Literary Innovation and From Whence It Came

A New Reading Series Debuts; Established Literary Fest Arises From Flames

Michael Sedano

Thelma T. Reyna and G.T. Foster today's feature poets

May 2025 marks the return of LitFest to Pasadena itself. In previous years, the literary communities of Altadena and Pasadena held festivities in disparate locations in both towns, and South Pasadena, a separate community, wasn't part of the denas.

Then LitFest moved into the spacious mausoleum building of Altadena’s Mountain View Cemetery and took on the name “LitFest in the Dena”. But the fire. Hence, the Dena is now just Pasadena until we Altadenense get back on our feet. A ver.

LitFest in the Dena or Pasadena, that’s not what La Bloga-Tuesday focuses its spotlight today. Instead, South Pasadena is bringing poetry under its own umbrella with a new poetry series, Poetry In the Afternoon, hosted by Aaron Hernandez.

The poetry readings are housed in the lovely SPARC Centre Gallery a thriving cultural hub in the center of the civic neighborhood, 1000 Fremont Ave, South Pasadena, CA. In the rear, lots of parking!

Open Mic readers

Thursday, April 17 marked the launch of this fulfilling series with featured poets Thelma T. Reyna and G.T. Foster. Joining them are Open Mic poets, Beth Baird, Joseph Nicks, Ron Koertge, Chris Cressey, Ethan Kwok, Rick Leddy, Barrywom23 (not pictured).

 

Aaron Hernandez organized the reading

Foster reads poems and from his Army memoir. The audience enjoys his song poem mixing a Thai language song with a soldier's recollection of a good night in the Ville.

Reyna reads love poems, a man cradles his wife's face for a gentle kiss; a girl remembers the poverty and nurturing environs growing up treading the caliche ruts of a dusty Texas town.

Audience and readers enjoy a round of applause. Next Poetry In the Afternoon will be packed with readers and listeners. Who knows, maybe there'll be busloads coming into South Pasadena from Pasadena's LitFest in the Dena?

A ver.

“Fuerza ancestral” por Xánath Caraza

“Fuerza ancestral” por Xánath Caraza

 

El 23 de abril celebraremos el Día Internacional del Libro. Para este 2025 me gustaría compartir un poema titulado “Fuerza ancestral” que fue originalmente publicado en mi poemario trilingüe Conjuro (Mammoth Publications, 2012) y en 2019 fue incluido en la antología Voices from the Ancestors: Xicanx and Latinx Spiritual Expressions and Healing Practices (University of Arizona Press, 2019) editado por Lara Median y Martha R. Gonzales.

 

En 2023 la Dra. Charlene Villaseñor Black, chair of the César Chávez Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies and Professor of art history and Chicana/o studies, comentó en la publicación “Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month 2023: Read, Watch, Listen”, de UCLA, lo siguiente para mi poema.

 

Muchas gracias y espero, queridos lectores de la Bloga, que disfruten “Fuerza ancestral”.

 

Fuerza ancestral por Xánath Caraza

 

Fuerza de mujer:

delicada

que fluye en aguas rojas

pensamientos concéntricos

fuerza que renace

se enreda en las copas de los árboles

Cihuacoatl

 

Fuerza creadora que canta

que despierta

que guía entre el oscuro laberinto

que susurra al oído el camino extraviado

que invita a vivir

Tonantzin

 

Latidos de obsidiana

de fuerza incandescente

de humo azul

corazón de piedra verde

frente a ti están

otras vibraciones femeninas

Yoloxóchitl

 

Fuerza de mujer que fluye

entre las páginas

de poemas extraviados

de signos olvidados

entre galerías

de imágenes grabadas

poesía tatuada en la piel

Xochipilli

 

Corazón enardecido

que explota

respira

siente

vive

Tlazoteotl

 

Montañas de malaquita

áureo torrente matutino

que recorre los surcos

del cuerpo

Coatlicue

 

Fuerza femenina ancestral

sobre papel amate

que se entrega

a los intrínsecos diseños

de las frases dibujadas

Coyolxauqui

 

Pensamiento de jade

que se evapora con la luna

que se integra a los caudalosos blancos ríos

Tonantzin

 

Fuerza de mujer:

del lejos y cerca

de arriba y abajo

del dentro y de fuera

de ciclo eterno

fuerza dual

de cielo de granate

 

Cihuacoatl, Tonantzin

Yoloxóchitl, Xochipilli

Tlazoteotl, Coatlicue

Coyolxauqui

 

Guirnaldas de flores blancas las celebran

plumas de quetzal adornan las cabelleras

las abuelas creadoras cantan

al unísono en esta tierra

 

Fuerza femenina, ancestral

 

 

Xanath Caraza

New (and Classic) Nonfiction: Immigrant Sagas

The three books in today's La Bloga analyze very different immigrant experiences in the United States.  Even so, a message of hope is shared by these books, as well as the basic truths about the undeniable value of immigration to the U.S., and the inherent inspiration and courage of the immigrant journey.

