Looking Back at Yesterday - Today - Tomorrow

Flor y Canto 2010: Tyson Gaskill (USC Libraries), Dorinda Moreno, Marco A. Domínguez, Sr., Mary Ann Pacheco (Rio Hondo College - 1973 MC), Alurista, Vibiana Aparicio-Chamberlin, Tony Marez, Ron Arias, Verónica Cunningham, Barbara Robinson (USC Libraries), Michael Sedano

The 2010 Flor y Canto floats through our collective subconscious, already a legendary event. As the old vato says, "You should'a been there, compa." The great news is that there is a real chance that the event will be repeated, perhaps even become an annual affair. Now, wouldn't that be special?

Today on La Bloga I'm proud to feature two guests, both of whom participated in the festival, each offering a different perspective. First up is Ron Arias, noted writer and journalist, and one of the presenters at the 1973 Flor y Canto. Then Melinda Palacio gives us her thoughts about her participation in the event, and on a few other things as well. Two different voices speaking from two different vantage points, a veteran and a relative newcomer, but each with the same conclusion -- we need to preserve the flor y canto tradition, nurture it, and let it grow.


RON ARIAS

Thanks to La Bloga's Michael Sedano and the USC Flor y Canto organizers for bringing back the festival. As a participant of the 1973 event, I loved hearing and seeing that the creative fires among the younger writers still burn as strong as they did decades ago when we were exploding with ethnic self-awareness.

We had all kinds of voices then, as many styles as there were readers--from loud and militant to subtle and lyrical, from funny-rascuachi to pretty and polished, in language from the proper to the invented, nourished by a linguistic bola that's been rolling for thousands of years. That hasn't changed, not at the 2010 readings. It's good to know, for example, that the tongue of the Nahuas still struts its stuff on our stage, to a hip-hop beat no less. ¡Órale, vato!

We are so much more than words. But whether spoken, on the page or digitized, in whatever language we use, words are how we express ourselves best, how we try to paint beauty, sing love, shout rage, cry pain. It's how we think and feel out loud, how we try to hit our target--that is, our reader, our listener, the sleepy, maybe disinterested person in the back row whose attention we are determine to lasso.

Whatever we call ourselves, we writers and poets with shared, hispano-American roots, whatever our concerns, whatever our love or rage, whatever our degree of assimilation into U.S. ways, whatever our personal history, what we all want to do is simply illuminate and define our world. Yes, we entertain, inform, incite and move people emotionally. That's a given. But the entire body of our work, past and present--the poems, the novels, the stories, the plays--they are the creation of our world, to be sure a mini-world of a certain people within the world of all humanity.

I sat next to Alurista during the third day's afternoon readings. We were two gray heads in the first row enjoying the show of young readers. But more than enjoying, I think -- even though neither of us said so -- we were proud to see that the creative spirit and drive among these readers was not only alive but, we felt, if good enough in the minds of their audience, would outlive us all. "We'll die but our words won't ," Alurista said. "Our legacy is words."

So thanks, Michael and USC, for keeping the light on, the legacy going.

-Ron Arias

Known best for his novelita The Road to Tamazunchale, L.A.-born Ron Arias was a teacher and journalist for four decades. Now 68, he lives in Hermosa Beach, CA, with his wife Joan and is working on a novel about a Los Angeles man hunting for the treasure of his past in today's Mexico and in the land of Nueva España more than 400 years ago. (NOTE - You can read my review of The Road to Tamazunchale at this link, here. Without any exaggeration, I can say that this book is one of the classics; The Road set the bar high for Chicano/a writers; and it's a great read even after 35 years.)


MELINDA PALACIO

El Negocio De Poesia or The Po Biz
Soy Poeta. I am a poet. BordersSenses published my first poem, How Fire Is a Story, Waiting, four years ago in 2006. The Maple Leaf Rag also published it and so did Edible Ojai. The poem is about my abuelita, Maria Victoria, and it is the title piece to my first full-length collection. The book-length manuscript has yet to find a publishing home, but over two thirds of the poems have been published.

Last year, my poetry chapbook, Folsom Lockdown, won Kulupi Press’ Sense of Place prize and publication (February of 2010.) I wrote the short collection of 22 poems after visiting my father in Folsom prison. When people ask me what I do, I enjoy saying, I am a poet. “No, what do you really do?” they ask. At last week’s wonderful Flor y Canto at USC, the question came up with almost everyone I met. I’d point to the colorful program, at my name for Thursday at 1:45, my fifteen minute spotlight, and say, see, I am a poet. But, no, what do you really do, the question, again. I sing and dance, do Windows and Macs was a better answer for some. I work on websites and help writers get the most out of their computers. I also co-edit an online magazine for writers, Ink Byte. In our digital days of multitasking, it’s not enough to say, I am a poet. People expect a more complicated answer. I salute my writer friends who truly do it all, raise kids, organize literary events, write news articles, cook and clean for their elderly parents or grandparents or both, give dance and guitar lessons, and write best sellers. I write and promote my writing.

