Sad News, Good News, and Chile Haiku

Angela de Hoyos

Angela de Hoyos passed away on September 24 in San Antonio. The obituary in the San Antonio Express-News, by Edmund Tijerina , begins:

Among the most influential poets of the Chicano movement and in Texas literature at large, Angela de Hoyos died Thursday at her South Side home. She was 86.

“An exquisite poetic voice and one of the first Chicana poets to publish, Angela was not only significant as a writer but also as a pioneer in Chicano publishing,” writer Carmen Tafolla said.

De Hoyos' published works include the collections Chicano Poems: For the Barrio, Woman, Woman, and Arise Chicano! Her poem To Walt Whitman remains one of her most quoted pieces.

You can read the rest of the article at this link. Our condolences to the family, her many fans, and readers.

Authors in Town

Sherman Alexie
October 13, 2009 - 7:30 pm

National Book Award-winning author Sherman Alexie will read from and sign his new adult book War Dances (Grove), a heartbreaking and hilarious collection of stories that explore the precarious balance between self-preservation and external responsibility in art, family, and the world at large. Brazen, and wise, War Dances takes us to the heart of what it means to be human. The new beginnings, successes, mistakes, and regrets that make up our daily lives are laid bare in this wide-ranging and provocative new work that is Alexie at the height of his powers. Free numbered tickets for a place in the book signing line will be available at 6:30 pm; one ticket per customer in line. Seating for the presentation prior to the signing is limited, and available on a first-come, first-served basis to ticketed customers only.
Tattered Cover Book Store Historic LoDo
1628 16th St.
Denver, Colorado 80202

Reyna Grande
October 15, 2009 - 7:30 pm

Reyna Grande came to the United States at age nine to join her father, who had left her behind in Mexico for several years. She went on to become the first person in her family to obtain a higher education. She holds a B.A. and an M.F.A. in creative writing. Her first novel, Across a Hundred Mountains, received the El Premio Aztlan Literary Award in 2006 and an American Book Award in 2007. Grande will read from and sign her new novel Dancing with Butterflies (Washington Square), the story of four very different women whose lives interconnect through a common passion for their Mexican heritage and a dance company called Alegría. Visit Reyna Grande’s website Tattered Cover Book Store Highlands Ranch 9315 Dorchester Street Littleton, Colorado 80129

Phoenix Noir
edited by Patrick Millikin
Akashic Press, 2009

October 3 - 6:00 pm
The Poisoned Pen Bookstore
4014 N. Goldwater Blvd., #101
Scottsdale, AZ

A book launch featuring editor Patrick Millikin and contributors Charles Kelly, James Sallis, Laura Tohe, Robert Anglen, Kurt Reichenbaugh, Stella Pope Duarte, David Corbett, and Jon Talton

[from Akashic's website]
Brand-new stories by: Diana Gabaldon, Lee Child, James Sallis, Luis Alberto Urrea, Jon Talton, Megan Abbott, Charles Kelly, Robert Anglen, Patrick Millikin, Laura Tohe, Kurt Reichenbaugh, Gary Phillips, David Corbett, Don Winslow, Dogo Barry Graham, and Stella Pope Duarte.

Sunshine is the new noir . . . Phoenix: its name evokes new beginnings, a place to start over fresh, new west rising out of the ashes of the old. From its frontier origins, Phoenix has always had a dark, lawless side. It is a city founded upon shady development deals, good ol' boy politics, police corruption, organized crime, and exploitative use of natural resources. Close proximity to the Mexican border makes the city a natural destination spot for illegal trafficking of all kinds--narcotics, weapons, humans.

Modern-day Phoenix is a textbook case of suburban sprawl gone unchecked. Endless cookie-cutter housing developments, slapped up on the cheap, metastasize outward into the desert. All of the concrete and asphalt traps the heat, raising the temperature to apocalyptic extremes. What does all this mean? Crime, and lots of it.

Braided Sorrow Wins PEN USA Lit Award

Marisela Treviño Orta has been honored with the 2009 PEN USA Literary Award for Drama for her play Braided Sorrow, a haunting and poetic meditation on the missing women of Juárez, Mexico.

Su Teatro produced the 2008 world premiere of Braided Sorrow to great acclaim. The Denver Post called it "alternately haunting and beautiful." The Rocky Mountain News called it "chilling reality and artful imagining." Westword called it "gutsy." And the North Denver Tribune called it "important."

Other 2009 PEN award winners include Steve Lopez (The Soloist), Dustin Lance Black (Milk), and Elmore Leonard (Lifetime Achievement). Past winners include Ray Bradbury, Neil Simon, Rudolfo Anaya, Steven Dietz, Sandra Cisneros, Cherrrie Moraga, Woody Allen, Sarah Ruhl, Barbara Kingsolver, and Charlie Kaufman.

