The Lost Letters of Mileva by M. Miranda Maloney ¿Qué hacen los escritores para Día de Muertos? Y más

Por Xánath Caraza

 

THE LOST LETTERS OF MILEVA BY M. MIRANDA MALONEY

 

The Lost Letters of Mileva by M. Miranda Maloney (Lobo Estepario Press, 2014)

La voz poética en The Lost Letters of Mileva es una que viene de lo onírico y nos envuelve en un ritmo lingüístico que hace participar al lector, no tan sólo, de los poemas pero del sueño y la recreación de Mileva misma.  Esta plaqueta es una que atrapa al lector, que lo hace parte de las páginas con el lirismo y la belleza de sus versos; es un libro que volvería a leer una y otra vez.

 

Miranda cuida en cada momento, en cada verso, el lenguaje que usa en The Lost Letters of Mileva.  Hay un delicado y arduo trabajo entre las páginas de esta plaqueta.  Con maestría coloca las palabras entre los versos y los hace de una calidad casi cristalina, como de encaje elaborado de frágiles y finos cristales.  Cada signo de puntuación está colocado en el lugar correspondiente y pensado con intencionalidad.  Esa fue la impresión que tuve cuando leí la plaqueta por primera vez y que he vuelto a confirmar en lecturas posteriores.

 

We are blind and delicate.

We try to take back our words,

to unravel our time together, untangle

our language of stars,

but the force

of attraction is inevitable,

as is the last breath.

 

I wait and dance with my agony.

Cold in bed.  In the morning,

the coffee is lukewarm in my throat. (2)

 

Mileva Maric, la primera esposa de Albert Einstein, es canalizada en los poemas de Miranda.  Esta plaqueta nos cuenta una historia que no conocíamos, se descubren secretos, leemos confesiones y escenas de la vida cotidiana desde la perspectiva de Mileva, una voz poética femenina, que dice lo que la historia oficial ha querido borrar.  Ya sean ritmos oníricos o ritmos que describen una realidad cuidadosamente guardada, lo cierto es que estos poemas son gratificantes al ser leídos y despiertan el interés en el lector, hasta el punto de no querer detenerse hasta alcanzar la última página.

 

Take heart. Heidelberg is laced in moods, swallowed in moonless nights.  I retreat to your letters like a feeding bottle.  I am obedient to your biding when you ask I should write only when I’m bored.  My waiting has been in vain.

I pick up this pen.  Make love to you.  (5)

 

 

My belly fills with you.

Your spirit into my body, your

history, your dreams.

In the thread of light,

I devour repetition.  Spit it out.

The sun, our sun remains only.

I wait like a trembling leaf

            for your return.

Wait, dying with love,

a piece of you growing inside

of me.

 

I want to see you.  (8)

 

The Lost Letters of Mileva están llenas de vida.  Una vida pulsante pero que hasta ahora había estado enclaustrada, que ve la luz a través de la lectura de cada uno de nosotros.  Son palabras, poemas, que se resisten a ser olvidados y se convierten en versos universales, de otras tantas mujeres, que casi se perdieron en la historia.  Mileva ha encontrado una puerta que con nuestra lectura ha sido abierta.

 

            I spread

            my age like autumn

            under trees—

           

            color hardens, shape softens

 

            Wind carries everything

 

                                                Take me

 



M. Miranda Maloney

M. Miranda Maloney is the founder of Mouthfeel Press. Her poetry and essays have appeared in the Bellevue Literary Review, MiPoesias, The Mas Tequila Review, BorderSenses, The Catholic Reporter, and others. Her recent chapbook collection The Lost Letters of Mileva was published by Pandora lobo estepario press. She's also the author of The City I Love (Ranchos Press, 2011), and is Educational Outreach Writer for the Smithsonian Latino Virtual Museum and poetry editor for BorderSenses Literary Journal. She lives in the outskirts of El Paso with her husband and three children. 

In Other News

 

También de Lobo Estepario Press en Chicago.

 

CHIAROSCURO/CLAROSCURO BY ÁLVARO TORRES-CALDERÓN

 

 

UNVEILING THE MIND BY BEATRIZ BADIKIAN-GARTLER

 

 

 

¿Qué hacen los escritores para Día de Muertos?

The 2014 Day of the Dead Celebration at The Writers Place in Kansas City, MO will be on November 7 at 7 p. m. featuring Jose Ballesteros and Gloria Martinez Adams, Azteca Dancers, music and more.

