Cuentos

Manuel Ramos

Writing Stories and a Few Samples
Storyteller's Conference
Los Dichos Moms
Contest


WRITING SHORT
I decided a while back to focus on short-story writing for a stretch, as opposed to concentrating on trying to finish another novel. Although I haven’t set the short fiction world on fire, I managed to publish a couple of stories last year and I anticipate a few more this year. Eventually, I would like to have a deep, representative collection of shorts that can sit on the shelf with my other books.

The thing about a short story is that the obvious is true but that doesn’t make it easier. A short story has to get to the point quickly and effortlessly. The best advice I ever heard about writing a short story is "start late, leave early." Easier said than done. What writer doesn’t want to indulge the details? To eschew subtlety for in-depth development? To expose the back story and the epilog, to wrap everything up in a neat, tidy package of setting, conflict, climax, resolution? The best short stories, in my opinion, rebel against these tendencies and snapshot the human condition in one quick frame, not an entire reel. In this type of fiction, the role of the reader is essential - fill in the gaps, put the pieces together, jump to the writer’s conclusion. However you want to say it.

Of course, what I am saying applies to how I write or how I want to write. We all know that the only rule in writing is that there are no rules (well, except for the one that says you can’t call your fiction a memoir even if Oprah likes your book.)

My short story, Bad Haircut Day, appeared in CrimeSpree Magazine (#9). I’ve put it up on the web in case you want to read it and haven’t found a copy of the magazine. You can read it here. Even though this story was published, I can see that it does not satisfy my vision. Oh, I think it’s a good story, don’t get me wrong. I have confidence in my writing, every writer has to, at least in public. But now that Bad Haircut Day has "cooled off" and I can look at it with some dispassion, I can see that it didn’t start late enough, and I might have been able to leave a bit earlier. Please keep in mind that, for me, writing is never finished. There is no such thing as a "final draft." One of the most difficult exercises for me is to read through one of my earlier books. That can be excruciating for a guy who is never comfortable with his finished work.


A story that I think is closer to what I wanted to write is Dancing At The Lido, which was published back in 2001 in a slightly different version. If you care to, you can read that one here at this link. In all honesty, I think this story ended up very close to achieving the concept I had in my mind when I started to write it. My latest stab at short fiction (working title: No Hablo Inglés) also "feels" good to me, in terms of realization of my vision. That story isn't published yet, so I haven't posted it anywhere.

Speaking of cuentos, I heard from Jerry Rodriguez that his story, Under A Puerto Rican Sky, is up over at the online Nat Creole literary magazine. Jerry’s story is here. Meanwhile, Steven Torres has a story at Coffee Cramp Magazine entitled Chaos, 2099. Steven’s story is here. By the way, Steven has a different take on writing short stories, which you can read on his blog, the Crime Time Cafe, in his recent post entitled Short Story Composition - A Myth. Steven is the author of the Precinct Puerto Rican series, the newest one (Missing in Precinct Puerto Rico) is due this fall. Jerry’s first novel will be published in 2007. And, to further quench the short story jones, my blogging partner Daniel Olivas has The Plumed Serpent of Los Angeles/La Serpiente emplumada de Los Angeles in a bilingual format at The Southern Cross Review. Daniel's story is at this link.

There are probably a gazillion websites that feature short fiction - Thrilling Detective and Hardluck Stories come to mind, but that's just me and my appreciation for well-written crime fiction. Anyone know of sites that specialize or feature Chicano short stories?

TALKING SHORT
The 31st Rocky Mountain Storytellers Conference is set for April 28 and 29 at the Broomfield Auditorium in Broomfield, CO. The website is www.rmstory.org.

This year's conference will have a Storytellers Showcase on April 28 from 7:30 - 9:30 PM. The featured storytellers are Pam Faro and Zarco Guerrero. Here's part of the blurb from the email announcement:

"Pam's warmth, humor, and energy will bring everyone into the storytelling circle. Telling professionally since 1988, her multicultural folktales, bilingual Spanish-English cuentos and stories with guitar bring delight, create community, and grow imaginations.

