Mayanito's New Friends/ Los Nuevos Amigos De Mayanito

Written by Tato Laviera

Illustrated by Gabhor Utomo

Translated by Gabriela Baeza Ventura

• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Pinata Books; Bilingual edition (October 31, 2017)
• Language: English/ Spanish
• ISBN-10: 1558858555

A young Mayan prince goes on an exciting journey

through the rainforest in this bilingual picture book.

From his perch high up on a mountaintop, a young Mayan prince watched as raindrops formed in the clouds below him. Suddenly, within each drop, there was a child! The raindrop children landed gently on the ground and Mayanito raced down the mountainside to play with them. They were from Mexico, Brazil, Jamaica and other countries in the Americas, but as the sun warmed the land, they evaporated and turned into flowers!

Mayanito was sad to lose his friends, so he decided to go find them. Thankfully, the animals of the jungle including Pablito the snake, Teresa the crocodile and Rafael the jaguar helped him. In this adventurous romp through the rainforest, monkeys pulled him from quicksand and carried him over a waterfall in a hammock made of vines! Riding on a flamingo's back, he landed in the village far below his mountaintop home and finally found his new friends. Together, they rode an inchworm train back up the mountain. And when Mayanito was named king, he declared all the children of the hemisphere members of his tribe!

Gabhor Utomo's gorgeous illustrations of the lush rainforest, its flora and fauna complement the boy's fantastical journey in this bilingual picture book for children ages 5-10. Parents and teachers will find this beautiful book provides a good introduction to basic concepts of jungle creatures, geography and even musical instruments from different regions.

TATO LAVIERA (1952-2013) was a poet, playwright, novelist and community advocate. Born in Puerto Rico, he was raised in the Manhattan’s Lower East Side. His books include Mixturao and Other Poems; Mainstream Ethics; AmeRícan; Enclave, winner of the American Book Award; and La Carreta Made a U-Turn. His plays have been produced in Chicago and New York City, and have been staged at The New Federal Theater, The Public Theater, the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, Circle in the Square and Teatro Cuatro. He lived and worked in New York City until his death. Mayanito’s New Friends / Los amigos de Mayanito is his only children’s book.

GABHOR UTOMO was born in Indonesia, and received his degree from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco in 2003. He has illustrated a number of children’s books, including Kai’s Journey to Gold Mountain (East West Discovery Press, 2004), a story about a young Chinese immigrant held on Angel Island. Gabhor’s works has won numerous awards from local and national art organizations. His painting of Senator Milton Marks is part of a permanent collection at the California State Building in downtown San Francisco. He lives with his family in Portland, Oregon.

Desde Kansas City y el más allá

Por Xánath Caraza

                     

Para cambiar un poco el ritmo, la columna de hoy, lunes 4 de noviembre de 2013, es en español.  Reporto desde la ciudad de Kansas, MO actividades culturales y literarias de la segunda mitad de octubre y los primeros días de noviembre: Martín Espada en Kansas City, la presentación de Lo que trae la marea / What the Tide Brings (Mouthfeel Press, 2013) en Rockhurst University, la celebración de Día de Muertos en The Writers Place, la ‘Dead Poets Virtual Reading & Open Mic’ por The Smithsonian Latino Virtual Museum y una presentación en Lincoln, Nebraska para el viernes 8 de noviembre que está a un paso.  No sin antes mencionar el deceso de Tato Laviera, Nuyorican Poet.  

Tato Laviera, poeta, dramaturgo y compositor, originalmente de Santurce, Puerto Rico murió el pasado 1º de noviembre en la ciudad de Nueva York (1951-2013).  Tato Laviera fue uno de los mayores representantes del Nuyorican Movement, su poesía llena de ritmo, español, inglés y espanenglish marcó y formó generaciones de poetas.  Tato Laviera fue reconocido y galardonado por Con Tinta en la Pachanga Anual de 2008 en la Ciudad de Nueva York.  A continuación unos versos de su poema “my graduation speech” de su poemario la carreta made a U-Turn (Arte Público Press, 1979) “i think in spanish / i write in english…/ tengo las venas aculturadas…/…english or spanish/ spanish or english/ spanenglish/ now, dig this:/ hablo lo inglés matao/ hablo lo español matao/ no sé leer ninguno bien/ so it is, spanglish to matao/ what i digo/ ¡ay, virgen, yo no sé hablar!”  ¡Tato Laviera, Presente!

