tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9367921.post2383460388338034039..comments2024-03-26T09:40:00.710-06:00Comments on La Bloga: Review: Daniel Cano. Death and the American Dream. Final Report: National Latino Writers Conference. Notes.Contributing Bloguistas:http://www.blogger.com/profile/13054190814722049711noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9367921.post-66961739893001719482016-09-20T20:32:10.434-06:002016-09-20T20:32:10.434-06:00Maistro Sedano, thank you for this review of Danie...Maistro Sedano, thank you for this review of Daniel Cano's - I agree - excellent novel. I agree that the appearance of the historically significant presence of Magon and the PLM in Los Angeles is a significant contribution to Chicano Literature. Only Luis Alberto Urrea's "The Hummingbirds Daughter" and Pynchon's 1100 page+ tome "Against the Day" are recent novels that see the remarkable in Magonista/PLM pilgrimage into the Southwest. I agree that the strong women characters are central to the novel, and according to the histories, are accurate portrayals of Chicana/Mexicana active participation in the pleito rhetoric of journalism (See Cristina Devereaux-Ramirez' excellent "Ocupando Nuestro Puesto: Mexican Revolution Women Journalist"). Angela Duron is as charming as she is chingona and dangerous. I don't agree with your romantic assessment of Pepe - i.e.. "Instead his moral center spins ambivalently between getting the elegant former lover back into the sack, and betraying his obligation to Eusebia and their children." At the risk of sounding like a dog, I felt this a real moral crisis mixing politics and romance. The choice to revere the "fictional" Seferino, over the real-life Mexican government agent, was as poetic moment; Cano signs off with fitting allegories... like the PLM anarchists revolutionaries, like Ricardo Flores Magon, Pepe Rios chooses to stick to principles and dreams rather than acquiesce to silence, government corruption and the comfort of apathy (non-participation). Like Magon, he refuses to betray his principals and dreams. “Some may say I was a dreamer, a madman, but none may say that I was a coward, a traitor to my thoughts” (Magon). So the novel ends with this reflection, Pepe Rios writing in his journal, about writing stories, not being silent, honoring the fiction/ideals above the fact of corruption … conclusion punctuates remembering and dignity.Eliashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08563729774664542327noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9367921.post-73680667943096414722009-06-02T20:43:07.445-06:002009-06-02T20:43:07.445-06:00Thank you for this succinct summary of the confere...Thank you for this succinct summary of the conference. It was a pleasure meeting you! My hope is that the presence of small press publishing options will continue to be enhanced in future editions.Francisco Aragónhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17324802869512989420noreply@blogger.com