By Xánath Caraza
For the 2014
PACHANGA in Seattle, WA, the Advisory Circle of Con Tinta, a collective of
Chican@/Latin@ Activist Writers, and los Norteños Writers group are honoring Jesús “El Flaco” Maldonado and
Kathleen Alcalá, in addition to the celebration of the five year anniversary of
CantoMundo. On Thursday, February 27,
2014, 5:30-7:30 p.m., we will have La Pachanga at Mexico Cantina y Cocina at
Pacific Place-Level 4, 600 Pine St. (or 1611 6th Ave.), Seattle, WA
98101. Ph #: (206) 405-3400. Please be
our guest and join La Pachanga for our hors d’oeuvre & cash bar celebration
and more.
Jesús “El Flaco” Maldonado
Jesús “El Flaco” Maldonado is one of the first
Chicanos to publish and read publicly in the Northwest. As well, he has been a teacher for many years,
utilizing his literary skills in the classroom.
One of his most renown poems is “Under a Never Changing Sun”, a protest
of the exploitation of Chicano migrant workers.
Jesús
“El Flaco” Maldonado was born in Mission, Texas. El Flaquito is the seventh of 12 children of
José and Aminta Maldonado. His formative
years were spent near the Mexican border near Reynosa, Mexico. Flaquito graduated
from Roy Miller High School in Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1965. After getting his BA in Spanish from
Southwest Texas State University in 1969, he enrolled at the University of
Washington in September of 1969 where he received his MA in Spanish in 1975. As a poet of the
Chicano Movement, his poetry has been published in El Grito, Caracol, Q’Vo, El Gato, Metamorfosis (a
University of Washington publication), The
Bilingual Review / La Revista Bilingüe, The
Americas Review, and in a few anthologies: Literatura Chicana: Texto y Contexto, Chicanos: Antología Histórica y Literaria, La Voz Urgente: Antología de literatura chicana en español, The Floating Borderlands, and in En Otra Voz: Antología de la literatura
hispana de los Estados Unidos.
Flaquito
started his high school teaching career in 1972 in Mabton, Washington, where he
taught and counseled for three years. Later
he taught English and Spanish for thirty-three years in Granger High School in
Granger, Washington, whose population is 90% Hispanic. Flaquito retired in April of 2010, only to
come out of retirement to teach at the Wahluke Alternative School for the
2010-2011 academic year. At the present time Flaquito is teaching Spanish at
Highline High School in Burien, Washington.
“El Flaquito, como le gusta que le digan, y yo fuimos
compañeros de escuela. Luego él se fue a
Washington. Es un gran amigo y siempre
ha estado muy pendiente de todo lo que involucra los derechos para los
trabajadores migrantes.” --Tino
Villanueva, 2013 Con Tinta Honoree
Kathleen Alcalá
Kathleen Alcalá is the author of a short story
collection, three novels set in 19th Century Mexico and the Southwest, and a
collection of essays based on family history. Her work has received the Western
States Book Award, the Governor’s Writers Award, and a Pacific Northwest
Booksellers Association Book Award. She received her second Artist Trust
Fellowship in 2008.
Kathleen has a B.A. in Linguistics from Stanford
University and an M.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Washington.
She recently completed a Master of Fine Arts at the University of New Orleans,
spending summers in San Miguel de Allende. Her work is often referred to as
magic realism, but Kathleen considers most of it historical fiction. She does,
however, have a great affinity for the story-telling techniques of magic
realism and science fiction, and has been both a student and instructor in the
Clarion West Science Fiction Workshop.
As a permanent faculty member at the Northwest
Institute of Literary Arts, Kathleen has spent part of each January and August
with the students and faculty on Whidbey Island. Along with Phoebe Bosché and
Phil Red Eagle, she is a founding editor of The Raven Chronicles, and was
present at the inception of both the Los Norteños writers group and Con Tinta.
Ursula K. Le Guin said of her first collection,
“This is a book of wonders. Each story unfolds with humor and simplicity and
perfect naturalness into something original and totally unpredictable. The
kingdom of Borges and García Marquez lie just over the horizon, but this
landscape of desert towns and dreaming hearts … is Alcalá-land. It lies just
across the border between Mexico and California, across the border between the
living and the dead, across all the borders – a true new world.”
“Kathleen Alcalá captures the essence of the magical
realism in her work. Her stories convincingly move the reader from one reality
to the other. Kathleen’s craft illuminates the souls of her characters: the
Mexican women who carry the universe in their hearts.” – Rudolfo Anaya
Poster for the 2014 Pachanga
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