Come and listen to Zarco's musical stories of the legendary Lalo Guerrero, Mexican-American singer, song writer, and Grammy winner. In an intriguing and provoking way learn about the culture of Mexico in these bilingual parodies. www.zarkmask.com."

This Showcase is free, open to the public.

SHORTS FOR SHORTIES
I came across an article about Los Dichos Moms, a group of about 80 moms who read weekly at elementary schools in the San Jose, CA area. According to the Mercury News, Los Dichos de la Casa is a storytelling program where "the main activity is reading from books that reflect life in Latin America or immigrants' experiences in America. Hearing these stories in Spanish reinforces for the children that their heritage is important, the moms say. Hearing the stories read by real moms only enhances the experience." The article mentioned two books by Carmen Lomas Garza as examples of what stories are read to the kids: Cuadros de Familia (Family Pictures) and Making Magic Windows (an explanation of the craft of papel picado). This project not only enhances the educational process for the students but it gets the parents more involved in the schools, so much so that there is now consideration that the nickname might have to change since dads have expressed an interest in doing some reading. Sounds good.

A FINAL SHORT BIT
The aforementioned Steven Torres is running a contest where the winner gets a critique and editing recommendations on a work in progress. Steven explains his contest like this on his blog: "Did I forget to mention a writing contest on my website? Just go to the homepage and the very first item, no scrolling, will lead you to the contest. Essentially, you send in the first page or so of your manuscript for me to judge. If you win, I'll contact you, and you can send forty-nine more pages, and I will provide you an in-depth critique. To win, all you need to do is make me want to read more. Simple." More detail on Steven's website including the entry form - deadline is March 31.

Later.

Detective Fired For Writing Novel

Review: Autumn of the Phantoms. Yasmina Khadra. Translated from French by Aubrey Botsford. New Milford CT: Toby Press, 2005. Paperback: ISBN: 1 59264 143 1 8

Michael Sedano

"Do you seriously take yourself for a novelist, Llob?" With the tip of his carefully manicured finger, he pushes my work away from him as though it were a piece of garbage: "This grotesque pamphlet is unequalled except by the lowness of its author. In striving to ridicule your society, you've only managed to reduce the scant respect I thought I had for you."

Critics, it seems, are where you find them. For the detective novelist Brahim Llob, the speaker is his Boss. After a few minutes added vitriol, the writer-detective is "retired" and the reader is launched into Llob's story as his career winds its way fitfully to its first-person finis.

Autumn of the Phantoms follows the aftermath of Algerian writer Yasmina Khadra's first novel, Morituri, also featuring detective Llob. That Llob's troubles in Phantoms arise from Khadra's first book not only adds to the enjoyment of this second novel, a conscientious reader will feel compelled to find the first of this pair of Llob stories published by Toby Crime.

Translated work comes with its own set of issues. One conclusion I hold is I'm not reading the original author but the work of the translator. Not that the original doesn't set the framework, but one has to be mindful of the two writers at work in appreciating the uses of language that mark a writer's skill.

And skill abounds in this novel, in small passages and in the whole sweep of the story. I enjoy such swipes as Llob's description of a corrupt banker, where he notes, We got to know each other during an interrogation he's not about to forgive me. Stunted as a milestone, sinister and nasty, he's more likely to take on a risky loan than smile at a stranger.

Readers, whose experience with French colonial literature like The Stranger gave them a sense of place, will enjoy revisiting the scenes of their youthful reading to see what has happened long after Merseault last set foot on that beach.

Who knows that Llob's Algiers doesn't represent our own future? Terrorism and insurgency are second-nature in the city. In one incident, Llob observes matter-of-factly that his trip across town was delayed twenty minutes because of a big shoot-out between police and terrorists. A social event hardly stops when a huge explosion across town raises a pillar of smoke seen from the fancy ballroom.



Ay 'sta 'til next week. Have a comment, or a title to recommend? Please, leave a comment.

Hay les wachamos until next week,

mvs

SPOTLIGHT ON SARA CAMPOS

Monday’s post from Daniel Olivas…

Sara Campos is an MFA candidate at Mills College. An immigration lawyer for over 15 years, she weaves many immigration themes into her writing. She is a multi-genre writer whose fiction and poetry is either forthcoming or has been published in St. Ann's Review, LongStoryShort, PenWomanship and NewVersesNews. Her op-ed pieces have been published in the San Francisco Examiner, The San Francisco Daily Journal and The Recorder. She has also published book reviews in Water Bridge Review and BeyondChron. Her most recent short story is “Domingo” which appears in the winter 2006 issue of St. Ann’s Review. (Pictured: cover of new issue.)

