Food and drink, cubano and mexicano. And books.

I must have a holiday/food/cooking hangover. Made chocolate cookies this week, dipped in powdered sugar and covered with a frosting of chocolate fudge. Also drank my last bottle of Goose Island Bourbon County Stout, all by myself. 13.8%, thick as light syrup and hearty as a buffalo burger.

Which reminds me, hipster redevelopment is ruining even our white restaurant-bars. My favorite place for ribs, buffalo burger and a Southwick's Ale, Big Hoss, was sold and now there's only one kind of buffalo burger, the ale is gone and the décor went minimalist. Luckily, my daughter sent us to the Roo Bar that's got a great burger, lots of micros, is cheaper and close to Denver's Northside. Yeah, it's preppy, but that's the way the barrio goes.

Yesterday, I made frijoles with ham hocks, and pork green chile--delicioso, dicen. Then there was a buffalo roast last week that was to die for. Chingaus, I'm hungry. Anyway, here some Latino-book-food news:

Another Bloguista book

Last week at Denver's Tattered Cover Bookstore, La Bloga's Lydia Gil read from her new bilingual children's book, Letters from Heaven / Cartas del Cielo.

About Letters, from Arte Público Press:

“The protagonist, Celeste, moves through a grieving process following the death of her beloved grandmother…Healing begins when the girl receives posthumous letters from Grandma filled with love, advice, and special memories. In spite of quarrels with school friends and a bully who makes her life difficult, Celeste finds solace with the family’s network of adult female friends who help her with recipes.”—School Library Journal

Lydis was also recently interviewed in a Denver Post article, "Endangered Cuban cuisine preserved by cooks in America." She talks about Cuban food and traditional recipes that are in the article and her book. It's a "flip" book, meaning you can read the English version straight through, or flip it over to read the story Spanish. It's a sweet onee, somewhat magical in its realism. If you get a chance, go hear one of her readings.

March 5-6, 2015, Reading Rock Stars, Rio Grande Valley, Tex.

March 19, 2015, Thursday, time TBA. Presentation & Discussion at Palm Beach State College, Boca Raton, Florida.

April 15, 2015, Wednesday, 2pm. Panel on “Help Children Cope” at the Texas Library Association Annual Conference, Austin Convention Center, Austin, Tex.

April 18, 2015, Saturday, 1-4pm. Día de los niños, día de los libros celebration, Houston Public Library, Julia Ideson Buildilng, 500 McKinney, Houston, Tex.

April 27, 2015, Monday, Las Comadres & Friends National Latino Book Club, April 2015 Selection, Teleconference

Why Mexicans Should Learn to Love Hipsters

In his latest video, Ask a Mexican Gustavo Arellano takes his tongue out of his cheek, just a little, to slap at the biggest pest plaguing our Latino communities--hipster redevelopment.

As Gustavo says, "Though the issue of gentrification rears its happy head in various manifestations, the most obvious front is food, battlefield for $17 burritos, "street" tacos and the ever-popular mezcal. I mention most of this in my latest ¡Ask a Mexican! video, which ridicules hipsters but nevertheless urges tolerance for their columbusing ways…. HA!"

I've been doing what I can to reeducate young Anglos moving in around me, but you can check out Gustavo's whole video for his game plan. And he'll be running around Aztlán (the Southwest, hipsters) plugging his Taco USA – How Mexican Food Conquered America book that I just love.

Es todo, hoy, 'cause I gotta go eat something,

RudyG, a.k.a. Chicano spec author Rudy Ch. Garcia, who just finished a time-travel story with a theme of--surprise!--hunger.

Promote local Mexican food, not Chipotle Mex Grill

America acts like its minorities have chingos of spare time to keep correcting the U.S. government, corporations and organizations. This week it's the corporate-officer dregs of Chipotle Restaurant who call their food "Mexican."

Ask A Mexican's Gustavo Arrellano has good updates on the Chipotle/Latino Author fiasco. Put simply, for a series of plastic cups, the list of American authors who contributed 250-word stories, qué chingaus, failed to include any Latino author. Like Gustavo says, a "Mexican" restaurant couldn't find one Mexican-American writer, though they claimed they tried.