Kansas City

El martes 29 de octubre de 2013 a las 7:30 p.m. en la galería Greenlease en la Universidad de Rockhurst se llevó a cabo la presentación de la colección de cuento Lo que trae la marea/ What the Tide Brings (Mouthfeel Press, 2013) patrocinada por Sigma Delta Pi.  La Doctora Rocío Duncan fue instrumental en la organización de este evento al igual que la presidenta de Sigma Delta Pi, Erin Weigel.  Estuvieron presentes el presidente de la universidad, Father Tom Curran, el Dean of Arts and Science, Tim McDonald, la Doctora Katie Madigan, la Doctora Norma Cantú, la Doctora Theresa Torres, ambas de UMKC y Elvia Niebla entre otras personalidades.  Comenzamos con una recepción e inmediatamente después de la presentación hubo una sesión de preguntas que se convirtió en una plática significativa para el público asistente. ¡Qué velada tan agradable!  Mi más grande agradecimiento a Sigma Delta Pi y Rockhurst University.

La celebración de 2013 para Día de Muertos: poesía, música, danza y más en The Writers Place fue el viernes 1º de noviembre de 7 p.m. a 10 p.m.  Este es el tercer año que se lleva a cabo esta magnífica celebración.  Este año contamos con la participación del poeta Andrés Rodríguez de la Ciudad de Kansas, el grupo Danza Mexica Calpulli Iskali  dirigido por Arelis flores y el grupo Hide in the Shallows con Allen Arias.  La celebración en The Writers Place es ahora parte de las múltiples celebraciones para Día de Muertos en la Ciudad de Kansas.  Este año el programa fue de lo más agradable.  Comenzamos con el grupo Iskali, quien tomó por sorpresa a todos al descender las escaleras con las luces apagadas y hacer una ceremonia de fuego, de fuego que todo lo limpia, fuego que todo lo cambia, fuego que nos protege.  A continuación hubo una explicación sobre lo que significa Día de Muertos para seguir con Allen Arias y su grupo, un cellista y una percusionista, cajón peruano, luego la poesía para concluir con más música, exquisita comida y visitar con amigos, poetas y escritores del Writers Place en Kansas City.  Una noche memorable.

El sábado 2 de noviembre a las 9:30 p.m. Eastern Time tuve el privilegio de, primero, convertirme en un avatar y, segundo, de participar en la “Dead Poets Virtual Reading & Open Mic” organizada por The Smithsonian Latino Virtual Museum.  ¡Qué experiencia!  Entrar a un mundo virtual para encontrarme con poetas de otras partes de los EE. UU. es fascinante.  Más fascinante aún es el hecho de que tengo la opción de volar, correr o caminar en ese mundo virtual.  Esa lectura de poesía fue una lectura llena de color, literalmente. Ojalá tengan la oportunidad de asistir a una de esas veladas poéticas virtuales, vale la pena.  La lectura virtual se llevó a cabo en el café La Placita pero, además del café, hay otros lugares que visitar, como la sección de música afro-latina, o el lugar donde se armaron altares para el festival de Día de Muertos o el río del olvido donde la corriente de agua está acompañada por poesía.  Personalmente esta participación significa para mí un gran logro, ya que mi conexión con las computadoras ha sido de lo más básica, una gran máquina de escribir.  No duden en visitar el sitio educativo The Smithsonian Latino Virtual Museum para saber qué se está cocinando.

Martín Espada, poeta, ensayista, traductor y editor estuvo en la Ciudad de Kansas el martes 22 de octubre a las 6 p.m. en la Biblioteca Pública de la ciudad, Central Branch, 14 W. 10^th Street.  Este evento estuvo patrocinado por Park University Ethnic Voices Poetry Series; La biblioteca Pública de KC y por “New Letters on the Air”.  Martín Espada comenzó con poesía de  su poemario The Trouble Ball (Norton, 2012).  Siempre es un placer escuchar leer a Martín Espada y esta vez no fue la excepción.  Su poesía siempre está acompañada de comentario social.  Personalmente, uno de los poemas que llamaron mi atención fue “Isabel’s Corrido”, entre otros, pero me llegó aún más al saber que este fue un episodio real tanto en la vida de Isabel como de Martín, “...We lived in a city hidden from the city.  When her headaches began, no one called a doctor.  When she disappeared for days, no one called the police.  When we rehearsed the questions for immigration, Isabel would squint and smile.  Quiero ver las fotos, she would say…”  A la lectura de poesía siguió una entrevista en vivo con Angela Elam para “New Letters on the Air” la cual pronto estará disponible al público. 