______________________

More Than Sheepherders: 
The American Basques of Elko County, Nevada
Joxe K. Mallea-Olaetxe and Jess Lopategui

University of Nevada - April 15

[from the publisher]
In the remote community of Elko, Nevada, the Altube brothers and the Garats started fabled ranches in the early 1870s. These hardy citizens created the foundation of a community that still exists today, rooted in the traditions and cultures of American Basque families.

Joxe K. Mallea-Olaetxe presents a modern study focused on the post-1970s, when the retired Basque sheepherders and their families became the dominant Americanized minority in the area. During this time, the Fourth of July National Basque Festival began to attract thousands of visitors from as far away as Europe to the small Nevada community and brought to light the vibrant customs of these Nevadans.

This book explores the American Basques’ present-day place in the West, bolstered by the collaborative efforts of four contributors, including two women—all who have been residents of Elko. The writers offer firsthand knowledge of their heritage through numerous vignettes, and these deeply personal perspectives will entice readers into Mallea-Olaetxe’s singular and entertaining historical account.

__________________________

Dreaming of Home:
How We Turn Fear into Pride, Power, and Real Change
Cristina Jiménez

St. Martin's Press - May 27

[from the publisher]
Dreaming of Home is a coming-of-age story both for a young woman finding her true self and for a social movement of immigrant youth trailblazers who inspired the world and changed the lives of millions.

Cristina Jiménez’s family fights to stay afloat as Ecuador falls into a political and economic crisis. When she is thirteen, her parents courageously decide to seek a better life in the U.S., landing in a one-bedroom apartment in Queens, New York. There are many challenges, but eventually, Cristina discovers she is not alone; she finds her calling within a community of social justice organizers. With deep candor and humor, Cristina opens the door to what it’s like to grow up undocumented and the reality that being a “good” immigrant doesn’t shield you from systematic racism, danger, or even the confusion of falling in love.

Through personal stories and historical truth telling, Cristina invites us to acknowledge the America that never was and to imagine the America that could be when everyday people build power and fight for change. And she reminds us that home is more than a physical place on the map, offering each of us a roadmap for finding the home within even when the world around us seems to be crumbling.

_______________________

The Devil's Highway: A True Story

Luis Alberto Urrea

Little, Brown - 2004

[from the publisher]
In May 2001, a group of men attempted to cross the border into the desert of southern Arizona, through the deadliest region of the continent, a place called the Devil’s Highway. Fathers and sons, brothers and strangers, entered a desert so harsh and desolate that even the Border Patrol is afraid to travel through it. Twelve came back out.

Now, Luis Alberto Urrea tells the story of this modern odyssey. He takes us back to the small towns and unpaved cities south of the border, where the poor fall prey to dreams of a better life and the sinister promises of smugglers. We meet the men who will decide to make the crossing along the Devil’s Highway and, on the other side of the border, the men who are ready to prevent them from reaching their destination. Urrea reveals exactly what happened when the twenty-six headed into the wasteland, and how they were brutally betrayed by the one man they had trusted most. And from that betrayal came the inferno, a descent into a world of cactus spines, labyrinths of sand, mountains shaped like the teeth of a shark, and a screaming sun so intense that even at midnight the temperature only drops to 97 degrees. And yet, the men would not give up. The Devil’s Highway is a story of astonishing courage and strength, of an epic battle against circumstance. These twenty-six men would look the Devil in the eyes – and some of them would not blink.

Later.

__________________________

Manuel Ramos

Chicanonautica: Just Another Apocalyptic Spring

by Ernest Hogan

Yup. The sun is dazzling. The air is warming to what is considered summery in most of the rest of the world. Take a deep breath and you get more than a hint of turmoil. Another apocalyptic summer is on the way. I’ve got a sinking feeling that it could outdo 2020’s Covid Spring, when ordinary folks learned to use the word “surreal” when talking about real events that they had witnessed.

At least we’re not all up to our waists in the sand and being eaten by insects. I’ve got Tom Lehrer’s “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park” stuck in my head. An alternate soundtrack. What would Buñuel and Dalí think? 

Come to think of it, what would they do?

