Nov. 4th - trick or treat?

Why didn't my Halloween guillotine make the national news, like that burning of a Palin-effigy?

I don't know. But just for our La Bloga audience, here's pics of my attempt to combine two nights of horror. (In case it's not readable, the blades are labeled Votes and Change.)

Why didn't Obama pick a Chico o Chica to run as VP?

In case you didn't hear the joke: the best way for Obama to make certain he made it to Inauguration Day was to pick a Mexican or a Chicano. That way the right-wing wouldn't dare assassinate him or they'd wind up with a spic for a President.

But seriously--bad jokes aside--why didn't he? That ticket could have gotten ALL the brown vote, qué no? What?--there wasn't a qualified, not real old, good-looking Chicana out there who wears trendy glasses? Sometimes I just don't understand politics.

Will it ever be "safe" to vote for a third party?

I swear every time I've done that, there's always been a Great Evil running as a Republican, and I've been advised against voting for Ralph Nader, for instance.

So, I'm supposed to wait until they run out of Great Evils? At this rate, there'll be a Chicano in the White House before a really progressive candidate ever wins. And what if a Latino turns out to be one of those Great Evils? Then what?

When should Ralph Nader stop running?

Last time I saw him on the tube, on some late night PBS program, he was looking haggard. (On speaking ability alone, Obama could have taken him.) I know it's all supposed to be about issues and principles, but everybody knows it's just about media now, so why can't progressives run someone who doesn't make us tired just looking at him?

Can't those who decide such things start looking for a progressive who can debate, doesn't look so burned out, and maybe even can wear trendy glasses? Guess what? I know one, although he doesn't wear glasses. His name's Matt Gonzalez.

Why do bloggers do shameless plugs in an election year?

Okay, so I got this distant nephew Don Garcia who's been making and selling Obama and Hillary earrings and such for some time now. I don't know that he's made a killing, but he didn't make enough to send his dad, my brother, out to Denver to sell them around the DNC. Since his big season's almost over, here's the website where you can get the stuff, if you collect such nonsense.

Why did I dump my principles and not vote for a third party?

I know Obama's not getting us completely out of Iraq soon enough, not ridding us of the military-industrial complex (that's gotten filthy rich while the rest of us wonder if next year's recession will completely bury us), and may not substantially change our suicidal spending ways, but I voted for him.

Just this once, and maybe never again, I voted Democratic because I wanted to vote with the young people around the country who've found something to believe in, something to get them out onto the streets, something to give them hope after the same eight years of despair we've all come to know as 21st Century living in America.

I may never do it again. But just this once, I thought it appropriate, even an obligation, to give my vote, not to Obama, but to them--the young people that remind me I once believed. Next time, who knows? Anyway, in that spirit, I've added my pulled-out-of-my-ass guess about the popular vote next week. Here the latest, below.

Cambio

MORE ABOUT HIT LIST
Marina Tristán, Assistant Director of Arte Público, forwarded the catalog copy for the new anthology of Latino crime fiction, Hit List. I'll reprint it here with the hope that it whets your interest in this collection.

Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery
Edited by Sarah Cortez and Liz Martínez
Introduction by Sarah Cortez
Foreword by Ralph E. Rodríguez, Ph.D.
March 31, 2009, 240 pages, $19.95 ISBN-10: 1-55885-543-2 ISBN-13: 978-1-55885-543-4

This first-ever collection of short mystery fiction by Latino authors contains both stylistically and ethnically diverse stories. In Lucha Corpi’s story, Hollow Point at the Synapses, her unique narrator—a bullet—describes the instant before killing a young Peruvian woman: I feel the pull of the hammer. The pressure mounts. I am now in place. The moment is upon me. Swiftly and efficiently, I will do what I must, what I was created for. In an instant, I am off, traveling at a speed reserved only for death.

This groundbreaking anthology of short fiction by Latino mystery writers, Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery, features an intriguing and unpredictable cast of sleuths, murderers and crime victims. Reflecting the authors’—and society’s—preoccupation with identity, self, and territory, the stories run the gamut of the mystery genre, from traditional to noir, from the private investigator to the police procedural, and even a chick lit mystery.

The Right Profile features a Miami private investigator who goes undercover to prove a deadbeat father can pay child support, and she delights in testifying against him in court. In The Skull of Pancho Villa, someone has stolen the family heirloom and it’s up to Gus Corral to get it back. And in A New York Chicano, a successful bachelor from El Paso—a graduate of NYU working for Merrill Lynch in Manhattan—gets his revenge against a xenophobic newscaster.

Hit List collects for the first time short fiction by many of the Latino authors who have been pioneers in the mystery genre, using it to showcase their unique cultures, neighborhoods and realities. Contributors include award-winning writers such as Carolina García-Aguilera, Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Rolando Hinojosa, Manuel Ramos and Sergio Troncoso, as well as emerging writers who deserve more recognition.

