La Bloga

Chicanonautica: Ocotillo Dreams, Arizona Dystopia

2012-02-02T00:01:00.016-07:00

by Ernest Hogan

People always ask me why I live in Arizona. The truth is, it’s not all dystopian political turmoil. The state is a wonderful, weird mix of human eccentricity and strange, natural beauty. I never go long without encountering something that amazes and inspires me -- like the ocotillo.

The ocotillo has thin, twisting branches -- it’s also know as the Vine Cactus -- with thorns and sometimes green leaves and red flowers at the tips. In the dry season it looks like vegetal barbed wire. To people used to the plants of wetter climates, it looks otherworldly.

I can see how it inspired Melinda Palacio in her novel Ocotillo Dreams. It survives in a hostile environment, bringing a unique beauty to the world.

And there is a great deal of beauty and joy in Ocotillo Dreams. It’s not a dreary account of the torture of an oppressed people. The Latinos, a diverse group of people (in life and this novel), lead lives full of rico textures, rhythms, and flavors -- and this novel captures them well. It also moves through the space and time travel of Mexican-American life, with personal lives tangled up in history and politics, from the Eighties into the Nineties, from San Francisco to Chandler, Arizona. There are also some complicated love lives worthy of a telenovela.

Isola, the main character, and the other women in the book show the reality of the strong Latina. I’ve always wondered where the stereotype of the passive Latin female came from. There aren’t any in my family.

But, of course, the novel isn’t all pretty flowers and leaves. It runs headlong into the infamous immigrations sweeps of 1997. Ethnic romance turns into dystopia:

It’s 1997,” Isola screeched. Didn’t we learn anything from the Japanese internment camps? They can’t do that!”

After all, 1984 was a long time ago.

It may seem jarring, but Palacio brings it all together the way that unlikely juxtapositions do in Latino life. She keeps it real, and human, but touches magic realism with the dream that explains the title:

The red tips of the ocotillo are covered in blood and drip onto the woman’s face. When I reach her, I have a strong feeling that I know her, but I don’t recognize her because the blood is covering her face. Despite the blood and her being in the desert, she is singing and she is beautiful.

And none of it crushes the spirits of the ocotillo dreamers.

It is 2012. As Arizona politicians dream dystopian dreams, we can learn something from the ocotillo. It can look dead, but sprout green leaves. Fences made from dead, thorny branches often come back to leafy, flowery life.

That’s life in this dreaming desert.

Ernest Hogan is getting ready to launch the ebook version of his acclaimed novel, Cortez on Jupiter.

2012 Pura Belpré Award Winners

2012-02-01T00:01:00.000-07:00

Gracias to ALA (The American Library Association) and ALSC (Association for Library Services for Children) for this post about the 2012 Pura Belpré Awards Winners.
http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/belpremedal

The award is named after Pura Belpré, the first Latina librarian at the New York Public Library. The Pura Belpré Award, established in 1996, is presented annually to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth. It is co-sponsored by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), and REFORMA, the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-Speaking, an ALA affiliate.

2012 Author Award Winner

Under the Mesquite, by Guadalupe Garcia McCall, published by Lee and Low Books Inc.

In “Under the Mesquite,” Garcia McCall, writing in emotionally riveting free verse, gracefully manages to convey the experience of growing up in a bicultural community in Texas with geographical accuracy and a radiating authentic voice for its main protagonist fourteen-year-old Lupita, the oldest of eight children who is dealing with her mother’s terminal illness.

“Garcia McCall deftly communicates not only the experience of a youth losing her mother to cancer but that of a child surrounded by siblings embracing and discarding their Mexican roots in various degrees,” said Naidoo.

2012 Illustrator Award Winner

Diego Rivera: His World and Ours, written and illustrated by Duncan Tonatiuh, published by Abrams Books for Young Readers, an imprint of ABRAMS

Diego Rivera: His World and Ours highlights the accomplishments of Mexican painter, activist, and muralist Diego Rivera. Tonatiuh’s stylized illustrations include elements of Mayan artwork and represent his interpretation of Diego’s original artwork, answering the question: what would Diego paint today? Through eye-catching digital collage, Tonatiuh juxtaposes contemporary Mexican life with the past.

“Tonatiuh’s visually appealing, layered artwork rendered in a mural style pays homage to Diego’s paintings while balancing traditional images with modern twists,” said Pura Belpré Award Committee Chair Jamie Campbell Naidoo.

2012 Author Honor Books

Hurricane Dancers: The First Caribbean Pirate Shipwreck by Margarita Engle, published by Henry Holt and Company, LLC.

Engle’s beautifully written poetic narrative cuts to the heart of an untold story in Latin American history and describes the enslavement of the native peoples of the Caribbean by the Spanish along with the mixing of Spanish and native blood that now forms the vast majority of Latin America. Told from several points of view, the story captures the rhythm and sounds from a time long ago and encourages readers to explore Latino culture on their own.

Maximilian and the Mystery of the Guardian Angel: A Bilingual Lucha Libre Thriller written by Xavier Garza, published by Cinco Puntos Press.

Xavier Garza successfully captures the excitement that Max, an eleven-year-old Mexican-American boy, displays when he discovers that his favorite Lucha Libre wrestler is coming to town and might have a strange connection with his own family! This action packed bilingual mystery novel uses playful language that reinforces elements of Mexican-American culture and overflows with almost unbridled excitement for Lucha wrestling.

2012 Illustrator Honor Books

The Cazuela that the Farm Maiden Stirred illustrated by Rafael López, written by Samantha R. Vamos, and published by Charlesbridge.

Nothing is better than a delicious bowl of arroz con leche unless, of course, a host of farm animals have a hand in the preparation! Lopez’s blazing illustrations for the rhythmic, rollicking cumulative tale, “The Cazuela that the Farm Maiden Stirred” radiate a cheerful exuberance and are peppered with Latino cultural details that extend Vamos’ perky narrative.

Marisol McDonald Doesn’t Match /Marisol McDonald no combina illustrated by Sara Palacios, written by Monica, and published by Children’s Book Press, an imprint of Lee and Low Books Inc.

Bright and vivacious Marisol, a young Peruvian-Scottish-American girl, loves peanut butter and jelly burritos and speaks both English and Spanish. Unfortunately, her teacher and classmates do not appreciate Marisol’s mashing of cultures. Using mixed media techniques, Palacios’ illustrations exude child appeal and biculturalism, allowing astute visual readers to identify the blending of cultures.

Review: Clybourne Park. On-Line Floricanto

2012-01-31T01:02:00.004-07:00

Review: Clybourne Park at the Mark Taper Forum

Thru Feb26, 2012

Michael Sedano

Change is inevitable, as is comparison between status quo ante and status quo. In Los Angeles’ premiere theatre, the Mark Taper Forum, Gordon Davidson retired and Michael Ritchie moved in from the hinterlands.

Although Davidson sponsored some stinkers, he brought some memorable works from out of town—Siobhan McKenna’s Irish women (Yeats, Joyce, Shaw) paired with Jack McGowran doing Beckett; Zoot Suit; Burn This; For Colored Girls.

Ritchie’s been more miss than hit and some seaons his programming has been hit by last-minute cancellations and replacements. In Ritchie’s best programming decision, he’s made Culture Clash casi a regular on the main stage whereas Gordy kept a gem like “Black Butterfly, Jaguar Girl, Piñata Woman & Other Super Hero Girls, Like Me” off the main season stage.

The most serious rap on Ritchie is his abandonment of Davidson’s commitment to local writing and acting talent. Ritchie prefers rolling the dice on imports, like the headed for Broadway satire, Clybourne Park, at the Taper now through February 26, 2012. In this case, it’s a programming gem.

Unfortunately, Center Theatre Group markets Bruce Norris’ 2011 Pulitzer Prize drama as a companion piece to Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun. While Norris’ piece gains depth from the association, not knowing the linkage is irrelevant to the drama unfolding on stage.

Not knowing the allusions to Hansberry’s play doesn’t diminish enjoying what happens on stage. In two acts, Clybourne Park looks at what happens before and after Raisin in the Sun. Act one, the spectre of white flight racism on the eve of negroes moving into a white neighborhood. Act two, fifty years after, a white couple chooses to move into the house, a transitioning ghetto neighborhood.

In act one, racism feeds a self-fulfilling prophecy. With the mindlessness of white flight, property values decline and a white neighborhood becomes affordable to people of color.

During one character’s screed on spiraling property values and abandoned neighborhoods, a sotto voce from a row behind me affirms, “that’s the way it happened.” The remark mirrors perfectly the putatively obsolescent emotional space the play evokes in the moment. They are still with us.

In act two, race and class clash in a confrontation over the same physical space, the Clybourne Park property. Set in the present day, racial bifurcation of the first act has given way to vastly different emotional spaces. Upper middle-class black professionals from the all-black, decayed neighborhood negotiate as equals with a white couple who want to mansionize the place.

Norris enjoys tossing monkey wrenches into the agon then playing them to the hilt. Is the issue truly structural incompatibility with the “feel” of the place, or does the world-traveling black woman resent the symbolism of a white-owned property looming above the old neighborhood, a signal of a self-fulfilling prophecy where low proptery values lure whites waving dollars at the residents.

There’s a ton of fun from having the actors play disparate roles. In act one, the black characters are the help and keep their place, the whites are odd. In act two, they travel in the same circles with the rich buyers. The disaffected home seller from act one becomes the blue collar construction clown. The clueless housewife becomes the cynical attorney. Juggling the actors against the roles has the audience in my area tittering with delight with the best kind of cognitive dissonance.

Director Pam MacKinnon injects kinetic humor in the form of oddly exaggerated gestures in act one. One character stands center stage spouting an obnoxiously euphemistic rant. His choppy arm waving becomes a hilarious nonverbal reductio ad absurdum.

There’s a keen moment of insight as act one closes. The housewife, up to now verging on a Lucy Ricardo type, expresses a moment’s bitterness. She’s about to move to the suburbs where her husband’s commute to the office will be 7 minutes. She sighs. What about me, what will I do? Norris picks up the thread with the second act where the actor embodies a woman attorney. She talks about going to law school, studying and working long hours. Unlike that housewife, she has done. Still, she has found no more satisfaction than that housewife bleakly facing empty solitude while husband enjoys an active career.

The set needs work, though maybe in those huge New York houses, the frantic pounding and heavy thuds reaching entr’acte auditorium-sitters, won’t matter. In the intimate confines of the Taper, I hear several remarks on what they must be doing? Not much. Act Two starts in the same split-level space. The furniture and props carried off, replaced by garbage and spray cans. The walls are covered with ghetto graffiti.

Clybourne Park heads to Broadway’s Walter Kerr Theatre in April. If you’re in the vicinity of Bunker Hill until the end of February, you can catch Clybourne Park’s last out-of-town tryout before it hits the Big White Way. Per the publicity, it’ll be the same cast, same director, probably same set.

mvs

On-Line Floricanto

Alma Luz Villanueva, Odilia Galván Rodríguez, Pueblo American Government, Javier Pacheco, Betty Sánchez

"I Want" by Alma Luz Villanueva

"Poem 6 ~ Being A Border" by Odilia Galván Rodríguez

"We Are Poem" by Pueblo American Government

“2012: Los Cambios Inevitables / 2012: The Inevitable Changes” by Javier Pacheco

"Genocidio Cultural" by Betty Sánchez

I WANT

by Alma Luz Villanueva

"I want to do to you

what spring does to

the cherry trees." Pablo Neruda

I want to do

to the book banners

in Arizona what spring

does to the cherry

trees, yes, I really

want to want to want

to- they've lost their

Eros, the burst of

ripe ripe ripe cherries

filling their mouths with

sexy joy, they've lost

that wild impulse to

climb cherry trees, dizzy

with sex sex sexy

white snow sunlit

sun-fed spring-fed

carressing eyelids, cheeks,

open mouth, lips, delicate

scent, nose, filling lungs,

filling heart and brain-

they might remember what

the God of Spring does to

the Goddess Cherry Tree,

feel lost quivers, trembles,

rushes of desire, pick up

our alive and sexy poets,

writers, read taboo

words of beauty, passion,

truth of sunlight, spring,

cherry blossoms, ancient

corn and weep weep weep

weep, be born in

spring with shame and

joy, return our books

to our children's hands.

Or lose their spring.

*The banning of Latina/o and Native American

books in Arizona, which can not ever be banned

from the heart, memory.

Alma Luz Villanueva

San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

January 2012... SPRING is here,

full bloom, Sixth Sun.

Poem 6 ~ Being A Border

by Odilia Galván Rodríguez

✿

I've been here all of my life

on the edge of this or that

a bridge between my people

crossing people

come to me

to enter more worlds

than I can even fathom

I am is a border

something of a fence sitter

except in my case I am not neutral

I take both sides, I am from and for

both sides, yes

I live the in-betwixt and in-between

I am the center and the balance

I see good and bad

at every turn

at every crossroads

and every crossing is a ritual

what do you offer to enter?

seven shiny dimes to the mother

of all mothers, of the salty waters

or nine pennies to the wind whisperer

the keeper of the last door we enter...

I've been here all of my life and

all I want to do is cross that line

myself, want to pass the torch

having been now totally scorched

by this playing at blind justice

is there really such a thing?

I think not.

someone always has to win

and someone loses

even if I know the secret

that losing you win

still, that's because I'm

a different kind of thinker

having the luxury or curse

of being from the middle

living on that fine line

between this or that

here or there

it's a fact

being a border is no fun

you have to let some in

and keep some out

and then all those

convoluted routes

people take to get there --

even when they know in their heart

it's not for them, and

they should've stayed put

they figure that out later

sometimes when it's too damn late

but wait, why'd I let them in

if it wasn't for them?

oh yes, because it was a lesson...

lofty this job of mediator

border deity

job seems too big

too pretentious

somehow playing god

when all I am is an idea

I am a border

a door

a hoarder of hopes

of injustices

tucked inside promises

of new lives,

lives really not new or better

simply different

I am a border

a line

a big lie.

©Odilia Galván Rodríguez, 2011

We Are Poem

By Pueblo American Government 

Formally Known as Social Justice Education Program

We are overlooked and disappointed

We wonder if things can change for the better

We hear voices being spoken but going unheard

We see the hopelessness in people’s eyes

We want our opinion to matter

We pretend everything is okay when it is not

We are overlooked and disappointed

We feel bemused and unheard

We touch the worried souls of our culture

We worry that it will be the end

We cry when our beliefs are judged

We understand life is full of disappointment and we shouldn’t give up

We are overlooked and disappointed

We say the truth others try to avoid

We dream that one day equality will be used in our vocabulary

We try to persuade those who discriminate

We hope our voice can change perspectives

We need support from our people

We are overlooked and disappointed

2012: Los Cambios Inevitables

Por Javier B. Pacheco

El tiempo, las estaciones, y los ciclos:

estoy bañado y recargado

en las nuevas energías cósmicas

llevándome a un nivel más alto de vibración;

costura de energías vivas

elemento de éter

energía espiritual

el tiempo y la conciencia se aceleran.

En cada luna llena lo sientes,

esa fuerza creciente del Sol.

En cada estación se manifiesta

ésta intensidad solar.

¿Será que por fin me he dado cuenta?

En verdad, ¿he medido los días?

¿Será que ya soy capáz de apreciar toda la vida?

Ya es tiempo de conocer a mis vecinos

es tiempo de salir del caparazón

así como nos sincronizamos

formando una solidaridad espiritual

de nuestras vibraciones mutuas

Tú ya no eres mi invención

sinó una parte de mí, y yo de tí:

tú llenas mi copa

como yo lleno la tuya

ante los escombros de un mundo viejo

estamos en la aurora

de crear un nuevo comienzo:

estamos en el momento sagrado

en la resonancia del corazón/mente

conocimiento multidimensional

mientras que se va desminuiéndo

la fundación energética del

separatísmo, avarícia, dominación, control

desequilibrio, fuerza y conflicto,

disolviendo en su propio abismo

se nos atraviesa la fuente de la juventud

mientras giramos nuevas tapicerías

y el polvo del pasado

se desvanece.

Las musas ancestrales

resuenan adentro

y nos hemos reconectado

con las otras dimensiones

hemos pasado a través de los umbrales

avanzando juntos

entonados a frequencias más finas

en una convergencia de energías

de seres reactivados

para traer la curación al Planeta,

jalados con el flujo

atados a todos los cíclos

aprendiendo de la geometría sagrada

los diseños inteligentes

generados por el calor de la luz,

de una química más alta de la vida,

de aprender el nuevo baile celestial.