At USC’s Flor y Canto, several people missed my fifteen minutes of fame. They had many excuses. The number one excuse was that they had too much fun the evening before and were late in getting to the festival. I was the third person on the second day, after Michael Sedano had set several ground rules, which the first couple of readers followed. We shortened our reading time and adhered to Sedano’s schedule. Naturally, several people missed my early reading. When people apologized, I was quick with a self-promoting answer. “No problema,” I said. “Don’t worry. You can buy my book.” I am proud to admit it was a pretty good strategy. Our cameraman, Jesus Treviño found me during the break and bought my book, others who missed me, Juan Felipe Herrera, also bought a book. I love it when a famous person buys my book, a poetry pleasure. Juan Felipe also enjoyed a photograph I took of him. Click here for my website to see all the photos. Some of the veterano poets were mas amable. Marco Antonio Dominguez gave away copies of his book. He said, “me gusta regalar.”

When I’m not writing poetry, I’m writing fiction. Someday soon, in a few months, next Spring, Bilingual Review Press will publish my first novel, Ocotillo Dreams. I’m also working on a second novel and I’m always writing new poems. These days I’m lucky my poems are getting published more regularly than four years ago, when I only had one publishing credit to my name. After the one poem, I had one short story published in Latinos in Lotusland: An Anthology of Contemporary Southern California Literature. I must’ve sent half a dozen stories to the editor, Daniel Olivas. I was determined to be included in the anthology. My determination has paid off. I now have several short stories and poems published. Maria Melendez, editor of Pilgrimage Magazine heard my brand new poem, disconcerted crow, the one I dedicated to my favorite birders, Barbara and Michael Sedano, and asked to publish the poem in the literary magazine’s December issue. After numerous rejections, having an editor ask me for work they’ve just heard means I’m official. I am a poet. Soy poeta.

How Fire Is A Story, Waiting
My grandmother caught the flame in her thick hands.
Curled fingers made nimble by kaleidoscope embers.
Fire burns hot and cold if you know where to touch it, she said.

I watched the red glow spit and wiggle as it
snaked down the thin timber, a striptease,
born out of the festive sound of a half-filled matchbox.

Through orange windows framed by obsidian eyes, I saw the child she once was.
A little girl who raised herself because her mother had a coughing disease.
Blood on her mother’s handkerchief didn’t stop her from dreaming.
Maria Victoria was going to be a singer with her deep, cinnamon stick voice.

She watched novelas in the kitchen while waiting for dough to rise.
Her body, heavy with worry for two families and three lifetimes. She tucked
Mariachi dreams under her girdle. Lullabies escaped on mornings
warmed by her song falling into gas burners turned on high.

The flame on a stove was never the same. It had a bad hangover,
didn’t remember the many matches lit when its starter broke down.

My grandmother rolled paper into a funnel,
stole fire from the pilot to light the stubborn burner on the right.
Crimson burned blue on the white paper, its folded edges
curled black like a lace ruffle on a skirt.

The finicky flame can’t comment on its magic.
The thousands of tortillas and pancakes cooked over the years.
How I burned myself roasting a hot dog campfire style.
How a melted pencil smudged under my sister’s eyelid makes her beautiful.

My grandmother noticed the time, almost noon.
She needed to make three dozen tortillas to feed her family of thirteen.
The show over, she blew the match into a swirl of gray squiggles,
snuffed before it had a chance to burn hot on her finger.

Funny, how fire is a story, waiting.


Melinda Palacio is from South-Central Los Angeles and now lives in Santa Barbara. Her poetry chapbook won Kulupi Press' Sense of Place 2009 competition. Her first novel, Ocotillo Dreams, will be published by Bilingual Review Press.








Later.

writers rule los angeles

The Flor y Canto at the University of Southern California continues through Friday, September 17. From my perspective as a reader, the festival has been an overwhelming success. The organizers will give us the lowdown soon after the event closes; I expect Michael Sedano, one of the key players in putting together this celebration of the written (and performed) word will grace us with his sum-up right here on La Bloga. I'll have more in the near future but for now I will say that this gathering of writers from around the country has exceeded all expectations in terms of moving, passionate art with themes as varied as the people who presented: love, anger, sex, struggle, identity, hope, despair. We heard the hard lessons, learned the hard way, passed on through the rhythms of poetry and prose. We listened to the artists expose themselves, and we were all transformed. In Spanish, English, Nahuatl, Calo - la raza strutted, cried, hollered, cheered, and delivered. It was a thing of beauty.


Later.

Noticitas

Flor y Canto, 35 years later

In less than a month, the Festival de Flor y Canto. Yesterday • Today • Tomorrow will take place at the University of Southern California in El Lay, Sept. 15-17.

The program delightfully promises that: "Each day comes with its own artistic delights and once-in-a-lifetime engagement with poets and writers in a small intimate setting."

Among many others, Manuel Ramos, Daniel Olivas, Olga Garcia Echeverria, and tatiana de la tierra will be reading, so La Bloga will be well represented. Sedano notes, "I have a gallery show of fotos opening on Friday."