NUEVO LIBRO: Rigoberto González reviews Lorenzo Herrera y Lozano's collection, Santo de la Pata Alzada: Poems from the Queer/Xicano/Positive Pen (Evelyn Street Press), where the “speaker” of these poems “traces the ache of familial rejection, the loss of faith, and the triumphs and failures of same-sex relationships.” González adds that this collection, “with its brazen title, risk-taking subject matter and colorful vocabulary, is in fact a touching book—a young poet's story of his exile from home and church, and his arrival to a family and faith in a community no less valuable or valid than the one he lost.”

CON TINTA CELEBRATION IN AUSTIN, TEJAS: Con Tinta, a coalition of Chicano/Latino cultural activists, poets and writers, is hosting a pachanga in Austin on Thursday, March 9, 2006, at Doña Emilia's South American Bar and Grill. The evening (6:00-8:30 p.m.) will feature award presentations to two of our veterano writers, Rolando Hinojosa-Smith and raúlrsalinas. The Quetzal Quill Reading Series will feature Diana Marie Delgado, Brenda Cardenas, and Lorna Dee Cervantes. Admission is free. The Public is invited. Open buffet/Cash bar. (Donations are welcomed.) The first-time event will coincide with the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Annual Conference. This year’s conference will include over thirty panels and readings featuring a diverse community of Chicano/Latino voices: Francisco Aragon, Norma Cantu, Lisa D. Chavez, Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Blas Manuel de Luna, Christine Granados, Dagoberto Gilb, Rigoberto Gonzalez, Carolina Monsivais, Alberto Rios, and many others. This gathering in Austin is part of Con Tinta’s community outreach efforts. The collective’s mission is to create awareness through the cultivation of emerging talent, through the promotion and presentation of artistic expression, and through the collective voice of support to our members, our communities, and our allies. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Richard Yañez, Con Tinta Advisory Circle member, at theclica@hotmail.com.

NEW BLOGGER: Reyna Grande has just started her own blog. Grande’s first novel, Across a Hundred Mountains, will be published this summer by Atria Books. Also, Grande will be one of the guest authors at the Chica Lit Club Festival in Miami on May 19 to 21, 2006. Visit the Festival's website for more information.

SOMOS PRIMOS: The March issue of Somos Primos is out. Edited by Mimi Lozano, Somos Primos is dedicated to “Hispanic Heritage and Diversity Issues.”

KEEP ON HUMMIN’: Luis Alberto Urrea’s magnificent novel, The Hummingbird's Daughter (Little, Brown), is a finalist in fiction for the Pacific Rim Voices Kiriyama Prize. It's the 10th annual award. The real news is that Urrea is the first author ever to be a finalist for the award in both fiction and nonfiction. You can read more at http://www.kiriyamaprize.org/.

MISSISSIPPI REVIEW (ONLINE) CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS:

Accepting submissions now
Theme: Mexico/Cortos (Short Films)
Edited by Peter Theis
Fiction, Maximum 1500 words
Format: Microsoft Word or RTF files
Submissions end: March 25, 2006
Issue publication: April 2, 2006
Submissions to Peter Theis

From the editor: “There are approximately 20 million Mexicans living in the United States and over 1 million U.S. Citizens living in Mexico, but how much do most of us know of life in Mexico? Vendors selling steaming lamb heads in the markets of Xochimilco. The town clown who rides his bicycle backwards and knows all the sexual adventures of everyone in the area, including nuns and priests. The ugly, short, charismatic man who made rain with a Volkswagen engine on mountain tops. The turtle reserve and the freshly baked chocolate nut bread on the beach in Mazunte. Major U.S. banks urging violent ‘elimination’ of the Zapatistas to benefit those in the ‘investment community.’ We want to see strong, clear, difficult, terrifying, strange, humorous, and unexpected stories featuring, set in, and/or about Mexico, preferably stories that might lend themselves to short film.” For more information, visit MR's guidelines.