2012: The Inevitable Changes

By Javier B. Pacheco

Time, seasons, and the cycles:

I’m bathed and recharged

in the new cosmic energies

leading me to a higher level of vibration;

weaving, living energies

ether element

spiritual energy

time and consciousness accelerate.

In every full moon you feel it,

that growing force of the Sun.

In every season this solar intensity

is manifest.

Is it that I’ve finally started to notice?

Have I truly measured the days?

Is it that now I’m capable of appreciating all life?

Its time to know my neighbors

its time to come out of one’s shell

as we synchronize

forming a spiritual solidarity

from our mutual vibrations

You are no longer my invention

but a part of me, and I a part of you:

you fill my cup

as I fill yours

faced with the debris of an old world

we’re in the dawn

of creating a new beginning:

we’re in the holy moment

in the resonance of the heart/mind

multidimensional awareness

while the energetic foundation

diminishes for

separatism, greed, domination, control,

imbalance, force, and conflict,

dissolving into its own abyss

we stumble upon the fountain of youth

while spinning new tapestries

and the dust of the past

is swiftly washed away.

Ancestral muses

resonate within

and we’ve reconnected

with the other dimensions

we’ve gone through the doorways

advancing together

tuned to higher frequencies

in a convergence of energies

of reactivated beings

bringing healing to the Planet,

going with the flow

tied into all the cycles

learning from the sacred geometry

the intelligent designs

generated from the warmth of the light,

from a higher chemistry of life,

from learning the new celestial dance.

GENOCIDIO CULTURAL

por Betty Sánchez

HB 2281

Una ley que fomenta

el genocidio cultural

que reprime

la libertad de expresión

y viola los derechos

humanos fundamentales.

Señora Jan Brewer,

su soberbia no sorprende

su ignorancia es lastimera

su puesto le concede autoridad

de redactar proyectos de ley

arbitrarios e inmorales

pero jamás le otorgará el poder

de borrar nuestra historia

que no se limita a la página escrita

y la tradición oral

la llevamos impresa

en nuestra sangre indígena

y en nuestra piel de bronce

ésta no es una afrenta personal

es una guerra abierta

contra la dignidad

de todos los pueblos

y le aseguro que la victoria

no le pertenece.

Señor John Huppenthal,

quince millones de dólares

fue el precio de su integridad

erradicar las palabras

raza, solidaridad étnica

y opresión del currículo educativo

es una medida inútil

pues los conceptos mismos

son nuestro pan de cada día

remover libros de los estantes

y hasta de las manos de los estudiantes

constituyen un abuso de autoridad

elaborar una lista de textos prohibidos

desmantelar el programa MAS

y castigar con lavar inodoros

a los que expresan inconformidad

no eliminarán la esencia de un pueblo

que se enorgullece

de su identidad

y seguirá proclamando

en su hogar

en las aulas del

Distrito Unificado Escolar

de Tucson

en las calles de Arizona

y en el mundo entero

su lengua y patrimonio cultural.

22 de enero del 2012

BIOS

"I Want" by Alma Luz Villanueva

"Poem 6 ~ Being A Border" by Odilia Galván Rodríguez

"We Are Poem" by Pueblo American Government

“2012: Los Cambios Inevitables / 2012: The Inevitable Changes” by Javier Pacheco

"Genocidio Cultural" by Betty Sánchez

Alma Luz Villanueva was raised in the Mission District, San Francisco, by her Yaqui grandmother, Jesus Villanueva- she was a curandera/healer from Sonora, Mexico. Without Jesus no poetry, no stories, no memory...

Author of eight books of poetry, most recently, 'Soft Chaos' (2009). A few poetry anthologies: 'The Best American Poetry, 1996,' 'Unsettling America,' 'A Century of Women's Poetry,' 'Prayers For A Thousand Years, Inspiration from Leaders & Visionaries Around The World.' Three novels: 'The Ultraviolet Sky,' 'Naked Ladies,' 'Luna's California Poppies,' and the short story collection, 'Weeping Woman, La Llorona and Other Stories.' Some fiction anthologies: '500 Great Books by Women, From The Thirteenth Century,' 'Caliente, The Best Erotic Writing From Latin America,' 'Coming of Age in The 21st Century,' 'Sudden Fiction Latino.' The poetry and fiction has been published in textbooks from grammar to university, and is used in the US and abroad as textbooks. Has taught in the MFA in creative writing program at Antioch University, Los Angeles, for the past thirteen years. And is the mother of four, wonderful, grown human beings.

Alma Luz Villanueva now lives in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, for the past seven years, traveling the ancient trade routes to return to teach, and visit family and friends, QUE VIVA!! And taking trips throughout Mexico, working on a novel in progress, always the poetry, memory.

www.almaluzvillanueva.com

www.almaluzvillanueva.blogspot.com

Odilia Galván Rodríguez, is a poet/activist and healer. She has been involved in social justice organizing and helping people find their creative and spiritual voice for over two decades. Odilia teaches creative writing workshops nationally, and is a moderator and one of the founding members of Poets Responding to SB 1070. She also co-hosts "Poetry Express" a weekly open mike with featured poets in Berkeley, CA.

Pueblo American Government, formerly Social Justice Education Program bio updated to include group portrait and complete list of authors. Thank you, poets, for sending your image and author names.

Pueblo American Government, formerly Social Justice Education Program

Members: Jasmine Bravo, Itzel Baca,Stephanie Cardenas, Ariana Echeverria, Diana Estrada, Arianna Eubank, Ramon Flores, Sofia Gallegos, Dalia Garia, Savannah Lubinsky, Jesus Martinez-Rodriguies, Guadalupe Moreno, Marcos Moreno, Cynthia Ohlmaier, Gabriela Othon, Adrianna Peru, Angel Ramirez, Chris Rios Hernandez, Karen Rodriguez, Monica Velderrain, Daicy Villalva

Pueblo American Government is comprised of students from Pueblo Magnet High School in the Tucson Unified School District in Tucson, Arizona. The Raza Studies program was recently dismantled in the district following the ruling of the state that found the program to be in violation of HB 2281, which prohibits the promotion of ethnic solidarity in public classrooms. Since the decision, hundreds of middle school and high school students have protested the loss of these classes in walk-outs, sit-ins, presentations and poetry. This poem was also published in the Tucson Citizen website. http://tucsoncitizen.com/three-sonorans/2012/01/20/we-are-poem-from-pueblo-high-mas-students/

Javier B. Pacheco is a S.F. Bay Area performance poet, pianist, composer, arranger, and ethnomusicologist. He performs Salsa with his group Orquesta Pacheco, and Jazz with the Pacheco Trio.

Betty Sanchez. Madre orgullosa de siete hijos y cinco hermosos nietos. En la actualidad resido en el condado de Sutter en el cual trabajo como Supervisora de Educación para el programa Regional y Migrante de Head Start.

Soy miembro activo del grupo literario, Escritores del Nuevo Sol desde Marzo del 2004. Contribuí en la antología poética Voces del Nuevo Sol y participe en el Festival Flor y Canto. Ser finalista en el primer concurso de poesía en español organizado por el Colectivo Verso Activo, me dio la oportunidad de dar a conocer más ampliamente mi pasión por la poesía y por extensión ser invitada a colaborar en eventos como Noche de Voces Xicanas, Honrando a Facundo Cabral, y Poesía Revuelta. Es un privilegio contribuir en la página Poetas Respondiendo al SB 1070 y por supuesto en La Bloga.

Con Tinta Annual Pachanga at AWP Conference: This Year, Honoring Pat Mora

2012-01-30T00:01:00.004-07:00

Con Tinta Annual Pachanga
2012 AWP Conference in Chicago, IL
On Thursday, March 1, 2012 from 5:30-7:30 pm.

Honoring Pat Mora
Zapatista Restaurant
Address: South Loop, Chicago
1307 Wabash Ave. Chicago, IL 60605
Phone: (312)435-1307
Restaurant Website: click here
(Click on poster, above, to enlarge it)

Cocktail & Cash Bar Celebration
Public is invited

Dear Con Tinta Supporters,

At this time, the Advisory Circle of Con Tinta, a collective of Chican@/Latin@ Activist Writers, is soliciting donations from organizations and individuals to help offset cost for our annual pachanga. We are pleased to be honoring Pat Mora in an hors d’oeuvres and booksigning event at Zapatista Restaurant in the South Loop (5 minute walk from AWP). In return, we will be sure to publicly thank all donors and supporters during the course of the evening’s event and also in the event’s program.

Those wishing to support the 2012 Con Tinta gathering and awards ceremony can do so by check or via Paypal. Pilgrimage Press, Inc., a nonprofit literary press, will receive these donations, provide tax documentation for donors, and ensure that all funds received support Con Tinta.

To contribute by check: Mail contribution to “Pilgrimage,” with “Con Tinta” on the memo line, to: Pilgrimage, PO Box 9110, CO 81008. Via paypal: send payment to paypal@pilgrimagepress.org.

Please send questions about donating to: Maria Melendez, Editor/Publisher, Pilgrimage, editor@pilgrimagepress.org.

Please consider yourself and your guest(s) invited to our Con Tinta Celebration. Share this La Bloga page with any/all allies, and we look forward to seeing you in Chicago! If you have any questions about Con Tinta’s Celebration, please contact creativexc@gmail.com.

Con Tinta has many to thank for this upcoming celebration including Proyecto Latina (with a special thanks to Irasema Gonzalez and Diana Pando).

Peace and Creativity,

Xánath Caraza
Member, Advisory Circle of Con Tinta
A collective of Chican@/Latin@
Activist and Writers

* * *

Con Tinta believes in affirming a pro-active presence in American literature. We come together in the spirit of intellectual/artistic dialogue and of recognizing our literary/social histories. C/T's mission is to create awareness through cultivating emerging talent, through promoting creative expression, and through establishing alliances with other cultural/political organizations.

Current Advisory Circle: Xánath Caraza (Kansas City, MO), Rigoberto González (New York City, NY), Maria Melendez (Pueblo, CO), Juan J. Morales (Pueblo, CO), Daniel A. Olivas (Los Angeles, CA), Michelle Otero (Albuquerque, NM), & Richard Yañez (El Paso, TX)

Ex-Oficio Circle Members: Kathleen Alcalá, Lisa Alvarado, Brenda Cárdenas, Lisa D. Chávez, Blas Falconer, & Lorraine López

Con Tinta Annual Pachanga: Honoring Pat Mora

2012-01-29T11:12:00.001-07:00

Guest Columnist: Sonia Gutiérrez

2012-01-29T00:01:00.010-07:00

José Inés García “The Modern Troubadour”: Derailed—the PoliticKs of American Literature

Sonia Gutiérrez

“As we looked at other anthologies of poetry, covering this period in American poetry, we found ourselves, both as poets and readers, dissatisfied with much of what we saw.”

—Twentieth-century American Poetry

“Why do we not read translated texts,” I asked as I remembered the books listed on the syllabus—all novels and one memoir—all written in English. Passages from Tomás Rivera’s novel, . . .y no se lo tragó la tierra/. . .And the Earth Did Not Devour Him, wisped through my mind rapidly. “American Literature must be written in English” was the quick response that pushed my tongue back—an answer that has haunted me for years. I now revert back to my infamous childhood question “¿por qué?” to understand a metaphorical derailment but not an accidental derailment of literature instead the type that is caused by an American literary tradition.

His contemporaries, Carl Sandburg, Amy Lowell, and Wallace Stevens, appear in the Twentieth-century American Poetry but not José Inés García. The 2011 first edition of The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature does not include the work of José Inés García either; nevertheless, the anthology does include the poetry of Williams Carlos Williams (Sedano). If you do an Internet search of poet José Inés García, you will not find him, prior to September 18, 2011, that is. Who was this poet who called himself “The Modern Troubadour,” and why did I not learn about García in my American literature classes?

Professor and author Dr. Manuel M. Martín-Rodríguez introduced the work of this poet unbeknownst to many readers—José Inés García—on his University of California Merced’s literary webpage Alternative Publications last year.

Native of Chasimal, New Mexico, José Inés García was born in the nineteenth-century on January 21, 1871. By 1894, at the age of 23, he was an editor for La Cronica in Mora, New Mexico. In Trinity, Colorado, he also worked as an editor for El Progreso and Casimiro Barela’s press. In 1914, José Inés García and J.T. Maestas founded El Faro, and shortly after in 1915, José Inés García became the official owner of El Faro, which served both as a press and bookstore. Astonishingly, according to his biographer, Erminio Jesús Martínez, José Inés García was also a matter-of-factly blind.

Even with José Inés García’s distinct literary career and poetic voice, the American literary canon derailed a poet whose poems show dexterity and a penchant for the vernacular. In the United States, English Only politics haunt writers whose work is written in Spanish even though languages know no borders. Defining American as a literature that “must [exclusively] be written in English” excludes non-English literature and languages that are “American” by birth. And I do wonder what lettered gems have gone unnoticed to the derailment of belles lettres?

Unfortunately, an English Only Americanism has excluded José Inés García and other writers and poets from riding on elitist literary tracks. Decades later, similarly to García, Tomás Rivera, American by birth, was a poet, educator, novelist, essayist, chancellor, who wrote both in English and Spanish. Rivera’s American novel, y no se lo tragó la tierra, was written in Spanish but often does not make into American literature classes because his novel was written in Spanish. For this reason, Rivera’s novel can be found tucked in Spanish or Chican@ literature classes, away from mainstream literature.

Although José Inés García’s books are difficult to locate due to unaccounted historicity, Dr. Martín-Rodríguez provided readers with José Inés García’s poems written in Spanish including “Un lenguaje extraño” (“A Strange Language”), “Me casé sin reflejar” (“I Got Married without Thinking”), “Para mi amigo Panadero” (“For My Friend the Baker”), “Un indito en su jacal” (A Little Indian in His Hut), and “Canción de Cuca” (“Song of Cuca”) to name a few. What follow are José Inés García’s “Canción de Cuca” and “Song of Cuca,” respectively.

JOSÉ INÉS GARCÍA
Canción de Cuca

Obsequio para la Srita. Lydia Mendoza

Salí de Cuba para Pachuca
En una barca que yo compré,
Y a una gacela de nombre Cuca
En las riberas me la encontré
Y Buenos Días le dije luego
Y Buenos Días me respondió,
¿De quién la barca color de cielo?
Es mía, mía, repuse yo.

Qué hermosa barca, qué hermosa barca,
Me dijo ella y suspiró,
Si usted se embarca, si usted se embarca,
En ella misma me embarco yo.
Yo bien quisiera y no quisiera,
Porque sus padres y qué dirán,
Que vino un joven de Tierra Fuera
Y se la llevó como el gavilán.

No tengo padres, no tengo hermanos
Y ni parientes que me echen menos,
Con esos brazos, con estas manos
Manejaremos muy bien los remos.
Si este es el caso, querida Cuca,
Ven a la barca y subiremos
Y ante viaje para Pachuca
De nuestra dicha platicaremos.

JOSÉ INÉS GARCÍA
Song of Cuca

A Gift for Miss Lydia Mendoza

I left Cuba for Pachuca
On a boat that I bought
And a gazelle the name of Cuca
On the shores I found
And Good Morning I then said
And Good Morning she responded
Whose boat the color of sky?
It’s mine, mine, replied I

What beautiful boat, what beautiful boat,
She told me and sighed
If you embark, if you embark,
On its very self I will board too
I would like that and not
Because of your parents and what people will say
That a young lad came from Foreign Land
And took her like a hawk

I don’t have parents, I don’t have brothers
Nor relatives that will miss me
With those arms, with these hands
We will manage the oars very well
If this is the case, dear Cuca
Come to the boat, and we’ll board
And on voyage to Pachuca
Of our good fortune we will talk.

(Translation By Sonia Gutiérrez)

José Inés García’s “Canción de Cuca” captures the romantic innocence emblematic of popular culture, specifically the ethos of classic Mexican love songs, such as “A la orilla de un palmar” (“Near a Palm Grove”) and “Soy un pobre venadito” (I’m a Poor Little Deer”)—songs that I inherited and learned to love and cherish in the USA.

Clearly deserving a place in canonized literature, José Inés García should be included in future editions of The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature. And the canonizers must revisit Americanisms that skew American readers’ perceptions of the world. The Spanish language is historically, among many native languages including Zuni, Lakota, Shoshoni and hundreds more, an inextricable part of the United States of America’s history and literature, both geographically and linguistically.

Translators with no doubt in my mind will translate the poems of José Inés García poems for readers to feast. That is in fact how we have inherited the literature of the world: David’s fearless slingshot, Medusa’s waving head, Rainer Maria Rilke’s encaged panther—if only by translation. And when train freights, heavy with time and the same repackaged merchandise, make it to their final destinations, starving readers will look elsewhere with a longing to see themselves reflected similar to how Tomás Rivera ends his novel. In the precise diction of Rivera’s translator, Evangelina Vigil-Piñón, Rivera captures an act of love and acceptance: "[S]he even raised one arm and waved it back and forth so that the other could see that [s]he knew he was there."

