BOOK REVIEW: How Fire Is a Story, Waiting—by Melinda Palacio

By Guest Blogger Thelma T. Reyna

           Melinda Palacio’s first full-length volume of poetry was birthed with modest fanfare but with hopes full and robust. Less than a year later, the book has earned three prominent awards and has taken Palacio on book tours across the nation. This acclaim is richly-deserved and bodes well for a relative newcomer—but indisputably a rising star—in the national literary arena.

            Palacio, a native Californian and part-time resident of New Orleans, has written two other books, each well-received: Folsom Lockdown (2010), poetry that won the Kulupi Press Sense of Place Chapbook Contest in 2009; and Ocotillo Dreams (2011), Palacio’s debut novel and winner of two prestigious national/ international awards.



Palacio puts Midas and his golden touch to shame.

Palacio’s Themes

In How Fire Is a Story, Waiting, Palacio skillfully weaves 65 poems through the four sections of her book—Fire, Air, Water, and Earth—with a humanity and sensitivity that we all recognize and cherish but cannot always plumb within ourselves. She speaks of themes closest to our collective heart, universal, timeless topics that we accept as part of living: family, culture, loss, reminiscence, nature, and resilience of the human spirit.

            These themes envelop her poetry with immediacy and relevance. Her audience is the everyday community of readers navigating daily life, the people with whom we interact, people who filled Palacio’s life and who similarly fill ours. In an authentic, sympathetic voice, she speaks to all of us and, in a largely autobiographical manner, shares her life story begotten through metaphorical fires.

 



Folsom Lockdown: Family Challenges

            Her award-winning poetry chapbook, Folsom Lockdown, is integrated almost in its entirety into How Fire Is a Story. In Folsom, Palacio, with some “poetic license,” as she has said, recounted her father’s domestic abuse, his unreliability as a parent to her and his other children, and his penchant for conning and manipulating. He ended up imprisoned in Folsom for domestic assault and attempted murder with a gun. Palacio’s relationship with her father had been almost nonexistent throughout her life...until she and her sister visited him in 2009 in prison. Of this visit, which inspired Folsom, Palacio has written: “We had a wonderful exchange with our father. As he regaled us with stories, all walls and barriers fell away” (Author’s Note, Folsom Prison Lockdown, p. 31).  Palacio also writes: “[We] made our trip to Folsom in January. A month later, I sat down and could not stop writing. A quick lightning downpour of poems turned into this chapbook” (p. 31).  

            These poems, interwoven now throughout How Fire Is a Story, depict a father who is smooth, handsome, seductive, an exotic Panamanian with multiple families. She describes him as “the charismatic lunatic, my father,/ the criminal with the psycho gene and tangled gypsy beard!”  In the poem, “Dancing with Zorro’s Ghost,” one of the more powerful ones in her book, Palacio paints a picture of a conflicted man, a Hispanic version of Jekyll and Hyde. Her father, Antonio, “fights windmills in the night./ ...Tony slipped a piece of metal/ into his sock to protect his coffee-bean colored skin.” In the next stanza, Palacio describes Tony thus: “With his enemy tucked away for the purple night, my father wrote poetry./.... [Tony was] nestled like the Man in the Iron Mask, dreaming of sunshine” (p. 22).

Palacio’s ability to simultaneously recognize her father’s malice and hurtfulness, and his vulnerability and humanity, undulates like a powerful wave through the Folsom sections of her book.  Palacio recounts her lack of connectedness to her father when she was a child: her disbelief that he will visit her, her rejection of toys he brings when he manages to show up, and his vicious beatings of her mother. Yet she leaves the door open for finding redemption in him, as when she says in “Astro Turf Hero”: “On the day of [my mother’s] funeral,/I’m surprised to learn there were nice people/who loved my father,/who called him friend” (p. 20, Folsom). In “Sin Verguenza Swagger” (“Shameless Swagger”), Palacio describes the uninhibited sassiness of Panamanians she encounters randomly and says: “It took a trip to Panama to understand my father’s sin verguenza swagger” (p. 48). Palacio allows her own humanity and compassion to override Antonio’s countless lapses in his. She rises above his violence and fallibility to reach a place of understanding and eventual acceptance of her father.

The Folsom poems also include vignettes of her other family members, of the beauties and tantrums of Mother Nature, and of Palacio’s reminiscences of pleasant and painful childhood experiences. As part of How Fire Is a Story, the Folsom poems are scattered throughout the volume, interwoven with different emphases and throughout the four subsection headings. But they still carry the emotional impact they did in the original chapbook.

Three Key Poems



Three poems in particular serve as linchpins in Palacios’ book, capturing pivotal aspects of her life experiences, identity, and evolution as a poet and human being. Powerful in the telling and in the eliciting, the poems form a framework within which her other poems blossom and give us other looks into her life and observations.

            The first is “El South-Central Cucuy” (“The South-Central Boogeyman,” p. 18). Recounted in the persona of a young girl growing up in the ‘hood, the poem starkly paints the elements of a disadvantaged environment: a jaded uncle assuring the girl that she won’t “have a life”; all-too-familiar sounds of gunfire and police helicopters; fear for one’s life as bullets rip through walls and barely miss people who should be safe within their homes; the threat of war and bombs; and a child’s perennial fear of the boogeyman, the Cucuy, the unknown, the embodiment of evil that is already a reality all around. Appearing as it does near the book’s beginning, “El South-Central Cucuy” is a child’s narrative, from a child’s viewpoint: a story of the beginning of things. Palacio ends the poem thus: “You can’t see the Cucuy who lurks in the hallways, under the bed and in the closet./The boogeyman with devil’s feet waits to touch your hair in the dark,/in a crowded house on Albany Street in South-Central L.A.” To a child growing up in the ‘hood, fear of the unknown can be a deal-breaker in the battle for survival and success. Such it could have been for Palacio; such it was for people she knew early on, as she recounts: “Bullets spared me, but took the young lives of three on our street.”  