Para terminar quiero invitar a quienes estén cerca o en Lincoln, Nebraska al Coloquio que el Institute for Ethnic Studies de laUniversidad de Nebraska-Lincoln está organizando para Lo que trae lamarea / What the Tide Brings (Mouthfeel Press, 2013) el viernes 8 de noviembre de 7 a 8 p.m. en la librería Indigo Bridge Books  en el Creamery Building, 701 P. Street, Suite 102. De ante mano agradezco a la Doctora Amelia Montes, Directora de este instituto y bloguera, por su continuo apoyo a mi trabajo literario.  Espero y puedan acompañarme a celebrar, conversar y pasar un buen rato con amigos en lo que sé va a ser una noche excepcional.  Lincoln, Nebraska, con muchas ganas de estar ya por allá, ahí nos vemos.  

NYC Events

Lecture: Cuba’s Economy Today

**Presentation in Spanish**

Dr. Omar Everleny Perez Villanueva

Universidad de la Habana

WHEN: Friday, April 16, 2010, 5:00 PM
WHERE: The Graduate Center, Rooms C-202
365 Fifth Avenue (@ 34th Street)
NOTE: Presentation in Spanish

La presentacion analiza los principales indicadores macroeconomicos de la actualidad, ademas de una breve descripcion de la situacion de la produccion agricola y el consumo, la zafra azucarera y sus perspectivas, el comercio exterior cubano, y se ofrecen algunas interrogantes y perspectivas futuras.

About the Speaker:
Dr. Omar Everleny Perez Villanueva es Profesor Titular en el Centro de Estudios de la Economía Cubana de la Universidad de la Habana. Es autor de diferentes publicaciones donde sobresalen "Cuban Economy at the Start of the Twenty First Century" junto a Jorge Dominguez y Lorena Barberia, Harvard University (2004), "Reflexiones sobre la economía cubana". Editorial Ciencias Sociales, La Habana (2006) y "Miradas a la economía cubana" (2009).


Registration is REQUIRED. To Reserve e-mail cubaproject@gc.cuny.edu.

Tribute to Puerto Rican poet and playwright

Tato Laviera

PR Log (Press Release) – Apr 13, 2010 – NEW YORK UNIVERSITY - Student organizations, poets, musicians and community groups will present a Tribute to Puerto Rican poet and playwright Tato Laviera on Tuesday, April 27, 2010 at NYU’s Kimmel Center from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. A beloved bard with roots in New York City’s Puerto Rican community, Mr. Laviera nearly became destitute following brain surgery. An article in the New York Times by David Gonzalez about Mr. Laviera ignited a national campaign to raise funds to establish the Tato Laviera Foundation, to help the poet and other artists in need. Following a successful event on March 9, 2010 at the famed Nuyorican Poets’ Café on the Lower East Side, NYU student organizations including Bella Quisqueya; C-Roots and L.U.C.H.A.; the Latino Studies Program and the Africana Studies program; partnered with community groups United Bronx Parents Inc.; La Carreta Made a U-turn Committee; and dozens of writers and performing artists to co-host the Kimmel Center event. The program for April 27th features readings by Mr. Laviera, as well as a group of women in the poetry vanguard including: Sandra María Esteves, María Aponte, Caridade De La Luz (La Bruja), Mariposa, Nancy Mercado, Prisionera, and Myrna Nieves. Other performing poets are: Miguel Algarin, Luis Reyes Rivera, Jesús Papoleto Meléndez, Frank Pérez, Sery Colon with Luisito Ayala, Raul Rios and Jose Ángel Figueroa. Each poet may read a poem by Mr. Laviera or one of their own. The program features music by DASO, directed by David Soto and a performance by the NuyoRican School Poetry Jazz Ensemble, Inc. Artists will be available for press interviews and photographs. Poetry & Translation Pen Press - Plaquettes de Poesía: A Celebration of Poetry & Translation Thursday, May 1st - 7:00 PM at McNally Robinson Bookstore, 52 Prince St. (between Lafayette and Mulberry) New York, NY 10012 / (212) 274-1160 Mercedes Roffé, poet and director of Pen Press: Plaquettes de Poesía Leonard Schwartz, author of Bendiciones Gnósticas y otros poemas. Erín Moure, author of Primera historia del latín. Readings will be in English and in Spanish translation by Marta López-Luaces. As part of its commitment to supporting the work of outstanding small and independent presses, McNally Robinson Bookstore will devote this evening to Pen Press: Plaquettes de Poesía. Pen Press is a New York-based small press founded in 1998 with the goal of “promoting contemporary Latin American and Spanish poetry, and poets of other languages in Spanish translation.” On this occasion, its editorial director, Mercedes Roffé, will present the series, and two renowned English-language poets from its translation catalog: Montreal poet Erín Moure, and New York poet Leonard Schwartz (now visiting from Evergreen State College, WA), who will read from their work. Marcos Wasem, poet and web desgner, will introduce Pen Press’ brand-new site: www.edicionespenpress.com.

