Gratitude, Martín Espada and Acentos


1. Give what you want to receive. The flow of Abundance is already all around you. To step into this flow is easy. Give to someone else the very thing you would like to receive. And give it freely without expectations of receiving, as if you already had more than enough. If you want more kindness in your life, be kind to someone, if you want more happiness in your life, make someone else happy, if you want more money in your life, share a little of what you have. Give it away easily, like you already had all that you need and there is plenty more from where that came from. 


2. Trust and know. The next step is to trust and know you have just stepped into the flow of abundance and are now aligned with what you want. Know there is more than enough to go around. 
 


3. Take Action. Participation is an important part of Abundance. While you are knowing you are now aligned with the flow of the abundance you want, it is also important to participate and help make things happen. Follow your inner knowing and your intuition and do your part to help create the abundance you would like to have. Continue to participate until you are receiving what you want.
 


4. Be Grateful. Gratitude is a vital step in the flow of abundance. It is a powerful magnet which keeps us in the flow and aligned with receiving all the wonderful things we desire. Fill yourself with gratitude all the time, even about the small and seemingly simple things in your life. There is always something to be grateful about. When you notice a little of what you want flowing to you, take a moment and be grateful for what you have received, regardless of how big or small it may be. Be grateful and say thank you. 



5. Pass it on. When you receive a little abundance take a moment and pass some of it on and assist someone else in feeling a little more abundant. When you pass on some of what you receive, do it easily as if you already have more than you need, expecting nothing in return. When you pass it on in this way you are now starting the process all over again and have once again taken the first step to "give what you want to receive." In this way the flow of abundance continues and becomes more and more each time.

Martín Espada 

From Our Friends at Acentos:

Acentos Writers Workshop welcomes Martín Espada 

Eugenio María de Hostos Community College 

Friday, May 8th, 2009 at 7pm.

Acentos Writers Workshop welcomes Martín Espada to Eugenio María de Hostos Community College on Friday, May 8th, 2009 at 7pm sharp. FREE!

We are extremely excited to announce that Martín Espada will facilitate a workshop for Acentos. Called “the Latino poet of his generation” and “the Pablo Neruda of North American authors,” Martín Espada was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1957. He has published sixteen books in all as a poet, editor, essayist and translator, including two collections of poems last year: Crucifixion in the Plaza de Armas (Smokestack, 2008), released in England, and La Tumba de Buenaventura Roig (Terranova, 2008), a bilingual edition published in Puerto Rico.

The Republic of Poetry, a collection of poems published by Norton in 2006, received the Paterson Award for Sustained Literary Achievement and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Another collection, Imagine the Angels of Bread (Norton, 1996), won an American Book Award and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Other books of poetry include Alabanza: New and Selected Poems (Norton, 2003), A Mayan Astronomer in Hell’s Kitchen (Norton, 2000), City of Coughing and Dead Radiators (Norton, 1993), and Rebellion is the Circle of a Lover’s Hands (Curbstone, 1990). He has received numerous awards and fellowships, including the Robert Creeley Award, the Antonia Pantoja Award, the Charity Randall Citation, the Paterson Poetry Prize, the Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award, the National Hispanic Cultural Center Literary Award, the Premio Fronterizo, two NEA Fellowships, the PEN/Revson Fellowship and a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship.

His poems have appeared in the The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, Harper’s, The Nation and The Best American Poetry. He has also published a collection of essays, Zapata’s Disciple (South End, 1998); edited two anthologies, Poetry Like Bread: Poets of the Political Imagination from Curbstone Press (Curbstone, 1994) and El Coro: A Chorus of Latino and Latina Poetry (University of Massachusetts, 1997); and released an audiobook of poetry called Now the Dead will Dance the Mambo (Leapfrog, 2004). His work has been translated into ten languages. A former tenant lawyer, Espada is now a professor in the Department of English at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, where he teaches creative writing and the work of Pablo Neruda.

Espada will facilitate a 2 hour poetry workshop for free. Yes, I said free. We are welcoming the community at large. Yet, there will not be massive chaos. There will be a registration process. If you have not e-mailed Fish@louderarts.com to register, you will not be able to take the workshop. Notice, this workshop is on a Friday evening at 7pm. Bring your pens, bring your paper, bring your hearts. Palante papi, Siempre palante.

Eugenio María de Hostos Community College Savoy Building, 120 East 149th Street, corner of Walton Ave, Multipurpose Room, Second Floor New York 10451 • Phone 917-209-4211 7pm sharp! Directions to Hostos Community College

Hostos Community College is located at a safe and busy intersection just steps from the subway station and bus stop. By subway: take the 2,4,5 IRT trains to 149th Street (Eugenio María de Hostos Boulevard) and the Grand Concourse.By bus: take the Bx1 or cross-town Bx19 to 149th Street (Eugenio María de Hostos Boulevard) and the Grand Concourse. By car:From Manhattan, take the FDR Drive north to the Willis Avenue Bridge to the Major Deegan Expressway (87N). Proceed north to Exit 3. Take the right fork in the exit ramp to the Grand Concourse and proceed north to East 149th Street (Eugenio María de Hostos Boulevard) From Queens, take the Triborough Bridge to the Major Deegan Expressway. Continue north to Exit 3. Take the right fork in the exit ramp to the Grand Concourse and proceed north to East 149th Street (Eugenio María de Hostos Boulevard).From Westchester, take the Major Deegan Expressway south (87S) to Exit 3.

Turn left at the light. Turn left again at Grand Concourse and proceed north to East 149th Street (Eugenio María de Hostos Boulevard) .From New Jersey, take the George Washington Bridge to the Major Deegan Expressway south to Exit 3. Turn left at the light. Turn left again at Grand Concourse and proceed north to East 149th Street (Eugenio María de Hostos Boulevard)


Fish Vargas 917-209-4211

Lisa Alvarado

Dia de los niños-Dia de los libros

Dia de los niños- Dia de los libros/ Children's Day- Book day is tomorrow April 3o. Visit your local library and find out about their celebrations for Dia. While you are there, check out books and read them with your children. Have a wonderful reading!

April 30 is Children’s Book Day
at Inglewood Public Library

Children’s Book Day, or Día de los Niños, Día de los Libros, will be celebrated with special programs at the Main Library on Thursday, April 30 in Inglewood. Children’s book authors Amada Irma Pérez and René Colato Laínez will present at this event which will also include crafts, refreshments, raffles, and book prizes.

Día de los Niños, Día de los Libros / Children’s Book Day is known throughout the country as a celebration of children and families. With its origins in the first World Conference for the Well-Being of Children held in Geneva, Switzerland in 1925, Día de los Niños, Día de los Libros / Children’s Book Day is celebrated throughout the world. Mexico has a tradition of celebrating Día on April 30; in many cities of the United States, it is celebrated on a day during the month of April.

This year’s program features children’s book authors Amada Irma Pérez and René Colato Laínez. Amada Irma Pérez is an award-winning author and speaker, and a leading advocate of programs that encourage multicultural understanding. Her books My Very Own Room/ Mi propio cuartito; My Diary from Here to There/ Mi diario de aquí hasta allá; and Nana’s Big Surprise/ Nana, ¡Qué Sorpresa! are critically acclaimed and have been honored by several major Latino awards in children’s literature, including the American Library Association’s Pura Belpré Award, the Tómas Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award, and the América’s Award. Born in Mexicali, Mexico, and raised mostly in California, Amada Irma finds joy in sharing her books with readers of all ages during her visits to schools, libraries and conferences across the country.

Known by his students as “the teacher full of stories,” René Colato Laínez is the Salvadorean author of several bilingual picture books including I am René, the Boy/ Soy René, el niño (Piñata Books); Waiting for Papá/ Esperando a papá (Piñata Books), and Playing Lotería/ El juego de la lotería (Luna Rising). He is the recipient of the Latino Book Award’s Best Bilingual Children’s Book and the New Mexico Book Award for Best Children’s Book.

He writes for the Spanish-language magazine Revista Iguana and is a weekly children’s literature columnist for LA BLOGA (labloga.blogspot.com). René is a bilingual elementary teacher at Fernangeles Elementary School in Los Angeles. For additional information on the authors, please see www.renecolatolainez.com and www.amadairmaperez.com.

Inglewood Public Library’s events will take place on Thursday, April 30, 5:30 to 7:30 pm at the Gladys Waddingham Lecture Hall, Inglewood Public Library, 101 W. Manchester Blvd. Inglewood, CA 90301. For more information contact Tatiana de la Tierra (310) 412-8734 or email tierra@cityofinglewood.org

Frisco Noir 2 / Inauguration of UCR's Tomás Rivera Archives

Review: San Francisco Noir 2: The Classics. Edited by Peter Maravelis. NY: Akashic Books, 2009.
ISBN-13: 978-1-933354-65-1

Michael Sedano

The City, as its devotees object, should never be called ‘Frisco. The term offends the sensibility of loyal San Franciscans, or something classic Chronicle columnist Ralph J. Gleason must have written long ago. Similarly, stuff that isn’t classic shouldn’t be called “classic,” as does the subtitle of Akashic’s San Francisco Noir 2, The Classics.

To me, “classic” suggest a pair of standards. First, age. Second unusually distinctive quality. It’s not enough that a piece have age, nor even mere quality. Memorability, distinctiveness, adaptation to a particular readership, any combination marks the boundary between merely good old stuff and something Classic with a capital “C”.

These values might not be readily apparent, as in Mark Twain’s “The Black Hole of San Francisco,” from 1865. It’s an uninteresting satire of a courthouse so devoid of justice it emits horrible smells. Editor Peter Maravelis wisely hides this third, following two other old pieces, Ambrose Bierce’s “A Watcher by the Dead,” from 1889’s North Beach, and Frank Norris’ “The Third Circle,” set in 1897 Chinatown. They are entertaining work, not necessarily each writer’s most notable, and charitably allowing a huge stretch to comprehend including the Twain piece at all.

These are, however, old. Hence, the oxymorons “unappreciated classic” or “classic-in-waiting” come readily to mind to account for such editorial decisions as skipping ahead from Dashiell Hammett’s 1925, “The Scorched Face” to 1953’s “The Collector Comes After Payday,” by Fletcher Flora.

Two thirds of the collection comes from a roster of noted late 20^th century writers. After the mid-century stop, Maravelis skips ahead 11 years to 1966’ “The Second Coming” from Joe Gores, then to Marcia Muller’s 1987 “Deceptions.”

Akashic and Maravelis have put together a worthwhile anthology, despite the less than felicitous subtitle. Two stories frame the quality well.

In his ’53 piece, Fletcher Flora reflects the machismo and incipient violence of his era. The male criminal enjoys slapping around his trophy wife. Frankie lives the 1950’s fantasy life. A 120-pound weakling and born loser, Frankie’s luck turns around completely. He gets rich, gets the girl, enjoys wealth on the seamy side until he falls for a younger woman. Frankie’s last gasp exits a .38 hole in his chest, his irony the abused wife finally finding her backbone.

By 1987, Marcia Muller has a woman investigator tracking down a missing woman, a possible suicide. But it appears a plan by a clever woman looking to continue her life someplace else. A park ranger is the victim, lured and abandoned by the missing woman. Her irony is being found hacked to pieces in an old cistern, the betrayed paramour’s revenge. The murderer himself plunges to his last gasp after pursuing the female dick to a dead end, where her lucky desperation produces the killer’s fatal stumble.

One story merits special notice, Janet Dawson’s 1998 story of children in peril, “Invisible Time.” A tense nightmare of two homeless children surviving on the streets around Union Square. Greta, a ten-year old girl takes care of her 5-year old brother Hank. Homeless after their alcoholic mother abandons them after one hard knock after another, the children steal or eat leftovers from lunchtime trash barrels. It’s a no happy endings story, truly frightening. Dawson has one of the best lines in the book, when, after expressing Greta’s growing desperation, “She was doing the best she could, but she didn’t know how long she could keep it up.” Avoiding the skid row of the Tenderloin and South of Market region, remaining in Union Square, the nicer area north of Market. Then comes a gem of pure beauty:

"Greta couldn’t remember when Mom left. A few weeks, a month, two months, it didn’t matter. After a few days, the hours all ran together, like a stream of dirty water chasing debris down the sewer grate. She only remembered that it didn’t used to be like this.”

A classic metaphor line like that more than enough compels reading more Dawson. And  piques interest in revisiting the other writers, too. The familiar ones. For instance, the Hammett. Although not noir per se, I would like more readers to laugh at Hammett’s hilarious bronco buster short story from The Continental Op II.

There is one jarring note that still bugs me. There’s a story with a Chicano character, John Shirley’s 1991 “Ash.” But the Chicano’s weird. Not just a street weird-o, a Santero, or a Santeria apparition of some strange sort.  I’ll be embarrassed to learn Shirley’s a nom de plume of a Mexicano a todo dar, but from the looks of this character, either I haven’t been to Frisco for too long, or Shirley needs to learn more about Chicanos before dropping one into the middle a story. Ash, a middle-class guy has been laid off due to the current recession. He meticulously plans to stick up an armored car. When the heist goes south, the Chicano appears, the crook gets tangled up with the street person, the crook plugs the guard. The murder sends the robber into a psychedelic episode that ends only when Ash, the character, ends, at the bottom of an elevator shaft. Strange ending to an odd story and a fitting final page in an excellent collection.

If only they hadn’t stretched matters and called it “Classic.”

Foto Platica at UCR – Inauguration of UCR’s Tomás Rivera Flor Y Canto Archives.

The elevator ride to Special Collections leads to Tomás Rivera Library’s top floor, but opens onto an anonymous dark hallway. A few turns and I’m at the twin glass doors. The entry corridor is lined on both sides with matted photographs mounted on the wall. (Click images to enlarge.)

The dramatic Oscar Acosta images greet me on my left. The shot of Tomás Rivera with Ybarra-Frausto and Hinojosa-Smith holds the initial space of the right wall. The photos are hung with ample wall space between them so each can hold its own focus of attention. At 19” by 13”,  viewers can stand back and take in the full frame with easy comfort. Research Librarian Gwido Zlatkes has labeled each image. He smiles pointing to the photo of rrsalinas. Gwido, a research librarian to the bone, wanted to know more about these Chicana and Chicano writers. Somehow, the ex-Tecato poet has joined the family of a recent Mexican president, Salinas-Gortari. Gwido makes a quick trip to the word processor and in a moment rr rejoins his own clan.

Dr. Melissa Conway, Head of Special Collections & Archives does the introduction. I’m preceded to the lectern by Elihud Martinez, a wonderfully informative talk on Miguel Leon-Portillo’s work in Nahuatl philosophy, the term, “flor y canto” and its place in understanding chicano literature and the brief moment of the floricanto movimiento that began with the 1973 USC gathering.

After my time on the platform—the performance was videotaped—the audience adjourned to a side room for chocolate, café, pan and conversation. Doña Rivera was elegantly charming. Meeting her today, after photographing her late husband in a candid moment thirty-five years ago brought me an unexpected sense of completion.

