Conspiracy Culture: From Kennedy to The X-Files

"Everything is some kind of plot, man." - Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow

Agent Scully: "What makes you think that is a conspiracy? That the government is involved?" Kurt Crawford: "What makes you think it isn't? - Memento Mori / The X-Files

"The paranoid person is in possession of all the facts." - William Burroughs

Conspiracy theories are a particular and salient feature of post World War II America. From McCarthyism to postmodern novels, The X-Files, and gansta rap to feminist polemic, there is widespread suspicion that sinister forces are conspiring to take control of our national destiny, our minds, and even our bodies. Conspiracy explanations can no longer be dismissed as the disorganized ramblings of far right crackpots, the left wing intelligentsia, and the techno cognoscenti.

Particularly as evidenced by the popularity of a show like The X-Files, mainstream America became more than willing to embrace the idea that there is a cabal of men planning our futures, that we cannot trust institutions, that the enemy is closer than we were taught to believe. We have lived through grassy knolls, Cointelpro, the assassinations of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, infiltration and disruption of a host of Chicano groups, especially La Raza Unida Party, as well as CIA-led coups in Chile, Iran, Namibia. Events of the last decade bear witness to this brave new world.

While the major spin on 9/11 identified virulent Islamic terrorist bent on destroying us, there were still news threads that linked the Bin Laden family with the Bush family and the Bush family to international oil interests. We had Dick Cheney heading the shadow government from deep in the bowels of the earth, and FEMA hawking duct tape and plastic sheeting as protection from invisible enemies. Can anyone say "WMDs"?

Conspiracy Culture author, Peter Knight, a lecturer in American Studies in Manchester, attempts to provide his own analysis using such diverse sources as Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, Don DeLillo's Underworld, Oliver's Stone's JFK, and soon his new flick, W, The X-Files, and a host of internet sites.

He explores how conspiracy theories developed from the 1960's through the 1990's. The focal points of these theories range from the Kennedy assassination, alien abduction, body horror, AIDS, crack cocaine, the New World Order; as well as what he terms "the usual conspiracies...of patriarchy and white supremacy." I found this level of research, its detail, and its scope impressive.

Beyond this, we part company. When it comes to his analysis as to why ideas of conspiracy have proliferated, Knight is completely ahistorical. He posits the growth in the wider acceptance of conspiracy as policy to intellectual inferiority and sloppiness, poverty, and a spiritual paucity. I was astounded at this polemic disguised as dispassionate deductive reasoning. I personally remember when, in the late 70's in Chicago, Black Panther leader Fred Hampton was murdered in his bed by Chicago police - police who were aided and abetted in that execution by moles paid by the FBI through the Cointelpro program of "neutralization."

Semiautomatic assassination appeared to be a fairly neutralizing force in communities and the community of social change as a whole. That level of challenge to the government, to capital, to imperialism and its domestic and international control has yet to be re-created, although perhaps we see the seeds of its rebirth in the resistance to the Iraq war. Rather than Knight's position that a conspiracy theory's popularity is solely due to a lack of sophistication, education, and contemplation, I believe the proponents are literate, distrusting the narrative of authority, and suspicious of the authorized narrative as to the health of the body politic. In a nutshell, what message may be taking root in a deep and irrevocable way is: Trust no one.

See Scully, I told you this was coming.

ISBN-10: 0415189780

Bad news:

Journalist Teresa Puente was laid off from the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board Today. She was the only Hispanic on the board and also wrote a twice monthly column. Puente also was the only writer at the Sun-Times that regularly covered Latino issues and immigration.

Also, her colleague, Deborah Douglas, the only African-American writer on the editorial board, was laid off Wednesday. This means there are no people of color on the editorial board any more.

To voice an opinion on this matter please send an email to:

Michael Cooke, Sun-Times editor, mcooke@suntimes.com

Tom McNamee, Editorial page editor, tmcnamee@suntimes.com

Cyrus Freidheim, publisher, cfreidheim@suntimes.com

Finally, GOOD NEWS:

The National Museum of Mexican Art celebrates Folk Art Week!

