Deluxe ancillaries like the fine arte cover and the fold-out color poster, in a printed book-size magazine--245 pages--illustrate the good fortune for readers that the journal-magazine's moved to UC Davis where Huizache editor Maceo Montoya has marshaled support from the College of Letters & Sciences, the English Department, the Chancellor's Office, Chicano Studies Department, and unnamed benefactors. Subscribers get a bargain receiving both this tenth and the upcoming eleventh issue--Fall 2024--for one payment.(link)
You say potato I say papa, the quondam "Latino Literature" journal now calls itself "The Magazine of a New America", reflecting the widening scope of raza writing no matter who calls it names, and a growing distance from the battle of the name that engaged El Grito and Revista in an interesting but ultimately unproductive canonical agon ya hace many moons (link). It doesn't matter what it's called so long as the writing's excellent and the content speaks to one's alma.
Huizache, since its founding by Dagoberto Gilb, has been all about quality, not nationalism. This is a value carried on by Prose Editor Carribean Fragoza, Poetry Eds Javier O. Huerta and León Salvatierra, with Contributing Poetry Editor Yaccaira Salvatierra. Other masthead positions include Associate Editor Vanessa Diaz, Editorial Daisy Magallanes, Multimedia Specialist José A. Pérez, and Layout Edsigner Stephanie Sauer.
The move to Davis put the kibosh to those lavish issue launch pachangas on Mt. Washington, but the added features borne of significant institutional support make the loss of a few hors d'oeuvres and fascinating conversations a lástima. Southern California supporters have traded the pachangas for lavish readings in cultural landmarks like La Plaza de Cultura y Artes (link).
I had an extensive collection of issues that I "lent" to a book club member relatively new to contemporary Chicana Chicano y más writing. The issues went that-a-way when time passed with no return. Así son las cosas. Ni modo, if the vato read and got informed on the best there is among our writers, then passed along the treasured volumes to other interested readers.
Chicana Chicano Latina Latino literatures represent the nation's most vital and up-and-coming thriving market. With dozens of independent small press artivists bringing writers to hungry audiences, finding the work in the crowded literary marketplace is problematic. In Huizache, readers find fresh new voices and familiar powerhouses. Let the magazine act like a clearinghouse and accumulator, a simpatico gate-keeper.
Keep an eye on Huizache's contributors and be assured of meeting quality writers not readily accessible, then follow the writer to their small press niche and buy the longer works. It's how readers make a literature grow and sustain development, constituting only one of myriad reasons readers need to make Huizache a standard part of their media consumption and support for la cultura.
Links In This Column:
Huizache Magazine. https://huizachemag.org/
Subscriptions: https://huizachemag.org/subscribe/
Reading samples, Index: https://huizachemag.org/read/
1 comment:
Thoughtful, detailed overview of the impact HUIZACHE has, and has had, in a decade of publishing fine Latino Latina literature that continues burgeoning into higher and richer strata of excellence. Thank you to the stewards of this literary treasure, and to Michael Sedano for enlightening us about it.
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