,

proofs of birth? The sun

would hang like old fruit until the smoke

gathered it in. Then: night in day, sirens,

and knowing that whatever I took

would hold in its small cup

everything I had ever lost.

So if the police ordered me to evacuate during a firestorm,

I would write your name on a slip of paper,

light it, and--

in those few hurried moments allowed me--

watch it burn, brush the ashes into an envelope

which I would seal and keep with me, always.

The Floating Borderlands, Twenty-five Years of U.S. Hispanic Literature.

Ed. Lauro Flores. Seattle: UofW Press, 1998, pp. 390-391

Valentine On-Line Floricanto

Luis Alberto Urrea, Claudia D. Hernández, Andrea Holm Hernández, Joe Navarro, Elena Díaz Bjorkquist, Nancy Aide Gonzalez, José Hernández Díaz, Francisco x. Alarcón, Andrea Mauk, John Martinez.

Special thanks to Elena Díaz Bjorkquist for coordinating this special St. Valentine's Day edition of La Bloga On-Line Floricanto.

Introduction by Elena Díaz Bjorkquist

The Moderators of Poets Responding to SB 1070 asked our poets to submit love poems for today's special Valentine’s Day La Bloga On-Line Floricanto. The outpouring of love poems overwhelmed us. The poems of love represented romantic love and also love of friends and parents. How were we to select what we thought were the 10 best poems out of 37 wonderful poems?

We scored the thirty-seven and used cumulative totals to reach consensus and designate finalists. Not satisfied that the love poems were adequately showcased on our Facebook page, Elena Díaz Bjorkquist started a blog to hold all the love poems submitted. There you can read all 37 poems and see for yourself how difficult it is that the moderators choose these ten:

“Love” by Luis Alberto Urrea

“Extracto de esencia / Extraction of Essence” by Claudia D. Hernández

“Blessed” by Andrea Holm Hernández

“Thirty Six Valentines” by Joe Navarro

“Growing My Love” by Elena Díaz Bjorkquist

“Flower Sun” by Nancy Aide Gonzalez

“Violet Dreams / Sueños violetas” by José Hernández Díaz

“Love Prayer / Plegaria de amor” by Francisco x. Alarcón

“Love and the Fisherman of Patzcuaro” by Andrea Mauk

“If I Thought My Heart Was Nothing” by John Martinez

Love

by Luis Alberto Urrea

Love the awkward.

Love the marginalized.

Love the lonely.

Love the ugly.

Love the forgotten.

Love the wounded.

Love the weary.

Sing for the silenced,

for our journey takes us all

to the same dawning.

Let’s not go alone.

Extracto de esencia / The Extraction of Essence”

by Claudia D. Hernández

Extracto de esencia

Quisiera

Deshabitarte

De tu cuerpo

Arrancarte

El alma

Entera/

Tragarme

Tu corazón

A manotazos;

Besar y

Respirar

Tus pensamientos—

Para así

Ahogarme

En tu tristeza.

Solo así sabré

Que para siempre

Serás mío:

Mío, solo mío.

Dulce animal

Que me carcome

Mis entrañas,

Lentamente.

The extraction of essence

I want to

Dislodge

You from

Your body,

Consume

Your entire

Soul/

Eat your

Heart out

by handfuls;

Kiss and

Breathe

Your thoughts—

So that I may

Drown in your

Melancholia.

Only in

This manner

Will I know

That you

Will always

Be mine:

Only mine.

Sweet animal

Who eats

Away at

My insides,

Softly.

English translation by José Hernández Díaz

Blessed

My small hand fits right inside my dad’s hand.

I listen as he tells me, pointing to the sky

About the rabbit in the moon.

The rabbit in the moon

Watches over us always. All the time,

For a long, long time. He tells me.

And I remember this much later.

When we dance below the moon

On our wedding night.

On your wedding night

The ancestors will come out

In droves. He tells me.

The ancestors will dance

All together in the night sky.

In celebration of your love.

And I remember this

Every time the moon waxes.

Every time you hold me close.

Every time, all the time, always

Ours is a love to celebrate.

THIRTY-SIX VALENTINES

(For Lucía)

by Joe Navarro

When I hold you now

(Which I have for 36 years),

And look into your eyes, and

When I taste the scent of your kiss,

I feel the sensation as when I first

Caught sight of that young fine

Chicana, that beautiful jarocha

Who (unknowingly) took my

Heart and my breath.