            The second poem is “Panamanian Percentage” (p. 56), a rhythmic accounting of her father’s ethnic heritage. Tony had ancestral roots in Panama, Jamaica, Colombia, East India, England, and Africa. Palacio details some of the physical attributes she inherited from her father: “I own his crooked smile, a slight curl/of the upper lip.” Palacio’s sister inherited Tony’s height and his “ballsy stride, the stretch of confidence/our father used when he thought/he’d never get caught.” Palacio muses: “Impossible to tell where I begin/or end, where our/Panamanian percentage meets.” She clearly cherishes her mother’s Mexican Indian heritage, “the half made whole by my mother’s feet,/my feet. Feet furious enough to power a car,/squat Indian feet showing off red toes/in an even row....” Dichotomies seem to dominate Palacio’s life, as they do her poems, and the ethnic mixtures she celebrates and accepts in this poem ultimately define her as an individual and a poet.



            The third linchpin poem, “Iron Cross Suite” (p.99), is heart-breakingly poignant. The sub-title—“For Blanca Estela Palacio, December 5, 1949-June 4, 1994”—underscores the untimeliness of Palacio’s mother’s death. Blanca’s “passion cross” roughly symbolizes that of Christ’s “passion cross,” which depicts his suffering and death in the Catholic ritual, the Stations of the Cross. The poem describes an iron cross apparently owned by Blanca, with a dove, fleur de lis, lightning bolts, a scale, moon, rooster, and sun paralleling Stations of the Cross. The poet describes each station in turn, recounting a moment, a memory, an event connecting her to her mother in the past or the aching present. The mother’s refrain in the poem, “Do this in memory of me,” tethers Blanca’s passion cross to Christ’s suffering and assures us that Blanca also suffered in her life. As Christ was betrayed shortly before his death, so also was Blanca betrayed by her beloved priest, who failed to go to her deathbed when summoned.



            Possibly the most intellectual poem in Palacio’s book, “Iron Cross Suite” is never heavy-handed in its analogy to Christ’s passion. Palacio carefully selects reminiscences and images of her mother to lightly, lovingly reveal Blanca’s strength and faith, and the poet’s own devotion to her. In the final stanzas of this poem, Palacio writes: “She [Blanca] is divine./Three years pass before I can step foot in a church or cathedral” (p. 102). Yet this grief is immediately followed by the revelation that her mother’s final words, scribbled on a piece of paper in a speeding ambulance, were, “The ambulance guy is cute....The driver is good, too,” followed by a smiley face. This dichotomy of pathos and wry humor characterize not only this poem, but the character of Blanca herself and the relationship she forged with her daughter.

In summary, Palacio’s book brims with warriors and survivors: immigrants, poor people, abused women, marginalized children, lonely old maids, exhausted laborers, convicts, and variations of the above. The world is “the ‘hood” for many, possibly throughout their lives, with boogeymen real and imagined stealing comfort and security. But her book also includes resilient souls who squeeze hope and comfort from hardship. Palacio’s book appropriately is bookended with the Cucuy near the beginning, and the mother whose spunk and love of life prevailed over the tragedy of her early death at the end: fear and insecurity on one hand, and affirmation on the other. Sandwiched in between these linchpin poems is the one celebrating mixture and embracing of polyglot cultures that define Palacio and the world she navigates.



Melinda Palacios: Photo by Valerie Smith

A Rising Literary Star

            Melinda Palacio is that rare multi-genre author who has excelled in everything she has done. In addition to the Kulupi Prize bestowed upon Folsom Lockdown, her second poetry book, How Fire Is a Story, Waiting has won the following 2013 awards: Milt Kessler Award Finalist, Patterson Poetry Prize Finalist, and International Latino Book Award/Best Poetry Book in English. Her debut novel, Ocotillo Dreams, which started out as a historical account of immigration but metamorphosed to a more accessible work of fiction when Arizona began instituting its draconian immigration laws, received the 2012 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award for Excellence in Literature, and the  2012 International Latino Book Award/ Mariposa Award for Best First Book.

           

          Palacio’s facility with the written word is not all natural talent. She received a degree in Comparative Literature from University of California, Berkeley and earned a Master’s degree in the same discipline from UC Santa Cruz. She has studied her craft diligently, both as a 2007 PEN USA Emerging Voices Rosenthal Fellow, and as an alumna of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers. Palacio wrote articles for local magazines and newspapers in Arizona and California earlier in her career. So she has been steeped in writing—the informal, conversational writing of lifestyle articles she penned as a freelance journalist, and the more demanding literary creations that have brought her much recognition. She laid a firm foundation through formal study and leverages that expertise into a growing reputation as an outstanding author.

