YA Review: Of Dreams and Drums. Aztec Days Coloring Book. On-Line Floricanto Dec 7 Arizona

Michael Sedano

Araby Patch. Of Dreams and Drums. Medusa Publisher. Manhattan Beach CA: 2010.

A kid doesn’t have to be a punk asshole like Julio, the main character in Araby Patch’s Young Adult novel, Of Dreams and Drums, to enjoy this novel. Any reader will enjoy Patch’s story of violence and redemption--how nice a world it would be if the Julios of the world were all to come to a good end, of sorts. I suspect young readers will, unlike critical adults, be little troubled by the novel’s horrible proofreading, nor its requirement for a generous suspension of disbelief, and instead enjoy the unfolding story.

Julio, an 18 year old schoolboy, has few redeeming qualities at so young an age; guilt, perhaps, or a willing risk-taker. Julio's a bully, prideful, behaves as if he respects no one, not his adoptive family, not people around him. Julio will do anything for money; not only sell drugs but fake drugs. Although he's a risk-taker he's a poor decision-maker, mercurial and lethal.

The novel opens with Julio spending $250 on brand new sneakers, in a spark of guilt, thinking to hide their purchase from his struggling aunt. Julio figures wearing the newest model tennis shoe makes him el mero mero down on the block in his section of Manhattan, in the hundredtwenties near the Harlem River, but wearing the sneakers at home will provoke a screaming match with his dead mother's sister.

It’s an incredibly tough neighborhood. After a female classmate arranges a severe beating for Julio and they destroy his shoes, all Julio’s pretensions fall apart, he hits bottom--and his aunt. Fearing for her own safety, the aunt throws Julio out of her home. At the same time, Julio unwittingly becomes pawn in a gang power struggle and he runs for his life from evil assassins.

An old man takes Julio under his wing. The old man is just a drummer at the subway entrance for spare change, to Julio’s eyes. Rafas, it turns out, is powerful medicine. His drumming can create miracles; Julio will be the ultimate miracle. First, Julio has to descend to the depths, confront evil, then be saved despite himself.

Patch has lots of fun laying down his story, playing to the audience of young readers who likely appreciate the novel's heavily dramatic style. The book is heavy with atmosphere, generous with colorful adjective and description. For example, Julio crafts his own drum from raw lumber. He sands it in a few hours to Rafas’ drumming work song that evokes “rhythms of his ancestors, tracking back the Puerto Ricans who were at one time Africans and Spaniards who carried their rhythms with them along side their souls, and back still further before them to the Arawak Indians with their drums and spirit worlds living out their simple lives under care of the Caribbean sun. Without knowing, Julio had been given full and varied exposure to the history of rhythm of his people.”

Some of the most enjoyable sections are when the writer lets loose in his descriptions of Rafas' drumming. As Julio confronts the bad guys, Rafas is literally drumming himself to death beating out rhythms in such intensity that neighbors fill the park, anxiously pulling Rafas' arms away from the drums, but still he plays, with an intensity "like the flames of a giant out of control fire."

I want to be generous to an ambitious writer like this, but after too-frequent distraction at misspelled words, generosity finds its limits and the matter becomes disrespect for readers. Books for young readers not only must be edifying and exciting in significant ways, the text must set an example for precision and the writer’s craft. Sloppiness in editing is always unacceptable, whatever the editorial budget.

Of Dreams and Drums is fit for its purpose. It will hold attention among a swath of reading abilities, maturities, and tastes. The novel’s heavy handed message will challenge the patience of some readers while nonetheless offering substance for vigorous classroom discussion about metaphor, turning points, values, self-reliance, mentors, familia. Perhaps advanced readers can be assigned to proof and correct a copy of the book.

Patch happily kicks off the discussion by clearly enumerating the flaws that lead Julio astray: pride; revenge; rage; hate; need. The author similarly spells out his own ascription for deviating from the path that lured Julio toward a bad end: live in the moment, for the moment. Don’t analyze but sit back and allow your sensibilities to guide you. Above all, reach out to others, to elders, you aren't alone, kid: “He had failed to uphold his promise to his mother and above that had felt again the greed and desire more powerful than anything he could control. He knew that if it hadn’t been for Rafa, he would have been killed”.

