SPOTLIGHT ON TÍA CHUCHA’S CAFÉ CULTURAL

Monday’s post from Daniel Olivas…

As proudly and rightfully announced on its website, Tía Chucha's Café Cultural is a dream of community empowerment. Three San Fernando residents—María Trinidad Rodríguez, Enrique Sanchez, and Luis J. Rodríguez—came together in November 2000 and created a partnership to make this dream come true. On December 15, 2001, this dream became a reality when they opened their doors to the public. Tía Chucha's provides great books on Xicano history and literature, young adult fiction, as well as indigenous, contemporary and social commentary issues, Spanish-language, and bilingual children's books. The founders of Tía Chucha's believe that every mind is precious and that books and the arts can save lives.

Tía Chucha's also provides a space for community Open Mic nights, for musical performances, for theater and performance pieces, for author readings and signings, for documentaries and feature films of social relevance, and great dialogue on the pressing issues of the day. If this weren’t enough, Tía Chucha's has an art gallery featuring the creations of local and internationally-recognized artists and sculptors, including art receptions for the community as well as a full coffee bar with the best in espresso coffee drinks, as well as smoothies, tamales, pan dulce, muffins, juices, soft drinks, flan, cakes and more.

Keeping with its goals, Tía Chucha's helps serve this low home-computer usage area. Last fall, they opened an Internet Café with access to the Internet, emails and work files. In June of 2003, Tía Chucha's leased the space next door to the Café to establish a not-for-profit wing, Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural. In six-months, they've had workshops on Aztec Dance, theater, music, art/sculpture, paper mâché, gourd-making, flute-making, film making, comedy, as well as a women's natural healing circle and a young man's healing circle.

On Saturday, February 18, at 6:00 p.m., Tía Chucha's will be celebrating its fourth anniversary with live music, food, a raffle, danza azteca and so much more. Bring your family and friends and get ready for a great pachanga!

Tía Chucha's Café Cultural
12737 Glenoaks Boulevard, #22
Sylmar, CA 91342
Phone: (818) 362-7060
Fax: (818) 362-7102
Email: info@tiachucha.com
Website: http://www.tiachucha.com/

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES: LatinoLA published a new essay by Reyna Grande whose debut novel, Across a Hundred Mountains, is forthcoming this summer from Atria Books.

UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL: Eric Avila, Associate Professor, UCLA Chicano Studies and History, 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.
Monday, February 27
4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
144 Haines Hall

A reception follows the book signing. Sponsored by the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center, Chicana/o Studies Department, and the Department of History.

MORE FROM UCLA CHICANO STUDIES RESEARCH CENTER (CSRC):

Aztlán Goes Online!

The CSRC press is excited to announce that the journal of record in the field of Chicano studies is going online! Starting with the next issue, spring 2006, the full text of Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies will be available to subscribers in print and electronically. The journal will continue to be edited and produced at the center, but subscribers will have access to the online version through the University of California Press website Caliber. For the first year, 2006, only institutions with subscriptions will have access to the online content. For instance, if you are on the internet through a UCLA server, you will be able to read all the Aztlán content, since the UCLA library is a subscriber. Starting in 2007, individual subscribers will also have password access to Caliber. Until then, if your library doesn’t subscribe, make sure to ask them to start subscribing so that you can search and read all Aztlán articles online this year. Part of what makes this step so important is that the articles that appear in Aztlán will now receive much wider dissemination and much more critical attention. The CSRC expects to see significant increases in the number of Aztlán readers and the number of citations to Aztlán articles. Taking Aztlán online is an essential step toward advancing the field of Chicano studies as a whole. To learn more, please go to the CSRC website or email CSRC Press.

ON THE RADIO: We learn from our friend and well-respected writer, Sergio Troncoso, that David Dorado Romo's Ringside Seat to a Revolution: An Underground Cultural History of El Paso and Juarez, 1893-1923 (Cinco Puntos Press), was featured on NPR. And you can also read Troncoso’s review of Romo’s book.

TWO EVENTS: Award-winning author Rigoberto González will read from his work and share his experiences as a Chicano writer, book critic and cultural activist during two events in El Paso. González, a regular contributor to the El Paso Times book page, is a contributing editor to Poets & Writers magazine and an associate professor of English and Latino studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

González will speak from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Feb. 13 at El Paso Community College, Valle Verde Campus, Room A1510, 919 Hunter.

He also has a scheduled literary reading from 7 to 9 p.m. Feb. 13 in the board room at El Paso Community College's Administrative Service Center, 9050 Viscount.

El Paso writers Carolina Monsivais and Ray Ramos will be the opening readers. Both events are free and open to the public.

Information: 831-2630.

NUEVO LIBRO: The omnipresent Rigoberto González reviews María Amparo Escandón's second novel, González & Daughter Trucking Co. (Three Rivers Press). He calls it a “highly engaging” read that “is a much more complex and polished novel than Escandón's best-selling Esperanza's Box of Saints."

SHOUT OUT: To Chicano Forums. We encourage every reader of La Bloga to visit.

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