La Bloga is very proud of Michael Sedano's instrumental role in the event and if you attend you can view the Doheny library exhibition of his photographic portraits from the historic 1973 festival. To sign up for the newsletter, info on lodging, transportation and updated info on poets and writers who will be reading, go to this website.

And the non-Nezahualmami winner is . . .

As promised last Sat. in the second part of the Charla-Interview of Ernest Hogan, we're giving away an autographed copy of his sci-fi novel High Aztech. Entrants had to create one of Hogan's language-twisters: either a new Spanglish term or a recombo-Náhuatl-Spanish word. Here's poetess Melinda Palacio's winning entry. Ernesto will be mailing her copy:

"Here's my attempt at a Hoganesque scrambler:
Nezahualmami, adj. masculine, meaning a man who wants to be a ruler, but acts like a baby who needs his mami and looks to his female companion as a mother figure, while acting like a little mijo and king at the same time. Example: Young woman says to lover during an argument, 'Don't get all Nezhualmami on me.' "

Great entry; sounds like she might have even known one, once. . .

Es todo, hoy
RudyG

Juan Felipe Hererra -- Más y Más

Gente: This has been a year of accolades (deservedly so) for the titan, Juan Felipe Hererra. I could rave about his lyricism, his knife edge commentary, the way his poems seep into sus huesos y sus sueños, his lifetime of building Chicano community. What I will do is refer you back to our review of the PEN/WEST award-winning book, 187 Reasons Why Mexicans Can't Cross the Border and our interview with JFH below.

http://labloga.blogspot.com/2007/11/187-reasons-mexicanos-cant-cross-border.html
http://labloga.blogspot.com/2008/02/interview-with-juan-felipe-herrera.html

BTW -- El New York Times calls him "wildly inventive." Better still, just call him el mero mero.......Some more skinny about Hererra:

Juan Felipe Herrera's writings are charged with theatrical and athletic energies. A hybrid collection of texts written and performed on the road, gathered from more than thirty-five years of work in various genres, these "undocuments" are the record of an epic journey across many different borders: boundaries of nations, state lines, city limits, edges of farmland, crossings and mixtures of languages and literary forms.

From Mexico City to San Francisco, from Central America to central California, Herrera remembers everything and gives back to his native places and to the family, friends and compañeros of his Mexican/American/Chicano odyssey a scrapbook, a logbook, a journal, a multiform confession of proud hybridity and indigenous optimism. A sustained manifesto of resistance and affirmation, these rants, manifestos, newspaper cut-ups, bits of street theatre, anti-lectures, love poems and riffs tell the story of what it's like to live outlaw and brown in the United States.


"Papers? Permits? Documents? Identification? Open this book anywhere and find the authorization to keep on, permission to be who you are in your own skin, license to cultivate your inner guerrilla, angelic visas of transcendent transit. This book is the passport to a country under construction." — from the Introduction by Stephen Kessler

"¡Por fin! A manifesto you can dance to. Juan Felipe Herrera's searing laments and soulful riffs don't just electrify. They Mexify."—Stephanie Elizondo Griest, author of Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana

"I've been reading Juan Felipe Herrera since he was little baby poet in the 1970s, and this volume, which collects published and unpublished community pieces from the last three decades, gives me an almost painful pleasure. He is the eternal teen poet, the timeless Beat, the premodern postmodern. He is Walt Whitman, Ezekiel, Pablo Neruda, Langston Hughes, Scheherazade, Carlos Fuentes, Allen Ginsberg, Frida Kahlo, Groucho and Karl Marx, Emily Dickinson, Santana, Lao Tzu, and Octavio Paz rolled up and squeezed through dreams of Aztlan and justice and jazz. He is Floricanto. And 187 Reasons, more than anything he has written, is his autobiography."—Tom Lutz, author of Doing Nothing, Crying, and Cosmopolitan Vistas

"Juan Felipe Herrera has written a giant verbal mural bursting with the inventiveness, rhythmic colorings, social engagement and humor — in forms of poetry, litany, and autobiography — that reveal not only the greatness but the absolute necessity of Chicano culture. This is a major generational work by a brilliant practitioner of the art of living the word."—Jack Hirschman, poet laureate of the City of San Francisco

"There are at least 187 reasons why you should read Herrera's 187 Reasons Mexicanos Can’t Cross the Border. A very abbreviated list would include: Because it is some of the strongest poetry, memoir, satire, and theater that you will find in one book- Because within it are over forty years of artfully recorded passion, anger, engagement, humor and love- Because it will carry you across, over and through languages, borders, and cultures revealing truths, asking hard questions, and insisting we see the power not only on of writer as witness, and the power of writer as memory, but the power of writer as conscious revolutionary striving towards a more just and humane world- Because it is a pleasure that will awaken and engage all of your senses as it touches and does not let go of your heart."– devorah major author of Brown Glass Windows, Open Weave, street smarts and Where River Meets Ocean.