All done. So, until next Monday, enjoy the intervening posts from my compadres y comadre at La Bloga. ¡Lea un libro!

El Chuco, Rio, Oxnard

Manuel Ramos


CHRISTINE GRANADOS
Christine Granados' Brides and Sinners in El Chuco (University of Arizona Press, 2006), has at least two guys (who should know) impressed:

“Christine Granados’ stories are sharp, evocative portraits of El Paso which deserve a wide readership. Her fiction does not flinch from hard truths or taboos. And her spare prose cuts to what is essential, what is hilarious, and what makes us who we are. A wonderful debut.” —Sergio Troncoso

“Defying what is expected of a Chicana writer, Granados is helping to re-orient Latino literature away from poignant, romanticized goody-goodyism, toward stark, complex storytelling that will remind the many of us who have grown up imperfectly what it is to be living on the embattled fronteras of Mexican and American.” —Dagoberto Gilb

The publisher says this about the book:
"In the border town of El Paso—better known to its Mexican American residents as El Chuco—dramas unfold in humdrum households every day as working-class men come home from their jobs and as their wives and children do their best to cope with life. Christine Granados now plumbs the heart of this community in fourteen startling stories, uncovering the dreams and secrets in which ordinary people sometimes lose themselves."

LUIZ ALFREDO GARCIA-ROZA
The current issue of January Magazine features an excerpt from Pursuit (Henry Holt, 2006), the latest Inspector Espinosa mystery from Luis Alfredo Garcia-Roza. January says this about Garcia-Roza:

"Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza is a bestselling novelist who lives in Rio de Janeiro. The Espinosa mysteries have been translated into six languages. Pursuit is the fifth book in the series. The previous four titles are available in paperback from Picador."

And here's what January says about the book:

"A hospital psychiatrist feels he's being stalked by a patient. For as long as possible, he convinces himself that the young man is harmless, but when the doctor's daughter disappears and the patient goes missing too, he calls on Espinosa for help. Soon after, the patient turns up dead."

Check out the excerpt.

LUIS LEAL LIBRARY
The Ventura County Star reported the opening of the Luis Leal Library at the Mexican Consulate in Oxnard (CA) on February 24. Leal is the well-respected former Chicano Studies professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

According to the Star, the library was named for Leal because of his contributions to Latin American, Mexican and Chicano literature. Leal also donated books.


Leal has published more than 40 books and 300 articles and has received numerous honors including the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle, the highest honor bestowed by the Mexican government on foreign citizens. Leal (98) taught at the university until two years ago, where he was the director of the Center for Chicano Studies.

The Star quotes María Herrera-Sobek, associate vice chair of diversity, equity ad academic policy at UCSB and the Luis Leal Endowed Chair in the university’s Chicano Studies Department: “He’s very warm, very humble, very generous with his students.”

Later.

Review: The Hummingbird's Daughter

Michael Sedano

What's an honorable man to do when his illegitimate children force a father's acknowledgement? In Don Tomas Urrea's case, he abandons his wife and children in town and moves out to the rancho to be with the daughter and son he fathered out of sundry dalliances. When the daughter rises from the dead and commences healing the sick, Luis Alberto Urrea's novel takes a wonderful turn from the merely interesting to the arrestingly bizarre.

Given the novel's 499 pages, Urrea has the luxury of spinning out an elaborate set of circumstances and allowing the various forces to play out against one another. Teresita's mean-hearted aunt brutalizes the child until Huila steps forth. The old india takes Teresa as a pupil, teaching her desert herbs, plant medicine, and indigenous philosophy. Urrea blends the story of the two curanderas with that of Teresa's father Tomas and the engineer Lauro Aguirre. They are an ideal combination of leader and genius. Aguirre's inventiveness makes the 1880s Mexican frontier desert bloom to agricultural richness. Don Tomas' leadership wins friends with the Yaqui to ensure his remains a peaceful Eden.