The most potent point for discussion with the YA reader comes after the book ends. Julio is not troubled at the ridicule heaped on him from former classmates. He is, in their eyes, today a bum playing drums on the sidewalk for spare change, replacing the old man who used to drum and beg on this spot. In a couple of weeks.

So it goes. Is this enough, or is his present all Julio can expect, after his 18 years? Lots of room for energizing discussion in Medusa's, a "boutique" publishing company's, initial offering. For the adult reader looking for a fast hour, an airplane ride or a traffic jam on the Westside, Of Dreams and Drums is just for you.


Aztec Calendar Coloring Book

From the publisher of Alurista's new collection, Tuna Luna, Aztlán Libre Press, a collection of outline glyphs for the 20 day symbols of the Aztec calendar with their names in Nahuatl, Español, and English.

Here is one of those inexpensive holiday gifts that is both a consumable and a lasting memory, for adults or kids.

Even if you paint, hang, then toss the pages, chances are you or your child learned some, if not all, the names of the glyphs on the “Stone of Axayacatl”, which the introduction says, is one of the names of the commonly-called Aztec Calendar.

San Antonio’s Aztlán Libre Press designs the book with single-sided pages. You can color and hang your 20 days one at a time and never have to sacrifice “the one on the back” because there is no back back there. Most useful, Aztlán Libre.

Priced at $10, the unpaginated saddle-stapled coloring book in 8.5” x 11” format, is a grand stocking stuffer, or the main gift if you’re poor and the thought’s what counts. Order publisher-direct.

On-Line Floricanto

1. “I'm Going to the Yonque” by Christopher Carmona

2. "The Sacred Stone" by Hedy Garcia Treviño

3. "Haiku Poems for Social Justice" by Joe Navarro

4. "On Being Human" by Joe Ramsey

5. "En las cuatro esquinas / In the four corners” by Esme Bernal




Going To The Yonque
by Christopher Carmona


I’m going to the yonque
to buy me a satellite
Gonna pay the man five dollars.

He says he wants Incan gold
I tell him I’m not Incan
He says fine I’ll take Mayan silver
I tell him I’m not Mayan
He says fine I’ll take whatever you got
I hand him a note that says I owe you five dollars
He says, this ain’t worth nothing
It’s just a piece of paper.
I say he has my word that the paper is worth five dollars.
He says do you have anything of value
He says it’s for collateral
I say that note is my collateral
It’s my word
He’s says, no guey
Your word isn’t good enough,
I say what if I give you some of my land?
He asks me for the deed
I give him another note that says I am giving him some land
He says, this ain’t no deed
this is just a piece of paper
I say sure it is
I point to the top of the paper
I clearly spelled it right “D-E-E-D”
He says that ain’t official
I say, why not?
He says, well, because it ain’t typed.
I pull out another sheet and this one’s typed
He says, this ain’t no deed either.
I say why not, it’s typed out
He tells me that it is a poem
I say that is my deed to my land
He says, you can’t buy nothin’ with a poem
I say, but it’s typed
He says, it don’t matter
it’s just words
I tell him that this poem was written by my great-great-great-grandmother’s brother
and it’s worth more than
Incan gold
Mayan silver
or five dollars.
Was he famous?, he asks.
His name is long forgotten
but his words live on like a tune
you can’t get out of your head
it whistles in the wind
and splashes on the shore
it bakes in the sun and crackles
to a rhythm that thumps in my chest.
He says, What do you want with that satellite anyway?
I’m going to fix that old piece of junk
and launch it back into space
loaded with this poem
so that the world will hear it from cell phone tower to cell phone tower
all over the world.
He says, Fine, but I won’t sell you that satellite
I’m gonna give it to you but you got to promise
that you send that five dollars
up in that satellite with that there poem,
so that the whole world knows, this poem ain’t for sale.




The Sacred Stone

by Hedy Treviño


I went tonight in search
of sacred space.

I placed the final stone
beneath the moon
of falling leaves.

I heard the cry of our people
in the distance
I saw the cloud storm
gather near
I see the smoke rising.

But the river song
calmed my heart.

