Latino authors - NYRB's white-washed Children's Classics

This is our third post about New York Review of Books' omitting latino books from their Children's Classics list. Several authors from the Latino and Latina Writers Group (LinkedIn) commented and are excerpted below.

When we contacted NYRB, their response was that they didn't know of any latino children's books that should be on their list. That ignorance resulted in a white-washed list. By their definition, there are no latino classics in this category.

Comments by latino authors:

Kathleen Alcala, Permanent Faculty at NILA and Author:

I don't write children's books, but some of the best I have come across are now published and distributed by Lee and Low Books. Many of our top-notch Latino/a writers have also written children's books. NYRB could probably take the time to do the research.

                       

Maria Victoria, Bilingual Author, Editor & Ghostwriter

I do write children's books, I have written them for years for my sons and now for my grandchildren, but only now I am starting to self-publish those stories via Createspace (Amazon). I don't have the time to wait for the industry to embrace our diversity. When I tuck my little ones in bed, I want them to be proud of their Mexican heritage and who they are: beautiful bilingual and bicultural children.

Mona AlvaradoFrazier, Independent Writing and Editing Professional:

Latinas for Latino Lit started last year in response to articles such as NYRB's. Pat Mora has a large list on her website and Reading is Fundamental has a list of multicultural books.

I blog about multicultural books because I believe it takes Latinos supporting Latinos to make these books visible; there are other bloggers doing the same. I beta-read for Latina/o authors because I want to help get them published. We all can do something. Currently, I have two Young Adult novels completed and am looking for an agent. I have one manuscript (protagonist is Mexican,17-year-old mother in prison) with Amazon's Breakthrough Novel competition. They had 10,000 entries, and whittled this to 2,000 (I made this round). On April 14th, Amazon will again cut 1500 entries. I'm hoping my YA novel makes the next round and that I can attract an agent.

Maria Victoria [above] is so right; it's difficult to continue to wait for "the industry" and the "literary gatekeepers," but it also takes funds to publish your own novel (approx. $2,000 to 5,000). I may take that route soon.

Lucha Corpi, Independent Writing and Editing Professional

I've written stories and poems for children, and a couple have been published in the Houghton Mifflin Spanish elementary series, for example, and other pubs. I've also written bilingual picture books--one published by Children's Book Press in S.F., now an imprint of Lee & Low's in NY, another by Arte Publico Press Piñata imprint.

When writing for a classroom series, you're given a list of rules/taboos as to what you can and cannot do or say, i.e. working in the fields OK, but you can't mention of La Migra or living conditions for children of migrant families, etc. After a while, I wasn't willing to write for hire when major publishers dictated what I could write or not about. I can control when and where I publish to make sure my books outlive me.

As a translator of stories for children, however, I had a chance to read English texts of world oral and literary traditions. I confirmed that in all the stories chosen for certain grades, there were common threads that made the stories "universal" and which I call the "human element," in general. We can't deny ourselves our rightful place in this universal culture. Perhaps in some honest and sincere way, a few major publishers want stories that can be sewn together into the larger tapestry of human experience. I don't find anything wrong with showing all the ways in which people from all cultures are simply human, whose literatures have many points of contact along those "universal" lines.

I also believe that as Chic@nos/Latin@s, we are part of a second universe--Mexico and Latin America, and of Latin@ culture. Each is unique in its own historical and cultural way, but socio-politically regarded as disposable once our use to White America is no longer important, desirable or necessary. Major publishers are not willing to publish literature that is "in their face," (about La migra, children of migrant families, etc.) that mirrors all the ways in which they have failed one of the culturally and linguistically richest and most diverse groups in the U.S.

Chicano/Latino publishers have been publishing that literature of resistance and protest, talking about taboo subjects to the extent they can. They have had to battle constantly to remain and help our literatures grow. However we may feel personally about them, we have to remember that theirs hasn't been a road paved with gold, either. So we need to support their efforts and buy their books directly from them instead of Amazon, etc. Most of the time, all we do is criticize them or tear them down, not realizing that when we don't buy their books, we are also hurting the same writers we're talking about here.

As a student of "classic" literature and the literary establishment throughout the ages, one last point about the word "classic" in literature or any of the arts. Ironically, the classics are those works, which were "popular" when their creators were alive, though they made no money from their popularity. They became "classics" when their creators had been dead at least 50 years.