Gardeners, desert lovers, and the like, will enjoy Urrea's passion for the land.The descriptions the various honeys Don Tomas' lands produce should help sales. Unfortunately, his explanation of the curative uses of herbs doesn't go far enough, except for the comic effect of the marijuana smoke in the beekeeper scenes. In his afterword, Urrea demurs on the latter, claiming allegiance to indio informants not to take that part of the novel too far into family secrets. Urrea claims Teresita as an aunt.

The Hummingbird's Daughter, although dealing with Mexico's ugly history comes with a large helping of humor. Indeed, the entire predicament that Don Tomas finds himself in is a total hoot. What can a father do when teeming multitudes invade his hacienda, beseeching his risen-from-the-dead child to heal the sick and raise the dead? Give her his 100% support. This, in turn, leads to one worse disaster after another. They flee. They are caught. Imprisoned. Tortured. Rescued, only to find themselves the bait in a nefarious ambush.

I'm happy to learn from La Bloga that The Hummingbird's Daughter is coming to paperback. This fun novel deserves the much wider audience it'll get.

For now, barring one of Teresita's miracles, that's it until next week. Hay les wachamos.

mvs

SPOTLIGHT ON PAUL MARTÍNEZ POMPA

Monday’s post from Daniel Olivas…

Paul Martínez Pompa received his B.A. from the University of Chicago and his M.F.A. from Indiana University. He currently teaches English and creative writing at Triton College in River Grove, Illinois. He resides with his wife and their beloved dog on the northwest side of Chicago.

Momotombo Press has just released Martínez Pompa’s poetry chapbook, Pepper Spray. In the introduction, Luis J. Rodríguez says that his poems “sizzle like Chicago on a sticky August night—as gunfire, a woman’s moans, a child’s cry, glass breaking, a drunken man falling, and a lonely saxophone drenches notes through blast-opened windows in leaning three-story brick buildings.” Here is a poem from this collection:

How to Hear Chicago

Here a spirit must yell
to be heard yet a bullet

need only whisper to make
its point—sometimes I imagine

you right before your death
with an entire city in your ears.

To purchase Pepper Spray and to learn more about its publisher, visit Momotombo Press’s website.

CON TINTA CELEBRATION IN AUSTIN, TEJAS: Con Tinta, a coalition of Chicano/Latino cultural activists, poets and writers, is hosting a pachanga in Austin on Thursday, March 9, 2006, at Doña Emilia's South American Bar and Grill. The evening (6:00-8:30 p.m.) will feature award presentations to two of our veterano writers, Rolando Hinojosa-Smith and raúlrsalinas. The Quetzal Quill Reading Series will feature Diana Marie Delgado, Brenda Cardenas, and Lorna Dee Cervantes.

Admission is free. The Public is invited. Open buffet/Cash bar. (Donations are welcomed.)

The first-time event will coincide with the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Annual Conference. This year’s conference will include over thirty panels and readings featuring a diverse community of Chicano/Latino voices: Francisco Aragon, Norma Cantu, Lisa D. Chavez, Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Blas Manuel de Luna, Christine Granados, Dagoberto Gilb, Rigoberto Gonzalez, Carolina Monsivais, Alberto Rios, and many others.

This gathering in Austin is part of Con Tinta’s community outreach efforts. The collective’s mission is to create awareness through the cultivation of emerging talent, through the promotion and presentation of artistic expression, and through the collective voice of support to our members, our communities, and our allies.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Richard Yañez, Con Tinta Advisory Circle member, at theclica@hotmail.com.

FAWN-TAW-STICK!: Alvaro Huerta’s latest essay, “Schwarzenegger’s shortcomings soften support,” appears in UCLA’s Daily Bruin. Huerta is a graduate student in urban planning.

WRITING ABOUT CANCER: Sergio Troncoso’s new essay, "Letter To My Young Sons: Part One," about his wife's battle against breast cancer, is now available on Amazon Shorts. You can go to the front page of Troncoso’s website to find the essay.

And another reminder that Troncoso will be introducing Jamaica Kincaid at an event for the Hudson Valley Writers' Center, where Troncoso is on the board:

February 28, 2006
8:00 p.m.
The Masters School
49 Clinton Avenue
Dobbs Ferry, NY

For more info see http://www.writerscenter.org Also, the Hudson Valley Writers' Center has decided to honor University of Arizona's Camino Del Sol for the great work they have done. The Writers' Center honors a small press each year, and last year it was Curbstone Press. For Camino Del Sol, there will have a special event in November 2006 to highlight the mission of the press, and to promote its authors. See the Writers' Center website above for details.