¡José Inés García bienvenido!

Sonia Gutiérrez is a poet and Professor of English at Palomar College in San Marcos Califas. For notes and references contact Ms. Gutiérrez via the Comments below or this email.

I Ask(ed) a Mexican y respondió

2012-01-28T01:49:00.006-07:00

by Rudy Ch. Garcia

Since every Tomás, dick and harried--mexicanos, gabachos, racistas, pochos, and quién-sabe-qué--are always asking Gustavo Arellano questions that he answers in his distinguished column Ask a Mexican, I decided to try one. And, qué milagro!--he answered mine this past Thursday.

Pero había un problema--something I didn't anticipate. Seems that written words can be a fickle thing. Or maybe it's that writers are fickle things. Or maybe it was just that my question-writing was somewhat vague. In any event, The Mexican Arellano addressed his response to me with a, "Dear Gabacho." Last time I looked--right after I showered--I was nowhere near being gabacho, but that's how he addressed me.

So, to determine how sorry the text of my question actually was, I also sent it to a few Chicanos I know to see how their answers compared to Arellano's. I told them it was a challenge, and three took the bait. First below is my question and then Gustavo's answer. That's followed by three others who answered the challenge. Hopefully Arellano won't turn a deaf ear to my next one after he reads this, something I'm already thinking about.

This appeared in the OC Weekly on Thursday and is reprinted with Arellano's permission:
DEAR MEXICAN, Cada día, my perro Manchas and I go for an afternoon walk in this North Denver parque. We often pass the gringo gentry who are temporarily "improving" the neighborhood, as an investment. You know how the gentry are—they move into the barrio, but send their precious güeritos to the charter schools so they won't get piojos from our kids or wind up pregnant with half-brown babies.

Anyway, I swear, every time Manchas and I pass one of these purebred, hyper-trained gentry dogs, the owners pull their pinches perros away from mine so they can't sniff cola or . . . you know. I guess my question is: How can the gentry know that Manchas is Spanish-surnamed, bilingual and mestizo, since they've never even talked to us? And is there anything I can do so Manchas doesn't grow up with a pocho complex and think he's inferior to a gringo's dog?
Yankee Hipsters Go home! [not my original closing--swear!]

DEAR GABACHO:
Gotta pay our respect to our veteranos—they can ramble as awesomely as any gabacho at a retirement home! I think what you're complaining about is the gentrification of historically Mexican neighborhoods by hipsters, a phenomenon happening everywhere from Denver to Los Angeles, SanTana to Chicago and beyond. It's important to fight the encroachment of pendejos with no ties to the area who start demanding changes—get rid of quinceañera shops, crowing roosters, cars parked on lawns, or corn grown in the back yard and nopales in the front.

At the mismo time, though, raza really angry with gentrification should practice gente-fication, the process of young locals getting over their pocho complex and opening their own businesses to pump enough money back into the area so city bureaucrats don't have any excuse to use the ruse of redevelopment on raza. Think of that strategy as our economic Mexican-American War—and if there are hipsters who are respectful of the old guard, such as the San Patricios that joined our side against the invading Yankees so long ago, then I say embrace their ranks, pound a PBR with them and teach them the secrets of scaring insufferable hipsters away from the barrio by blasting Banda El Recodo at all hours of the noche.
The Mexican

Okay, so Arellano thought I was not so bronze and a rambling old fart; I can live with that. He might have guessed that from my La Bloga pic, a self-portrait, one of those attempts at art attempting to mimic life, and maybe I don't mimic so well. 'Tá bien.

Next, Michael Sedano, La Bloga's Tuesday contributor answered my same question. "Ask a Chicano" contestó:
"Orale, carnal. First off you have to drop the language of the oppressor. "Gentry"? Híjole, as if your worldview buys into their class systems. "Gentry," so what are your gente, chopped liver? Another thing, oh my droog--why do you want them to talk to you? If it's their women who ignore you, la cultura has the ways and the means: work on your piropos. "As for the question of your dog, it's not the amount of pocho in the dog but the dog in the pocho.
michael sedano

Then comes Ernest Hogan, Wednesday's La Bloga contributor and sci-fi author:
"Okay, here's for the AskAMexican Challenge:
We used to have a lot of poodles and such in my neighborhood. They seem to be moving out, along with their “traditional” Arizona owners. Their grandmothers are afraid to walk the streets after dark, which is muy raro, because it's one of the quietest places I've ever lived. Yeah, there's this vato who wears a Santo T-shirt when he walks his pit bull. Man and beast strut with pride. I recommend that. Maybe sing or whistle an old ranchera, but no narcocorridos. I would stop short of a program of intimidation. I'm careful where I wear my ¡VIVA MÉXICO, CABRÓNES! shirt.

"Besides the canine mestizos--we adopted one who was abandoned by someone who felt they had to move out fast--it's mostly either pit bulls or Chihuahuas around here. And the Chihuahuas are taking over. The City of Glendale is even offering a deal on the license fees for the perrititos. This Chihuahua encouragement makes me nervous. I sense a diabolical ethnic-cleansing plot. But, then maybe I've lived in Arizona too long.
Ay, ay, ay,
'N [aka Ernesto Hogan]

Last comes an answer from a Houston Chicano, entitled, Gentle with the Gentry:
"Well, it didn't help things that you gave your perro a Spanish name, Manchas. That's a dead giveaway. The Gentry are always suspicious and full of trickery--they wrote the book. Your history tells you that it started with Columbus, the other immigrants, and has never stopped. They came, made new rules and took the land. Urban gentry is just a smaller scale of it.

"Had you named you're dog Fido or Pluto or Snoopy or some other distinctly white dog name, perhaps you would have been received with half-open arms in your own barrio. The whole idea with being white is money related. Move into a poor neighborhood, fix up the old house, declare it historic and increase its value to sell it for a profit. But the Gentry have more elaborate tricks like hold on to the house, live there for two years and move on, getting a great tax break and thus more profit.

"Anyway, back to Manchas. Dogs don't know more than what you teach them, but they do have instinct. A dog is already bilingual. They speak "dog" and then they speak the basic language the owner teaches them. This all goes way back before civil rights and equality stuff. And the dogs don't care. When a dog is chasing a burglar, the burglar does care what language the dog speaks or understands. And dogs have a more effective way of communicating, thus the saying, "His bite is much more worse than his bark." So, a gentry person can sit there and talk to your dog but no matter if they speak in English or Spanish, the dog only obeys you and the words that come from your mouth.

"When the gentry sees a Chicano with a pure-bred, they are in cultural shock, wondering, "Why don't this vato have a Chihuahua?" Now you are imitating them, meaning you're keeping up with or outdoing the Jones. You've assimilated too well in their eyes. Besides, their dogs don't even like them. A dog is nothing but an extension of their insecurity. It's a status symbol, meaning they care, but then there's the dog side. Imagine being left at home indoors alone all day, not being able to go do your dog do-do, not having children around, having to bathe and smell like a human That's a lot of dog stress.

"So dogs will snarl, and bark and chase each other. That's natural among all species. And they either will or will not get along. But they don't plot and connive like Gringos or Gentry. The exception to this is if the owner specifically teaches the dog to hate and attack. But this is a whole 'nother area of dog psychiatry and therapy.
Rafa

I did like Arellano's answer, as far as he elaborated on Gente-fication, the only problem being that our combined Gente financial base gets drowned under the development money that builds Gentry bars, eateries and mota shops.

Anyway, after these four different takes on my question, I doubt there's any great lessons to be learned, other than maybe I shouldn't ask strange questions in my strange way. However, I will be more careful on how I phrase whatever future questions I do have. And, I know I won't get a Chihuahua, except maybe to vary my dog's diet. But if any readers out there have better takes on what transpired above, please leave comments.

And The Banned Played On

2012-01-27T00:01:00.005-07:00

Worthwhile Books for Your Library
(coincidentally, banned, [confiscated, outlawed?] in Arizona)

The information contained in these books is dangerous. Complacency, racism, and injustice fear these books. You've been warned.
Manuel Ramos
___________________________________

Critical Race Theory : An Introduction
Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic
NYU Press, 2001

[from the publisher]
For well over a decade, critical race theory—the school of thought that holds that race lies at the very nexus of American life—has roiled the legal academy. In recent years, however, the fundamental principles of the movement have influenced other academic disciplines, from sociology and politics to ethnic studies and history.

And yet, while the critical race theory movement has spawned dozens of conferences and numerous books, no concise, accessible volume outlines its basic parameters and tenets. Here, then, from two of the founders of the movement, is the first primer on one of the most influential intellectual movements in American law and politics.

500 Años Del Pu eblo Chicano / 500 Years of Chicano History: In Pictures
edited by Elizabeth Martinez
Southwest Community Resources, 1990 (expanded edition)

"One of the most motivating books on the Chicano experience as far as working class people and students are concerned...The visual quality adds a fantastic dimension to the understanding of our past." ~ Dr. Rodolfo F. Acuna, California State University, Northridge.

Message to Aztlán: Selected Writings
Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales, edited by Antonio Esquibel
Arte Público Press, 2001

[from the publisher]
In Message to Aztlán, Dr. Antonio Esquibel, Professor Emeritus of Metropolitan State College of Denver, has compiled the first collection of Gonzales' diverse writings: the original I Am Joaquín (1976), along with a new Spanish translation, seven major speeches (1968-78); two plays, The Revolutionist and A Cross for Malcovio (1966-67); various poems written during the 1970's, and a selection of letters. These varied works demonstrate the evolution of Gonzales' thought on human and civil rights. Any examination of the Chicano movement is incomplete without this volume. Eight pages of photographs accompany the text.

Chicano! The History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement
F. Arturo Rosales
Arte Público Press, 1996

[from the publisher]
Chicano! The History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement is the most comprehensive account of the arduous struggle by Mexican Americans to secure and protect their civil rights. It is also a companion volume to the critically acclaimed, four-part documentary series of the same title, which is now available on video from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Both this published volume and the video series are a testament to the Mexican American community’s hard-fought battle for social and legal equality as well as political and cultural identity.

Occupied America: A History of Chicanos
Rodolfo F. Acuña
Pearson, 2011 (7th edition)

[from the publisher]
Authored by one of the most influential and highly-regarded voices of Chicano history and ethnic studies, Occupied America is the most definitive introduction to Chicano history. This comprehensive overview of Chicano history is passionately written and extensively researched. With a concise and engaged narrative, and timelines that give students a context for pivotal events in Chicano history, Occupied America illuminates the struggles and decisions that frame Chicano identity today.

Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Paulo Freire
Continuum, 2000 (30th anniversary edition)

[from the publisher]

First published in Portuguese in 1968, Pedagogy of the Oppressed was translated and published in English in 1970. The methodology of the late Paulo Freire has helped to empower countless impoverished and illiterate people throughout the world. Freire's work has taken on especial urgency in the United States and Western Europe, where the creation of a permanent underclass among the underprivileged and minorities in cities and urban centers is increasingly accepted as the norm. With a substantive new introduction on Freire's life and the remarkable impact of this book by writer and Freire confidant and authority Donaldo Macedo, this anniversary edition of Pedagogy of the Oppressed will inspire a new generation of educators, students, and general readers for years to come.

For more information, visit www.pedagogyoftheoppressed.com.

Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years
edited by Bill Bigelow, Bob Peterson
Rethinking Schools, 2003 (2d edition)

[from the publisher]
We need to listen to a wider range of voices. We need to hear from those whose lands and rights were taken away by those who "discovered" them. Their stories, too often suppressed, tell of 500 years of courageous struggle, and the lasting wisdom of native peoples. Understanding what really happened to them in 1492 is key to understanding why people suffer the same injustices today. More than 80 essays, poems, interviews, historical vignettes, and lesson plans reevaluate the myth of Columbus and issues of indigenous rights. Rethinking Columbus is packed with useful teaching ideas for kindergarten through college.

____________________________

“TU Y YO” -- MARUCA AND DANIEL SALAZAR EXHIBIT AT REGIS UNIVERSITY O’SULLIVAN ART GALLERY
JAN 17 – FEB 17
[from the Regis University News]

Regis University’s O’Sullivan Art Gallery will feature Tu y Yo, an exhibit of installation art and video art by Maruca and Daniel Salazar, Jan. 17 through Feb. 17, 2012.

An opening reception is slated from 4:30 to 7 p.m., Jan. 26 and a gallery talk by both artists is at 7 p.m. Feb. 9.

Since June 2003, Maruca has been an arts specialist Northwest Area, Denver Public Schools, and prior to that was the visual arts coordinator for Denver Public Schools. She is also the executive director of the Museo de las Americas in Denver. Her dual career in education and the arts includes a history of initiating, organizing, and executing innovative programs and projects with students and teachers, including some that have achieved regional and national recognition. She has a master’s degree in Literature and Linguistics/Visual Arts from the University of Colorado.

Since 1988, Daniel has been an artist and producer-director for RAZALAS studios/impossible artz. As a working artist in the areas of photography and cinematography, Daniel has had his works displayed in numerous art photography exhibitions, including international credits. He is a producer-director of some 12 PBS documentaries and experimental animations. He is the recipient of national level awards and screenings including: Mayor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, 2006; Escuela Tlatelolco Centro de Estudios, Flor y Canto, Champions of Change 2008; and Denver Biennial, Museo de las Americas, Liberadores/Liberadors 2010.

O’Sullivan Art Gallery hours are: Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. and Thursday from 2 to 8 p.m. 3333 Regis Boulevard, Denver, CO 80221

For more information, contact Robert St. John, O’Sullivan Art Gallery and Studio manager, at 303-964-3634.

Why Not... Daniel Luna

DATE

February 2, 2012

TIME

6:00-9:00 p.m.

6:00 p.m. Member Reception- Free for Members

7:00 p.m. Public Reception- Admission $5.00

Featuring an aria performance by Opera Colorado from

Florencia en el Amazonas.

LOCATION
861 Santa Fe Drive, Denver, CO

www.museo.org

The Museo de las Americas presents Why Not....

There is no other artist in Colorado that can claim to be a "Regional Mythologist." Daniel Luna's paintings of chickens crying over a frying pan of eggs or a native woman holding a toaster to roast watermelons will remind you of a magic that reality holds within our dreams.

Join us for a night full of illusion.

Cocktails and appetizers will be provided.

Su Teatro Presenta ...

Enrique's Journey: January 27 - February 4
Based on the Pulitzer Prize winning work of Sonia Nazario
Best New Play 2011 Denver Post Ovation Winner

Amorcito Corazón/ Daniel Valdez in Concert: February 9 - 11
Romantic, raucous and revolutionary. Singer/Composer/Grammy Award-winner. Backed by Jazz del Barrio, Daniel will offer many moods but one singularly beautiful voice.

Water & Power: March 8-25
Written by Richard Montoya for Culture Clash, directed by Phil Luna. L.A. Times Theatre Critic's Award winner and soon to be a major motion picture; a moody "stage noir" about power & politics told with a pulsing city beat.

Placas: April 25-28
Written by Paul S. Flores (PEN Award), directed by John Michael Garces, featuring Ric Salinas (Culture Clash). "Placas" is barrio slang for a graffiti tag, a nickname, or a tattoo. Placas is the story of three generations caught in civil and gang warfare.

Tickets: $20/general; $17/students and seniors.
For tickets/info: 303-296-0219.

El Centro Su Teatro
721 Santa Fe Drive
Denver, CO 80204

Later.

David Unger en NYC y Luis Cruz Azaceta en NOLA

2012-01-26T00:01:00.000-07:00

Están invitados a la presentación de la nueva novela de David Unger, Para mí, eres divina/In My Eyes, You Are Beautiful (Mexico: RandomHouseMondadori, 2011) en la librería McNally Jackson, 52 Prince Street entre Lafayette y Mulberry, NYC, el viernes 10 de febrero a las 19 horas. El escritor colombiano Jaime Manrique va a presentar al autor y el Instituto Cultural Mexicano ofrecerá un brindis. Copias del libro estarán a la venta.

Dice Marcela Álvarez (About.com.libros) de la novela:

Por delante tenemos una historia de anhelos, sueños y determinación. También podría decirse que, especialmente en la primera parte, es un retrato social y cultural de un país del que conocemos poco, más allá de las noticias (poco auspiciosas) que llegan a diario...

