Chicanonautica: On the Lookout for Aztlán

By Ernest Hogan

Every summer, my wife (author of Medusa Uploaded) and I, and her mother take a road trip to New Mexico, and other nearby states. The Southwest. AKA, the Wild West. I like to think of it as Aztlán. I keep on the lookout for signs of the world that existed before the coming of tract housing, strip malls, and other air-conditioned delusions. It can often be found in the wide-open post-apocalyptic landscapes, with the ancient ruins, postmodern ghost towns, and roadside datura.

This year we reversed our usual routine, and shot up north through the Apache, Hopi and Navajo reservations, on our way to Utah. Indian country is always a relief after being in the heat island of Phoenix for weeks of killer summer.

I was glad to see that some of the murals on crumbling structures had been touched up--there were even some new ones. Last year they were all looking neglected, and I was afraid that another interesting cultural development was disintegrating under the current political/economic environment. I should have known, outlaw art doesn’t die easy.

Our first stop was Kanab, “Utah’s Little Hollywood,” where movie people stayed while creating their new Americano mythology. Murals romanticize the pioneers, though back in the nineteenth century, everybody called them “emigrants.” The streets bristle with tributes to celluloid cowboys and Indians, some long forgotten.

Emily’s mom asked about a “traditional Mexican restaurant,” but there weren’t any to be found. There weren’t any Mexicans to be seen. I was the closest anybody came, and the white tourists speaking Germanic or Scandinavian languages looked at me with my brown skin and bandido moustache as if I were part of the kitschy decor.

We had better luck in Parowan (a Native word meaning “evil water” . . . hmm), a town on the Old Spanish Trail, from the pre-Anglo days. Right on the Trail was La Villa, touted as a Lozano restaurant--lozano meaning sexy, romantic, hot, gorgeous, but also elegant, haughty, or arrogant. To our delight, it was an old-fashioned place with good Mexican food made by Mexicans. Emily’s mom approved.

Besides Asian tourists, the next non-Anglos we saw were Native Americans in Blanding, also home of the fabulous Dinosaur Museum. They were in and around the Edge of the Cedars Museum. One guy was crossing a street. Some worked there. One woman came in as a customer. Indians were as scarce as Mexicans in Utah. “The Utes and Paiutes are practically invisible,” Emily remarked.

In Bluff, near the Four Corners, but still in Utah, we enjoyed Navajo tacos in the Twin Rocks Cafe. It’s was founded in 1880, built on the ruins of a pueblo that archeologists estimate dates back to 650 A.D. In the Big Rez, Navajos seems to be taking over the town, which is a good thing.

Finally, we cut across Monument Valley (Hollywood’s Texas backdrop) through Arizona into New Mexico. After passing through the Navajo and Zuñi reservations, it was hard to keep up with what tribal lands we were in. And you could see the Indians. The Hispanos were everywhere, along with names in Spanish that go back to before America invaded.

"It feels good to be surrounded by people who speak my Spanish,” said Emily’s mom, who in Utah, tried to talk to the Indians in Spanish, and got only puzzled looks.

Ernest Hogan, contributor to the American Book Award winning Altermundos, took a lot of pictures and notes while vacationing in Aztlán. He will be blogging about it at Mondo Ernesto soon.

International Latino Book Awards 2018 Winners

Congratulations to all the ganadores. 

This is the Children, Youth & Young Adult categories. To see the complete list of winners visit,

https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/oUWsxyR1zdys4fdH1P6RBijlSobICfPhcPOFkqxdHhY/folder/8escYrOZSKyE0OeasTIztQ/bnre0GZZRVGgXCo40iqUlQ?_encoding=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0&mgh=1

A CHILDREN, YOUTH, & YOUNG ADULT BOOK AWARDS

Best Latino Focused Children’s Picture Book – English

FIRST PLACE Long and Almost Magical, Adalucía; Cholita Prints and Publishing Company; Lima, Perú (Ancestry: Spanish/Cuban); Albuquerque, NM

SECOND PLACE Miguel and the Amazing Alebrijes, Roni Capin Rivera-Ashford & Aarón Rivera-Ashford; Random House Children’s Books; United States; Tucson, AZ