Maybe I should watch some Three Stooges and Monty Python.

My current story.  “Once Upon a Time in a Mass Deportation” is coming at me in jagged chunks that hit somewhere between 3 and 4AM. I also keep checking the news, because I do not want to be outdone by reality. 

The Trump/Musk demolition crew is destroying the world economy, American citizenship, and freedom of speech. We are all Chicanos now. They want to be able to arbitrarily strip us of our rights, and “disappear” us. You too can be illegal. Brown skin is not a prerequisite. This is not the equality we were fighting for. They will decide who is and is not American.

Maybe in the end, nobody will be.

My Anglo and/or white friends, you have a lot to learn from the rest of us. We have been living this reality for a long time. We are all minorities in one way or another.

We have gotten along. We also create our own cultures, using what we have, reconstructing it in our own way. Recomboculture. Rasquache. When I was a kid, my family considered it “doing it Chicano style.”

When the going gets tough, the tough get creative, because you often have no choice. If you want a place in the world, you have to make it yourself. 

Meanwhile, it’s getting hot in Phoenix. We’ll be breaking records. The sun is bright, colors are intense. It’s beautiful.

The shadow of an airplane zoomed over my truck a few hours ago. It was heading straight down the street we were on. A few minutes later, a helicopter did the same. I asked what was going on. My wife suggested a fire, but there was no smoke.

Lately, men in camouflage have been showing up at the library.

It’s like a Jean-Luc Godard film.

I’ve long considered Godard’s apocalyptic Weekend was a remake of Laurel and Hardy’s Two Tars. Both feature decadent relationships, fantastic traffic jams, and the breakdown of civilization as we know it. Weekend was inspired by Julio Cotrázar’s short story, “The Southern Thruway,” where the same things happen. I’m currently reading his novel Final Exam, which was written in 1950 and not published until 1986 for “political and personal reasons,” in which a strange, sticky fog may or may not a metaphor for looming fascism. I wonder if Cortázar ever saw Two Tars?

Everything is connected.

I wonder if what I’m writing now will be published in my lifetime. 

Sometimes all you can do is scream, create.

I’ve been practicing my grito.

Ernest Hogan will be teaching a course, “Gonzo Science Fiction, Chicano Style” at the online Palabras del Pueblo Writing Workshop, June 7, 8, 14, and 15. He will have a story and drawing in the upcoming Xicanofuturism: Gritos for Tomorrow. His imagination is running wild.

IN THE COMPANY OF WOLVES

By Antonio Farías

*ISBN: 979-8-89375-011-9
*Publication Date: September 9, 2025
*Format: Trade Paperback
*Pages: 188
*Imprint: Piñata Books
*Ages: 12-16

This engaging novel for young adults explores family secrets, grief and loss.

Jaime goes to live with his paternal grandmother and uncle the summer his father is killed in Vietnam. The family ranch and New Mexico’s endless landscape are a completely new experience for the middle schooler raised in New York City, and he is shocked when his mother announces she must go back to the city—without him! They are both worried about his brother, who stayed behind and is insistent on joining the Marines. Neither can stand the idea of losing him to war, too.

As the days stretch out before him, Jaime learns the ways of the Cieza men who have lived in the Southwest for generations, including how to care for the chickens, ride his father’s horse, Shadow Walker, and shoot a rifle. A budding love interest, the granddaughter of a neighboring rancher, brightens his summer. And when he and his Tío Julio see Graybeard, an old wolf that hasn’t been in the area for years, the boy’s uncle shares the legend of the wolf pack descended from indigenous peoples and teaches him how to track the beast. Could the old wolf be his father, trying to communicate with him? Will they really kill him as their neighbor insists they must to protect the livestock?

In this novel for young adults, a boy on the cusp of manhood observes the importance of family, respect for the natural world and the impact of war as he considers who he will become. Young readers, especially boys, will be drawn to this coming-of-age story that explores masculinity and men’s roles.

ANTONIO FARÍAS has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of California, Riverside. His work has been published extensively, including in Sudden Fiction Latino (W. W. Norton, 2010), Chicken Soup for the Latino Soul, Latino Boom, Urban Latino Magazine, Tilde and Bilingual Review. He lives and works in Denver, Colorado.

Comida de Cuaresma: Tortas de Camaron

That time of year when some people endeavor to eschew meat, especially on Good Friday, brings the delights of making and eating nopales--opuntia cactus paddles--in red chile sauce garnished with shrimp omelettes made with dried powdered shrimp. 