The fiasco is all over the Internet, for example on the Huffington Post, Mona Alvarado Frazier's Chipotle's "Thought-less" Idea, and a clearinghouse called Cultivating Invisibility:Chipotle's Missing Mexicans.

I proposed a different strategy to put pressure on Chipotle and facebooked the following:

#LatinoStory4Chipotle
How to answer Chipotles' exclusion of latino writers--
1. Make up our own story (250 words, max)
2. Use your favorite LOCAL latino restaurant's logo or slogan
3. Identify your city, and share your piece across the country.
4. You can use the LatinoStory4Chipotle tag
I'm working on mine. Even if you're not, spread the word, por favor.

I'm still working on my story and cup that will highlight Mexican-owned Santiago's in Colorado, which is selling burritos and great Mexican food, like to upstage Chipotle. I can't say they treat their staff better than the Rice-Makes-A-Chingón-Burrito Chipotle place, but at least they're local and Mexican owned.

Somebody took me to Chipotle's right after they opened in Denver, and I hated the food, but kept the friend. A burrito with rice! I understood how trendy rice is and that the place was attempting to appeal to the gentry. But that didn't make the food genuine.

Other gente's experience may be different from mine, but the only time when I was growing up that my impoverished family ate rice was when there was nada else to fill it with. Refritos, mashed frijoles is the proper thing to put in a burrito, other than meat that didn't always appear on our table.

Chipotle expects me to celebrate my cultural heritage by eating a rice burrito. What will they think of next? Mashed lima beans or garbanzos instead of beans? (Those were always the last two cans in our cupboard, back then.)

I can't trash other food at Chipotle's because I don't care to taste anything more from the place. That's just me. Whatever you do, if you're thinking about stopping there, you might want to first read about how they treat their workers.

And if you want to REALLY let them know what you think about excluding Latino writers, Facebook or Tweet your own story and cup about your favorite local puertoriqueño, dominicano, mexicano, Tex-Mex or Chicano restaurant. Promoting Chipotle's competition might make them never again forget to put Mexicans (latinos, too) on their literary menu.

Es todo, hoy,

RudyG, ex-tejano connoisseur of la comida mexicana

I Ask(ed) a Mexican y respondió

by Rudy Ch. Garcia

Since every Tomás, dick and harried--mexicanos, gabachos, racistas, pochos, and quién-sabe-qué--are always asking Gustavo Arellano questions that he answers in his distinguished column Ask a Mexican, I decided to try one. And, qué milagro!--he answered mine this past Thursday.

Pero había un problema--something I didn't anticipate. Seems that written words can be a fickle thing. Or maybe it's that writers are fickle things. Or maybe it was just that my question-writing was somewhat vague. In any event, The Mexican Arellano addressed his response to me with a, "Dear Gabacho." Last time I looked--right after I showered--I was nowhere near being gabacho, but that's how he addressed me.

So, to determine how sorry the text of my question actually was, I also sent it to a few Chicanos I know to see how their answers compared to Arellano's. I told them it was a challenge, and three took the bait. First below is my question and then Gustavo's answer. That's followed by three others who answered the challenge. Hopefully Arellano won't turn a deaf ear to my next one after he reads this, something I'm already thinking about.

This appeared in the OC Weekly on Thursday and is reprinted with Arellano's permission:
DEAR MEXICAN, Cada día, my perro Manchas and I go for an afternoon walk in this North Denver parque. We often pass the gringo gentry who are temporarily "improving" the neighborhood, as an investment. You know how the gentry are—they move into the barrio, but send their precious güeritos to the charter schools so they won't get piojos from our kids or wind up pregnant with half-brown babies.

Anyway, I swear, every time Manchas and I pass one of these purebred, hyper-trained gentry dogs, the owners pull their pinches perros away from mine so they can't sniff cola or . . . you know. I guess my question is: How can the gentry know that Manchas is Spanish-surnamed, bilingual and mestizo, since they've never even talked to us? And is there anything I can do so Manchas doesn't grow up with a pocho complex and think he's inferior to a gringo's dog?
Yankee Hipsters Go home! [not my original closing--swear!]

