Spain; Alma Luz; Renters' Rights

Manuel Ramos

This will be short - Blogger is giving me fits.

CHICANO LIT IN SPAIN
The V Congreso Internacional de Literatura Chicana recently concluded at the Universidad de Alcalá (May 22 -25). This conference is celebrated every other year under the auspices of the Instituto Universitario de Investigación en Estudios Norteamercianos and this year the theme was Interpreting the Nuevo Milenio. In conjunction with this conference, Paralelo Sur, a Spanish literary magazine, sponsored
I Jornadas, Los chicanos en EEUU: lengua y literatura (May 25 - 26.) Chicano Lit all over the Spanish academic scene - with numerous Chicana and Chicano academics and writers speaking, moderating, and participating on panels at both of these events. Among the participants were good friends of La Bloga such as Lucha Corpi, María Teresa Márquez, and Rolando Hinojosa, and also on the agenda were very familiar names in the world of Chicano Lit, or Chicano issues in general: María Herrera-Sobek, Francisco Lomelí, Alejandro Morales, Tino Villanueva, Norma Cantú, Estevan Flores, Elisa Facio and many, many more. This is the kind of event that deals with topics such as La figura femenina en la literatura chicana; Chicano identity in Sandra Cisneros's Caramelo; and Geopolitics, border politics, and hermeneutics in Chicano/a culture.

Rolando Hinojosa sent us this message about his take on I Jornadas:
"The literary journal, Paralelo Sur, (Number 3, Abril 2006), dedicated 90% of its work on Chic Lit; it included the usual suspects: Nicolás Kanellos (Panorama de la literatura hispana en EEUU); Juan Bruce-Novoa (La novelística de Alisa Valdés Rodríguez); María Herrera Sobek (Sobrela novela de Denise Chávez); Klaus Zilles (Experimentación y diversidad lingüística en la obra de Rolando Hinojosa), poetry by Tino Villanueva and Ana Castillo, a paper by Norma Elia Cantú, and a piece of mine, Es el agua. I also read a piece which then was followed by an introduction by Zilles that included audience participation regarding immigration, bilingualism, and other Chicano matters. Full houses both days."

The conquered have conquered the conquerors?

ALMA LUZ VILLANUEVA
The author of Ultraviolet Sky has a new website loaded with information about her and her books. As she says on her website, her fiction and poetry have been anthologized widely in the the USA and abroad. She has published three novels: The Ultraviolet Sky (American Book Award, listed in 500 Great Books by Women); Naked Ladies (PEN Oakland fiction award, anthologized in Caliente, The Best Erotic Latin American Writing); and Luna's California Poppies. Weeping Woman, La Llorona and Other Stories, is a collection of short stories. She also has several collections of poetry, including Desire. César A. González-T. , recently profiled by Daniel Olivas here on La Bloga, has written extensively about the works of Villanueva. You can find his The Liminal Space of Desire in the Poetry of Alma Luz Villanueva here at this link.

González-T. sent us this note about one of his favorite authors:

"Alma Luz Villanueva has a forthcoming collection of poetry, Soft Chaos, from Bilingual Press, projected for 2007. Her extensive novel, The Infrared Earth, is currently actively in search of a publisher. Since moving from Santa Fe to San Miguel Allende, Queretaro, Mexico, her next novel could be either La Pocha Loca or Crossing into the Rainbow. As her 'next book of poems slowly gather,' she writes, 'they seem to be "border poems," all borders, but especially the USA/Mexico one - I cross it often."

AT LAST, MY NEW BOOK
This week saw the publication of my latest book - Colorado Landlord-Tenant Law From the Perspective of a Tenant Advocate, 4th Edition (Continuing Legal Education in Colorado, 2006). Yeah, it's not a novel or collection of short stories, but I'm still jazzed. And my publisher tells me that The Tattered Cover has already made an order. Cool.

Later.