The sunset star
called forward the moon
and lit the pathway
to rainbow mountain
where the blanket of life
will embrace us.
And gather us from the storm.

Our journey will not end like
feathers in the wind
or like songs of sorrow.

The ancient ones will
guide us though the fire.

When morning dawns
the sun
will call our name
and the hills will sing in celebration.

The sacred circle
will bring us home again
like sacred herbs in bloom.

We will arrive in Springtime once again
disguised as hummingbirds and butterflies.

The ancient routes are imprinted like star dust
in our dreams.

In full flight we will celebrate the light
and feast upon the blossoms of our labor.




HAIKU POEMS FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

by Joe Navarro


HAIKU POEMS FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE



social justice wept

with sorrow song lágrimas

in arizona



winds of social change

swept over arizona

shedding some light



left over garbage

from annexation era

filled arizona



darkness fell upon

backs of hard working people

crushing their spirits




even cops said no

when they heard the news about

stopping mexicans




hope is tomorrow

when yesterday has been lost

a fresh start coming



oppression dies when

people cry with tears of hope

for social justice



arizona

is not jan brewer, of course

which leaves room for hope



arizona is

america, don't you see?

we've got work to do



travel and work laws.

unfair immigration laws.

open borders now!



On Being Human
by Joseph G. Ramsey

Right now
Somewhere
South of here
Someone is breaking the law:
Sneaking out into the desert
–trespassing private property
cutting through government wire
ingeniously avoiding ICE agents
and National Guard units
who stand spitting tobacco juice and
cradling sub-machine guns —
travelling unnoticed
without proper papers
for miles and miles
delivering jugs of water
to discreet locations
where the North-bound
--“border crossers”--
–“ illegal aliens”–
may find them
crack them open
and drink their fill,
and thereby not become
so dehydrated
so overheated
as to die
in the dust
(nor so desperate
as to lose faith
in humanity
altogether).

Beside the bottles
these bearers of water plant
small red flags in the sand,
knee-high markers that can only be seen
By those who are thirsty
and know where to look.

If you would ask these water-bearers to stop
If you would make them stop
If you would give aid to those who would stop them
If you are the kind of person who would force these guardians
to disown their adopted cousins
and let them die,
clasping cacti thorns in the skeleton desert
Then I say it’s you
Who must be stopped.

Perhaps it is you who should be cast out
Into the desert.
Perhaps it is you who are the Alien
In our human midst.

What human being can feel safe

With the likes of you around?

en las cuatro esquinas/ in the four corners

by Esme Bernal


out of the four corners
the raza begins
uno por uno
one by one
out of sipapu
el primer llanto de vida
turns the wheel of life
the prayer starts
the journey begins
where raza steps
petroglyphs bloom
ancient rocks mark
the exodus south

on the return north
twisted wires of hate
aim bullets into
the flesh of
ancient memory
but who can vanquish
the immortal migration
of the eagle returning
to its nest to await
the dawn of the sexto sol

2000



BIOS
1. “I'm Going to the Yonque” by Christopher CarmonaChristopher Carmona hails from the Rio Grande Valley in Deep South Texas. He is a beat poet following in the tradition of beat poets like Jack Kerouac, Bob Kaufman, and Raul Salinas. His work also explores the intersections of Native Americans and Latinos. He believes in practicing poetry as a form of social resistance. Much of his work works to redefine what it means to be ‘beat’ as a poet and scholar. He is currently pursuing his PhD at Texas A&M University. He has been published in The Writers’ Block, Beatlick Art & News, World Audience Literary Journal, and Tecolote. He has published a chap book called My (Mex)quite Beat Refried Revolution by Slough Press. His first book of poetry entitled beat is due out in 2011, also by Slough Press. Currently he is editing an anthology of Beat Texas writings for UT Press with Chuck Taylor and Rob Johnson. He has been part of the Savory Perks Reading Series, the Narcisco Martinez Cultral Arts Poetry Reading Circle, the reading series for Wordspace in Dallas, the Prairie View A&M University Reading Series, and the Lunada: Aullidos a La Madre Luna at the Café Citlali in San Antonio.