DEAR GABACHO:
Gotta pay our respect to our veteranos—they can ramble as awesomely as any gabacho at a retirement home! I think what you're complaining about is the gentrification of historically Mexican neighborhoods by hipsters, a phenomenon happening everywhere from Denver to Los Angeles, SanTana to Chicago and beyond. It's important to fight the encroachment of pendejos with no ties to the area who start demanding changes—get rid of quinceañera shops, crowing roosters, cars parked on lawns, or corn grown in the back yard and nopales in the front.

At the mismo time, though, raza really angry with gentrification should practice gente-fication, the process of young locals getting over their pocho complex and opening their own businesses to pump enough money back into the area so city bureaucrats don't have any excuse to use the ruse of redevelopment on raza. Think of that strategy as our economic Mexican-American War—and if there are hipsters who are respectful of the old guard, such as the San Patricios that joined our side against the invading Yankees so long ago, then I say embrace their ranks, pound a PBR with them and teach them the secrets of scaring insufferable hipsters away from the barrio by blasting Banda El Recodo at all hours of the noche.
The Mexican

Okay, so Arellano thought I was not so bronze and a rambling old fart; I can live with that. He might have guessed that from my La Bloga pic, a self-portrait, one of those attempts at art attempting to mimic life, and maybe I don't mimic so well. 'Tá bien.

Next, Michael Sedano, La Bloga's Tuesday contributor answered my same question. "Ask a Chicano" contestó:
"Orale, carnal. First off you have to drop the language of the oppressor. "Gentry"? Híjole, as if your worldview buys into their class systems. "Gentry," so what are your gente, chopped liver? Another thing, oh my droog--why do you want them to talk to you? If it's their women who ignore you, la cultura has the ways and the means: work on your piropos. "As for the question of your dog, it's not the amount of pocho in the dog but the dog in the pocho.
michael sedano

Then comes Ernest Hogan, Wednesday's La Bloga contributor and sci-fi author:
"Okay, here's for the AskAMexican Challenge:
We used to have a lot of poodles and such in my neighborhood. They seem to be moving out, along with their “traditional” Arizona owners. Their grandmothers are afraid to walk the streets after dark, which is muy raro, because it's one of the quietest places I've ever lived. Yeah, there's this vato who wears a Santo T-shirt when he walks his pit bull. Man and beast strut with pride. I recommend that. Maybe sing or whistle an old ranchera, but no narcocorridos. I would stop short of a program of intimidation. I'm careful where I wear my ¡VIVA MÉXICO, CABRÓNES! shirt.

"Besides the canine mestizos--we adopted one who was abandoned by someone who felt they had to move out fast--it's mostly either pit bulls or Chihuahuas around here. And the Chihuahuas are taking over. The City of Glendale is even offering a deal on the license fees for the perrititos. This Chihuahua encouragement makes me nervous. I sense a diabolical ethnic-cleansing plot. But, then maybe I've lived in Arizona too long.
Ay, ay, ay,
'N [aka Ernesto Hogan]

Last comes an answer from a Houston Chicano, entitled, Gentle with the Gentry:
"Well, it didn't help things that you gave your perro a Spanish name, Manchas. That's a dead giveaway. The Gentry are always suspicious and full of trickery--they wrote the book. Your history tells you that it started with Columbus, the other immigrants, and has never stopped. They came, made new rules and took the land. Urban gentry is just a smaller scale of it.

"Had you named you're dog Fido or Pluto or Snoopy or some other distinctly white dog name, perhaps you would have been received with half-open arms in your own barrio. The whole idea with being white is money related. Move into a poor neighborhood, fix up the old house, declare it historic and increase its value to sell it for a profit. But the Gentry have more elaborate tricks like hold on to the house, live there for two years and move on, getting a great tax break and thus more profit.

"Anyway, back to Manchas. Dogs don't know more than what you teach them, but they do have instinct. A dog is already bilingual. They speak "dog" and then they speak the basic language the owner teaches them. This all goes way back before civil rights and equality stuff. And the dogs don't care. When a dog is chasing a burglar, the burglar does care what language the dog speaks or understands. And dogs have a more effective way of communicating, thus the saying, "His bite is much more worse than his bark." So, a gentry person can sit there and talk to your dog but no matter if they speak in English or Spanish, the dog only obeys you and the words that come from your mouth.