You, that young scholar, who

Challenged the injustices of the

World. A super-Chicana. You, the

Femenista, a threat to testosterone

Measured ideas. You caught my

Imagination along with my heart.

You, my novia, my esposa,

And my vieja…and I mean that

With cariño, you know…my lifelong

Best friend and partner. You know,

We agreed to grow old together. You

Know I’m talking about you, Lucía.

My best friend, to hold and love,

And my partner…y a veces

My sparring partner, as we’ve wrestled

Over roles and attitudes in this lifelong

Friendship. Love, cariño, compromise,

Empathy, caring, compromise, devotion,

Compassion, compromise, patience, passion

and more compromise…those are the

ingredients to a lifelong love life. And

That’s why we are celebrating

St. Valentine’s Day for the thirty-sixth

Time together. Te quiero mucho.

Growing My Love

I feel my heart opening today

Showing my love to others

Feeling closer by expressing

Deep, sincere affection

Telling each how much I care

Strengthening our connection

Making our relationship

Much more precious

A shimmering golden light

Emanates from my heart

Growing with each breath

Encompassing all of me

Opening my heart

Allowing me to give, receive

Boundless love, bathing me

In stronger, loving relationships

I am receptive to the warmth

That surrounds me

Open to the energy

That helps me give of myself

I give and receive love equally

Making my love for others true

Letting unconditional love grow

From the center of my heart today

Flower Sun

By Nancy Aidé González

The sun rises

illuminating

rays of light

scattering

North

South

East

West.

Round celestial

ball of fire

emanating

energy,

dissipative light

bringing

clarity

awareness

enlightenment,

banishing darkness.

We are flowers

with long tangled roots

burrowed deep into the

lush dark

fertile soil.

Our white petals

burst from

bud

blossoming

into

fragile beauty

self awareness,

harmony,

alignment,

our spirits

luxuriant,

flourishing

under the

sunlight.

Our flowering

souls transforming

through love

peace

balance

truth

harmony .

We are flowers

our faces

looking

upward,

our petaled arms

extended

our green

bodied

stems erect,

supple veined

leaves

out stretched,

our hearts

healing,

filled with

spouting

hopes and

dreams,

finding redemption

in ancient

ways ,

creating new

seeds.

Flowering

shining

new sun,

germinating

life.

Violet Dreams / Sueños Violetas”

by José Hernández Díaz

Every morning,

When I wake-up

Pressed against

Your warm chest—

Intertwined with

Your leaf-like limbs—

I kiss your

Freckled cheeks,

Softly,

So that you may

Remain in violet dreams;

I consider it a blessing.

Every afternoon,

When you call

Me during your

Lunch hour

To recite you

A poem,

I climb each

Wave-like syllable

Landing upon

The shores of

Your lilac heart;

I consider it a blessing.

Every night,

When we share

A cigarette

On the porch

With the moon,

You hide your

Pale palms

Inside the depths

Of my pockets;

I consider it a blessing.

Sueños Violetas

Todas las mañanas,

cuando me despierto

presionado contra

tu pecho tibio—

entrelazado con tus

alas de hojas—

te beso las

mejillas pecosas,

suavemente,

para que permanezcas

en sueños violetas;

Lo considero una bendición.

Todas las tardes,

cuando me llamas

durante tu hora

de almuerzo

para que te recite

un poema,

subo cada sílaba

como ola y desciendo

en la marea

de tu corazón

de lilas;

Lo considero una bendición.

Todas las noches,

cuando compartimos

un cigarrillo

en el porche

bajo la luna,

escondes tus

pálidas palmas

dentro de lo profundo

de mis bolsillos;

Lo considero una bendición.