You are cordially invited to the presentation of David Unger's novel Para mí, eres divina/In My Eyes, You Are Beautiful (Mexico: RandomHouseMondadori, 2011) at The McNally Jackson Bookstore, 52 Prince Street between Lafayette and Mulberry, NYC, on Friday, February 10, 2012 7:00 pm until 9:00 pm. Colombian novelist Jaime Manrique will be introducing the author. Though most of the reading will take place in Spanish, Unger will be bringing several dozen copies of the first two chapters of the novel that were published in MAKE: A Chicago Literary Magazine for English speakers. The Mexican Cultural Institute of New York will be offering a wine reception and copies of the novel will be available for purchase.

*********

Y de uno mis pintores favoritos, el cubano Luis Cruz Azaceta, detalles de su exposición en Nueva Orleans hasta mediados de febrero:

De Cuban Art News: Luis Cruz Azaceta, en Nueva Orleans. La inestabilidad de los asuntos mundiales que va desde el colapso de las economías hasta las consecuencias del cambio climático, ha sido para muchos de nosotros una causa de alarma y desesperación. Sin embargo, para Luis Cruz Azaceta, ha sido una fuente de inspiración artística, especialmente la manera como las personas en todo el mundo se han levantado para exigir un cambio. En Luis Cruz Azaceta: Shifting States, él aborda esta continua transición global en pinturas y dibujos que reflejan su colorido estilo. El espectáculo se estrenó en Nueva Orleans el pasado sábado en la Galería Arthur Roger @ 434, y estará en exhibición hasta el 18 de febrero.

From Cuban Art News: Luis Cruz Azaceta in New Orleans: From collapsing economies to the consequences of climate change, the instability of global affairs has been, for many of us, a cause of alarm and despair. But for Luis Cruz Azaceta, it’s been a source of artistic inspiration—particularly the way individuals across the world have been rising up to demand change. In Luis Cruz Azaceta: Shifting States, he tackles this ongoing global transition in paintings and drawings that reflect his signature colorful style. The show opened in New Orleans this past Saturday at the gallery Arthur Roger@434, where it’s on view through February 18.

American Library Association Award Winners 2012

2012-01-25T01:59:00.002-07:00

The Pura Belpré Award, established in 1996, is presented to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience in an outstanding work of literature for children and youth.

Winner for Illustration
“Diego Rivera: His World and Ours,” illustrated and written by Duncan Tonatiuh and published by Abrams Books for Young Readers, an imprint of ABRAMS.

Honor Books for Illustration

“The Cazuela that the Farm Maiden Stirred,” illustrated by Rafael López, written by Samantha R. Vamos and published by Charlesbridge.

“Marisol McDonald Doesn’t Match /Marisol McDonald no combina,” illustrated by Sara Palacios, written by Monica Brown and published by Children’s Book Press, an imprint of Lee and Low Books Inc.

Author Book Winner

“Under the Mesquite,” written by Guadalupe Garcia McCall and published by Lee and Low Books Inc.

Author Honor books

“Hurricane Dancers: The First Caribbean Pirate Shipwreck,” written by Margarita Engle and published by Henry Holt and Company,LLC.

“Maximilian and the Mystery of the Guardian Angel: A Bilingual Lucha Libre Thriller,” written by Xavier Garza and published by Cinco Puntos Press.

The Newbery Medal was named for eighteenth-century British bookseller John Newbery. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children.

Winner

“Dead End in Norvelt,” written by Jack Gantos and published by Farrar Straus Giroux.

Honor Books
"Inside Out & Back Again," written by Thanhha Lai and published by HarperCollins Children’s Books, a division of HarperCollins Publishers.

"Breaking Stalin’s Nose,” written and illustrated by Eugene Yelchin, and published by Henry Holt and Company, LLC.

The Caldecott Medal was named in honor of nineteenth-century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.

Winner
“A Ball for Daisy," illustrated and written by Chris Raschka and published by Schwartz & Wade Books, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc.

Honor Books
“Blackout,” illustrated and written by John Rocco, and published by Disney · Hyperion Books, an imprint of Disney Book Group.

"Grandpa Green" illustrated and written by Lane Smith, and published by Roaring Brook Press, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishing Holdings Limited Partnership

“Me … Jane,” illustrated and written by Patrick McDonnell, and published by Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

Given to African American authors and illustrator for outstanding inspirational and educational contributions, the Coretta Scott King Book Award titles promote understanding and appreciation of the culture of all peoples and their contribution to the realization of the American dream. The award is designed to commemorate the life and works of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and to honor Mrs. Coretta Scott King for her courage and determination to continue the work for peace and world brotherhood.

Author Book Winner
Kadir Nelson, author and illustrator of “Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans,” is the King Author Book winner. The book is published by Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

Author Honor Books
Eloise Greenfield, author of “The Great Migration: Journey to the North,” illustrated by Jan Spivey Gilchrist and published by Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

Patricia C. McKissack, author of “Never Forgotten,” illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon and published by Schwartz & Wade Books, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc.

Winner for Illustration
Shane W. Evans, illustrator and author of “Underground: Finding the Light to Freedom,” is the King Illustrator Book winner. The book is a Neal Porter Book, published by Roaring Brook Press, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishing Holdings Limited Partnership.

Honor Books for Illustration
Kadir Nelson, illustrator and author of “Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans,” published by Balzar + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

For a complete list of ALA awards and winners visit http://ala.org

Review: Anaya's Billy the Kid. Mural Restored. Champions. On-Line Floricanto.

2012-01-24T00:01:00.769-07:00

Review: Rudolfo Anaya. Billy the Kid and other plays.

Rudolfo Anaya.  Billy the Kid and Other Plays. Afterword By: Cecilia J. Aragón , Robert Con Davis-Undiano. Norman: UOklahoma Press, 2011.
ISBN: 9780806142258 384.

Michael Sedano

There's a burden on Rudolfo Anaya's back that rivals Sisyphus' rock: being "El abuelo" the "founding father" de Chicana Chicano Literature. It is his fault, after all, that Bless Me, Ultima is the megaseller it has become so he must accept that responsibility. Fortunately, unlike that accursed's mythical burden, an ever-inspired Anaya easily shoulders his on to myriad heights.

2012 marks the fortieth anniversary of publication by TQS of Bless Me, Ultima. (Look for a special announcement later at La Bloga.) Aside from illustrating that quality surpasses the limitations of a tiny obscure publisher, Bless Me, Ultima helped bring Chicana Chicano cultura into United States Literature on our own terms.

As if that weren't sufficient career achievement--Harper Lee, recall, published only a single novel in her career--Anaya goes beyond Ultima to bring readers childrens books, warm folktales, travel writing, and edge-of-your-seat detective novels.

Every family should own Serafina's Stories, read it to the kids for bedtime storytime. Once you've read all the way through it, expect the kidlet to request you read it again.

The lesser-known A Chicano in China documents ways a chicano uses his US-bred xenophobia to find bridges across the cultures and personal enchantments. Then there's the uniqueness of it all; how many chicanos are writing about the PRC?

Every reader of detective fiction will want to devour the Sonny Baca novels. From Sonny's first appearance in Alburquerque through the seasons, Zia Summer, Rio Grande Fall, to Jemez Spring. Baca's a great character plus there's fun seeing Anaya in the character "Ben Chavez," and CHICLE-founder Teresa Marquez appear as herself.

Now Rudolfo Anaya's playwriting has been collected in the University of Oklahoma's 2011 Billy the Kid and other plays. The volume is the 10th in the Press' Chicana And Chicano Visions Of The Americas Series. The title piece and "Who Killed Don José?" appeared in The Anaya Reader. Five plays will be new to most readers.

"The Season of La Llorona" is a fitting opening piece for the collection. It echoes the actos of movimiento teatro, and, like any YA piece is transparently designed to instruct. The piece is a visual treat, too, whose setting alternates between Abuelo's lap on Hallowe'en night, and 500 years earlier to Doña Marina and her slavemaster.

A reading through the collection to its final two works, "Billy the Kid" and "Angie,"tracks refinement in the playwrite's art. "Billy" reads vividly. Irrespective of the formalities of a printed script, the narrative flows effortlessly. One hesitates to praise the play for reading like a novel, but Anaya gives the speeches a coherency that fills in the absent narrative. A play is not prose, but speech. Anaya's ear so effective his characters jump off the page with distinct voices.

Anaya's intent to soften the historical image of cold-blooded murderer Billy calls to mind the Anglo pachuco in Luis Valdez' Zoot Suit. "I'm Chicano too!" But Billy, Anaya admits, killed that vato. And the other one. Billy is a bicultural victim of cultural schism, an outsider boy raised with manito sensibilities who finds himself on the wrong side of a landgrab. Billy's pursuers know him--he's one of them--and use his passions to gun him down. At curtain, Anaya has effortlessly blurred lines between the historical Billy's life and the stage Billy's life.

"Angie" is contemporary U.S. theatre at its best. Whereas audiences can observe Billy's tragedy safely behind the distance of its historical setting, "Angie" slams theatre-goers and readers right between the eyes with its in-your-own-family theme of warehoused elders.

Angie is a broken, old woman, forced into a convalescent home for her own good. Angie's daughter is trapped between a controlling asshole vendido husband and being a daughter who is failing her responsibility to care for an aging mother.

The playwrite weaves a thread of enjoyment for readers of the Sonny Baca thrillers, who recognize the land grab scheme that has captured Angie's son-in-law's soul. But that's a sidelight to the quandary Anaya sharpens in building his audience's vicarious guilt trip. The villain's a hateful Nurse Ratched tipa who uses drugs and mindless rules to squeeze joy out of patients, keeping them hyped for convenience of the staff.

Other elders glumly deteriorate in this setting. Angie, despite her wheelchair, nurtures her lust for life. From that arises an opportunity to inject life into the day room with music, dance, sex, and that most precious absence in old gente's lives, puro fun.

In the end, Angie does what she came to the nursing home to do, she dies. The tragedy is never death--Angie, as Randy Lopez does, goes home--because whatever truths and lies she leaves behind don't matter now. The tragedy is how Angie gets there, and how, in those final years, things could have been done differently. Some theatre-goers will leave the auditorium thinking about their mothers, as will an aging reader.

In a fitting way, this play about the viejitos fighting to stay alive brings to a close the collection that begins with chamacos learning about La Llorona. Anaya's foreword and the afterwords from Cecilia J. Aragón, Robert Con Davis-Undiano provide additional perspective on the plays. Thanks goes to the University of Oklahoma Press for bringing such an excellent opportunity to acquire a captivating and instructive collection of Rudolfo Anaya's theatrical work.

Lost and Ruined Mural Re-Born

The City of Los Angeles recently reversed a long-held belief that murals violated the city's advertising and visual blight laws. It's the latest evidence of a progressive attitude toward the city's treasures of muralism.

Ernesto de La Loza beams vibrantly as his palette.

With so much pedo in El Lay's local governance, I'll take all the evidence I can find, especially when it comes in the form of grants to restore faded artifacts of muralism's movimiento heyday in the 1970s, like Ernesto de La Loza's 1975 "Organic Stimulus" in historic Estrada Courts.

Estrada Courts' murals make its walls among the more remarkable collections of public art in the world. The deteriorating murals are targetted for restoration through efforts of people in organizations like the Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles. Through MCLA's efforts, restoration of "Organic Stimulus" is funded by the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.

Muralist Ernesto de la Loza, Isabel Rojas Williams MCLA

In LA, two public housing sites, Ramona Gardens and Estrada Courts house stupendous galleries of art in the monumental scale covering twenty foot high walls. Sadly, the work has been unconserved and defaced by generations of taggers layering placazos, ironically obscuring a lasting cultural heritage.

2012 detail

circa 1980, scanned Ektachrome

Then again, a few pendejos have gone on to produce outstanding gallery and authorized wall work. The late artist Magu was always quick to defend tagging and the tagger as malunderstood, a form of culture and importance, even when the tagger hit walls of great value.

La Bloga has long followed the survival of the enchanting "El Corrido de Boyle Heights." Its prominent corner makes it among the highest visibility targets in the region, its beauty irresistible to nihilists with spray cans. Now, with the City's new mural law and its Department of Cultural Affairs joining efforts like Amigos de Siquieros, UCLA's Fowler Museum, the Getty museum, and the Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles, we're presented the most hopeful evidence to hit the block in ages.

Visit the Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles' Facebook page to observe the restoration process and the full mural before and after. https://www.facebook.com/muralconservancy

For these and additional images at higher resolution of the dedication of Ernesto de la Loza's "Organic Stimulus," see Read! Raza's foto essay at readraza.com/edelalozarestored.

Late-Breaking News
UCSB C/S Honoring Luis Leal

Back in 1963, I was the only Chicano in the freshman class at UC Santa Barbara, which makes it all the more amazing to this alumnus of the English, Speech, and Classics programs that today there's a room in South Hall named for Dolores Huerta and a Department of Chicana Chicano Studies.

It's in that Dolores Huerta room in South Hall, where C/S holds an event dedicated to their late Chair's memory on Wednesday, January 25, 2012.

Click the middle image below for a slightly higher resolution view, or visit the Departamento's Chicanarrobas Facebook page. Is that Chicanats, in English?

Open Call for Champions

Power of the press belongs to the person who owns one. That used to be a bad thing. Today, access to the internet is the same as owning a press, and that’s a good thing. But there's a problem or two.

It’s not that traditional print is in trouble. It is; big corporate media, to be more precise, is in trouble. That’s a consequence of the power of the internet press. Everyone is the same click away. With tightening discretionary budgets people increasingly cut back on magazine and newspaper subscriptions, migrating to some mix of fee-, advertising-supported, and wholly satisfying no-fee internet alternatives.

Print or digital, periodicals remain a huge market in the monetized segment of the information economy. According to advertising clearing house Standard Rate and Data Service, the US offers consumers over 3000 print and 5000 advertising-supported digital magazines.

Most readers support traditional media. I am a long-time subscriber to a handful of consumer magazines, plus enjoying a couple of free trade magazines. Kids in the family can count on me for a holiday gift subscription to some magazine--someone has to collect Ranger Rick and National Geographic back issues, after all.

Old media as traditional gatekeeper has lost control to the masses, unleashing flood gates of competition from every Fulana de Tal with enough computer literacy to operate Macintosh software. Given inspiration and nimble fingers any numerate and literate person becomes equal rival to the Grey Lady, or the Saturday Review for that matter.

Not only are there more of us than Them—think of the 99 percent v. the 1—alternative media are cheaper. For readers, here’s where a problem lurks: the honey trap of low price tag and easy acquisition.

An impulse dime there, twenty there, the occasional hundred dollars for a handmade poetry book that never arrives. All the while the bankers are chirping away collecting their transaction fees and taking their cut as click after click adds one’s personal contribution to Obama’s economic recovery.

¿Pero sabes qué? After a while, another $2.50 here, another $20 there, and one’s discretionary lana looks like the fleece at the bottom of a wallet. In the vastness of an unruly democratized media landscape, readers need a new gatekeeper role to influence their decision-making choices!

It’s unquestioned that invaluable information lies within a click’s effort of acquisition. What’s absent is a form of guided serendipity, an advocate, someone who finds and champions a title, who talks or writes to convince fellow readers to click.

With so much competition for a reader’s dollar, a personal endorsement from a credible source goes a long way toward impelling a buyer’s decision to seek more information, to click, to acquire access, to spend. Ditto worthwhile information. With ever-increasing volumes of information out there in the tubes, advocates perform a filtering function, picking and choosing from what came their way. Clearly, everyone can be a Champion.

An opportunity reached me recently, a pair of poetry-related print and digital publications. The first is the $4.50 American Poetry Review special feature on a dozen Chicana Chicano poets.

The second, one that includes a couple of La Bloga On-Line Floricanto friends, the $20 Liberty’s Vigil, The Occupy Anthology: 99 Poets among the 99%, so new there's no picture yet.

Will someone become the Champion for one of these opportunities? If so, click the Comments link at the end of today's column and leave your recommendation.

On-Line Floricanto On January's 4th Tuesday

La Bloga's On-Line Floricanto began in conjunction with planning for the 2010 Festival de Flor y Canto. Yesterday • Today • Tomorrow celebrated at the University of Southern California.

That floricanto scheduled two father-son readings, two Montoyas and two Dominguez. Happily, January's penultimate La Bloga On-Line Floricanto features the father-son poets Sanchez plus the son of past floricanto performer Gaby Sweningsen. It's a delight that in floricanto, an old order doesn't pass, giving place to new. Instead, generations share the stage while embracing and making one's own energies.