"When the gentry sees a Chicano with a pure-bred, they are in cultural shock, wondering, "Why don't this vato have a Chihuahua?" Now you are imitating them, meaning you're keeping up with or outdoing the Jones. You've assimilated too well in their eyes. Besides, their dogs don't even like them. A dog is nothing but an extension of their insecurity. It's a status symbol, meaning they care, but then there's the dog side. Imagine being left at home indoors alone all day, not being able to go do your dog do-do, not having children around, having to bathe and smell like a human That's a lot of dog stress.

"So dogs will snarl, and bark and chase each other. That's natural among all species. And they either will or will not get along. But they don't plot and connive like Gringos or Gentry. The exception to this is if the owner specifically teaches the dog to hate and attack. But this is a whole 'nother area of dog psychiatry and therapy.
Rafa

I did like Arellano's answer, as far as he elaborated on Gente-fication, the only problem being that our combined Gente financial base gets drowned under the development money that builds Gentry bars, eateries and mota shops.

Anyway, after these four different takes on my question, I doubt there's any great lessons to be learned, other than maybe I shouldn't ask strange questions in my strange way. However, I will be more careful on how I phrase whatever future questions I do have. And, I know I won't get a Chihuahua, except maybe to vary my dog's diet. But if any readers out there have better takes on what transpired above, please leave comments.

La Bloga's a Good Mexican, for a week

The plethora of world events and information this weeks makes at least my head spin--Tunisia going into chaotic freedom, of some sort; the Egyptian gov't going the way of the pharoahs; Obama going the way of the Republicans [they may not have to run their own candidate next time); my British pounds ETFs going the way of Tunisia; economists' predictions going the way of Mary Poppins or that kid who cried wolf.

En una manera, it's fortunate La Bloga doesn't deal with predicting which way the world will go. Centering on Chicano lit gives us enough to cover.

While today isn't a great example of that mission, sometimes we get noticed. Like Gustavo Arellano, of "Ask A Mexican" fame did recently. La Bloga was the "Good Mexican of the week!" Click here to see what he said.

_______________

From vampiristo Mario Acevedo comes the following:

A favor, please. Author Mark Henry is visiting Denver to promote the mass-market release of Road Trip of the Living Dead and is having a signing 7pm, Friday Feb. 11 at the Broadway Book Mall, 200 S. Broadway, Denver. Mark writes the hilarious Amanda Feral glamor-zombie novels. Could you give us a shout-out? And of course, you're all invited.

Mark used to be therapist and social worker for the state of Washington and has lots of interesting stories about that work. While his stories are ultimately for scandalous entertainment, you can get him to rant how zombies are an allegory for the dispossessed and discarded. Maybe you can interview him for La Bloga.

His website: http://www.markhenry.us/

Mario's probably MC-ing the thing, and he makes such events into happenings, so stop by if you can. He also noted that Henry sees the "dispossessed and discarded" in government workers, of all things. Perhaps he had some anti-immigrant Ariz. demons, elected or otherwise, in mind. An interview, Mario? We'll see.

es todo, hoy
RudyG

2010 Richard T. Castro Distinguished Visiting Professorship

Gustavo Arellano in Denver - Ready to Take On Tom Tancredo
How Fair Is That?

November 14 - 16

¡Social Satire, Social Justice y el Chiste!

Gustavo Arellano is the newly appointed managing editor of OC Weekly, an alternative newspaper in Orange County, California, a contributing editor of the Los Angeles Times op/ed pages, author of Orange County: A Personal History and radio host on KPFK-FM 90.7 in Southern California. He is the author of ¡Ask a Mexican!, a nationally syndicated column in which he answers any and all questions about American’s spiciest and largest minority, as well as a book by the same name, published by Scribner Press. His column is a 2006 and 2008 Association of Alternative Weeklies award winner and enjoys a circulation of over 2 million in 39 newspapers across the United States, appearing locally in Westword. He is also the recipient of the Los Angeles Press Club’s 2007 President’s Award and an Impacto Award from the National Hispanic Media Coalition. Arellano is the proud son of two Mexican immigrants, one of whom was illegal.

