Chicanonautica: Everybody’s Redrawing the Maps

 

by Ernest Hogan

Thank Tezcatlipoca, my crazy career has been demanding my attention lately, giving me a break from the political pendejada that has been sweeping across the planet. The stench of batshit is worse than that in certain Mayan pyramids. But the madness is too big to ignore.

And what madness. Not just a border emergency, shutting down the Southern border, but all kinds of emergencies we never dreamed of. 

I’m reminded of a scene in the old sci-fi film Enemy from Space, where a calm voice in a British accent said over a loudspeaker, “EMERGENCY. EMERGENCY. SHOOT TO KILL. SHOOT TO KILL.” I was always disturbed by the fact that no instructions were given on exactly who to shoot.

What is the emergency? Every conspiracy theory. Who is the enemy? It looks like everybody is an “other,” even if you voted for this mess. 

The Felon-in-Chief is alienating–or should I say pissing off?--all our allies. Canada and Mexico are mad at us. 

Suddenly, the borders of the United State of America aren’t enough. The Felon wants Canada, Greenland, and is willing to hand half of the Ukraine to Putin and steal their resources. Imperialism is back. With a vengeance.

Proving that borders are imaginary–a hallucination that people choose to believe in–folks in Oregon want their border moved so they can be in Idaho, the same with some Illinois folks and Indiana. Shouldn’t be surprised. History books are full of maps showing how it all gets rearranged. With the exception of the U.S./Mexico border (Why? Hmm . . .), a lot of people want to redraw the maps again.

 

Borders are not only imaginary, they are largely unnatural, created by human beings through conflict and self-interest. Where you see a straight line on a map, there are unresolved conflicts bubbling away.

And now the bubbles are reaching the surface, getting ready to burst.

This is what happens when you choose to deal with diplomacy with a chainsaw rather than a scalpel.

Now the gargoyles have taken over the cathedral, as I heard Ray Bradbury and Harlan Ellison say and each attributing it to the other, back when the Watergate scandal broke. This time the gargoyles are uglier, meaner and stupider. Muy estupido.

And it’s looking like the beginning of a bloody mess. I hope to Izpopalotl, the Goddess of Nightmares, that it’s just my sci-fi imagination running amok, but what’s a Chicano scifiista to do?

These changes are already having an effect on culture. Hollywood and the media are going chickenshit, will publishing follow? 

Guess I have to go underground again, a cultural desperado, using creativity as a weapon and displaying in weird, new venues. When the going gets tough, the tough get creative. Lookout, here comes a whole lot of guerrilla worldbuilding. 

We need to re-draw some maps, and transform the landscape.

Welcome to New Aztlán, cabrones!

Ernest Hogan will be teaching “Gonzo Science Fiction, Chicano Style” via Zoom at Palabras del Pueblo Writing Workshop in June. The focus will be on aesthetic terrorism, creative blasphemy, and guerrilla worldbuilding. 

Wild Dreamers- Sueños salvajes

By Margarita Engle

 

Publisher: ‎Atheneum Books for Young Readers 

Language: ‎English

Hardcover: ‎224 pages

ISBN-10: ‎1665939753

ISBN-13: ‎978-1665939751

Reading age: ‎12 years and up

Grade level: ‎7 – 9

 

 

Longlisted for the National Book Award

A Pura Belpré Young Adult Author Honor Book

 

 

Ana and her mother have been living out of their car ever since her militant father became one of the FBI’s most wanted. Leandro has struggled with debilitating anxiety since his family fled Cuba on a perilous raft.

 

One moonlit night, in a wilderness park in California, Ana and Leandro meet. Their connection is instant—a shared radiance that feels both scientific and magical. Then they discover they are not alone: a huge mountain lion stalks through the trees, one of many wild animals whose habitat has been threatened by humans.

 

Determined to make a difference, Ana and Leandro start a rewilding club at their school, working with scientists to build wildlife crossings that can help mountain lions find one another. If pumas can find their way to a better tomorrow, surely Ana and Leandro can too.

 

 

Sueños salvajes 

 

Escrito por Margarita Engle 

Traducido por Alexis Romay e Inma Serrano 

 

Preseleccionado para el Premio Nacional del Libro

 

En este emocionante romance juvenil de la galardonada autora Margarita Engle, el amor y la conservación se entrelazan mientras dos adolescentes luchan por proteger la vida silvestre y sanar de sus pasados problemáticos.

 

Ana y su madre han estado viviendo en su coche desde que su padre militante se convirtió en uno de los más buscados por el FBI. Leandro ha luchado con una ansiedad debilitante desde que su familia huyó de Cuba en una balsa peligrosa.