"Rise" by Braja Mandala Sanchez
"Hollering My Discovery" by Luis Ascencio-Cortez
"The Creator’s Gift" by Andrea Hernandez Holm
"Poeta y Guerrero" Raul Sanchez
"Morelia" by Samuel Duarte

Rise
by Braja Mandala Sanchez

The pen's mightier than the gun
Why tote a strap when u can utilize ur tongue???
This 1 iz dedicated 2 my people of the sun
Who've toiled in the mud
Shed sweat, Tears, & Blood.
Only 2 be victims of ignorant racism
Knowledge iz tru bliss.
Everyday I pray 2 the Sun-God
up above,
Plz shine ur light into the darkness.
Erase the hate & replace it with love.
Mexi-Kingz will rize,
While abominable racist haterz
accumulate devastating Karma.

~~~Sun-chez~~~ 12-2011

Hollering My Discovery
by Luis Ascencio-Cortez

Drip, drip, drip, drip
Is the sound of the blood that flows
Out of bodies of innocent fellows,
That fell victim to a relative’s stupidity
Sorry, but similar race doesn’t mean immunity
Mothers smother their children, to walk the right path
But even if they do, they’ll fall to their environment’s wrath
Now, we expect others to solve this
But we can do it ourselves
Just toss some books at the ignorant
Allow their brains to develop, out of the stage of an infant
Bigger problems than ourselves
Like, the children getting hungry
The poor still losing money
Kids still losing mommies
Being sent across borders
Restrained by metal orders
Look, now we’re being slaughtered
Have an examination of our dependence
And expectation across the nation
Not on ourselves but others
Educate yourselves on the truth not fiction
Maybe then, we won’t have such restriction
But rather the freedom of thought
Because, we don’t think, this isn’t what we sought
But rather what we fought….
Against many years ago
When disease spread among us
And I am not just talking physical
But hatred is a disease, trust
It’ll eat and eat
Then we will lay here as we accept defeat…..

NEVER!!!

© Luis Ascencio-Cortez

Creator’s Gift
by Andrea Hernandez Holm

We always drive the backroads
Of Pinal County
With our windows open wide
Enough to let the desert in.
We turn down dirt roads
Bump through sandy washes
Sometimes close enough to reach out
And touch the guama leaves with our fingertips.

We go by el Rancho~
The three-room wooden casita
Where my mom grew up
Between the cottonwoods.
“That’s where the piñon groves were,”
She says, pointing to some space in the distance.

We drive among the saguaros and ocotillos,
Stop near the mountains
And walk gingerly past the jumping cholla
And over the pincushion cactus
Picking fruits and blossoms along the way
Letting their flavors saturate our senses.

We walk between the hills
Rising and falling swells
Always going west toward the crimson evening.

© Andrea Hernandez Holm 2012

Poeta y Guerero / Warrior and Poet
by Raul Sanchez

para Francisco X. Alarcón

Se siente el fuego
de un Dragon Negro
y el de un guerrero
vengador sin espada
ni capa
ni daga
solo un arma—
la pluma
y su voz
resonante
cuando el Poeta
dice
la verdad!

© Raul Sanchez 1-16-2012

For Francisco X. Alarcón

The heat
of the Black Dragon’s breath
can be felt
along with the breath
of the avenging warrior
without sword
without cape
without dagger
only one weapon at hand
his pen--
and his resounding voice
when the Poet
tells
the truth!

© Raul Sanchez 1-16-2012

Morelia
by Samuel Duarte

I have come to sit and dine under
your ancient portales, across from your
cathedrals and cobblestone pathways
where camera-happy tourists rush to prove
you were once part of their lives.

I have walked under your archways
beside monolithic resorts sprawled
across magnificent horizons,
under the surrounding aqueducts
where our indigenous brothers and sisters
wait outside your lavish banquets of progress.

I have visited your points of interest
in your colorful brochures; your murals,
gardens, museums, your courtyards and
fountains adorned with fauns and naiads
from which a revolution once flowed

And have strolled the Plaza de Armas,
where I first saw reflected in your eyes
Moorish and Spanish conquests buried
in a kaleidoscope of time.

But as beautiful as you are, Morelia,
I figured we are all born with flaws.
And that even if we manage to rid of a few
we end up picking up another bundle along the way.

With this in mind, I lifted your veil
and searched for the other you
behind the Cathedrals of Perfection.

I searched your dark streets and alleyways
where apparitions gather alongside shoeshine boys
drumming fistfuls of earth-pounding prayers.

I searched for you, Morelia,
until I found you in the
coloresque Colinas of your youth,
inviting me to dance in a dusty swirl,
where you cared to embrace me
and all my imperfections.

BIOS

"Rise" by Braja Mandala Sanchez
"Hollering My Discovery" by Luis Ascencio-Cortez
"The Creators Gift" by Andrea Hernandez Holm
"Poeta y Guerrero" Raul Sanchez
"Morelia" by Samuel Duarte

Braja is a resident of Alachua, Florida. His inspiration comes from the Renaissance of his Chicano culture, rap music, the fight for social justice and his internal spiritual journey.

Raúl Sánchez, a Seattle Bio-Tech technician, prosody enthusiast, translator, and DJ, who conducts workshops on The Day of the Dead in Tieton WA. Featured in the program for the 2011 Burning Word Poetry Festival in Leavenworth WA. Board member of the Washington Poets Association, Los Norteños writers group and recently a moderator for the Poets Responding to SB 1070 Facebook page. His work appeared on-line in The Sylvan Echo, Flurry, Gazoobitales, Pirene’s Fountain and several times in La Bloga. His most recent work is the translation of John Burgess "Graffitto" released by Ravenna Press. Also, he appears in the Occupy San Francisco Anthology by Jambu Press, in the Anthology Speaking Desde las Heridas (Publisher: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México). His first Chapbook to be released early Spring 2012 by Path Moon Press.

Samuel Hiram Duarte was born in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico in 1974. Along with his parents and three brothers, he migrated to California and settled in the agricultural Central California Valley. His poetry has been featured in Flies, Cockroaches, and Poets, a yearly journal for the arts, Differentia Press and in The Sound of Poetry Review. He has also written a short story compilation; Stories from the Other Side of Town, and a second book of poetry; Seven Standard Roads. He lives in Santa Maria California with his wife Jessica and son Kael.

Luis J. Rodríguez is a National Book Critics Circle finalist for his autobiography, “It Calls You Back”

2012-01-23T00:01:00.009-07:00

The National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) is a nonprofit organization of book reviewers and critics that honors outstanding writing and fosters a national conversation about reading, criticism, and literature, in part through annual awards for the year’s outstanding books. Books are directly nominated and chosen by leading book critics. The NBCC thus offers the unique opportunity for professional critics to recognize and reward literary excellence.

On Saturday, January 21, the NBCC announced the finalists for its book awards for publishing year 2011 at a gala event held at Artists Space in downtown Manhattan. The categories are fiction, nonfiction, autobiography, biography, poetry and criticism.

La Bloga readers will be happy to learn that Luis J. Rodríguez was announced as a finalist in the autobiography category for It Calls You Back: An Odyssey through Love, Ad diction, Revolutions, and Healing (Touchstone). The autobiography list was presented by NBCC 2010 winner Darin Strauss.

Since its publication, It Calls You Back has garnered stellar reviews including the following:

“It Calls You Back possesses a fervent down these mean streets candor that makes us respect its embattled author even more.” –Barnes & Noble

“Rodriguez tells an honest, direct story, though stripped of rawness by years of reworking.” –Publishers Weekly

“Extraordinarily haunting and provocative.” –The Washington Post Book World

“Rodriguez’s account of his coming of age is vivid, raw….Here’s truth no television set, burning night and day, could ever begin to offer.” –The New York Times Book Review

“Raw, searing reading from start to finish.” –Kirkus Reviews

La Bloga congratulates Luis for this wonderful honor! To read a complete list of NBCC finalists, visit here.

Reflections: "NEW FIRE: To Put Things Right Again" by Amelia M.L. Montes

2012-01-22T00:59:00.017-07:00

In 1992, Cherríe Moraga wrote the following:

I paint in scribe colors—the black of this ink, the red of those fires—my own Chicano codex . . .

“The Chicano codex is a portrait of our daily lives. Images of spam next to a stack of store-bought tortillas . . . We pick nopales, graduate from college . . .

In the circle of this oración, we form a contemporary urban Chicano glyph. A small group of jotería, “two-spirited” people, standing in the shadow de Los Pechos de La India (San Francisco). Two lush green mounds of female protection. A radio tower piercing her breast.” (Cherríe Moraga, from “Codex Xerí: El Momento Histórico,” The Last Generation)

This section from Moraga’s essay in The Last Generation “was originally written for the Mexican Museum’s 1992 ‘Chicano Codices Encountering Art of the Américas,’ curated by Marcos Sánchez-Tranquilino. Representing twenty-five Chicano artists from across the United States, the exhibit’s task was to create a contemporary response to the Mesoamerican codices, the pictorial record books of Indigenous America though largely destroyed by the fires of the Spanish conquest.”

Cherríe Moraga

Perhaps this essay gave Moraga a foundation from which to create (20 years later) a play based on the Maya “Calendar Round,” a 52-year cycle. (This Calendar Round was also used by Aztec, Mixtec, and Zapotec tribes.) Moraga translates “the red of those fires—my own Chicano codex” to the stage with NEW FIRE: To Put Things Right Again at the BRAVA Theater in San Francisco. She invites her audience to participate along with the main character, Vero, a woman who is about to turn 52, in remembering and confronting the past, in spewing out all of what needs to be ejected in order to heal.

In my interview with Moraga two weeks ago (CLICK HERE for interview), she said, “This play is very demanding of the audience . . . it’s not like a good time . . . it really moves and has the promise of moving the soul. And of course it’s entertaining—incredible music, dance, acting—but the intention is to move things around in the gut, the head, in the spirit.”

Indeed, this is not at all a play using Aristotelian classical unities but instead, Moraga surrounds Vero’s slow journey to conscious awakening with poignant moments of indigenous ritual: call and response, dance, chanting, singing, and the frightening guides Itzpapalotl and Tzitzimitl who come to reclaim Vero (so well done with music, lighting, and luminous costuming). All work “in the round” to give us a very different concept of theater. It is and it is not theater. It is sacred indigenous ritual both on stage and on screen. Two large screens on either side of the stage serve to provide a visual of ceremony outside while dance and song also echo on stage: an inner and outer honoring, cleansing.

I kept thinking about sections from Chicana writer Eden Torres’ book, Chicana Without Apology because they speak to various sections of the play. Specifically this section from Torres’ book connects with Vero’s memories of violations within and outside of the home (the stepfather and incest, rape at 17). Torres writes: “If we avoid grieving, which necessarily includes thinking about the trauma, then we never face the injured Self. Failure to do so can result in inappropriate emotional responses to stimuli in our everyday lives. We may feel overwhelmed by little things that go wrong, yet unaffected by major crisis . . . Rage may be directed at a child who spills milk, while we exhibit numb indifference to spousal violation . . . History and tradition are part of our present and our future . . . In order for us to be able to help succeeding generations make healthy connections to our spiritual mothers and blended cultural traditions (Indian, Spanish, Mestizo, and the United States), we have to deal with our own wounds.” (35-40)

Vero’s guides (powerful performances by--Celia Herrera Rodriguez, Roadwoman; Arnita Dobbins, Cedar Woman; Robert Owens-Greygrass, El Caminante; the luminous Itzpapalotl and Tzitzimitl played by Alleluia Panis, Delina Patrice Brooks, Greg Manalo; El Danzante, Rico Kleinstein Chenyek; Coyote/trickster, Adelina Anthony; the powerful singing of Oglala Lakota, Charlene O’Rourke) all surround Vero (Dena Martinez) to do what Gloria Anzaldúa asks of us all:

From Borderlands/La Frontera: “I acknowledge that the self and the race have been wounded . . . On that day I gather the splintered and disowned parts of la gente mexicana and hold them in my arms. Todas las partes de nosotros valen . . . I will not be shamed again/Nor will I shame myself. I am possessed by a vision: that we Chicanas and Chicanos have taken back or uncovered our true faces.” (87-8)

art piece by Celia Herrera Rodríguez

At the end of the play, I didn’t want to leave the theater. I had been sitting with friends who included writer and activist Jewelle Gomez and Sylvie Walters from France who is now living in San Francisco. Sylvie was amazed and quite moved by the play but wished, as Jewelle and I had also wished—that there might have been a Q&A afterwards (we didn’t go on a night they were having a “TalkBack”—but I feel every performance would have benefited from a "TalkBack"). The play was so remarkably different that we wanted to have a dialogue—to hear what other people thought. Sylvie was not happy about, what she felt to be, a very short round of applause for the actors. She explained that in France (and various other countries—including my own frame of reference: Mexico) the audience will clap for five minutes or more at a time. The actors will leave but then will return for more applause. Gifts are distributed to the players and more applause follows. She felt that such a short round of applause and then watching the audience get up and leave so soon did not honor the long hours the actors/staff had put into the production. She wanted to stay in the atmosphere, the sound and feelings she was experiencing. She wanted to honor them with her presence. So we sat and talked while keeping our eyes on the stage, watching the actors come out, the back stage members prepare the stage for the next performance. We sat for a good while talking and thinking about what we had just seen. We all agreed that the combination of ritual, song, and story opens various perspectives on identity, social traumas, and healing. We also discussed our own personal journeys of migration, identity, healing. The three of us were “doing” one of the repeated lines from the play: creating “our small nation of remember.”

Sylvie Walters, Jewelle Gomez, Amelia M.L. Montes (before the play began)

A few days later, Robert Hurwitt, Theater Critic for The San Francisco Chronicle weighed in with his review of the play as “inspired and beautiful.” However, he felt the indigenous rituals “overwhelm[ed] the theatrical,” and they took too long therefore “shut(ing) out those who aren’t already convinced of its message.” I go back to Cherrie’s interview with me and how she said this play is not for a mainstream audience (white, middle class). "They are not our base," she said. The play is on Indian/Mexica time, not European western-theater time. It is an invitation for Chicanas y Chicanos/ Latinas y Latinos, individuals of color, to participate, witness, and understand the wounds Vero has carried for 51 years and finally expunges on the 52nd, and the kind of NEW FIRE all of us need under our feet in order “to put things right again" and the importance of coming into community to speak and share. Moraga points out the importance of returning to our community, to our raza to do this.

Celia Herrera Rodríguez and Adelina Anthony

There is a wonderful short video (accompanied by Erika Vivianna Céspedes' great blog on the play) with Adelina Anthony and Cherrie Moraga further explaining NEW FIRE. This is a great little video because it also includes individuals who were interviewed right after seeing the play--right outside the theater. It's inspiring to see these individuals so filled with the spirit of what NEW FIRE offers.

Check it out here: CLICK!

In the last section of her 1992 essay, Moraga writes: “We must open the wound to make it heal, purify ourselves with the prick of Maguey thorns . . .

And we, the Codex-Makers, remove the white mask.

We wait and watch the horizon.

Our Olmeca third eye

begins to glisten

in the slowly

rising

light.

New Fire—“To Put Things Right Again” plays for one more week. DON’T MISS IT!!

Sunday, January 22, 3p.m. Matinee (with Talkback)

Monday, January 23, 8p.m. (Industry Night with Talkback)

Friday, January 27, 8p.m. (with Talkback)

Saturday, January 28, 8p.m.

Sunday, January 29, 3p.m. Matinee (with Talkback) CLOSING

Brava Theater, 2781 24^th St. (at York), San Francisco, California

Tickets: $10-$30

Brava Box Office: 415-647-2882 / www.brava.org

Chicano Studies attack debated. Denver artist dreams while awake.

2012-01-21T01:31:00.001-07:00

This past Thursday, Bloguista Ernesto Hogan compared right-wing attacks on everything mexicano to performance art, at its worst. The American way of ruling this country is attacking us: profiling us on the streets, dumping any affirmative action, trying to eliminate Chicano Studies in its many forms, deporting Dream citizens, banning books that tell our country's overall history, and recently attempting to resurrect (anti-)voting rights laws. For the moment at least, it's not illegal to have Spanish surnames, but maybe that too is in a subcommittee somewhere.

For those of you who missed it, PBS station Democracy Now! aired a debate this week between Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal and Richard Martinez, the attorney representing teachers and students trying to save Mexican American Studies in Arizona public schools. Democracy Now! seems to have recently widened their reporting to include "the other side," possibly due to some of the same pressures described above (my own conjecture). But at least it features latino journalist Juan Gonzalez who works to add "our" perspective to its reporting.

Banning of books, censorship of viewpoints is not just totally undemocratic; it's threateningly fascistic, especially when we realize that the Arizona powers-that-be-in-control want Paolo Freire, Rudy Acuña and even some of Shakespeare eliminated from specific curricula--ours. To better understand (and be able to join the debate over) the threat to public access to the diverse history and literature of the U.S., click below to check out the full transcript.