 

Next is a series of photos of writers celebrating Day of the Dead.

 

Aurora Anaya-Cerda, La Casa Azul Bookstore, in New York City

 

Liliana Valenzuela in Austin, Texas

Mark Statman in New York City

Pop Up Art Gallery in Kansas City, MO

Adriana Manuela in Puente Genil, Spain

Alberto Lopez Serrano in San Salvador, El Salvador

Rigoberto Gonzalez in New York City

Norma Cantu in Kansas City, MO

Diana Pando in Chicago

Raul Sanchez, Los Norteños Writers, Seattle, WA

University of North Georgia

University of North Georgia

The Smithsonian Latino Virtual Museum, Dead Poets Reading & Open Mic: Liliana Valenzuela, Rosa, Viva Flores, Celina Villagarcia, Xanath Caraza, Melissa Carrillo, M. Miranda Maloney

 

Los Muertos En Este Dia: Testimonios, or Little Stories (some true, some not)

by Amelia M.L. Montes

“Sometimes when I’m working late into the night, they gather all around me.  They sit and watch me. Sometimes it’s my tia Chala, sometimes Pepe, others I don’t even know.  Some are a combination of two spirits.” 

“When my aunt died, all the lights of the house went out. I had to talk to her, to calm her down so all the lights would go back on.  It took a few minutes.” 

“It’s true what they say about us Chicanos—that we know the other side, and I’m not talking about the physical border which we know too well.  We know the other side because we are not afraid.” 

“She was so loud despues que se murio.  Everyone had a dream about her, or they felt her. But it wasn’t anything scary.  I think of it this way:  She was so excited to be in this other dimension, she was determined to share at least a wisp of it with us.”

“We eat the bread, the pan de muertos.  I always save some of mine and break it into little pieces.  I put some on the altar, but then I put some on the table by the bed, just in case.  I drink my atole, and leave the bread, para que tengan, si quieren.” 

“Once, a Catholic nun told me: ‘we know more of what death, God. or heaven is not, than what death, God, or heaven is.’  Imaginate! —a Catholic nun said that.”

“The tall lady with the red pencil skirt and high heels pointed at me.  She wanted me to make a ‘Day of the Dead Altar’ for her and her group because my last name sounded Hispanic to her.  N’ombre.  I’m no His-panic, and making an altar, pues, I don't do that for gente ajena--something so personal.  It's not Halloween trick or treat.” 

“We bring the table mi papa built 50 years ago to the front room, and we cover it with el mantel that mama loved—and we go from there.  The kids bring whatever they want:  their drawings, figs from the tree in the backyard, the bread, flowers too, little Olivia likes putting dirt en un frasco for them.  Last year we made incense, and Gustavo brought the candles.  He also made new frames for the pictures. It always looks warm and inviting.  They all come, and we eat.” 

“We never painted calavera faces until I got together con Cecilia.  She said her familia always did it.  Mine never did.  Now we take turns painting each other’s caras every year. I'd like to do it more often.  I like taking the time to really look, I mean really look at her when I paint her face, the way we see on that day . . . 

“Three generations have been born and died in this house.  So we remember them today.  Their umbilical cords are buried over there near the maple tree and, pues, since we still haven’t scattered the ashes—we just put them on the altar.  We talk, we eat, we drink, we dance.  It's a good time.  Then, we put everything away.  The ashes go back in the closet.  I guess we just want to keep them with us.  I doubt we’ll scatter them any time soon.” 

You know what they say:  “Al vivo todo le falta, y al muerto todo le sobra.” 

José Guadalupe Posada

2014 Halloween / Día de los Muertos

Denver's dead trick-n-treatin'. Students dead/Mexico rising from the dead? Not-voting suicide. Latino/a Rising will live.

The two holiday observances ironically portray death from two opposing perspectives, as Flo Hernandez-Ramos explained yesterday. Today's post relates to different news bits about "death." It ends with good news.

Denver's dead trick-n-treatin'

We're such a nation of scared sheep, I'm not surprised. For over a month the Colorado press and media, politicians, police and fear-mongers have been sensationalizing a Non-threat: "Denver Police Warn Parents About Pot-Laced Candy During Trick-or-Treat Season." Give me a break, with more than a Snickers.

We're a richly self-medicated nation, abusing a lot of prescription drugs. For decades we've had bathroom shelves of Oxycodone and Hydrocodone, given out for pain, so much that some is usually left over. Those are cheap compared to what THC spray costs. Were warnings issued every year about codone-laced candy?