Dr. Melissa Conway’s staff and the efforts of Professor Juan Felipe Herrera, putting on the entire conference, made the afternoon a rewarding experience for me. Sitting in on a few moments of the screenwriting workshop brought home the value of this 22d Annual Tomás Rivera Conference to the community. Ligiah Villalobos, as successful a Hollywood screenwriter as you’ll find among la Chicanada, bringing her time and knowledge to all who chose to attend, at no charge. 

There's the ultimate Tuesday of April 2009, a Tuesday like any other Tuesday, except you are here. Thanks for visiting La Bloga. 

mvs

La Bloga welcomes your comments. Simply click the Comments counter below to share your thoughts. La Bloga welcomes guest columnists. To be our guest, click here and describe your column.

Arroyo Literary Review

Despite the crashing economy, people who love and appreciate literature continue to bring fiction, poetry, essays and interviews to hungry readers. What’s my evidence? Just open any issue of Poets & Writers and turn to its classifieds. There you’ll find the many calls for submissions from print and online literary journals, all wanting your best work. Well, our reading life is a little brighter with the introduction of a handsome new publication, the Arroyo Literary Review.

Arroyo is a print-based publication produced annually by the Department of English at California State University, East Bay. The editorial staff of Arroyo is dedicated to showcasing both new and established writers from the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. In addition to quality contemporary fiction and poetry, each issue of Arroyo features an interview with a distinguished writer.

The premier issue, which just hit the shelves, includes an interview with novelist and critic Eric Miles Williamson, author of East Bay Grease, Two-Up, and Oakland, Jack London, and Me. The issue also includes the work of Marvin Bell, Dan Bellm, Lucille Lang Day, Stephen D. Gutierrez, Jeremy Halinen, Trebor Healey, Nellie Hill, Ilyse Kusnetz, Jan Heller Levi, Sara McAulay, Richard Peabody, Patrick Ryan, Patty Seyburn, Lisa Solomon and Mark Svenvold. The cover art is by James Jean.

Arroyo Literary Review is funded through the university and the generous contributions of individual donors. It is edited, designed, and managed by students in the English program, and advised by faculty members.

For more information, or to purchase a sample copy of Arroyo, contact the Editors by e-mailing them. You may also visit Arroyo’s website.

Submissions, read until May 31, 2009, should be mailed to:

Arroyo Literary Review
Department of English - MB 2579
California State University, East Bay
25800 Carlos Bee Blvd.
Hayward, CA 94542

◙ Well, Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery (Arte Público Press), edited by Sarah Cortez and Liz Martinez, continues to receive rave notices. This time, Lydia Gil writing for the Latin American Herald Tribune, opines that Hit List, “a collection that is ideal for reading on the metro or at the beach or cafe, delivers some of the best stories in that genre to have been published in English in recent years.” Read the entire review here.

◙ And now a message from Abelardo de la Peña, Jr., editor of LatinoLA:

I serve as acting director of the Mexican Cultural Institute at El Pueblo AKA Olvera Street. Just a few hours a week, thanks to the active work of other board members who are also volunteering their time and energy. Yesterday, I presented our annual report for 2008 to the El Pueblo commissioners. A simple power point presentation detailed the diverse programming of the Institute -- art shows, movie screenings, book reading, and more -- to an attentive audience. I wore a jacket, which must have been impressive, because they applauded at the end. I'm glad they appreciate the value of our mission, which we undertake under the various challenges that come with being a non-profit in these times.

We're working at making 2009 even better. Check out our MySpace page (needs updating ... sorry!).

If you have a few hours to give, think about getting involved with organizations / agencies / schools/etc. that meet your personal mission. You'll be applauded, too.

Later,

Abelardo
abelardo@latinola.com

◙ Speaking of LatinoLA, here are a few links to recent posts you might enjoy:

Situational Awareness by Al Carlos Hernandez, Contributing Editor

When the Diaper Hits the Fan... by Susie Albin-Najera

I Thought You Were My Penguin by mia soto

TOP Ten Ways Prominent Latinos Celebrate Earth Day by Al Carlos Hernandez, Contributing Editor

A Perfect LatinoLA Play: $20 Special! by Abelardo de la Peña Jr.

Review: Flamenco at the Gypsy Den in Santa Ana by O. Ian Ávalos

News from the Brown Side of Town, April 21 by Frankie Firme ~ Contributing Editor

A Little Pampering by Lisa Zion, Contributing Editor

◙ Award-winning author and man-of-a-big-corazón, Luis Alberto Urrea, has a new poem up on his website. Powerful, thought-provoking, something you should read. It's called, "Valley of the Palms" and is dated April 20. While you're there, note that Urrea also has a piece on "This I Believe." Check it all out. And don't forget that his new novel, Into the Beautiful North, comes out next month. I've read it...I loved it. So will you. More on this book soon.

◙ Chon Noriega, director of the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center, will be on Turner Classic Movies (TCM) next month.

Professor Noriega and Robert Osborne will co-host a series of 40 films demonstrating the progression of how Latino characters and culture are depicted in cinema. “Race And Hollywood: Latino Images in Film,” airing on Turner Classic Movies television on Tuesdays and Thursdays, May 5-28, is the fourth in a series of film festivals exploring Hollywood's portrayal of racial groups. TCM has a site up dedicated to the month-long event. For more information, click here. It looks like a really interesting slate of films as well as some old favorites.

◙ That’s all for now. So, in the meantime, enjoy the intervening posts from mis compadres y comadres here on La Bloga. And remember: ¡Lea un libro!

Been thrown outa better bars

I've got a soft spot in my heart for the Irish, not only for what they suffered under the English, but more, for the camaraderie they shared with mexicanos during the 1840s war against the U.S. That culminated in U.S. troops illegally hanging Mexican citizens of Irish descent, a chapter of American history that seems intentionally buried, so that few Irish Americans are familiar with the legacy. The historical moment was (almost accurately) depicted in the 1999 Tom Berenger movie One Man's Hero.

Each St. Patrick's Day I ask Anglo/Irish celebrants what they know about the San Patricio Brigade and am met with the kind of silence one gets from asking the best way to pit-roast a goat. Despite ignorance about their heritage, my soft spot normally remains intact.

However, on a recent trek to the Irish Rover pub in Denver with a group of fellow teachers--mostly Anglos--I found that soft spot threatened. What started out as the weekly FAC to blunt the edge of a torturous week of the standardized testing of children, threatened to end like a scene in an old Bruce Willis movie.

Now that I'm rapidly slipping down the over-60 hill, I've lost my youthful tendency to act in any way that might get me thrown out of bars. Once upon a time I might have shattered a mirror in what passes for a Mafioso bar in Denver, although I tossed down enough cash as I left to insure I didn't get leveled like the old ice cream shop across the street that became their unwilling parking lot.

There were other bars, here and elsewhere, that I've been asked not to return to, but I usually knew when it was my fault or the fault of too much alcohol in the bloodstream. This time was different.

As the FAC drew to a close, purely by accident our Anglo friends left, and only a South American teacher and I stayed to finish our last drink. She was hungry and wanted something to eat. When the waiter who'd just started his shift came by, she told him she wanted to order some "crap." He said they didn't serve any "crap", and in less than a minute the situation promised to escalate into a different kind of afternoon.

In her defense, the Latina is still learning how and when to use minor profanity. For a foreigner, it's not easy getting accustomed to how loose Americans are with foul language. Forget about rap or hip-hop or the cinema; network television would have you believe the useage of lots of bad words is the way we communicate. She's just been trying to fit in and was showing off her acquired English proficiency.

In the waiter's defense, the Latina is quite well-off and accustomed to being waited on by the staff of pricey restaurants I can't even afford to enter. The fact that she's not very underweight may also have contributed to her demeanor coming across as less than uncondescending.

Growing up in the Southwest, like some Chicanos I'm hypersensitive to racist displays, but in this instance I couldn't detect any obvious signs behind why the waiter went from intimidating to outright physically blocking most of my view with his over-six-foot frame. He loomed, he threatened, as I tried to catch the eye of the bartenders who'd courteously waited on us the previous hour or so. I thought they might yet call him off of us, at least so we could finish our drink. To no avail.

In a matter of seconds my colleague and I were pelted with a firm "Get out!", a firmer "Now!" and the appearance of another male employee, who I assume showed up in case his burly, muscular colleague couldn't handle an out-of-shape, 5'7, 2nd-grade teacher. Or maybe he was there to help lift the Latina if she'd had to been decked.

What I do understand were the sensations passing through me in the time it took to get from the table to the door. My imagination left no doubt I might be only inches or seconds away from a hand to my face or onto my body. I could have survived the first, but wouldn't have made it past the second. A macho, even an aging one, has his limits, which stupidly include not allowing a male's hand on the body. Luckily, the moment passed with at least no physical harm, or this post would have been created over the sheets of a hospital bed.

I don't know if the waiter's subprime had just kicked into some obscene interest rate or if he didn't relish serving the combination of an uncorpulent Latina and not-so-well-dressed senior Chicano or if he'd just been listening to too many Rush Limbaugh episodes and assumed we were the undocumented thieves of good-paying American jobs. (He wouldn't have known how little Denver teachers get paid.) I have no idea.

But it did turn out that the waiter was quite deft at using bulk and voice to herd us out the door and onto the street, figuratively. The Latina and I hadn't gotten over our shock when we parted ways, never to come to agreement as to what had transpired.

In the pub's defense, perhaps something in my behavior warranted being thrown out of their establishment. That's not impossible. Perhaps a customer whose reputation there still allows their entry can uncover that.

I'm tempted to dispute the last credit card charge for the drinks we never got to finish; the hassle might not be worth the cost of a Crown Rocks and a Patron. But maybe I can itemize it next year as research for a comedic screenplay about a male-female Laurel and Hardy take-off in modern-day Denver. Of course, I'd have to inject much humor, since the reality contained little of that.

This post may seem irrelevant to La Bloga's mission nor be comparable to my fellow contributors' quality articles that readers normally expect here. In that respect, I beg forgiveness for resorting to blogging in its lowest forms and promise not to frequent such practice.

And to fellow teachers who sometimes FAC on South Broadway, I won't suggest you boycott the pub. There's not definite evidence warranting such. However, you might consider not leaving the non-Anglos to fend for themselves. Especially if they act, look, or sound much like the characters described herein.

Lastly, don't take your next FAC for granted, and ¡que viva la Brigada de San Patricio!

RudyG

Bits and Pieces

NEW BOOKS

Books on the way, each potentially a great read.

Dance With Snakes
Horacio Castellanos Moya, first English translation by Lee Paula Springer
Biblioasis, September, 2009

As El Salvador returns to peace after more than a decade of civil war, Eduardo Sosa, an unemployed sociologist, becomes fascinated by a homeless man who lives in a beat-up yellow Chevrolet parked across the street from his sister's apartment. An unexpected turn of events causes Sosa to assume the other man's identity. When he becomes the driver of the mysterious yellow Chevrolet, Sosa discovers that it is home to four poisonous snakes. With the snakes as accomplices, Sosa unleashes a reign of terror on the city of San Salvador. Dance With Snakes is a macabre high-speed romp in which violence and comedy become almost indistinguishable. The non-stop action raises provocative questions about social exclusion and the role of the media, but this novel by the author of the acclaimed Senselessness also evokes the tenderness of relations among those on society's margins.

Horacio Castellanos Moya has published eight novels and is now living in exile as part of the City of Asylum project in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Honor Comes Hard: Writings From California Prison System's Honor Yard
Edited by Lucinda Thomas and Luis J. Rodriguez
Tia Chucha Press, October, 2009

Prison writing has a long and illustrious history in the United States -- home of the modern correctional system. In the first decade of the 21st century, this country also garnered the distinction of having more prisoners per capita than any other nation in the world. From poems, to stories, to novel excerpts, to reportage, to personal essays -- and a few drawings -- Honor Comes Hard depicts what can happen to people who are given, as Clarence Darrow expressed many years ago, "a chance to live." The work is drawn from writing classes that Lucinda Thomas helped organize in the Honor Yard of the California State Prison over several years, and from workshops conducted by Luis J. Rodriguez on most Sundays, for eight hours a day, through eight months in 2007 - 2008.

Lucinda Thomas is the Arts Education Director at the California State Prison, Los Angeles County.

Luis J. Rodriguez is a acclaimed essayist, poet, memoirist, children's book writer, novelist, and short story writer. He's founder/editor of Tia Chucha Press.



Andean Express
Juan de Recacoechea, translated by Adrian Althoff
Akashic, April, 2009

Set in 1952, this is the story of a tragic overnight train journey that unfolds in an environment at once carnivalesque and sinister. Beginning near La Paz, Bolivia, the austere Andean plateau serves as a surreal backdrop for most of the trip before giving way to a winding descent to the Chilean coast. Ricardo Beintigoitia, a recent high school graduate from a prosperous La Paz family, unwittingly becomes ensnared in the personal drama of one of his peers, a captivating girl named Gulietta Carletti who has been forced into an arranged marriage with a man she despises.

On the Andean Express, everybody wants something and no one is exactly who he seems. Recacoechea's lean, elegant prose crackles with sharp dialogue and entertaining exchanges among a disparate cast of characters, each with his own ax to grind. The train is a microcosm of Bolivia itself, with people from all walks of life, from peasants to politicians, forming a circus of personalities and intrigue in which tragedy seems inevitable, and improbable liaisons become reality.

Juan de Recacoechea was born in La Paz, Bolivia, and worked as a journalist in Europe for almost twenty years. After returning to his native country, he helped found Bolivia's first state-run television network and dedicated himself to fiction writing. His novel American Visa won Bolivia's National Book Prize, was adapted into an award-winning film, and was translated into English and published by Akashic Books to great critical acclaim.

WHEN NATURE CALLS
written by Josefina López

Explore the connection and the responsibility of women to nature and the potential change they can create in a volatile world.

Directed by Elsa Martinez Phillips
Assistant Directed by Diana Alvarez
Produced by Sara Guerrero, Elsa Martinez Phillips, and Diana Alvarez
Artwork by Josefina López

Cast Includes:
Amy Shu, Angela Imperial, Diana Alvarez, Melita Sagar, Brenda Banda, Analy Garcia, Melita Sagar, and Dominique DeAlba Caporrimo

Friday, April 17 thru Saturday May 2
Friday and Saturday @ 8 PM
(April 17, 18, 24, 25, May 1 & 2)
Sunday @ 3pm (April 26 only)
General Admission: $15
Seniors / Students (w/ valid ID): $10 Group Rates Available

Breath of Fire Theater
310 W 5th Street (2nd Floor)
Santa Ana, Ca 92701
Near the corner of 5th & Broadway.

For directions: http://www.breathoffire.org/directions.htm

For reservations click:
www.breathoffire.org/reservations.htm
Or Email:
boftc.reservations@breathoffire.org
Or Call:
(714) 600-0129


HOMEBOY INDUSTRIES FUND RAISER
Homeboy Industries traces its roots to Jobs For A Future (JFF), a program created in 1988 by Father Gregory Boyle while he was serving as pastor of Dolores Mission parish in Boyle Heights. Begun as a jobs program in 1988, offering alternatives to gang violence in one of the toughest neighborhoods in the city, the program soon grew beyond the parish. Homeboy became an independent nonprofit in August of 2001, and has since grown into a national model. This year, we will celebrate our 20th anniversary as an organization in our new headquarters located in downtown Los Angeles, just two blocks from Union Station.