 

Una noche de luna llena, en un parque silvestre en California, Ana y Leandro se encuentran. Su conexión es instantánea: una radiancia compartida que se siente tanto científica como mágica. Luego descubren que no están solos: un enorme león de montaña acecha entre los árboles, uno de los muchos animales salvajes cuyo hábitat ha sido amenazado por los humanos.

 

Decididos a hacer una diferencia, Ana y Leandro inician un club de rewilding en su escuela, trabajando con científicos para construir cruces de vida silvestre que puedan ayudar a los leones de montaña a encontrarse. Si los pumas pueden encontrar su camino hacia un mañana mejor, seguramente Ana y Leandro también podrán.

 

 

Review

 

"Emotions run deep and true in the concrete poems and free verse, which offer complex relationships that are familial, cultural, romantic, and environmental, appropriately blurring the lines between them for readers already invested in effecting heartfelt change." -- The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Starred Review

 

"Distinctive verse by Engle portrays Ana and Leandro’s alternating perspectives to fully immerse readers in this sweetly rendered romance, adding depth to the teens’ parallel journeys. . . a heartwarming and inspiring eco-centric read that addresses timely issues such as conservation of wildlife and emphasizes the importance of people’s connecting to nature—and each other." -- Publishers Weekly

 

"Verse in various forms, including beautiful concrete poems, effectively conveys this story’s themes of sustainability, resilience, and activism. A transformative journey celebrating the power of overcoming personal struggles to make a lasting impact." -- Kirkus Reviews

 

 

Margarita Engle is the Cuban American author of many books including the verse novels Rima’s Rebellion; Your Heart, My Sky; With a Star in My Hand; The Surrender Tree, a Newbery Honor winner; The Lightning Dreamer; and Wild Dreamers, a Pura Belpré Young Adult Author Honor book. Her verse memoirs include Soaring Earth and Enchanted Air, which received the Pura Belpré Award, a Walter Dean Myers Award Honor, and was a finalist for the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction, among others. Her picture books include Drum Dream Girl, Dancing Hands, and The Flying Girl. Visit her at MargaritaEngle.com.

Guest Columnist Thelma Reyna: Octavia's Bookshelf Fire Fundraiser

A Roman God, History, and Poets: The Altadena Eaton Fire Revisited

Thelma T. Reyna

 
History is a bit like the mythological Roman god Janus, a two-faced being who simultaneously looked at the past and the future. Janus was thus the god of beginnings and endings, of necessary transitions and ongoing change. So, once history (the past) is made, what will be the ramifications (the future)? 

The Eaton Canyon fire that savaged the tightly-knit, artistic community of Altadena, CA, on January 7 made history as California’s second-most destructive fire ever. Its fury brought endings uncountable and unimaginable, and has spawned soul-searing transitions and changes that will affect our lives for generations and possibly forever. 

Luckily poets have been akin to first responders in this catastrophe. Since the beginning, in social media and reading events throughout SoCal communities—live, on-air, and virtual—, poets have brought their artistry and voices to navigating and parsing the losses and grief we have suffered. This past week, one such poetry event brought together stellar poets to address “history.” 

On Tuesday at Octavia’s Bookshelf in Pasadena, Altadena’s current Co-Poet Laureates, Sehba Sarwar and Lester Graves Lennon, presented their reading event, “After the Fire: Honoring Histories.” Billed as a fundraising event to benefit the Altadena Public Library, it included several distinguished poets.

Laureates & Award-Winners

Lester Graves Lennon

Lester Graves Lennon: current Altadena Co-Poet Laureate; author of three poetry books; Poetry Editor of Rosebud magazine. 

Sehba Sarwar

Sehba Sarwar: current Altadena Co-Poet Laureate; author of a novel and of poems published in various literary publications in Asia, Pakistan, and elsewhere. 

Teresa Mei Chuc

Teresa Mei Chuc: Altadena Poet Laureate Emerita; author of four books; member of the Pasadena Rose Poets; and Shabda Press book publisher. Her high school student, Riot, a member of Teresa’s Poetry Club, read two of his poems. 

Sesshu Foster

Sesshu Foster: author of six books; winner of the American Book Award, one of the top book prizes in the U.S.; winner of the Asian-American Literary Award for Poetry; winner of the Believer Book Award for speculative fiction.

Maryam Hosseinzadeh

Maryam Hosseinzadeh: a poet and community arts organizer in Altadena and other parts of Los Angeles county.

Cassandra Lane

Cassandra Lane: author of the award-winning book, We Are Bridges: A Memoir; winner of the 2020 Louise Meriwether First Book Prize; journalist with stories and essays appearing in newspapers and magazines, most notably as editor-in-chief of LA Parent magazine.

A Packed, Appreciative Audience

Nicky High and Nicki Winslow

Although Octavia’s Bookshelf is a cozy, compact reading venue, the diverse audience was packed and energized. The store’s owner, poet Nicky High, was present, along with Nicki Winslow, director of the Altadena Library District. The amount of library donations raised was not yet announced.