            Palacio is hip, uninhibited, and frank. California Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera described her writing in How Fire Is a Story, Waiting as “jazzy and Pachukona...[with] Bop and ‘swagger’...and wild, unexpected turns” (Cover blurb).  Yes, all true. But Palacio can also be little-girl traditional, as she is in “Porch Days” (p. 16): “I’m six, and I sit on the porch Indian style./My best friend Aurora makes the number four with her legs./We sit and listen to the slapping sound our thighs make against red concrete.” And Palacio can also be little-girl scared, as in “Ramona Street” (p. 17): “Hug your rabbit with the ear singed by a light bulb./Cradle her. Ignore the burnt smell and loose button eye./The eye on your mother’s swollen face is worse.” And Palacio can whisper a growing girl’s fears with timidity: “1. You have always been lonely, but never alone....Don’t sink into that dark place from which there is no return. Romance the devil,/until your cries are a distant memory and/you’re ready for church and candy” (“Notes to Self,” p. 31).
 

          So Melinda Palacio’s mixture of contradictions and life experiences spanning almost coast to coast have given an undeniable authenticity and recognition to her writings. We devour her work because we see ourselves in it. We believe her insights because we know she’s been burned by the fire she awaits, the fire that kindles her stories. And, like moths perennially attracted to flame, we gravitate toward the fire Palacio creates for us.

_________________________________________________________________________________

This review was originally posted in a prior version on Hinchas de Poesia Literary Journal, Issue 10, edited by Jim Heavily. www.hinchasdepoesia.com

THELMA T. REYNA

Thelma T. Reyna is author of The Heavens Weep for Us and Other Stories (2009), which received 4 national awards. Her stories, poems, essays, book reviews, and other non-fiction have been published in literary and academic journals, textbooks, anthologies, blogs, and in regional media off and on for over 30 years. Her poetry chapbooks—Breath & Bone (2011), and Hearts in Common (June 2013)—was each a semi-finalist in a national poetry chapbook competition. Reyna writes two blogs and is a guest blogger on two others.  She owns the editing/writing consultant business, The Writing Pros, based in Pasadena, CA. Her website is www.ThelmaReyna.com .

Two East Coast Conferences and Two West Coast Professors. Martín Espada Lagniappe.

Next week, on the East Coast, there is an exciting conference happening at John Jay College of Criminal Justice City University of New York (CUNY), March 7-9. I'm not talking about the one that's pricing our hermana Olga out, although I will shortly discuss AWP as well, but the 1st Biennial U.S. Latina/o Literary Theory and Criticism Conference,Haciendo Caminos: Mapping the Futures of U.S. Latina/o. The also has a literature component that would be of interest to non-academics. However, Friday's session is most thrilling because the panel includes scholarly work by Dr. Cristina Herrera at CSU Fresno on none other than a little novel by Melinda Palacio, titled Ocotillo Dreams.

Friday's Session 5 at 3:30 features a panel titled, Chronicles of Transnationalism, Citizenship, and Social Justice in Daniel Alarcón, Melinda Palacio, and Junot Díaz.

The panel came about the way many great collaborations happen, through friends. A colleague of Cristina Herrera's approached her about submitting a panel proposal relating to the themes of citizenship and identity. Herrera's paper is titled, “Constructing Chicana Daughterly Agency: Maternal Activism and Estrangement in Melinda Palacio’s Ocotillo Dreams.”

Cristina Herrera, CSU Fresno

Herrera says she still gets a little nervous when presenting a paper, but like most performers, the feeling quickly disappears.

"I love attending conferences, but I admit that I still get a little anxious just before I'm about to present. I find that once I begin reading my paper, though the anxiety slips away, and I can relax and enjoy myself while I share my work with other conference participants and panelists."

At next week's conference, Cristina Herrera will try to attend as many panels that deal with her scholarly fields of study, including themes of gender, family, and feminism. La Bloga friend, Javier O. Huerta, will also present a paper on Friday titled, 'Hyperdocumentation: Toward a Literature of the Undocumented.' Cristina Herrera's colleague at CSU Fresno, Alex Espinoza, plans on attending both the conference at CUNY and AWP in Boston.

Espinoza has new novel out this month, TheFive Acts of Diego León. At the NY conference, Espinoza will be on the Latina/o Fiction Panel Saturday at 11:00 a.m., along with Helena María Viramontes, Ernesto Quiñonez, Manuel Muñoz, H.G. Carillo , and Angie Cruz. Alex's two panels at AWP include one on writing place and regional fiction with Susan Straight and Stuart O'Nan and a second panel on enthnocentrism and the writing workshop with Nami Mun. His historical novel sheds light on the long and significant influence Latinos have had in Hollywood. "As we witnessed from the most recent Academy Awards show, we've made many great strides in the industry, with Oscars going to "Inocente" and "Searching for Sugarman," said Espinoza, "but have yet to be fully recognized and respected. Here I'm thinking of Lupe Ontiveros' snub from the show's "In Memorium" segment."

Espinoza shared some of his experience with writing his second novel:

Alex Espinoza's new novel, The Five Acts of Diego León




"Writing "The Five Acts of Diego León" was an entirely different experience than writing "Still Water Saints," but I think every book presents its own challenges and opportunities. And that's how it should be if you want to grow as a writer. Because it is historical--tracing my protagonist's evolution as an artist, which begins in revolutionary Mexico, follows him through the Cristero Rebellion of the late 20s, and ultimately wraps up in Hollywood during the nascent days of talking pictures."

Richard Perez, one of the organizers of the 1st Biennial U.S. Latino/a Literary Theory and Criticism Conference said they already have the date for the next conference, March 15, 2015 at John Jay College in NYC.  "We are looking forward to three thought provoking days of panels, papers, and conversations," Perez said.

"Our only wish is that the conference continues to grow and becomes one of the signature events in the field.  A place where scholars, young and old, come to share ideas and celebrate the rich literature we all love."