Spanish translation by Claudia D. Hernández

LOVE PRAYER

by Francisco X. Alarcón

may love	may love	may love
surprise us	came to us	move us
unexpectedly	as sweet air	to love others

speedily like	smelling	as we love
a shooting star	our beloved’s	ourselves and
in the night sky	silky hair	those who love us

reminding us	igniting	taking actions
we are never	the embers	for the poorest
ever alone	of a long fire	the neediest

even when	filling life	rewarding us
we are alone	with warmth	with even more
feeling lonesome	joy and light	overflowing love

PLEGARIA DE AMOR

por Francisco X. Alarcón

que el amor	que el amor		que el amor
nos sorprenda	venga a nosotros		nos mueva a amar
sin previo aviso	como dulce aire		a otros asíu

veloz como	oliendo		como nos amamos
estrella fugaz	el cabello sedoso		a nosotros mismos
en la oscuridad	de nuestro amor		y a los que nos aman

recordándonos	encendiendo		tomando acciones
que nunca jamás	las brasas de		por los más pobres
estamos solos	su viejo fulgor		los más necesitados

aun cuando		llenándonos	concediéndonos
estamos solos		la vida con luz	aún más amor
sintiéndonos solos		calor y alegría	sobrecogedor

5 de febrero de 2012

Love and the Fisherman of Patzcuaro

by Andrea Mauk

I had never been swaddled in the sweet comfort

of love,

spent most of my life hoping un dia my name

would wind up scrawled on its list in lavender

or rose red, that it had been enscribed

in the ancient palabras adentro de Tzintzuntzan,

but more often

my heart wound up the toppled coconut,

blown from the tree,

jagged cracked shell

bleeding the milk of hope

onto the thirsty ground.

And then I met you.

I dreamed that love was softer than down,

buoyant upon Patzcuaro

waiting to be caught in the net

of the storied fisherman,

sweeter than nana’s pan dulce

formed in her warm and crinkly hands,

and able to make each minute stretch gracefully into the

perfection of memory,

that even with subtitulos,

there were no words that could quite describe

the language it speaks.

And then I saw your lips quiver when you looked at me.

I somehow understood that even when it

seemed that life had turned its back,

left me standing solita in

the whipping wind,

that the susurros I heard in its errant voz

were the antepasados who still threw

stardust and petals

onto the path I was meant to follow.

So I learned to listen,

to never lose hope,

to believe through my tears…

And then I looked into your eyes

and I knew.

A Valentine for my Rosa America

IF I THOUGHT MY HEART WAS NOTHING

by John Martinez

If I thought

My heart was nothing

But a woven

Basket of arteries,

Expanding

Flesh,

I'd let it sleep

By itself in the rain,

I'd stand before

An animal

And watch its nose

Flare. The smell

Of my heart

Is only a meal,

If I thought

My heart was nothing.

If I thought

My heart was nothing

But a measure

Of my organs,

How they will

Weigh them,

Each one

Placed apart,

Like a butcher

Counts

His product,

Like a Doctor

Calculates time

By touch,

I'd render myself

Soulless,

Walk a field

Like a corpse

Wound up to move

A distance

I'd love no one.

But blood travels

The distance,

So that I could

Touch you,

Elevates my skin

So that your

Sleeping

Body

Dreams with mine,

Sends God

To my head,

Where we ponder

Our own existence,

Until I see

Another.

No, my heart is

Something, a whirlwind

Of ghosts, perhaps,

A tangling

Of galaxies,

A message to all,

But most of all,

My heart belongs

To you

BIOS

“Love” by Luis Alberto Urrea

“Extracto de esencia / Extraction of Essence” by Claudia D. Hernández

“Blessed” by Andrea Holm Hernández

“Thirty Six Valentines” by Joe Navarro

“Growing My Love” by Elena Díaz Bjorkquist

“Flower Sun” by Nancy Aide Gonzalez

“Violet Dreams / Sueños violetas” by José Hernández Díaz

“Love Prayer / Plegaria de amor” by Francisco x. Alarcón

“Love and the Fisherman of Patzcuaro” by Andrea Mauk

“If I Thought My Heart Was Nothing” by John Martinez

Claudia D. Hernández was born and raised in Guatemala. She writes, illustrates, and manually binds children’s books. Her photography, poetry, and short stories have been published in The Indigenous Sovereignty Issue of The Peak, Hinchas de Poesía, Poets Responding to SB1070, La Bloga’s on-line Floricanto, and in the first anthology of Poetica del Colectivo Verso Activo for Poesía Latinoamericana en Español. Claudia enjoys collaborating with José Hernández Díaz in the English/Spanish translation of their poetry.

Andrea Hernandez Holm is a poet in Tucson, Arizona. Her works have appeared in the anthologies Our Spirits, Our Realities and Wisdom of Our Mothers; as well as on La Bloga, in Blue Guitar Magazine, and in La Sagrada. Visit Andrea at www.andreahernandezholm.webs.com

Joe Navarro is a Literary Vato Loco, poet, creative writer, community activist, husband, father and grandfather who currently lives in Hollister, CA.