2. "The Sacred Stone" by Hedy Garcia TreviñoHedy M. Garcia Treviño. Has written poetry since the age of eight. Her first poem came as a result of being punished for speaking Spanish in school. Her poetry has been published in numerous journal's and other publications. She has performed her poetry at numerous cultural events. She continues to write poetry, and inspires others to use the written word as a form of self discovery and personal healing.


3. "Haiku Poems for Social Justice" by Joe NavarroJoe Navarro is a Literary Vato Loco, poet, creative writer, educator, community activist, husband, parent and grandparent who currently lives in Hollister, CA. You can visit his website at http://joenavarro.weebly.com


4. "On Being Human" by Joe Ramsey

Joseph G. Ramsey is a professor of U.S. literature and culture, a poet, and a social justice activist, living in the Boston, Massachusetts area. He is co-editor of the online journal Cultural Logic, www.clogic.eserver.org and a participant in the Kasama Project www.kasamaproject.org . Joe has published poems and articles in such venues as Counterpunch, Dissident Voice, Socialism and Democracy, and Minnesota Review, and would be happy to hear from you via email: jgramsey AT gmail.com . Additional poems he has written can be found atwww.ramseythewriter.wordpress.com .

5. "En las cuatro esquinas / In the four corners” by Esme BernalEsmeralda Bernal, currently resides in ground zero - Phoenix. Arizona. Considers herself to be a cultural worker who uses poetry as her medium.
"En las cuatro esquinas/ In the four corners was written in 2002 and is still valid today because conditions have barely changed. Laws written by fascist are being implemented in an extremely callous method. One fascist law after another is being designed that when put together create the ground for apartheid; a state of extreme exclusion. As humans we can not allow this to happen. As a country, who fought against fascism in WWII and defeated fascism, we need to stand shoulder to shoulder together to defeat fascism."

Spotlight on “Bring Down the Little Birds” by Carmen Giménez Smith

Carmen Giménez Smith is an assistant professor of creative writing at New Mexico State University, the publisher of Noemi Press, and the editor-in-chief of Puerto del Sol. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Mandorla, Colorado Review, Ploughshares, Jubilat and Denver Quarterly. She is the author of the poetry collection, Odalisque in Pieces (University of Arizona Press, 2009). She lives in Las Cruces, New Mexico with her husband and their two children.

I recently had the pleasure of reading her memoir, Bring Down the Little Birds: On Mothering, Art, Work, and Everything Else (University of Arizona, 2010). It is a startling and eloquent look inside one author’s poetic soul as she attempts to integrate art with the complexities and demands of being a professor, wife, mother and daughter. This book will bring both laughter and tears which is not unlike life itself.

Here is a description from the publisher:

How does a contemporary woman with a career as a poet, professor, and editor experience motherhood with one small child, another soon to be born, and her own mother suddenly diagnosed with a brain tumor and Alzheimer’s? The dichotomy between life as a mother and life as an artist and professional is a major theme in modern literature because often the two seem irreconcilable. In Bring Down the Little Birds, Carmen Giménez Smith faces this seeming irreconcilability head-on, offering a powerful and necessary lyric memoir to shed light on the difficulties—and joys—of being a mother juggling work, art, raising children, pregnancy, and being a daughter to an ailing mother, and, perhaps most important, offering a rigorous and intensely imaginative contemplation on the concept of motherhood as such.

Writing in fragmented yet coherent sections, the author shares with us her interior monologue, affording the reader a uniquely honest, insightful, and deeply personal glimpse into a woman’s first and second journeys into motherhood. Giménez Smith begins Bring Down the Little Birds by detailing the relationship with her own mother, from whom her own concept of motherhood originated, a conception the author continually reevaluates and questions over the course of the book.

Combining fragments of thought, daydreams, entries from notebooks both real and imaginary, and real-life experiences, Giménez Smith interrogates everything involved in becoming and being a mother for both the first and second time, from wondering what her children will one day know about her own “secret life” to meditations on the physical effects of pregnancy as well as the myths, the nostalgia, and the glorification of motherhood.