Democracy Now!'s intro:

"Public school officials in Tucson, Arizona, have released a list of seven books that can no longer be used in classrooms following their suspension of the district’s acclaimed Mexican American Studies program. Last year, Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal ruled the program violated a new state law, saying it "promote[s] resentment toward a race or class of people." "If all you’re teaching these students is one viewpoint, one dimension, we can readily see that it’s not an accurate history, it’s not an education at all. It’s not teaching these kids to think critically," Huppenthal says, "but instead it’s an indoctrination.

"[Democracy Now!] hosts a debate between Huppenthal and Richard Martinez, the attorney representing teachers and students trying to save the Mexican American Studies program."

Go here for the full text of Debating Tucson School District’s Book Ban After Suspension of Mexican American Studies Program.
__________________

Exhibition Opening at Museo de las Americas presenting
Why Not...
Thursday, February 2, 2012

Denver, CO - Museo de las Americas presents the spring exhibition, Why Not.... This exhibit is a retrospective of Denver artist Daniel Luna whose distinct style has captivated and charmed audiences all over the world. When asked about the intent behind his work, he says, "what I want is for a moment to share the beautiful magic of dreaming while awake."

All of his paintings have a story behind them, and capture a moment in time, an experience. Daniel presents his visions to us in a way that juxtaposes the everyday with imagination, and forces the viewer to accept the possibility of existence.

There is no other artist in Colorado that can claim to be a "Regional Mythologist." Daniel Luna's paintings of chickens crying over a frying pan full of eggs or a native woman holding a toaster to roast watermelons will remind you of a magic that reality holds within our dreams.

Join us for a night of illusion, featuring a performance by Opera Colorado from Florencia en el Amazonas.

A public reception will be held on February 2, 2012 from 7-9 p.m.; members' preview 6-7pm.

Exhibition Programming:
April 19 Conversacion Contacto with Daniel Luna – 4:30-6:30 p.m.
Exhibit runs through May 28, 2012.

About the Museo de las Americas:
Museo de las Americas (Museo) is the Rocky Mountain region's foremost museum dedicated to educating its community about the diversity of Latino Americano art and culture from ancient to contemporary. The Museo presents exhibitions and education programs that offer new views on Latin American art, advances the role of Latino artists in the global cultural dialogue, and is a cultural hub for the local, national, and global community. The museum is centrally located in the historic Santa Fe Arts District – one of Denver's oldest Latino neighborhoods – at 861 Santa Fe Drive. For more information, please visit: www.museo.org or contact: Tessa Harvey; Museo de las Americas (303) 571-4401 ext. 25.

Spotlight on Richard Vargas

2012-01-20T00:00:00.002-07:00

by Melinda Palacio

Poet Richard Vargas

At one time, Richard Vargas attended middle school in Lynwood, California, across the railroad tracks from Watts where Luis J. Rodriguez lived, but the two didn’t meet for the first time until almost 30 years later, when they were both living in Illinois. Vargas left his job with UPS in 1995 due to a back injury, listened to his creative spirit and moved from Southern California to Rockford, Illinois. He found himself working as the community events manager for the local Barnes & Noble and as poetry editor for the town’s weekly newspaper, The Rock River Times. He discovered that the Rockford school board was about to ban Luis Rodriguez’s book, Always Running, over passages that were read out of context and over the airwaves by an overzealous and opportunistic radio talk show host. The outrageous bias Vargas heard on the radio prompted him to write several columns condemning the banning of books. The Rock River Times set up a town hall meeting for Luis Rodriguez to come up from Chicago and defend his book by debating some of the ultra-conservative school board members in public. Rodriguez’s visit was partially successful, receiving coverage on TV, print, and radio. During that month, Always Running became the top selling book at the local Barnes & Noble. But in the end, the school board had their way and banished Luis’ book from the school libraries. Richard has considered Luis his comrade-in-arms ever since then, and in 2007, Luis Rodriguez and Tia Chucha Press published Vargas’ second book of poetry, American Jesus.

For the new year, the poet finds himself again at a crossroads, ripe for reinvention. However, this time, his situation is vastly different as he continues to pursue his poetry. Last year he has received an MFA with distinction from the University of New Mexico and he is the publisher of The Más Tequila Review, a poetry journal with the byline, “Poetry for the rest of us.” He has completed a new poetry manuscript and is searching for a publishing home for his book and a professorship job to take him to his new home, wherever that might be. He only knows that with his MFA completed, he will regretfully have to look outside New Mexico in search of a job where he can use his degree, and leaving the supportive literary community he calls home will be a hard thing to do. Vargas admits he’s a fresh voice outside the canon, with additional experience in organizing literary events and publishing an independent poetry journal, making him a good addition to the right creative writing program. He values the years he’s spent as a graduate student and his too-short stint as the events coordinator for Alamosa Books in Albuquerque. “New Mexico has a vibrant, active poetry scene, and Albuquerque loves its poets.” Vargas said. “I’m really enjoying my time here. If you are a writer, Albuquerque, and New Mexico as a whole, is a great place to be.”

Last month, La Bloga featured a short film by Viridiana Martinez, “La LLorona,” based on Vargas’ poem children of the lost. http://vimeo.com/33003271

Of his poetry, Virgil Suarez, author of Spared Angola: Memories of a Cuban-American childhood, says, “Richard Vargas is single-handedly re-energizing contemporary poetry and the American vernacular.” Last year, Vargas’s non-fiction works were featured in Kweli Journal and National Public Radio’s All Things Considered.

One thing that has not changed for the distinguished poet is his desire to use his poetry to speak out against social injustice and the diminishing political voice of the working class. Last year, Vargas organized a fundraiser for the Occupy Movement. In his role as publisher of The Más Tequila Review, Vargas supports poetry that gives a voice to the many and takes a stand against the abuse of power by the few. The Winter 2012 issue of The Más Tequila Review will be available in early Feb.

Richard welcomes visits to his website.

Future Events for Richard Vargas

Richard will be joining Tia Chucha Press events at AWP in Chicago.

"Here is the AWP / Tia Chucha Press author signing schedule for Friday, March 2:

Jose Antonio Rodriguez 11:00 am
Michael Warr 12:00 noon
Patricia Smith 1:00 pm
Patricia Spears Jones 2:00 pm
Richard Vargas 3:00 pm

Also we have an outside-AWP reading with the Guild Complex on Thursday, March 1, 2012 in the evening details TBA. This will include Michael Warr and Patricia Smith and Luis J. Rodriguez as featured readings, along with A.Van Jordan, Patricia Spears Jones, and Richard Vargas.

(La Bloga's Melinda Palacio and Daniel Olivas will be on a panel at AWP: Wachale: Chicano Debut Novelists at 10:30, Saturday March 3.)

April 15, 3-5 pm, Richard Vargas reads with Margaret Randall, Lauren Camp, and ElaineUpton on the theme of “Family and Heritage.” Unitarian-Universalist Church, 107 W. Barcelona Rd., Santa Fe, NM.

when you beat me

Richard Vargas

does your arm tire

as you swing your

baton into the thud

of my flesh and bone

and you hear me

moan in pain

when you crack

my ribs and jab

my soft belly

do you feel like a

job well done when

you pin me on the

ground and harness

my wrists like a

rodeo cowboy

hogties cattle

no matter that

we are both looked

down upon by those

on their balconies

of glass and steel

who laugh and joke

as they spread caviar

on fancy crackers

that will never pass

our lips

while you choke me

knock me down

look at how they

raise their flutes

of exquisite champagne

sparkling in the sun

blinding you with

cold brilliance

and empty nods

of approval

for a friend who objects to comparing the events leading up to the Holocaust

with what is happening today in Arizona

by Richard Vargas

“I’m marked by the color of my skin. / The bullets are discrete and designed

to kill slowly. /

They are aiming at my children. / These are the facts.”

by Lorna Dee Cervantes from Poem for the Young White Man Who Asked Me How I, an Intelligent, Well-Read Person Could Believe in the War Between Races by

for you “never again”

is personal and sacred

never again to being reduced

to less than human

never again to madmen

who spit their words

at you like careless

but calculated grenades

never again to being

scapegoat while a

government dulls

the minds and hearts

of its citizens to accept

the atrocities it will do

in their names

but even as i read this

we both know

it is

happening again

all over the world

and now

within our own borders

the tribes are different

yet they are the same

the raging wall of flame

that almost consumed

your people still burns

aided by strong winds

flapping the flags of old

and new hatreds

it’s a modern day

pogrom in the making

fingers pointing at “illegal

aliens” and “anchor babies”

words devised to strip

away humanity from

the powerless

but you and i know

what’s really going on

the names of brown people

are being redacted

from our children’s

history books

right now

we both know this beginning

this beginning with an end

no one wants to think about

but dwells deep inside our

fear gnawing nonstop like

a shiny slick maggot

so let us use your words

your gift to the world

language to name

the unspeakable

the unimaginable

the horrible

we will stand together

shout them out with

your same passion

and defiance in the

face of this heartless

beast

never again

nunca más

***

Luis J. Rodriguez has two Los Angeles appearances this weekend (an opportunity to get your copy of Rodriguez's new book It Calls You Back signed:

Saturday, January 21, 2012 - Contributors to the PM Press anthology, "Send My Love and a Molotov Cocktail: Stories of Crime, Love and Rebellion," including Luis J. Rodriguez, John A. Imani, Larry Fondation, Penny Mickelbury, moderated by Gary Phillips, will discuss the intersection between fiction and politics. 2 to 3:30 pm at the William Grant Still Art Center, 2520 S. West View Street, L.A. CA 90016. Contact: 213-847-1540

Sunday, January 22, 2012 - Poetry reading at Avenue 50 Studio, 131 North Avenue 50, Highland Park, CA. 2 to 4 pm. Contact: Luivette Resto or Kathy Gallegos 323-258-1435

***

Writing Workshop, limited space available, with Reyna Grande

What: Creative Writing Workshops with award-winning author, Reyna Grande.

When: 4 Thursdays, Jan. 19th to February 9th @6:30pm

Where: Private residence, East Whittier (Los Angeles County)
Who: Anyone who is looking for a supportive environment, guidance, and encouragement.
How much: $100.00 for four sessions

Contact Reyna Grande at reynagrande@gmail.com for more information about the classes. If you are working on a fiction or creative non-fiction project and are looking for feedback on your work, and/or would like to learn more about the craft of writing, then this class is for you! Space is limited!
About the Author:

Reyna Grande is the author of Across a Hundred Mountains, which received an American Book Award, the El Premio Aztlan Literary Award, and a Latino Books Into Movies Award. Her second novel was the recepient of a Latino Book Award. Her memoir, The Distance Between Us, is due for publication in August 2012. She is a sought-after speaker, educator, and event organizer. Visit her website at www.reynagrande.com

****

Announcements for Melinda Palacio:

Two reviews of Ocotillo Dreams came in this week. The Los Angeles Examiner by Frank Mundo and the first review in Spanish by Lydia Gil for EFE.

Chicanonautica: Sheriff Joe Arpaio -- Performance Artist

2012-01-19T00:01:00.017-07:00

by Ernest Hogan

With all respect to my personal favorite performance artists, Guillermo Gómez-Peńa, and La Pocha Nostra, I’ve got got to admit that the greatest performance artist of our times is Joe Arpiao, Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona. Sheriff Joe doesn’t have to go begging to fund his art -- local taxpayers and the federal government, until recently, have lavished the bucks on him. And he doesn’t need to worry about finding “art space” -- the media brings his performances to the world.

When he was first elected he promised to have his volunteer posse -- on horseback -- chase the prostitutes out of downtown Phoenix. Soon our local commercial sex workers and clients were conducting transactions in the bushes of my quiet neighborhood.

Then the mounted posse took to patrolling malls during the holidays. These were the malls on the West side where I live. The side where a lot of fair-skinned citizens are afraid to come after dark.

He also brought back the American tradition of the chain gang -- and even struck a blow for women’s rights by forming the first female chain gang. Often I would see young black and brown women, wearing orange jumpsuits and chained together, picking up roadside litter on my daily commute. Reminded me of what kind of society I was living in.

And we can’t forget Tent City -- an outdoor jail where those who haven’t yet undergone a trial sweat it out in pink underwear as they eat green baloney.

A favorite performance event of mine was from April 1999, when a mysterious object appeared in front of Sheriff Joe’s house. A police robot and the media were called in. Soon the Metro Phoenix area was treated to live TV coverage -- which must have eaten up some serious dinero -- of the robot facing off with a metal thing that looked like prop from old-fashioned sci-fi flick while Arpaio speculated about it being a bomb. The object looked more like stylized metal spider to me. After it was blown up, the object was found to be a piece of sculpture!

Was that performance or what?

Of course, Sheriff Joe’s most infamous performances are his immigration sweeps. They are popular with the sort of folks who have told me that the way to keep their neighborhoods safe is to keep the “Mexicans” out. Unfortunately, it’s hard to tell who is “Mexican” or “illegal.” Which has landed the Sheriff in the trouble with the Justice Department that he’s in today, and inspired Melinda Palacio’s novel Ocotillo Dreams, and my story “Burrito Meltdown.”

It’s nice when art inspires more art.

Lately, Sheriff Joe has been doing the kind of performance he does best -- the press conference where he comes on like a comedian doing a John Wayne imitation, warning the voters that if he’s stopped, a tsumani of criminals will rush across the border, bringing an end to civilization as we know it in Arizona.

I’ve often wondered, do the people who vote for Joe Arpiao, and his media fans, know the difference between law enforcement and performance art? Is there a difference in the Information Age? Is reality in Arizona a just a spaghetti western?

Ernest Hogan lives under the jurisdiction of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, and will be reviewing Melinda Palacio’s Ocotillo Dreams soon.

National Latino Children's Literature Conference

2012-01-18T01:10:00.000-07:00

Connecting Cultures & Celebrating Cuentos: National Latino Children's Literature Conference

The Next National Latino Children's Literature Conference will be held on March 29-30, 2012. The conference will be Thursday and Friday all day with a special event at the Tuscaloosa Public Library on the evening of March 29th. We have confirmed the Latino authors and illustrators below. Registration is now open!

On March 29th and 30th, 2012 celebrate the rich traditions and diversity within the Latino cultures at the National Latino Children’s Literature Conference. Discover how to meet the informational and literacy needs of Latino children via high quality, culturally-relevant literature and the latest educational strategies. Engage in unique networking opportunities with librarians, teachers, educators, and researchers from across the nation as we explore how to make intercultural connections and serve this rapidly growing, uniquely diverse population.

As the number of Latino children and their families continues to increase, so does the need for understanding these diverse cultures. This exclusive conference provides a forum for sharing current research and practice addressing the cultural, educational, and informational needs of Latino children and their families. At the same time, the conference also examines the many social influences that Latino children’s and young adult literature have upon the developing child and adolescent.

For more informarion, contact Conference Chair Dr. Jamie Naidoo at jcnaidoo@slis.ua.edu or 205-348-4610. Visit www.latinochildlitconf.org

Taco Shop Poets. Musician Brings Asco to Fowler. Foto:msedano. On-Line Floricanto

2012-01-17T00:01:00.152-07:00

Review: Taco shop poets Sugar Skull Sueños

The Taco Shop Poets: Sugar Skull Sueños. Adrian Arancibia, Adolfo Guzman Lopez, Tomás Riley, Miguel-Angel Soria (Editors). Tinta Vox, 2011.

ISBN-10: 0615326897 & ISBN-13: 978-0615326894

Michael Sedano

Arroyo Books in Highland Park announced a performance by a new group called the Taco Shop Poets. Excited at the concept of live a la brava poetry readings, I arrived early. And waited alone. Would anyone else arrive to hear this new group?

After a while, some people came and we waited together. Patience turned im- and when I left three restless people remained behind. I don’t know if Taco Shop Poets ever showed up that evening, and for a while, I didn’t care. This wasn’t even CPT, such treatment was standard seven-letter gay repartee.

Then Calaca Press released Raza Spoken Here, a spoken word CD featuring the youth and power I’d gone in search of that evening to Arroyo Books. The Taco Shop Poets were an important part of that CD. TSP established itself as a community phenomenon and found a delighted audience. Then, a few years after, the group began branching out. TSP member Tomás Riley published his outstanding solo work, Mahcic. As time and the literary movimiento developed, TSP moved out of the limelight.

They’re back.