Sarah Cortez is a poet, educator, and law enforcement officer. She is the author of a poetry collection, How to Undress a Cop (Arte Público Press, 2000), which won the PEN Texas Literary Award in Poetry, and she edited Windows into My World: Latino Youth Write Their Lives (Piñata Books, 2007), winner of a 2008 Skipping Stones Honor Award. She lives and works in Houston, Texas.

Liz Martínez a New York State investigator, has published short stories in numerous anthologies and magazines, including Manhattan Noir (Akashic Books, 2006) and Police Officer’s Quarterly. She lives and works in New York City.


RECENT LITERARY AWARDS FROM SPAIN HONOR CRIME FICTION WRITERS
Margaret Atwood, the popular and prolific Canadian writer who won the 2000 Hammett Prize for The Blind Assassin, will receive Spain’s prestigious Prince of Asturias prize for literature. The prize carries a $66,000 cash award.

Fernando Savater, Spanish author, philosopher and political activist, was named the winner of the Premio Planeta, Spain's most lucrative literary prize, for La Hermandad de la Buena Suerte (The Brotherhood of Good Luck), a detective novel about a missing jockey. The prize carries a cash award of $820,000.

WORDS TO STIR THE SOUL - IMMIGRATION
November 12th, 2008 7:00pm in Old Main, University of Colorado, Boulder Campus
The Center of the American West presents its annual Words to Stir the Soul program. The Center's announcement says: On the heels of one of the longest presidential campaigns in history, one that has turned up the heat on this topic, the Center will shift the focus back from positions to people. This special evening will celebrate the literature of immigration, rather than the policies of immigration. Come listen as community members, politicians, public servants, professors, and a host of others read selections from a literature that has played a crucial role in the formation of the narrative of the West.

I'll be reading at this event but I haven't yet picked my selection. There are many good ones to choose from; for example: Reyna Grande's Across A Hundred Mountains, Luis Alberto Urrea's The Devil's Highway, Victor Villaseñor's Rain of Gold - any other suggestions?

LA BLOGA POLITICA

WHAT TO READ ON ELECTION NIGHT
I won't make a percentage-of-the-vote prediction; the numbers are all up for grabs, in my opinion. Landslide? Too close for comfort? I do expect Barack Obama to win but I think it will be tight and that Tuesday night will be a very long night. I won't mind, though, if the Republicans win only Alaska and Arizona and the Presidency is settled by 9:00 pm. However, in anticipation that most of us will be up long past our usual bedtimes, here are some diverse suggestions for reading material as you watch the returns. Keeping everything in context, these novels should satisfy any remaining political appetite you may have after almost two years of campaigning and several hours of watching which states end up red or blue.

All The King's Men - Robert Penn Warren
The Manchurian Candidate - Richard Condon
1984 - George Orwell
Animal Farm - George Orwell
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
The Milagro Beanfield War - John Nichols
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - Alexander Solzhenitsyn

¡Viva Obama!

Click on the screen and get ready to dance.

Later.

Hallowe'en Wishes from Michael Sedano

Politics and the Smaller Story

Gente: The elections loom before us and I'm choosing not to tout a particular book, video, TV program or podcast. Here's what I will say: We are at a crossroads, a profound one, and I'm not sure that collectively we're up to the challenge. As a nation, we are rich beyond belief, yet there is starvation, joblessness, illiteracy and a spiritual poverty so deep that we narcotize ourselves with alcohol, drugs, shopping, and Dancing with the Stars.

And as to what will happen the election, in many ways, I wonder what will trickle down to my world. I have lived through several Democratic and Republican administrations, but this is the first time that I have thought about applying for food stamps, the first time that I have been faced with the choice of taking on more debt or giving up my apartment.

I lost my job six months ago, and am trying like a lot of people to move into another line of work. I am motivated, disciplined, with a good resume and work ethic and after six months I have 2 part-time jobs, making so little money that I still qualify in Illinois for unemployment. I tell myself I'm not alone, that my lifestyle is not indulgent, nor am I lazy, and yet there are days when suiting up and plugging away at it again feels too hard. I do it anyway.

Real change is not one man, no matter how charismatic, no matter how decent or dedicated sitting in the Oval Office. It's when we as a people, say 'Enough' -- it is when we stop traffic, stop business as usual, and refuse to settle for bandaids or crumbs.

I'm sorry this column isn't longer, but right now, I'm tired.

and the winner will be . . .

Los Bloguitos Is Turning One

Illustrated by Mara Price

Come and celebrate with us a year of cuentos, poemas and cultura. Read and reach for the stars at www.losbloguitos.com.