SPOTLIGHT ON PAUL MARTÍNEZ POMPA

Monday’s post from Daniel Olivas…

Paul Martínez Pompa received his B.A. from the University of Chicago and his M.F.A. from Indiana University. He currently teaches English and creative writing at Triton College in River Grove, Illinois. He resides with his wife and their beloved dog on the northwest side of Chicago.

Momotombo Press has just released Martínez Pompa’s poetry chapbook, Pepper Spray. In the introduction, Luis J. Rodríguez says that his poems “sizzle like Chicago on a sticky August night—as gunfire, a woman’s moans, a child’s cry, glass breaking, a drunken man falling, and a lonely saxophone drenches notes through blast-opened windows in leaning three-story brick buildings.” Here is a poem from this collection:

How to Hear Chicago

Here a spirit must yell
to be heard yet a bullet

need only whisper to make
its point—sometimes I imagine

you right before your death
with an entire city in your ears.

To purchase Pepper Spray and to learn more about its publisher, visit Momotombo Press’s website.

CON TINTA CELEBRATION IN AUSTIN, TEJAS: Con Tinta, a coalition of Chicano/Latino cultural activists, poets and writers, is hosting a pachanga in Austin on Thursday, March 9, 2006, at Doña Emilia's South American Bar and Grill. The evening (6:00-8:30 p.m.) will feature award presentations to two of our veterano writers, Rolando Hinojosa-Smith and raúlrsalinas. The Quetzal Quill Reading Series will feature Diana Marie Delgado, Brenda Cardenas, and Lorna Dee Cervantes.

Admission is free. The Public is invited. Open buffet/Cash bar. (Donations are welcomed.)

The first-time event will coincide with the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Annual Conference. This year’s conference will include over thirty panels and readings featuring a diverse community of Chicano/Latino voices: Francisco Aragon, Norma Cantu, Lisa D. Chavez, Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Blas Manuel de Luna, Christine Granados, Dagoberto Gilb, Rigoberto Gonzalez, Carolina Monsivais, Alberto Rios, and many others.

This gathering in Austin is part of Con Tinta’s community outreach efforts. The collective’s mission is to create awareness through the cultivation of emerging talent, through the promotion and presentation of artistic expression, and through the collective voice of support to our members, our communities, and our allies.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Richard Yañez, Con Tinta Advisory Circle member, at theclica@hotmail.com.

FAWN-TAW-STICK!: Alvaro Huerta’s latest essay, “Schwarzenegger’s shortcomings soften support,” appears in UCLA’s Daily Bruin. Huerta is a graduate student in urban planning.

WRITING ABOUT CANCER: Sergio Troncoso’s new essay, "Letter To My Young Sons: Part One," about his wife's battle against breast cancer, is now available on Amazon Shorts. You can go to the front page of Troncoso’s website to find the essay.

And another reminder that Troncoso will be introducing Jamaica Kincaid at an event for the Hudson Valley Writers' Center, where Troncoso is on the board:

February 28, 2006
8:00 p.m.
The Masters School
49 Clinton Avenue
Dobbs Ferry, NY

For more info see http://www.writerscenter.org Also, the Hudson Valley Writers' Center has decided to honor University of Arizona's Camino Del Sol for the great work they have done. The Writers' Center honors a small press each year, and last year it was Curbstone Press. For Camino Del Sol, there will have a special event in November 2006 to highlight the mission of the press, and to promote its authors. See the Writers' Center website above for details.

Finally, Troncoso has decided to donate, effective January 2006, all proceeds from his webpage http://www.chicanoliterature.com/ and http://www.latinofiction.com/ (both URLs lead to the same web page) to Hudson River Healthcare, which provides free healthcare to migrant farmworkers in New York's Hudson Valley.

UCLA CHICANO STUDIES RESEARCH CENTER EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT:

Eric Avila will be signing his latest book, Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight: Fear and Fantasy in Suburban Los Angeles (University of California Press)

Monday, February 27, 2006
4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
UCLA Campus, 144 Haines Hall
A reception follows the book signing

Eric Avila received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in U.S. history from the University of California, Berkeley. Since 1997, he has taught Chicano studies and history at UCLA and was promoted to associate professor in 2004. On February 27, he will be signing his new book, Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight: Fear and Fantasy in Suburban Los Angeles published by the University of California Press. His research has won various awards and prizes, including recognition by the Organization of American Historians for one of the ten best articles in American history written between the summers of 2004 and 2005. He recently completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University in the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History, where he began research for a second book project, entitled, The Folklore of the Freeway: A Cultural History of Highway Construction.

For more information and information about other programs at the UCLA CSRC, visit its website.

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