While Giménez Smith incorporates universal experiences of motherhood that other authors have detailed throughout literature, what separates her book from these many others is that her reflections are captured in a style that establishes an intimacy and immediacy between author and reader through which we come to know the secret life of a mother and are made to question our own conception of what motherhood really means.

"The Republic of Poetry" by Martin Espada

In the republic of poetry
a train full of poets
rolls south in the rain
as plum trees rock
and horses kick the air,
and village bands
parade down the aisle
with trumpets, with bowler hats,
followed by the president
of the republic,
shaking every hand.

In the republic of poetry,
monks print verses about the night
on boxes of monastery chocolate,
kitchens in restaurants
use odes for recipes
from eel to artichoke,
and poets eat for free.

In the republic of poetry,
poets read to the baboons
at the zoo, and all the primates,
poets and baboons alike, scream for joy.
In the republic of poetry,
poets rent a helicopter
to bombard the national palace
with poems on bookmarks,
and everyone in the courtyard
rushes to grab a poem
fluttering from the sky,
blinded by weeping.

In the republic of poetry,
the guard at the airport
will not allow you to leave the country
until you declaim a poem for her
and she says Ah! Beautiful.

___________________________________________________________________


Martín Espada was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1957. He has published seventeen books in all as a poet, editor, essayist and translator. The Republic of Poetry, a collection of poems published by Norton in 2006, received the Paterson Award for Sustained Literary Achievement and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; his next collection, The Trouble Ball, is forthcoming from Norton in spring 2011. A collection of essays, The Lover of a Subversive is Also a Subversive, was just released by the University of Michigan. An earlier book of poems, Imagine the Angels of Bread (Norton, 1996), won an American Book Award and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Trino mural & why we're losing our casas

Tribute includes Trinidad Sanchez, Jr.

A reader sent us this great website about San Anto, Tejas, that includes photos of the city's Chicano murals. The mural in which poeta Trino was honored is identified as "Lideres de Westside". There are other website pages with cultural facets of the town, some of which are commercial.

Here's more links to it:

Los Tres Reyes dedican un corrido al barrio de San Antonio TX WestSide, en un video homenaje, para más información visitar aquí.

Los Tres Reyes dedicated a corrido about the Westside of San Antonio, TX, in a video tribute, for more information visit here.

Trino Presente!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
________________________

Getting it put to us

The following excerpt is taken from TomDispatch and reprinted here because it's about Chicanos, mexicanos, latinos in general getting the worst of the American dream:

"We already know that it’s party time for the financial elite who gave real meaning to the phrase “economic meltdown” in 2008, that bonuses are soaring, that corporate profits for the third quarter of 2010 are beyond the stratosphere, and that the corporate chieftains and Wall Street titans of our new gilded age have, as New York Times columnist Bob Herbert wrote recently, “waged economic warfare against everybody else and are winning big time.”

"What we know far less about is the degree of the catastrophe they inflicted on the rest of us. Here’s just one story that should be front-paged in our major newspapers, but for which, at the moment, you have to turn to Dollars and Sense, a modest if intriguing economic publication. There, Jim Campen, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Massachusetts-Boston and an expert on racial discrimination in mortgage lending, has written a piece entitled, “Update on Mortgage Lending Discrimination: After a Disastrous Detour, We’re Back Where We Started.”

"It may not sound like much, but what a horror story it tells. If you were black or Latino in the 1980s or early 1990s and wanted to buy a home, the odds were that the banks had “redlined” your neighborhood and were denying you mortgage applications at “disproportionately high rates” compared to whites in similar economic circumstances. In other words, you would have a tough time becoming a homeowner.

"Then came those high-cost subprime loans whose fine print ensured that you would never be able to pay them back. In a case of “reverse redlining,” they were aggressively targeted at black and Latino neighborhoods in numbers strikingly disproportionate to white neighborhoods. Not surprisingly, when the housing bubble burst, the financial world shuddered, the economy went south, and wave after wave of foreclosures began to sweep across the country, it was black and Latino homeowners suffered the most.