Elena Díaz Björkquist, a writer, historian, and artist from Tucson, writes about Morenci, Arizona where she was born. She is the author of two books, Suffer Smoke and Water from the Moon and is nearing completion of another collection of Morenci stories entitled Albóndiga Soup. Elena has been on the Arizona Humanities Council (AHC) Speakers Bureau for ten years performing as Teresa Urrea in a Chautauqua living history presentation, and doing presentations about Morenci, Arizona and also the 1880’s Schoolhouse in Tubac. AHC recently selected her to do a presentation on El Día de los Muertos.

Elena is co-editor of Sowing the Seeds, una cosecha de recuerdos, an anthology written by her writers group. The project was funded by AHC. She co-edited a new anthology entitled Our Spirit, Our Reality; our life experiences in stories and poems that was in November 2011.

A SIROW Scholar at the University of Arizona, Elena conducted an oral history project funded by AHC; “In the Shadow of the Smokestack.” A website she created contains the oral history interviews and photographs of Chicano elders living in Morenci during the Depression and World War II. Another project funded by AHC and the Stocker Foundation is “Tubac 1880’s Schoolhouse Living History Program.” Her website is www.elenadiazbjorkquist.net/.

Elena is one of the poet moderators for the Facebook page “Poets Responding to SB1070.
She recently received the 2012 Arizona Commission on the Arts Bill Desmond Writing Award for excelling nonfiction writing.

Nancy Aidé González is a Chicana poet, writer, and educator. She currently lives and works in Lodi, California. Nancy graduated from California State University, Sacramento with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature in May of 2000. She holds a Master’s degree in Education with an emphasis in School Administration from California State University, Stanislaus. She has contributed many poems to Poets Responding to SB 1070. Several of her poems have been published on La Bloga. Miss González is a participating member of Escritores del Nuevo Sol, a writing group which honors the literary traditions of the Chicano, Latino, Indigenous and Spanish-language peoples.
She teaches first-generation, Mexican –American migrant elementary students. She enjoys teaching her students and giving back to her community. Nancy Aidé González is involved in Chicano Organizing & Research in Education (C.O.R.E.) a non-partisan, research and advocacy organization that aims to improve the educational environment of all Chicano/Latino students. She has participated in several poetry events in Northern California including Facundo Cabral: A Día de los Muertos Poetry Event, Poesía Revuelta/ Mixed Poetry Series, Despierta Sacramuerto, Sexto Sol: The New Era, and Amor Panamericano Love Poetry.

José Hernández Díaz is a first-generation, Chicano poet with a BA in English Literature from UC Berkeley. José has been published in The Best American Nonrequired Reading Anthology 2011, La Gente Newsmagazine of UCLA, Bombay Gin Literary Journal, Contratiempo, Hinchas de Poesia, In Xochitl In Kuikatl Literary Journal, Indigenous Writers and Artists Collective, The Packinghouse Review, among others. José has had poetry readings at The Mission Cultural Center in San Francisco, at The Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA) in Long Beach, and at El Centro Cultural de Tijuana. José is currently fulfilling an internship with Floricanto Press as a Poetry Editor. In addition, he is an active moderator of the online group, ‘Poets Responding to SB1070,’ where he has contributed more than 30 of his own poems. José enjoys collaborating with Claudia D. Hernández in the English/Spanish translation of their poetry.

Francisco X. Alarcón, award winning Chicano poet and educator, is author of twelve volumes of poetry, including, From the Other Side of Night: Selected and New Poems (University of Arizona Press 2002), and Snake Poems: An Aztec Invocation (Chronicle Books 1992) His latest book is Ce•Uno•One: Poems for the New Sun (Swan Scythe Press 2010). His book of bilingual poetry for children, Animal Poems of the Iguazú (Children’s Book Press 2008), was selected as a Notable Book for a Global Society by the International Reading Association. His previous bilingual book titled Poems to Dream Together (Lee & Low Books 2005) was awarded the 2006 Jane Addams Honor Book Award. He has been a finalist nominated for Poet Laureate of California in two occasions. He teaches at the University of California, Davis.
Francisco recently participated in the First Children’s Poetry Festival in El Salvador (Nov. 8-10, 2010) and was able to visit Monseñor Oscar Arnulfo Romero’s tomb beneath the metropolitan cathedral of San Salvador. Monseñor Romero was killed saying mass in 1980 marking one of the most violent periods of the civil war in El Salvador.
He created a new Facebook page, POETS RESPONDING TO SB 1070 that is getting lots of poetry submissions and comments. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Poets-Responding-to-SB-1070/117494558268757?ref=ts

