Wednesday, April 02, 2025

A Maleta Full of Treasures/ La Maleta de Tesoros


Written by Natalia Sylvester.

Illustrated by Juana Medina.

 


Publisher: Dial Books

Language: English

Hardcover: 32 pages

ISBN-10: 0593462424

ISBN-13: 978-0593462423

 

 

From an award-winning author and illustrator, a warm, gentle ode to cherished visits from grandparents and the people and places that make us who we are even if we haven’t met them yet.

 

It’s been three years since Abuela’s last visit, and Dulce revels in every tiny detail—from Abuela’s maletas full of candies in crinkly wrappers and gifts from primos to the sweet, earthy smell of Peru that floats out of Abuela’s room and down the hall. But Abuela’s visit can’t last forever, and all too soon she’s packing her suitcases again. Then Dulce has an idea: maybe there are things she can gather for her cousins and send with Abuela to remind them of the U.S. relatives they’ve never met. And despite having to say goodbye, Abuela has one more surprise for Dulce—something to help her remember that home isn’t just a place, but the deep-rooted love they share no matter the distance.

 




Review

 

Pura Belpré Illustrator Honor Award

ALSC Notable Children's Book

Anna Dewey Read Together Award Finalist

Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices 2025 List

 

"Medina perfectly captures the warmth of this family with her adorable, charismatic art . . . This book has charming themes of family and connecting to family culture, even if its far away. Distance does not diminish the love of family. This is a wonderful book that will be highly relatable to many families. A must-have for any picture book collection." —School Library Journal, starred review

 

"[A] beautiful and poignant homage . . . Sylvester weaves an emotional storyline that explores, through the loving, long-distance relationship, the nuances of being first-generation and longing for a land youve never visited but always heard about . . .  In its vibrant, warm palette, Medina’s cozy style of illustration brings to life Abuela and the magic of her maletas while capturing the bittersweetness of alternating joy and sadness that such an anticipated visit causes." —Booklist, starred review

 

"Medina’s thick-lined cartoon images are drawn with simplicity yet are deeply expressive; the protagonist’s emotions are palpable . . . this tale of bridging gaps is sure to especially resonate with immigrant families, as well as those who find themselves far from their roots. A cozy story of family treasures that sustain connections across the miles." —Kirkus

 

 

Natalia Sylvester is an award-winning author of the young adult novels Breathe and Count Back from Ten and Running and the adult novels Everyone Knows You Go Home and Chasing the Sun. Born in Lima, Peru, she grew up in Miami, Central Florida, and South Texas, and received her BFA from the University of Miami. A Maleta Full of Treasures is her first picture book.

 

Juana Medina is the creator of the Pura Belpré award-winning chapter book Juana & Lucas and many other titles and has illustrated numerous picture books, including ‘Twas the Night Before Pride and Smick! Born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia, Juana Medina now lives with her family in the Washington D.C. area.






Tuesday, April 01, 2025

Never Forgotten Gone Forever

Michael Sedano


Uphill from where I’ve stopped to stare, a skip loader scrapes its yellow claw across the cement slab that, today, is what remains of where I used to live. A dream house built upon the legacy of an earlier dream house. A family story to warm the heart.

When Barbara died, I went to live with my daughter and granddaughter in this Edenic place. My daughter dubbed it “McDonald’s Urban Farm” and she meant it. She grew prize vegetables, fertilized the crops with the poop from her herd of pygmy goats and two free-range jaulas of laying hens producing dozens of easter egg colored eggs daily, a duck, and a few heirloom turkeys that never made it to a dinner table.

The Eaton Fire took it to the ground in a monstrous catastrophe that ravaged thousands of homes across miles of neighborhoods. We are not alone. An entire community disappeared in that firestorm.

Most of the goats survived. None of the poultry. We’re not sure what happened to the coyotes, the bear, the mountain lions that constantly challenged the security of the barn and jaulas. The horses down the street were evacuated before the entire street burned down.