Don't translate the food gente. "Cactus with shrimp pancakes" lacks the mouth-watering anticipation that comes when you pronounce nopales con tortas de camarón as you remember back to your youth when gramma or mom used to make nopales, and not just during Lent. Nopales con tortas de camarón are good all year round!

Today's The Gluten-free Chicano Cooks column has a bonus, a wondrous, unique, recipe featuring pumpkin and hominy to add taste and texture people will enjoy and devour all the helpings you offer. 

Do please cook the recipes and let el Gluten-free Chicas Patas know how it turns out for you. You're encouraged to share your own tricks and recipes for nopales.

La Bloga welcome Guest Columnists. If you're a gluten-free cook or baker, send your column ideas via email. Click on our fotos above for the link.

Provecho!

Peeling Nopales the (Mostly) No-Espina Way

Any time a cook prepares fresh nopalito pencas, an espina or two is sure to find a finger or palm. Así es, the romance of el nopal. If you collect your nopales from the garden your likelihood of tiny painful finger pokes increases. Enjoy!

A sharp paring knife and careful finger placement between the espina carbuncles are two secrets to preparing nopales.

Use a washable cutting board or work on newspaper. 

Meticulous Method: Draw the point of the knife around the spiny perimeter of the cactus paddle, cutting away the outer ¼ inch of spininess.

Sensibly Fast Method: Hold the penca flat on the newspaper and draw the knife across the face of the penca nearly horizonally. Most espina nubs slice right off along the path of a sharp edge's travel. 

Dip the blade in a glass of water to wash away espinitas.

Steel the blade frequently to keep the edge slicing effortlessly.

Wash the pencas. 

There's a white espina in the top the foto below, in the middle where the two pencas meet. It would be disagreeable to find that on your tongue, so wash and inspect.



Slice the pencas into ¼" strips. Draw the blade at a diagonal through the strips.

The nopalitos are ready to use raw in a salad, add to a stew, toss in when you scramble eggs. 

Below, nopales simmer with carne de puerco. Later, the cook will add una torta de camarón to soak up some chile.

See below for The Gluten-free Chicano recipes for nopales con tortas de camarón and a really fancy yet economical pumpkin hominy and nopales guisado.

The Gluten-free Chicano Cooks
Nopales con carne de puerco y tortas de camarón
Michael Sedano

Grown from single penca planted in 1960. ©2013msedano

You know it’s Springtime when opuntia cactus of the right varieties form plentiful buds and you keep an eye on them over the next few weeks until the pencas are large and still tender, deep green and ready to be picked, peeled, diced and cooked up.

But early February is not Springtime. The nopales stand bereft of buds. Still weeks to go before we can return to the old nopal and harvest some of its tender offerings. When he bought this land in 1960, my father kicked his heel into the hillside here, to soften the dirt. He dropped a penca where he worked and stepped on it, pressing it into the earth.

When there was still open land and groves in Redlands, people who didn’t grow their own knew the best places to pick nopales. Just as gente knew the groves where the best verdolagas grew, a favored field where the kelites were almost weed-free, they knew where the best tunas--hence the best nopales--grew. Nopales were a feature of the local landscape; in the wash, in alleyways, in a corner of an empty lot.

Unusually thin penca.

Some nopales are more delectable than others. The ones with fuzzy micro-espinas are inedible just because they're so much hassle, no one I know has ever eaten one.

Pencas need to be new growth, healthily green-colored, free of complicated espinas, and a scant half inch thick, so diced chunks have skin on two sides.

Always ask permission before cutting someone's nopales. Most gente will exchange recipes and urge you take a few more. I've heard some tipas request a few dollars to allow a forager to pick nopales.

Today, the local Mexican markets sell diced nopalitos in plastic bags, as well as whole pencas if you want them for grilling, or to cut your own.

The nopal forms the heart of comida de cuaresma. With scrambled eggs for breakfast, in a pickled salad for lunch, and Nopales con tortas de camarón for dinner, those observant of the Lenten stricture against eating meat find hearty eating in nopales.

I, like my people, always preferred the dish with pork, hence today’s The Gluten-free Chicano recipe features pork as well as shrimp and eggs with nopales. The dish is completely gluten-free.

Nopales con carne de puerco y tortas de camarón is down-home cooking, but also company food.

Ingredients
Medium onion
4 teeth garlic
three or four branches of cilantro
Two pencas or 1 pound diced fresh nopales.
1/8 lb chicharrón broken into 2" squares.
1 lb pork, 1/2 cubes".
Serrano or jalapeño chiles, sliced thin.
salt, red chile, comino powder, black pepper.
Eggs – 2 people per egg
2 oz ground dried shrimp powder (1 large package)
Baking soda
limón or lemon
Tomato sauce
Water or broth, maybe milk

Nopales exude a viscous gum during cutting and cooking. This is a natural thickener to the sauce but can be unnerving to the first-time user.