HONORABLE MENTION Yo Soy Muslim: A Father’s Letter to His Daughter, Mark Gonzales; Salaam Reads / Atheneum Books for Young Readers; USA; Oakland

Best Latino Focused Children’s Picture Book – Spanish

FIRST PLACE Little Skeletons / Esqueletitos, Susie Jaramillo; Encantos Media Studios, PBC; Venezuela/USA; New York City

SECOND PLACE Al bate, Jill Barletti; Illustrated by Jelena Brezovec; Snowflake Stories, LLC; Jill-USA / Jelena-Croatia; Hartford, CT

HONORABLE MENTION At bat / Al bate, Jill Barletti; Illustrated by Jelena Brezovec; Snowflake Stories, LLC; Jill-USA / Jelena-Croatia; Hartford, CT

Best Children’s Fiction Picture Book – Bilingual

FIRST PLACE Little Chanclas, José Lozano; Cinco Puntos Press; USA/Mexican/Spanish; Los Angeles

SECOND PLACE Arturo and The Bienvenido Feast, Anne Broyles; Illustrated by KE Lewis; Pelican Publishing Company; ; Gretna, Louisiana

HONORABLE MENTION At bat / Al bate, Jill Barletti; Illustrated by Jelena Brezovec; Snowflake Stories, LLC; Jill-USA / Jelena-Croatia; Hartford, CT

Best Children’s Fiction Picture Book – English

FIRST PLACE Miguel and the Amazing Alebrijes, Roni Capin Rivera-Ashford & Aarón Rivera-Ashford; Random House Children’s Books; United States; Tucson, AZ

SECOND PLACE All Around Us, Xelena González; Cinco Puntos Press; US/Meztizo; San Antonio TX

SECOND PLACE Jorge and the Lost Cookie Jar, Marta Arroyo; Dayton Publishing; Mexico; San Diego

HONORABLE MENTION Mister Yes, Carmen Gil; Illustrated by Miguel Cerro; Cuento de Luz; Spain; Sevilla/Madrid

Best Children’s Fiction Picture Book – Spanish

FIRST PLACE Margarito, Carmen Gil; Illustrated by Silvia Álvarez; Cuento de Luz; Spain; Sevilla

SECOND PLACE Ni guau ni miau, Blanca Lacasa, Illustrated by Gómez; nubeOCHO; España; Madrid

HONORABLE MENTION Coco: Miguel and the Grand Harmony, Matt de la Peña; Disney Publishing Worldwide; Unites States; Brooklyn

Best Children’s Nonfiction Picture Book

FIRST PLACE The Flying Girl: How Aida de Acosta Learned to Soar, Margarita Engle; Simon & Schuster / Atheneum Books for Young Readers; USA; Oakland

SECOND PLACE Miguel’s Brave Knight, Margarita Engle; Peachtree Publishers; Cuban/American; Fresno, CA

HONORABLE MENTION Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library, Carole Boston Weatherford; Illustrated by Eric Velasquez; Candlewick Press; Carole: African American, Eric: Afro-Puerto Rican, Both born in USA; Charlotte, NC

HONORABLE MENTION Telegrams to Heaven: The Childhood of Archbishop Óscar Arnulfo Romero, René Colato Laínez; Luna’s Press Books; El Salvador; Los Angeles

Best Educational Children’s Picture Book – Bilingual

FIRST PLACE Outside todo el día!, Madeleine Budnick; Trinity University Press; USA; Portland, Oregon

SECOND PLACE Little Elephants / Elefantitos, Susie Jaramillo; Encantos Media Studios, PBC; Venezuela/USA; New York City

HONORABLE MENTION Vamos, Body!, Madeleine Budnick; Trinity University Press; USA; Portland, Oregon

Best Educational Children’s Picture Book – English

FIRST PLACE Bravo!, Margarita Engle; Illustrated by Rafael López; Macmillan Publishers; US/Cuba; Fresno

SECOND PLACE The ABCs to Ranching, Patty York Raymond; Mascot Books; Mexican/American; McAllen TX

Best Educational Children’s Picture Book – Spanish

FIRST PLACE Ayobami y el nombre de los animales, Pilar López Ávila; Illustrated by Mar Azabal; Cuento de Luz; Spain; Madrid