When Denverites complained about the police's fear-mongering, the cops made a video posted on Facebook! They got slammed for that, too, but it was too late. At least in some Denver neighborhoods, on a Halloween night warmer than many previous, we had the lowest turnout ever. I'm guessing why. People in other areas report similar low turnouts, though not everywhere.

What will we hear next year to make us keep kids "safe" and inside and not walk the neighborhoods? ISIS terrorist sympathizers giving out hand-grenade treats! Disgruntled African immigrants giving out Ebola-licked gummy bears! Listen in to your fave shock-brained radio jock to find out. And be scared. It's as American as apple pie laced with GMOs. Oh, that's right--that's a real threat.

43 Students dead / Mexico rising from the dead?

U.S. drug habits and drug laws, gun mania and shipments into Mexico are now responsible for the likely murders of 43 students from Ayotzinapa Normal teacher-training school, missing since Sept. 26th. Big deal. Drugs, drug lords, killings, kidnappings, decapitations, "disappearings", cartel-bribed politicians, police and soldiers are always in the news. That's the Mexico the U.S. helped create and we're not surprised to hear more. However, this time, more than mierda has hit the fan.

Here's what one U.S. correspondent based in Mexico wrote:

"Most of the students were in their teens, in their first semester, and from impoverished communities that a majority of Mexicans identify with. The voids in Mexico’s government are all too obvious now. The country seems to be trembling at the edge of a terrible cataclysm or, for the hopeful, an inspiring transformation.

Mexico City rally for the 43

"There will be a march in Mexico City on Oct. 31st, coinciding with the Day of the Dead, and a “mega march” is scheduled for Nov. 5th, the day Mexico’s universities and colleges are planning a national strike. How many universities, colleges, and institutes will stick with it, and for how long? Will it spread to other areas of society, to the high schools, for example, as recent student strikes in Chile did, bringing about significant changes in the country? When masses of students boycott classes, it fills a country with an air of emergency and danger.

"What many Mexicans have been telling me is this: It’s either now or never."

Chicanos, mexicanos, latinos from the U.S. will no doubt support as they can whatever arises from the probable deaths of the 43. A new Revolución, across the river from El Paso, San Diego and Brownsville? It wouldn't be sci-fi or fantasy to imagine how our government, politicians and military would react to that. Or the gun lobby and industry, anti-immigrant racists and radio shock-jocks. I can hear them now. But for the rest of the country, it would be a true gauge of a "commitment" to democracy. Maybe they'd be spared the agony of having to decide. Yo espero que no.

Not-voting suicide

Earlier this year, I was among those advocating NOT voting. I was wrong. "We" are not united enough for that to have an effect. A discussion about when that time might come doesn't matter at the moment.

In the meantime, I'm voting because the Koch brothers, the anti-science crazies, the pro-oil conglomerates and the anti-immigrant racists are trying to elect their kind. They're even going after judgeships so justifiable claims against corporations will be more frequently overturned by "their" judges in the future.

Wherever I look on the Internet, TV or the press, and whoever I talk to, I could almost believe Armageddon is here, and Dystopia is our only future. Many people (including me) are negative, bitter, even reverting to political hermits. For that reason, I have been Facebooking the points below--one per day--trying to answer typical reasons you hear about why somebody won't vote next week. Use them, elaborate and improve them, if you want.

Many idiots, but make sure they're yours

#1 - Why you don't have to vote: Because you don't believe in the lesser of 2 evils.

What! Satan's not worse than a demon?

Frostbitten's not worse than shivering?

The 1% has robbed us of plenty. Did they steal your vote yet?

#2 - Why you don't have to vote: Because you think corporate ads already bought yours.

What! You think the 1% can control and even predict the future?

Hiding your head in the sand is smarter than sticking it in a voting booth?

Yes, the 1% has bribed most politicians. But you go alone into the voting booth.

#3 - Why you don't have to vote: Because the polls already canceled out your vote.

What! You think pulling one lever matters less than 1,000 opinions?

Ask the condemned man who he fears more--the hangman or the mob out front.

No, you might not have much to pick from. But which end of the rope do you prefer?

#4 - Why you don't have to vote:  Because there's only a few hours left, and you've got too much to do.

What! You don't want to spend a few minutes to avoid years of suffering?

Only terminal cancer patients (my apologies) could say voting does them no good.

No, you never have enough time. But voting could make the future, worth living.