October 17 - October 26, 2008
10am - 4pm

1852 W. 19th Street, Chicago, IL.
For more information, please call 312-738-1503 or visit www.nationalmuseumofmexicanart.org



Artist Demonstrations:

Ceramic Sculptures by Demetrio Garcia Aguilar, Ocotlan de Morelos, Oaxaca
Textile Weaving by Celia Santiz Ruiz, San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas
Huichol Yarn and Beadwork by José Benitez Sanchez, Santa Catarina, Jalisco
Wood Carvings by Jacobo & Maria Angeles, San Martin Tilcajete, Oaxaca
Wooden Masks by Orlando Orta, Tocuaro, Michoacán
Amate Paintings by Marcial Camilo Ayala, San Agustin Oapan, Guerrero
Sugar Skull Demonstrations by Alejandro Mondragón Arriaga, Elvira Garcia Zinzu & Elvira Mondragón Garcia, Toluca, Estado de México




Wishing for more good news,


Lisa Alvarado

New Children's Books From Piñata Books/ Arte Público Press

Estrellita en la ciudad grande
Estrellita in the Big City
By Samuel Caraballo (Author)

ISBN 9781558854987
Category Picture Book
Published 31 Oct 2008
Bind Hardcover
Pages 32
Price $ 15.95
Age Group 4-9

A young girl recounts her experiences in the Big Apple to her Abuela in this homage to loved ones who stay behind

“Hola, Abuelita. It’s me, Estrellita!” And so begins the phone conversation that Estrellita and her beloved grandmother have longed for since Estrellita moved from her beautiful island home of Puerto Rico to New York City.

Estrellita regales her grandmother with stories of the exciting sights and sounds of the big city: her first ride on a subway train into Manhattan and the fascinating underground city where you can buy anything—“even clothes and shoes”— and listen to musicians perform at all hours; the hustle and bustle of Fifth Avenue, where people, yellow cabs, and buses rush up and down; the Empire State Building that “was SO tall that I thought it was going to fall on me!”; Rockefeller Center with its glass-covered buildings that reach into the sky; and the Verrazano Bridge, one of the world’s longest suspended bridges that looked “as if it had no end.”

As exciting as the tourist attractions are to Estrellita and her father, El Barrio, a neighborhood where everybody speaks Spanish, is just as thrilling. There’s a restaurant called Rincón, just like the town in Puerto Rico, and a music store called La Casita Latina. Estrellita and her family sing Abuela’s favorite song, “En mi viejo San Juan,” and Estrellita is reminded once again of how much she misses her grandmother. But she is comforted by her phone conversation with Abuela and knows she’ll talk to Abuela again soon. And maybe some day Abuela will come to visit Estrellita in the big city!

In this lively sequel to Estrellita se despide de su isla / Estrellita Says Good-bye to Her Island, author Samuel Caraballo and illustrator Pablo Torrecilla team up again to depict the loving relationship between a young girl and her grandmother. Torrecilla’s exquisite illustrations of Abuela on the phone in tranquil Puerto Rico contrast superbly with those of Estrellita set against the backdrop of a vibrant and busy New York City. Readers of all ages will relate to a young girl’s love for her grandmother, while children ages 4 to 9 who have been separated from family will empathize with—and be reassured by—Estrellita’s experiences in a new city.

Pepita on Pepper Street /
Pepita en la calle Pepper
By Ofelia Dumas Lachtman (Author)

ISBN 9781558854437
Category Picture Book
Published 31 Oct 2008
Bind Hardcover
Pages 32
Price $ 15.95
Age Group 3-7

The intrepid Pepita is back with another entertaining tale for children about making new friends

Pepita is almost always happy. But she isn’t today. She’s not happy because everything is different on her new street. There’s no familiar grocery store on the corner, and no tortilla shop squeezed right next to it. Tía Rosa’s house isn’t down the street, and worst of all, her best friend Sonya no longer lives right next door. Pepita is definitely not happy about her move to Pepper Street.