The Homeboy fundraiser is called Lo Maximo 2009 and will be held on Saturday, April 25, beginning with a Mass at 5:30 p.m., cocktail reception at 6:30 p.m.; dinner at 7:30 p.m. at beautiful Union Station, Los Angeles. For reservations and ticket information, call Homeboy at 323-526-1254 ext. 312 or 313.

For more information, go to http://www.homeboy-industries.org

DÍA DEL NIÑO/DAY OF THE CHILD
Sunday, April 26, 12:00 pm

From noon to 4 pm, enjoy free admission and family-friendly programming that celebrates children from around the world. At the Denver Art Museum, the Denver Public Library, the Colorado History Museum, and the Byers-Evans House Museum.

International dance and music performances
Art activities, storytelling, costumes, tours
Bilingual volunteers at all four locations

Free. For more information, call 720-913-0169 or e-mail cricciardi@denverartmuseum.org.

Martín Espada, A Writer's Life

Martín Espada

Dear Readers:

I was teaching an Intro to Lit class the other day and afterward one of my students approached me, wanting some one-to-one discussion time. This particular student is 6'4", about 225 lbs -- a working class guy who'd had a variety of jobs before ending up in my class. With some digging in of his heels, he'd grudgingly begun reading the assigned work for the poetry section of the class.

With a laser beam smile, he told me that reading Federico's Ghost altered his whole view of poetry. He said he previously thought it was irrelevant to everyday people, hard-to-understand, fussy and precious. (Which frankly, I told him, was a fairly accurate assessment of a good deal of it.)

However, Martín Espada changed what he thought and what he was going to read in the future. He went on and on about the use of images that got under his skin, images that made the labor and the suffering a visceral, unforgettable experience.

(Ah, we poets, we teachers, live for that!)

Please take a look at that life-changing work and a repeat look at my review of his Pulitzer Prize nominated book, The Republic of Poetry.

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Federico's Ghost

The story is
that whole families of fruitpickers
still crept between the furrows
of the field at dusk,
when for reasons of whiskey or whatever
the cropduster plane sprayed anyway,
floating a pesticide drizzle
over the pickers
who thrashed like dark birds
in a glistening white net,
except for Federico,
a skinny boy who stood apart
in his own green row,
and, knowing the pilot
would not understand in Spanish
that he was the son of a whore,
instead jerked his arm
and thrust an obscene finger.

The pilot understood.
He circled the plane and sprayed again,
watching a fine gauze of poison
drift over the brown bodies
that cowered and scurried on the ground,
and aiming for Federico,
leaving the skin beneath his shirt
wet and blistered,
but still pumping his finger at the sky.

After Federico died,
rumors at the labor camp
told of tomatoes picked and smashed at night,
growers muttering of vandal children
or communists in camp,
first threatening to call Immigration,
then promising every Sunday off
if only the smashing of tomatoes would stop.

Still tomatoes were picked and squashed
in the dark,
and the old women in camp
said it was Federico,
laboring after sundown
to cool the burns on his arms,
flinging tomatoes
at the cropduster
that hummed like a mosquito
lost in his ear,
and kept his soul awake.

from Rebellion is the Circle of a Lover's Hands

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¡Viva la República!

Martín Espada's The Republic of Poetry reminds me of Oscar de la Hoya's boxing. Beautiful to behold, it's unerring in its aim. Pared down to the essential--it's body blows to the chest, to the gut, head blows that annihilate the opponent and leave the viewer stunned, reeling, gasping for air. Democracy subverted in Chile and by implication, everywhere, reverberates on every page.

The Republic of Poetry is not an elegy, it's an upper cut to complacency, a left hook to amnesia. Wake up, remember what was, see what's happening right in front of you. The comparison of Espada to Neruda, to Whitman are many, but to me, what comes to mind is poet warrior, able to fight and raise an army with the power of his words.

But in case you're not convinced, here is some additional praise for this remarkable book.

“What a tender, marvelous collection. First, that broken, glorious journey into the redemptive heart of my Chile, and then, as if that had not been enough, the many gates of epiphanies and sorrows being opened again and again, over and over.” —Ariel Dorfman

“Martín Espada is a poet of annunciation and denunciation, a bridge between Whitman and Neruda, a conscientious objector in the war of silence.” —Ilan Stavans

“Martín Espada’s big-hearted poems reconfirm ‘The Republic of Poetry’ that (dares) to insist upon its dreams of justice and mercy even during the age of perpetual war.” —Sam Hamill

“Martín Espada is indeed a worthy prophet for a better world.” —Rigoberto González

This is tight, muscular writing. Espada make his point with an economy of language, concealing a dense terrain of imagery and meaning. In this universe, the dead are not ghosts, but fully fleshed--staving off the soldiers, marching in the battlefield, struggling in the streets, and inspiring new generations. Read these and you'll see what I mean.

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The Soldiers in the Garden

Isla Negra, Chile, September 1973

After the coup,
the soldiers appeared
in Neruda’s garden one night,
raising lanterns to interrogate the trees,
cursing at the rocks that tripped them.
From the bedroom window
they could have been
the conquistadores of drowned galleons,
back from the sea to finish
plundering the coast.

The poet was dying:
cancer flashed through his body
and left him rolling in the bed to kill the flames.
Still, when the lieutenant stormed upstairs,
Neruda faced him and said:
There is only one danger for you here: poetry.
The lieutenant brought his helmet to his chest,
apologized to señor Neruda
and squeezed himself back down the stairs.
The lanterns dissolved one by one from the trees.

For thirty years
we have been searching
for another incantation
to make the soldiers
vanish from the garden.

The soldier leaves, not because the poet is super human, but because he's supremely human. Poetry taps into a power that no bullet can halt nor cancer eat away. Armies of everyday people have been set loose with words like Neruda's. Then and now, the men in power with bloody hands know it's dangerous, know it's subversive. But in the end, it remains unstoppable.

Black Islands
for Darío

At Isla Negra,
between Neruda’s tomb
and the anchor in the garden,
a man with stonecutter’s hands
lifted up his boy of five
so the boy’s eyes could search mine.
The boy’s eyes were black olives.
Son, the father said, this is a poet,
like Pablo Neruda.
The boy’s eyes were black glass.
My son is called Darío,
for the poet of Nicaragua,
the father said.
The boy’s eyes were black stones.
The boy said nothing,
searching my face for poetry,
searching my eyes for his own eyes.
The boy’s eyes were black islands.

What possibility dwells in those black eyes? What page of history will be written for him to read, and what page will he write himself? Knowing that Espada is a father, I can only imagine how many times he's asked himself those questions in the still hours of the night, watching his own child sleep. Toward the end of The Republic of Poetry, Espada meditates on the "smaller" world of family and relationships, personal joy and private grief. Every fighter has his scars, and every poet, his pleasures.

Now, stop reading this, it won't get the job done. Go. Get the book. Read that instead.
It's time to wake up.

The Republic of Poetry W. W. Norton

• ISBN-10: 0393062562
• ISBN-13: 978-0393062564

Lisa Alvarado

P is for Piñata

By Tony Johnston
Illustrated by John Parra

*Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
* ISBN 13: 9781585361441
* ISBN 10: 1585361445

From the publisher:


The country of Mexico has long been a popular travel destination. But there's much more to enjoy and appreciate than just sunshine and warm temperatures when exploring this region with its ancient history and proud traditions. Enjoy an A-Z tour of our neighbor to the south in P is for Piñata: A Mexico Alphabet.

Young readers can visit the tomb of a Mayan king, experience the life of the vaquero (Mexican cowboy), attend the world-famous Ballet Folklórico de Mèxico, and sample the everyday treat that was once known as the "food of the gods."

From folk art to famous people to the original "hot dog," the treasures of Mexico are revealed in P is for Piñata. Vibrant artwork perfectly captures the flavor, texture, and spirit of its landscape and culture.

Tony Johnston's love for Mexico started when her husband's job took them to Mexico City; they then lived there for fifteen years. While in Mexico, Tony wrote in Spanish and had several stories commissioned by the Mexican government. She has published more than 70 books for children and lives in San Marino, California.

Award-winning illustrator and designer John (Juanito) Parra studied at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. His clients include United Airlines, Macmillan/McGraw-Hill, PBS, and the L.A. Weekly. John's first children's book was My Name is Gabriela, about the life of the Nobel Prize-winning poet Gabriela Mistral. He lives in New York City.


For a complete teacher's guide visit gale.cengage.com/pdf/TeachersGuides/MexicoAlphabetGuide.pdf

***

Trinidad Sanchez Jr. Poetry Fiesta
Northwest Vista College, San Antonio, Texas

College Campus Center Building Room 122

Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at 11 a.m. and 12:30

Featuring:

Terry Ibañez, Levi Romero, Norma Cantu, Regina Sanchez y Chavez

***
Golondrina, why did you leave me?
Book Tour

Sunday, May 3rd, Bookwoman Bookstore, Austin, Texas, 3pm

Friday, May 15th, Salute! Bar (warm-up for Esteban Jordan) 9:00 pm
$10.00 admission -- includes Esteban Jordan, Joan Frederick's twenty-years of photographs of the venerable Salute! Bar, comida, and dancing while I read and of course, when Esteban plays

Sunday, May 31st, Retro-Mex Vintage on Hildebrand, 4pm
Pilar is hosting - she's la reina of Mexican vintage
Art Exhibit by Terry Ybanez

Review: Lydia on the Mark Taper Forum Main Stage

Written by Octavio Solis. Directed by Juliette Carillo.
Mark Taper Forum, April 2 - May 17, 2009.

Michael Sedano

Octavio Solis' Lydia, directed by Juliette Carillo, joins a club so exclusive I count the inspirations on one hand: Zoot Suit, although a 1978 New Theatre For Now entry, it debuted on the main stage, not some remote stagelike setting. Zoot Suit swiftly suited up as part of the regular season. A daring piece was Oliver Mayer's 1996 Blade to the Heat. Two Culture Clash entertainments, the dark Water & Power in 2006 and the 2003 romp, Chavez Ravine. Failing to make the main season but given a short-run on the main stage in 2002 was the superb "Black Butterfly, Jaguar Girl, Piñata Woman and Other Superhero Girls, Like Me."

Given that history of few-and-far-between plays on the Mark Taper Forum playbill, any Chicana / Latina themed vehicle would be a must-see on the basis of rarity alone. Forget all that. Lydia is a must-see dramatic masterpiece, one of the finest productions to step upon the main stage at the Taper.

Make a list of theatrical gems presented over the years, first by Gordon Davidson, lately by Michael Ritchie. Catonsville Nine. Mahagonny Songplay. McKenna / MacGowran. Zoot Suit. Burn This--all of Lanford Wilson's work. Dorfman. Luminous theatrical stuff there. Obviously, it's no small thing to list Lydia as equalling such compelling moments. But ths production of Lydia easily makes the list. Hence, the must-see category.

La Bloga's Daniel Olivas ran an interview with the playright, Octavio Solis recently that offers this summary: Set in El Paso in the 1970s, "Lydia" portrays the saga of the Flores family, whose teenage daughter, Ceci, has been disabled in a horrific accident. Into this household of troubled souls and buried secrets enters an undocumented caretaker who shares a mysterious connection with Ceci.

Complex direction by Juliette Carillo delivers a visual feast enhanced with staging techniques ranging from comic acto to surrealist drama. Sparkling moments come and go seamlessly and to think of one just passed is to miss one in the present.

This is one of those productions that almost everything works. The parachute didn't. That aside, the characters and events create rich layers of looming tension. Everything looks almost OK but something definitely is waiting to happen tension. It winds the audience up so tightly that I hear some exit complaining that Saturday afternoon is no time to be stunned so ferociously. So go at night. But go.

The work debuted in Denver, with many of the same actors. Who knows the refinements worked into the piece, but the Los Angeles production shows a writer's ear for dialog and and a director's eye for movement. Like the language, the stage action is always in motion.

The actors play against one another beautifully. The opening surprise of the evanescent narrator who sinks into contorted paralysis finds an off-kilter mirror in the cackle cute voice of la criada, Lydia. Hired to cook clean and care for the teenager who communicates in her own whistles and grunts, at $60 a week in 1970, Lydia becomes Ceci's prosthetic voice and emotional proxy. The two lead women, Onahoua Rodriguez and Stephanie Beatriz, play with discipline to remain in character.

The ensemble plays together with such power that moments of comic relief come incredibly, well, relieving. When the maid has undressed the incapacitated teenage Ceci in front of her wide-eyed brother, Lydia remarks, "Your sister has nice tits." The explosion of laughter quickly stifles itself as the audience hushes to hear the ensuing dialogue. Talk about edge of your seat excitement.

Solis, the writer, Carrillo the director, and all the actors make only half the production, of course. Having a superlative supporting staff is the undisguised secret that makes the Taper's main stage an artificial world, for two plus hours: Christopher Acebo's Costume Design, Christal Weatherly's Lighting Design, Christopher Akerlind's Sound Design, Original Compositions by the late Chris Webb with Additional Music and Arrangements, by David Molina.

Natsuko Ohama, listed as Vocal and Dialog Coach, deserves special note for her work with Daniel Zacapa's Claudio. Or, perhaps Zacapa himself understands the pain Claudio experiences in a key monologue when the brutal father turns to the house to express himself beaten down. One hears also Claudio's enduring steadfastness. Even a despicable asshole like Claudio offers something worth hearing, given the audience.

Long-time Taper sitters like me, with fond memories of Gordon Davidson's highlights--when he hit it, Gordie hit it good--can look upon Michael Ritchie's efforts with new eyes, now that he's brought Lydia to the main stage. And upcoming, another Culture Clash evening. Maybe Ritchie's finding an El Lay conecta after all?

Inland Empire / Southland Reminder

Manuel Ramos highlights events taking place at University of California, Riverside this week, the Tomás Rivera Conference. Click here for a reminder of this annual event.

That's the penultimate Tuesday of month four of twelve comprising the year two thousand nine, a day like any other day, except you are here. If you'd like to comment on the above, click the Comments counter below. La Bloga welcomes guest columnists. Click here to let us know what you're thinking.

mvs

¡Inaugural issue of The Homeboy Review is now available!

Homeboy Press and its literary magazine, The Homeboy Review, serve as a voice for the poets and writers of Homeboy Industries, as well as a forum to publish both under-represented and established writers from around the globe. Begun as a writing program in Homeboy’s curriculum classes, the Homeboy Press was created to teach contemporary computer skills, including typesetting, desk-top publishing, web design and computer graphics to its clients, as well as to create an open, creative forum for global literary and art publishing by new and established writers and artists.