***

Martín Espada reads his poem to Howard Zinn. The entire segment aired on PBS a couple of weeks ago.

***

Upcoming Opportunities to hear How Fire Is a Story, Waiting and Ocotillo Dreams :

March 2, Latter Library, Poetry Buffet, New Orleans, Louisiana, 2pm.

March 14, UC Davis, class visit

March 16, UAA Luncheon, Santa Maria, CA

March 17, Hitched,Beyond Baroque, Melinda Palacio and Yago S. Cura

March 24, Avenue 50 Studio, 2pm

Fireworks in New Orleans 2012

Melinda Palacio

The week began on a somber, but hopeful note. The humidity and 96-degree weather reminded me of Panama. Like Panama, New Orleans is one of my favorite places, and one of the most unique cities in the world. Many who don’t appreciate the beauty of the river city and its diversity would have written New Orleans off the map when the water kept rising after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The city bounced back and much of the clean-up and rebuilding effort came from immigrants who now call New Orleans home.

Standing with the Southern 32 in front of the Hale Boggs Federal Building in  New Orleans.

Last Friday, I stood with the Southern 32, a group of jornaleros who experienced violations to their civil rights, who chose to stand up for justice.

Jacinta Gonzalez with the Southern 32 and Delmy Palencia with her 16-month-old son Josue.

Members of the community came out to support the Southern 32. Thanks to the New Orleans Workers’ Center for Racial Justice, www.nowcr.org, and the organization's vivacious leaders, such as Jacinta Gonzalez, day laborers have a place to call when fear is used to abuse their civil rights.

The types of traps, wage theft, unconstitutional treatment, unlawful arrest, and “payday raids” by immigration agents, tipped off by employers who refused to pay workers or provide safety equipment, is a move out of Arizona’s playbook.

In a powerful speech by Delmy Palencia, 35, spoke to the group about the struggles she has endured. She has been humiliated and separated from her nursing son, and undergone an unconstitutional arrest by ICE. “As women we have to stand up for our children, our families, our communities, and ourselves,” she said. Palencia left behind two daughters in Honduras.

Part of the reason why I wrote Ocotillo Dreams was to bring to light the different types of issues surrounding undocumented workers. 

This week also brought a whirlwind of buzz for the novel, beginning with an interview by Adela Najarro at Letras Latinas, news that Ocotillo Dreams is the book of the month at the Latina Book Club,

and (the excitement continues), La Casa Azul Bookstore in New York named Ocotillo Dreams as the #1 Best Seller in June.

La Casa Azul Bookstore's best sellers display.

I am grateful to Aurora Anaya-Cerda for giving me one of the very first book signing events at La Casa Azul Bookstore in East Harlem, two days after I had won the Mariposa Award for Best First Book and received an Honorable Mention in the Historical Fiction category at the Instituto Cervantes in Manhattan. I love New York.

What’s next?

On the fourth of July, Glimmer Train informed me that my new short story was a Finalist in their Family Matters competition and received an Honorable Mention. I earned extra sparklers, according to my friend Jocelyn. After 10 years of rejections from the literary journal, the editors finally gave me a nod. I’m one step closer to winning. And all because I am not afraid of rejection.

Events: Tomorrow in New Orleans, Saturday, July 7, 2012 at 2pm, I join the Poetry Buffet at the Latter Library.

Literary News from California to New Mexico to New York!

Melinda Palacio

May wraps ups with my non-fiction story, "Grandmother's Stars," published in Mary: A Journal of New Writing. The other good news is the Ocotillo Dreams tour rides again in New York at La Casa Azul Bookstore in East Harlem. Aurora Anaya-Cerda fulfilled her dream to open a bookstore in East Harlem. The store will open with much celebration June 1 and I have the privilege of being among the first authors to have a book signing at La Casa Azul Bookstore, June 7 at 6pm. This is also my first visit to the big city as an author. The address to La Casa Azul Bookstore is 143 E. 103rd Street, El Barrio 10029. In NY speak, take the 6 train to 103rd.

The first week of June in New York is also exciting for two other reasons: Book Expo America and the 14th International Latino Book Awards. La Bloga represents. Daniel Olivas's novel, The Book of Want, is a finalist in Best Popular Fiction and Ocotillo Dreams is a finalist in two categories: Best First Book and Best Historical Fiction. Check out the complete list of finalists here. The 14th International Latino Book Awards takes place June 5 at the Instituto Cervantes. Fourteen is a good number so far. Today I received my 14th review on Amazon, another 5 star customer review. Add your review of Ocotillo Dreams here.

Speaking of reviews... La Bloga friend, Reyna Grande, received a noted starred review from Publishers Weekly for her new memoir, The Distance Between Us. Grande captivates and inspires begins the review. The book is available for pre-order with an August release date. La Bloga will continue to report on the accolades and book signings for Reyna Grande. Much of Grande's US portion of the memoir takes place in Highland Park, Ca.

Taco Shop Poets Tomás Riley and Adrian Arancibia at the Border Book Festival in 2006

An exciting event is happening this weekend in Highland Park, thanks to Poesia Para La Gente, an Avenue 50 studio event. Members of the Taco Shop Poets reunite for a special reading along with Luivette Resto at My Taco, 6300 York Boulevard #4, Highland Park, CA 90042. This promises to be an excellent poetry event, especially if you enjoy tacos. I had the privilege of trying out the scrumptious carne asada tacos with Luivette after the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books and Avenue 50 Studio's La Palabra Poetry Reading last month. 

