Poet laureate. SF story. Museo summer camp. Obama.

by Rudy Garcia

Last week, Juan Felipe Herrera was appointed California poet laureate by Gov. Jerry Brown. If this is confirmed by the California Senate, Herrera will become the first Chicano to ever receive this recognition.

You can go here to read about it, here to read more about him, and you can send him felicidades via E-mail to juan.herreraATucr.edu.

La Bloga can only say: Era tiempo!


Last Call for Ice Cream?

Not as significant as Herrrera's achivement, this zany story of mine was accepted by Rudy Rucker (of cyberpunk fame) for his Ezine Flurb #13. You can access a copy for FREE to see what at least one Chicano is doing to widen our presence in the spec fiction world. You can get Flurb #13 as an ebook that can be read on any e-reading device---Kindles, iPhones, Androids, NOOKs, Windows laptops, iPads, whatever. Mobi (for Kindle) and Epub (for the others) available for download at http://www.flurb.net/ebook/
Please leave comments there.


Chicano summer arts camp

Denver's Museo de las Americas is proud to present the 2012 summer camp program, "Animales." Students will have the opportunity to discover the wild world of animals through this multidisciplinary summer arts camp.

For three consecutive weeks, participants will immerse themselves in visual arts, dance, music, and theater classes to better understand the bond between animals, humans, and the environment. Each class is conducted by a trained teacher who is committed to advancing the students' understanding of animals through arts integration techniques and cultural competencies.

Dates: June 25th -July 13, 2012
July 4th: No Camp
July 13th: Final Performance

Hours: 9:00 am to 12:00 pm, snack provided
Ages: K through 6th grade
Cost: Scholarships available to DPS students on a first-come, first serve basis

If interested, contact Christina Gese, our Education Director at workshops@museo.org, (303) 571-4401, ext. 28, or in person at 861 Santa Fe Dr., Denver.

Space limited; request registration form today. Deadline May 1st, 2012.


Obama gave us . . .

"There are more African American adults under correctional control today -- in prison or jail, on probation or parole -- than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began.

"As of 2004, more African American men were disenfranchised (due to felon disenfranchisement laws) than in 1870, the year the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified, prohibiting laws that explicitly deny the right to vote on the basis of race.

"A black child born today is less likely to be raised by both parents than a black child born during slavery. The recent disintegration of the African American family is due in large part to the mass imprisonment of black fathers.

If you're still reluctant to let loose of your belief that minorities have never had it so good as under Obama, go here.

[This in no way implies we've had it much better, nor will from the next election, under anyone else, of whatever color.]

Es todo, hoy, RudyG

Chicanonautica: The Xuanito Syndrome

by Ernest Hogan

Not satisfied with the turmoil caused by his publication of “Doctora Xilbabla’s Datura Enema,” Rudy Rucker has chosen to include another story of mine in Issue #12, Fall-Winter, 2011 of Flurb: A Webzine of Astonishing Tales.

That’s right, it’s a webzine, available online, for free, to any unsuspecting soul with net access. With one click, you could find yourself reading a new collaboration between Rudy and Paul Di Filippo, and new stories by Bruce Sterling, John Shirley, and other talented folks. There’s also an assault on civilized sensibilities by me, called, “Xuanito.”

Just a name for a title, in the tradition of Frankenstein, Dracula, and Godzilla.

“Xuanito” is a tribute to a major influence on my work (and my personality) -- the monster movie. I grew up watching them on shows like L.A.'s KHJ-TV, Channel 9’s Strange Tales of Science Fiction. They weren’t just products out of Hollywood. Monster movies came from Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, Denmark, Italy, even England. Monsters shaped my world.

At first I has horrified by the genre, but I found it irresistible. I went from having nightmares about monsters coming after me to fantasizing about being one of the heroic guys who killed the monsters. Then, things took a weird turn -- at some point I started to identify with the monsters.

I’m not sure when this happened. It may have had something to do with hormones kicking in. It was also the Sixties . . .