#5 - Why you DON'T have to vote: Because you only care about who the President is, not a bunch of politicians.

What! You think if your President is elected, he/she will take care of everything?

Congress or your state legislature make the laws. The Prez and governors sign them, or not.

Your vote next week adds or detracts from the next President's or governor's power; that's the math.

Latino/a Rising will live!

I apologize to everyone who this week received too many bits from me about funding and supporting the anthology, Latino/a Rising, the first collection of U.S. Latino/a science fiction, fantasy, and other speculative genres. I do believe it is worth supporting and buying copies of once it's published. And I did have a personal stake in it, since a story of mine might be included. Even if it's not, I expect it to be a precursor of latino contributions to come. Echando más salsa en la literature Americana.

The good news is that the Kickstarter campaign surpassed its $10,000 goal but there's still time, until midnight, for you to kick in and get some cool perks, like autographed copies, T-shirts and swag.

I was just one of many who participated in reaching that goal. At times, I felt ambivalent: Why do we Latinos have to ask for money for a first-ever anthology when so many are produced in the U.S. every year? That's a because that I won't get into. What made me feel better were the non-latinos who responded, sometimes directly, letting me know they had contributed. It made me remember that we're not alone. There are some progressive Anglos, and others, out there. We just need to re-educate more of them.

Es todo, hoy, ni un treat más,

RudyG, a.k.a. Rudy Ch. Garcia, Chicano spec author with too much left-over candy

Opinion: Puritans, then profiteers over Día de los Muertos - QEPD

My guest contributor today is the one and only Flo Hernandez-Ramos. Flo gave an interview to and wrote a column for Colorado Public Radio about Día de los Muertos. She kindly consented to sharing her opinion piece with La Bloga's readers. I remember when Flo and only a few others publicly celebrated Day of the Dead here in Denver, years ago. She wasn't the first one to do so but she was among the first to help make the day a very public event. She set up an annual altar at radio station KUVO, where she worked, helped organize displays at art galleries and other venues, and patiently explained the true meaning of the celebration to anyone who wanted to listen.

Also - recent losses to the literary and music communities that La Bloga serves.  
______________________________________________________

Opinion: Denverites were puritans, then profiteers over Día de los Muertos

By Flo Hernandez-Ramos Oct 27, 2014

Listen -- Audio: CPR's Chloe Veltman talks to Flo Hernandez Ramos about Dia de los Muertos

A Día de los Muertos altar in memory of Teodora Hernández and José de Jesus Hernández

(Photo: Courtesy of Flo Hernandez-Ramos)

It’s hard to go anywhere in Denver at this time of year without seeing fancifully-decorated sugar skulls peering out among Halloween decorations in the windows of bars and stores.

The candy skulls (“calaveras”) are a core image of Día de los Muertos, a two-day commemoration on Nov. 1 and 2 each year of those who have passed away.

Long history in Denver

The annual Mexican holiday that sees death as part of the circle of life has been around in Denver for as long as there have been Mexicans living in Denver, which is to say, for a long, long time. Unlike the festivities in Mexico, where entire villages turned their cemeteries into fiesta venues, in the United States Día de los Muertos was always a private, family celebration.

Paper mâché skull by Los Ramirez Castaneda

(Photo: Courtesy of Flo Hernandez-Ramos)

But since the early 1980s, in line with the growth of the Mexican population in this country and the desire of Mexican Americans to celebrate their cultural roots, the holiday has moved into the mainstream -- not just in Denver but throughout the U.S.

Día de los Muertos originated in Mexico about 4,000 years ago among the indigenous populations. It bears some similarity to Memorial Day in the United States, in the tradition of people putting flowers on the graves of loved ones.

Día de los Muertos decorations are far more elaborate than those associated with Memorial Day. People festoon graves and altars with food, flowers and folk art depicting skulls and skeletons from all walks of life.

There is nothing ghoulish about the holiday. But that’s not how Día de los Muertos was perceived when it was first introduced in the Denver metro area.

In the early 1980s, Denver artist Patricio Cordova proposed a Día de los Muertos art exhibit to The Pirate Contemporary Art Oasis, a Northside collective at West 36th Avenue and Navajo Street.

The Pirates were all Anglos, but committed to thinking beyond their own cultures.

“People embraced the idea because of its edginess,” Pirates leader Phil Bender says. “The Pirates’ logo was a skull and crossbones, so there was an affinity with the sugar skulls and the folk art of Día de los Muertos.”