The poets varied in their emphasis on the fires but focused on themes of family roots in the area, losses in general, unity, and community spirit. Lennon, the current Co-Laureate, read a poem detailing the ubiquity of chimneys standing “proudly” amidst the ruins, vestiges of their centrality in the homes. Lennon also spoke in one poem about a memorable Christmas dinner his neighbor had hosted shortly before the fire and how, two weeks later, her house lay in ashes.  

Sarwar, also current Altadena Co-Laureate, read a poem describing a student’s stated hopes that fire victims would survive and prevail by “joining together,” and how she affirmed the student’s belief.

 Moving Forward:  Poets in Real Time, Writing “History”

The groundswell of poets sharing their observations, fears, grief, and dreams will likely continue as does the rebuilding of Altadena and Pasadena, for poets are the observers and reporters of the most consequential moments in life, the moments that most touch us, move us, and instruct us. May their artistry continue to enrich our community.

El Día Internacional de la Mujer de 2025 por Xánath Caraza

El Día Internacional de la Mujer de 2025 por Xánath Caraza

 

El Mes de la Historia de la Mujer se celebra cada año en marzo. Cada 8 de marzo se destaca esta fecha como el Día Internacional de la Mujer para reconocer contribuciones intelectuales, políticas, familiares y de activismo social en las respectivas comunidades donde muchas mujeres viven.  La historia ha pasado por alto, olvidado, reprimido, mal informado, no reconocido los logros de muchas mujeres a lo largo de los años, de los siglos, no solo en este país sino en todo el mundo.

 

Gracias a la perseverancia de tantas mujeres activistas, estas voces junto con sus aportaciones a la sociedad han salido a la superficie y han ido ganando terreno para ser reconocidas públicamente y alcanzar igualdad. 

 

No en todos los países somos afortunadas de poder honrar estos logros y de reconocer a tantas mujeres que han abierto brecha para cada una de nosotras.  Muchas se han quedado en el camino, otras han experimentado desapariciones forzadas, otras, experimentan violencia doméstica, social o pobreza. Para mí es un honor poder celebrar cada año ese día, el 8 de marzo, el Día Internacional de la Mujer, que nunca doy por sentado.

 

Este 2025, para el Día Internacional de la Mujer, El Dialogue Institute y la Asociación Estudiantil de Diálogo Intercultural de la Universidad de Missouri celebrarán una lectura de poesía en Zoom el viernes 7 de marzo de 8 a 9:15 p.m. CST.

 

Las presentadoras que formarán parte de este evento son: la poeta y editora, Brenda Vaca de California; la poeta y artista Katori Walker de Nueva York y la que escribe. 

 

Espero, queridos lectores de la Bloga, que disfruten de este evento para el Día Internacional de la Mujer el próximo 7 de marzo de 2025 de 8 a 9:15 p.m. CST. Habrá que registrarse por adelantado.

 

Las poetas:

 

Brenda Vaca

Brenda Vaca is a Xicana poet, author, and independent publisher from Sejatnga, Unceded Tongva Territory, known as South Whittier, CA. Riot of Roses is her debut collection of poetry published by her indie house, Riot of Roses Publishing House. She founded Riot of Roses Publishing House to amplify historically silenced voices and narratives. Writing and publishing are her joyful rebellion.

 

Katori Walker

 

Katori Walker is a poet, playwright, self-taught multi-media artist, spoke word performer, muralist, and art educator. She was born in New York City and was also raised in Puerto Rico and St. Thomas. Katori feels that her Caribbean background contributes to her love of bright colors and textures. In 2025, she received the prestigious NCNW Changemakers Award from The National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), Inc. Westchester Section.

 

Xanath Caraza

Xánath Caraza is a traveler, educator, poet, short story writer, and translator.  She writes for La Bloga and Revista Literaria Monolito. In 2023 Red Teardrop received Gold Medal for Best Fiction Book Translation—Spanish to English for the International Latino Book Awards. In 2023 La mariposa de Jackeline / Jackeline’s Butterfly received Bronze Medal for the Juan Felipe Herrera Best Poetry Award—One Author Bilingual for the International Latino Book Awards. In 2018 for the International Latino Book Awards she received First Place for Lágrima roja for “Best Book of Poetry in Spanish by One Author” and First Place for Sin preámbulos / Without Preamble for “Best Book of Bilingual Poetry”.  Her book of poetry Syllables of Wind / Sílabas de viento received the 2015 International Book Award for Poetry. She was Writer-in-Residence at Westchester Community College, NY, 2016-2019.  Caraza has been translated into English, Italian, Romanian, and Greek; and partially translated into Nahuatl, Portuguese, Hindi, and Turkish.