Montemayor. Tato Laviera. Robert Arellano. Writers wanted.

R.I.P.: Montemayor, Mexican Literary Giant, Renaissance Man

In a world of clipped discourse and fleeting images, Carlos Montemayor stood apart from the mainstream. A student of ancient and modern languages, Chihuahua’s native son promoted Maya, Zapotec, Guarani and other indigenous poetry of the Americas. The 62-year-old scholar wrote acclaimed books, received prestigious literary awards and contributed regularly to publications including the daily La Jornada and the national news magazine Proceso. A lover of the musical arts, he found time to sing opera.

Mexico’s literary giant and Chihuahua’s Dean of Letters is now dead. Born in Parral, Chihuahua, in 1947, Montemayor succumbed to stomach cancer early on the morning of February 28 in Mexico City. Less than three months earlier, in December 2009, Montemayor was handed Mexico’s National Arts and Sciences Award by President Felipe Calderon.

A novelist, poet, essayist, teacher, translator, researcher, and tenor, the multi-lingual Montemayor was perhaps most of all a defender of the dispossessed.

As a young university student in Chihuahua City in the 1960s, Montemayor witnessed first hand a mass movement of small farmers for land. He even met youths who felt compelled to take up arms for the first guerrilla movement in Mexico after the Cuban Revolution.

Later, while residing in Mexico City, Montemayor was stunned to hear the idealistic young people in Chihuahua who were willing to lay down their lives for a greater cause officially described as bandits, cattle rustlers and delinquents.

“This is what really affected me, because I knew their honesty, their cleanliness, their integrity, their militancy, their generosity, ” Montemayor once told a Mexican reporter. “This impression of how the official version can brutally destroy the truth of human life marked me forever.”

Coming of age in a time of social and political upheaval, Montemayor was considered by many to be Mexico’s leading expert on left-wing guerrilla movements. After carefully researching the movements from all angles, and talking directly to survivors of the struggles, Montemayor wrote two novels that dramatically retold the stories of the armed uprisings of the 1960s and 1970s.

Montemayor’s classic 1991 work The War in Paradise relived the guerrilla movement and dirty war that jolted the southern state of Guerrero in the 1970s. A later novel, Arms of the Dawn (2003), employed the same technique of historical fiction to retell the story of the 1965 attack on the army barracks in Madera, Chihuahua, by revolutionaries led by Arturo Gamiz and Dr. Pablo Gomez, both of whom were slain in the attack.

The author of numerous writings, Montemayor was the recipient of the Juan Rulfo International Prize, Xavier Villaurrutia Prize and the highest recognition awarded by the State of Chihuahua: Gawi Tonara: Pillars of the World.

In one of his last interviews, he described his literary perspective: “I am a writer for whom the landscape constitutes not only geography, but a vital element of human action and narrative and, above all, of the comprehension of life.”

Regarded as a contemporary cultural icon, Montemayor reportedly mastered English, Italian, Latin, French and classic Greek. He was a member of the Mexican Academy of Language, the Royal Spanish Academy and the Association of Writers of Indigenous Languages.

Recently, Montemayor served on the mediation commission set up to help broker an agreement between the Calderon administration and the guerrilla Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR) on clarifying the disappearances of Edmundo Reyes Amaya and Gabriel Alberto Cruz, two high-ranking EPR leaders allegedly detained by state security forces in Oaxaca in May 2007. Last year, the mediation commission was dissolved after its members declared that the Mexican state did not have the political will to get to the bottom of the matter.

