Pedazos of a fall book-tour - SoCal 2

by Rudy Ch. Garcia

As I describe in yesterday's first report, I spent a week on the road to promote my fantasy novel The Closet of Discarded Dreams in another state, Califas, and a strange region, L.A., as a relatively unknown author and culture-shocked tourist, not knowing how Californios would receive a Chicano author peddling a fantasy book that, as one vata put it, "our gente won't read."

Every time I needed to head to another venue, to this Denverite it was comparable to driving to another city, another city sometimes two hours away. But apparently that's life here.

Latinopia y Jesus Treviño

When Bloguero Michael Sedano told me people were coming over to Casa Sedano for a Mental Cocido (the local version of intimate Salon gatherings), I welcomed not having to climb into the rental again. As the guest artists and writers began showing up, a short trim guëro brought in camera equipment, set it up and introduced himself as Jesús Treviño.

Not until later did I realize this was the Treviño who Sedano featured in a La Bloga post, the one whose television credits include Law and Order - Criminal Intent, The Unit, Criminal Minds and Resurrection Blvd. Apparently, that too is life here, periodic encounters with raza who have broken into higher levels of cultural work than what I'm accustomed to in Denver.

Treviño filmed part of my reading of my novel The Closet of Discarded Dreams and informed me he'll be posting it on his website Latinopia sometime soon.

Later I spent time exploring Latinopia. Calling it a website is an understatement. Yes, it's like other sites with videos, others that feature cultural events or interviews. But the breadth of it is more than ambitious. It struck me--and will you when you check it--as a monumental work. I quickly realized Treviño and company are documenting our history for future generations and others in distant places.

Read Sedano's piece on Latinopia; set aside some time to navigate the wealth of documentary available there; then enjoy it and learn. College students needing research material, fans of lit and music, baby boomers wanting to relive the times and hear the words of those who have, are and will pass through Aztlán, making their marks, leaving their cultural imprints--many of those are here. Later, gente will come to realize the great legacy Treviño has and is making.

The Latino Book & Family Festival

I'd been invited to participate in this festival on Oct. 13 at California State University, in Dominguez Hills, and was eager to read and share my novel with everyone in earshot. The Festival linked up with another event aimed more at the community than just writers and lovers of lit. Tens of thousands of people, primarily latino families came through that day.

The building housing the rooms designated for many events had such a convoluted layout and room numbering system, I thought I was The Chicano in my novel--disoriented, lost, wandering into dead ends and generally not certain anyone would find us, even though we authors were determined not to be no-shows.

At my first panel, the audience consisted of two people.

At another panel, three showed and the moderator never appeared.

At my one reading, the two people there very much enjoyed what I read.

I sold a handful of books, probably more due to my lack of fame than anything else.

The event was great for children's books authors Mara Price, René Colato Laínez and others, given the latino family makeup of Festival attendees. Well-known latino authors also did well.

My Festival highlights consisted of meeting authors, celebrities and notables, and getting my pic taken with them, like some cow-town tourist's first time in the Big City.

At Tía Chucha's

Of my two readings at Tia Chucha's Cultural Center & Bookstore in
Sylmar, getting a chance at the open mic proved to be the best experience. Founders Maria Trinidad Rodriguez, Enrique Sanchez and Luis J. Rodriguez have a gem in this bookstore/cultural center. The Friday Open Mic had the feel of gente greatly knowledgeable about our government's mad dash to the bottom and the 99%'s equally great efforts to keep not only past culture, but also ongoing love of learning. I would read again there any day.

The small attendance at my offical reading and signing was less well-attended, again probably due to me being the out-of-town wannabe searching for fame. But my hosts and the staff made me feel not only welcome, but even a little distinguished.

The Siqueiros mural

For more information you can go here to read Sedano's post about the great Mexican revolutionary artist David Siqueiros mural, America Tropical.

I've been to Mexico, enjoyed not enough time in front of the wondrous Mexican muralists' work, Dr. Atl, Siqueiros, Orozco and Rivera. Every Chicano's bucket list should include travel there to experience something that still inspires the way hearing the national anthem did when we were young, before we knew better.

B&W estimation of the original America Tropical

Standing in front of Siqueiros partially salvaged monumental work on an L.A. wall engenders entangled feelings and sensations:

Immediate anger. Over Anglo American ignorance that desecrated a historical treasure, appropriately, with whitewash.

Disgust. For small-minded commercialism that deprived even Anglos of the evocative creativity of one of the world's masters as vaunted as Michelangelo or Degas.

Relief. That modern day efforts restored something of the grandeur that brown children should experience each day before they pick up a crayon.

Pride. That what opens up before you was created by a mind and heart you are distantly linked to, with other links that stretch back into the times of Bonampak.