"Aware, phosphorescent and immediate, this is language brilliantly engaged. Juan Felipe Herrera is simultaneous lighthouse and lightning, the flash that carries the warning and the live wire. For three decades now Herrera’s hot-colored Surrealism has transmitted one of the strongest border radio signals of alt-poetics from the Mission District to St. Mark’s Poetry Project, from the Taos Poetry Circus to Bisbee, from the first Floricantos of the Bay Area or cross-border exchanges in Tijuana and D.F., Chiapas and Yucatan to San Diego, L. A., Austin and beyond. This poetics makes a practice of making a difference. Here available together for the first time are wide-ranging selections from dozens of Herrera’s outstanding 'experimental’ mixed-genre books, many of which had eccentric or limited original distribution. Contextualized with photos, historical notes and chronology, 187 Reasons serves up both continental panorama and meta-document in the practice of a poetics that comes alive with startling vitality---across borders of political silence and censorship of the Other, semiotic deserts and actual killing fields."– Sesshu Foster author of Atomik Aztex and American Loneliness: Selected Poems

AND IF THAT WEREN'T ENOUGH......

PEN Oakland & The Oakland Public Library Announce the Winners of the PEN Oakland-Josephine Miles 18th Annual National Literary Awards & 12th Annual PEN Oakland Censorship Award Saturday, December 6th, 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM in Oakland Free To The Public

On Saturday, December 6th, come celebrate well-known and emerging Bay Area and international authors who will be honored for excellence in multicultural literature at the 18th Annual PEN Oakland-Josephine Miles National Literary Awards.

PEN Oakland, A Bay Area Chapter of the International Organization of Poets, Essayists, and Novelists, was founded in 1989 to address multicultural issues, and educate the public as to the nature of multicultural work. These award-winning authors address the diversity and uniqueness of American culture, and represent the new voices of American literature. The late Josephine Miles, in whose honor the awards are presented, was a highly regarded poet, critic, and professor of English at the University of California in Berkeley.

On May 15th, PEN Oakland Vice President Reginald Lockett died. In his honor, PEN Oakland has named its Lifetime Achievement Award, the Reginald Lockett Lifetime Achievement Award. This year's winners are poet Diane di Prima, and playwright Adrienne Kennedy. Allen Ginsberg said of Diane, “A great woman poet in second half of American century, she broke barriers of race-class identity, delivered a major body of verse brilliant in its particularity.”

Adrienne Kennedy was a key figure in the Blacks Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. She is best known for her first major play “Funnyhouse of a Negro,” winner of the 1964 Obie Award for most distinguished play. In 1995, critic Michael Feingold of the Village Voice declared that "with Beckett gone, Adrienne Kennedy is probably the boldest artist now writing for the theater."

The PEN Oakland Censorship Award will be given to Project Censored, for its ongoing research on national news stories ignored, misrepresented or censored by the U.S. corporate media, in particular important stories about the nationwide move to impeach President George W. Bush and the fact that over one million Iraqis have lost their lives since the 2003 invasion, with more than 50% of those deaths attributable to U.S. troops and their allies. Based on the premise that an uninformed or misinformed public cannot make valid policy decisions via the ballot box, PEN Oakland honors this organization for their efforts to bring facts to light that are willfully buried by many mainstream media outlets.

A reception will be held after the awards where the public will have an opportunity to meet the authors, and purchase signed copies of their award winning books. During the program, winners will be presented with a plaque and asked to read selections from their work.

For more information, please call (510) 681-5652.

2008 Josephine Miles National Literary Awards winners are:

Storming the Gates of Paradise: Landscapes for Politics (Essays) by Rebecca Solnit (University of California Press)

187 Reasons Mexicanos Can't Cross the Border: Undocuments 1971—2007 (Poetry & Short Stories) by Juan Felipe Herrera (City Lights)

Sleeping with the Moon (Poetry) by Colleen J. McElroy (Illinois Poetry Series)

The Stillness of Love and Exile (Fiction) by Rosa Martha Villarreal (Tertulia Press)

Dude, Where's My Black Studies Department? The Disappearance of Black Americans from U.S. Universities (Non-Fiction) by Cecil Brown (North Atlantic Books)

Apex Hides the Hurt: A Novel (Fiction) by Colson Whitehead (Anchor)

About Now: Collected Poems (Poetry) by Joanne Kyger (National Poetry Foundation)

National in scope, the PEN Oakland-Josephine Miles Literary Awards represent a new perception of multicultural literature that does not seek validation from the literary establishment, but creates its own standards and models of literature.