After a preliminary visit, I abandoned hope of recovering stuff I held precious while I could hold them. I hoped maybe silver bells and bronze sculpture, no hope for my paintings and prints. But I submerged those hopes like I muted my feelings over the years of living with dementia. I reasoned what is gone is gone forever, something I understand with intimate profundity, sabes?

The day of this foto I finally succumbed to the aching longing to sift through the rubble of my stuff. 

The drive to my former home takes me through devastated terrain, vast tracts of residential blocks now barren landscapes marked by towering fireplaces without homes to warm, front gates opening to nothing. Brown carcasses of automobiles litter remains of driveways and garages. EPA  hands painted a legend “Not EV” across scorched scrap metal heaps.

Turning into the driveway where I used to live, I see the Granada tree’s green leaves. There will be a crop next year. One Aguacate tree survives, its companion a charcoal sculpture. The clean-up crew set up a shelter next to withered orange and toronja trees. The massive Coast Live Oak sports green high up, the fire passed under its canopy. There is life, there is hope, there is rubble.

What did I miss the most? What vain hope of finding a treasure under the ashes?

Computers, cameras, negatives, slides, hard drives, repositories of memories, familia, and experiences. Those artifacts from my parents’ home I carried here; my Dad’s WWII memorabilia, my Mom’s box of pennies.

The Go board Barbara hand-carried from Tokyo because we bought the antique the last few hours of my R&R. My jacks set. My Güiros. The wedding china. the...the...

I had that piano since third grade. And all that sheet music and Ur texts wouldn't have survived, nor the vinyl.

Every stitch of clothing I owned.

I lost everything and have everything I need now. After being motel nomads for two months—I moved six times—I have settled for a year in the same place. My amazing daughter found a three bedroom house and the family is together once again.

I’m not sentenced to restaurant food. I have a kitchen with gas and a few essential pots, pans, and sharp knives.

Thanks to generous friends I have several changes of warm clothes and towels. I have a warm bed, a rudimentary garden in pots, and nothing but Time.

What I do not have is my home and there’s not a darn thing I, nor anyone, can do about that. It is what it is.



 

Monday, March 31, 2025

Lissette Solorzano, directora de la Fonoteca de Cuba por Xánath Caraza

Lissette Solorzano, directora de la Fonoteca de Cuba por Xánath Caraza

 


Lissette Solorzano, Cuba, 1969, ha sido nombrada directora de la Fonoteca de Cuba. Lissette, fotógrafa documental, ha visto su obra incluida en un gran número de publicaciones y participado en múltiples exhibiciones y residencias artísticas a nivel mundial. Aprovecho este espacio para felicitarla. He tenido el placer de conocer personalmente y de trabajar con Lissette. Tuve la fortuna de tenerla como invitada en un par de mis clases. Así mismo la imagen de portada de uno de mis libros, Corta la piel (FlowerSong Press, 2020), es de ella. También hemos colaborado con otros de mis poemas y sus imágenes. Aquí un enlace para “Escojo la luz” publicado el 8 de julio de 2024 con una imagen de Lissette.

 