But her dog Lobo doesn’t mind the new neighborhood, and in fact, he likes the new smells he encounters as Pepita walks him up and down the street. He even wags his tail at the new people they meet: Mrs. Green, who wears a straw hat while weeding her rose garden; Mrs. Becker, who paints the pepper trees, and her dog, Blackie; and José, the mailman, who hopes Lobo won’t bite him. Soon, Pepita realizes that her father’s suggestion—“the best way to stop feeling new is to get to know people”—is good advice. And when a girl with bright red hair named Katie Ann comes by to visit, Pepita learns that making new friends isn’t so hard after all.

This colorful bilingual picture book focuses on the tough transition that many kids make: adjusting to a new neighborhood and making new friends. Readers ages 3 to 7 will root for plucky Pepita as she learns to like life on Pepper Street.

It’s Bedtime, Cucuy /
A la cama, Cucuy
By Claudia Galindo (Author)
Johnathan Coombs (Illustrator)
John Pluecker (Spanish Translator)

ISBN 9781558854918
Category Picture Book
Published 31 Aug 2008
Bind Hardcover
Pages 32
Price $ 15.95
Age Group 3-7

Little Cucuy is back in this entertaining bilingual picture book that touches on a subject familiar to all children and their parents

Like many human children, Cucuy, the little monster, doesn’t like to go to bed. “I’m not sleepy,” he says. “All I want to do is jump around and play!”

He tries to run and hide, but Mamá manages to get him into his pajamas. Every night he kicks and screams, wiggles and jiggles, mumbles and grumbles. He’s hungry, he’s thirsty. He needs to go to the bathroom. But Mamá won’t give in. “Tomorrow you will have a whole new day to jump around and play,” she tells her little monster, until finally he … drifts … off … to … sleep.

Children ages 3 to 7 will delight in the travails of poor Cucuy, the little monster who doesn’t like to go to sleep. And they might just see themselves as Cucuy protests but ultimately does fall asleep. Author Claudia Galindo and illustrator Jonathan Coombs once again collaborate on an entertaining picture book for children.

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.

Maurice Jourdane’s memoir recounts the struggle for justice for farm workers

Maurice Jourdane’s life is nothing if not an example of a person who has lived the American dream but who never forgot to give back to the community. His new memoir, Waves Of Recovery (Floricanto Press), allows us to learn of his remarkable personal and political journey.

Jourdane grew up in southeast Los Angeles, witnessed the hard life of farm workers in Delano during law school, helped ban the crippling short-handled hoe, stopped California from labeling mentally retarded Spanish-speaking students who scored low on an English-administered intelligence test, was a Superior Court judge in Monterey County, and recovered from a nearly fatal auto-oil truck collision. In the words of the publisher Floricanto Press:

Mo's life reads like a Greek mythic tale in which the hero suffers and endures moral and physical endurance in his quest, his now legendary legal fights and successes against the powerful California growers and agricultural interests. This biography is a testament to human strength in behalf of justice for Latinos. The success of César Chávez's civil rights movement and union organizing efforts cannot be fully understood without knowledge of the life and sacrifices of Maurice Jourdane, El Cortito. His legal successes, at great personal costs, solidified Chávez's leadership and prepared the way for the consolidation of the Farm Workers' Union, and ultimately for the farm workers to prevail against the powerful political and economic interests of the California growers… He followed César Chávez's motto: "Sí se puede."

Playwright and author Luis Valdéz offers these words: “Waves of Recovery is a powerful account of the struggle for justice for farm workers in the face of brutal, violent opposition by growers and Agribusiness... Written with true honesty and courage, it is nothing less than inspiring."