SECOND PLACE ¡Achú, achú, Pirulo!, Pamy Rojas; Cuentos Verdes; Puerto Rico; San Juan

HONORABLE MENTION Los pajaritos, Yolanda Borrás; Illustrated by David Hicock; ; Dominican Republic; USA

Most Inspirational Children’s Picture Book – Bilingual

FIRST PLACE Greña / Crazy Hair, Kianny N. Antigua & Vanessa Balleza; ; Republica Dominicana; Boston NYC

SECOND PLACE Luisita is Sick / Luisita está enferma, Dora Przybylek; Illustrated by Gastón Hauviller; Laredo Publishing; Perú/Chinese ancestry; New York City

HONORABLE MENTION Telegrams to Heaven: The Childhood of Archbishop Óscar Arnulfo Romero, René Colato Laínez; Luna’s Press Books; El Salvador; Los Angeles

Most Inspirational Children’s Picture Book – English

FIRST PLACE All the way to Havana, Margarita Engle; Illustrated by Mike Curato; Macmillan Publishers; US/Cuba; Fresno

SECOND PLACE Miguel and the Amazing Alebrijes, Roni Capin Rivera-Ashford & Aarón Rivera-Ashford; Random House Children’s Books; United States; Tucson, AZ

Most Inspirational Children’s Picture Book – Spanish

FIRST PLACE Una sorpresa para tortuga, Paula Merlán & Sonja Wimmer; nubeOCHO

SECOND PLACE Al bate, Jill Barletti; Illustrated by Jelena Brezovec; Snowflake Stories, LLC; Jill-USA / Jelena-Croatia; Hartford, CT

HONORABLE MENTION La música del mar, Susanna Isern; Illustrated by Marta Chicote; Cuento de Luz; Spain; Santander

Best Youth Latino Focused Chapter Book

FIRST PLACE Princess Inkala and the Last Inka Dynasty, Judith G. Leifer; Laredo Publishing Company; Perú; New York City

Best Youth Chapter Fiction Book

FIRST PLACE My Brigadista Year, Katherine Paterson; Candlewick Press; Caucasian; Burlington, UT

SECOND PLACE Ugly Cat & Pablo, Isabel Quintero; Scholastic Press; Mexican/American; Ontario, Canada

HONORABLE MENTION Me, Frida, and the Secret of the Peacock Ring, Angela Cervantes; Scholastic Press; México; Kansas City

Best Youth Chapter Nonfiction Book

FIRST PLACE Jabber Walking, Juan Felipe Herrera; Candlewick Press; Born in US/Mexican; San Jose, CA

Best Educational Youth Chapter Book

FIRST PLACE  One Minute Mysteries: More Short Mysteries You Solve with Science! - ¡Más misterios cortos que resuelves con Ciencias!, Eric Yoder & Natalie Yoder; Science Naturally!; USA; Washington, DC

SECOND PLACE Liebres y Ratas, Aves y Semillas, Cactos y Árboles, Paul Dayton; Dayton Publishing; Tucson, AZ; Solana Beach, CA

Most Inspirational Youth Chapter Book

FIRST PLACE Forest World, Margarita Engle; Atheneum; US/Cuba; Fresno

Best Young Adult Fiction Book – English

FIRST PLACE Disappeared, Francisco X. Stork; Arthur A. Levine Books / Scholastic; USA/México; Boston

SECOND PLACE Good Girls Don’t Lie, Alexandra Diaz; Leap Books; Puerto Rico/Cuban; Santa Fe, NM

HONORABLE MENTION Shadowhouse Fall, Daniel José Older; Arthur A. Levine Books / Scholastic; Cuban/American; New Orleans

Best Young Adult Fiction Book – Spanish

FIRST PLACE Paloma aventurera, Ani Palacios; Pukiyari Editores; Peru; Columbus, Ohio

SECOND PLACE Las aguas del Kalahari, Rita Wirkala; All Bilingual Press; Argentina; Seattle

Best Young Adult Nonfiction Book

SECOND PLACE Mensajeros de los Dioses, José E. Muratti Toro; Arte de portada e interior por Eliana Falcón Dvorsky; Editorial 360°; Puerto Rico; San Juan

