Rudolfo Anaya's The Farolitos of Christmas: With "Season of Renewal" and "A Child's Christmas in New Mexico, 1944"

By Rudolfo Anaya

Illustrated by Amy Córdova

• Age Range: 9 - 13 years
• Hardcover: 48 pages
• Publisher: Museum of New Mexico Press (September 15, 2015)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0890136092
• ISBN-13: 978-0890136096

This keepsake volume of Rudolfo Anaya's Christmas writings opens with the classic New Mexico Christmas story The Farolitos of Christmas, Anaya's heartwarming story of a beloved holiday tradition, of a promise, and of homecoming on Christmas Eve. This Christmas story by one of New Mexico's best-known authors (Bless Me, Ultima) has delighted children and adults since it was first published in 1987. "Season of Renewal," Anaya's narrative of Christmastime in his native state, first appeared thirty years ago in the Los Angeles Times and recounts timeless Hispanic and Native traditions that continue in New Mexico to this day including the reenactments of revered nativity stories, Los Pastores and Las Posadas. Finally, in "A Child's Christmas in New Mexico, 1944," Anaya presents us with a storied poem, in stunning verse, never before published. It is Christmas morning, he is a seven-year-old boy, and is running through the icy dawn to his neighbor's door to seek "mis Crismes," special treats. That night he and his family walk to midnight Mass where the church choir memorably sings "Las Mañanitas," a birthday song, to baby Jesus. But there is a bittersweet aspect to looking back on childhood's magic from an older man's vantage; the world has changed, the ways of elders are nearly lost, innocence has transitioned to experience. Rudolfo Anaya's Christmas collection is like a snow globe--shake it, then watch as the scene emerges through the orb revealing tradition, family, community, love. This gift from a master storyteller and New Mexico treasure is sure to be loved by children of all ages for decades to come.

Rudolfo Anaya is the widely acclaimed author of more than thirty books including novels, children's books, short stories, and essays that explore Hispanic life and culture in New Mexico and the Southwest. He is best known for Bless Me, Ultima, for which he won the Premio Quinto Sol Chicano literature award in 1971. This classic book was adapted into a feature film in 2013. In 1993 Alburquerque won the PEN Center USA award for fiction. In 2001 Anaya received the National Medal of Arts in Washington, DC. He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico and is professor emeritus of English at the University of New Mexico where he taught for thirty years. Anaya's children's books include Roadrunner's Dance, Serafina's Stories, The Santero's Miracle, The First Tortilla, and How Hollyhocks Came to New Mexico. Other books: Tortuga, Cuentos (MNM Press 1980), Zia Summer, Rio Grande Fall, Shaman Winter, Jemez Spring, and The Old Man's Love Story.

Amy Córdova is a visual artist, educator, author, and a nationally recognized children's book illustrator. She has illustrated eighteen books for children, and written and illustrated two of her own titles. She has twice received the national Pura Belpré Award for Illustration from the American Library Association and REFORMA. A sense of place, traditional cultural values, and the presence of spirit in everyday life are the core foundation of Córdova's colorful and inspirational artistic vision. She lives in Santa Fe.

Lotusland in the Rockies; New from New Mexico

LOTUSLAND AT THE TATTERED COVER

On May 21, Rudy Ch. Garcia and I hosted a reading and signing event for Latinos In Lotusland at the Colfax Avenue version of the Tattered Cover Bookstore in Denver. The bookstore people, as always, were gracious and accommodating; the audience was attentive and eager to hear about this amazing collection of short stories that features more than thirty writers; and the night turned into one of those where everything fell into place and a great time was had by all. Camaraderie and affection filled the air as old friends greeted one another with enthusiastic hugs, while strangers shook hands and introduced themselves. Everyone was primed for a literary evening, and no one left disappointed.

A great crowd showed up for the event.



I opened the evening with some comments about Daniel Olivas's original call for "provocative stories ... from social realism to cuentos de fantasma and anything in between" as long as Los Angeles played an integral role. I pointed out that one of Daniel's goals was to bring together some of the "best contemporary Latino fiction" about Los Angeles. And then Rudy and I set out to demonstrate to the audience how well Daniel had succeeded in reaching his goal.

We had decided to give our audience as broad a taste as possible of the varied delicacies in the book by reading short samples from several of the stories. My selections focused on stories about writers, so I proceeded with the opening paragraphs from Luis J. Rodriguez's Miss East L.A., which made the audience laugh, even though there was a certain edge to the laughter. Then a few pithy paragraphs from Wayne Rapp's Just Seven Minutes that made the audience smile knowingly and laugh again; and finally a couple of paragraphs from my own The 405 Is Locked Down.

