¡A new issue of PALABRA!

A magazine of Chicano and Latino literary art

Issue 4 of PALABRA features the work of almost two dozen writers and artists including Javier O. Huerta, Li Yun Alvarado, Harry Gamboa, Jr., Nydia Rojas, Aaron Michael Morales, and many others.

The editor, elena minor, explains PALABRA:

PALABRA is about exploration, risk and ganas—the myriad intersections of thought, language, story and art—el más allá of letters, symbols and spaces into meaning. It’s about writing that cares as much about language and its structure as about content and storytelling—and that shows awareness of and attention to the possibilities of both. Mostly it's about work with the emotional fiber that threads all honest art.

Its purpose is to provide a portal for new threads of pensamiento, language and story, to reach from the past and present and dive headlong into the future of Chicano & Latino writing—to push it, stretch it, keep it fresh, vibrant, honest and at the thumping edge of literary creativity and innovation. Its intent is to present an eclectic and adventurous array of thought and construct, alma y corazón, and a few carcajadas woven in for good measure.

PALABRA seeks to serve writing that sizzles, leaps, spits and spins—that runs backwards and forwards and sideways and inside out—that wears holey shoes and no socks and plunges fearlessly around blind corners just to see what’s there. PALABRA invites work that doesn’t neatly fit the paradigm—or that fits the paradigm and makes it scream (or at least breathe heavily).

To learn where to purchase PALABRA, visit here.

◙ PARK UNIVERSITY PRESENTS THE ETHNIC VOICES POETRY SERIES FEATURING:

Francisco Aragón with an introduction by The Latino Writers Collective

Park University, Parkville, MO, Thursday, December 4 at 6:30 p.m., McCoy Meetin’ House

Aragón has authored Puerta Del Sol (Bilingual Press), served as editor for The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry (University of Arizona Press), and published poetry in many anthologies and journals. He serves as the director of Letras Latinas, the literary program of the Institute for Latino Studies (ILS) at the University of Notre Dame where he oversees, among other projects, Momotombo Press, the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize and Latino Poetry Review. More...

The Latino Writers Collective, based in the Kansas City metropolitan area, organizes and coordinates projects for the larger community. It showcases national and local Latino writers and provides role models and instruction to Latino youth. Its mission is to foster an environment where the voices of Latino students, blue collar workers, professionals and homemakers can finally be heard, sharing their experience and vision with a broad audience. More...

◙ Yvonne Villarreal, staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, reports on a wonderful exhibit that we’ve noted recently: Bold Caballeros y Noble Bandidas currently at the Autry National Center of the American West, 4700 Western Heritage Way, Los Angeles. The exhibit ends on May 10. For ticketing and other information, visit here. Villarreal says, in part:

A framed poster of Leo Carrillo starring as Mexican caballero Francisco "Pancho" Villa in the 1950 film "Pancho Villa Returns" rests, in all its pristine splendor, on a cobalt wall. Tag lines such as "The man who made history with cyclonic fury!" and "The Robin Hood of Mexico" are splashed across the bill, luring potential viewers to witness Villa as a paragon of virtue. But this is not a theater revisiting the golden age of Mexican cinema. The poster is part of the exhibition "Bold Caballeros y Noble Bandidas" at the Autry National Center of the America West.

The show, on view through May 10 and co-presented by Arizona State University's Hispanic Research Center, explores relations between the U.S. and its neighbor to the south after the Mexican Revolution of 1910 and the evolution of Mexican pop culture that resulted.

***

Although the show focuses on testosterone-fueled caballeros, it also delves into a shift in female cultural norms, making the case that the revolution served as a catalyst in the emancipation of subservient Mexican women, said Gary D. Keller, director of the Hispanic Research Center and co-curator of the exhibit. Women took on new roles as colonels, outlaws and revolutionaries, even on the big screen. After the revolution's end in 1920, heroines often complemented the heroic male outlaws with aggressive roles, such as those of siren María Félix and Barbara Britton, famous for her role as the fictional Bandit Queen.

To read all of Villarreal’s piece, go here. [Pictured: In the 1991 serigraph “Adelita,” George Yepes depicts an ivory-skinned woman, her hands crossed, gripping two pistols pointing upward.]

◙ In yesterday’s El Paso Times, I reviewed Ray Gonzalez's Renaming the Earth: Personal Essays (University of Arizona Press, hardcover $34.95; paperback $17.95), where I note, in part, that “we are treated to the award-winning poet's exploration of his development as a writer. The essays are as lyrical as they are hard-headed.” I continue (I love quoting myself):

The eight essays that make up "Renaming the Earth" ebb and flow, touching on topics as diverse as childhood embarrassments, El Paso history, discrimination, desert heat, Minnesota winters, war and the immigration debate.

In all, Gonzalez brilliantly and with great passion renames the Earth not only for his benefit, but for ours, as well.

You may read the entire review here.

◙ That’s all for this week. So, in the meantime, enjoy the intervening posts from mis compadres y comadres here on La Bloga. And remember: ¡Lea un libro!