Monday, June 09, 2008

Latinos in Lotusland reading at the Correia Gallery

On May 31, we held a wonderful book event at for Latinos in Lotusland: An Anthology of Contemporary Southern California Literature (Bilingual Press) at the Correia Gallery. We had many of the 34 contributors to the anthology: Kathleen Alcalá, Lisa Alvarez, Estella González, Reyna Grande, Álvaro Huerta, Alejandro Morales, Melinda Palacio, Jennifer Silva Redmond, Sandra Ramos O'Briant and yours truly. Also present were Gary Keller, director of Bilingual Press, and Karen Van Hooft, executive editor at the press.

Adriana Brady, also of Bilingual Press, could not make it to the event but I did spend the day with her at the Bilingual Press booth at BookExpo America. Each contributor spoke about their story after Gary Keller and I gave a general introduction. It was so fun meeting many of these writers for the first time after knowing them via e-mail for a couple of years. Also, I was very proud to meet their families and friends. [Pictured here: Gary Keller (in red shirt), contributor Alejandro Morales (red striped shirt), me (orange shirt), and Alejandro's lovely wife and brilliant son.] I post some photos below of the event but if you want to see more, contributor Melinda Palacio has a nice photo album at her website.

Many thanks to the fine folks at Bilingual Press for setting up the event and to Correia Gallery for being our host. You may visit the Gallery to enjoy art and to buy a copy of Latinos in Lotusland (they have some copies left in both hardcover and paperback). The folks in the following photos are identified at the end.
































































































If you missed the Correia Gallery event, we have more Latinos in Lotusland coming your way. This Friday (June 13) at 7:00 p.m., enjoy Sandra Ramos O'Briant, Lisa Alvarez, Victorio Barragán, Conrad Romo and me at Vroman's Bookstore, 695 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91101 (phone: 626-449-5320). Also, I did a little guest-blogging over at Madam Mayo's fine litblog concerning Latinos in Lotusland...check it out.

PHOTO ALERT: Because two readers of La Bloga told me that the above photos did not match their captions when viewed through their browsers-of-choice (Foxfire, for example) even though they matched up if viewed through AOL or Internet Explorer (my browsers-of-choice), I've removed the captions for the eleven photos to clear up any confusion and now identify them as follows in descending order:

Photo 1: Gary Keller (in red shirt), contributor Alejandro Morales (red striped shirt), me (orange shirt), and Alejandro's lovely wife and brilliant son.

Photo 2: Kathleen Alcalá.

Photo 3: Yours truly (in orange shirt) chatting with the artist David Ashwell and his wife as Patricia Correia listens.

Photo 4: Estella González.

Photo 5: Melinda Palacio.

Photo 6: Lisa Alvarez.

Photo 7: Reyna Grande.

Photo 8: Álvaro Huerta.

Photo 9: Jennifer Silva Redmond.

Photo 10: Sandra Ramos O'Briant.

Photo 11: Gary Keller, director of Bilingual Press, chatting with a guest.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I mentioned LIL in IN Magazine (LA) as summer must-read!

xoxo
myriam

Daniel A. Olivas said...

Cool! Do you have a link, Myriam? Mil gracias.

Anonymous said...

Patricia Correia is an exploitive sick racist human being who mistreats, insults and disdains her Chicano painters. . .just ask the artists who are no longer there (the biggest ones) and you will uncover the truth. Pinche vieja ciclona. Why are y'all doing events there?? Didja think she was an ally?? HAH!

msedano said...

estimado anonymous. i understand you have pedo between the gallery and yourself or your friends. my sympathies for your hard feelings; i've heard chisme. understand, however, that i'd prefer you temper your remarks with background that justifies the attack, or moderate your words to be more approopriate to a public forum like La Bloga.