Denise Chávez and Luis Alberto Urrea at the Border Book Festival 

Reyna Grande, Malín Alegría, Melinda Palacio, Monica Brown, René Colato Laínez, and
Daniel Zolinksy at the Border Book Festival

The Mesilla Cultural Center with its wonderful workshops, presentations, and the Border Book Festival has found a new home in the original settlement of Las Cruces at 314 S. Tornillo, Las Cruces NM 88001. If you are in the area, lend a hand in the moving party, Saturday and Sunday, May 26 and May 27. Meet at 9 am. Send donations to the new Cultural Center:  314 S. Tornillo, Las Cruces, NM 88001 or you can donate via Pay Pal.

Next month in beautiful Santa Barbara, the 40th Santa Barbara Writers Conference will take place at the Hyatt, across from the beach, June 9-14, 2012. Secure your spot before registration closes.

Lagniappe: A Little Something Extra

Melinda Palacio

In the past two months, I’ve had the pleasure of visiting Cal State University Fresno, El Paso Community College, and Cal State University Channel Islands. Most of campuses have invited me to discuss my novel, Ocotillo Dreams. However, I always start off with something I learned to offer in Louisiana, “lagniappe,” meaning a little something extra. In my presentations, it means I introduce readers to my poetry and talking about my journey as a writer.

I’m humbled by the positive feedback of my poems and a bit surprised by how hungry students are for poetry. I haven’t put my finger on the issue, but I have a feeling that some people are afraid of poetry. I had a friend tell me that he doesn’t get poetry and therefore only reads fiction and non-fiction. I don’t buy it.

When I sit down to read a novel, I’m looking for the poetry in the prose. The moment in the telling of the story that makes me sigh and read the exquisite sentence over again. Most of us who really love words live for these moments. Maybe, it’s just me? Regardless, I’m happy to introduce readers to poetry. The lagniappe for me is when students and readers tell me they are inspired to write their own poetry and fiction. One of the questions I am often asked is: “What came first and what do you prefer, writing novels or poetry?”

Given that so far I’ve only written one novel, the answer is much easier than the proverbial chicken and egg question. Poetry remains my favorite love (to use El Ray Bradbury’s expression, he calls all forms of writing and genres loves).

 I love the instant gratification of working on a poem and seeing a finished draft after scribbling words on a blank piece of paper. And yes, I always start with pen and paper. Sometimes the page is not blank. I’ve written notes on scraps of paper that have become future poems, such as receipts, napkins, and ATM stubs. Similar to things I jot down in the middle of the night, being able to read my writing is not as important as making the note to self and having a tactile reminder. The act of jotting down some words or phrases helps me remember my original intention.

While I love stories, both fiction and non-fiction, I believe it’s all about the poetry, the music, and the rhythm of words. I’m especially thrilled when readers of Ocotillo Dreams appreciate the poetry in my prose. I’m currently working on a new novel and I am excited that Tia Chucha Press will publish my first full-length book of poems, How Fire Is A Story, Waiting, (Fall 2012).

Next week, on Cinco de Mayo, I have the pleasure of joining Michele Serros, Heidi Durrow, Susan Dunlap, Candacy Taylor, and Karen Tei Yamashita at the 7th Annual Women’s Literary Festival, Saturday, May 5 at Fess Parker’s Double Tree Resort in Santa Barbara. The Registration Fee of $65 includes a.m. coffee, lunch and author presentations. Scholarships are available. Register at womensliteraryfestival.com.

Next month, Toni Margarita Plummer and I will be on the first book panel at the Santa Barbara Writers Conference, June 9-14.

Sunday, La Bloga kicks off Anaya Week, celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Bless Me, Ultima all week with La Bloga.

News: The Mesilla Cultural Center needs your help. We’ve reported on the center’s librotraficante event, the past Border Book Festivals, and the wonderful center in New Mexico, headed by Denise Chávez. Here’s more information on how you can help the center relocate and keep its doors open: Help the Mesilla Cultural Center.

Chicanonautica: Ocotillo Dreams, Arizona Dystopia

by Ernest Hogan

People always ask me why I live in Arizona. The truth is, it’s not all dystopian political turmoil. The state is a wonderful, weird mix of human eccentricity and strange, natural beauty. I never go long without encountering something that amazes and inspires me -- like the ocotillo.

The ocotillo has thin, twisting branches -- it’s also know as the Vine Cactus -- with thorns and sometimes green leaves and red flowers at the tips. In the dry season it looks like vegetal barbed wire. To people used to the plants of wetter climates, it looks otherworldly.

I can see how it inspired Melinda Palacio in her novel Ocotillo Dreams. It survives in a hostile environment, bringing a unique beauty to the world.

And there is a great deal of beauty and joy in Ocotillo Dreams. It’s not a dreary account of the torture of an oppressed people. The Latinos, a diverse group of people (in life and this novel), lead lives full of rico textures, rhythms, and flavors -- and this novel captures them well. It also moves through the space and time travel of Mexican-American life, with personal lives tangled up in history and politics, from the Eighties into the Nineties, from San Francisco to Chandler, Arizona. There are also some complicated love lives worthy of a telenovela.

Isola, the main character, and the other women in the book show the reality of the strong Latina. I’ve always wondered where the stereotype of the passive Latin female came from. There aren’t any in my family.

But, of course, the novel isn’t all pretty flowers and leaves. It runs headlong into the infamous immigrations sweeps of 1997. Ethnic romance turns into dystopia:

It’s 1997,” Isola screeched. Didn’t we learn anything from the Japanese internment camps? They can’t do that!”