Acclaimed novelist Leslie Schwartz (pictured below) is the editor-in-chief and managing editor of The Homeboy Review. In honor of the inaugural issue of the literary journal, Schwartz has kindly agreed to allow La Bloga to publish her introduction to the first issue:

Before we begin…

In the fall of 2006, I taught a writing class at Homeboy Industries. The story of that class and the powerful voices of the young writers that emerged from it has had a lasting impact on my work as a writer and as an advocate for young people whose voices are formed and colored by living and writing from the margins. The class, made possible by a grant from the California Council for the Humanities and PEN USA, culminated several months later with a public reading and an anthology of the students’ work.

That particular ending, much to my surprise, became a beginning for me. I found in the voices of the students a kind of power and courage that was lacking in my own life as a writer. And in Homeboy Industries, I found a place that I could call home. I have been there ever since.

Homeboy Industries is a gang intervention program created in 1988 by Jesuit Priest, Gregory Boyle, while he was pastor of Dolores Mission parish in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. Fr. Greg started Homeboy as a response to the proliferation of gang violence and the monumental loss of life he saw in his parish. Since then, Homeboy Industries, a non-profit organization, has grown into the largest gang intervention agency in the nation, demonstrating two decades of success helping at-risk youth and young adults make the transition from gang life to becoming contributing members of the community. The distinctive feature of Homeboy Industries is its small businesses. These businesses have employed hundreds of the most difficult-to-hire people into transitional jobs in a safe, supportive environment. At Homeboy Industries these young men and women learn both concrete and soft job skills while building their resumes with actual work experience. Most of them go on to find meaningful employment.

These are the facts of Homeboy.

The miracle is this: Young people in gangs who might have once considered each other enemies on the streets, come into Homeboy and work side-by-side as friends, in kinship. To me, one of the most beautiful and poetic examples of this is our bakery, where ex-gang members from all over the city of Los Angeles bake and break bread together.

Poetry is another expression of this solidarity. While Father Greg might say that nothing stops a bullet like a job, I would add, nothing stops a bullet like a poem.

At the end of the grant period, my students had the chance to see their work in print. Seeing their work in print, as well as having an opportunity to publicly share their stories, was such a revelation to them that it became immediately clear to me that writing, publishing and reading poetry was a powerful tool to inspire continued transformation. As a result, the Homeboy Press was born.

In keeping with the mission of Homeboy Industries, those who work on the press simultaneously hone their passion for poetry, creative writing and public performance, while developing a variety of widely marketable contemporary job skills like web design, graphic design, desktop publishing, typing, editing and advanced computer skills. At the same time, this magazine that you now hold in your hands serves as an important outlet for both our homegrown writers and writers of national repute. The Homeboy Review is its own neighborhood, if you will. It is a space to be shared by both our own poets and an extended community of established artists and writers.

Each issue will follow the same basic format. Because we felt that it was important to invite the global literary community into ours, the first section – which we are calling simply “The First Section” – includes work from poets and writers who will likely be familiar to you. We are honored to feature the nationally known poet, Luis Rodriguez, who is something of a hero to us at Homeboy Industries. Like few other poets, Luis has created a literary life that extends outward, to those who most need the kind of inspiration and generous help he so freely gives. That his poetry is fresh and rewarding to read made him the obvious choice for our featured artist.

You will also find beautiful works by established writers like Naomi Shihab Nye, Chris Abani and Kerry Madden. Emerging, though previously published writers, include Reyna Grande and Alvaro Huerta, and we are delighted to present a very special piece by award-winning journalist, Erika Hayasaki. Our first-timers include poems by Rocio Carlos-Gonzales and a short story by Sheela Sukumaran, both of whom were recent PEN USA Emerging Voices Fellows. And finally, don’t pass up Fr. Greg Boyle’s remarkable excerpt from his forthcoming book, Tattoos on the Heart. (Bring a hankie for that one!)

The second section, “Art and Justice,” will be a distinctive feature of the Homeboy Review. It is designed to examine the relationship between art and community and how, together, they are integral to fostering creativity and transformation. We firmly believe that the expression of our creative lives is a community action. To that end, this section will typically include original art or photos from or by the community members who contribute their poetry.

For the first issue, we are proud to present essays by Homeboy writers Agustin Lizama and Trayvon Jeffers. The essays they wrote and the accompanying photos speak to the necessity of exporting practical solutions for peace, prosperity and justice. I was fortunate to tag along on this trip and teach a creative writing class to the students of the small school in this poverty-stricken neighborhood.

The poems that emerged are stirring and complicated. They speak to the ordeal of neglect and poverty on young hearts and minds. Some of the poems, published here, will surely give you a moment’s pause.

The final section, “130 West Bruno Street” contains the poetry that has come out of my creative writing classes at Homeboy Industries. The poems here are perhaps the most dear to me. They illustrate the courage, faith and hope of the young people at Homeboy Industries, people whose lives have been marked by tragedy, pain and suffering. Yet over the years of teaching creative writing at Homeboy, I have come to see that in the process of excavating their stories, the Homeboy poets have learned the value of writing and its tonic of empowerment. Not a single poet has left the class without the knowledge that real transformation requires the ability to imagine and tell new stories about oneself. Though the poems are raw and sometimes painful to read, the poetry of “130 West Bruno Street” is above all else, a demonstration of hope and courage. I know you’ll enjoy their work as much as I have enjoyed helping these poets find their voices.

There is no way this magazine could have happened without the help of many. First of all, thanks to Fr. Greg who just gets it. Not many people appreciate the value of the written word and its power to impact so many lives the way he does. Thanks also to Kaile Shilling, Mona Hobson and Veronica Vargas whose unwavering faith in this project helped us through the moments when we wondered if we would ever be able to pull it off.

This project was and will continue to be a community effort. In addition to the homeboys who helped make it happen – Maynor Aguirre, Agustin Lizama and Hector Verdugo – thank you to our intern Kaitlin Lynch. And special thanks to our computer whiz extraordinaire, Tina Turbeville, without whose generous time and tremendous desktop publishing skills this magazine would not have been completed.

Finally, I want to dedicate this first issue of the Homeboy Review to the memory of Abel “Mousey” Garcia whose poems live on in all of us, and whose passion as a poet kept me inspired even in those moments when I was filled with doubt.

***

Subscriptions: The Homeboy Review is published annually. For an issue of the magazine, please send $16.50 (includes $4.50 S&H) and your address to The Homeboy Press, Attn: Norma Gillette, 130 West Bruno Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012.

Submissions: Please send manuscripts to The Homeboy Press, Attn: Norma Gillette, 130 West Bruno Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012 or to leslies@homeboy-industries.org. For guidelines and more information on future contests please log on to http://www.homeboyindustries.org/, then under “Free Services” click on to “Homeboy Press” or type: http://www.homeboy-industries.org/homeboy-press.php.

Donations: Please send your donations to Homeboy Press, 130 West Bruno Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012, Attn: Mona Hobson. Please be sure to make out the check to Homeboy Industries and write “Press” on the memo line.

◙ My review of the groundbreaking antholgy, Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery (Arte Público Press), edited by Sarah Cortez and Liz Martinez, appeared in yesterday’s El Paso Times. Also in the EPT, you may read Rigoberto González’s review of Julia Alvarez’s new book for young readers, Return to Sender (Knopf). Kudos to EPT for its coverage of Chicano/Latino literature!

◙ Next Saturday and Sunday is the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Many friends of La Bloga will be on panels including Luis Alberto Urrea, Gustavo Arellano, Concepcion Valdez, Hector Tobar, Lalo Alcaraz, Steve Lopez, Lucia de Garcia, Gregorio Luke, Lysa Flores, Ruben Martinez, and more. For a complete list of authors, go here.

◙ Soon, very soon, Luis Alberto Urrea’s wonderfull new novel, Into the Beautiful North (Little, Brown), will be released. If you want to get a little preview on Youtube, go to this link: http://tinyurl.com/d5bcbp.

◙ That’s all for now. So, in the meantime, enjoy the intervening posts from mis compadres y comadres here on La Bloga. And remember: ¡Lea un libro!

A Degree of Courage: Advice for Adults Returning to School

I started my undergraduate degree at the fairly traditional age of 19. But my economic situation necessitated working for a living and I was limited to one class at a time. Eventually I married and started a family, putting the thought of finishing that degree farther and farther away. Finally I found myself at age 35 with no degree and a resume with a big hole in it. I had lots of experience in non-profit marketing, but every ad would list "college degree required." Luckily I discovered distance learning programs and finally finished my bachelor's degree at the age of 37 in the Adult Degree Program (then part of Norwich University). But I remember being embarrassed by my lack of a college degree. I felt it was unfinished business and I was smarter than that...wasn't I?

But with time working in higher education I've come to realize that my story is more and more typical. In the past, adult college students were considered “non-traditional.” This is no longer true. In fact, we have become the fastest growing demographic in colleges across the country. Once I was empowered with finally earning my bachelor's degree, I was hooked. I went on to earn two master's degrees and a certificate in writing children's picture books. With the current economic climate being what it is, I've been thinking of many people who are in a similar situation and find themselves needing to return to school and build up their resumes and experience. But what if they're facing challenges like I did? Working, kids, community obligations. Or even struggling with a disability or, just like me, the thought of doing math makes them feel as though they are going to vomit.

I wanted to get some advice for those who are taking this kind of plunge. Practical advice, advice about things you might not feel comfortable talking about with an admissions counselor you don't know on the other end of the phone or via email. So I turned to Anne Connor to get some answers.

Anne has been working in higher education and educational counseling for many years and specializes in helping adults who are returning to school. She's done ESOL, disability and ADA counseling, as well as advising people on things like time management and study skills. She knows what it takes for people like me to succeed in this quest. Anne runs her own business called Taproot Academic Coaching, an online enterprise in which she offers a full spectrum of support for adult learners returning to school.

Anne, what do you think is the biggest challenge facing an adult returning to college these days?

There are actually a number of top challenges, one being the indecision – what degree should I get and at what college? What is it I really want to study? For an adult learner, this question relates to his or her passion, but that is usually countered by the very real concern of is it going to pay off, relating to job viability. Once someone can bring focus to the "what" and "where", then there are the financial considerations, the how am I going to afford it? Often these three top considerations – the what, where and how - play off against each other.

When an adult learner gets past these larger issues, which often take some time to research and process, then there’s the next block – pure unadulterated fear! The adult hears the inner voice of the critic with low self-esteem, “I don’t have what it takes to be a student again; I’m a crummy writer; I can’t do tests; I won’t be able to keep up.” Adult students will often say to me with terror in their voices, “I don’t even remember how to do footnotes!” It’s ironic because footnotes really aren’t used anymore in higher education having been replaced by in-text citations, but who knows that if one hasn’t been in school for the last twenty years?

The other piece that comes into play for the adult student nervous about returning to school is, “How will I make the time in my life to attend classes when I’m already so busy and not even attending school? The life-balancing act comes into play and adult students can use some support and coaching about how to prepare for their return to school; also they need to re-think organizing time and resources to be successful. Once they’re actually back in the classroom, or even before that, adult students will benefit from a refresher course on effective academic skills such as analytic reading skills, effective note-taking, academic writing and critical thinking, especially as these relate to an individual’s distinct learning approach.

What would you say to an adult considering a return to college?

Each of us has a preferred approach to learning, organizing and producing academic material. There is no one cookie-cutter method that works for everyone, yet earlier schooling would have many of us believe that there is only one way to write a good essay or take notes or find the “right” answer that they think the teacher wants to hear. Adult learners believe that if it didn’t work before there’s a really good chance that it won’t work again – “it” being the whole school experience. The joy of being an adult learner is that you get to employ your best strengths in accessing the education that you choose now. If the writing approach that you learned in high school doesn’t work for you in college, there are other writing strategies that you can learn that will work better for you as an adult. That reading habit of skimming indiscriminately that got you into trouble again and again in college the last time you tried it in your twenties might actually work really well for you now that you are a busy adult juggling many things – with a little focus of course. The point is that as an adult learner you have developed skills in your varied life experiences that have naturally prepared you to be a stronger learner today than ever before. You are more aware of your strengths and weaknesses, you know what you are interested in, and you are motivated to succeed at your goals in a way that a traditional-aged student is not.

Okay, I have to share my biggest anxiety, one that I know is shared with most adults who have been out of school for some time. What about the math? I have terrible math anxiety! How can I possibly return to that humiliation?

You’re right; this is one anxiety that is shared by many if not most people. What I would say is that it’s more about the fear of the fear than the fear of the math itself! Most adults, with a little review, are capable of doing the minimum amount of math that’s required for graduation from most college programs. There are also tutors and learning support programs available to you for support – and maybe you are more likely as an adult to get that help than you were as a younger student. Teens usually think asking for help is uncool – by the time we are adults, we know the importance of asking for help, getting support and working with each other. There are also many college programs, like the progressive colleges with which I am most involved, where you can show your ability to understand and do math as it relates to hands on-experiences or study math in the context of other content areas – such as sacred geometry in nature, or geometric forms in art, or creating charts and graphs in social sciences, or creating budgets and accounting sheets for a business enterprise. Don’t let math be the thing that stops you – you can do it!

What about someone with a learning disability? What resources are available to them?

Quite a good number of adults who return to school have a disability of some kind, whether it is a learning disability, an attention disorder, a physical or psychiatric disorder and again, students should not let that stop them from earning a degree. By law, an educational institution must provide reasonable accommodations to a student with a disability – accommodations which, in effect, should level the playing field for those whose disabilities impair their academic functioning to a certain degree. In addition, many schools have disability offices or learning support departments with trained specialists who can help students with disabilities learn strategies specific to their strengths that will increase their chances of success.

In my experience, many adults returning to college after many years may suspect they have a disability, especially if their children are now being diagnosed with special learning needs. Some adult learners have no idea they have a learning disability but once they start to flounder, and if they are referred to a learning specialist who can help them look at the possible reasons for weak skills, they may get the help they need. Assessment of and knowledge about learning disabilities and ADHD has come a long way over the years. Many adults returning to school now did not have the benefit of evaluation and assessment when they were in school before. Therefore many adults today learn that they have a disability and finally can begin to understand they are not “stupid” or “lazy” or any of a number of other things they may believe about themselves as a result of growing up with an undiagnosed learning disability. They can reframe their sense of self with a diagnosis, get the academic support they need, and successfully earn the degree they desire. I have witnessed many, many stories of educational struggle and success working with adult students with disabilities in every field imaginable.

Last piece of advice?

Ask for help, ask for help, and ask for help! Educators understand that adult learners have needs and abilities that are totally different from those of traditional-age college learners: you work at a different pace; you are juggling different demands; and you have experiential bodies of knowledge that are vast compared to younger learners. As a result, programs geared toward the adult learner are structured to support these differences, and they employ professionals specifically to help adults be successful. You can talk to career counselors, faculty or an academic coach to help you make decisions or work with instructors who understand the demands of juggling career, family and school. In addition, adult students can access academic support from the learning support office that most colleges have or again from a tutor or academic coach. An adult student doesn’t need to struggle alone; be sure to ask for help. You’ll get it.

Reading of first Chicana novel from UT Press

post by author Barbara Renaud Gonzalez

My girlfriend Rosalinda Garcia, a teacher from Grand Prairie, Texas, has cancer. It's bad, and it's good in that Rosalinda is loving life every single minute.

