Chicanonautica: Election Flashes on the Road

by Ernest Hogan

Of course, on a vacation you’re supposed to get away from it all, but I rarely end up succeeding. I am a writer, and the road trips I indulge in with my wife and her brother Mike always have an element of research in them. 

More than one writer has told me that writing is just an excuse for research. 

And when the world is in all kinds of turmoil, like an election going on—even one that isn’t spilling out into the streets like this one—the weird shit, that is the stuff of art and drama manifests, often in your face.

It can be unpleasant, but it can trigger inspiration. 

Call me perverse, but it’s my idea of a good time.

We found out about the second assassination attempt while leaving Filmore, California. Emily read us a news story off her phone. We got gory details of the Israeli/Hezbollah pager bombings in a thrift store in Garberville, CA.Then there was Hurricane Helena devouring the South like the ultimate kaiju–and I didn’t find out about the weather-control conspiracy theory until later. Batshit craziness fills the air. There is no escape.  

My trip notes are sprinkled with such things . . .

The election would manifest now and then.  

Like the donut shop woman who responded to one of Mike's quips about Trump with a defense of the man’s predatory sexuality. Pobrecito, all those awful women who don’t have the decency to just say no. His life must be a living hell . . . (Snicker-snicker . . .)

Occasional signs and bumper stickers. A Harris sign on a Buddha statue in Santa Barbara. In rural areas Trump signs popped up. Then there was a house flying the Confederate flag and a Trump flag, and a Harris flag . . .

Another Confederate, on a pickup truck, passed us when we reached Brookings, Oregon. Not very South . . .

In Bandon, OR, a thrift store attached to a deli that offered “artisan” sandwiches had come to hard times since we visited last year. The deli was boarded up. The giant JOE BIDEN SUCKS sign was still in place, but the store was going out of business, too. Everything was $1. Lots of LET’S GO BRANDON and other Trump paraphernalia were gathering dust. All books were free.

Back on the 101, I saw a TRUMP/VANCE placard, but no real enthusiasm for the election.

I thought a TRUST JESUS sign said TRUMP JESUS before my eyes properly focused. 

A sign with the photo of bloody-eared Trump and a FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! headline stood in the countryside along with a faded LET’S GO BRANDON flag.

This was as we were heading north to Washington, where we saw SAVE OUR DEMOCRACY–VOTE HARRIS/WALZ, along with Trump signs. 

As we zigzagged along the jagged coastline, there was strawberry roadkill, bikini espresso with cannabis on the side -- or was it the main course? On San Juan Island, I overheard people bitching about how there isn’t a state where you can go and get a good job and buy the American Dream anymore. Maybe they’ll just go to Mars with Elon Musk. Why not? The first vehicle off the ferry we got on was a Cybertruck.

Will cannabis be legal on Mars?

Even up near the Canadian border, Mexican restaurants are plentiful. Immigrants coming in, starting businesses. Meanwhile, Trump and Vance scream about rape and murder, with visions of mass deportations dancing in their heads. Can cannibalism and human sacrifice be far behind?

Are mass deportations possible without a pre-existing police state?

And what’s with all the Confederate flags? What country is this?

The Stars & Stripes–the American flag–what does it mean these days?

Are the Sasquatchlandia Trumpers an organized community, a mere sprinkling of rugged individualists railing against what they see as their oppressors?

Near the Obsidian Flow Trail in Oregon, we met a woman who wore a Harris button, and later saw a lone pickup flying the Stars & Stripes and a TRUMP TRAIN flag.

Back in NorCal: GOD, GUNS, & TRUMP and TRUMP FREEDOM, HARRIS COMMUNISM signs, and a ripped, faded Stars & Stripes.

As we made our way back through Nevada, in a rock shop, a Jeep had a Stars & Bars plate, and a Hispanic-looking customer wore an I CHOOSE THE FELON Trump T-shirt.

I can hardly wait for my early ballot to get here.

Ernest Hogan, the Father of Chicano Science Fiction, is the author of Guerrilla Mural of a Siren’s Song: 15 Gonzo Science Fiction Stories, and is damn proud of it.

Pockets of Love

By Yamile Saied Méndez

Illustrated by Sara Palacios

 

Publisher: ‎HarperCollins

Language: English

Hardcover: ‎40 pages

ISBN-10: ‎0063234971

ISBN-13: ‎978-0063234970

Reading age: ‎4 - 8 years

Grade level: ‎Preschool - 3

 

Sweet or savory.

 

Fried or baked.

 

Little pockets filled with love and a taste from home.