I follow two rules: I do my job as a writer, and write, regardless of criticism or circumstance, and I make sure I publish with publishers who may not pay big bucks in royalty, but who will keep my books in print long after I depart this vale of literary tears. I buy and read books published by Chican@/Latin@ presses, and in general support writers and poets this way.

Who knows? One of these years, one of your poems or a story for children, or one of your books might become a classic. True that, if what I say is right, you won't be here any longer to enjoy the renown and the rewards and fruits of your labor.

Felipe de Ortego y Gasca, Scholar in Residence, Western New Mexico University:

It's not just the NYRB (with whom I have a long-standing peeve--since 1973 when it rejected my piece about Chicanos in favor of an Anglo piece about Chicanos by John Womack).

The real problem, however, is with the American Library Association and its annual awards for children's literature. Talk about a dearth! Armando's commentary should be a clarion call for American publishers.

Thanks to Arte Público for the children's books they've published.

Ideologically, we should not expect écrit oblige [great works] from myopic American publishers. Just as the history of the lion hunt will always favor the hunter until lions have their own historians, publishing will always favor the dominant group until Latinos have their own publishers. Hasta la victoria!

Armando Rendón, Editor of Somos en Escrito Magazine:

I gather we’re not getting too agitated about the NYRB list--Rudy has hit the main points in his response to Sara Kramer. My take is that we consider the context, a bastion of white privilege revisiting its own past, but largely unaware and painfully unconcerned with the present reality of millions of Chicanos and Latinos preparing to make our future. If any of us expect entities like the NYRB to empower us to advance in our art and yet maintain our integrity, that’s barking up the wrong ancestral tree.

We as American writers of a certain perspectiva must move on, concern ourselves with writing for the present generation, but having in mind the needs of millions of Latino youth to come. I refer to the critical need for us as writers to provide literary sustenance for the Latino and Latina youth who have already become the majority of first to 12th grade populations in New Mexico (57%), California (51%), Texas (51%), with Arizona (43%), Nevada (40%), and Colorado (30%) not that far behind. The number of literary works written each year for Latino youth is dreadfully low, maybe 2 to 3 percent of children’s books published each year in the U.S.

One cause we can address directly: Latina and Latino writers, established and aspiring, should direct some of their time and talents to writing for young people. My focus as a newcomer to writing for young people is on middle and high school youth because I can craft stories for them of my own recollections. Others might have the insight and mental dexterity to fashion those delightful little tales that can help form the imaginations and identity of toddlers and early school children.

Which causes me to reflect on an important insight that I read in one of the letters to the editor that appeared on 3/23/14, after the NYRB published its 100 best list. The correspondent, who hailed from the Bronx, wrote that a “well-written book …should represent humanity, and readers should be able to find something of themselves in it – no matter the protagonists’ background or color.” A fine point, one that exemplifies the finest literary works anywhere.

           

However, this notion taken to its logical extreme suggests that all books could be about white Anglo Saxon men, and that would be okay as long as we others could find “something” of ourselves in the text. That’s exactly the attitude that led to the present “lack of diversity,” or to be explicit, the racism by omission in children’s literature.

What I’ve come to realize is that writing for children today is a political act. Taking the word, political, to its ancient Greek root, polis, which stood for the state, the confluence of people who together make up a society. It follows from the converse reality that teachers, librarians, scholars, and parents face: the absolute dearth of books written for and about Latino boys and girls in the U.S. Thus, limiting the presence of Latino and Latina children in books for school kids is a political act, driven by generations of discrimination, oppression and racism.

Final point: while we need more books for Latino youth, we need to set and uphold certain literary standards. Is anyone taking on the task of drafting a set of guidelines appropriate to writing aimed at Latino children, a gathering of Latino writers, educators and librarians with an understanding of the pedagogical, emotional and intellectual/creative needs for these ages? Such a document could be a useful guideline for all of us, even eye-opening for the gatekeepers over at the NYRB.

More salient comments, Lucha. To pick up on one of the things you said, about writing for posterity. When you consider, for example, that in Texas, my home state (no apologies), the school population in 2050 if not earlier will reach 9 million and 6 of those millions will be Latino, we have to think for the future: what we write today will impact millions of kids, and not just Chicanitos but any child from the standpoint of opening up a vision of the world that's multicultural and multicolorful. Adelante!