In a smoking hot pan...
Mince onion and garlic and wilt with the sliced chiles in good olive oil.
Add cubed pork, brown.

Add sprigs of fresh cilantro.
Toss in the nopalitos and fry until they turn a deep green.

Lower the heat.
Add one or two cans of tomato sauce and the water from rinsing the cans.

Stir in pieces of chicharrón and let simmer twenty minutes or however long it takes to make a batch of tortas de camarón.

Tortas de Camarón
This torta is an omelette thickened with powdered shrimp.

Separate eggs. Add a pinch baking soda to egg whites.
Beat egg whites to light peaks.
Blend in egg yolks.
Stir in 1/4 cup of water or milk, salt, black pepper.
Stir in half the package of powdered shrimp.
Assess your needs. Add water and the rest of the shrimp if you'll need to make more tortas. The mix should be thick enough to form dollops, not pour.

Squeeze a lime or lemon half into the egg-shrimp mix.

In a hot pan...

Drop generous tablespoons of egg mixture into hot olive oil and spread the pancake with a spatula. Turn and cook until center is done. The tortas will brown very nicely.

Float the tortas atop the nopales and serve to table.

Place a torta or two on each plate, cover with a scoop of nopales and carne de puerco. Eat with your hands and tortilla de maíz.

Refritos, green salad, cold gluten-free beer, hot conversation at your option.


The Gluten-free Chicano cooks
Chile Verde Con Granitos Y Calabaza
https://labloga.blogspot.com/2013/09/gluten-free-chicano-cooks-bluebird-on.html
Michael Sedano

pork meat, peeled hatch chile, cubed pumpkin 

Company was coming and the Gluten-free Chicano was busy as an agent provocateur at a peace rally. The Gluten-free Chicano wanted something easy but not ordinary. He had the perfect ingredients on the calendar—the day before, Frito Lascano held his annual La Pelada and the Gluten-free Chicano had 30 pounds of roasted Hatch chile in the refrigerator.

The fastest use of freshly-roasted chiles is soup. Remove stems and seeds, chop lightly then whiz in a blender. Add water or broth to keep the blades moving. Make a cup of chile paste. In a saucepan, heat the chile, stirring in broth, milk, half-and-half, or yoghurt, or cream, to produce the thickness you want. Serve in a fancy bowl with a chile ring garnish. Prep time: 10 minutes.


Serving soup is for a less engaged day. I decided to make a variation of Frito’s "pumpkin soup". 

This distinctive stew gets chewiness from granitos plus texture from lots of meat. The bit of sweetly aromatic squash adds interest to the mélange of richly spiced vegetables. The chiles determine the chilosoness, so be prepared with habanero or other hot sauce if your chiles are not.

The preparation illustrated here at La Bloga and at Read! Raza came out famously. Gente took home plates, and I wanted to freeze some to make tamales.

Most Mexican food is normally gluten-free and this pork stew is normal. A non-meat alternative adds cubed papas in place of pork, and reduces cooking time to around half an hour.

Ingredients to serve 20 or freeze for later
3 lb boneless pork
1 bag diced nopales or 2 pencas
2-3 lb roasted green chiles
2 cups white hominy with liquid
2 or more cups diced orange squash like butternut, pumpkin, or banana squash
Fresh cilantro
4 green onions
Onion, garlic, comino, salt

Sharp knives.
Cut everything to the same proportions.
Cube meat and squash to ½” or 1” cubes.
Dice/chop onion and nopales to size of grains of hominy.
Chop the chiles after removing stems and seeds.
Thinly slice 3-6 dientes of garlic.
Slice green onion into 2" pieces, chop greens.

Deep, wide sartén, or large saucepan. Medium flame.
Lightly brown the aromatics and squash.
Add pork and brown.
Add chile and its juice, mix together.
Add granitos and some juice, mix together.
Add green onion
Chop a big pinch of cilantro stems and leaves, sprinkle on top.

Reduce heat to lowest simmer.
Cover and cook two hours, stirring regularly.
If you added too much liquid, slightly uncover lid and it boils off.

When this chile verde is done, the pork is fork-tender, the base viscous and saturated with flavorful liquid.

Serve over steamed rice (for excess carbs) or just ladle some chile verde into bowls and the guests will come and go, walk around the room, and talk of Michangelo.