All events are FREE and open to the public! For more info, call 303-556-3124.

Sponsored by Metropolitan State College of Denver | Campus Maps/Parking

November 14-16, 2010

Sunday, November 14
La Bienvenida – Welcome Reception
5:30 – 8 p.m. Hosted by:
Su Teatro @ the Denver Civic Theatre
721 Santa Fe Drive – Denver Please RSVP for this event online by Nov 5.
____________________________
Monday, November 15 Keynote Address and Luncheon
10 a.m. – 11:15 p.m. Keynote Address
11:30 – 12:30 p.m. Student Luncheon St. Cajetan’s – Auraria Campus
_____________________________
Tuesday, November 16 ¡Social Satire, Social Justice y el Chiste! Colloquium
1 – 2 p.m.
Panel of experts: Gustavo Arellano, 2010 Richard T. Castro Distinguished Visiting Professor, Metro State; Arturo J. Aldama, Ph.D., Chair, Dept. of Ethnic Studies, CU-Boulder; Jennifer Alvarez Dickinson, Ph.D., Visiting Assistant Professor, St. Edwards University; Adriana P. Nieto, Ph.D., moderator, Assistant Professor Chicano/a Studies, Metro State.

¡Ask a Mexican! Q&A with Gustavo Arellano
2:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Do you have questions? Gustavo Arellano has answers. Don’t miss this live version of Arellano’s provocative ¡Ask a Mexican! column.

Hosted by:
Fresh City Life at the Denver Public Library
B2 Conference Center – 10 W. Fourteenth Ave. Pkwy.
____________________________
Tuesday, November 16 Closing Reception
4:30 – 6 p.m. Cimarron Café – Tivoli Student Union – Auraria Campus

The Castro Professorship

The Richard T. Castro Distinguished Visiting Professorship was initiated in 1997 to foster multiculturalism, diversity and academic excellence at Metropolitan State College of Denver. The professorship brings renowned Latina and Latino scholars, artists and leaders of distinction to Metro State to conduct classes, seminars, performances and lectures for students, faculty and the larger Denver community.

For information please contact Mercedes Salazar at 303-556-3124 or msalaz27@mscd.edu.


And a Debate - Featuring Colorado's Favorite Know-Nothing, Tom Tancredo.

Hey but that's not all. In what is sure to be a knock-down, bloody fight to the bloody finish, Tom Tancredo and Gustavo Arellano debate the topic of - yep, you guessed it - illegal immigration.

Patricia Calhoun of Westword helped to organize this promising event, which is also sponsored by Westword, The Department of Chicano Studies at Metropolitan State College-Denver, the Richard T. Castro Distinguished Visiting Professorship and Su Teatro. Calhoun says that she's been anticipating this for years and now that Gustavo will be in town and Tancredo has some free time (in case you hadn't heard, he lost his bid to become Colorado's next governor even though he promised to "Stop illegal immigration cold") it finally will happen.

As quoted in Westword, the two combatants appropriately rattled their sabers:

"I've never seen a public-policy problem that could ever be solved unless you talk about it," Tancredo says. "and you can't talk about it if you're usually yelling about it."

"I look forward to debating one of the great Know Nothings of our time," Arellano adds, "and just hope that the audience will allow us to make asses of ourselves without any interruptions."

The debate is set for Tuesday, November 16 at 7:30 at Su Teatro. Check out the Westword website for details and information on tickets.

All events are free and open to the public, although there will be limited seating at some of the events and RSVPs are required. A donation of $10 is suggested for the Arellano-Tancredo debate.


Later.

Cultural Harmony

Manuel Ramos

EL CENTRO SU TEATRO
El Centro Su Teatro celebrates 35 years as a Chicano theater company in 2007. The acclaimed and award-winning artistic center and theater troupe has enriched and portrayed Chicano culture and life for more than three decades with highly original plays, poetry slams, music festivals, outdoor movies, a youth art institute, and an ongoing commitment to community involvement and awareness. Here are two upcoming events at this very busy intersection of theater, politics, and creativity.