(Rendón is also the author of the young adult novel, Noldo and his magical scooter at the Battle of the Alamo, which was just named a finalist for an International Latino Book Award.)

Barbara Renaud Gonzalez informed us about her book, The boy made of lightning, the first interactive book on the life of Voting Rights pioneer Willie Velasquez, independently published by AALAS, 9/2013. Original narrative, art, music, sounds and written in Tex-Mex, with pop-ups and translation; it was nominated for a Tomas Rivera Prize.

Also pertaining to this discussion, see Matt de la Peña's thoughts in the article, Where's the African-American Harry Potter or the Mexican Katniss?

Acevedo strikes again

Good Money Gone, a novel co-authored by Mario Acevedo, is a finalist in the International Book Awards. Also, Mario’s essay, "Love Between the Species", has just been published in Now Write! Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror (L. Lamson, edit.), a rare and revealing look at the writing secrets of speculative genre masters.

Es todo, hoy,

RudyG

1st Novel - http://www.discarded-dreams.com/

Author FB - rudy.ch.garcia

Twitter - DiscardedDreams

Diversity a food group best served frío

I'm supposed to eat from each of the food groups, not just meat and chile. When I get an apple or carrots, I can feel I met the obligation. Americanos very often treat Chicanos, and latinos in general, the same way. As if brown people were part of the Colored Diversity Food Group, consisting of ALL non-white people. Call it a white potatoes, Anglo-centric worldview.

If you're in the middle of this Anglo-centric world, then EVERYBODY else is the Non-Anglo Other; it's you on the one hand and all THEM on the other. If the producers of a TV program want to appear to be culturally "sensitive" to a multinational audience, they'll assume that including one "colored" character from the "diversity group" fulfills that obligation. Not so.

What about latinos on SNL?

In an AP article yesterday, the topic was the lack of black female comedians on Saturday Night Live.

One of the shows white-male comedians explained this: "The producers never find ones that are ready.” NOTHING was explained about the lack of latinos, although the article's author, David Bauder, did at least mention, "There has often been criticism through the years that late-night comedy in general is a boy's club, particularly a white boy's club. There aren't any Asians or Hispanics on the show either, male or female."

The fact that the SNL comedians and producers never talked about latino comedians is one example of the Diversity Food Group mentality--they didn't need to because talking about blacks fulfilled their Diversity Food Group obligation.

US latino lit NO must-read?

At Esquire magazine, you can read the "Greatest Books Ever Written" list of The 80 Books Every Man Should Read. It's described as, "An unranked, incomplete, utterly biased list of the greatest works of literature ever published." [my emphasis] To my knowledge, none of the 80 include a female, which would obviously be part of their sex-biased mentality.

Black male writers Ralph Ellison and Richard Wright are on the list, but not one U.S. male latino is included. Jorge Luis Borges is the only latino. (It's strange that Nobel Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez didn't make their cut.) In this case, using the Diversity Food Group guide, I assume Esquire's thinking was, "We got one South American latino; that'll cover U.S. latinos, too."

Esquire should've read the words of Anglo author Russell Banks, included in their list: "I accepted that I was obliged to have African American friends. I was obliged to address deliberately the overlapping social and racial contexts of my life. I'm a white man in a white-dominated, racialized society; therefore, if I want to, I can live my whole life in a racial fantasy. Most white Americans do just that. Because we can. In a color-defined society we are invited to think that white is not a color. We are invited to fantasize and we act accordingly." Esquire's list is a great example of such "living in a racial fantasy."

No kids' latino classics?

Seems like some of the Anglo-centrics just won't give a latino a break. Speaking of racial fantasies, check out The New York Review of Books Children’s Collection, described as "Time-honored classics for children of all ages." [ages 3-14] It's for children of all ages, if you exclude any "colored" kids and you believe that Anglo kids don't need to realize they live on a multi-racial, multinational planet.

Of course there are authors from England--lots of them--but not one First Voice latino, author or book, from any continent. Using the Diversity Food Group paradigm, I suppose they think they filled their obligation to broadening children's horizons by the couple of Asian-themed books. Is there even one about blacks or indios?

So the next time you need an example of how biased U.S. publishers are, you can use NYRB to make your point. NOT one latino, Chicano, puertoriqueño, mexicanos author or book deserves to be considered "a time-honored classic for children of all ages."