Four “core member” Taco Shop Poets have published a chapbook showcasing current work, Sugar Skull Sueños. This comes in ebook and hard copy from Tintavox. Sugar Skull Sueños joins the list of 2011 titles that you might have missed last year. Ni modo. You can order your copy publisher-direct today.

Any artist with longevity takes on an important role in a community’s literature. Affording a synoptic view, a reader can pick up a current volume and assess the destination and trajectory of that literature. As shown by the four poets in Sugar Skull Sueños, like good tacos there’s ample variety for any palate and it’s all mostly tasty.

Adrian Arancibia writes a conventional line, code-switching and bilingual poems. He evokes the pang of longing, of absence. In “poem for willie perdomo” the poet is today’s family man with a brief pang of longing for missed opportunities, but sensibly ends firmly closing the door on the single vato’s lifestyle.

Adolfo Guzman-Lopez’ trio of works illustrates a style-in-discord. From the raucous and typographically unconventional eulogy to Shifra Goldman, “Primero de Mayo del 2010,” to the wildly antiformal alliteration of “Para Poetas Pulqueros,” a 113-word mixture of “n” words, Guzman-Lopez’ style refuses to settle down. While this may seem admirable in a Taco Shop Poet from the 1980s, Guzman-Lopez’ middle piece, the quietly thoughtful and worthwhile “Piedras,” reflects refined sensibilities and expressive restraint that bursts with strength.

Of the four TSP veteranos in the chapbook, Tomás Riley is the only one who apparently doesn’t develop the short form poem. Riley shares three excerpts from longer work, including the best title in the chapbook, “post chicano stress disorder.” Riley would have served a reader better by running the provocative title whole. The two other “from…” pieces offer little stylistic variety—Riley’s style is well-honed. Riley conveys a sense of hopelessness that “post-chicano” involves an existence of endurance, ritualized identity more symbolic than fleshed, and homeless winos under a bridge somewhere. Chicanas Chicanos are entitled to redemption, que no?

Closing out the chapbook comes Miguel-Angel Soria. “Untitled” and, in Spanish, “Meditación,” feature line length language games that produce visually challenging lines that give up their meaning as part of the play. He goes too far in the third instance, “poemasinabox.” Soria’s laid out a 5x5 grid, typed a word or more in each cell. Surrounding every other cell with a black line encourages reading left-to-right then top-to-bottom, then diagonally like a word find puzzle, down, then up and eventually nothing needs to make sense any more.

I found myself wondering how Soria would read his boxes poem aloud, or how the other poets would convey the visual look of the page to a listening audience. In some pieces the ear would not hear the different look on the page, such as Tomás Riley’s

now talking to whatever’s in a paper bag

you leave behind

3 oranges

1 bottle water y

etcetera

a scripture of whatever signs

the bottom line on what amounts to

45 minutes of life here,

tops. in the pushcart of whatever

left behind

2 hijos

1 mujer y

la quietud

and how does it go? a song-a-night

bargain? echoes into day

their town

their corners

just your eyes and hands

that never soften

On the other hand, much of Soria’s impact grows from ambiguities that spring from abrupt line endings and typographic trickery:

o ate

yo cre

que

open

sky

sol

mente

sin

ser

mente

todomiseriseverywhereandnot

Trusting that this time the Taco Shop Poets will make a point to be on time, I look forward to an opportunity to attend any local readings by these Taco Shop Poets of Sugar Skull Sueños. In the meantime, the collection is available via download or hard copy at the publisher’s website.

At UCLA's Fowler - A Musical Conversation with La Santa Cecilia + Paper Fashion with Patssi Valdez

Saturday, February 4, 2012, 7–10 pm, Fowler Museum on the UCLA campus. From the Fowler:

GRAMMY-nominated La Santa Cecilia—fronted by belter La Marisoul—draws inspiration from a hybrid of Latin culture, rock and world music in passionate performances that mesmerize audiences. After an interview moderated by Josh Kun, curator of the PST/GRAMMY Museum exhibition Trouble in Paradise: Music and Los Angeles 1945-75 and director of The Popular Music Project at USC Annenberg’s The Norman Lear Center, La Santa Cecilia will take audience questions and perform a selection of songs.

During the post-concert reception, Asco icon Patssi Valdez leads a crunch-and-fold workshop inspired by Asco’s 1970’s-era public appearances as self-made fashionistas in paper gowns and hats. See Valdez’s work in Mapping Another L.A.: The Chicano Art Movement, which will be open. Reception includes dessert and a cash bar.

$10 for Fowler/GRAMMY Museum members and students; $15 general.

Tickets now on sale via The GRAMMY Museum box office: 213-765-6803.
Box office hours: Monday-Friday 11:30 am-7:30 pm, Saturday-Sunday 10:00 am-7:30 pm

Co-presented by The GRAMMY Museum.

Birds and Mammals Foto:msedano

Almost every year my wife and I enjoy a weeked in Morro Bay at the annual bird festival. This year's fest was a bird bust. Not a whole lot of action on the birding scene.

Drought may have killed off a lot of the population, or I may have looked the wrong way. At any rate, I did manage a handful of fun images that you can see at Read! Raza. By the way, these are filed under "Chicano photography".

On-Line Floricanto Mid-January 2012

"Lady Gaga New Year" by Sandra María Esteves
"Arizona Lament" by Sean Penna
"Rompiendo el silencio /Shattered Silence" by Claudia D. Hernández
"It Has Always Been the Way" by Andrea Mauk
“Catedral / Cathedral” by Jorge Argueta

Lady Gaga New Year
by Sandra María Esteves

Betty boop parade in häagen-dazs flavas,
cleopatra pop diva cousin to
beyonce, jennifer, christina, shakira,
sister to mariah, granddaughter of marilyn,
student of josephine, neighbor to frida,
madonna’s babygirl, amy’s twin, nina’s hang out buddy,
may west witch warrior,
wild wandering wolf woman,

I could never look like you. Not because
I’m not that hungry for attention
or too sensitive to noise
or that my thoughts need to breathe
as far as they can see, as deep as they can reach;

but because I prefer props that are mine:
seven day candles, agua florida, well-rolled cigars,
cantos to Elegba, the machete under my bed;
conquistadora stories of Anacaona, Betances, Lolita,
Don Pedro, Julia and Schomburg,
scribes to inner voices sailing thru my head.

“Write, write, write!” they articulate.
Life is in need of me, and I,
desperately, am in need of life,
here to tip the balance before
we all disappear overnight.

The idea of spending
gazillion pennies on a dress—
not necessarily what I call success,
not the song I’d rather sing,
not the woman I teach daughters to become.

But go on girl, do your thing!
If that’s your best, I will not deny
your right to dress, your choice
and form of protest, to think
outside the box. Who says you can’t
when you say you can?

On another note, that
carbon afterglow you ride—
you can’t fly in your four-wheel bunk
then say you care to save the land
for folks you love. It doesn’t work that way.

I say find life inside the river well and in
still breaths between trees and bricks where
the queen of hearts commands none other
than herself. More than a well-paid photo op
or good cop in ghettofabulandia,

there is this drum divine, a bomba quinto bata
to honor God and Spirit, the living Earth inside us,
a cha-cha gagá in rumba bembé that calls
our name, insists we pay attention
in lyrics like rain to wash the sins and pains
of queen and kingdoms that we claim.

I’ll tell you what:
you do you and I’ll do me.
That way we can both be free.
No need to compete, we are complete,
replete from head to feet.

While you be prancing fancy over there,
I’ll be bringing down dancing over here
where rain falls hard and loud
inside our magic coat, our quilt of dreams.

While you be spinning sparkles
into hypnotic crowds,
I’ll be channeling firebolts
sent by Madrina Oya, to remind us
that there is still much work to be done.

Happy New Year everyone!
2012 arrives with a bang!
Year of Madre Oya and Baba Ogun,
spirit mother and father for today
come to instruct, prepare the way;
goddess of lightning at the cemetery gate,
blacksmith crafting tools, knives for
bloodletting and purging decay,
hammer axes, Ochosi’s bow to aim strong
and pure of heart for what’s coming
down the road in this theater of life
where politicians are bought, land is sold
and people are enslaved for the sake of gold.

Let it rain. Let there be water to fill the wells
for thirsty children and angry souls.
Bring forth stories we need to tell
to awaken and focus celestial bells.
There is a journey to unfold
to save each other and save our souls,
make peace with Earth in the ways we live,
love, laugh and learn to forgive.

Happy New Year everyone!
2012, here with a bang!

© 2012 Sandra María Esteves

Arizona Lament
by Sean Penna

Brothers and sisters…
Have you seen Esteban?

Esteban has been taken…
Locked away in the furnace heat
Of a Maricopa deportation cell.

But who will tend my yard now?
Esteban made our neighborhood a grand oasis
Its beauty born from the sweat of his brow

Put on your gloves people!
For now you will see what real work is.
Esteban has been taken…
And his history erased from our land.

Brothers and sisters…
Have you seen Luisa and Ramon?

Their work visas expired…
And there was no one to help them
With paperwork for The Man.

But who will make my lunch now?
Their truck was a culinary Mecca
A cornerstone of our community

Get in your cars people!
Convenience store nachos are now your lunch.
Luisa and Ramon have been taken…
And their children left behind.

Brothers and sisters…
Have you seen Carmen?

Carmen is gone…
She was pulled over, a headlight was out
ICE sent her to Matamoros

But who will scrub my floors now?
Carmen made my house shine like diamonds
My children adored her so…

Get on your knees people!
The floors are your penance now.
Carmen has been taken…
Her lifeless body lies in Matamoros.

Brothers and sisters…
What have you done?

Rompiendo el silencio
por Claudia D. Hernández

Mientras el sol
penetra cada nube,

se esclarece el cielo,

revelando
su cadáver
descompuesto—

Desnuda,
ha sido abandonada
en pleno desierto:

—no se encuentra
no regresa—

Su alma entera
ha sido mutilada.

Se la llevan viva;
La regresan muerta.

Atormentados,
todos rezan:

—no se encuentra
no regresa—

Todos lloran,

Elevando sus miradas
a ese cielo despejado—

Torturados,
se dan cuenta
que nadie escucha…

Shattered Silence
by Claudia D. Henández

As the sun
Pierces the clouds,

The sky clears,

Revealing her
Decomposing corpse—

Naked,
She has been abandoned
In the desert plain:

—She cannot be found
She has not returned—

Her soul
Has been mutilated.

They took her whole;
They return her dead.

Tormented,
Her family prays:

—She cannot be found
She has not returned—

Everyone cries,

Elevating their eyes
To the clear sky—

Tortured,
They notice that
No one listens…

English translation by José Hernández Díaz

It Has Always Been the Way
by Andrea Mauk

It has been
since the beginning of time
the way,
that lines were meant to be crossed
and obstacles overcome,
that there was no challenge too
complex, no canyon too deep or peek toweringly high,
no problem that couldn't be solved.
This world was meant
to be used for the bounty of resources
it provided,
and explored until
no pebble had been left
unturned,
no paradise left uncharted,
and all things taken,
because that's how they are,
they take,
and they want,
and they desire
and they own
until their bellies are round
and their minds fall asleep
while lethargy surrounds.

The mountains have been scaled,
the oceans crossed,
the Earths four corners wound neatly into a ball
in order to make sure they wouldn't fall away
into the terrifying unknown,
the moon speared and harnessed and lassoed
by jovial men bouncing about,
the ice caps melted
and the deserts air-conditioned and
watered until green,
the sacred corn kernel
genetically altered
because science always
improves upon nature.

They have turned their backs
on the mesages held in the whispers of the wind,
taken for granted the warmth of the sun,
the cycle of water and the cycle of life.
They have lived life in a linear fashion,
start to finish as if in a race to the end,
never looking back to see what they've left behind
except what can be counted in terms of power
or monetary wealth.

They have squashed those in their path,
hemmed them up, fenced them in,
sent them back, um, er, repatriated,
killed them with homicides and
genocides and holocausts.
They have extolled the virtues of the great soldiers
and conquerors,
told themselves that God was an architect of
Western Expansion.
They have edited and revised the mythologies,
and taken a pink pearl eraser to the less
flattering pages of history.

But a pink pearl eraser always leaves
shavings and smudges and black marks,
and the children's eyes turned glazed-over
as we gaze upon the one-dimensional accounts,
the stories that say, "We" though we
recognize that "we" are the ones that are
missing from the pages,
marginal if at all,
or set aside in a box with a pretty border
in tokenized glory.

It has always been the way,
and they have yet to learn
that legislating the instruction of history
doesn't work.
We know the line is really a circle, a cycle,
we hear the ancestor's voices chanting,
the mythology pulses through our veins
as wisdom and truth.
We understand that when we take, we must
also give back,
and that more does not necessarily translate
to happy.

We are not included,
but we are not invisible.
Our history is ancient,
and glorious.
It will not disappear.

Yes, it has always been the way,
but we who live between the borderlands
know better than anyone
that borders are fake,
lines drawn in the sand,
blown away by the wind,
while our stories ruminate throughout
the great forever.
It has always been the way.

CATEDRAL
Poema en protesta al mural destruido de Fernando Llort
por Jorge Tetl Argueta

Le arrancan la hermosa piel
de colores a nuestra Catedral
y nos dejan ver
sus huesos blancos

Le arrancaron la piel de colores a nuestra Catedral
y todos escuchamos
cómo vuelve
a llorar El Salvador

Todos recordamos a más de ochenta mil muertos

Fosas comunes
Gritos
Llanto
Miseria

Esperanza que fue hecha pedazos
Nos quieren tirar a la basura
La esperanza, señor Arzobispo, no muere
es de colores, nace cada día con el sol

Le arracan la piel de colores a nuestra Catedral
y todos recordamos
una guerra que aún después de tantos años
no termina todavía

Madre Catedral que has escuchado
el dolor de los salvadoreños
que aún lloran a sus desaparecidos
aquí te doy un hupil* de palabras

Para que ya no tengas frío, ni calor
ni pena
y no te duela tanto recordar tanta injusticia
y tanto muerto

Madre llena de gritos
Madre que estás en el cielo y en la tierra
Madre de los oprimidos
Madre de los recuerdos

Madre de los niños y las niñas
Madre de las vendedoras
y los vendedores del mercado

Madre de las prostitutas
y de los ladrones
Madre de todas las pobrezas

Madre que estás en los cielos
y en la tierra
Madre indígena
Madre de colores

Madre Catedral
ahora que estás chulona
yo sé que a tus paredes
también les duelen los recuerdos

Déjame que te cubra con este rezo
y que le pida a Monseñor Romero
una Homilia
de colores para ti

Para tus paredes
Para nuestro pueblo
Para de una vez
cubrir y sanarnos las heridas todos

© Jorge Tetl Argueta,
San Francisco, CA
2012

CATHEDRAL
by Jorge Tetl Argueta

They ripped off the colorful
Skin of our Cathedral
And let us see
Her white bones

They ripped off the
Colorful skin of our Cathedral
And we all hear how El Salvador
Cries again

We all remember more than eighty thousand dead

Common graves
Screams
Laments
Misery

Hope torn to pieces
And thrown away like garbage
Hope, Archbishop, doesn’t die
It is colorful and is born each day with the sun

They ripped off the colorful skin of our Cathedral
And we all remember a war
That even after all these years
Still goes on

Cathedral, mother, you who have heard
The sorrow of all Salvadorans
You who are still crying for the disappeared
I offer you a huipil* of words

So you won’t be cold or hot
Or feel ashamed
So you won’t be in pain
Remembering so much injustice
And so many dead people

Mother filled with screams
In heaven as in earth
Mother of the oppressed
Mother of memories

Mother of boys and girls
Mother of all the street vendors
of the markets

Mother of all prostitutes and thieves
Mother who is in heaven and on earth

Mother Cathedral
Now that you are naked
I know your walls
Have painful memories

Allow me to cover you
With this prayer
And allow me to ask Monsignor Romero
For a colorful homily for you

So your walls
Your people
Our people
Will cover their wounds and heal once and for all

Jorge Argueta,
San Francisco, CA
2012

*Indian skirt

BIOS

"Lady Gaga New Year" by Sandra María Esteves
"Arizona Lament" by Sean Penna
"Rompiendo el silencio /Shattered Silence" by Claudia D. Hernández
"It Has Always Been the Way" by Andrea Mauk
“Catedral / Cathedral” by Jorge Argueta

SandraMariaEsteves byGerogeMalave 2006

Poet and visual artist, Sandra María Esteves, known as The Godmother of Nuyorican Poetry, has published several collections of poetry which include: DivaNations (self-published, a cappella, audio cd, 2010); Wildflowers (self-published, a cappella, audio cd, 2009); Portal (self-published, Limited Editions Press, 2007); Poems In Concert (self-published, Air Loom Publications, 2006); Portfolio (self-published, 2003); Finding Your Way, Poems for Young Folks (self-published, No Frills Publications, 1999); Contrapunto In the Open Field (self-published, No Frills Publications, 1998); Undelivered Love Poems (self-published, No Frills Publications, 1997); Bluestown Mockingbird Mambo (Arte Público Press, 1990); Tropical Rain: A Bilingual Downpour (self-published, African Caribbean Poetry Theater, 1984); and Yerba Buena (Greenfield Review Press, 1980; selected Best Small Press 1981 by the Library Journal).
One of the first Dominican Boricua Nuyorican women to publish a recognized volume of poetry in the United States, she is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships including: a Pregones Theater/NEA Master Artist Award, 2010; the Con Tinta Award from the Acentos Poetry Collective, 2007; Poet Honoree from Universes Poetic Theater Ensemble Company, 2006; The Owen Vincent Dodson Memorial Award For Poetry from Blind Beggar Press, 2002; Arts Review Honoree from the Bronx Council on the Arts, 2001; The Edgar Allan Poe Literary Award from the Bronx Historical Society, 1992; and a Poetry Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts in 1985, among others.
Sandra was formerly the Executive Director/Producer of the African Caribbean Poetry Theater, where she produced several seasons of full-length, staged, equity showcase, off-Broadway plays, touring productions, multimedia spoken word performances, poetry series, theater workshops and publications.