After all, 1984 was a long time ago.

It may seem jarring, but Palacio brings it all together the way that unlikely juxtapositions do in Latino life. She keeps it real, and human, but touches magic realism with the dream that explains the title:

The red tips of the ocotillo are covered in blood and drip onto the woman’s face. When I reach her, I have a strong feeling that I know her, but I don’t recognize her because the blood is covering her face. Despite the blood and her being in the desert, she is singing and she is beautiful.

And none of it crushes the spirits of the ocotillo dreamers.

It is 2012. As Arizona politicians dream dystopian dreams, we can learn something from the ocotillo. It can look dead, but sprout green leaves. Fences made from dead, thorny branches often come back to leafy, flowery life.

That’s life in this dreaming desert.

Ernest Hogan is getting ready to launch the ebook version of his acclaimed novel, Cortez on Jupiter.

Gratitude

by Melinda Palacio

This year I have so much to be grateful for, especially that a young woman named Blanca blessed me with enough love and confidence to carry with me after her premature death at age 44. I tell the story of my mother often, especially when discussing my novel, Ocotillo Dreams, something else to be grateful for this year. This is the year when call myself an author and meet with students, book clubs and readers across the country. I couldn’t help but give my main character Isola the characteristic of having lost her mother at about the same age I did. Everything that happens to Isola is fiction as is her estranged relationship with her mother, Marina. Unlike Isola, I was fortunate to have a close relationship with my mother. I didn’t want to write an autobiography and call it a novel. The autobiography might come much later, after I get the stories kicking around in my head out into the world.

The important lesson I’ve learned in the past ten years is to do what I love and to appreciate all life has to offer. This would seem like a manageable, if not easy task. However, when my mother died I spent so many years wallowing in self-pity. Although I took several years to recover from a deep sense of loss and depression, in Ocotillo Dreams, Isola does not have the luxury of time. The events in the novel are compressed in order to keep the action and narrative moving forward. In hindsight, I would’ve taken a page from Michele Serros who learned how to use poetry and writing as a way of upholding her mother’s memory. However, I appreciate and accept that different people don’t learn life’s tough lessons at the same speed.

Whenever I take a chance and accomplish something new, I always think of Blanca. I used to be embarrassed by how proud she was of me. She bragged about me even though I was an average ballet dancer, an average actress, an average daughter. I may have been an above average student, but that was necessary in order to get into UC Berkeley, and then UC Santa Cruz for graduate school in Comparative Literature. Now I do all the bragging myself. Talking about myself and my writing is second nature because I had a great example on how to do it.

Last Tuesday, I spoke to a literature class at Santa Barbara City College. The Chicano Studies course, The Chicana and Other Latina Women in the US, was taught by Magda Torres, an instructor who was instrumental in making sure I participated in next year’s Santa Barbara Women’s Literary Festival, along with Michele Serros. Last Thursday, I met with a Santa Barbara book club at the invitation of Leslie Dinaberg, editor of Santa Barbara Seasons Magazine. The praise and support I received last week will fuel me through the holiday season. I am encouraged to work on my new novel, new poems and posts for La Bloga.

Ernest Hogan reminds us what a blessing it is to be published. I sure am grateful for the opportunity to share my work with people far away from me and even more so when someone takes the initiative to make sure I visit their university or book group. I am grateful for my recent publications in PALABRA, Hinchas #5, A Bird As Black as the Sun, and acceptances in Eleven Eleven, Phati’tude Literary Magazine, San Diego Poetry Annual, and The Mas Tequila Review. If you have any questions about how to get published, see Marcela Landres’s offer to answer questions on Rudy’s post last Saturday. Also, the current online issue of Hinchas #5, publishes a review of Ocotillo Dreams by Bojan Louis. Thank you to everyone who has made it possible for me to call myself an author.

Book Club Virgin

Melinda Palacio

On Sunday, I met with my first book club, the Stanford Chicano/Latino Alumni Association Book Club of Southern California. It was a good thing the eight alumni met in Pasadena. This meant that after driving from Santa Barbara to New Orleans, with numerous stops in between and returning in a fiendish schedule of one night and two days to cover two thousand miles in order to do a book signing at the Book Den in Santa Barbara last Thursday and then attend a wedding reception on Saturday, I only had to drive to Pasadena and not Stanford Sunday morning. As you can guess from my long-winded sentences, I’m pretty tired from all the driving, but each stop offers new opportunities that make me grateful for venturing out to promote my debut novel, Ocotillo Dreams. I never had a quinceañera, but I guess the book tour is like one big quinceañera without the fancy gown and tiara. The expenses are comparable and I must certainly rely on the book’s madrinas and padrinos for lodging, meals, and sales.