Emptiness. That can never be satisfied by seeing the original masterpiece. At least not until the next Siqueiros arises with a rebellious brush and revolutionary heart.

Soon enough.

Author Garcia, Ed Olmos, Lalo Alcarez 

Fin

Sedano's S.O. Barbara made my stay as Casa Sedano much like finding that perfect resort on a vacation. My other hosts during my stay included René's charming parents, Salvadoreños whose accents reminded me of boriqua's speech of which I usually catch only about every third word. It made me realize how complex latino Spanish is, something not cured in a matter of a few days. With more time, I would have loved talking and listening to fill my coffer of how varied our lives are, how different our experiences, how crazy our heritage. Maybe on another, extended stay I can work past that.

I headed back to Denver, off to another conference, and then Tejas. I retuned with many copies of my books, not much lighter than when I arrived. Other things were also much more weighty. The contacts I'd made, the enjoyment from people I'd spent time with, my perspective on some aspects of life in L.A. And my fuller belly from the cuisine at Casa Sedano. Hasta luego.

Es todo, hoy,

RudyG, aka Rudy Ch. Garcia, author of The Closet of Discarded Dreams

Oct. 24-31, Garcia will be in HOUSTON at the River Oaks Bookstore; in SAN ANTONIO at the SW Workers Union Underground Library, The Twig Book Shop and at Palo Alto College. Click here for details.

Garcia's author interviews can be heard on Tue. Oct 23, 7:30pm CST on Tony Diaz's Nuestra Palabra - Latino Writers Having Their Say, KPFT 90.1fm in Houston and seen on the Great Day San Antonio daytime program, KENS5 TV in San Anto, Sun. Oct. 28 at noon.

  

Pedazos, fall book-tour, SoCal 1

LAX and Lotusland

Landing in L.A. for this chapter of promoting my novel The Closet of Discarded Dreams reminded me that I portrayed this city in my first published short story, LAX Confidential, in Latinos in Lotusland. I based the first segment of that story on a trip umpteen years earlier, before I'd turned serious writer. In a sense I've come full circle, setting off now to see how los angelenos would take to my biggest published work.

El tráfico and the traficantes

To accomplish that, I first had to negotiate the freeways and byways of the present-day City of Angeles. Problem was that here, negotiation wasn't integral to highway driving. True, I occasionally spotted instances of courtesy or cooperation between drivers, just rarely. 

It took two vulnerable days on the road to learn that speed limits apply only where there are residential speed bumps--and even only for self-preservation of self and one's car--and most of the time in school zones. Otherwise, 75mph is the prevailing minimum speed. I finally removed my eyes from the speedometer and relied on surrounding vehicles to inform me whether I drove too slow or fast; it was never the latter.

Denver is still a cow town. The Californios' habit of 75mph lane changes--sideways!--reinforced that. Denverites can drive at 65 or 70 but will allow full car lengths or more of space to develop between them and the auto in front. Not so in El Lay. Leave just half a car length open in front of you and the vacuum gets sucked up by the blur of another car plugging up the gap. And all the while surrounding commuters continue their 75mph flow. I suffered automotive culture shock during my time there and after returning to Denver, as well. My blood pressure elevates somewhat when I recall the experience.

Two strolls con René Colato

For an hour before a book reading René and I walked the halls and grounds of At the Mission San Fernando in Mission Hills, Califas (1797), a popular attraction less attended on a Sun. afternoon. The immaculately manicured gardens and walkways at that hour were shielded from L.A. noise and traffic, wind and sun.

The quiet stillness imparted a sense of bounty and wealth, what the ruling class Californios have always enjoyed. That the adobe, rock and native wood structures were built by the labor of Indian slaves or peones is not evident during our time there, though I might have heard the screams and moans of antepasado gente who labored to erect it all had I but stopped to listen to the wisps of history.

We traversed much of the Mission, resting on a bench where I bounced ideas off René about my next novel. An incredibly entertaining teacher, a prolific children's books author, this short, amiable, usually low-voiced ex-Salvadoreño incisively dissected components of my plot and characters and in the space of half an hour provided me sufficient guidance to run with the composition. The man's invaluable insights were something I should have had to pay hundreds of dollars for. Next time, I'm skipping workshops for just an afternoon with el Maestro Colato Laínez.

To break up the Author-Author routine, one night René Colato Laínez directed me to Universal Studios CityWalk. My novel's Closet otherworld is a contrast of unbounded horizontalness vs. a 20 ft. ceiling that continually oppresses The Chicano hero. The overall sense of CityWalk is the opposite: despite open sky above, the limited walking space for people and their numbers likewise imparts a unique crowdedness that results in similar sensations.