On Monday, April 20th, I'm reading at the Latino Cultural Center, a place that is a dream come true for me, as the appointee on the Commission for Cultural Affairs who initiated and led its establishment in the early stages.

I couldn't have done it without Maria T. Garcia Pedroche. Dr. Catalina Garcia. Diana Flores. Regina Montoya. Felix Zamora. And Rosalinda Garcia, who listened, protested, and helped me with her powerful listening, patience, support, protesting, marching, and most of all, love. So I am dedicating my reading to her.

Golondrina is a love story based on my mother's life. And like her, Rosalinda is a golondrina--questioning, freedom-loving, fearless. Most of all, she knows that love is the land we're seeking.

Reading for Rosalinda
from Golondrina, why did you leave me?
The first Chicana novel from UT Press
Chicana Matters Series
7 pm - Monday, April 20th, 2009
Latino Cultural Center, Dallas, Texas
[details here]

Praise for Golondrina, why did you leave me?

"But what makes Golondrina special, what drives its considerable innovation and perfumes its hundreds of tiny pleasures, is the sheer descriptive mestizaje beauty of the novel’s language, word-by-word, in English and en español. González wields Golondrina’s Tex-Mex dialect with real mastery; in her hands, the language is lyrical, big, luxurious, funny, and terrifying. González’s arsenal, linguistically and as a storyteller, is immense and complex, with Joycean neologisms (“cornpaste”) and fierce rhythm..." - Sarah Fisch, San Antonio Current

Tomás Rivera Conference, Lovato/Domingo Tribute, Hit List Schedule

TOMAS RIVERA CONFERENCE

Michael Sedano reported on this conference last week on La Bloga, and he mentioned his role in the conference including his important gift of photographs. The conference deserves another post; here's language from the conference website. Notice the prominence of Señor Sedano.

The 22nd Annual Tomás Rivera Conference will Feature Screenwriter Ligiah Villalobos’ film Under the Same Moon and will be screened at the event celebrating Chicano Latino literature and arts. Screenwriter Ligiah Villalobos, who wrote Under the Same Moon (La Misma Luna), will be the keynote speaker at the 22nd annual Tomás Rivera Conference on Friday, April 24, at the University of California, Riverside. Among the highlights of the annual event are an art installation of a life-size car made of burlap, My ’61 Ford, by Adán Avalos, an exhibition of previously unreleased photos of Rivera and other Hispanic writers by Michael Sedano, screenwriting workshops by Villalobos, and the screening of Villalobos’ Under the Same Moon.

All events will be held on the UCR campus, and are free and open to the public. Parking costs $6.

The 2009 conference has as its theme From the Fields to the Stars and commemorates the 25th anniversary of the death of Tomás Rivera, a Chicano poet, educator and UCR’s chancellor from 1979 to 1984. He was the first Hispanic and first minority chancellor in the UC system, and also, at 43, the youngest person ever appointed to lead a UC campus. He died in 1984 after a heart attack.

"So many things have come together for this most heartfelt conference in honor of the 25th anniversary of Rivera’s passing – the availability and genius of Ligiah Villalobos, the daring of Adán Avalos, the new script by Carlos Cortés, the generous photography collection donated by Michael Sedano and the hard-working Tomás Rivera Conference Committee, the engine of this program. And, of course, Mrs. Concha Rivera’s vision," said Juan Felipe Herrera, Tomás Rivera Chair in creative writing and conference organizer. "Each hour of the conference day will be a star for all to see."

Conference events start at 8 a.m. when Adán Avalos will begin the installation of his life-size burlap car in the lawn area outside the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences Interdisciplinary Building, where most conference activities will take place. Avalos, the son of farm workers, recently was the resident artist at the Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga, Calif.

At noon, the Flor y Canto (Flower and Song) Chicano Literature Festival archives will be inaugurated in Special Collections and Archives on the fourth floor of the Tomás Rivera Library. Rivera attended the first Flor y Canto National Chicano Literature Festival held at University of Southern California in November 1973. An original photo collection will be displayed featuring images of Rivera and other early Chicano writers at that groundbreaking festival. Michael Sedano, the donor and photographer, will be present.

Villalobos will conduct three screenwriting workshops from 1 to 4:15 p.m. in the Interdisciplinary Building screening room. The sessions will focus on the structure of the half-hour comedy, the one-hour drama and the full-length screenplay. Villalobos has been the head writer of the Nickelodeon series Go, Diego! Go! and previously directed all television production and development in South America for The Walt Disney Co.

A 5 p.m. reception outside Interdisciplinary 1020 will include music by local guitarist Hector Ceballos. Activities will move inside at 6:15 p.m. with Carlos Cortés, UCR professor emeritus of history, performing an original dramatic solo in homage to Rivera, followed by a screening of Under the Same Moon. A question-and-answer period with Villalobos will follow.

NERUDA POETRY FESTIVAL KICKS OFF WITH TRIBUTE TO POET PIONEERS

Su Teatro's Tenth Annual Neruda Poetry Festival had a soggy opening night as another spring storm moved into Colorado - rain expected to turn into snow - but a little moisture couldn't dampen the spirits of the audience. We listened to excellent readings of the works of two pioneers of Chicana poetry: Flor Lovato and Margie Domingo. Truly, we shared an inspiring evening with the actors from Su Teatro who did the readings, giving new life to poems and word art, some of which were written decades ago. The two poets confessed that hearing their works read by someone else was a "liberating experience" and a "beautiful event." Margie thanked Tony Garcia, Su Teatro's Artistic Director, for "not waiting until we died" to do the tribute, and Flor revealed that writing her spirited poetry back in the day when the Chicano Movement was in its beginning stages in Colorado, "saved her life."

Margie Domingo and Flor Lovato

Actors and Poets: Cindy Cordova, José Guerrero, Joaquin Liebert, Tony Garcia, M argie Domingo, Valerie Castillo, Jamie Lujan, Flor Lovato. Not in photo: Angel Mendez Soto and Manuel Roybal.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS FOR HIT LIST


Straight from Arte Público Press, here is the list of scheduled events, so far, for readings and signings for Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery. I may be biased, but I have to say that there's some pretty good stories in this book - you really should get a copy, then take it to one of the events to listen to a few of the writers read from their stories and answer questions from readers. If you don't know about Hit List, browse through recent issues of La Bloga; there are at least four interviews with contributors to this anthology.

Friday, May 8, 2009 - 6:30 pm
Murder By The Book
2342 Bissonnet Houston, TX 77005
713-524-8597
David Thompson bustedflushpress@yahoo.com
Participating authors confirmed: Sarah Cortez, Lucha Corpi, Rolando Hinojosa

Thursday, May 14, 2009 - 6:00 - 8:00pm
East Harlem Cafe
1651 Lexington Ave (@ 104th St.) New York, NY 10029
Aurora Anaya-Cerda La Casa Azul Bookstore lacasaazulbookstore@gmail.com
Participating authors confirmed: Richie Narvaez, Sergio Troncoso, Liz Martinez, Carlos Hernandez

Saturday, May 16, 2009 – 3:00 PM
The Mystery Bookstore 1036-C Broxton Ave Los Angeles , CA, 90024
800-821-9017
contact@mystery-bookstore.com
Participating authors confirmed: LM (Linda) Quinn and S. Ramos O’Briant

Thursday, May 21, 2009 – 7:30 PM
Tattered Cover
2526 East Colfax Avenue Denver, CO 80206
Charles Stillwagon, Event Manager, 303-436-9219 ext: 2736 or charles.stillwagon@tatteredcover.com
Participating authors confirmed: Mario Acevedo and Manuel Ramos

Thursday, May 21, 2009 – 6:30 – 8 pm
Mysterious Book Shop
58 Warren St New York, NY 10007
Ian Kern ian@mysteriousbookshop.com
Participating authors confirmed: Sergio Troncoso, Carlos Hernandez, Richie Narvaez, Sarah Cortez, Liz Martínez

Thursday, May 21, 2009 – 5 pm
The Twig Book Shop
5005 Broadway San Antonio, TX 78209
Dinah @ 210-826-6411, Dinah.thetwig@yahoo.com
Confirming authors to participate: Arthur Muñoz and Bertha Jacobson

Saturday, May 30, 2009 – 3:30-4:30 pm
Author Signing
BookExpo America
Javits Convention Center
Author Autographing Area, Table 1
Participating Authors Confirmed: Richie Narvaez, Sergio Troncoso, Carlos Hernandez



Es todo - do your part to stimulate the economy - buy a book.
Later.

Dos Noticias de Chicago

For Immediate Release:
Leo Suarez, 773.392.9697, info@lastablas.com

Join us for our second installment of Raices (Roots) Fridays, a night of Afro-Latin music and culture with a philanthropic cause

This weekly showcase of some of Chicago’s finest traditional Afro-Latin music ensembles and will benefit a different charity every month. The entire month of April benefits the Chicago AIDS Marathon and The American Red Cross of Greater Chicago has joined the effort to host every Friday in May.

Proceeds of every Friday night over the course of the month will go to the pre-selected charity, including every sale of Las Tablas’ famous sangria, widely acknowledged as one of the tastiest sangrias in the city.




This Friday, 4/17:

OgundaMasá is a performance group committed to preserving and performing various African influenced musical traditions from Cuba. They are the only Afro-Cuban The group is comprised of musicians, educators, and cultural affiliates working as a collective to continue and promote these traditions in Chicago. The group performs folkloric genres such as Rumba and Güiro; which are the musical root of Salsa music.

Next Friday, 4/24:

OgundaMasá will be joined by Nuestro Tambó (1st and 3rd Fridays), a Chicago-based group that is comprised of second and third generation Puerto Rican men and women who hail from the inner-city of Chicago and have committed themselves to the promotion and celebration of the Afro Puerto Rican genres of Plena and Bomba. They are unique in Chicago in that they represent Bomba as a living musical form rather than a folkloric tradition. They will also be celebrating the upcoming release of their debut CD.

Raices Fridays:

Every Friday starting April 3rd
2942 N. Lincoln Ave, 9:30 pm – 1:30 am$5 Mojitos, $5 Donation
$4 Cuba Libre, $5 Donation
All Sangria sales benefit Chicago AIDS Marathon in April and Red Cross of Chicagoland in May
Nuestro Tambó: 1st and 3rd Fridays
Ogunda Masá: 2nd and 4th Fridays

Casa Aztlán

Casa Aztlan is an educational and social center providing cultural activities, community service, leadership development services for teenagers and kids, adult education, citizenship, emergency services and community organization. Casa Aztlan is also on the vanguard of the human rights movement and immigrant's civil rights.

Since its foundation in 1970, Casa Aztlan has participated in organizing the power of the Pilsen community; it has fought for bilingual education, amnesty for undocumented workers, health services for the immigrant community, construction of the Benito Juarez High school and the West Side Technical Institute, development of adult education programs, program Circulo de Lectura Padre e Hijo which was converted into the Telpochcalli pre-school; and has helped create the alphabetical Hispanic council since 1980.

Casa Aztlan has developed an effective after school program for children between 7 and 14 years of age. This program offers kids academic help, sports, recreational activities, and cultural development through music classes and art. During the summer, Casa Aztlan provides community youth with work and safe place to spend free time.

Casa Aztlan also collaborates with many other community and educational organizations in order to better serve the Mexican Latino populations. An example of one such collaboration is the partnership between Casa Aztlan and the Chicago ENLACE program of Northeastern Illinois University which focuses on raising the percentage of Latino student enrollments and graduations in schools.

Casa Aztlan has also also developed a partnership with CALLIE and the Colaborativa Latina de Ciudadania, both of which help people in the Mexican community obtain United States citizenships through soliciting services and through Civics and English classes.

Casa Aztlan also sponsors annual events that incite community participation in the Pilsen neighborhood and immediate area. These annual events include, The Candlelight Dinner, The Viva Aztlan Festival, and La Posada. Aside from the above community events, groups of ceremonial Aztec dancers such as the Nahui Ollin and Quetzal-Yolotl, the Teatro Cuerda Floja, and the master of Folkloric dance Rene Cardoza were based out of Casa Aztlan.

Casa Aztlan also helped organize the largest Latino march in the history of the United States; the historic National March for Civil and Human Rights for Latinos in Washington D.C. in 1996. This event led to other activities in Chicago, New York, Washington D.C., and San Antonio, Texas.

Casa Aztlan also works with the Pilsen Alliance. The Pilsen Alliance is a community project focused on questions regarding public transportation, employment development, and other aspects of life that are important to the community.

All donations are tax exempt.
Visit Casa Aztlan at 1831 S. Racine Ave., in the heart of the Pilsen community. http://casaaztlan.org

Adiós Corín Tellado

The queen of the romance novel, “la novela rosa” passed away this Saturday, April 11. She published more than 4,000 novels and sold more than 400-million books which have been translated into several languages. She is listed in the 1994 Guinness World Records as having sold the most books written in Spanish. She published her first novel, Atrevida, in 1946 and finished her last novel this Wednesday.

Her novels were best sellers in Spain and Latin America. Many radionovelas, fotonovelas and telenovelas were based on her works. Our abuelas and mothers fell in love reading Corín Tellado.

Her real name was María del Socorro Tellado López. She was born on April 25, 1927 at Viavélez, Asturias, Spain. At the age of 81, Corín Tellado passed away and left us many stories that we will share for many years to come.

Descanse en paz

For more information about Corín Tellado, visit her website www.corintellado.com

Review: Julia Alvarez. Return To Sender.

NY: Knopf, 2009. 
ISBN: 0-375-85838-5

Michael Sedano

Tyler’s family is about to lose their dairy farm after a tractor accident disables dad’s shoulder. Coming hard upon Granpa’s death, and impending college for the elder son, the Paquette family’s ability to work is far short of the farm’s demands for labor. Desperate, they hire three Mexicans, the Cruz brothers. Tyler’s family doesn’t know about the three girls, one about Tyler’s age.

At first, Mom compels Tyler to be neighborly to the girls living down in the trailer. Reluctantly, Tyler complies. As Tyler and Mari develop a deep friendship, Tyler struggles with his contradictions. On one side, as a loyal, law-abiding person, Tyler understands his family is breaking the law. On the other side is what his mother calls the Cruz family, angels.

Further complicating the mix are the two youngest, born-in-the-USA sisters and the interplay this brings within the trailer. The youngsters are so comfortable in English that Papa permits only Spanish language television on the hand-me-down from Granma.

Of everyone in the extended family group, Granma welcomes the Cruz girls with complete abandon. They offer all-day companionship for the seventy-something woman, along with a healthy dose of intercultural communication. But when Granma builds an Ofrenda for Grampa, the family thinks she’s gone and tries to force her into a rest home.

School finds Mari and Tyler in the same class, with a wonderfully humane teacher who speaks up at the annual town meeting and puts down the village curmudgeon. When the family goes on the run from la migra, this old crotchety fellow becomes the fugitives’ best friend and Tyler’s too.

There's an ugly hard edge to the story, but Alvarez pulls the punches. Leave it to a parent to discuss coyotes, slavery, ransom, and torture. When Mari's mother goes missing during a surreptitious crossing into Texas, father and daughters fear the worst but refuse to put Mama's photo on the altar this year.