"In Boston in 2006, the peak year of the subprime lending boom, Campen discovered that “49% of all home-purchase loans to blacks, and 48% of all home-purchase loans to Latinos, were high-cost loans, compared to just 11% of all loans to whites.” In the carnage that followed, he informs us, nearly 8% of black and Latino homeowners were foreclosed on, compared to 4.5% of whites. In other words, while the people TomDispatch Associate Editor Andy Kroll calls “the New Oligarchs” bought Dom Pérignon and celebrated, they had let loose the financial equivalent of a neutron bomb on nonwhite neighborhoods in America. It’s a scandal that should be at the top of the news, not in obscure magazines or at websites like this one, and it’s just a small part of the larger, distinctly un-American scandal."

by Tom Englehardt

To read the entire article regarding how American wealth is eluding almost all of us, go here.

Specimen: Melinda Palacio, Chicana Author

Melinda Palacio

On Tuesday, I was a guest speaker at Santa Barbara City College’s Chicano Studies 121. The
class is taught by Magdalena Torres and focuses on The Chicana and Other Latina Women in the United States. I didn’t know what to expect. The class was from 6pm to 9pm and the instructor simply said I didn’t have to speak for the entire three hours of the class. Given how attentive and well receiving the class was, I wish I had taken more time.

The warmth and enthusiasm of Magda’s course was remarkable. The atmosphere was festive. I felt as if I were walking into a party held for me. Given that I spoke on the last day of class, I was also impressed by the attendance. In fact, to say I was impressed by the students is an understatement.

Santa Barbara City College is located on a mesa,

overlooking the ocean and the channel islands, one of the most beautiful spots on earth. They don’t call Santa Barbara paradise for nothing.

I’ve taken several courses at this gorgeous campus. I hope many of the students are tuning in because I forgot to mention that I was once sitting in their spot, being the attentive student. Only, because of my visual deficit, always sat front and center, teacher’s pet jokes aside. However, on this night, I wanted to impress the students by flaunting my educational background, a B.A. from UC Berkeley and an M.A. from UC Santa Cruz in Comparative Literature.

When I first moved to Santa Barbara nine years ago, I took advantage of the college’s many personal enrichment courses, including guitar, dance, and computer programming courses. I learned web design and brushed up on technical writing skills. In case no one has told you the big secret, writing doesn’t pay in real US minted cash. Ask some of my fellow blogueros, such as Daniel Olivas, who are lawyers by day. The “riches” come when reading to students and visiting classes such as Chicano Studies 121.

More college courses should create the sense of family that Magda Torres’s class exudes. I immediately felt at home. After my presentation, the instructor made all of her students say one thing they took away from my reading. Listening to what each student gleaned from my work was a highlight that I’ll think about whenever I sit down to write. In the past when I’ve spoken to a class, there might be a few questions. On Tuesday, every student, including the guest ESL instructor who came to hear me, spoke.

What surprised me was that a handful of students said that I was the first author they had ever heard. I am still digesting this sad information. Santa Barbara is filled with local authors, in fact several members of the Creative Writing Program at SBCC are well published. Three years ago, I remember hearing Victor Villasenor give the Leonardo Dorantes Memorial Lecture on campus and last week at UCSB Sandra Cisneros spoke; an author who doesn’t enjoy flying, but arrived safely in her pajamas (see last Friday’s article for more details on Sandra’s visit).

Outreach for students in American Ethnic Studies courses can certainly be improved, not withstanding a bad economy, hiring freezes, and teacher lay offs. This is a town too rich in resources to hear such statements from students. However, I am deeply honored to represent Chicana authors in my native homeland of Atzlan.

One student, José Segundo, told a story about mermaids appearing in a lake once a year. I keep thinking about that mesmerizing image and wish I had another week with these students to offer a writing workshop. Many students remembered their own stories as I read and were inspired to write them down some day. If you are one of those students, write it down today, please. Many enjoyed how I read my work and said they could hear the passion in my words and images. Luz Ocegueda also remarked on my passion and went as far as saying, “it seems as

if you’re making love with literature.” On that note, find some pen and paper and make love.

Looking ahead: The topic for next week will be my visit to Whittier Community Theatre where Paso de Oro will perform. This folklórico group, ranging in ages five to teens, has a special dancer who is the son of a famosa autora who will also be selling her most recent novel. Any guesses?

Winners & losers

And the Denver winner is . . .

