SPOTLIGHT ON JESÚS SALVADOR TREVIÑO

Monday’s post from Daniel Olivas…

Jesús Salvador Treviño is writer/director whose television directing credits include Prison Break, ER, Third Watch, NYPD Blue, Crossing Jordan, The Practice, The O.C., Dawson’s Creek, Chicago Hope, New York Undercover, The Pretender, Nash Bridges, Martial Law, Star Trek: Voyager, Babylon Five, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Sweet Justice, and many others.

Treviño began his career in film and television as a student activist documenting the 1960s Chicano civil rights struggle with a super-8 camera. Throughout the late sixties and early nineteen seventies, he was both a participant and a chronicler of the events and issues of the day. His national PBS documentaries about Latinos and the Chicano struggle include America Tropical, Yo Soy Chicano, La Raza Unida, Chicano Moratorium, The Salazar Inquest and Birthwrite. He was Co-Executive Producer of the four-part PBS documentary series, Chicano! History Of The Mexican American Civil Rights Movement. He wrote and directed the Mexican feature film Raices de Sangre (Roots of Blood) and Seguin, an American Playhouse drama of the Alamo saga told from a Mexican American point of view. More recently, he served as Co-Executive Producer of the SHOWTIME drama series, Resurrection Blvd.

Treviño has won dozens of national and international awards and recognitions including (twice) the prestigious Directors Guild of America award and an Alma Award for Outstanding Director of a Prime-time Television Drama and an Alma Award as Co-Executive Producer of Resurrection Blvd, Best Prime Time Drama series. In 1991, his film, Raices De Sangre (Roots of Blood), was included in an anthology of the 25 Most Significant Films of Latin American Cinema at the 36th Annual International Film Festival of Valladolid, Spain. In 1993 he was honored with an homage at the Montevideo International Film Festival in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Treviño is also a writer. His collection of short stories, The Fabulous Sinkhole and Other Stories was published in 1995 by Arte Público Press. He is also the author of a memoir, Eyewitness: A Filmmaker's Memoir of the Chicano Movement (Arte Público Press, 2001), which chronicles his experiences as an activist filmmaker during the turbulent 1960s and also addresses the status of United States Latinos in the next millennium. Treviño’s second collection of short stories, The Skyscraper That Flew And Other Stories, was published in 2005.

RHYME TIME: Our friends at Tu Ciudad magazine tell us that Boricua Films will be presenting the Los Feliz Poetry Slam, where the nation’s top slam poets compete and perform original spoken word poems in an attempt to secure a spot on the Los Feliz Poetry Slam team. Enjoy dinner and drinks as you watch well-known poets who have been featured on HBO’s Def Poetry, The Fly Poet Showcase, Da Poetry Lounge and Urban Graffiti TV show. Guest performers include comedy by Third Floor and sound mixes by DJ Autreyu. Hosted by Dufflyn Lammers. Sunday, April 9. At 8:00 p.m. Free admission. 21 and older. Formosa Cafe, 7156 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, 323-850-9050.

NUEVO LIBRO: Rigoberto González reviews Kool Logic/La logica kool (Bilingual Press) by Urayoán Noel. He says of this new book of poems: “The energy that pulses through the poems of Kool Logic / Lógica Kool is an anti-establishment battle cry (á la Allen Ginsberg) that comes from the depths of intellect and discontent to turn conformity, convention and tradition upon its post-colonial head. Urayoán Noel does so with audacity and panache—Boricua style.”

EL PASO TIMES PROFILE: Ramón Renteria offers a moving profile of writer Toni Beatriz Fuentes. He says in part: “Fuentes has no academic credentials and has published just a handful of poems and stories of the dozens she has written. She once hung out with more-notable writers, such as the late Chicano poet Ricardo Sanchez, who said her writing was too mushy, too flowery. The criticism does not bother Fuentes, who often gets standing ovations and sometimes makes people cry at her performances. Her poem ‘La Socrates del Barrio’ is considered a border classic.”

NOTICIAS FROM CSRC: The UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center sends us the following important news regarding opportunities and events:

◘ For the second year in a row, CSRC has been awarded a grant by the Getty Foundation that will enable the center to offer a summer internship. During the ten-week period from June to August, the intern will provide support to various arts projects at CSRC, working under the supervision of CSRC Director Chon Noriega. The intern will have the opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of the work done by Chicano artists and to receive hands-on curatorial and publishing experience. To apply or for more information, contact Carlos M. Haro.

◘ Concepción Valadez, a CSRC faculty associate and professor in the UCLA School of Education, has received the prestigious Rosenfield Community Partnership Prize for her work with the community organization Centro Latino de Educación Popular. For the past nine years, Valadez has assisted this group with its mission: enhancing Latino immigrants’ quality of life and their children’s success in school. She works directly with Centro Latino's programs on basic literacy, vocational English, parent education, student education, and the use of computers for acquiring literacy. For more information, see the award web page.

◘ CSRC will host Magdalena Beltran-del Olmo and Frank Sotomayor, editors of Frank del Olmo: Commentaries on His Times, for a reading and book signing on Thursday, April 27, 2006, 4:00 - 7:00 p.m., in the CSRC Library, 144 Haines Hall. Otto Santa Ana will serve as moderator, and additional guests will make presentations. A reception will follow. Frank del Olmo, an associate editor and columnist for the Los Angeles Times, was a role model and an inspiration to many Chicana/os. His columns and editorials were often the loudest, clearest, and most articulate voice for the Chicana/o community. He died February 19, 2004. The book is a collection of his columns.

◘ HSF/Pfizer, Inc. Fellowship: A stipend of $10,000 for the first and second year of graduate school is available to ten full-time Hispanic students (one parent must be fully Hispanic or both parents must be half Hispanic). Applicants must be enrolled during the next academic year in a master’s or PhD program and have a minimum GPA of 3.0 at one of the following universities: Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, MIT, NYU, Northwestern, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA, University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, UT Austin, or University of Virginia. Deadline: Monday, May 15, 2006. For more information, click here.

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