Lissette Solórzano es artista visual. Cursó estudios en Instituto Superior de Diseño Industrial (ISDI). En el año 2000 participa en varios talleres con la universidad de fotografía de Maine. Durante el 2011-2012 realizó su maestría en Microsoft en la Universidad Cristóbal Colón, Veracruz, México. Obtiene una residencia artística en Estados Unidos con la Galería de Arte Contemporáneo Cara and Cabezas (2010). Entre las publicaciones más destacadas que incluyen sus obras está el catálogo Act of Sight (2022) (Colección Fotográfica de la Familia Tsiaras); el libro de colección de fotografía cubana contemporánea: The Light in Cuban Eyes (2015); Our Mothers (1996); Artes Plásticas de los 90´s y Reflexiones: el Sensacionalismo del Arte de Cuba. Sus trabajos forman parte de diversas colecciones públicas y privadas como: Casa de las Américas; Fototeca de Cuba; Centro de Estudios Cubanos de NY; Universidad de Harvard; Museo de las Américas en Denver; The Gallery (Milán y Washington DC); Museo de Arte de Brevard; Colección de la Familia Plonsker; Museo Nacional de Arte en Filipinas; Centro Nacional de Fotografía en Venezuela; Jenkins Johnson Gallery NY - San Fancisco; Colby College Museum of Art; Colección de Arte de la Familia Tsiaras; Museum of Fine Art Houston y la Universidad Internacional de la Florida (FIU). Ha recibido importantes premios dentro y fuera de la Isla entre los que destacan: Premio Especial a la mejor Obra individual, Osten Bienal Skopje 2024 Primer Premio de Fotografía 11 Edición “Lorenzo il Magnifico” en la Bienal de Florencia, 2017; Premio Nacional de Curaduría por la obra “La Ciudad de las Columnas”, La Habana, Cuba, 2005; Premio Tina Modotti de la prensa cubana, La Habana, Cuba, 1995; y mención con la obra “Fantasmas Efímeros” en el Premio Ensayo Fotográfico, Casa de las Américas, La Habana, Cuba, 1994. También es miembro de la Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba (UNEAC).

 


Thursday, March 27, 2025

I Tried, I Really Did or Thanks to Second Chances

            by Daniel Cano

                                                                     

Books and Music, A Life in Education

      It was the first week of classes at the local city college, Santa Monica, a place many of us from working-class families passed on our way to the beach or to downtown Santa Monica to stock up on school clothes at J.C. Penny or Sears. I don’t remember stepping foot on campus, except to go swimming in the college pool or attend a football game. Most of the students enrolled at the college lived in the wealthier enclaves, like the Palisades, Brentwood, or the tonier parts of West L.A. and Culver City.

     My dad told me he only knew of one person who attended the local college, his friend, Mario Vasquez, who attended in the early 1940s. Mario had been an outstanding football running back at University High School, in West L.A., and the SM J.C. football coach recruited Mario to play for the Corsairs. Later, Mario attended barber college and cut the town's hair at his shop on Santa Monica Boulevard.

     Even though I attended Catholic high school, the good brothers of St. Patrick didn’t encourage students, like me, to think about college. By the tenth grade, we knew which kids they were prepping for entry into the ivy walls. I guess the brothers assumed the rest of us would become manual laborers like our fathers. There’s the irony. Our parents sent us to parochial school so we wouldn’t have to work as hard they did, so we'd do something better.

     Truth be told, I only enrolled in college when I heard the Army was offering a three-month “early out” and a monthly stipend on the G.I. Bill. Oh, sure, my parents always talked about me going to college, but they never understood the process or what it took to get us there. I guess that’s why they paid the school and trusted the brothers would take care of it.

     Growing up, I only knew my family as workers, landscapers, gardeners, construction, etc. I never saw myself as college material. All I cared about were music and sports. When I showed no inclination to college, my mother decided to send me to barber college, where I received my California’s Barber License after high school, the youngest student in the class. My mother told me it was something to “fall back on.”

     Bored and itching for adventure, I put the barber’s license away and joined the Army. After nearly three years serving Uncle Sam, I matured, reached the rank of sergeant, and was discharged, figuring I’d give college a try. I hadn’t been a bad student in high school, just nothing to brag about, mainly, due to my own lack of initiative. Put a guitar in my hand, and I’d practice for hours, a book – not so much.

     Those first days on campus, I was swimming in a sea of strange faces, a lot of guys and girls with bleach blonde hair in 1969. In most of my classes, I was the only Mexican. I pretty much stayed to myself, until one day, I ran into a guy I knew, Frank Juarez, a Chicano from Santa Monica. We were both glad to see each other. Frank was also a veteran, discharged from the Marines, so we developed a bond, brothers in arms.