Finally, Troncoso has decided to donate, effective January 2006, all proceeds from his webpage http://www.chicanoliterature.com/ and http://www.latinofiction.com/ (both URLs lead to the same web page) to Hudson River Healthcare, which provides free healthcare to migrant farmworkers in New York's Hudson Valley.

UCLA CHICANO STUDIES RESEARCH CENTER EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT:

Eric Avila will be signing his latest book, Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight: Fear and Fantasy in Suburban Los Angeles (University of California Press)

Monday, February 27, 2006
4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
UCLA Campus, 144 Haines Hall
A reception follows the book signing

Eric Avila received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. in U.S. history from the University of California, Berkeley. Since 1997, he has taught Chicano studies and history at UCLA and was promoted to associate professor in 2004. On February 27, he will be signing his new book, Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight: Fear and Fantasy in Suburban Los Angeles published by the University of California Press. His research has won various awards and prizes, including recognition by the Organization of American Historians for one of the ten best articles in American history written between the summers of 2004 and 2005. He recently completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University in the Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History, where he began research for a second book project, entitled, The Folklore of the Freeway: A Cultural History of Highway Construction.

For more information and information about other programs at the UCLA CSRC, visit its website.

All done. So, until next Monday, enjoy the intervening posts from my compadres y comadre at La Bloga. ¡Lea un libro!

Limón, Mango, and Chicken Soup

Manuel Ramos


MARTIN LIMÓN SELECTED AS HAMMETT AWARD NOMINEE

The North American Branch of the International Association of Crime Writers recently announced the nominees for the annual HAMMETT PRIZE for a work of literary excellence in the field of crime writing by a US or Canadian author. Among the nominees is Martin Limón and his most recent military police procedural featuring G.I. cops Sueño and Bascomb, The Door to Bitterness (Soho Crime, 2005). Michael Sedano reviewed this book for La Bloga, which you can still read here.

The other nominees include: John Brady, Islandbridge (McArthur & Company), Joseph Kanon, Alibi: A Novel (Henry Holt), Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men (Knopf), and Don Winslow, The Power of the Dog (Knopf). The winner will be chosen by three distinguished outside judges: André Aciman, author of Out of Egypt (winner of the Whiting Writer’s Award) and most recently editor of The Proust Project; Karen Rothmyer, managing editor of The Nation; and Lynn Slotkin theatre reviewer for CBC Radio’s Here and Now and editor of The Slotkin Letter. The organization will name the HAMMETT PRIZE winner on June 10, during the Bloody Words mystery conference in Toronto. The winner will receive a bronze trophy, designed by sculptor Peter Boiger. Congratulations to Martin for this well-deserved recognition.

SANDRA CISNEROS READS AND DISCUSSES HOUSE ON MANGO STREET FOR BRAZOS VALLEY READS
As part of the Brazos Valley Reads celebration, Sandra Cisneros will read from and discuss her classic House on Mango Street on February 27, 2006, 7:30 p.m., at the Bryan Civic Auditorium, 800 Coulter Drive, Bryan, TX. Brazos Valley Reads is a community effort to involve students and adults in reading and discussing literature. Blinn College in Bryan is presenting several related events leading up to Cisneros' visit.

SOULICIOUS
The Chicano Humanities and Arts Council sponsors Soulicious, described as "Soulful Inspirations, Art to Feed the Soul Bordering on ... Duel Identities. Peaceful Retributions of Funk and Groove Chicanismo." The exhibit features Eric Elfego Baca, Rachael Landau, Rebecca Rozales, Eugene Staner, Renee Fajardo, Arlette Lucero, and Thomas Rozales. The opening reception, February 24, 6:00 p.m - 10:00 p.m., includes storytelling, soulful food and booksignings. Chicken Soup for the Latino Soul (HCI, 2005), will be introduced by Renee Fajardo, storyteller and contributor to the book. CHAC is at 772 Santa Fe Drive, Denver. More info at 303-571-0440.

Later.