Past award-winners include: Elmaz Abinader, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Juvenal Acosta, Opal Palmer Adisa, Francisco X. Alarcon, Alfred Arteaga, Marsha Lee Berkman, Eleanor Taylor Bland, Phyllis Burke, Jeffrey Paul Chan, Marilyn Chin, Allen Cohen, Lucha Corpi, Kamau Daaood, Mike Davis, Chitra Divakaruni, Wendy Doniger, Nathan Englander, Ibrahim Fawal, Paul Flores, Ruth Forman, Maketa Groves, Sam Hamill, Peter J. Harris, Joy Harjo, Jack Hirschman, Ghada Karmi, Sylvia Lopez-Medina, Michael McClure, David Meltzer, E. Ethelbert Miller, John Mulligan, Aldon Lynn Nielsen, Louis Owens, Robert Parry, Jewel Parker Rhodes, Brenda Lane Richardson, Luis Rodriguez, Jerome Rothenberg, Suhayl Saadi, Elaine Marcus Starkman, Clyde R. Taylor, Clifford E. Trafzer, Gail Tsukiyama, Jose Garcia Villa, Alma Luz Villanueva, Gerald Vizenor, Sylvia Watanabe, Derek Walcott, Gary Webb, Darryl Babe Wilson, Koon Woon, Andy Ross, and Clive Matson. (partial list)

Co-sponsored by the Oakland Public Library and PEN USA

Contact: Kim McMillon
(510) 681-5652/kimmac@pacbell.net
http://penoakland.org

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

AND FROM THOSE TREMENDOUS WOMEN AT TEATRO LUNA....

Photo Credit: Johnny Knight From L to R: Dana Cruz (Alicia) and Miranda Gonzalez (Cat)

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Lisa Alvarado

Where are you, today?

Michael Sedano

Where are these poets and writers today? Back in 1973, all appeared at El Festival de Flor Y Canto, at the University of Southern California. In 2010, I'd like to see them together again at USC, at Festival de Flor Y Canto 2010. 

I shot these mug shots at the University of California Riverside, whose library is the only one in California holding an almost-complete set of the rare videos recorded of that first Flor Y Canto. Only Jose Montoya's presentation is absent; that videocassette was lost by UC Davis' library years ago. The videos, with a single exception, exist only on ancient 3/4" U-matic videocassettes. Only Oscar Acosta's performance has been digitized; it's for sale on the DVD of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." See link in Gregg Barrios' guest column. 

Pictured here are: Lynn Romero, Alejandro Murguia, Enrique La Madrid, Pedro Ortiz, Estevan Arrellano, Juan Contreras, Javier Pacheco, Jeronimo Blanco, Jorge Gonzalez, Ron Arias, E.A. Maress, David Gomez, Antonio G. Ortiz, Barbara Hernandez, Jorge Alvarez, Olivia Castellano, Avelardo Valdez, Ponce Javier Ruiz, Teresa Paloma Acosta, Tomas Atencio. 

Not illustrated are writers whom I've already made contact with, as well as Teatro Meztizo, Teatro de los Niños, and Teatro Pequeño, though it'd be tremendous to see those children all grown up, and their mentors.

Also not illustrated are writers who are now dead: Ricardo Sanchez, Tomás Rivera, Marcela Trujillo, Abelardo Delgado, raúlrsalinas, Omar Salinas, Oscar Zeta Acosta. QEPD.

Several of the where-are-they-now names Google-up older-looking folks, apparently writers. The popular internet search engine, however, fails to provide email or other contact information. Hence this La Bloga column. 

If you are among these writers, please contact me for an invitation to the reunion floricanto in 2010. If you know someone with the same name and whose face sure looks like that younger face shown here, please let your friend know about this column and the links to the Call for Artists to the 2010 Festival de Flor Y Canto.

Book Give-Away Update

Great news from publisher Hachette Book Group for La Bloga reader Liana Lopez of Houston Texas! 

Just after the 8-title give-away closed last week, La Bloga received Liana's 100% correct response. Publisher Hachette Book Group extended its generosity to six winners, and mailed this 8-book library to Liana Lopez of Houston, Texas:

Dream in Color By Linda Sánchez , Loretta Sánchez ISBN: 0446508047
Gunmetal Black By Daniel Serrano ISBN: 0446194131
The Gifted Gabaldón Sisters By Lorraine López ISBN: 0446699217
Bless Me, Ultima By Rudolfo Anaya ISBN: 0446675369
Brownsville By Oscar Casares ISBN: 9780316146807
The Hummingbird's Daughter By Luis Urrea ISBN: 0316154520
The General and the Jaguar By Eileen Welsome ISBN: 0316715999
Tomorrow They Will Kiss By Eduardo Santiago ISBN: 0316014125

Congratulations, Liana, and your fellow Hachette/La Bloga Book Give-Away winners:

Tom Miller
Tucson AZ

John Alba Cutler
Evanston IL

Eduardo Pena
Tucson, AZ

Marie Madrid
Denver, CO

Diana Chavez
Littleton, CO

Liana Lopez

Houston, TX

Election Season

As Daniel Olivas notes in Monday's column, La Bloga's blogueras blogueros are posting political columns including our predictions of the winners and weenies. Lucky moi, I get Tuesday election day. See you then. Gracias de antemano for going to the polls and voting, for encouraging your familia to vote. 

La Bloga welcomes your comments on this and any La Bloga item. Click on the Comments counter below. La Bloga welcomes guest columnists. If you have a book or arts review, an extended announcement, a response at length to something you've read at La Bloga, by all means, please, join us. Click here for your invitation.