     Frank was much more extroverted than I, and he introduced me to his friends from the neighborhood attending classes, not the typical scholars, some rough around the edges, even a few “cholos” who traded in khakis, white t-shirts, and Pendletons for huaraches, jeans, guayaberas, and sarapes, mostly in college to avoid the draft, like a lot of male students back then.

     Frank and his friends rounded up all the Mexicans they could find on campus and invited them to a meeting. There were maybe twenty or twenty-five of us. We were the first generation of Mexican college students from the community on campus, non-traditional students, using today’s political jargon, and we referred to ourselves as “Chicanos and Chicanas.” It wasn’t a term I’d ever used. I’d heard my dad call someone a Chicano. Some Tejanos in the Army referred to each other as Chicanos, but it had a different ring to it, more slang, as in “dude.” It wasn’t a commonly used term and had no political connotation like it did later when college students adopted it.

     As kids, we were simply Mexicans, the White kids Americans, and the Japanese just Japanese. In West L.A., where I was raised, there was only one black kid, James Walker, and he was just James, no need for a collective moniker. Anyway, that’s how it was and had always been. I recalled times when the word “Mexican” was as much a racial slur as an identifier, depending on the tone when someone said it. Mexican American always sounded so clunky and was abstract. How can somebody be two things?

     The students in the meeting began referring to the group gathered there as members of MEChA. I had a vague idea of the acronym, something about Chicanos and Aztlan, the Aztecs mythical homeland. I guess, in my mind, I was still a soldier thinking soldierly things, trying to break free of the military’s psychic chains and transition into a college student, whatever that was. I really had no idea.

     At the MEChA meeting, wild-haired guys wearing round wire-rimmed glasses filled the desks and spoke in an awkward Chicano academese. Frank and I didn’t talk about the military or Vietnam, that I remember, shy, or ashamed, of revealing our place as veterans since college kids railed against the war and anyone who fought in it. I think all of us Chicano kids were “outliers,” using Malcolm Gladwell’s term. We didn't know it, but we were opening doors for others, hopefully, our younger siblings.

     I admit, it was hard fitting in, even among other Chicanos. I didn’t feel I belonged, and even though I wasn’t college bound in high school, I still took core academic classes and worked hard enough to maintain B and C grades, except for a D in geometry. The brothers had us reading, writing and discussing esoteric topics, like the existence of God and our place in the universe. Like all good Catholic school kids, we studied and analyzed bible stories and dabbled in Latin. When I graduated, I set a benchmark for my younger siblings. Doesn't sound like much, today, when so many have college degrees.

     My father, an avid reader, never finished school, dropping out of high school to work, the same with his four siblings. My mother graduated from Santa Monica High School in 1942 and had no doubt her children would all graduate high school, and hopefully attend college, or at least work at clean, well-paying jobs. I can still hear the excitement in her voice when I called her from Fort Bragg, NC, and told her the Army had given me an “Early Out,” to enroll at SMCC. The year I'd spent in Vietnam had taken a toll on her.

     I had no idea what to expect in the MEChA meeting, I mean like why I was there or what they were up to, so I sat back and listened. It started off like any other meeting, what they call “housekeeping,” updates about financial aid and visits to universities. I could sense something brewing. Some students took the lead and, in my opinion, monopolized the discussion. Others started tossing out topics, like ideas and projects, arguing passionately, as the rest watched. I could see, right off, a couple of the “talkers” liked hearing themselves talk and took themselves way too seriously.

      I’d just spent almost three years watching and listening to some of the best “talkers” from across the country, black guys from Chicago, New York, and Philly, Chicanos from East L.A., Albuquerque, and San Antonio, and white guys from Boston, Atlanta, and Birmingham, each guy who could hold our attention during the longest all-night gab sessions. Whether they were telling the truth or not, who knew? Entertainment and insight were much more important than truth.