Constructed in an epistolary style, the gimmick falls apart immediately, in disbelief that an eleven year old child writes like Julia Alvarez! No reader will give a hoot at the transparent failure of the letter / diary ploy. It’s a superb way to subsume narrative requirements to the needs of character and plot, and pulling at heartstrings.

Return to Sender will be an ideal choice for adult bookgroups, but also for those ten and eleven year olds in the family, surrounded as they are by immigrant bashing hysteria. Alvarez puts a personal, human face on the condition. Those intensely pro-immigrant will find the end disturbing. I don’t know if this is a Vermont thing, but Mari’s contentment, and of her self-deported minor citizen sisters, is not the answer.

That's what the second Tuesday of April sounds like. For the past 8 years, paying my taxing due has been a pain, knowing what I was getting for my money. With the new guy in charge, here's hoping the money goes to better days.

To leave a comment on today's review, or any issue, click the Comments counter below. La Bloga welcomes your guest columns. Please click here to discuss how you can be our guest.

Privileged Parents Anxious on Getting Kids into Elite Universities

Guest essay by Álvaro Huerta

Now that the college application period for hundreds of thousands of high school seniors is over, the stressful part looms over their heads like a dark cloud as they await the acceptance notices. No more dreaded applications, embellished personal statements, exaggerated GPAs and expensive SAT prep courses, not to mention countless volunteer hours worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize.

While filling out a stack of applications and attending classes simultaneously can be a drag for teens more interested adding new friends to their MySpace page or acquiring the latest version of Guitar Hero for the Wii, nothing can top the nagging middle-class parents who invested tens of thousands of dollars (in some cases for the rich, hundreds of thousands) over the past 17 or 18 years to make sure that little Brad or Mary gets accepted into UC Berkeley, UCLA or Stanford. For instance, annual tuition (alone) at one of Los Angeles’ top prep schools, Harvard-Westlake School, is $26,250.

As many college-educated parents are well aware, getting into an elite university doesn’t begin in high school. Not only did Mom listen to Mozart’s greatest hits during her pregnancy and read nighttime stories to her newborn, she also made sure that Dad got his lazy butt off the couch to get that needed promotion in order to live in the right neighborhood with the best schools.

Before making sure that the local elementary school is a feeder school to the best junior high school and, subsequently, to a high performance high school, leading up to an elite university, Mom and Dad first had to get their precious offspring into the top preschool program in the area. If they don’t start early in the game, they worry that, instead of Yale, their kid may end up in jail.

From electronic Leapfrog learning toys for toddlers to educational trips to Costa Rica’s rain forest, piano lessons to violin recitals, private tutors to expensive test prep courses, there’s no limit for privileged parents who want to get their kid into one of U.S. News & World Report’s top-ranked universities.

I am glad I’m not caught up in all this hoopla about getting my 9-year-old son, Joaquin, into the best university in the nation. While my wife, Antonia, and I managed to get him into a wonderful primary school, we don’t drive around with a bumper sticker that reads, “My Son is a Student at UCLA Lab School.” (Actually, the last time I checked, they didn’t have any stickers of that kind at the UCLA student store.)

Recently, however, while preparing for written exams towards my Ph.D. and contemplating my eventual job search, I started to think about which university might be good for Joaquin. So, while I requested several informational brochures from elite universities, I also requested one from Caltech in Pasadena—the 2nd best university in the country, according to Forbes Magazine.

When my wife saw the glossy brochure, she said: “I didn’t know that Caltech had an urban planning program. Are you applying there a post-doc or a job once you finish your dissertation?”

“No,” I replied.

“So why did you request a brochure from Caltech?” she asked, looking puzzled.

“Oh…that’s not for me,” I responded. “It’s for Joaquin.”

“But he’s only 9-years-old and in the fourth grade,” she said, looking more puzzled.

“Precisely,” I responded without hesitation. “It’s never too early to start the college application process.”

***

Guest essayist Álvaro Huerta is a visiting scholar at UCLA’s Chicano Studies Research Center, and a doctoral student in city and urban planning at UC Berkeley. His story, "Los Dos Smileys," is featured in Latinos in Lotusland: An Anthology of Contemporary Southern California Literature (Bilingual Press, 2008). This essay first appeared in UCLA Today in 2006.

◙ WHAT I'M READING:

I am enjoying my ARC (advanced reviewer's copy) of a new short story collection, Live from Fresno y Los, by Stephen D. Gutierrez. The collection will be released on June 1st by that wonderful independent publisher, Bear Star Press. Jim Krusoe offers these words about the book: "There is an ineradicable sweetness to these stories, accompanied by the crisp and happy bemusement of a genuine voice -- the sound of one person speaking directly to another, and not from the head, but from that most mysterious of mouths, the human heart." More about the book later. Here's the cover (which I love):

◙ The UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center (CSRC) at the Times Festival of Books: Visit the CSRC Press at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on Saturday, April 25, and Sunday, April 26, 10:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m., at booth 534. UCLA’s four ethnic studies centers --the African American, American Indian, Asian American, and Chicano Studies Centers -- will celebrate “40 Years of Ethnic Studies Research at UCLA.” The Press will have new books, DVDs, and their ever-popular T-shirts for sale, and CSRC authors will be available to sign their books. Booth 534 will be opposite the south side of Haines Hall. For more information on the Festival of Books, visit its official website. Feel free to visit or contact the CSRC: UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center, 193 Haines Hall, Box 951544, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1544; Tel: (310) 825-2363; Fax: (310) 206-1784.

◙ "OVERNIGHT" SENSATION:

Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Jan Breslauer tells us of playwright Octavio Solis becoming "an overnight sensation, and it took only 25 years." Breslauer continues:

Long respected in theater and Latino arts circles, the writer is having breakthrough success with his play "Lydia."

Set in El Paso in the 1970s, "Lydia" portrays the saga of the Flores family, whose teenage daughter, Ceci, has been disabled in a horrific accident. Into this household of troubled souls and buried secrets enters an undocumented caretaker who shares a mysterious connection with Ceci.

With recent productions at Denver Center Theatre Company, Yale Repertory Theatre and Marin Theatre Company, the drama opens Wednesday at the Mark Taper Forum, directed by Juliette Carrillo. "Lydia" has also been submitted for consideration for the Pulitzer Prize and is a finalist for the 2009 Harold and Mimi Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award.

***

Opining about the play's Colorado premiere, Denver Post theater critic John Moore described "Lydia" as "very much the Latino cousin of 'Death of a Salesman.' " And actor David DeSantos, who has performed in Solis' "La Posada Mágica" at South Coast Repertory, seconds the analogy.

"I can only compare Octavio Solis to a modern-day Arthur Miller," says DeSantos, currently acting at OSF. "His unflinching take on the human condition, as Miller embraced, is one of Octavio's strongest assets." In "Lydia," says DeSantos, Solis "found a story so dark and tragic. It is desperate and painful but layered with so much love."

You may read the entire article here. (Photo of Octavio Solis: Melanie Stengel for the New Haven Register.)

"Lydia" information:

Where: Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Ave., L.A.

When: 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 2:30 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sundays. Ends May 17

Price: $20 to $65

◙ BORDER BOOK FESTIVAL:

As the El Paso Times tells us, the Border Book Festival turns 15 this Friday:

New Mexico's longest continuing book festival -- the Border Book Festival -- will return next weekend for its 15th annual run.

Featured speakers this year include Luis Rodríguez, author of the widely acclaimed autobiography "Always Running, La Vida Loca, Gang Days In L.A.," and journalist Amy Goodman, the host and executive producer of "Democracy Now!," an award-winning national news program airing on more than 750 television and radio stations in North America.

To read the entire article, go here. To learn more about the Border Book Festival, visit its official website here.

◙ Some news from Daniel Alarcón:

Un nuevo Barco está online en la página web de Etiqueta Negra. / A new Barco is now online at Etiqueta Negra. Click here to read.

Also from Daniel Alarcón: "If you're in Lima, we'll be hosting an event this Wednesday, April 15 to celebrate the new issue of Etiqueta at a bookstore called Ksa Tomada in San Isidro. Most of the new issue is now online at Etiqueta's website, including my profile of Carlos Luján, chef at the best restaurant in the Peruvian prison system."

◙ That’s all for now. So, in the meantime, enjoy the intervening posts from mis compadres y comadres here on La Bloga. And remember: ¡Lea un libro!

Sarah Cortez Interview - Neruda Poetry Festival - Estrellas - Best Muerto Book

As part of my ongoing efforts to spread the word about Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery, this week I have an interview with Sarah Cortez, one of the editors of Hit List. Sarah is quite an interesting person with a varied background, which we get into a bit in the Q&A below. Anyone who proclaims on her website that her two greatest loves are policing and poetry should be interviewed. I was intrigued about the idea of a cop also functioning as a poet and an editor, and Sarah responded quite well; I think you will find her answers informative and helpful, especially for someone considering a life in the literary world. You can find out more about Sarah, her books and her other projects on her website.

___________________________________________________

You are a writer, poet, police officer, editor, and teacher. Quite a résumé. What kind of writer are you – how would you describe what you write? How did you get to the point where you said, “Yes, I am a writer”?

Even though I was first published in fiction, I consider poetry to be my métier. My poetry has been described as “tightly-muscled,” as well as, “Searing. Sexy. Stunning. Blunt.” by no less a poet than Naomi Shihab Nye. I am a devotee of concise language and precise visceral imagery. You ask how I arrived to the point of considering myself a writer. Well, I was fortunate to be mentored by two of the great contemporary American poets: Edward Hirsch and Naomi Nye. By taking classes with them and with other talented teachers, I furthered my craft and my practice. Of course, as with many other writers, I found the first book contract quite convincing. Winning prizes and awards also added to my sense of being a professional writer. However, I would be the first to insist on the “democracy of the blank page.” Whether one has had eight books published or none, in front of the blank page we’re all equal.

Yes, equal and fearful - nothing like a blank page to stir up insecurities.

It’s not unheard of, of course, that law enforcement people would segue into something creative such as writing. In your opinion, though, has the police background helped or hindered your creative urges?

The policing background greatly augments my writing practice, particularly in poetry. One of the poet’s greatest and most formidable tasks is putting the inexplicable into words. One must attempt to translate the unknowable onto the page. In policing, you are slammed with the inexplicable all the time. In fact, it rains down on you. I am most productive in my writing when working the streets as a cop. The negotiation (both internal and external) required due to the amazingly different roles and concomitant discursive spaces is impossible for a civilian to understand.


You recently helped put together Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery, along with Liz Martínez, your co-editor. What attracted you to becoming an editor? How would you describe editing in comparison with writing a short story or a poem?

What attracted me to editing is much the same as what attracted me to teaching. While editing’s ultimate goal is producing an artistic whole that is publishable, the editor often helps the writer grow and learn. So, in both the teaching of creative writing and the editing, you are assisting the student/writer further his/her vision and craft. I would even go so far as to say that you can’t be a truly effective creative writing teacher without being an excellent editor. In terms of the differences between editing vs. writing your own work, I would say that in writing your own poem or short story you create from the get-go. Your primary excitement and joy is in the creative act, then later in the “revision” act. In editing, the editor has to totally enter into the author’s vision. The editor must carry inside him/herself a thorough understanding of the form, a keen eye for grammatical and syntactical snafus, and an exquisitely honed appreciation for the appropriate payoffs for the future reader, which of course, vary by form. Added to all of this is an impeccable ear for language and all those additional elements composing the standards of the form, e.g. in fiction, plot, characterization, dialogue, pacing, tone.

How did Hit List come about? Where did the idea originate? Who helped make the idea a reality? Why do you think it is important to have such an anthology

The original idea for Hit List came from Liz Martínez. She saw that while there were anthologies of short mystery for other ethnic or cultural groups that there wasn’t one for Latino authors. She came to me because I had the professional contacts to obtain a contract with a prominent publisher and I had the editing skills necessary to ensure a quality product. Plus we both had loved mystery since childhood.

Both Liz and I owe Dr. Nicolás Kanellos, the founder and director of Arte Público Press, an immense debt because he unhesitatingly and enthusiastically took on the project. You know, he is renown for being a brilliant visionary. He’s the publisher who started Denise Chávez, Ana Castillo, Gary Soto, Sandra Cisneros, and Pat Mora on their international writing careers.

It is important to have such an anthology for numerous reasons. First, the book showcases many excellent Latino/a writers. Secondly, the book lets the reader enjoy the widely varied applications of the mystery apparatus by Latino authors. Another important subtext for me as an editor is to let the multi-faceted cultures and sub-cultures of the characters shine forth. It is this richness, I believe, that may lead the reader to perceive that Latinos come from many different types of neighborhoods, different economic strata, etc. For instance, my story in Hit List, In My Hands, is set in an affluent Houston suburb and has only Anglo characters. I grew up in an Anglo neighborhood adjoining a ritzy enclave.

We don’t often hear about young people wanting to become an editor. Cop or writer, yes, but seldom editor. Give us a quick pitch as to why more students should look at editing as a way to become involved in literature or the arts in general, or even as a career path.

I would guess we don’t hear more about students becoming editors for two reasons. The first reason is that youthful dreams tend to lead the dreamer into starring roles. In the literary world, the starring role at this point in time is that of the author. The second reason is that if you take the general rule of thumb as true that it takes about ten years to become proficient writing in a form (and, BTW I believe that it is necessary to be extremely proficient in a form before you try to edit others’ writing in that form), then after those initial ten years, a young writer has to develop the eye and the ear for editing. Well, you can see how time-consuming the process will probably be.

When you read the submissions for Hit List, did your police experiences (your “real life”) “get in the way” of letting you escape into the stories, or maybe it was the other way around – because you have been a cop were you able to enjoy the stories at a certain level of reality that other readers might not recognize?

You ask if my experience as a cop interfered with my enjoyment of the Hit List stories, or help me enter the imaginative space of the authors. As a street cop, most of the calls for service don’t involve homicide, which is the preeminent crime of interest in mystery. However, a good cop is very intuitive and a master at reading body language and subtle shifts in minuscule details, e.g., breath, pupil dilation, hand movements, voice, etc. So, this eye for human behavior can really serve you well as an author, poet, or editor. I would say that the times when I would get pulled out of an author’s compelling fictional landscape would be when a tactical, ballistic, or equipment question came up. For instance, is that type of duty belt or nylon rig used that way, is the caliber correct, did that manufacturer make a weapon with that type of finish in that caliber in that year, etc. Fortunately, I have shot many of the weapons referenced by crime authors and ballistics fascinate me.

Your poetry was featured in the first issue of Lineup, a magazine devoted to crime poetry. What is crime poetry and how is it different from other kinds of poetry?