After retiring from the Superior Court in Monterey County, Jourdane returned to Southern California where he is currently a deputy attorney general fighting to improve the working conditions for farm workers, construction workers, truck drivers, cab drivers, and others who have fallen within the underground economy. In other words, the fight continues.

◙ In the San Antonio Current, B.V. Olguín offers an article entitled, Queering the Movimiento: Gregg Barrios's Theater of the Repressed, Recovered, and Revolutionized. Olguín’s piece begins:

When bleached-blond Danny De La Paz rollerbladed onto a minimalist stage at Our Lady of the Lake University on August 13, 2005, wearing a glass tiara, a muscle T-shirt, and tight, bulging shorts while Brian Adams’ campy anthem “Heaven” played in the background, you knew this wasn’t gonna be just another Chicano gangbanger story.

The actor who debuted as the ill-fated cholo Chuco in the classic gang saga Boulevard Nights, and later played a fratricidal Mexican Mafia assassin in American Me, is all grown up and out of the closet in Gregg Barrios’s play I-DJ Mofomixmaster.

De La Paz opened the one-night stand with an adaptation from Hamlet:

“Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue.”

With a perfectly delivered comic pause and femme aside, he deadpans: “Weren’t you expecting Shakesqueer?”

This seemingly dissonant appropriation of the Bard’s classic work of existential angst to explore the 1970s Los Angeles dance-club scene enables a provocative queering of Chicano identity and even British literary history.

“After all, Hamlet is a play within a play,” De La Paz’s character reminds us. “How queer is that?!”

Barrios’s Shakespeare gloss provided an unexpectedly good staging device for a drama about an aging DJ who recalls how his search for validation as a Chicano on West Coast airways coincided with his coming out. The storyline is simple yet profound: A young gay Chicano wants to proclaim his existence by joining the Chicano Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and ’70s — el Movimiento — but his fellow Chicano activists respond by paraphrasing Eldridge Cleaver’s outrageous party line, that the only position for a woman or a fag in our movement is the lateral position.

To read the entire piece, click here. More on Gregg Barrios: his play, Rancho Pancho, continues to make news, this time over at Book Critics Circle which included the Barrios play in this literary news roundup.

◙ Agustin Gurza, staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, tells us of Pilar Díaz’s reemergence after the break up of Los Abandoned, which, says Gurza, meant that Los Angeles “lost one of its most creative bicultural bands…” But all is not lost:

At the time, lead singer and songwriter couldn't get herself to talk about why she had abandoned the acclaimed quartet, whose logo was a broken heart.

"It was heartbreaking, the toughest thing I ever had to do," Díaz said this week on the eve of launching her solo career. "The reason is really simple; it's just like what happens with any other band. I just wanted to start doing something new. I wanted to see what else is out there for me, how much more I could grow and challenge myself."

Her reemergence shows that breaking up may be hard to do, but it can lead to unexpected and fruitful places.

To read the entire piece and learn of Díaz’s upcoming show, click here. If you have story ideas for Gurza, email him at agustin.gurza@latimes.com. (Photo credit: Los Angeles Times.)

◙ Not to get all political on you or anything, I just read an interesting piece at Politico.com entitled, Hispanics turn cold shoulder to McCain by Ben Smith. It begins:

Despite championing immigration reform in 2007, John McCain is poised to lose the Hispanic vote by a landslide margin that is well below President George W. Bush's 2004 performance.

Polls show Obama winning the broadest support from Latino voters of any Democrat in a decade, while McCain is struggling to reach 30 percent, closer to Senator Bob Dole's dismal 1996 result than to Bush's historic 40% four years ago.

McCain seems to have wound up with the worst of both worlds: He appears to be getting no credit from Latino voters for his past support for immigration reform, while carrying the baggage of other Republicans' hostility to illegal immigration.