Her poems have appeared in: The Afro-Latin@ Reader, History and Culture In the United States, Ed. by Miriam Jiménez and Juan Flores, Duke University Press, 2010 • Let Loose On the World: Celebrating Amiri Baraka at 75, The Amiri Baraka Commemoration Committee, 2009 • African Voices, Fall/Winter 2007, Vol. 12, Issue 23 • Understanding the Latina/o Experience in the United States: Readings in Ethnic Studies; John Jay College of Criminal Justice; Pearson Education Company; 2007 • Latino Boom, An Anthology of U.S. Latino Literature, Pearson Education, Inc., www.ablongman.com, 2006 • The Heath Anthology of American Literature, Vol E, Contemporary Period 1945 to the Present, Houghton Mifflin Co., 2006 • Red Hot Salsa, Bilingual Poems on Being Young and Latino in the United States, Henry Holt and Company, 2005 • U.S. Latino Literature Today, Pearson Education, Inc., 2005 • Approaching Literature in the 21st Century, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2005 • Puerto Rican Music and Dance: RicanStructing Roots/Routes, Part II, Centro Journal Vol. XVI, No. 2, Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños, Hunter College/CUNY, 2004 • Latino Studies Journal, Vol. 2, Issue 2, Ed. by Suzanne Oboler, Univ. of Illinois at Chicago, www.palgrave-journals.com, 2004 • Riding Low on the Streets of Gold, Latino Literature for Young Adults, Ed. by Judith Ortiz Cofer, Piñata Books/Arte Publico Press/University of Houston, 2003 • Almost a Woman web site for Exxon-Mobil Masterpiece Theater American Collection, WGBH/Boston, 2002 • Herencia: The Anthology of Hispanic Literature of the United States, Ed. by Nicolás Kanellos, Oxford University Press, 2002 • The Prentice Hall Anthology of Latino Literature, Prentice Hall/Pearson Education Inc., 2002 • Bum Rush the Page, Three Rivers Press/Crown Publishing Group, 2001 • Glencoe Literature, The Reader’s Choice: American Literature, Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2000 • Hispanic American Literature, NTC Publishing Group, 1998 • El Coro, A Chorus of Latino and Latina Poetry, University of Massachusetts Press, 1997 • In Other Words, Literature by Latinas of the United States, Arte Publico Press, 1994 • Unsettling America, An Anthology of Contemporary Multicultural Poetry, Penguin Books, 1994 • Aloud, Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Henry Holt and Co., 1994, and others.
Ms. Esteves has presented her work at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, the Kennedy Center, the Public Theater, and at major universities and educational institutions across the country. A teaching artist for over thirty years, she has conducted literary programs for the New York City Board of Education, Teachers & Writers Collaborative, the Bronx Council on the Arts, the Caribbean Cultural Center and El Museo del Barrio, among others. Today, she continues creating art, presenting poetry readings, producing/directing spoken-word collaborations and teaching creative writing workshops.
Sandra believes that creativity is the antithesis to violence. Her writings focus on transformation and empowerment through reflection and analysis of real life issues. She draws on her wealth of literary form, wordplay, structure and history.
For more info and to view her visual artwork go to: http://www.SandraEsteves.com.

Sean lives in Lodi, California with Chicana poet Nancy Aide Gonzalez. Besides writing, he enjoys cooking, playing the drums and spending time with his 2 daughters Andie and Sophia. "I am so honored to be featured in La Bloga for the second time. There are so many amazing talented poets, and it is humbling to be included among them. Their poems inspire me, and I hope I can inspire others to bring about change in the world. Thank you so much for this great honor!"

Claudia D. Hernández was born and raised in Guatemala. She is a bilingual teacher in Los Angeles area currently working on a Masters in Multicultural Education. She writes, illustrates, and manually binds children’s books. Her photography, poetry, and prose have been published in The Indigenous Sovereignty Issue of The Peak, Hinchas de Poesía, Poets Responding to SB1070, La Bloga’s on-line Floricanto, and in the first anthology of Poetica del Colectivo Verso Activo for Poesía Latinoamericana en Español. She enjoys collaborating with the Chicano poet, José Hernández Díaz. He often translates her work into English, and she, in turn, translates his into Spanish.

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

Jorge Tetl Argueta, is a native Salvadoran and Pipil Nahua Indian who spent much of his childhood in rural El Salvador. His bilingual children's books have received numerous awards. His poetry and short stories have appeared in acclaimed literary text books. Jorge Tetl's book for children's, Arroz con Leche/Un Poema Para Cocinar, Rice Pudding/A Cooking Poem, was selected one of 2010' s Best Children's Book by Kirkus Review. His latest bilingual children's book Guacamole, A Cooking Poem/Guacamole, Un Poema Para Cocinar would be out in spring. Jorge Tetl is currently the director of Talleres de Poesia, a literary organization that promotes children's literature in the United States and El Salvador.

The Meaning of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday

2012-01-16T00:01:00.006-07:00

By Coretta Scott King

[from The King Center]

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday celebrates the life and legacy of a man who brought hope and healing to America. We commemorate as well the timeless values he taught us through his example -- the values of courage, truth, justice, compassion, dignity, humility and service that so radiantly defined Dr. King’s character and empowered his leadership. On this holiday, we commemorate the universal, unconditional love, forgiveness and nonviolence that empowered his revolutionary spirit.

We commemorate Dr. King’s inspiring words, because his voice and his vision filled a great void in our nation, and answered our collective longing to become a country that truly lived by its noblest principles. Yet, Dr. King knew that it wasn’t enough just to talk the talk, that he had to walk the walk for his words to be credible. And so we commemorate on this holiday the man of action, who put his life on the line for freedom and justice every day, the man who braved threats and jail and beatings and who ultimately paid the highest price to make democracy a reality for all Americans.

The King Holiday honors the life and contributions of America’s greatest champion of racial justice and equality, the leader who not only dreamed of a color-blind society, but who also lead a movement that achieved historic reforms to help make it a reality.

On this day we commemorate Dr. King’s great dream of a vibrant, multiracial nation united in justice, peace and reconciliation; a nation that has a place at the table for children of every race and room at the inn for every needy child. We are called on this holiday, not merely to honor, but to celebrate the values of equality, tolerance and interracial sister and brotherhood he so compellingly expressed in his great dream for America.

It is a day of interracial and intercultural cooperation and sharing. No other day of the year brings so many peoples from different cultural backgrounds together in such a vibrant spirit of brother and sisterhood. Whether you are African-American, Hispanic or Native American, whether you are Caucasian or Asian-American, you are part of the great dream Martin Luther King, Jr. had for America. This is not a black holiday; it is a peoples' holiday. And it is the young people of all races and religions who hold the keys to the fulfillment of his dream.

We commemorate on this holiday the ecumenical leader and visionary who embraced the unity of all faiths in love and truth. And though we take patriotic pride that Dr. King was an American, on this holiday we must also commemorate the global leader who inspired nonviolent liberation movements around the world. Indeed, on this day, programs commemorating my husband’s birthday are being observed in more than 100 nations.

The King Holiday celebrates Dr. King’s global vision of the world house, a world whose people and nations had triumphed over poverty, racism, war and violence. The holiday celebrates his vision of ecumenical solidarity, his insistence that all faiths had something meaningful to contribute to building the beloved community.

The Holiday commemorates America’s pre-eminent advocate of nonviolence --- the man who taught by his example that nonviolent action is the most powerful, revolutionary force for social change available to oppressed people in their struggles for liberation.

This holiday honors the courage of a man who endured harassment, threats and beatings, and even bombings. We commemorate the man who went to jail 29 times to achieve freedom for others, and who knew he would pay the ultimate price for his leadership, but kept on marching and protesting and organizing anyway.

Every King holiday has been a national "teach-in" on the values of nonviolence, including unconditional love, tolerance, forgiveness and reconciliation, which are so desperately-needed to unify America. It is a day of intensive education and training in Martin’s philosophy and methods of nonviolent social change and conflict-reconciliation. The Holiday provides a unique opportunity to teach young people to fight evil, not people, to get in the habit of asking themselves, "what is the most loving way I can resolve this conflict?"

On the King holiday, young people learn about the power of unconditional love even for one's adversaries as a way to fight injustice and defuse violent disputes. It is a time to show them the power of forgiveness in the healing process at the interpersonal as well as international levels.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is not only for celebration and remembrance, education and tribute, but above all a day of service. All across America on the Holiday, his followers perform service in hospitals and shelters and prisons and wherever people need some help. It is a day of volunteering to feed the hungry, rehabilitate housing, tutoring those who can't read, mentoring at-risk youngsters, consoling the broken-hearted and a thousand other projects for building the beloved community of his dream.

Dr. King once said that we all have to decide whether we "will walk in the light of creative altruism or the darkness of destructive selfishness. Life's most persistent and nagging question, he said, is `what are you doing for others?'" he would quote Mark 9:35, the scripture in which Jesus of Nazareth tells James and John "...whosoever will be great among you shall be your servant; and whosoever among you will be the first shall be the servant of all." And when Martin talked about the end of his mortal life in one of his last sermons, on February 4, 1968 in the pulpit of Ebenezer Baptist Church, even then he lifted up the value of service as the hallmark of a full life. "I'd like somebody to mention on that day Martin Luther King, Jr. tried to give his life serving others," he said. "I want you to say on that day, that I did try in my life...to love and serve humanity.

We call you to commemorate this Holiday by making your personal commitment to serve humanity with the vibrant spirit of unconditional love that was his greatest strength, and which empowered all of the great victories of his leadership. And with our hearts open to this spirit of unconditional love, we can indeed achieve the Beloved Community of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream.

May we who follow Martin now pledge to serve humanity, promote his teachings and carry forward his legacy into the 21st Century.

[To read and listen to the “I Have a Dream” speech, visit this page of American Rhetoric: Top 100 Speeches.]

Ethnic Family Toys. Mexican MP3s. SW Audio history.

2012-01-14T01:42:00.001-07:00

by Rudy Ch. Garcia

You probably didn't get your kids any of Playmobile's "Families" for Xmas, so here's highlights of what you could have bought. In most cases, the Families don't seem to do much to portray ethnicity, which might say more about corporate America's understanding than it does about what makes us unique.

First comes the Egyptian Family, who skin tones seem light enough to be from a well-tanned gringo family in some school play. With very little imagination, they could also be used as a not very tanned family of pre-Colombian Mayas.

Next comes the Amerindian family, who might be preparing to entertain tourists on the reservation. It may be culturally accurate, only in that sense.

The Asian Family obviously have eyes much different from other models, but the distinguishing factor is that the dad is holding a camera, as you'd expect.

The African American Family does at least look black and one of the kids has a basketball, of course, with the mom wearing what might be an African-motif blouse. What dad's wearing on his head is a question, as well as why any black dude would wear plaid.

The Caucasians have two blondes, appropriate skin tones, and the males are holding the all-American baseball equipment. Why they wear nothing on their heads like all the other families is unknown.

Here's the tough one: the Mediterranean/Hispanic family. How these two cultures can be represented by one family model is also an unknown. The girl is mysteriously riding a wooden horse that few American kids would ever want, and the boy is on a skateboard that wouldn't seem to be more Hispanic or Mediterranean than it is part of dominant culture. However, the dad is wearing a construction hat, so it might make you wonder why the mom wasn't dressed in a maid's outfit.
______________

Mexican children's songs

From Gustavo Arrellano (Ask a Mexican columnist) comes this info about Mexican composer and children's songs performer Francisco Gabilondo Soler, who recorded and performed under the name of Cri-Cri: El Grillito Cantor ("Cri-Cri: The Little Singing Cricket"). If you're looking for a huge collection of delightful children's music that is easily comprehensible, or want material for bilingual children, go here. There's an aviso at the top about copyrights, etc. that you should read.
______________

New Mexico History Special
January 12, 2012

In commemoration of the New Mexico Centennial of Statehood, Frontera NorteSur is pleased to officially announce a new section on its website dedicated to different issues of importance in the southern New Mexico borderland from 1912 to 2012. Readers will find articles published during the last three years that explore agricultural history, Mexican immigrant labor, economic development, the North American Free Trade Agreement, African Americans in Dona Ana County, and much more. Community histories of the rural towns of San Miguel and Vado-Del Cerro are among the many topics covered in Frontera NorteSur’s Centennial section.

In addition to print stories, the public can listen to a pair of radio documentaries, one in Spanish and one in English, which were earlier aired on KUNM-Albuquerque and KGLP-Gallup. The English-language program, "Behind the Truck Stop," takes listeners on a journey to the small town of Vado-Del Cerro near the Mexican border. The Spanish-language documentary, "La Trailita," examines the displacement of farmworkers in southern New Mexico from mechanization and free trade.

Although the website might be of special interest to university and high school instructors specializing in New Mexico and borderlands history, it contains many broad themes of interest. Universal issues of migration, community formation and identity, foodways and more are all examined in the series.

Contributing scholars include Guillermina Nunez-Mchiri, University of Texas at El Paso; Connie Falk, New Mexico State University; Dionicio Valdes, Michigan State University; Clarence Fielder, New Mexico State emeritus; Jim Peach, New Mexico State; and Lois Stanford, New Mexico State.

The series was made possible in part by grants from the New Mexico Humanities Council, New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs and the McCune Charitable Foundation. Watch for new print stories and audio pieces in 2012.

Frontera NorteSur: on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico

For a free electronic subscription email: fnsnews@nmsu.edu

10 Years at Guantánamo Bay

2012-01-13T00:01:00.000-07:00

I note another sad anniversary in these days of endless war and the death throes of the Bill of Rights by reprinting a short but powerful piece from ThinkProgress.
Manuel Ramos
__________________________________________________________

This article was created by the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

By The Numbers: 10 Years At Guantánamo Bay

By Eli Clifton on Jan 11, 2012

The 10-year anniversary of the arrival of the first detainees at the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, offers few opportunities for celebration. The prison has been described as “arguably the most expensive prison on earth” and human rights activists have voiced concerns about detainees’ lack of access to the U.S. court system and a steady stream of reports of abuse and torture. The 10-year history of the Guantánamo Bay detention camp can best be evaluated through the human and economic costs imposed on both the U.S. taxpayers and detainees. Here are some relevant numbers:

10 years since the first 20 detainees arrived at Guantánamo Bay’s Camp X-Ray

1 year, 11 months, 21 days since President Barack Obama’s deadline to close Gitmo

779 detainees incarcerated at Guantánamo Bay since 2002

600 detainees have been released

242 detainees at Gitmo when Obama took office

171 detainees still held at Guantánamo Bay

89 detainees still held after being cleared for release

92 percent of prisoners were never al Qaeda fighters according to the U.S. government

86 percent of detainees were turned over after payment of a bounty

13 years old, the age of the youngest detainee

89 years old, the age of the oldest detainee

8 detainee deaths since 2002

6 detainee deaths by suicide

3 alleged detainee homicides from “dry boarding”

$139 million per year to keep the Guantánamo Bay prison open

$800,000 per year to house each detainee

6 detainees convicted by military commissions

6 detainees currently charged by military commission prosecutor

0 detainees released in the past year

ThinkProgress intern Fatima Najiy contributed to this post.

_________________________________

Interview

I did an interview for Corina Martinez Chaudhry of The LatinoAuthor.com. It should be posted on that site on Monday, January 16. The LatinoAuthor.com is a "forum that brings Published Authors, Emerging Latino Authors and Readers together." Check it out.

Later.