Bowl of Beings
July 20 -28, Su Teatro presents its adaptation of A Bowl of Beings, written by Culture Class and directed by Hugo Carbajal. Here's what the Cal State Northridge Oviatt Library Culture Class website says about this play:

"The creation of A Bowl of Beings represented another turning point for Culture Clash. On September 7, 1989, Ric Salinas was shot and another actor, George Galvan, was injured in front of Ric's apartment while trying to break up a fight. Salinas sustained near-fatal injuries to his neck, chest, and abdomen, and remained in intensive care for five days. Family, friends, and fans held several benefits to raise money to help pay for Ric's medical expenses. Out of this experience came Culture Clash's A Bowl of Beings, based around themes of Chicano identity, wit, and wisdom. A Bowl of Beings ran for six months at the Los Angeles Theatre Center, and Culture Clash adapted it for television for a 1992 episode of PBS's Great Performances series."

11th Annual Chicano Music Festival and Auction
El Centro Su Teatro presenta the 11th Annual Chicano Music Festival and Auction, August 2 – 5 at El Centro’s North playground, 4725 High Street, Denver. This year’s festival promises to be the most exciting yet, featuring a spread of diverse sounds that have defined the Chicano experience in the American Southwest. It will also mark the Denver return of television and screen star Jesse Borrego (Fame, Con Air, Blood In Blood Out, 24), who will sing alongside his father and their blazing San Antonio band, Conjunto Borrego.

Thursday’s Noche Alternativa will be a late night kickoff event celebrating the new and innovative work of rising stars such as Yuzo Nieto, Joaquin Liebert, and Valarie Castillo.

Friday night’s Noche Tradicional is a commemoration of 19th Century music and a salute to the fifth class of the Musica de Colorado Hall of Fame. Featured performers are San Antonio five-button accordion master Nicolas Valdez presenting his unique style of traditional music and spoken word, from Fort Collins the legendary Grupo Aztlán, with a special acoustic set by Conjunto Borrego.

Saturday’s Pachanga will feature local Colorado roquirolas Jon Romero y Amanecer and headliners Conjunto Borrego. These guys are serving up a spicy South Texas sound straight out of San Antonio’s Westside. And what better way to wrap up the weekend than with a Mariachi celebration featuring the finest mariachis this side of the border? And that’s just the music.

The festival is also home to one of the biggest and best auctions in the Rocky Mountain region. New items are arriving daily, including Broncos (vs. Raiders) tickets, hotel getaways, spa treatments, free dinners, museum passes and more—all in addition to the handpicked selection of stunning visual art by some of the finest artists in the Southwest. Come dance under the stars at the 11th Annual Chicano Music Festival and Auction.

Please call El Centro Su Teatro at (303) 296-0219, or email musicfest@suteatro.org for tickets and schedule information. Also visit www.suteatro.org and www.myspace.com/elcentrosuteatro.

LA AVON LADY READING
Lorraine López will read from Soy la Avon Lady and Other Stories (Curbstone, 2002) at Austin Peay State University, Clarksville, Tennessee, on Tuesday July 17th from 7pm-8pm. Author and Professor Lorraine López will speak at APSU during the Tennesee Young Writers’ Workshop. The reading will be held in the Morgan University Center in room 303. This event is co-sponsored by Humanities Tennessee and the Center for Creative Arts at Austin Peay State University. Lopez also is the author of Call Me Henri, an award-winning young adult novel released by Curbstone in 2006.

CON CONFECTION
Museo de las Américas presents
its summer exhibition, Con Confection, featuring three contemporary artists who have drawn from the traditional art of embroidery to create innovative results.

Artists: Lia Menna Barreto (Brazil), Ana Maria Hernando (Colorado), Carlos Arturo Arias Vicuna (Mexico) and traditional artists from throughout Latin America. Also included in the exhibition is a special documentary video about Brazilian artist Arthur Bispo de Rosario.

Confection, usually defined as an elaborate creation or a sweet combination of materials, is the key to this grouping of artists who use embellishment and decoration in their work. Mixing minimalist values with post-colonial visualizations, the artists of Con Confection thread the memories of tradition with fresh materials and layered meanings.

ARTIST TALK MONDAY JULY 16, 7PM
Lia Menna Barreto, visiting artist from Brazil, presents her past work and new projects.