Bits and Pieces of the King's Gold

Michael Sedano

2010 Festival de Flor Y Canto Call for Writers & Artists

Planning is now in the definite maybe stage for a literary and arts festival at the University of Southern California in 2010 during fiestas patrias observances, celebrated in the United States as "Hispanic Heritage Month" in September and October.

Linked here is the first call for participants. If you are a surviving writer or presenter from the 1973 Festival de Flor Y Canto, please click and send your contact information. The festival looks to showcase the growth of Chicana Chicano Latina Latino literature since 1973, so contemporary writers need to click, too, and send along your contact information.

La Bloga will continue reporting on developments of the upcoming floricanto. For some background, see this post.

And thinking of that 1973 cast of artists, Daniel Olivas' Monday column reported Christopher Buckley's tribute to Luis Omar Salinas. The portrait in Dan's article shows Salinas at an advanced age. Here's a photo of Salinas, left, with Alurista, when both appeared at the 1973 Festival de Flor Y Canto.

To view additional photos of Flor Y Canto of 1973, see this page. The full collection of photos will be part of a gallery show at the 2010 event, including a portrait series I call "¡Presente!" featuring images of writers, like Omar Salinas, who have died since that first Flor Y Canto.

Front Range Paper Leading the Way

Who hasn't witnessed the shrinking space newspapers allot to literature and book review sections? One paper, The Rocky Mountain News, is showing the big rags east and west how to do literature honorably. Celebrating its 150th anniversary--and the city of Denver's 150th--The Rocky Mountain News is showcasing local writers by commissioning original fiction. As the paper observes:

This November, the city of Denver celebrates its 150th anniversary. In April, the Rocky follows with its own 150th. To commemorate both, we're celebrating the creative spirit that has marked our city since 1858, with a special series titled A Dozen on Denver: Stories to celebrate the city at 150. For the series, we've commissioned 11 Colorado authors to write original fiction. We asked the authors to choose a different decade of Denver's history, to mention Larimer Street at least once in their stories and to keep it all to 2,500 words.

Today's Dozen on Denver featured writer is La Bloga co-founder Manuel Ramos. You can read his piece by navigating to The Rocky Mountain News' "Dozen on Denver" page here; make sure to listen to Manuel's interview linked on that page. Here's a link to Manuel's story, "Fence Busters".

The King's Gold Doesn't Quite Fill A Formula

Arturo Pérez-Reverte. The King's Gold. NY: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2008.
ISBN 9781436240598

They say the memory's the second thing to go, when you get old, and I don't remember what the first thing is. Or maybe it's inattention. A few weeks ago, Daniel Olivas cited Rigoberto González' review of Yxta Maya Murray's new novel, The King's Gold. Only the title stuck in my mind. So when I browsed the new books shelf at the Pasadena Public Library, I saw that title, something triggered in my memory. and I picked it up.

The King's Gold I held is the work of Arturo Pérez-Reverte, not Yxta Maya Murray. Ni modo. Manuel Ramos turned me on to Pérez-Reverte, and I enjoyed Pérez-Reverte's The Sun Over Breda hence walked away happily with with my borrowed novel. You'll share the sentiment if you find your own copy.

It's a confection of a novel. With Fall hard upon us, it's time for sitting by a fireplace with something to pass a few hours. Nothing heavy, puro adventure. This one fits that niche. If some kid were to ask for a definition of the world "swashbuckler" I wouldn't bother with a dictionary, I'd give the reader a copy The King's Gold.

Sixteen years old, Íñigo Balboa narrates the story of his and Captain Alatriste's return from Breda to Seville, Spain. War, the pair learn, is a simple affair of point and slash. In Spain, nothing is nearly that obvious. Moreover, mid-17th century Spain is a mess of political intrigue complicated by old enemies, old friends, petty local cops, Moorish slaves, whores and crooks, and royalty.

The story's a reminiscence of an old man. Balboa alludes to his own high adventures and heroics yet to come, and much as he builds the larger-than-life character of Alatriste, Balboa magnifies the reader's affection for Alatriste by reminding us that the hero will be slayed in some upcoming adventure. This interplay of future against current events is an interesting technique to be on the lookout for, or have your emotions toyed with:

By God, it's been a long road. All the people in this story--the captain, Quevedo, Gualterio Malatesta, Angélica de Alquézar--died a long time ago and only in these pages can I make them live again and recapture them exactly as they were. Their ghosts, some loved, some loathed, remain intact in my memory, along with that whole harsh, violent, fascinating time that, for me, will always be the Spain of my youth and the Spain of Captain Alatriste.

The King's Gold is a work of translation, with the attendant cultural traps of vocabulary. These are reduced by the technology and setting of 1626, and the skill of Margaret Jull Costa. "The bluebottles," the cops, is so frequently used that I'd like to see the Spanish to see if this is a cultural substitution or a literal translation.