I’m glad you asked about Lineup, the chapbook series so wonderfully edited by Gerald So, with Patrick Shawn Bagley, R. Narvaez, and Anthony Rainone. The poetry featured deals with some aspect of criminal behavior whether from the victim’s, criminal’s, or another’s perspective. In trying to define what is different about crime poetry from other poetry, I would say that the subject matter focuses the poet’s eye very particularly. So that in trying to accomplish that “great” poetic task we talked about above – putting the inexplicable into words – the poet must unflinchingly hone in on physicality, whether the physicality of the crime scene, the victim, the suspect, and so on. What I see when I read poems from Lineup is the unremitting eye of each poet beginning in the sensory world of the crime’s occurrence. And, of course, the higher the emotional content of an event, the harder it becomes to write about it with elegance. Writers, especially fiction writers, joke about how hard it is to write love/sex scenes and have them turn out well. That’s because of the high emotional content and the enormous number of hackneyed clichés surrounding love/sex scenes. Well, crime scenes carry a lot of those same burdens for the writer/poet. The poets chosen for Lineup do a fantastic job.

I think Lineup is an innovation with much potential power to dramatically change the poetry/crime fiction scene. I hope more readers find it. I'm delighted to note that I have a poem in the upcoming second issue, due later this summer.

What other projects are you working on?

Thank you for asking about my current projects. I’m finishing up editing Indian Country Noir for Akashic Books, another of the projects that Liz Martínez and I have done together. I am also collecting essays by current or retired law enforcement officers for a collection of literary writing by America’s cops. I’ve been busy traveling to colleges and universities to show both composition teachers and creative writing teachers how to use Windows Into My World: Latino Youth Writer Their Lives in the classroom. You can tell people to contact me on my web site www.poetacortez.com if they’re interested in learning more about these projects. Thanks, Manuel. I’ve enjoyed talking with you!

Thank you, Sarah - I hope we meet in person one day, as long as you're not arresting me.


___________________________________________
BITS AND PIECES

TENTH ANNUAL NERUDA POETRY FESTIVAL

Thursday night 4/16, 7pm: A moving spoken word tribute to Flor Lovato and Margie Dominguez, featuring Su Teatro actors and local artists and scholars. $12, $10 student/senior

Friday night 4/17, 7pm: Barrio Slam competition—$500 grand prize attracts the best talent in the city. $250 for 2nd, $175 for 3rd, fun for everyone! Only $5

Saturday afternoon 4/18, 5:30pm: Tacos and Words Literary Salon featuring The Anaya Project. Creative responses to the work of Chicano literary legend and author of Bless Me, Ultima, Rudolfo Anaya. $12

This program features:
John-Michael Rivera, professor,writer and poet
Gabe Gomez, poet
Jennifer Rincon, playwright,writer, actor
Paul Flores, performance artist, writer
Maria Melendez, poet and teacher
Manuel Ramos, writer
Harrison Fletcher, professor, writer
J Michael Martinez, teacher, poet
Cecelia Aragon, playwright, professor, writer
Tina Griego, journalist, columnist for the Denver Post

Saturday night 4/18, 8:05pm: ¡Representa! featuring Paul S. Flores and Julio Cardenas. $18, $15 student/senior

For more information, or to purchase tickets, call El Centro Su Teatro at 303.296.0219 and check out our new and improved website: www.suteatro.org.
All events at El Centro Su Teatro, 4725 High Street, Denver, CO 80216


SUPER ESTRELLAS

Presenting the ultimate artistic extravaganza. artistes "super" estrellas features the ultra-cool urban art of: tony vecchio, gems, j.g. medina, jolt, josiah lee lopez a.k.a. zepol, and sev

n...

CHAC north gallery, 774 santa fe blvd., denver, april 1 - 25.

come one, come all, art to entertain the masses!

WESTWORD'S BEST
Best DIY Book With Local Ties
Day of the Dead Crafts Co-authored by Jerry Vigil
"We love local santero Jerry Vigil, having bestowed a previous Best of Denver award on him for his cocky Colorado Rockies muerto, a traditional bare-bones Day of the Dead calavera dressed up in a Rockies uniform. And now we get to laud him all over again for Day of the Dead Crafts: More Than 24 Projects That Celebrate Día de los Muertos, a book he co-authored (with Kerry Arquette and Andrea Zocchi) and contributed to as an artist. Vigil said last fall that he hoped to help impart a more sophisticated understanding of the cultural traditions behind the whimsical Day of the Dead art. And we say he succeeded, without taking away an ounce of the genre's personality."

http://www.westword.com/bestof/2009/award/best-diy-book-with-local-ties-1053353/

Spring is cruising the blood, the tired winter gasps empty threats (warning - we have had blizzards in April, even May.) I'm getting my second wind for writing. Life is good.

Later.

April is National Poetry Month!!!!!

Photo by Tina Modotti

Better writers than I have shared their thoughts about the essential and ephemeral joy of poetry.....

A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness. Robert Frost

A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom. Robert Frost

A poem is never finished, only abandoned. Paul Valery

A poem is true if it hangs together. Information points to something else. A poem points to nothing but itself. E. M. Forster

A poet can survive everything but a misprint. Oscar Wilde

A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language. W. H. Auden

A poet looks at the world the way a man looks at a woman. Wallace Stevens

A poet must leave traces of his passage, not proof. Rene Char

A poet's autobiography is his poetry. Anything else is just a footnote. Yevgeny Yevtushenko

A poet's work is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep. Salman Rushdie

A prose writer gets tired of writing prose, and wants to be a poet. So he begins every line with a capital letter, and keeps on writing prose. Samuel McChord Crothers

A true poet does not bother to be poetical. Nor does a nursery gardener scent his roses. Jean Cocteau

All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling. Oscar Wilde

Always be a poet, even in prose. Charles Baudelaire

Any healthy man can go without food for two days - but not without poetry. Charles Baudelaire

Children and lunatics cut the Gordian knot which the poet spends his life patiently trying to untie. Jean Cocteau

Each memorable verse of a true poet has two or three times the written content. Alfred de Musset


Even when poetry has a meaning, as it usually has, it may be inadvisable to draw it out... Perfect understanding will sometimes almost extinguish pleasure. A. E. Housman

Everything one invents is true, you may be perfectly sure of that. Poetry is as precise as geometry. Gustave Flaubert

Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood. T. S. Eliot

God is the perfect poet. Robert Browning

He who draws noble delights from sentiments of poetry is a true poet, though he has never written a line in all his life. George Sand

I've written some poetry I don't understand myself. Carl Sandburg

If Galileo had said in verse that the world moved, the inquisition might have let him alone. Thomas Hardy

No poems can please for long or live that are written by water drinkers. Horace

One merit of poetry few persons will deny: it says more and in fewer words than prose. Voltaire

Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks. Plutarch

Poetry heals the wounds inflicted by reason. Novalis

Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary. Kahlil Gibran

Poetry is a mirror which makes beautiful that which is distorted. Percy Bysshe Shelley

Poetry is a phantom script telling how rainbows are made and why they go away. Carl Sandburg

Poetry is a way of taking life by the throat. Robert Frost

Poetry is all that is worth remembering in life. William Hazlitt

Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance. Carl Sandburg

Poetry is an orphan of silence. The words never quite equal the experience behind them. Charles Simic

Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash. Leonard Cohen

Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful. Rita Dove

Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history. Plato

Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things. T. S. Eliot

Poetry is ordinary language raised to the Nth power. Poetry is boned with ideas, nerved and blooded with emotions, all held together by the delicate, tough skin of words. Paul Engle

Favorite poetry books -- in no particular order

Odes to Common Things -- Neruda
Ode to Opposites -- Neruda
I Praise My Destroyer --- Ackerman
Loose Woman --- Cisneros
Full Woman, Fleshly Apple, Hot Moon -- Neruda
My Own True Name --- Mora
Furious Cooking --- Seaton
Selected Poetry of Yehuda Amichai
Selected Poetry of W. B. Yeates
My Nature is Hunger --- Rodriguez
what i'm on -- Valadez

Favorite Poems (at the moment)
When You Are Old and Full of Sleep -- Yeates
Wildflowers -- Ackerman
Ulysses -- Tennyson

Lisa Alvarado

Getting Ready for Día

April 30 is Día de los niños/Día de los libros- Children's Day/Book Day. This is a celebration of bookjoy and was founded by author Pat Mora ten years ago. Join in to the celebration by buying children's books and by attending one fiesta in your neighborhood. To learn more about Día visit www.ala.org.



Join us for the 10-Year Día Anniversary Reception

You’re invited!

Día de Los Niños/Día de Los Libros, San Francisco
10-Year Anniversary Reception

Wednesday, April 22, 2009
5:30pm to 8:30pm
Hosted by Medjool (2522 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA)
To RSVP please call 415-309-9659

Recommended Tax Deductible Donation $10-20
(no one will be turned away for lack of funds)



Celebrate Children's Day / Book Day with our special 50% discount off books purchased for Día events!

Dia de los niños Pat Mora El día de los niños / El día de los libros (Children's Day / Book Day), known as Día, is a celebration of children, families, and reading held annually on April 30. The celebration emphasizes the importance of advocating literacy for children of all linguistic and cultural backgrounds.

This special offer is good on books ordered before April 30, 2009 for events celebrating El día de los niños / El día de los libros. Visit our online catalog here. Fax your order to (713) 743-2847 or e-mail your order to bkorders@uh.edu.



With the growth of the Latino population comes the critical need for mentorship and research as we begin the process of understanding the richness and variety within the Latino culture. This conference will provide a forum for current research on the education and information needs of Latino children, their families and Latino children’s literature’s social influences on children of all ages. For more information visit www.ed.sc.edu/latinoconf

Tomás Rivera Conference, Piru Mural

Michael Sedano

Over the past year, I've related the fruition of a dream come true, the conversion of "lost" videotaped performances of important Chicana Chicano poets and writers into modern DVD and web-streaming media. Look for an official announcement from the University of Southern California in the next few weeks on its receipt of the finished product, 39 recordings of such poets as Omar Salinas, rrsalinas, Oscar Acosta, and Tomás Rivera.

Happily, Juan Felipe Herrera and the Tomás Rivera Archives at the University of California Riverside's Tomás Rivera Library acquired a number of photographs I shot back in 1973 at the first Festival de Flor Y Canto, held at USC. I'm happy to report UCR and the Tomás Rivera Archive will be showing these photos in conjunction with the upcoming Tomás Rivera Conference.

Here's news from the Conference website. Please click here for mayor info.

From the Fields to the Stars

22nd Annual Tomás Rivera Conference

April 24th, Friday – Free to the public

Featured Speaker: Ligiah Villalobos

LIGIAH VILLALOBOS is the Writer/Executive Producer of the feature film Under the Same Moon, (La Misma Luna). The film was an Official Selection at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and became the highest sale for a Spanish-language film in the history of Sundance. Since its release on March 19, 2008 by Fox Searchlight and The Weinstein Company, the film has become the 3rd highest grossing Mexican film and the 6th highest grossing Spanish-language film in the U.S., of all time. The workshops are open to all students and community members at large. Learn from one of the first Latinas to make it into the Hollywood film industry.

In addition to Villallobos' keynote, she leads a TV Workshop and a Screenplay Workshop, as part of the daytime program. See the Conference site for enrollment details.

Day Program 8am-4:15pm, 

Evening Program 6:00-10:00pm

The conference is funded and coordinated by UCR Tomás Rivera Endowment/Department of Creative Writing and co-sponsored by UCR Chicano Student Programs, the Tomás Rivera Library – and Special Collections, CHASS First, Department of Theatre, Palm Desert Graduate Center, Riverside City College-Academic Support Program and the Inlandia Institute of Riverside.

Mural Dedication Mid-April

Join La Bloga friend Carlos Callejo and the City of Piru for the dedication of Callejo's just-completed mural, above.

"The Piru Mural -- A pictorial history of the town and its people." The dedication of the mural to the Piru community takes place on Saturday, April 18 at the mural site, at 10:00 a.m. The site is East of Piru Creek, north of Center Street, on the Piru Camulos Bike Path. From Highway 126, exit Center Street. Park by Piru Motocross.

Help Needed - A Book About the College Experience

I am striking out going through a mental annotated bibliography of Chicana Chicano novels to help fill this request from a bloguero's former student:

I am searching for a fiction book which depicts Latino/a trials and tribulations of young Latina/os trying to go to college.

Have a suggestion? Please click on the Comments counter below.

Bits and pieces for April's initial Tuesday, a day like any other day, except we are here, ¿que no?

La Bloga welcomes your comments on the above, especially a novel about the Chicana Chicano Latina Latino college experience. Click the Comments counter below. La Bloga welcomes guest columnists. When you have a review of a book, an arts or cultural event, or an extended comment or bone to pick with one of La Bloga's daily reviewers, email las blogueras los blogueras with your proposal.

"Geography" in Latino Writing Today

Four notable writers will discuss geography and the notion of “borders” as a place, an idea, and a force in their work and in U.S. Latino writing.

Manuel Muñoz, born in California and currently living in Arizona, is the author of the short-story collections Zigzagger and The Faith Healer of Olive Avenue. He received a 2008 Whiting Writers Award.

Mayra Montero is a Cuban-born novelist and journalist who lives in Puerto Rico; among her novels translated by Edith Gossman are The Captain of the Sleepers, Dancing to “Almendra” and The Miracle of Wool (forthcoming).

Loida Maritza Pérez, born in the Dominican Republic, has published the novel Geographies of Home, which depicts the hardships of a Dominican-American immigrant family in New York City. She is working on Lamentations, a novel about a Dominican religious leader.

Moderator María Hinojosa (pictured), born in Mexico, is an award-winning journalist, the senior correspondent for “Now” on PBS, and a contributor to “Latino USA,” as well as an author (Crews, Raising Raul).

This event is in collaboration with the Cuban Cultural Center, Mexican Culture Institute, the Dominican Studies Institute, Center for Puerto Rican Studies at CUNY, and Instituto Cervantes.

WHEN: Thursday, April 16, 7:00 p.m.

WHERE: Americas Society, 680 Park Ave., New York, NY (Map of location)

COST: Free and open to the public

To make a reservation, call (212) 277-8359 or e-mail culture@americas-society.org

◙ LOCO FOR BLOGGING: Hey, writers are blogging like crazy…as if you didn’t know. Here are a few you should visit today:

Mart Acosta, author of Happy Hour at Casa Dracula: martaacosta.blogspot.com

William A. Nericcio, author of Tex[t]-Mex: Seductive Hallucinations of the "Mexican" in America: textmex.blogspot.com

C. M. Mayo, author of the forthcoming The Last Prince of the Mexican Empire: madammayo.blogspot.com

Lisa Alvarez, co-author of Writer’s Workshop in a Book (with Alan Cheuse): themarkonthewall.blogspot.com

Eduardo C. Corral, poet and editor: lorcaloca.blogspot.com

Luis Alberto Urrea, author of the forthcoming Into the Beautiful North: www.luisurrea.com/home.php

If you have a favorite writer who is also blogging his/her brains out, please leave a comment below with a link.

◙ SOME “DEAL” NEWS: Playwright and journalist Gregg Barrios's LA CAUSA, a collection of poetry that chronicles the Hispanic civil rights movement in the United States from the 1970s to the present, to Jon Hansen at Hansen Publishing, in a nice deal, for publication in 2009.