The Museo is located at 861 Santa Fe Drive, Denver 303.571.4401 Members Free, General $5

¡ASK A MEXICAN!

Gustavo Arellano brought his unique brand of humor and satire to Denver's Tattered Cover on July 11 -- he won over the crowd and sold plenty of books. I liked that he confirmed that all of his facts really are facts based on actual studies, government reports, etc. He also explained that he gets more than thirty questions a week and has more than 180 pages of unused questions, enough to keep his column going for six more years, and that not all of his questions come from racists. Buy his book (¡Ask A Mexican!, Scribner 2007) or read his nationally syndicated column, and learn why Mexicans are known as greasers (page 19); whether menudo really cures hangovers (page 148); and why Mexican cholos call white girls güeras (page 183).

Later.

Holy Water, Desert Blood, Alcalá and Arellano

Manuel Ramos



AGUA SANTA/HOLY WATER
PAT MORA
University of Arizona Press, September 2007

The University of Arizona Press has announced that it will make available again Pat Mora's celebration of the spirit of women, Agua Santa/Holy Water. As the New York Times noted when the book was first released (1995), "[These] poems are proudly bilingual, an eloquent answer to purists who refuse to see language as something that lives and changes." Texas Books in Review said that these poems "celebrate women, women who are immediate and eternal, serious and humorous, sacred and profane. But always sensual."




Desert Blood: The Juárez Murders Alicia Gaspar de Alba
Arte Público Press, August 2007

Meanwhile, Arte Público announces that the acclaimed mystery novel about the series of murders of young girls around Ciudad Juárez will be released in paperback later this year. This novel won the 2005 Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Mystery and the 2006 International Latino Book Award for Best Mystery Novel. "Gaspar de Alba not only crafts a suspenseful plot but tackles prejudice in many of its ugly forms: against gays, against Hispanics, against the poor. An in-your-face, no-holds barred story full of brutality, graphic violence, and ultimately, redemption." Booklist




PONIATOWSKA TAKES SPANISH-LANGUAGE PRIZE
My bloga comrade Gina Ruiz recently passed on this announcement:
Mexican writer Elena Poniatowska won the biennial Romulo Gallegos literature prize for a Spanish-language novel for El Tren Pasa Primero (The Train Passes First) (Alfaguara, 2005), which the AP says "tells the story of a railroad worker who becomes immersed in the struggle for labor rights in Mexico." The prize honors the best Spanish-language novel. (Among recent winners, Roberto Bolaño took the prize in 1999.)

ALCALÁ AND ARELLANO AT THE TATTERED COVER

Esteemed Chicana writer and gifted storyteller Kathleen Alcalá will discuss and sign her new book The Desert Remembers My Name: On Family and Writing (University of Arizona Press) at the Colfax Avenue Tattered Cover Book Store. "This book is a gem. I am blown away by it. Its essays are original - incredibly, refreshingly original. It is not only a personal journey, it is also a historically significant journey for writers, for Chicanas/os, women, men, and all people interested in the power of what connects us all as humans." -Emmy Pérez, author of Solstice.

"Alcalá displays an intellectual curiosity that has led her to think and write creatively about less personal matters. Her essay on the Opata peoples of Mexico is fascinating, and in another essay, she masterfully blends the harrowing experience of Andrea Yates, who drowned her five young children, with the mythic stories of Mexican folklore." - Publishers Weekly
July 10, 2007 7:30 PM

Gustavo Arellano's ¡Ask a Mexican! column won the 2006 Association of Alternative Newsweeklies award for the best column in a large circulation weekly. Arellano will read from and sign his new book ¡Ask a Mexican! (Scribner). Arellano explores the clichés of lowriders, busboys, and housekeepers; drunks and scoundrels; heroes and celebrities; and most important, millions upon millions of law-abiding, patriotic American citizens and their undocumented cousins who represent some $600 billion in economic power. July 11, 2007 7:30 PM- Historic LoDo


Believe it or not, that's all I got this week. The blogueros and blogueras have been writing and posting at a hot and heavy pace, all excellent, so you don't want to miss any of the great stuff coming up in the next several days.

Later.