Irrespective of one's historical knowledge, Pérez-Reverte and his translator provide a vivid portrait of gritty hand-to-mouth existence of soldiers thrown into a world without a Veteran's Administration. To survive, some turn to thievery and murder. Our heroes accept a mercenary job to turn pirate and capture a treasure ship freshly arrived from Mexico. Sadly--because it would be such fun--the author misses an opportunity to draw out his story with the formulaic recruiting of his warriors like the movies "The Dirty Dozen" or "The Magnificent Seven". There's a colorful visit to a condemned killer and a fleeting glance at a couple of recruits. But drawing out character studies would take away from the focus on swordplay and bloodletting, and half of them will be killed in the raid, so we get a list of names and descriptions of their blades.

And use their blades they do. That's what swashbucklers do.


Book Give-Away Winner

Last week's winner came as a late entry, a Denver resident who discovered La Bloga by reading Manuel Ramos' bio in the Rocky Mountain News. Hachette / La Bloga are happy to recognize Marie Madrid's 100% correct responses to Saturday's questionnaire. Marie is receiving by US Mail these eight outstanding titles:

Dream in Color by Linda Sánchez, Loretta Sánchez
Gunmetal Black by Daniel Serrano
The Gifted Gabaldón Sisters by Lorraine López
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
Brownsville by Oscar Casares
The Hummingbird's Daughter by Luis Urrea
The General and the Jaguar by Eileen Welsome
Tomorrow They Will Kiss by Eduardo Santiago

Look for your opportunity to win the final set of eight this weekend.

And that's the antepenultimate Tuesday of October, 2008. A Tuesday like any other Tuesday, except, we are here. Thank you for reading La Bloga, and gracias de antemano for your comments on this, and any, La Bloga column. To comment, just click on the Comments counter below. And remember, La Bloga welcomes guest columnists. If you'd like to share your thoughts on books, arts, culture, or respond to something you've read here, click here to declare your interest in being our guest.

Fotos: When Zeta Read At Flor Y Canto

Michael Sedano

Fotos Michael V. Sedano.Copyright 1973, 2008.

Click on an image for a richer visual experience.

In Saturday's guest column, "When Zeta Met Hunter and rascuache became gonzo," Gregg Barrios, conducts an arresting examination of the chicano originator of "Gonzo" journalism, Oscar "Zeta" Acosta and Zeta's friendship with Hunter S. Thompson, who took credit for Acosta's creation and vindicated himself by writing prolifically in the distinctive style.

Barrios refers to the first Festival de Flor y Canto, held in 1973 at the University of Southern California, where Acosta read the autopsy chapter from his outstanding autobiograpical novel, Revolt of the Cockroach People. Click this link to view the thirty minute reading. Acosta's reading is doubly moving, first, because of its subject matter, and second because of Acosta's emotional response to his recounting an autopsy of a chicano murdered in jail by police. A perfect crime.

The first Festival de Flor Y Canto brought together a pantheon of notable literary giants. Subsequent festivals in New Mexico and Texas failed to equal the energy, breadth, and greatness of the California event, but all left behind published anthologies. At any rate, only the Los Angeles event left a videotaped record. Many of these writers now are dead. Acosta. Ricardo Sánchez. Abelardo Delgado. Tomás Rivera. raúlrsalinas. Omar Salinas. As this first generation of writers passes, the videos provide the only means to appreciate these writers in propria persona, in their own voice. Alarmingly, these videos may be endangered.

I was dumbfounded when I learned of the Google video of Acosta's reading. Ironically, this is currently the only publicly available video document of the festival, that I can locate. Not even the University of Southern California has copies of the videos. In California, only the University of California, Riverside library has them, some forty tapes in the obsolete U-Matic 3/4" cassette format. Even with top notch conservation, it's likely that these old tapes have begun to deteriorate. For this reason, I have recently begun a project to digitize these programs to DVD. 

If possible, the DVDs will include the outtakes. Working with USC's El Centro Chicano and the university archivist, Claude Zachary, the project targets a newly revised and updated edition of the published anthology, to feature diachronic exemplars from those writers, expanded to include new work from the present generation of writers. Included in the proposed anthology will be a multimedia component, including the videos, interviews with surviving artists and participants, and the still photos I shot during the 1973 conference.

Here is a suite of Zeta photos, along with other people Gregg Barrios mentions in his La Bloga guest column. (Remember to click on the small fotos for an enlarged image).

Acosta steps into the crowd milling about the artist entrance. A beautiful woman catches his eye. He wraps an arm tentatively around her shoulder. They are introduced and she smiles in joy as Acosta pulls her into his chest. Cherchez la femme, que no? The scene recalls the incident early in Revolt of the Cockroach People where Acosta's persona, the lecherous Brown Z. Buffalo, narrates fondling a pair of underage teenaged girls during a political protest.

Now Frank "Pancho del Rancho" Sifuentes, a key organizer of the festival, joins the waiting artists. All horniness aside, Zeta points angrily at the television production trucks. They proclaim the name of the company, "Tom Reddin Productions." Reddin, former chief of the LAPD, is a blood enemy to chicana, chicano and antiwar activists. Interesting sidenote: seen over Sifuentes' right shoulder is Juan Felipe Herrera, who has become one of today's more notable chicano poets.