 

Grandma Monona always made the best empanadas for Mami’s birthday. But this year Monona is in heaven and Mami is sad. Her birthday won’t be the same without Monona.

 

Star and Sebi know they need a special birthday surprise to cheer up Mami. Maybe they can make Mami Monona’s empanadas themselves! But will they be able to capture the same magic as Monona’s empanadas if they don’t know her secret ingredient?

 

From Yamile Saied Méndez (acclaimed author of Where Are You From? and What Will You Be?) and Sara Palacios comes a moving and heartfelt picture book about the ways in which we carry those we’ve lost with us always—in pockets of love.

 

 

Review

"Cozy illustrations feel like a big hug, full of delicious details such as examples of other cuisines from around the world. The heartwarming tale beautifully depicts how love and tradition can create new memories, even in the face of loss... A celebration of family, culture, and the healing power of homemade empanadas."—Kirkus — Kirkus Reviews

 

"A heartwarming story reassuring readers that cooking cherished family recipes preserves precious memories while creating new ones." — School Library Journal

 

"Pura Belpré winner Méndez deals with death and loss sensitively and gently, showing children how to celebrate life and remember those no longer with us. A wonderful two-page spread, depicting and naming “pocket” foods from around the world, highlights cultural commonalities and the pleasure of sharing good food. In delicate, cheerful multimedia illustrations, Palacios (herself a Pura Belpré Honor Book winner) scatters musical notes, stars, hearts, and flowers, concretely illustrating the characters’ feelings and emotions." — Booklist

 

Yamile Saied Méndez is the author of many books for young readers and adults, including the award-winning picture books Where Are You From? and What Will You Be? She was born and raised in Rosario, Argentina, and now lives in a lovely valley surrounded by mountains in Utah with her husband, five children, two dogs, and a majestic cat. She’s a graduate of Voices of Our Nations and the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA writing for children and young adults program. She’s always trying new empanada recipes. Connect with her at yamilemendez.com.

 

Sara Palacios is the recipient of the 2012 Pura Belpré Illustrator Honor for her work on Marisol McDonald Doesn't Match/Marisol McDonald no combina. A native of Mexico, Sara earned BFA and MFA degrees in illustration from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. She works with a variety of media such as collage, ink, and digital artwork.

Women Achievers Celebrated in Southern California

35 Years Celebrating Women Achievers

Michael Sedano

 

Print magazines have become an endangered species in today’s media ecology. Magazine advertising sales declined since 2012 from an estimated 20 billion dollars to $5.5 billion this year, according to GroupM, a media-buying agency. One Southern California print magazine, Business Life, seeks to be an exception to the extinction model with a hyper-local print strategy with longevity. 

 

Serving California’s San Fernando and San Gabriel Valleys, Business Life has published since 1989. Compiling articles and writing original content, the magazine makes a major splash in its regional market with its annual celebration of Woman Achievers. It’s an inspired and worthwhile endeavor singling out small-business owners and executives of larger enterprises. 

 

The magazine’s not exclusively print. It has a Facebook page along with its web presence. (link) https://www.businesslife.com Those attending the gala luncheon took home back issues along with the current issue, Vol 35 No 2. The print magazine’s ideal spot is waiting rooms where people can hold the news in their hand as opposed to using a phone that might suffer from low battery and weak signal strength, or irritate neighbors with grudges against electronics in public. Subscribers get mailed at least six issues a year. 

 

La Bloga is honored to have attended the magazine’s luncheon for the 2024 roster of Women Achievers recently, the 35^th anniversary of the award. We were invited by honoree Thelma T. Reyna. Reyna, a poet, this year is honored as publisher of Golden Foothills Press (link) and principal of The Writing Pros (link), an editing nservice offering one-on-one consultations.    

Excitement reigns as families and friends capture their own memories

The gala luncheon features a ballroom filled with ten-person tables that quickly fill as guests wait for the program. Energy electrifies the atmosphere, happy conversations create a din that raises voices and leads some guests to lean into one another to be heard.

Grand Entrance, Greg Krikorian slaps hands with Thelma Reyna

 

The program begins with the grand entrance of honorees similar to the entrance of the Chancellors of the Academy of American Poets at that organization’s annual celebration. A heavy rock beat announces the procession. Publisher Gregory S. Krikorian greets the entering women who navigate to their respective tables. 

 

The magazine singles out four women as a “Woman of Distinction,” “Exemplary Leadership,” and two “Lifetime Achievement” honorees. Twenty-seven women complete the 2024 roster as “Women Achievers.” The four deliver extended remarks before the other Achievers approach the stage to receive ornately calligraphed certificates from the magazine, the State Assembly, and Los Angeles County government.