     Two MEChA gallos nearly came to blows. One wanted to stage a mass protest and force the administration to put burritos into all the vending machines. Another wanted to raise funds to bring El Chicano to play a concert on campus. A few, the more serious students, said we should join the anti-war protests across the country, or maybe rile up high school students for another “Blowout.” Somebody else was worried about getting arrested and kicked out of school.  

     Well, I wasn’t about to get arrested, not over burritos, anti-war marches, or blowouts. Two years earlier, after the murder of MLK, I’d patrolled the area around Howard University as Washington D.C. burned. Through the smoke, I saw the capitol, a strange sight among the charred buildings, ashes, and madness.

    I tried that semester, and the next. I really did. My head wasn’t in it, none of it, especially the studying. I thought the lectures were boring. I mean, how long can one person listen to another talk? When I realized my heart wasn’t in it either, it was too late. Two semesters had passed, and I, maybe, passed two courses.

     I quit before they kicked me out. Besides, I was smart enough to realize, I didn’t want to hang around and use up all of my G.I. Bill. I might want to return, one day, who knows, take it all more seriously, which I did, two years later, earning all A grades in every class I’d failed. 

     Eventually I transferred to a state college, Dominguez Hills, perfect for a married, older student, with kids, and a world of experience behind him. I received a fellowship to study in Spain for a year, and beyond my wildest dreams, enter the profession I once considered the bane of my existence. Books became my constant companions. I taught community college classes for the next thirty or so years, loving every semester, hoping my students would learn from my past experiences.

Wednesday, March 26, 2025

¡LA CELEBRATES MACONDO! AWP OFF-SITE READING


 #AWP25: March 26-29, 2025 

Los Angeles Convention Center

 


The AWP Conference & Bookfair is the essential gathering for writers, teachers, students, editors, and publishers. Join thousands of attendees, explore hundreds of events and exhibitors, and immerse in four days of vital literary community and celebration in Los Angeles!

 

 

From  macondowriters.com:





If you plan to attend AWP 2025, please swing by and visit us at Booth #1027, which we are sharing with Women Who Submit. You can find a map of the LA Convention Center here.



 


Also, please join us for a lively, unforgettable evening of readings by Macondistas at the LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes. The night will be filled with poetry, stories, and the spirit of Macondo, accompanied by light refreshments and snacks. Bring your friends and help us celebrate the launch of the workshop's 30th year!

 

Date: Thursday, March 27, 2025

Time: Doors open at 6:00 PM | Event from 7:00 PM to 9:00 PM

Location: LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes, 501 N. Main St., Los Angeles, California 90012




 

This year, 2025, marks the 30th anniversary of the Macondo Writers Workshop. Stay connected through our website for the latest updates, Macondista news, writer opportunities, and more.


 



The Macondo Writers Workshop is an association of socially-engaged writers working to advance creativity, foster generosity, and serve community. Founded in 1995 by writer Sandra Cisneros and named after the town in Gabriel García Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, the workshop gathers writers from all genres who work on geographic, cultural, economic, gender, and spiritual borders.




Tuesday, March 25, 2025

Rich Weekend Anticipates Writer Trade Show

Pair of Readings Launches Writing Week in Cityof La

Michael Sedano

AWP is coming to the city of LA, and with the coming of the peripatetic writing industry trade show come dozens of offsite poetry-centric literary readings. It’s going to be a stimulating week and endurance test for night owls. I’m not, so I won’t be seeing AWP week’s stellar lineups nor doing a lot of communing with long-distance friends from out-of-town. 

I got to make up for the anticipated losses in the recent weekend’s pair of stellar readings, both coming at reasonable afternoon hours. 

The first event, the Los Angeles Public Library Eagle Rock Branch's Saturday poetry series featured the luminous work of Alicia Viguer Espert (link) and a host of open mic readers. Eagle Rock supports a lively poetry community that comes together regularly thanks to the library staff's commitment to connecting poets and listeners.

The second event, in Pasadena, a joyous celebration combining dance, outstanding open mic poets, and a roster of spotlighted poets that included an enchanting two-generation presentation by mother and daughter poets. 