Sifuentes' face shows his concern at Acosta's reluctance to take the stage. Poet Alurista stands at Acosta's right shoulder, his serious rostro mirroring Sifuentes' belief of Zeta's threat not to read, out of Acosta's ire at being co-opted into helping Reddin's company. The crisis seemingly averted, Acosta enters the hall and stands at the back to enjoy the program.

Acosta's straightforward outspokenness is one facet of rascuachismo, as Gregg Barrios quotes critic Tomás Ybarra-Frausto, who observes, It is a witty, irreverent, and impertinent posture. Here, Ybarra-Frausto chats with Rolando Hinojosa-Smith and Tomás Rivera.

When Acosta takes the stage, he's not mollified. Acosta pauses at the lectern then explodes. He  points angrily at the television cameras. "Turn those fucking things off!" Acosta shouts at full volume, then repeats himself, "Turn the fucking cameras off!" He accuses Reddin of being an enemy of the people--specifically a chicano killer. Acosta declares his complete unwillingness to do anything that would put money into the pig's pocket and refuses to begin the program until the cameras are turned off.

Acosta stands in silent rage awaiting the departure of Reddin's employees. Pianist Javier Pacheco doesn't know what to do. Pacheco's role is to time the speakers and play a few notes to signal the end of the speaker's segment. The anger of the moment probably won't be calmed even by Mozart, so Pacheco stares helplessly into the house. Listen to the Google video and near the start, and at the 18 minute mark, you'll hear Pacheco's tinkling notes, that Zeta ignores, since so much of his alloted time was consumed in the delay.

Finally, the camera operators get direction from the truck outside. They remove their headphones and slink out of the hall. What I didn't realize until last year when the Google video surfaced, Reddin's director pulled a slick move. The cameraman turned off the camera's red light but allowed the cameras to continue shooting. 

None of Acosta's outburst makes the video. The Google video begins just after Zeta removes his shirt to reveal the netted garment you view in the videotaped reading and these fotos.

The tryptych captures Acosta as he chokes up recounting how the coroner peels back the corpse's face and scalp to reveal the sand-filled cranium and the small bag holding Robert Fernandez' brain.

His reading winds to a close and Acosta has grown distraught. He grabs his clothing as he walks off stage. By the time he reaches the back of the hall he's broken down in tears. In the distance you see poet Roberto Vargas grimacing at the incident while poet raúlrsalinas wraps a comforting arm around the broken Oscar "Buffalo Z. Brown, Zeta" Acosta.

Published Anthologies
Festival I - Festival de flor y Canto : an anthology of Chicano literature / Editorial Committee, Alurista ... [et al.] ; publication arrangements. Silas Abrego, F. A. Cervantes, Mary Ann Pacheco. Los Angeles : University of Southern California Press, 1976.

Festival II and III - Festival flor y canto II : an anthology of Chicano literature from the festival held March 12-16, 1975, Austin, Texas. Albuquerque, N. M. : Pajarito Publications, (1979?)

Videoprogramming
Click here to conduct Melvyl search on "Festival de Flor Y Canto".

Gallery Prints
For information about gallery-quality prints of Zeta or other Flor Y Canto artists, visit readraza.com or email here.

That's August's second Tuesday. Remember, La Bloga welcomes your comments and inquiries on this and every column. To discuss or leave a comment, click on the Comments counter below. La Bloga welcomes guest columnists who have extended remarks, book or cultural reviews, or something interesting to add. If you'd like an invitation, click here.

mvs

c/s

apostrophe to the recently dead

apostrophe to the recently dead

in iraq.
no one held you
cheek to cheek in comforting arms.
you didn't wait for that poetic right time
when it's ok to let go,
your family reconciled to separation,
your absence,
their emptiness.
bring it on.
your after death comes after lies
lie after lie after lie after life.
let someone else's loved ones
die,
let someone else's loved ones fight for
freedom,
let someone else's lives disappear for
lies.
let someone else's children volunteer.
it's all right ma, the songster sang,
i'm only dying.
it's not all right.
not all right.
not.

©Michael Sedano

*Foto ©2005, the night we mourned our 2000th dead U.S. soldier and read names of dead civilians who got in our way. Now the counts grow from 4000 up. On the United States side. Uncounted dead, maimed, orphaned on the other side. They did not go gentle. Support our troops--bring them home.



QEPD raúlrsalinas. I shot this photo at the 1974 Flor Y Canto held at the University of Southern California. Next week I plan to have more of these historic images cleaned up and posted at the Flor Y Canto page at readraza.com. I'll include a photo of a fellow wearing a carpa that sounds just like this reminiscence Juan Felipe Herrera wrote, in his eulogy for salinas, "i sat in the center row, dressed in a tzotzil tunic i had brought back from chiapas in ‘70". Dang, raza, we were so young back then, que no?


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