Treviño's amazing play (her first) had previously won the 2007 University of California, Irvine Chicano/Latino Literary Prize. Braided Sorrow was also featured in Su Teatro's 2007 New Play Reading Series, a project that illustrates Su Teatro's commitment to produce, present, and promote new and exciting work by Chicanos and Latinos from across the U.S. and beyond its borders.

2009 Richard T. Castro Distinguished Visiting Professorship

Metropolitan State College of Denver has announced that artist and educator Delilah Montoya is the 2009 Castro Distinguished Professor. Montoya is Associate Professor of Photography at the University of Houston. As the announcement says, her work, "grounded in the mestizo/a experience of the Southwest and borderlands, brings together a multiplicity of syncretic forms and practices from those of Aztec Mexico and Spain to cross-border vernacular traditions all of which are shaded by contemporary Native American customs and values." There are a variety of events planned during her stay on campus, October 11 -14. You can get all the details and complete agenda on the Metro State website, here.

One special piece of the schedule is that Montoya's 10’ x 8’ Photo Mural, La Llorona in Lilith’s Garden will be on display beginning in late September through the closing reception at the Institute for Women’s Studies and Services, 1033 Ninth Street Park.

One of Montoya's talks is entitled Codex Delilah, Six Deer: Journey from Mexicatl to Chicana. Montoya approaches the Spanish/Indian encounter from a mestizaje perspective. As a Chicana, Montoya is conscious of how the historical contributions of women have been undermined or completely ignored. This project attempts to correct that injustice by rethinking the traditional interpretation of the European/ Native Encounter. The narrative of this artist book is viewed from the perspective of Six Deer, a fictional young Mayatec girl from the Tutuepec region near present-day Mexico City. From her home to the nuclear weapons laboratories in New Mexico, the codex details Six Deer's journey of enlightenment.

All events free and open to the public. To RSVP to any event or to find out more information, please contact Mercedes Salazar - msalaz27@mscd.edu or 303-556-3124.

The Castro Professorship
The Richard T. Castro Distinguished Visiting Professorship was initiated in 1997 to foster multiculturalism, diversity and academic excellence at Metropolitan State College of Denver. The professorship brings renowned Latina and Latino scholars, artists and leaders of distinction to Metro State to conduct classes, seminars, performances and lectures for students, faculty and the larger Denver community. Richard T. Castro Distinguished Professors have included the following luminaries:
• Cherrie Moraga, playwright, poet, essayist and educator
• Carlos Fuentes, novelist and diplomat
• Carmen Lomas Garza, artist and author
• Ana Castillo, novelist and poet
• Dolores Huerta, United Farm Workers vice president
• Richard “Cheech” Marin, actor and art collector

Chile Today

In honor of the recent chile harvest, the beginning of fall, and the misunderstood relationship many of us have with chile - Jalapeño, Serrano, Bolita, Güerita, Ancho, Anaheim, even Red Peter - here are a few lines of affection for my favorite condiment.

1
My jalapeño
picked fresh from the garden
bites back with hot teeth.

2
I have sweated, cried
burned lips and scorched throat.
It must be true love

3
Love hurts and love burns.
Such a demanding lover.
Chile with all meals.

Your turn. Post a few words to La Bloga's comments, poetic or otherwise, haiku or not, about your relationship with chile. Make them picante pero sabroso.

Later.

Guest Columnist: Jesse Tijerina

As a second year assistant principal, Jesse Tijerina spends his waking days and seemingly endless nights with children; 377 which attend Maplewood Middle School and 2 beautiful children of his own; his son Nicholas and daughter Sophia, both of them still in diapers. And through all of the changes from literature teacher to adminstrator, Jesse has been able to sustain his love for palabras fuertes, el amor of powerful words. Whether he is reading or doing a little writing of his own, it is a sure thing that you will find Tijerina with a book in hand.

Something Old

Published in 1975, “Chicano Poems: for the Barrio,” is the first of only a handful of books by Angela De Hoyos. While reading “Chicano Poems,” the voice and image of the late great Abelardo “Lalo” Delgado reverberated and appeared throughout my mind. The coraje, mañas, costumbres, y callejeras of her barrrios de San Anto mirrored Lalo’s El Paso and Lalo’s Denver.

In, “Who Killed Brown Love?” De Hoyos responds, “I did/ - dijo el hombre blanco -/ with my little knife/ cuchillito de palo/ slowly but surely/ magullando. My personal favorite is the simply titled, “Chicano:” “How to paint/ on this page/ the enigma/ that furrows/ your sensitive/ brown face/ - a sadness,” writes De Hoyos. “Porque te llamas/ Juan, y no John/ as the laws/ of assimilation/ dictate.

When reading De Hoyos you will find that her every poem is a barrio in itself, populated with rage, habits, customs, and troubled streets. Que Viva De Hoyos!