Ironically, Montemayor died during the 100th anniversary year of the 1910 Mexican Revolution and only days before his latest book, State Violence in Mexico, was due to hit the stands. Published in the Mexican press, excerpts from the book showed Montemayor’s penchant for critical analysis.

Common threads of state repression, he noted, include surgical strikes in the dead of the night against undefended populations, the isolation of “enemy” communities and the treatment of women as war booty. Montemayor cited the rape or sexual assault of 26 female detainees by police in the rebellious town of San Salvador Atenco outside Mexico City in May 2006. “The silence, complicity and even distortion of television, radio and the printed press are very useful,” observed the author.

La Jornada called Montemayor’s passing “a grave loss for the country” at one of the “worst moments” in the nation’s history. “The country is really going to miss his social passion and his rigorous analysis, his creativity, his serenity, his independence, and his commitment. An indispensable figure has died on us,” the newspaper’s editors said.

Carlos Montemayor was cremated in a private Mexico City ceremony last weekend. He is survived by his wife Susana de la Garza and four children: Victoria, Alejandra, Jimena and Emilio.

Sources: Proceso/Apro, February 28 and March 1, 2010. Articles by Gloria Leticia Diaz, Armando Ponce and Columba Vertiz de la Fuente. La Jornada, February 28 and March 1, 2010. Articles by Monica Mateos-Vega and editorial staff. Arrobajuarez.com, February 28, 2010.

This article originally appeared on Frontera NorteSur (FNS): on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news, Center for Latin American and Border Studies, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico
For a free electronic subscription email: fnsnews@nmsu.edu
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Support Tato Laviera

Minnesota Puerto Rican graphic artist Ricardo Levins Morales has created a poster to benefit Nuyorican poet Tato Laviera who is facing major health and housing challenges. The poster is available here for $10.95. Half the proceeds go to Tato's support fund. They are also available for discounted bulk purchase to sell at events. Please forward this message widely. You can also click this link to The Point, to donate directly. None of the donations will be released unless we meet the goal.
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More on Robert Arellano up for Edgar Award!

Robert Arellano was nominated by Mystery Writers of America for a 2010 Edgar Award in Best Paperback Original for his book Havana Lunar, which was reviewed last year by La Bloga's Michael Sedano. The Edgars are named after the legendary Edgar Allan Poe, and are considered the “Oscars” of the mystery genre.

Arellano has strong ties to Cuba and the Cuban-American community in the United States. His family fled Cuba in 1960, but has since returned to the island ten times. He has chronicled the Revolution through journalistic pieces, essays, novels and songs. Arellano’s culturally diverse background and wealth of knowledge incorporate historical and current information about Cuba within the context of his books.

More information about The 2010 Edgars can be found here. E-mail Andrew Pistone or call 212-319-7566 if you would like to arrange an interview.
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Call for essays/fiction/reviews on Latin American writers

The "Mischievous Literary Arts Journal" Antique Children is preparing its second quarterly journal on Latin American Writers, due out in May. We’re looking for writers to pen creative essays on these Latin American Writers or review these books. You may write a piece of fiction but it must envelop one of these writers and their selected book.

For example: You may write a story about your transvestite grandfather who carried a copy of Jose Donoso’s Hell Has No Limits in his bra as he went in search of the characters depicted in the book. Thus, you have to read the book yourself and review it through your own work of fiction. Or you may write a straight essay/review of:

Ernesto Sabato "The Tunnel" (Argentinean)
Juan Carlos Onetti "A Brief Life" (Uruguayan)
José Vasconcelos Calderón "The Cosmic Race" (Mexican Philosopher)
Martín Adán, pseudonym of Rafael de la Fuente Benavides “The Cardboard House” (Peruvian)
Juan Mar a Montalvo Fiallos “Chapters Cervantes Forgot” (Ecuadorian)
Salvador Garmendia Graterón “Memories of Altagracia” (Venezuelan)
Subcomandante Marcos and Paco Ignacio Taibo II “The Uncomfortable Dead” (Mexico)
“I, Rigoberta Menchu, An Indian Woman in Guatemala” (Guatemalan)
Julio Cortázar “62: A Model Kit” (Argentina)
We're also seeking an in-depth essay on Honduran writer Lucila Gamero de Medina.

Go to AntiqueChildren for more info.

Es todo, hoy
RudyG