 

Business Life is largely a family endeavor. Krikorian’s father founded the magazine and the masthead lists numerous Krikorians at various levels of responsibility. It’s encouraging seeing the diversity of honorees, which include Armenian, Black, Raza, Pinay, Anglo achievers.

 

Gerda Govine-Ituarte composed a poem for the occasion

The awardees represent a rich cross-section of businesses, insurance, health, education, government. Family stands out as a shared value among all the speakers, who acknowledge husbands and kids with the unspoken idea that behind a successful woman is a family who has her back.

Thelma T. Reyna advises
"with every fiber of your being, determine to make a difference."

 

With the US about to elect its first woman president, that’s still not enough recognition. Business Life’s motivation is to correct the neglect of the influence and effectiveness of professional women and business leaders. The magazine states, “So many women were doing so many good things, but not enough people knew about their stories. The Krikorians were acquainted with many worthy women in various fields, excelling professionally and contributing to civic and philanthropic efforts. These were the women who did not receive sufficient acknowl- edgement as corporate or civic leaders, and not enough were in the board rooms where decisions were being made...but they were out getting the work done - supporting causes, being active entrepreneurs, achieving professional success, and contributing significantly to the quality of life enjoyed in the San Fernando and San Gabriel Valleys.”

 

La Bloga happily shares news of this year’s event, invites readers to explore the magazine’s website for the history of the award along with meeting past achievers. Nominations for 2025 Women Achievers open in Spring. Past awardees and other leaders participate in the nomination process.

2024 Women Achievers Honorees

Celebrating the Anthology: Latino Poetry: Places We Call Home

Melinda Palacio  

National Hispanic Heritage Month continues as the festivities are spread out over September and October. In conjunction with heritage celebration is a national grant to promote a new book: Latino Poetry: Places We Call Home, an anthology from the Library of America. The Santa Barbara Public Library has at least three copies of the anthology. Some of the themes in the Anthology include: Ancestry & Identity, Voice & Resistance, Language, First & Second Homes, Family & Community, Music & Performance, Labor and Eco-consciousness. The anthology, along with the grants offered for promoting the Latino Poetry anthology, has drummed up some exciting events that I hope will continue in years to come. Both Santa Barbara City College and the Santa Barbara Public Library have future programming associated with the Latino Poetry: Places We Call Home Anthology. 

 

Last month, I offered an hour-long poetry and music set for Palabras Vitales: Latiné Poetry Series at Santa Barbara City College. This was a kick off series for the college’s participation in promoting the anthology and the grants celebrating Latino poetry. The anthology’s themes include Voice & Resistance, Home, and Music. I decide to include poems about my own childhood home, especially those that feature my grandmother, as well as poems about children displaced at the border, who do not have a home. Since some of the poems have companion songs, I played a few of the songs on my guitar. I have really enjoyed sharing my poetry and music as part of my laureateship. 

 

Another event that was part of the anthology was a community open mic that I hosted along with the Santa Barbara Public Library and La Casa de la Raza. On September 26, community members were invited to read a poem that speaks to and from our Latino Community, as part of National Hispanic Heritage Month and the Latino Poetry: Places We Call Home Anthology. I asked Sofia De La Cruz to read her poems again because her parents came in late. I think it’s important for young people to be supported by their parents, and everyone enjoyed hearing her powerful poems for a second time. 

 

*an earlier version of this column appeared in the Santa Barbara Independent

Why Now?

                                                                                       

My mestiza grandmother's immigration card, circa 1920

                                                                                                                                                                             Hundreds of years after the "conquest," Mexico’s former president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, or AMLO, as he is affectionately called, said, of Spain's king, Felipe VI's refusal to apologize for injustices committed during the conquest of Mexico, “Spain acted arrogantly…put aside racism,” and take responsibility and apologize for the horrid acts it committed during the conquest. 

     It started in 2019, when AMLO asked Spain’s king, Filipe VI and Pope Francis to apologize for their past “injustices” during Mexico’s conquest? Spain, one of Mexico’s closest allies, didn’t respond, but later told journalists, "...its current leaders should not be held responsible for the actions of their forebears." Pope Francis said he already apologized, in 2015, in a visit to Bolivia, to all of America’s indigenous for the “sins” the Church committed against them. So, why now? Why was AMLO ruffling feathers?

    Recently, Mexico’s new president, Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexican by birth but not by blood (her paternal and maternal grandparents, Sephardic Jews, migrated from Bulgaria and Lithuania) decided not to invite Spain to her inauguration, for snubbing AMLO’s demand for an apology. 