Rudy noticed what he calls transreal stuff about the way young Latinos get treated in “Xuanito.” That was what I intended. I have noticed that often, when I’m minding my own business, pursuing my interests and curiosities, the prevailing society reacts as if I was one of the rubber-suit creatures from my favorite movies. Fair-skinned, English-speakers have reacted with terror and looked like they were about to call for uniformed back-up when I just was out looking for a job or something. Luckily, I developed an attitude and a sense of humor that defuses the situation before excessive force is authorized.

This has caused me to realize that the Chicano Taking On The World is a recurring theme with me. Cortez on Jupiter is a portrait of an artist as a young monster. High Aztech reanimated Aztec culture and turned it loose on an unsuspecting world. Smoking Mirror Blues has a barrio mad scientist making himself into Tezcatlipoca. And here, in my last Chicanonautica, I refered to myself as a Frankenstein monster.

Yeah, I’m working on those ebooks . . .

And I’m thinking about the Chicano as a Menace to Society and an Information Age Monster. There are probably more stories lurking in that syndrome.

Ernest Hogan’s story “Guerrilla Mural of a Siren’s Song,” can now be pre-ordered in the anthology Alien Contact by Marty Halpern.

Madonnas, Ernest Hogan, Flo Hernandez-Ramos

Skyhorse's Madonnas: CACA

From amigo Rigoberto Gonzalez comes word of his El Paso Times Book Review of Brandon Skyhorse's The Madonnas of Echo Park.Does Rigo sound negative about the novel? Sounds more like the book deserves my CACA award for double cultural appropriation. The article's entitled Ouch: Stereotypes, clunkers fill stories in 'Madonnas' (special to the El Paso Times).

Here's a sample from the review:
"One character says, 'My sisters had left America and moved South, to a small Mexican village in Guadalajara.' (Don't see the problem? Guadalajara is a city.)"

Simón, like I live in the small American village of Sunnyside in Denver.
Check out Rigo's biting analysis here.

Chicano SF in FLURB

Ernest Hogan of Charla-Interview fame, and Chicano author of Cortez on Jupiter has a new story up on Rudy Rucker's FLURB, A Webzine of Astonishing Tales. It's entitled Doctora Xilbalba's Datura Enema, a story about what can happen to The Man if he gets too deep into a futuristic Narcolandia. Who said Chicanos don't make good SciFi characters? Hogan also gave La Bloga a nice plug at the end.

8.29.10 Denver celebration 'taba suave

Described in Manuel Ramos's post last week, my wife Carmen and I made to Rick's Tavern (Denver) to help finish off the 25th anniversary celebration of KUVO-FM radio and the retirement of Ramos's wife from hosting the Canción Mexicana Sunday morning program, a Denver staple of the Chicano community. Chanclas were thrown, música resounded and the send-off was suavecito.

Superlatives about Flo . . . flowed, all day, on the morning radio show and into the night. As we all know, most ChicanAs can do the work of any two ChicanOs. Flo's one of those who does the work of three. In some ways, her reputation enters the world of myth and magic, so for the occasion I created a one-hundred-and-eleven-word microstory. Aquí está:

111 4 8.29.10

The trickster god Tezcatlipoca challenged the shaman Chaneco to a duel.
"Show me someone swift, brilliant as a shooting star. If I win, I take a human heart."

So Chaneco revealed an unassuming Chicana completing her daily chores.

Enojado, the trickster god said, "Show me someone ferocious like El Huracán."

Chaneco again showed her, blazing to meet her deadlines.

Tezcatlipoca roared, "Show me something as neverending as me!"

Thereupon Chaneco held up her heart, resounding with love for her gente's cultura.

"What is this supernatural demon?"

Materializing herself, she declared, "I. Am. Flo."

Humiliated by this colibrí cafecita, Tezcatlipoca fled the Earth.

And left her heart where it belongs.
With Manuel.

es todo, hoy,
RudyG