But the broader Denver community was not unanimously willing to embrace the Mexican holiday.

Even though movies like “Bloodbath at the House of Death” were popular in 1984, Latinos and non-Latinos alike were squeamish about Dia de los Muertos.

To them, it was macabre.

“People in the U.S. were willing to see people being killed on the big screen,” says Mercedes Hernández, program director of Denver’s KUVO jazz radio station in the mid-1980s. “But they didn’t want to think about death and its personal effect on them.”

From macabre to franchise

How things have changed.

The holiday is now so popular in “los Uniteds” that it has become a franchise.

Safeway sells marshmallow skull lollipops. Disney tried to trademark the phrase “Día de los Muertos.” World Market offers a line of Día de los Muertos decorations, plates, party favors, wine and beer. And the Denver Botanic Gardens is hosting its first Calavera Ball on Nov. 1.

But the commercialization of the Mexican holiday in mainstream U.S. culture today threatens to destroy the essential meaning of Día de los Muertos.

Skulls painted by children for Cherry Creek Library Calavera Contest

(Photo: Courtesy of Flo Hernandez-Ramos)

At this point, the Mexican holiday has become almost indistinct from Halloween, with people blending Día de los Muertos and Halloween festivities together.

For example, the animated film Book of Life by Guillermo del Toro, a story based on Día de los Muertos, is marketed as a Halloween adventure. And in Colorado Springs, the Cottonwood Center for the Arts is hosting a Halloween/Día de los Muertos celebration on Oct. 31.

It opens with a zombie dance and offers henna tattoos, belly dancing and the construction of mini-altars. And not everyone is happy about it.

“It’s a prime example of the disrespect and the unconscious attempt to usurp another culture's holidays,” wrote artist Jerry Vigil on his Team Muertos Facebook page .

Similarly, the meaning of Halloween also seems to have been lost in the scuffle between culture and commerce.

Halloween has its roots in an ancient Gaelic belief that on Oct. 31 the boundaries between the world of the living and that of the dead overlap and souls roam the earth.

Scottish and Irish immigrants introduced the holiday to the United States in the 1800s. Beginning in the 1900s, Halloween became a more commercial enterprise through the production of costumes, decorations and the custom of trick-or-treating.

In more recent times, the popular U.S. holiday is a billion-dollar industry of ghouls and gore. And Día de los Muertos may be headed down that same slippery, bloody slope.

One can argue about the “true meaning” of Día de los Muertos. For some it is the honoring of loved ones who have passed; for others it may mean winning first prize at a costume contest as a calavera. But for everyone, the sugar skull is here to stay.

Flo Hernández-Ramos was CEO of Denver jazz radio KUVO for 23 years and recently retired as the executive director of the Latino Public Radio Consortium. 

Flo's 2014 Altar - A Work In Progress

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QEPD

We note the recent passing of two pioneering Chicano writers:

Juan A. Contreras: an El Paso educator, Chicano poet and writer well known in literary circles throughout the Southwest. Contreras was 64 when he died on October 20. According to the El Paso Times, Contreras participated in the University of Southern California's historic Flor y Canto literary festival in 1973, a three-day event featuring dozens of emerging Mexican-American poets and writers. He often lectured in El Paso and Juárez and throughout the Southwest.

"We must have the same dream with a vision that one day our children will be judged not by the accent of their tongue, but by the creativity in their expression and the power of their voice," Contreras once said, referring to Martin Luther King's famous "I have a dream" civil rights speech.

Juan Estevan Arellano:  a Chicano writer who tried to showcase the unique culture of New Mexico, Arellano gained international acclaim in 1994 when he won the Premio Nacional de Literatura José Fuentes Mares prize in Mexico for his 1994 novel, Incencio.

It was a ground-breaking work because it was written in New Mexico Spanish — a fusion of Spanish and indigenous languages birthed out of the region's isolation from exploration to frontier days, said Vanessa Fonseca, a University of Wyoming Latino Studies professor. As posted by My San Antonio,  Arellano's wife, Elena, said he died at the family's home in Embudo, New Mexico, from heart failure on October 29. He was 67.

We also express our condolences to the family and friends of Jimmy Trujillo, long-time volunteer DJ at radio station KUVO, esteemed musician, and latin jazz expert. Jimmy died in Denver on October 29 - he was 52. His memory and music live on in the hearts of many who listened to Jimmy in several different bands, on the air, or at numerous events as a speaker and teacher.


Later.