Andrea García Mauk grew up in Arizona, where both the immense beauty and harsh realities of living in the desert shaped her artistic soul. She currently calls Los Angeles home, but has also lived in Chicago, New York and Boston. She has worked in the music industry, and on various film and television productions. She writes short fiction,
poetry, original screenplays and adaptations, and is currently finishing two novels. Her writing and artwork has been published and viewed in a variety of places such as on The Late, Late Show with Tom Snyder; The Journal of School Psychologists and Victorian Homes Magazine. Both her poetry and artwork have won
awards. Several of her poems and a memoir are included in the 2011 anthology, Our Spirit, Our Reality. She is also a moderator of Diving Deeper, an online workshop for writers, and has written
online extensively about music, especially jazz, while working in the entertainment industry.

John Martinez studied Creative Writing at Fresno State University. He has published poetry in El Tecolote, Red Trapeze and the LA Weekly. He has performed (as a musician/political activist, poet) with Teatro De La Tierra, Los Perros Del Pueblo and TROKA, a Poetry Ensemble. He has also toured with several Cumbia bands throughout the Central Valley and Los Angeles and worked for the last 17 years as an Administrator for a Los Angeles Law Firm. He makeshome in Upland, California with his beautiful wife, Rosa America y Familia.

Spotlight on Richard Blanco

2012-02-13T00:01:00.005-07:00

Richard Blanco is the author of two previous poetry collections: Directions to The Beach of the Dead, winner of the PEN/Beyond Margins Award; and City of a Hundred Fires, winner of the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize. Exploring themes of Latino identity and place, his poems have appeared in Best American Poetry 2000 and Best American Prose Poems and have been featured on NPR. Blanco is a fellow of the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, recipient of two Florida Artist Fellowships, and has taught at Georgetown and American universities. Blanco is also a professional civil engineer.

Blanco’s newest book is the poetry collection, Looking for The Gulf Motel (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2012). Rigoberto González calls these poems “bittersweet songs that ache with the ‘sweet and slow honey of a bolero.’” Jim Elledge says: “Blanco is at the height of his creative prowess and one of the best of the best poets writing today.” “There is nothing here you will not remember,” offers Spencer Reece.

From the publisher: “Family continues to be a wellspring of inspiration and learning for Blanco. His third book of poetry, Looking for The Gulf Motel, is a genealogy of the heart, exploring how his family’s emotion legacy has shaped—and continues shaping—his perspectives. The collection is presented in three movements, each one chronicling his understanding of a particular facet of life from childhood into adulthood. As a child born into the milieu of his Cuban exiled familia, the first movement delves into early questions of cultural identity and their evolution into his unrelenting sense of displacement and quest for the elusive meaning of home. The second, begins with poems peering back into family again, examining the blurred lines of gender, the frailty of his father-son relationship, and the intersection of his cultural and sexual identities as a Cuban-American gay man living in rural Maine. In the last movement, poems focused on his mother’s life shaped by exile, his father’s death, and the passing of a generation of relatives, all provide lessons about his own impermanence in the world and the permanence of loss. Looking for The Gulf Motel is looking for the beauty of that which we cannot hold onto, be it country, family, or love.”

◙ I just wanted to say that I had a wonderful time reading from my novel, The Book of Want (University of Arizona Press), at the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center on Thursday. Many thanks to the CSRC and particularly to Lizette Guerra and Rebecca Epstein for all of their work to set up and promote the reading. It was also very special to have our son, Ben, in attendance…he is currently a junior at UCLA. Ben gave a lovely introduction which was quite moving. He also took a few pictures, one of which I post here. The CSRC is a wonderful resource that is there for you! Check out its website to see all that the CSRC has to offer.

Música tejana. Marianismo. Writing opps.