Tribute dance to all things good and positive, community, poetry and poets.

The Pasadena event, “Still A Rose, An Ode to Altadena,” sponsored by International Black Writers & Artists/Los Angeles, co-sponsored by Poets & Writers, brought enthusiastic listeners to Alkebulan Cultural Center, only a few blocks south of the Eaton Fire devastation. 

The poetry program featured Tricia Cochee accompanied by special guests Teresa Mei Chuc, Hazel Afia Clayton, Angela Ama Clayton, and Thelma T. Reyna. 

Angela Ama Clayton

Angela Ama Clayton gets a triumphant
abrazo from mother Hazel 
Afia Clayton

Thelma Reyna

Teresa Mei Chuc


Hazel Afia Clayton

Two dancers frame the program's elements. The first dancer opens the readings by the special guests with a glorious dance celebrating the upcoming voices. The second dancer captivates in a glorious blue gown to evoke the orisha Yemoja as an introduction to the day's featured poet.

The program’s featured poet, Tricia Cochee, polls the audience. I join only a few other hand-raisers who’ve lost their homes to the Eaton Fire. Everyone else raises a hand that they know people who’ve lost their place. 

Water quenches fire 

Tricia Cochee

The Association of Writers and Writing Programs (link) and its offsite readings coming to Los Angeles March 26–29, promise a daily program of talks and readings followed by after hours socializing and celebrating the best of contemporary U.S. writing and poetry. 

Even if I miss the whole AWP thing, my need for great art has already found satisfaction in this weekend’s pair of sublime celebrations of culture and art that happened while the sun was out.

Sunday, March 23, 2025

Yolanda Montes, la Tongolele, y Paquita la del Barrio por Xánath Caraza

Yolanda Montes, la Tongolele, y Paquita la del Barrio por Xánath Caraza

 


Yolanda Montes, mejor conocida por su nombre artístico la Tongolele, murió el pasado mes de febrero de este año. Muere en México donde vivió desde 1947. Me atrevo a hablar un poco de ella porque para mi grata sorpresa era Chicana, Mexicoamericana, Xicana.

 

Siempre había oído de ella. Sabía que participó en un gran número de películas con actores como Tin Tan, entre otros grandes de la época de oro del cine mexicano, que era una gran bailarina pero no sabía que había nacido en la costa oeste. Nació en el estado de Washington en la ciudad de Spokane. Su nombre completo era Yolanda Ivonne Montes Farrington. Desde niña bailaba y se especializó en danza de Tahití y ritmos africanos. De hecho, su nombre artístico, Tongolele, es una combinación de voces tahitianas y africanas.

 

Actuó en un gran número de películas mexicanas con varios de los actores de la época de oro del cine mexicano, 1936-1956. Tongolele fue la última actriz de esa tan apreciada época. Algunas de las películas en las que participó son El rey del barrio, ¡Han matado a Tongolele!, Nocturno de amor, Chucho el remendado y ¡Mátenme porque me muero!, entre muchas más. Actuó al lado de actores como Tin Tan, Germán Valdés, Víctor Junco, Miroslava y otros grandes.

 

Tongolele murió el pasado 16 de febrero a los noventa y tres años en Puebla, México. Espero que siga entreteniendo a todos y siga bailando donde quiera que esté.

 

Otra que se nos fue recientemente,17 de febrero de 2025, fue la cantante Paquita la del Barrio. Paquita era del estado de Veracruz, de Alto Lucero, o como comúnmente le dicen, del Alto, Veracruz. Nació el 2 de abril de 1947 y su nombre completo era Francisca Viveros Barradas. Escribió y grabó un gran sin número de canciones originales a lo largo de su carrera artística que comenzó oficialmente en 1970. Una de sus canciones más conocidas es “Rata de dos patas”. A continuación, un enlace con su interpretación.

 

“Rata de dos patas” por Paquita la del Barrio.