◙ LOOKING FOR THAT SPECIAL BOOK: In the new issue of Somos Primos, we learn of how to obtain several difficult to find books published in Mexico.

◙ Rigoberto González, an award-winning writer living in New York City, reviews Luis Humberto Valadez's debut poetry collection, What I'm On (University of Arizona Press, $15.95 paperback). González notes, in part:

... the poems navigate through the trauma of a broken home, the violence of an urban neighborhood, and the expressions of love and disdain for that environment.

***

A graduate of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University, Valadez employs such experimental devices as the anagram and the fragmented line to mirror the speaker's disorientation and damaged memory.

***

Reading "What I'm On" -- in which memory is like a drug and the past a habit that's difficult to kick -- is a challenging but also a stunning reading experience. Valadez brings to Chicano-Latino letters a fresh approach to autobiography in verse that's dynamic, risk-taking and attitude-driven.

To read the entire book review, go here.

◙ JOB WELL DONE: John Olivares Espinoza and Gary Soto are among those writers nominated for this year's Northern California Book Awards.

◙ PASS THE MATZO: As Passover approaches (it begins sundown, April 8 and lasts for eight days), you might be interested in A Poet's Haggadah: Passover Through the Eyes of Poets, edited by Rick Lupert. I’m proud to say that I have a poem in it.

◙ That’s all for now. So, in the meantime, enjoy the intervening posts from mis compadres y comadres here on La Bloga. And remember: ¡Lea un libro!

Latinos in Lotusland in Santa Ana

On March 28, a merry gang of writers converged on one of the country's great book stores - Librería Martinez in Santa Ana, California - as guests of the inimitable Reuben Martinez to read from, sign copies of, and show off the great writing in Latinos in Lotusland, Daniel Olivas' labor of love. Regular readers of La Bloga know all about Lotusland and have several copies in their homes, some ready to be presented as gifts in another month or two to the happy graduate, the blushing bride, or the returning vet. Those of you not yet hip to Lotusland, get with it, homes. You owe it to the right side of your brain to start munching on the savory delectables that Daniel collected in the anthology.

Have you noticed that the economy has the hurts? These days many more people than we care to think about are having to choose between the light bill or the rent. You can guess what that means for an independent bookseller like Reuben - times are tough, ése. It was with some trepidation then that the merry gang of wordsters made their way to Reuben's shop - what if no one showed up; what if all of Mamacita's stash cash went for an extra package of tortillas for that rainy day; what if Jose and Josie Student needed a li'l somethin' somethin' to get them through upcoming finals and there went all the loose coins from under the couch? What if?


Not to worry. Daniel got the word out - he had some help from folks like Gustavo Arrellano, the Ask A Mexican guy who made it to the reading and looked like he enjoyed himself; that's him to the left, with his now-famous grin. A great, in fact, a fantastic crowd greeted the writers with cheers and laughter and song and even a brass band (well, not really, but it felt that good). And for a couple of hours we managed to ignore the threatening reality of 2009. Oh, we talked about the recession, we just didn't let it keep us down.

Daniel worked so hard during the weeks leading up to March 28 drumming up interest for our event that he showed up at the reading fighting off bronchitis; his voice sounded as rough as Jay Cutler's ugly exit from the Broncos.

But the writers carried on. Bouyed by the spirit of the crowd and Reuben's unflagging enthusiasm, the five presenters spent a few minutes talking about themselves, then reading from their Lotusland selections, then the group answered questions from the crowd. Beer and wine and bottled water flowed like beer and wine and bottled water. Special thanks to Sarah Rafael García, who helped Reuben with the logistics of the event and added her own special touch of class. The Saturday Southern California afternoon was uncommonly sunny and warm but it paled in comparison with the emotional heat in the book store. It was quite a deal. You should'a been there.

The writers in the group were Lisa Alvarez, Victorio Barragán, Alejandro Morales, Manuel Ramos, and Sandra Ramos O'Briant. Here's a group shot (Left to right: Victorio, Daniel, Lisa, Sandra, Manuel, Alejandro).



The writers answered questions that ranged from concerns about the demise of newspapers and what that means for writers, to dealing with the presumed contradiction between ethnic-specific and universal themes in fiction, to correcting a misconception that no one had written about the forced removal of Mexican laborers from the United States in the early years of the Twentieth Century, to why Lotusland is so damn important. Each of the writers brought their own perspective, intelligence, humor, and style to the table and it looked like the crowd enjoyed it all. You should'a been there.


Alejandro Morales, professor at the University of California at Irvine and author of Barrio on the Edge, The Rag Doll Plagues, Waiting to Happen, The Captain of All These Men of Death, and several other works that chronicle the Chicano experience past, present and future. His presentation was loaded with Chicano Lit history - this guy has been there from the early days of the modern Chicano Literature movement.

The hardest working man in the book business, Daniel Olivas, author, editor, lawyer, family man, and all around nice guy. Daniel has worked tirelessly to present Latinos in Lotusland to the reading public. Later this year his own collection of short stories, Anywhere But L.A., will be published. Order it now. I've read it. It's an amazing collection.

Lisa Alvarez's selection for Lotusland, Sweet Time, is a chapter from her novel-in-progress. She's a professor of English at Irvine Valley College and some of her students were in the audience. They praised Lisa's commitment to teaching and thanked her for all she had done for them. You could see that she was truly an inspiration.

Sandra Ramos O'Briant has contributed to La Bloga (thank you, Sandra) as well as to several literary magazines. Her story in Lotusland, Lana Turner Slept Here, is one of my favorites. She also has a story in Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery. Have to read that one soon.

Victorio Barragán teaches sociology and is completing a collection of stories and two novels. He gave some astute and provocative answers to many of the questions from the crowd. He also had a good time and smiled a lot, although you wouldn't know that from this photo. Nice guy.

The interloper from Denver seizes the mike and refuses to let go until Daniel Olivas wrenches it from his sweaty hands. When peace was restored, Daniel, Sandra, Manuel and Flo called it a day and enjoyed chile rellenos, tacos de pollo, tacos de birria, and a torta at the taquería across the street. Alejandro, Lisa and Victorio disappeared into the night. And the Latinos from Lotusland went back to Lotusland (or Irvine or Tustin), satisfied but eager for the next outing. You should'a been there.

event photos courtesy of Florencia Hernandez-Ramos
_____________________________
BITS AND PIECES

La Huelga Movie
You folks in Santa Ana - there's a free showing of the short flick Viva La Causa, a documentary about César Chávez and Dolores Huerta, presented by the Dolores Huerta Foundation and Fiesta Marketplace. The movie is scheduled for April 4 at 6:00 pm at the Yost Theater, 307 N. Spurgeon Street, Santa Ana. It's an Orange County premiere. Call 626-716-0201 for more information.

Enmascarados
at the Gallista Gallery
1913 S. Flores Street San Antonio, Texas 78204
April 11 6:00 pm - 10:00 pm


Acevedo Interview
John Kuebler, Media Coordinator for El Centro Su Teatro (whose XicanIndie Film Fest is now in full swing) interviewed Denver author Mario Acevedo for the Denver Urban Spectrum. Mario is described as a "loveable smart ass" - could be. The interview is here.


That's it -

Later.

Guest Review. Soft Chaos: AlmaLuz Villanueva’s latest book of poetry.

La Bloga welcomes guest columnist John R. Guthrie. Lisa Alvarado returns to her regular Thursday column next week.


Santa Fe, New Mexico’s September festival is called Zozobra. Zozobra, “Old Man Gloom,” is present at the festival as a giant marionette. In the preceding weeks, anyone may write the source of their woes on slips of paper and deposit them in a sealed wooden box at the office of the Santa Fe Reporter. The gloom box is then placed like a votive offering at the feet of the effigy and burned as Zozobra himself is immolated.

In the poet/essayist/novelist Alma Luz Villanueva’s poem “Zozobra,” her life, like a favored garment, is held at arm’s length and considered;
….my filed divorce papers (my 20-year
marriage), or a copy anyway, old family
photos of me in the diaper business, the
Little League business, the track team and

the Planned Parenthood business, not to
mention the college scholarship and fund
business, then the “Who’s the perfect parent
I did my best, better than you, you walked

away with my heart” business—
No, I didn’t bring the paperwork to
be burned to healing ashes.
Two husbands, various lovers,
Four grown children, healthy and whole….

Villanueva’s poetry often is both intimate and personal. At her readings and recitations she connects with her audience well and they respond with appropriate enthusiasm. Her critical reviews are strong, though she has found the occasional critic. After a well attended reading followed by a standing ovation and a highly successful book signing at UC Davis a decade ago, one faculty wag from the English Department wrote that Villanueva did have an enthusiastic audience, but that “she might have a difficult time before a more critical audience.” Well, yes, Professor, had that highly literate audience thrown rocks instead of kudos and kisses, had they then fled in horror instead of rushing the stage to touch and speak to the reader, Villanueva would have had a much more difficult time.

Villanueva was born in Santa Barbara and grew up in San Francisco’s mission district. She was raised primarily by her Yaqui grandmother, her much loved Mexican-born “Mamacita,” Jesus Villanueva, with limited input from her mother, Lydia, and with assistance from an aunt, Ruth Villanueva. It was Mamacita, though, who read Spanish poetry to her, and taught her to recite Spanish poetry from memory for church. Lines from the poem, “to Jesus Villanueva, with love,” reveal much about the flinty subsistence of those early years:

You could never understand
the rules:
at clinics, welfare offices, schools,
any of it.
I did.
You lie, you push, you get.
I learned to do all this by the third clinic day….

My first acquaintance with the work of AlmaLuz Villanueva was through one of her earlier works, the collection of short stories, “Weeping Woman: La Llorona and Other Stories.” I was living a Boston suburb. I had recently retired from medical practice and was intent on moving to Southern California to write full time. I realized I had encountered a unique voice in “Weeping Woman,” and sought out and read others of her works.

Villanueva’s poetic life began when she was 12. Mamacita died, and in a very real sense that launched her grandaughter’s life as poet. Life further intervened; when Villanueva had her first child at age 15. The second was born at age 17. She was reduced to the harsh realities of existence on public assistance in San Francisca public housing, then subjected to further uncertainties of life with an abusive husband.

The expected ending for such a story doesn’t take a great deal of imagination. But somehow, it didn’t happen as one might expect. Showing grit and determination worthy of any soldier, children in tow, she finished high school, college, and completed a Master of Fine Arts.

In the 1970’s, her poetry began to publish. She won she won first place in poetry with the University of California at Irvine's Chicano Literary Prize. Her first three books of poetry were: Bloodroot, Mother May I?, Life Span and Planet (the latter won the Latin American Writers poetry prize, N.Y.). This writer found her volume of poetry, Desire to be particularly moving. It was selected for The Best American Poetry, 1996. Her Collection Vida has published more recently.

Her three novels are: The Ultraviolet Sky. (American Book Award. This work is also is listed in 500 Great Books by Women). Naked Ladies then won the PEN Oakland fiction award, and is anthologized in Caliente, The Best Erotic Latin American Writing. Villanueva also wrote Luna’s California Poppies and then another personal favorite, Weeping Woman, La Llorona and Other Stories, a collection of short stories. Her fiction and poetry has been widely anthologized in the USA and abroad, and is included in textbooks from grammar to university level.

The poet has held a number of graduate teaching positions, and for the last decade or so has been an instructor in the in the renowned Master of Fine Arts program of Antioch University Los Angeles. She also taught fiction/poetry at UC Santa Cruz, Cabrillo College, Naropa Institute (Boulder, Colorado)...Mesa College, UC San Diego, Stanford University and Pacific University, to name a few.

While Villanueva is often characterized as a Chicana poet, or as a Feminist poet, such characterizations can conceal more than they reveal. No matter her ancestry or gender, Villanueva is a poet of humankind’s indominatable spirit, a scribe of the vagaries of the human heart.

Soft Chaos
AlmaLuz Villanueva’s latest book of poetry.
Available at Amazon.com and other fine booksellers.
Bilingual Press. Tempe Arizona
ISBN: 978 1 931010 37 5
229 Pages Soft cover,
$18.00

John R. Guthrie is a former Marine infantry rifleman. He later studied medicine and became the commanding officer of a U.S. Navy Reserve Shock Surgical Group. He practiced family medicine in the Smoky Mountain foothills of Appalachia. His fiction, poetry, and nonfiction has been published widely. He is the editor and publisher of the monthly webzine "The Chickasaw Plum: Politics and the Arts Online."

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What Can You Do With a Paleta? ¿Qué puedes hacer con una paleta?

By Carmen Tafolla.
Illustrated by Magaly Morales


Publisher: Ten Speed Press
Pub. Date: April 2009
ISBN-13: 9781582462899

From the Publisher

In her second book for Tricycle Press, Latina author Carmen Tafolla
takes young readers into a thriving and colorful barrio to introduce them to the frozen, fruit-flavored treat known to Mexican-American and Mexican children as a paleta.

Where the paleta wagon
rings its tinkly bell
and carries a treasure of icy paletas
in every color of the sarape…
THAT’s my barrio.

As she strolls through her neighborhood, a young girl finds that there are many things she can do with a paleta before she eats it. She can make tough decisions—strawberry or coconut?, she can draw inspiration from the paleta’s colors to create a masterpiece, startle her brother with her paleta-painted tongue, or even make new friends by sharing one.

Featuring newcomer Magaly Morales’ vivid illustrations, What Can You Do with a Paleta? is a fitting follow-up to What Can You Do with a Rebozo?, the book that showed youngsters the many ways in which the traditional Mexican shawl could be used.

• Includes backmatter about paletas
• Also available in a hardcover English/Spanish bilingual edition



CARMEN TAFOLLA’s poems and stories have appeared in more than two hundred poetry anthologies. She lives in San Antionio, Texas. Visit www.carmentafolla.com

MAGALY MORALES is known for the bright colors and infectious sense of play in her illustrations. She lives in Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico.




By J.D. Smith.
Illustrated by Dani Jones.
Translated by Eida de la Vega.


Publisher: Raven Tree Press, LLC
Pub. Date: September 2008
SBN-13: 9780977090617

From the Publisher

The Best Mariachi in the World / El mejor mariachi del mundo is bilingual (English/Spanish) embedded text picture book that incorporates cultural tradition, wishes, and the happiness that can be found when a person's talent is valued. Spunk and determination set in lovely desert surroundings. The story is told primarily in English with Spanish sprinkled in context throughout. A keyword vocabulary page is included in the back of the book.

Everyone in Gustavo's family is in a mariachi band. Everyone except Gustavo, that is. They all play violíns, trompetas and guitarrones. They all make wonderful music in restaurants and at wedding parties. Gustavo would love to join the band, but he can't play any of the instruments. What's a wannabe mariachi to do?

Illustrator Dani Jones uses bright, warm colors to show the hot desert landscape. She also incorporates the styles of art and patterns from the Southwestern area (the setting of The Best Mariachi in the World / El mejor mariachi del mundo) to help illustrate the story. Her bold, graphic style combined with comic interpretation portrays Gustavo's full range of emotions as he pursues his mariachi dream.