SPOTLIGHT ON ANGIE CRUZ

Monday’s post from Daniel Olivas…

A New York-born Dominicana, Angie Cruz is the author of Let It Rain Coffee (Simon & Schuster, 2005) and Soledad (Simon & Schuster, 2001). She is at work on her third novel. Her fiction and essays have appeared in Latina magazine, New York Newsday, The New York Times and Callaloo. Most recently her essay, On the Verge, was featured in Border-Line Personalities (R. Moreno and M. Herrera Mulligan; Rayo, Harper Collins 2004). Cruz earned her MFA in fiction from New York University and has received numerous awards, including the Camargo Foundation Fellowship, New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship and The Barbara Deming Award.

On Tuesday, October 18, at 6 p.m., the Queens Library New Americans Program will host a talk with Cruz moderated by Marcela Landres. Address, phone and travel information: Queens Library, Jackson Heights Branch, 35-51 81st Street, 718-899-2500; by train: 7 to 82nd Street; by bus: Q19B, Q32, Q33. You may also e-mail Marcela Landres for further information.

NEWS FROM THE UCLA CHICANO STUDIES RESEARCH CENTER (“CSRC”):

◘ Yolanda Retter Vargas, the librarian of the UCLA CSRC Library, and Lillian Castillo Speed, head of the UC Berkeley Ethnic Studies Library, received a grant from the UCLA Librarians Association Research and Professional Development Committee to collaborate on a project to update the Chicano Thesaurus. The thesaurus provides subject heading guidance for the Chicano Studies Database, which is the primary online research resource for Chicano studies. The project will add new headings in two areas: non-Chicano Latinos in the United States and LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex) people.

◘ This summer the CSRC press worked to forward a number of projects. After a year of focusing on our periodicals (releasing two issues each of our Latino Policy & Issues Brief, CSRC Research Report, and Aztlan: A Journal of Chicano Studies), the CSRC turned to its two new book series: A Ver: Revisioning Art History and The Chicano Archive. The first series, under the leadership of Director Chon A. Noriega and with major funding from the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations, is devoted to forwarding and preserving the work of Latino/a artists. The first book in the series, to be in full color, is on the artist Gronk. The second series, with collaboration from Latino institutions around the country, is devoted to preserving Latino archives. The first book in the series is on Self Help Graphics & Art and due back from the printers by the Open House this October.

◘ The fall issue of Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies has arrived. If you are not an Aztlán subscriber and want to be one, e-mail your postal address to the CSRC Press in order to receive a subscription package.

◘ For more than three decades, Self Help Graphics & Art has been a national model for community-based art making and art-based community making. Through its innovative printmaking and other programs, Self Help has empowered local artists and reached out to the world beyond East Los Angeles with the vibrancy of Chicano/Latino art. In the new CSRC book Self Help Graphics & Art: Art in the Heart of East Los Angeles, Historian Kristen Guzmán draws on archival sources and on interviews with artists to tell the story of this remarkable organization. Edited by Colin Gunckel, this book comes out of a partnership between the CSRC and Self Help. It is published in collaboration with Sal Guereña from the California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives (CEMA) at the University of California, Santa Barbara, which provided the book’s finding aid to the CEMA Self Help Graphic archive. Five hundred copies of the book are being donated to Self Help. For more information, click here.

CONFERENCE: El Clamor Público - 150 Years of Latino Newspapers in Southern California.

The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA
October 28, 2005
8:30 a.m.-4:00 p.m.

Sponsored by the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West, USC Annenberg School for Communication, California State University, Northridge Graduate Studies Program Distinguished Speakers Series, and the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation.Founded in Los Angeles in 1855, the newspaper El Clamor Público staunchly defended equal rights in California. Though labeled treacherous, incendiary, and anti-American, eighteen-year-old journalist Francisco P. Ramírez‘s newspaper courageously reported lynchings, land frauds, vigilante terror, racial profiling, and legal injustices targeting Spanish-language communities. Ramírez’s faith in the U.S. Constitution guided him as he urged readers to elect trustworthy representatives and to learn English so they could defend their rights. He printed the Declaration of Independence in Spanish and encouraged Californios and Anglos to “work together in the same spirit.” During its four and a half years, the newspaper published political opinion, international news, literary expressions, and social commentaries.This conference will examine the history and legacy of El Clamor Público through and exploration of Latino newspapers in Southern California’s past, present, and future. The conference is free and open to the public; registration is required by October 24. Luncheon will be provided for a prepaid fee. For registration information, go here. For more information on the conference contact conference coordinator Joseph Legaspi at his e-mail.

NUEVO LIBRO: Rigoberto González reviews Benjamin Alire Sáenz's new novel, In Perfect Light (HarperCollins/Rayo). He calls it a “heart-wrenching, beautiful novel.” González is an award-winning writer and associate professor of English and Latino studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

LOS GANADORES: The winners of the 31st Chicano/Latino Literary Contest have just been announced. This year the genre was poetry; the judge was Valerie Martinez:

1st Prize: Javier Huerta – Some Clarifications
2nd Prize: Pablo Miguel Martínez – Before Stars Were Moored
3rd Prize: Javier Campos – El poeta joven

To read the judge’s comments about each winner, go here.

FINALMENTE: The Write Influence: Valuing Diversity. A day-long multi-panel seminar featuring lively and honest discussions exploring how diversity is making storytelling a richer, more profitable experience. Working writers, those who hire writers, media ad buyers, and those who market and distribute films are set to share their progressive successes and missed opportunities within today's entertainment world.

The day's first panel, The Changing Room, will feature showrunners who've hired diverse staffs that create challenging and quality television content.

The second panel, Everybody Loves Green, will focus on media buyers, as they discuss the economic and moral connection between advertising and entertainment product that features diverse storytelling.

The third panel, Damn, You Wrote That?!, will spotlight successful multi-cultural screenwriters who've excelled in Hollywood by writing against type.

Date and Time: Saturday, October 15, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Venue: Writers Guild Theater
Address: 135 S. Doheny Drive , Beverly Hills
Ages: 21+
Admission: Free
For more information call: (323) 782-4577
Or visit: http://www.wga.org/
Email: PAEvents@wga.org

All done. So, until next Monday, enjoy the intervening posts from my compadres y comadre at La Bloga. ¡Lea un libro!