What struck me more about attractions like CityWalk was how they demonstrate Califas' 1% tossing loaves of bread to the masses as our distant military "lions" munch on middle-eastern "Christians." The tram ride up the hill to reach the place is free, no entry fee, nor required purchases, which is good for the millions that come every year, because a mixed drink and a soda cost us over $20. At the same time, the locale provides thousands of young people a relatively safe venue to be seen and entertained despite being unable to purchase any piece of Universal. A brilliant opiate in the midst of the opulence.

Casa Sedano

Most of what I learned in L.A. came not from conferences, but from charlando like at Michael Sedano's, out on the patio, an iced brandy in hand, an undetermined agenda on our table. What I'd expected to meet for the first time at Casa Sedano was a creature who ate author's novels and spit out frank, cutting critiques like L.A. spits out its miasma of smog. I'll tell you, gente, turns out Sedano is not as ugly in person as his La Bloga headshot would indicate. No, really.  A tough critiquer, sí, pero no tan feo.

Trapped out back of Casa Sedano, surrounded by palm trees on the left, unnaturally huge hens-n-chick succulents, a swimming pool serving as a moat in the foreground and to our right several exotic flowering shrubs that belonged in a photo of the Guatemalan Petén jungle, I had nowhere to turn when Sedan ordered me to practice my reading of The Closet on him.

Nor was escape possible as he explained the weaknesses, gaps and hokeyness indicated by my presentation. I felt as marooned as The Chicano in my novel, though more affected by the brandy and sunshine, both of which are nonexistent in my otherworld.

Eventually I accepted that I was better off without an avenue of retreat because no matter I didn't always concur with the oratory gospel-according-to-Sedano, he was right-on in nearly every example or question he raised. However imperfect my future readings prove, their better quality will be largely attributable to that patio and persona.

In part 2 tomorrow, I cover Latinopia y Jesus Treviño, the Latino Book & Family Festival, my reading at Tía Chucha's, a Siquieros mural that Sedano covered this week, y otras cositas.

Es todo, hoy,

RudyG, aka Rudy Ch. Garcia, author of The Closet of Discarded Dreams

Oct. 24-31, Garcia will be reading from his novel in Houston at the River Oaks Bookstore; in San Antonio at the SW Workers Union Underground Library, The Twig Book Shop and at Palo Alto College. Click here for details.

Garcia's author interviews can be heard on Tue. Oct 23, 7:30pm CST on Tony Diaz's Nuestra Palabra - Latino Writers Having Their Say, KPFT 90.1fm in Houston, and seen on the Great Day San Antonio daytime program, KENS5 TV in San Anto, Sun. Oct. 28 starting at noon.

Paradoxes of Mexico City - Sat. readings in L.A.

Authors David Lida and Sam Quiñones at the Mexican Cultural Institute LOS ANGELES, CA – American-born, Mexico City-based author David Lida will present his newest book First Stop in the New World: Mexico City, the Capital of the 21st Century at the Mexican Cultural Institute’s Art Gallery on Saturday, June 21 at 5 pm. [125 Paseo de la Plaza, Olvera Street, Los Angeles] He will be in conversation with Sam Quiñones, noted author of nonfiction books about Mexico and a writer for the Los Angeles Times. David Lida’s book is an entertaining guide, displaying both intimate familiarity with the city and an outsider's eye for its quirks and weirdness. In the book, Lida profiles its various neighborhoods, from Santa Fe to Condesa, its street markets and food stalls, festive cantinas and desperate pulquerías. He examines the inhabitants’ mania for wrestling matches and saint worship, their distinctive vernacular and the culture’s deeply ingrained machismo.

Sam Quiñones has published two books about Mexico: True Tales from Another Mexico: The Lynch Mob, the Popsicle Kings, Chalino and the Bronx, a collection of non-fiction stories about contemporary Mexico that grew from his reporting on the country. It has been used in more than 150 university classes at 75 universities in 26 states. In 2007, he published Antonio’s Gun and Delfino’s Dream: True Tales of Mexican Migration.

Both authors will read from sections of their respective books, engage in conversation about their experiences and take questions from the attendees. Books will be available for sale and signing.

The author presentation is co-sponsored by the Cervantes Center of Arts & Letters, a non-profit corporation established in 2002, with the purpose of organizing quality events of a cultural and educational nature, free of cost for the Los Angeles community and environs, fostering appreciation of culture and creativity in all its diversity. This is done through lectures, festivals, concerts, film-screenings, book presentations and exhibits.

The Mexican Cultural Institute, located at El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument, is the premier venue for the expression of traditional and contemporary art and culture from the Mexican, Mexican American and Chicano perspective. The Institute is committed to providing education, disseminating information, and serving as a valuable resource for the world community, with an active emphasis on serving the residents of Los Angeles and its environs.

Contact and RSVP: (310) 754-6250