Sunday’s madrinas and padrinos were the Stanford Chicano/Latino Alumni Association Book Club of Southern California. The host was our very own, Michael Sedano, of La Bloga. He was one of the first readers to review my book on La Bloga and to give his very strong opinion of the characters in Ocotillo Dreams. It’s too bad he is not a member of Amazon and cannot offer his review. Anyone who has ever ordered from Amazon can review any book or simply press the ‘like’ button if they enjoyed the read. Michael served up a mean menudo. I was a little congested and cruda from the previous night’s party when I arrived, but a little menudo helped. He also had coffee, juice, mimosas, and champagne, along with pan dulce, tortillas, and all the usual fixings for menudo, including fresh oregano from his garden.
The Stanford Chicano/Latino Alumni Association Book Club of Southern California

I was pleasantly surprised from the vigorous comments of the Stanford alumni and a little relieved that there were no snarky comments about me being a Cal alum (Stanford’s rival). Michael was kind enough to wear his Berkeley Dad sweatshirt and Concepcion mentioned that she also had a daughter who went to Berkeley. This group had much to say about my book. For the first fifteen to thirty minutes (what seemed like an eternity), I was allowed to listen to the group discuss my book as if I weren’t in the room. A fly on the wall is how someone put it. Then came the defense. I was allowed to speak and answer questions such as what would I do differently or what inspired me to write the book. I loved the group’s passion for reading and their thoughtful comments and notes. This group has been meeting for over 20 years to discuss books by Latino authors; you could sense the camaraderie in the room. Perhaps it was the mimosas or the tequila that followed the lunch or Michael’s piano playing, but this is a great book club. The Santa Barbara Club I’m visiting next week has a big act to follow. However, all my book events have been unique and I never know what to expect. This is part of the fun of touring. I’m sure the snacks at the next one will be much different than the Sunday morning menudo at Michael’s.

Literary Community. Ruben Quesada Comes to New Orleans.

by Melinda Palacio


Last weekend, I had the pleasure of reading at the Maple Leaf bar in New Orleans, home of the longest running poetry reading in the South. I guess you can say I’m a regular at the Maple Leaf Bar’s poetry series, at least when I’m in New Orleans on a Sunday. Two weeks ago, I had the pleasure of introducing the featured reader, Ruben Quesada. Ruben is from Bell and grew up in the town next door to mine in South Central Los Angeles (I’m from Huntington Park). He worked as a teacher’s assistant at the same school my mother taught at for 14 years, Heliotrope Elementary in Maywood. It took a circuitous poetry path for me to finally meet Ruben Quesada, now an up and coming poet and PhD candidate at Texas Tech University. As with many of my literary friends, I met Ruben on Facebook when he put out a call asking for help with his book tour for his first book of poetry, Next Extinct Mammal. Ruben explains how he approached poetry as offering a slice of life and how he thought up the idea for the title of his poetry book, published in 2011 by Greenhouse Review Press with exquisite endorsements by Rigoberto González, D. A. Powell, Juan Felipe Herrera, and Francisco Aragón:

“The reader is allowed to step into the life of the poet and live his or her world in that moment. What could be more intimate than to embody someone else’s thoughts? The figures in my collection, Next Extinct Mammal, are people which existed in my life and like them, you and I will one day be extinct. I think this idea places an enormous value on the singular characteristics of a human being.”

Even before meeting Ruben, I was impressed by his fearless poetry and his technical skills (check out the QR code on his website and see what’s in store for his poem, “Store” at Ruben Quesada's website.

Ruben is a young man, 35, who has embraced technology. I used my phone to scan his poem in form of a QR code (the new cool thing to have on your flyers and website). I’m lucky if I have time to update my website, write a column for La Bloga, and tweet about all that I am doing, and respond to the requests to LinkedIn or become friends on Facebook. I haven’t arrived at the code business.

In Next Extinct Mammal, the poet progresses from narrative poems to more philosophical work that goes beyond family, identity, and sexuality. Ruben says while his new work veers away from a strictly narrative form, he still desires to keep his poetry accessible.

“Going to school for so long has affected my poems. Some might say they are more academic. I try to balance that philosophical view of the world with one that’s tangible and lyrical. I present things that I see in the world around me. I try not to name so much and use the ‘I’.”

Ruben Quesada is very conscious of his role as a poet. Perhaps we can thank social media for making us all project ourselves onto the world’s stage, especially poets. Ruben wants to leave a handbook of how he sees the world, of the poet’s attention to detail, and of his legacy as a poet.

“There’s so much in the world that people take for granted. It’s those little things that tell me I’m alive. I want to be a good writer. I don’t want to let my readers down. I want to feel that I’m doing the right thing.”

His biggest fan is his mother. At the Maple Leaf Bar, Ruben did a brave thing by saying he was a “momma’s boy” and reading some of the poems (“The Getty” “Memories are made like this”) that describe his more tender side. Hearing his mother tell him how proud she is means more to him than winning a literary prize.

Ruben Quesada is currently at work on a second book of poetry, his dissertation tentatively titled, The Personality of the Planet, and he is also applying for university teaching jobs in poetry. Ruben will be appearing in the Los Angeles area during the Thanksgiving holiday. He will be at Flintridge Bookstore & Coffeehouse in La Cañada (11/20), University of California, Riverside (11/21), and Viento y Agua Coffeehouse in Long Beach (11/23). His new book can be found in bookstores and Amazon.




PALABRA 7 Release Party at REDCAT Lounge, Tomorrow!

Join us this Saturday - sábado - 29 October from 2 - 4 pm at The Lounge at REDCAT, 631 W. 2nd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012 (in the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex).

Jerry Garcia, Rubén R. Mendoza and Luivette Resto will read and knock your poetry socks off.

(This promises to be an incredible afternoon. I’m honored to have a poem in this issue. If I weren’t going to the Louisiana Book Fair in Baton Rouge, I would certainly attend this favorite venue. I hope to see my New Orleans friends at the Louisiana Book Fair. I will be reading in the Glass Room at the Welcome Center at 1:15 pm.)