     President Sheinbaum has Spanish roots, as do AMLO, and millions of Mexican mestizos, many who hail from every corner of Mexico, especially the northern states of Michoacan, Nayarit, Jalisco, Zacatecas, Durango, Chihuahua, Sinaloa, and Sonora. 

     When Cortez landed and began his conquest of Mexico in 1519, his army consisted of 600 Spaniards, give or take. Without the alliances of Moctezuma’s enemies, like the Tlascaltecas, and a crucial informant and translator, Malintzin, or Malinche, in Spanish, Cortez never could have conquered Tenochtiltlan, the Azteca capital, and, according to Spanish chroniclers one of the most beautiful cities upon which they’d ever laid eyes. 

     If AMLO demanded an apology from Spain, shouldn’t he also demand an apology from the indigenous groups who aided Cortez in his conquest of Mexico, and of Malinche's descendents, if any still exist? Shouldn't they also be held responsible? 

     Maybe AMLO should take a closer look inside, at today’s Mexico. When he heard about AMLO's demand for an apology, Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa suggested, after two hundred years of independence, shouldn’t Mexico apologize to its indigenous poor, which the country continues to exploit and abuse? Another way of saying it is: shouldn’t Mexico, also, apologize to itself for the injustices committed against the Mexican people after independence from Spain? 

     Many Mexican politicians, from opposing parties, claim AMLO’s demand for an apology from Spain and the Church is a strategy to distract the public from his own failed political policies and the promises he hasn’t kept while in office. Some also state this isn’t a time for Mexico to cause distrust among a close ally, like Spain, or any other country in Latin America. A good point, considering more than a few radical conservative U.S. politicians, including presidential nominee Donald Trump, have proposed invading Mexico and destroying its drug cartels, more of an excuse for the U.S. failure to manage its own insatiable appetite for drugs. Still, Mexico might need friends and allies. 

     Among the working-class Mexicans, and many of the poor, AMLO’s is popular, and his ratings remain high. He's been at it a long time and is a crafty politician, walking the firepit of Mexican politics. He created many social programs to help the poor; though, not nearly enough, to alleviate the country’s poverty or, even, put a dent in the violence many suffer, some on a daily basis. If AMLO is asking Spain to apologize for “injustices it committed with the sword,” doesn’t this get a bit sticky? 

     Yes, Spaniards conquered and occupied Mexico, torturing and enslaving Indians for hundreds of years, but not long after the conquest, the Spanish also began blending their blood, so to speak, with the blood of Indians, mulattos, and other Europeans, like the French and German, creating a new ethnicity of people, the Mestizo. After all, doesn’t Mexico proudly proclaim it is a country of mestizos? Without Spain, there would be no mestizo and no Mexico, as we know it, or as educator Jose Vasconcelos proudly proclaimed, la raza cosmica.

     What of Mexico’s treatment, historically, of the lower caste Mexicans, including Indians, like the Yaqui, whom Porfirio Diaz kidnapped, enslaved, and forced to work on hemp plantations in the Yucatan jungles far from their homes, in Sonora, or the hundreds of students killed at Tlateloco during the Mexico City Olympics in 1968, or the Tzotzil Maya, in Chiapas, who lost lands after NAFTA was passed, and suffered under the weight of broken promises president Ernesto Zedillo made, which sent them fleeing into the Lacandon jungle, seeking their own justice under the banner of the EZLN, or Zapatista Liberation Army, their livelihoods still threatened under Mexican rule. Then there were the 43 students who disappeared and presumed killed in Iguala, not even considering the scores of women killed in Juarez in the 1990s.

    Is Vargas Llosa, correct? Is Mexico culpable of injustices it committed and continues to commit against its own people? Is that where the apology should start? Mexico apologizing to Mexicans? 

     What will President Claudia Sheinbaum do to address today's injustices? In Mexico’s drug capital, Sinaloa, her husband's homeland, a battle rages, literally, on the streets of Culiacan, people dying every day, businesses closed, parents afraid to send their kids to school, as the sons of El Chapo Guzman, “Los Chapitos,” and El Mayo Zambada, “Los Mayitos,” one-time partners of the Sinaloa cartel, fight it out, as the incarcerated “mero jefes,” El Chapo and El Mayo, sit in U.S. prisons. 

     Yet, Mexico is not a poor country. Some of the world’s richest people are Mexicans. Go figure. Though President Sheinbaum claims Mexico still has a close relationship with Spain, is an apology worth straining that relationship? Then, I guess one could also ask, what would it cost Spain to say, "We are sorry for the injustices our forebears committed against the Mexican people," even if, at the time, Mexico hadn't yet been formed, completely? A pretty complicated, and rich, history if you ask me. Then again, without the merging of Spain and Mexico, none of my ancestors would have walked the earth, nor would their many descendants, who are now not only Mexican but, also, American.