◙ Okay, since I am getting all political on you, let me add this: If you’re a California voter and you are happy that our State Supreme Court upheld the right of all people to get married regardless of sexual orientation, then PLEASE vote against Proposition 8. Proposition 8 seeks to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry. Regardless of how you feel about marriage, we should not eliminate fundamental rights for ANY Californians. If you want all Californians to enjoy the right to marry, visit No on Prop 8.com to find out how you can help.

◙ In the new issue of AWP’s magazine, Writer’s Chronicle, Christopher Buckley offers a powerful and thoughtful piece entitled, Elegy for Desire: Luis Omar Salinas 1937-2008. Buckley says, in part:

Luis Omar Salinas was, and posthumously continues to be, one of the leading Chicano poets as well as an important voice in contemporary American poetry for thirty years. Since 1967, Salinas has been publishing poems and books of poetry, and receiving recognition and awards for his writing. His first book, Crazy Gypsy, (1970), is now a classic of contemporary and Chicano poetry, reflecting the politics and self actualization of those highly charged and changing times. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Luis Omar Salinas was one of the prominent group of poets associated with such major American poets as Philip Levine, Peter Everwine, and Robert Mezey who were teaching at Fresno State College, as it was then known. In his obituary in the Fresno Bee, Levine remembered Salinas when he was first at Fresno State in the late 1960s: “It wasn’t the vocabulary or syntax, but the vision itself. Latino Surrealism gave an unusual edge to his work. I immediately could pick out poems of his out of all my students.” The early hallmark title poem of his first book, “Crazy Gypsy” appeared in the now classic anthology from 1970, Down At The Santa Fe Depot: Twenty Fresno Poets. There he is in his coat, scarf, and hat at the apex of that black & white cover photo, Omar always with a hat…. [Photo credit: Karen Harlow-McClintock.]

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

Book Give-Away

Here's a final opportunity, as Fiestas Patrias Month winds to a close, to receive the set of eight delightfully readable titles listed below. Send in your answers to the following La Bloga-related questions. 

1. She writes La Bloga's Not-Every-Sunday column. 

2. He edited Latinos in Lotusland and writes La Bloga's Monday column.

3. He's the Tuesday guy for La Bloga.

4. This children's books writer appears on La Bloga Wednesday.

5. She's la chicana from Chicago, writes on Thursday for La Bloga.

6. La Bloga's Friday guy, we're looking for him to finish that novel.

7. He's an elementary school teacher whose work now and then appears in La Bloga; he's also the guy who started La Bloga. 

Hint: look at our photos at the top of the page, and read "About"! Haz klik aquí to send in your list of La Bloga's blogueras blogueras. Remember to include a mailing address.

Thanks to Hachette for making the following available on this "Hispanic Heritage Month" book give-away:

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

Rules For Writers?

The following was written as a tongue-in-cheek essay for the Colorado Authors' League (CAL) website and you can still find it there at this link. I think humor is one of the most difficult forms of writing. Occasional quick grins from readers are about all I ever manage to pull off. The planned joke or comical story intimidates the creative being within me, but I gave it a shot anyway for CAL.

After you read through the following, maybe you can offer your own "rules" for writing - serious or humorous. Give it some thought and then post your own rules in our comments section - what works for you; what gets the writing juices flowing; what routines help?

I know, the first rule for writing is that there are no rules. But then what?

_____________________________________________

Elmore Leonard's Ten (Eleven, Really) Rules for Writers

by
Manuel Ramos

Elmore Leonard can write. Out of Sight. The Hot Kid. Valdez is Coming. Hombre. Get Shorty. Killshot. Etc, etc, etc. His enduring popularity is unusual in a profession known for the ephemeral nature of the current "hot" literary star. Writers read Leonard because we understand that he really can do it. So, it should be no surprise that his Ten Rules for Writers are likewise famous. They have achieved a level of respect and admiration among the literati and academics that is surprising, given that he is a writer whose books are usually shelved in the "genre" aisles. The Rules appeared in 2001 in the New York Times, and can still be found on the Times website. Go here now and read Leonard's Rules.