A Great Deal for Writers. Hone Your Craft with Reyna Grande

What: Creative Writing Workshops with award-winning author, Reyna Grande.
When: 4 Tuesdays, Nov. 1 to Nov. 22 @6:30pm
Where: Private residence, East Whittier (Los Angeles County)
Who: Anyone who is looking for a supportive environment, guidance, and encouragement.
How much: $100.00 for four sessions

Contact Reyna Grande at reynagrande@gmail.com for more information about the classes. If you are working on a fiction or creative non-fiction project and are looking for feedback on your work, and/or would like to learn more about the craft of writing, then this class is for you! Space is limited!

About the Author:
Reyna Grande is the author of Across a Hundred Mountains, which received an American Book Award, the El Premio Aztlan Literary Award, and a Latino Books Into Movies Award. Her second novel was the recepient of a Latino Book Award. She is a sought-after speaker, educator, and event organizer. Visit her website at www.reynagrande.com


News for Next Week:

November 3, Melinda Palacio will be signing copies of Ocotillo Dreams at the Book Den, Santa Barbara for First Thursday from 5pm to 8pm. See the article in today's Casa Magazine Santa Barbara.


Reyna Grande and Melinda Palacio
Saturday, NOVEMBER 5.
Reyna Grande and Melinda Palacio will be signing their books at theVentura County Book & Author Fair in Camarillo, 1605 Burnley Street, Camarillo, CA. Check out booth 31 next week on Saturday, November 5.


The Ocotillo Dreams Tour continues North on November 10 at Chabot Hills College in Hayward at noon and Green Apple Books in San Francisco at 7pm.

Ocotillo Dreams Déjà Vu: Sheriff Arpaio At It Again

Road Notes: Ocotillo Dreams Tour with friend Donna, Phoenix and a new round of Migrant Sweeps, Ruben Quesada to Read in New Orleans and Book Reviews for Ocotillo Dreams

Sandra Rodriguez Barron, Melinda Palacio, Kathy Cano-Murillo (bottom row)

Nora Comstock (top) with three attendees of the National Hispanic Women's Conference in Phoenix

The Southwest portion of the Ocotillo Dreams Tour was splendid. I arrived in New Orleans last Wednesday. I wouldn’t have been able to make the tightly clustered road tour without my friend from New Orleans who shared the driving with me, made sure I arrived to places on time, and cheered me with her pleasant demeanor. Donna flew to LAX from New Orleans, where I picked her up for our road trip East. She was even put to work in Mesilla, arranging cheese and cracker platters and later in San Antonio, when the two clerks at the Twig bookstore asked if “my representative” would introduce me. Donna, having listened to my spiel and introduction for the past week, was able to list most of my accolades and my biography with no problem. I’m very grateful for my friends. Donna enjoyed meeting Las Comadres in Phoenix. We attended our first Comadrazo at the home of Maria Montenegro in, of all places, Chandler, Arizona, the setting of Ocotillo Dreams. La mera comadre and moderator of the literature panel, Nora Comstock attended as well as Laura Lopez Cano, painter and creator of the beautiful Las Comadres logo, who gave a crafting workshop.

After the fun panel at the National Hispanic Women’s Conference in Phoenix with fellow authors Kathy Cano-Murillo and Sandra Rodriguez Barron, we all sat together at the event’s fashion show and watched incredibly thin girls strut in equally thin clothes while we devoured the banquet fare of churros, mini chimis, chips and salsa.

Downtown Phoenix and Chandler, Arizona were much changed since I lived there in 1997 with much more sprawl and development. The Hyatt, the conference’s hotel, had a rotating compass room at the top of the 24^th floor. Anyone would be impressed at city’s offerings. There’s bound to be something for everyone on each developed square inch. Too bad there was no one seated at the outside downtown tables of the ghost town city. In October, Phoenix is as tolerable and balmy as it gets. But who could feel at ease in the city where nonsense rules?

The day after the National Hispanic Women’s Conference ended, Sheriff Joe Arpaio was at it again, conducting sweeps and arrests of 87 people on Friday, October 7. According to the Associated Press, 19 out of the 87 people were undocumented and the US Justice is conducting a civil rights investigation of Arpaio’s office.

With Ocotillo Dreams set during the 1997 INS Sweeps of Chandler, Governor Jan Brewer’s passing of SB1070 in 2010, and last weeks renewed efforts to target Latinos, I doubt the investigation will prevent further violations of constitutional rights.

Since I’m short for time, and continue on a tight schedule, I will save writing about New Mexico and Texas for another blog post. Mesilla, Albuquerque’s balloon fiesta, San Antonio, and a beach break in Galveston are all coming up.

Melinda and Donna on Tour in Texas

For the next three weeks, I will be in New Orleans. This week I have three events. Thursday, October 13, at Octavia Books at 6pm. On Saturday, October 15, I will be at the Garden District Book Shop from 2pm to 4pm, and Sunday at the National Women’s Book Association at the Newcomb Center for Research on Women at 10:30 am.

Later, I will head over to the Maple Leaf Bar on Oak Street to listen to Ruben Quesada read from his new book of poems, Next Extinct Mammal at 3pm.

Ocotillo Dreams in the News…

Book Review: El Paso Times: ‘Dreams’ gives us another at troubled borderlands by Rigoberto González

Book Review: NewsTaco: Ocotillo Dreams a Poetic, Political, Riveting Novel by Yago Cura

NPR Radio Interview with WWNO’s Susan Larson: The Reading Life

National Book Critics Circle: Small Press Spotlight

Albuquerque Journal: A Daughter's Emotions Add Texture to Immigration Tale by David Steinberg