Latinx KidLit Book Festival- Final Week

On September 27, I  was part of  the bilingual reading platica ¡Vamos a leer! 

You can watch all the past author and illustrator events by visiting this link, 

https://www.youtube.com/@LatinxKidLitBookFestival

From https://www.latinxkidlitbookfestival.com

 

The Latinx KidLit Book Festival was created in 2020 during the COVID pandemic by members of Las Musas Books. Our aim was to connect Latinx authors and illustrators with readers and educators in classrooms around the globe. Since then, and with the help of countless volunteers, the festival has continued to foster a love of story and literacy as well as increase empathy and conversation among educators, students, and book lovers while uplifting the voices of Latinx kidlit book creators.

The Latinx KidLit Book Festival will be streamed live on the festival’s YouTube channel, or YouTube links can also be found on each individual event below.  All posted times are in EDT!

Sessions can be safely streamed into the classroom and shared with students using an educator's account. Classrooms can engage with festival authors and illustrators using the live-chat option! All video content will be recorded and available after the festival.

This is the schedule for this Friday, October 11.

 

A Railroad Runs Through It

Review: Mona Alvarado Frazier. A Bridge Home. Houston: Piñata Books Arte Publico Press. 2024. ISBN: 978-1-55885-995-1

Michael Sedano

It's 1972, the Chicano Movement has found its way to a nondescript small California town named San Solano. Railroad tracks divide the town. Raza and black families struggle to make ends meet on their side of town. Seventeen year old Jacqueline Bravo attends St. Bernadette High School, on the anglo side of town. 

Jacqui's a good student whose dream is winning a scholarship to attend UCLA next year. She won't be able to apply for the scholarship if St. Bernadette's transfers Jacqui to public school because she's hundreds of dollars behind on tuition. 

Tuition, rent, bills, five people in a one-bathroom house, a father killed in Vietnam two years before, add incredible stress to the teenager's tortured life. Jacqui perseveres with maturity forced upon her by economics and by having to be big sister mother-substitute to a boy-hungry 13 year old sister (who already gets hickies) and younger twin brothers.

This is the tapestry Mona Alvarado Frazier weaves to entangle her characters in a plot that probably mirrors the lives of young adult readers whom Frazier's story will inspire and motivate to do like Jacqui does in the exciting final chapters. With Jacqui's example, kids won't fall into the traps Jacqui gets herself into. In a sense, Jacqui has no option other than sneak around and take a job behind her mother's back. Jacqui's poorly considered choice is working in a sleazy restaurant-bar. In no time, Jacqui is in over her head running drugs and collecting payments.

To her credit, Jacqui doesn't know what's going on. Catholic school girls can be sheltered from the real world, especially when mother detests the word "chicano" and warns off her eldest child from those people.

Those people are the bridge Jacqui needs to find voice, direction, and salvation. Readers will thrill at the final chapters of Frazier's 43 short chapters, 290 page, gem of a YA novel from Arte Publico's Piñata imprint.

How does a kid find success when repressive nuns clamp down on individuality, practice public shaming of kids whose families fall behind on tuition, and go into high dudgeon over feminism? Jacqui can't go it alone, but that's Jacqui's method. Readers see how wrong it all can turn out, and here's one of Alvarado Frazier's more valuable author's messages: you can't do it alone. You need help.

When Jacqui learns this lesson she awakens her entire community, Mother included, and the movimiento's message hits the streets. El pueblo unido jamas sera vencido.

I won't delve into the finer points of the novel's plot and character development because there's so much fun for readers feeling the tension build as the plot and characters wind their way to an entirely engaging and satisfying climax. It's only for Jacqui, but there's probably good news for her peers. And the community might get that bridge spanning the railroad tracks.

One significant change I'd like to see: Piñata must devote a lot more attention to editing out the novel's several apostrophe-as-plural errors. It's not a minor flaw when YA readers are soaking in a wonderful story filled with important lessons about character, desperation, honesty, academics. Ineffective editing blinds the kids to effective spelling and perpetuates inattention to detail.

Mona Alvarado Frazier clearly is hitting her stride as a writer and author of YA literature. A Bridge Home, her second novel, marks a high point in a promising future.

You can order publisher-direct at https://artepublicopress.com/browse-and-order-books/ or ask your local indie bookseller to get your copies of this $15.95 gem.