Here are a few personal observations about The Rules (it will help if you read them first - click the link above ↑. And I hope Elmore Leonard has a sense of humor.)

But first, a couple of my own rules so you will know where I'm coming from:

1. Read (goes without saying but I said it anyway), and, most importantly, be a very precise and careful reader.
2. There is no "I" in "author" (but there is in "writer" - so you probably can ignore this rule.)

The Rules:

1. Never open a book with "whether." I agree. Ambiguity at the beginning can confuse a reader. Now, an ambiguous ending is an entirely different matter. Sometimes I just don't know how to end whatever it is I'm writing, so why not end with something like, "and whether Clyde actually killed Maria is still a mystery today." Cool, no?
2. Avoid Prague. Again, I agree. I've never been to Prague; I doubt I ever will. Leonard obviously had a bad experience there. I hear it's a beautiful city, but I can't see writing about it. How interesting can it be?
3. Never use an herb other than "sage" to carry a meal. I disagree and am at a loss to explain why this is in a set of rules about writing. Maybe for the cookbook writers? In any event, I'd go with garlic.
4. Never use anthrax to modify "sage." Well, duh. This rule must have had its origins in Leonard's pulp roots, and I don't mean the stuff in orange juice. For some reason, The Rules have a lot of food references. Of course, I skipped breakfast, so that may have something to do with the general tone of this article.
5. Keep your exclamation points under control. *#!@*!*&! I hate this rule!
6. Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose." This is a rule that separates the writers from the authors. Leonard says it needs no explanation. Good enough for me.
7. Use pâté sparingly. Back to food. Here I would have said "never use pâté." I mean, does anyone really like the stuff? And I certainly see myself using "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose" long before I would ever bring up "a finely ground or chunky mixture of meats such as liver, and additional fat, vegetables, herbs, spices, wine and other ingredients." [Thanks, Wikipedia!]
8. Avoid detailed caricatures. I've often wondered about the nerve of the guy who charges people for a cartoon that emphasizes his subject's less-than-flattering physical traits. Can you imagine how much fun an artist could have with Leonard's Harry Potter eyeglasses and retro goatee? (They go well with the name Elmore, don't you think?) Easy to figure out why this rule is here.
   
9. Don't go into great detail describing places and things. Even I know that this one is controversial. Consider James Joyce, Leo Tolstoy and Henry James - and that's just the first three names that Google produced when I searched for "wordy writers." But, think about it. When's the last time these guys had a bestseller? Leonard is right again.
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip. Hey, I've written entire books that readers have skipped. So ....?

According to Leonard, the rule that summarizes the above ten rules is the most important rule: If it sounds like writing, rewrite it.

Leonard suddenly finally abandoned the ship! lost me with this exaggerated conclusion, as though all hell broke loose one. Has the tall, gaunt, aging writer slipped into the maelstrom of literary self-consciousness? I don't get it.

________________________________________

Okay, gente. Your turn. An aspiring writer asks: "What do you do to make your writing better? What 'rules' do you follow when you write?" What's your answer?

Later.

Zooman and the Sign, Charles Fuller, other losses

Charles Fuller is one strong writer. He has created strong characters that convey powerful emotional complexity. His material is a bit dated in its treatment of the subject matter, that of gang violence, but this is more because of our culture's inundation of film and TV treatments that have explored this issue than with any weakness in Fuller's writing.

Fuller takes us into the core of the grief that the Tate family is feeling due to the death of their youngest daughter at the hands of random gang violence. He also artfully takes us into the motivations of the fifteen year old gangbanger that killed her. But does he do it theatrically? I don't believe so. Fuller is a talented writer. His work is compelling... as literature. I had the sense of reading a good short story and I could visualize this as a segment on the superior cop show Homicide. But let's get back to what the fundamental key elements of theater are: Linear time and live performance with actors engaged in action and space. Telling a story with a beginning, middle and end are the elements of literature. Does this mean that theater can't employ the elements of literature? No.