2012-02-11T01:19:00.000-07:00

Baila where you still can

Yesterday, Manuel Ramos's post ended with a small poster about the Denver Valentine's Day Dance at Rick's Tavern. Last year, Sec. of the Interior Ken Salazar and two-time Grammy award winner Ruben Ramos recognized Rick Garcia for his contribution to Tejano and New Mexico music. The inscription on the award reads: "in recognition of keeping Tejano and New Mexico music alive in Denver."

The Mambo Club, The Doghouse, The Keg are long gone from North Denver's nightlife, places where you could swing a samba or toss your chanclas about the dance floor to the beat of mexicano accordion music or unas rancheras, whether or not the place had a license for dancing. Those and other Chicano clubs were replaced by gentry joints filled with those who invest in neighborhood homes because of their charm, much of which comes from its being an ethnic neighborhood. The entrance of the gentry of course razes a community, whitewashing its unique identity. In the end, there's nowhere for us to go for a baile on a Friday or Saturday night.

If you're a Chicano or something similarly latino, you know what such places mean, how la música mexicana can carry your body and alma to another place--one where spirits soar and prides swell with self-awareness. It makes you "feel like a Mexican." Maybe it reminds you of your Tío Ramón who would let out with a grito of "ay-yay-yay" whenever the band played Puño de Tierra. Or maybe after you had enough cerveza in you, you found you could actually sway your hips almost as sensuously as your Tía Consuelo seemed to be able to do so supernaturally.

That was all a thousand years ago. Yes, there are new mexicano clubs opening across the country--thanks to the influx of gente fleeing the societal plagues of Mexico--but at least in Denver most of those are relegated to the outskirts of town, where housing for the lowest-paid classes is almost affordable.

Things may be different in San Anto or Albu or East Los. But like Rick Garcia's plaque states, his tavern (it's actually a little north of North Denver) is one of the last "keeping Tejano and New Mexico music alive in Denver." Who knows for how long.

So, whenever you're in the Denver area, if you're looking for a place where gritos can still be shouted as politically correct, a club where everybody else dances better than you--like they were raised on bottled cumbia--make sure to hit Rick's Tavern, before the gentry discover the area. And maybe we'll bump hips at the Valentine's baile.

The Valentine's dance: Sunday, Feb. 12, 6–10:00pm, 6762 Lowell Blvd. (north of North Denver)

About the band: "The Rick Garcia Band performs a signature blend of Tejano, New Mexico, country, rock and oldies music. Rick Garcia is considered one of the finest entertainers in the Denver area, due to his vocal ability and range, stage presence, and showmanship." For more info, including booking the band for your next pachanga or tamalada, go here.
_______________

Stories wanted and a book on marianismo

Courtesy of Marcela Landres, comes the following:  

Cosmo Latina Magazine
Cosmo Latina seeks: 1. Your wildest sex fantasies. Have you ever wanted to do something so bad it consumed you? And then actually made it happen?  Yes, you can be anonymous. 2. Sh*t my mami says. Remember all the funny, outrageous things your Mami has been saying to you all your life? Now's your  chance to get even. Share her worst quotes on everything from men to  fashion. This can also be anonymous. 3. Most awkward party fouls and hangover cures. What's the worst thing you've ever done at a Cinco de  Mayo bash? What weird Latin-American dishes do you swear cure your  hangover? Please submit all ideas to Editor-in-Chief Michelle Herrera Mulligan, mmulligan@hearst.com  

The Maria Paradox
Now an E-book  by Drs. Rosa Gil and Carmen Vazquez
The Maria Paradox is a unique self-help guide for Hispanic women and the men who love them. The  authors challenge the machismo-reinforcing idea of "marianismo," a centuries-old belief system that in effect tells Latinas: "Don't forget a  woman's subservient place; never put your own needs first; sex is for making babies." Filled with self-help exercises, this clearly written manual offers practical advice on how to build support networks, overcome passivity, forge career paths, change or get out of abusive relationships, and increase sexual fulfillment. Available for sale at all major online retailers.

Kweli seeks submissions
Deadline: April 1
Kweli, a literary journal by and for writers of color, pays the writers whose work it publishes. They seeks stories, essays, and poems inspired or informed by the following topics: Celebration of Mothers, Gay Pride, Travel/Global, Blue Collar/Labor. For more information, click here.  http://kwelijournal.org/

[excerpted from Latinidad® © 2003 by Marcela Landres]