Rudy continued, in his inimitable style, with more short pieces. He opened with a page from Luis Alberto Urrea's The White Girl, quickly moved to several paragraphs from Frederick Luis Aldama (A Long Story Cut Short); came on strong with choice words from Kathleen de Azevedo's The True Story; and finished with his own LAX Confidential. We both wished we had more time to read more selections, but the ones we did manage to fit in were applauded enthusiastically by the audience. Later, several attendees told us that they appreciated the way we presented the stories, whetting their appetites, leaving them with the desire to hear more and, thus, to buy and read the book.

We answered questions: were there any pachuco stories in the collection (check out Kid Zopilote by Mario Suárez); why is profanity necessary in some stories and not in others (Rudy handled that); would we rather write short stories or novels (we like shorts, we like novels, we just want to write); is there a bias in the publishing world against writers from mid-America (h-m-m-m).


We finished by signing books for those who wanted autographs. We mingled a bit, took a few photos, then several of us ended up at the nearby Neighborhood Flix Café bar, where old and sometimes classic movies show continuously on the walls, and you can take your beverage of choice into the theater to watch movies like The Favor, Anamorph and 21. We toasted the book, toasted one another, and speculated about another short story collection, maybe something like Latinos in the Rocky Mountains. What a night.






Rudy surrounded by his proud family at his first reading for a published story.









NEW FROM NEW MEXICO PRESS
The following is from the UNM Press Fall 2008 catalog:



The Song of Jonah
Gene Guerin
In this modern retelling of the Book of Jonah, Fr. Jon, like his biblical counterpart, rejects the call from God to his own “Nineveh.” In an ironic echoing of Jonah’s fate, the priest is swallowed up by a metaphorical whale and deposited on the very shores of the place he was determined to avoid. Nueve Niños, with its long-standing reputation for mistreating its pastors, is an alien world that will prove his ultimate testing ground. Through his slow, often reluctant immersion into the lives of the villagers, Fr. Jon eventually gains insight into himself and his ultimate calling.

Gene Guerin’s novel Cottonwood Saints (UNM Press) won the Mountains and Plains 2007 Regional Book Award for Adult Fiction and the 2006 Premio Aztlán for first-time Hispanic writers. Born and raised in New Mexico, he presently lives in Denver.

ChupaCabra and the Roswell UFO
Rudolfo Anaya
In this second ChupaCabra mystery, Professor Rosa Medina has just arrived in Santa Fe where she meets Nadine, a mysterious sixteen-year-old who insists that the two of them travel to Roswell, New Mexico. Nadine is convinced that C-Force, a secret government agency, has decoded the DNA of ChupaCabra and an extraterrestrial. If the two genomes are combined, a new and horrific life form will be created.

In this fast-paced mystery, Anaya expands the ChupaCabra folklore into a metaphor that deals with the new powers inherent in science. Is ChupaCabra a beast in Latino folktales, used to frighten children, or a lost species being manipulated by C-Force? Rosa’s life hangs in the balance as she and her young accomplice try to find a way to stop C-Force before its mad scientists create a monster.

Rudolfo Anaya has received numerous awards, including the Premio Quinto Sol, the national Chicano literary award, the National Medal of Arts for literature, the PEN Center West Award for Fiction, the American Book Award from The Before Columbus Foundation, the Mexican Medal of Friendship from the Mexican Consulate, and the Western Literature Association’s Distinguished Achievement Award.


Juan the Bear and the Water of Life La Acequia de Juan del Oso
Retold and Translated by Enrique R. Lamadrid and Juan Estevan Arellano; Illustrated by Amy Córdova
La Acequia del Rito y la Sierra in the Mora Valley is the highest and most famous traditional irrigation system in New Mexico. It carries water up and over a mountain ridge and across a sub-continental divide, from the tributaries of the Río Grande to the immense watershed of the Mora, Canadian, Arkansas, and Mississippi Rivers. The names and stories of those who created this acequia to sustain their communities have mostly been lost and replaced by myths and legends. Now, when children ask, some parents attribute the task of moving mountains and changing the course of rivers to Juan del Oso, the stouthearted man whose father was
a bear.

From the mountains of northern Spain to the Andes in South America, Spanish-speaking people have told ancient legends of Juan del Oso and his friends. In this children’s tale, agriculturalist Juan Estevan Arellano and folklorist Enrique Lamadrid share a unique version of a celebrated story that has been told in northern New Mexico for centuries.

Enrique R. Lamadrid, professor of Spanish folklore and literature at the University of New Mexico, was awarded the Americo Paredes Prize in recognition of his work as a cultural activist. Juan Estevan Arellano, a native of Embudo, New Mexico, is a poet, artist, writer, and agronomist. He is an expert in traditional Spanish/Moorish agriculture and the sustaining of traditional crops originally brought to New Mexico from Europe and Central Mexico. Amy Córdova lives in Taos, New Mexico, where she is co-owner of Enger-Córdova Fine Art. She is also an educator and has illustrated many children’s books.

Later.