Nerds of Color

Better than the Diversity Food Group approach, a post that I quote at length contains a rich set of information about diversity in spec lit. It has much more material that deserves checking out. La Bloga is mentioned.

On his website, latino Daniel José Older explains how he put together a "round table of writers and editors to imagine an anti-oppressive SFF community at Strange Horizons." It's called Set Truth on Stun: Reimagining an Anti-Oppressive SF/F.

He reports about his #DiversityInSFF hashtag "to the longstanding, often-ignored, ever-trolled, much-needed convos about race and gender, privilege and science fiction/fantasy that have been going on since the dawn of time. For a few weeks Twitter was all aflame with debates, links and related shenanigans. Backlash against those who speak out has come in the form of death and rape threats, hate mail, doubling down on sexist-racist-homophobic-ableist material, and mind-numbingly nonsensical counter-arguments. [my emphasis]

"In a recent Guest of Honor speech at the Continuum convention in Sydney, Nora Jemisin said: "we must now make an active, conscious effort to establish a literature of the imagination which truly belongs to everyone.

"I asked a group of writers, editors, and publishers to imagine in both practical and fantastical ways what the SciFi and fantasy community would look like if it was actively anti-oppressive. This conversation took place over email in August 2013."

"Most notably, Tor added an explicit diversity statement to their submission guidelines. [Tor is a major US spec publisher.]

"As always, there have been precious, panicked pleas to avoid quotas and to remember the importance of quality, as if a demand for diversity is synonymous with a higher tolerance for mediocrity. These pleas arise any time the marginalized demand to be heard and those making their needless pleas realize the status quo is about to change.

"What does it say about writers that it is easier to imagine creating an alien species and alien worlds than it is to create a non-white and/or heterosexual and/or male and/or differently abled and/or working-class humanoid character in a non-Western setting?

"We see such reticence to approach difference in fiction, across genres and it is, in part, understandable but it is also a bit offensive, this notion that underrepresented people are so different and mysterious, so far from the dominant understanding of normal, we dare not even try to write their experiences."

Daniel José Older is author of the latino spec collection Salsa Nocturna. He’s co-editing the anthology, Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction From The Margins Of History [submissions now closed].

Diversity submissions wanted

From their website: "We encourage diversity in publishing: authors are chosen regardless of sex, gender, race or ethnicity. Non-US authors, or authors who usually work in a different genre, are also welcome.

Flash: Stories of less than 1,000 words.

Short Fiction: Stories of 1,001 to 2,500 words.

Poetry: Any length.

Go here for details.

Diversity call for spec subs

From Twelfth Planet Press comes this: "The beautiful Kaleidoscope backers have pushed us over the $7k mark, and we are now open to submissions! Please send us your stories, and/or tell your writer friends about us. We are interested in seeing stories from anyone at all, and we’re especially looking forward to seeing submissions written by people whose voices tend to be underrepresented."

More information on Kaleidoscope submissions can be found here.

From Arte Público Press

Will the Taco win?

It seems today is Esquire's day on my chopping block and not even our food gets a break. (Thanks for the material, boys.) Continuing with the food group theme, in the article Why The Taco Cannot Win, Josh Ozersky writes:

"At least three times a year somebody announces that fast-food tacos are an all-conquering force; or, "For American Restaurant Chains, the Future Is Mexican." While this may well be true in terms of their hiring practices, it's not so in any other way and never has been. Not in even the most dystopian of food futures will tacos ever be our dominant foodstuff. [my emphasis]

"Fast-food tacos are cheap, because they are made from sawdust and beef drippings. Mexican-themed chains do a very lucrative volume business. All Mexican-themed restaurants do; the format offers the greatest profit potential this side of organ harvesting.

"But that doesn't make it food. In a country where 47 million people are on food stamps, a lot of people are feeding their families on hamburgers, which are still the most wholesome of all fast foods, in my opinion."

Ozersky sometimes tries so hard to be funny and cute that he steps in some of his own "sawdust and beef drippings." Dumping on Taco Bell is like kicking the crippled kid. But in expressing his opinion, he Anglo-centrically manages to trash Mexican food, restaurants and the loyal customers of such places, us. He'd do well do read Gustavo Arellano's Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America. And then go eat a taco.

Es todo, hoy,

RudyG