Chicano Poems: for the Barrio. By Angela De Hoyos. M&A Editions, 1975

Something New

Not that it matters, but my vote for Latino Lit’s freshest prospect is the young Boricua from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Kevin A. Gonzalez’s, “The Night Tito Trindad KO’ed Ricardo Mayorga,” is a knockout of a first book. Cono, each poem hit me like Tito’s legendary left hook. No doubt the accolades for this young poeta are well deserved.

What Gonzalez does best is what I love the most about Latino writers, they write what they know by infusing culture. “…you wrote about the kioskos/ in Luquillo, Puerto Rico,” writes Gonzalez in his poem titled “Cultural Sellout.” The fritoleras’ hands scarred/ by the bursting pounce of oil, / coconuts like green bowling balls on ice.” And later in the verse, his beloved Neruda makes an appearance, “Gold wounds/ & reigns over the wounded, / & can you borrow that Neruda line/ & still call this your poem?”

Of all the reasons I believe Gonzalez is a champ in the making, it is the manner in which he vicariously exposes himself through his influences. With the awe and embarrassment of a child, he finds himself exchanging punches with Tito Trinidad, playing catch with Roberto Clemente, and having a café con leche with Neruda. Gonzalez Bumaye!

The Night Tito Trinidad KO’ed Ricardo Mayorga. By Kevin A Gonzalez. Momotombo Press, 2007.

Something Borrowed y tambien Blue

The following poem was written five years ago by a student in my creative writing class during his freshman year in high school. Anthony Dominguez is now married and a soldier in Iraq.

Only 4 years old

I was in 7th hour of my 8th grade year
I heard my name over the speaker
They said it was an emergency
My heart dropped as I ran through the hall
When I get to the car, they say it is your brother
He’s hurt
We don’t know much
But he’s at Arvada hospital now
As we rush to the hospital
I think sad thoughts
How I was mean and yelled at him
I sat there thinking
How was he
Was he hurt, sad, lonely?
How was he feeling?
I saw my mom and Chuy outside his room
The father from church and other family too
They didn’t want me to see him
But I pushed my way through
I saw little Adam
He was attached with tubes
And wires and things
My heart fell slowly
A part of me died
I lost all the love and the feelings inside
I didn’t think I’d ever see them again
I lost it
Outside the room
The cops asked me questions
I answered none
Father Fox said please stop son
They wanna help
But I left in a fury
Cops right behind
I run outside
While I’m burning inside
Feels like fire runs through my veins
The doctor says we’ll air lift him, we don’t have the medical attention he needs
When I get in the car
I feel the pain
As if I was there with him
But I don’t now if he’s hurt dead or alive
Why and how did this happen
I don’t understand
I pray to the lord please help
Take me instead
I asked why you let him
Why didn’t you protect him?
Then I run up to his room
I see my critical brother
He is lying in the bed
He is limp
Not moving
Hooked up to machines
I feel his heartbeat slow
The anger towards life begins to grow
Then I swallow my tongue
Try not to cry
I need emotion to get out
I just wanna die
I go to my family
They see I wanna cry
They try and try to comfort me
Then without notice
I leave in a fury
I can’t slow down
I wanna stop but I can’t
But I feel in control
With tears streaming down my face
I hit the wall
I smash the picture and frames
Glass on my fists
The pain starts to ease
When I see the blood flow
I know I’m in control
I see the puto Chuy
Who sits there alone
Guilt on his face
I ask him if he did it
He says no, “te lo curo”
I say, ok, I believe you
Then shake his hand
But in my heart
I don’t believe him
Then the doctor comes in
Cops right by his side
Tell Chuy you’re comin’ with us
Let’s go for a ride
My mother asks, why
The doctor says, Adam has trauma to
To the back of the head
Impact equivalent to a 4 story drop
They take Chuy away
All I feel is hurt
How he lied to me
My best friend
Hurting Adam
My blood
I see him, no movement
I tell him, I’m sorry
For not being there to help
I want him to be ok
My life has fell down
On top of my head
I pray and pray to Jesus
But he gives me no response
The doctor says he is brain dead
He has no chance at life
I close my eyes and see his soul float up to the light
Doctor says we have to pull the plug
Then we all begin to cry
They gather us in a little room
To get the damn thing done
As we wait for the doctor to come in
He breaks down, starts balling in the hall
He doesn’t’ want to do it
Then he is finally able to overcome
When he comes to the room
He pulls the tube from his throat
My hand on his chest
His heart beats fast
And then becomes very slow
As I feel the last beat
I kiss him goodbye
I feel he is free up in the sky
When I left the room
I left part of my heart
I am closed like a safe without a key
Nothing goes in, nothing goes out
My mom tells me funeral’s Monday
Time seems to stop
As for Chuy, he’s doing 38 years
Child abuse resulting in death
I don’t think he’ll get out
I think he’ll go mad
But I got no feelings for a killing man
Adam only 4 years old, barely started his life
His life died. I love him.
Why’d Chuy got to take his life?