Theater and performance are an experience of the moment, with performer and audience sharing an experience in linear time. This experience can be partially expressed with linear storytelling, but it is not the thing itself. There is the ephemeral experience of what performer and audience bring together for a sliver in time. Fuller utilizes some theatricality. He has Zooman, the fifteen year old gangbanger move through the space to a platform in order to deliver a monologue to the audience. He also utilizes music and lighting to convey the menace as well as the innocence of this young man.

Fuller’s reliance on character arc and backstory and linear structure propels the action and vivifies the ritual quality inherent in theater. We are left with ritual drama that transcends the complacent consumption of performance.Theater should be catalytic to the observer, not placating. It should make us question our very existence, not shield us, but expose us.

JESUS TAFOYA PRESENTE:

From Denise Chavez ---

We greet you with the news that two great spirits have left this earth.

This news from Juarez poet Osvaldo Ogaz about Jesus Tafoya, Professor of
Spanish/Chicano Literature at Sul Ross University and author of Palabras
Demoradas, which was published in May 2008:

Querida Denise, lamentablemente perdimos al companero poeta Jesus Tafoya,
ayer 6 de octubre fallecio, es una gran perdida, la verdad era un
gran ser humano y un muy buen escritor. Dios lo tenga en su gloria.

Dear Denise, lamentably we have lost our fellow poet Jesus Tafoya,
yesterday, October 6 he died, it is a great loss, for truly he was a great
human being and a good writer.  May God hold him in his glory.

Jesus was born in El Paso and grew up in Cd. Juarez.  He was a great poet of
our Chihuahuan desert and knew intimately the power and beauty of our border
language and landscape. A great scholar, he loved all things bright and
true, from good Chinese food in Juarez,  to hanging out with his beloved
Mami, to his students at Sul Ross who will surely miss his expansive being.
He was a good friend and taught me so much about the border we call home.

In addition to the news of Jesus' passing, we have heard from Dr. Robert Con
Davis Undiano (Oklahoma University) that Barbara Glenn Momaday, wife of N.
Scott Momaday died several weeks ago.  Barbara was a participant in a
tribute to Arturo Islas in 2003, in a beautifully written homage/play by
Marcy Hundley.  Barbara was Arturo Islas' Teaching Assistant at Stanford and
had a Ph.d. in Literature.  She was a lovely, luminescent and talented woman
and she will be greatly missed.  We send our condolences to N. Scott Momaday
and his family.


I'd like to end with Jesus Tafoya's powerful poem, El Crujido de Mis Huesos.
It is a beautiful piece that he dedicated to me.  If anyone would care to
translate it, we will share it with our BBF Friends.

The poem was inspired by a line in an Esteban Arellano poem  (Esteban,
please send us the poem so we can gather all the Crujido poems in one
place), followed by my poem of the same name, followed by a poem of the same
name written by my mother, Delfina Rede Chavez.  The title of the poem, The
Creaking of My Bones/El Crujido de Mis Huesos, is a testimony to life, love,
friendship, and to those who have passed on, but will never be forgotten.


Que Viva la Vida!

Denise Chavez


El Crujido de Mis Huesos
by Jesús Tafoya

A veces
en medio de la noche
me despierta, abrumado
el crujido de mis huesos.

Su peculiar sonido,
me hace recordar
cada paso que he dado
aquí en la tierra.

Es como si mis muertos
despertaran.
Me recordaran que Caronte
espera afuera
y que su barca podría partir
a cualquier hora.

Debo dejar la puerta
y las ventanas abiertas
que se lleven el molesto sonido
y me dejen dormir,
aunque sea un momento. . .

Allí está, lo oyes. . .
   Una vez más
            El crujido de mis huesos

Lisa Alvarado