Last month we posted Denver artist Robert Maestas' info about a national competition he'd entered. His story and art piece solidly deserved to win. La Bloga does not claim that our readers put Maestas over the top or anything, but here's a letter from him about the results:

This is an update to tell everyone who voted for “A Father’s Struggle” Thank You! Your support was greatly appreciated and because of your votes the art piece and story was awarded top honors in the "Art With A Story" online gallery exhibition.

If you care to view the original art piece and story, they will be exhibited during January, 2011 (including the January First Friday Artwalk) at Artwork Network Gallery, 878 Santa Fe Drive, Denver, CO. (For further info: 303-388-7420)

Thank you again,
Robert Maestas, artist

Below is the e-mail I received from the Creative Director of Artwork Network:

"We received 83 artist entries in our “Art with a Story” juried show. It was a tough deliberation, for both the public and the jury. We received over 1,500 votes, and had to enlist a fourth juror to help us narrow down our favorites.

"I’m sending this email to say congratulations! Of all those entries, the Public has awarded “A Father's Struggle” with Best Story/Art Combo! This is a fantastic piece, and we’re thrilled you gave us the privilege of hearing the story behind your work.

"Of course one of the prizes that comes along with this honor is an exhibit in the Artwork Network showroom in Denver, Colorado. We want to showcase your winning piece during the month of January 2011 including the January First Friday Artwalk.

"Again, Congratulations!"

(signed) Jessica Bradley
Creative Director
Artwork Network
______________________________________

Y este pendejo . . .

This was brought to our attention by one of Juan Vasquez's nieces from Mexico. It's a great LOL reflection of how the American world (meant in its widest context) has changed. At the same time, it shows that change is not necessarily one smooth path, but instead can result from opposing forces of progress against forces of what?--illness? get-high? You fill in the word you feel is appropriate.

We're only translating the first parts of the piece, since it's one of those things that might be funnier in the original. Even if you only know a little Spanish, the point might be obvious. Specifically, here is how it starts:

"El político más poderoso del mundo es Negro."
[The most powerful politician in the world is black.]

"El líder del Comité Nacional Republicano es Negro."
[The leader of the Republican National Committee is black.]

Then comes Oprah, Tiger et al, but will you get the end? You'll see. For the remainder, go here.

Teacher's Guides- René Colato Laínez Books

Hola La Bloga readers, today I want to share some curriculum guides developed for my books. You can use these ideas in the classroom or at home.

From North to South/Del Norte al Sur

A picture book (suggested for ages 4-8 and older), From North to South/Del Norte al Sur (by Rene Colato Lainez) tells the story of Jose and his Papa, who are going to visit Jose’s mother who is living just across the border in Tijuana, after being arrested at work for not having papers giving her permission to work in the United States.

• Download the Discussion Guide by Cheryll Wallace for From North to South.

Cheryll Wallace is a Religious Education Director at First Unitarian Church of Omaha, former PSD Board member, and leader of the PSD GRACE (Growing Racial And Cultural Equity) Team.

The Tooth Fairy Meets El Ratón Pérez

Move over, Tooth Fairy! El Ratón Pérez is in town!

Most children in the U.S. are familiar with the Tooth Fairy, but children in Spain and Latin America grow up with a different tradition. In these regions, an adventurous mouse, El Ratón Pérez, collects children’s lost teeth from their pillows.

This curriculum guide was created by LEIGH COURTNEY, Ph.D. She teaches first and second grade in the Global Education program at a public elementary school in San Diego, California. She holds both master’s and doctoral degrees in education, with an emphasis on Curriculum and Instruction.  

* Download 

 Curriculum Guide: The Tooth Fairy Meets El Ratón Pérez 

 

Playing Lotería/ El juego de la Lotería

In this charming story, a little boy visits his grandmother in Mexico. With the help of la lotería, he learns a new language and how special the bond between a boy and his grandmother can be.

Download:

* Tools for Teachers developed by Luna Rising/ Rising Moon.

* Playing Loteria/ El juego de la loteria: Tejas Book Award Activities.


For more ideas visit my website www.renecolatolainez.com  and click at For Teachers.

saludos,

René Colato Laínez