Melinda Palacio
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| Program Cover for X Congreso International sore Literatura Chicana y Estudios Latinos Madrid 30 de mayo-1 de junio de 2016 Facultad de Filologia, Universidad Complutense de Madrid |
When a text comes at 4 am that
says, 'Do you know they are talking about your book in Spain?,' it's hard to go
back to sleep. But I did. I like to turn off the internet in
the evening and don't care to check on anything before 8 am. I also try to
leave my phone in another room as to avoid the vampire effect of constantly
checking social media well into the wee hours. If you're trying to reach me,
bankers hours are the best. I made an exception for this business about people
in Spain talking about my book. Two hours later, I checked my phone and I
wasn't dreaming. My friend, Reyna Grande, was texting me that my novel, OcotilloDreams, was being discussed at the X Congresso Internacional Sobre Literatura
Chicana y Estudios Latinos, an academic conference in Madrid about Chicano Literature and Latino Studies. The three-day conference offered over a hundred different panels on Chicano and Latino literary studies.
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| Norma Cantu, Romana Radlwimmer, Ricardo Vivancos-Perez, Rita E. Urquijo-Ruiz |
To answer Reyna's questions, I had
no idea my work was being discussed at conferences as far away as Spain. In a
session on Identity Transformation in Chicano Literature, three panels were
offered: Alejandra Rengifo from Central Michigan University presented, "El
libro de los americanos desconocido de Cristina Henriquez y La distancia entre
nosotros de Reyna Grande: testimonio de la marginacion y exclusion social en la
nueva literatura latin@; Vanessa de Veritch Woodside from the University of
Washington offered "Prickly Politics and "Becoming" Chicana in
Palacio's Ocotillo Dreams;" and Adrianna Simone of the University of
California, Santa Barbara presented, "Storytelling as Transformation:
Disrupting Cycles of Violence through Feminist Sites of Remembrance, Love, and
Forgiveness in Emma Perez's Forgetting the Alamo, Or, Blood Memory."
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| Opening remarks for the conference |
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| Reyna Grande (right) |
When Reyna first mentioned that she
was going to Spain to discuss Chicano Literature, my first thought was the
missed opportunity to send my books with her. However, that wasn't necessary as one of the panels discussed my work and Gary Keller from
Bilingual Press had also taken copies of Ocotillo Dreams to the conference.
Although I wasn't personally present, through my book proxy, I represented Chicano Literature in Spain.
Several sessions covered Reyna Grande's work, including one by Rita E. Urquijo-Ruiz from Trinity University in San Antonio, "Chican@(Im)migrant Voices: Memoir and Anzaldúan Theory in the Writings of Reyna Grande and Rigoberto Gonzalez. Of the conference, Rita says, "it's exciting to know that for twenty years the organizers have been working hard at finally making important and necessary transatlantic connections between Spain and the Chicano/a communities in the U.S." This year marked the conference's 10th anniversary. Reyna was very impressed with the event and said she loved it:
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| Ocotillo Dreams |
Several sessions covered Reyna Grande's work, including one by Rita E. Urquijo-Ruiz from Trinity University in San Antonio, "Chican@(Im)migrant Voices: Memoir and Anzaldúan Theory in the Writings of Reyna Grande and Rigoberto Gonzalez. Of the conference, Rita says, "it's exciting to know that for twenty years the organizers have been working hard at finally making important and necessary transatlantic connections between Spain and the Chicano/a communities in the U.S." This year marked the conference's 10th anniversary. Reyna was very impressed with the event and said she loved it:
"What
I loved about the conference is that it was completely bilingual.
The
presentations were in Spanish, English or a flow of both, and in the
q&a
sessions the audience asked questions in either language, without
having
to translate anything to the audience. This was a beautiful celebration
of
Chicano literature."
Hours
after receiving Reyna's text, the Spain connections to my work continued. La Bloga's
Xanath alerted me to the fact that a poet from Madrid, Ana Gorría, had
translated one of my poems on a Spanish Journal, La Galla Ciencia.
This unauthorized translation was much more puzzling than the academic paper. After all, academics don't need to ask permission to
study your work. However, last I checked, it is proper to ask for permission
before translating a poem and publishing it without the poet's permission.
Perhaps, the translator received permission from the Academy of American Poets,
the original publishers of the poem? I didn't really investigate, given the old
maxim that all publicity is good publicity.
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| A surprise to find my poem translated in La Galla Ciencia |
Happening Next Weekend in Long
Beach, CA at Gatsby Books
The Coiled Serpent Anthology Tour
in Long Beach!
Los Angeles Poet Society and Tia
Chucha Press
present a reading of the Coiled
Serpent Anthology
I'm proud to be part of this anthology. I will read along with several poets in the Long Beach celebration for The Coiled Serpent: Poets Arising from the Cultural Quakes and Shifts of LosAngeles.
Date: Saturday, June 11
Address: 5535 35 E Spring St, Long Beach, CA 90808
Time: 6-9pm
6pm Reception
7-9pm Reading
Read more about this anthology on
La Bloga Archive.