Best Educational Young Adult Book

FIRST PLACE Sonia Sotomayor: A Biography, Sylvia Mendoza; Zest Books

SECOND PLACE  One Minute Mysteries: Short Mysteries You Solve with Math! - ¡Misterios cortos que resuelves con Matemáticas!, Eric Yoder & Natalie Yoder; Science Naturally!; USA; Washington, DC

HONORABLE MENTION La furia de Juracán, José E. Muratti-Toro; Diseñado por Jadyrah Vega Serrano; Editorial 360°; Puerto Rico; San Juan, PR

Most Inspirational Young Adult Book

FIRST PLACE ¡Ven a la vida! Tu guía para el autodescubrimiento, Thomas W. Iland & Emily D. Iland; Porterville Press; USA/Irish American; Los Angeles

SECOND PLACE Victoria es mi nombre, And every day I think I’m going to die, Eliana Habalian; MEL Projects; Venezuela; Miami

The Gluten-free Chicano Cooks Carb-aware

The Gluten-free Chicano Cooks
Gluten-free Green Chile Chicken Low-Carb Deconstructed Taco

This is harvest time in Hatch, New Mexico, and rival tierra, where fields covered with the long green chile have waited for six months to ripen, pick themselves without immigrant labor, and be trucked fresh to supermarkets across the southwest.

The aroma of roasting chiles wafting across a parking lot can convince impulse buyers to order thirty pounds and have them roasted on the spot. Or ten pounds. Or maybe a vendor is selling roasted chiles by the pound and you buy one pound.

Six or seven succulent chiles is all you need for two people and one chicken breast. I buy the lo-heat chile to make food universally palatable. If everyone you know needs to enchilar themselves, get a hotter chile. A good bottled habanero sauce can add the sabor to sweet chile.

Numerous diets call for carbohydrate awareness. Consult a dietitian and physician before deciding to muck around with your nutrition. My dietitian gives me target limits of carbs per meal, so I read package labels for gluten ingredients and carbs and plan accordingly.

Green chile chicken stir-fry is low-carbohydrate, gluten-free by nature. The tortilla can be optional and served on the side, hence the "deconstructed" label.

 I use a search tool to estimate (link) the values in what I'm cooking. The chicken breast raw is zero grams. The green chiles around a gram. Cheese is forgiving, 2g per cup.

Ingredients
1 chicken breast, boned. 0g carbohydrates.
6-7 roasted Hatch chiles  1g
onion, 3g
garlic, 1g
cilantro 1g
comino, 0g
olive oil, 0g
salt optional, 0g

Slice the chile, omit the seed end. Thinly slice the chicken breast.
Heat olive oil and a good frying pan.
Wilt sliced onion and garlic. Add a pinch of comino, powder or seed.
Add chicken and cook until color is solid white.
Add the chile and stir together.
Add a few tablespoons water, cover, lower flame.
Simmer for ten minutes until meat is tender.

Grease a 6" cast iron pan. Fill with chicken-chile mix. Sprinkle a few leaves of cilantro.

Cover with grated cheese. Cheddar, jack, mozzarella, oaxaca, any combination of melting cheeses.

Bake at 350º for fifteen minutes or until the cheese is browned.

A scoop of fried frijoles (10g) on the side, a hot tortilla (12g) to taquear, at the diner's option. As for the carbs, under 30g in the meal if you eat the tort. Not bad if your target is in the 50 range.

¡Provecho!


News 'n Notes

500,000 People, One Bookstore

That's the demographic of the northeastern corner of the San Fernando Valley, the namesake town plus Sylmar, Sunland, Pacoima, one bookstore. Ni modo, if you're in those parts and you need a bookstore, there's Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural & Bookstore. That middle name means something.

Centro Cultural is the identity of the place. A relatively small inventory means you don't come to Tía Chucha's for the Woodward book, but you want Chicano Literature, you want poetry, welcome to the shelves. Here also find Open Mic and featured readers, book signings, music instruction, and a quiet respite from the barren reaches of estas partes.

Tía Chucha's grew from Poet Laureate Luis J. Rodriguez' and his wife, Trini's, commitment to bringing art to their community. As the video below illustrates, Luis intends that no part of the community be left out.



October 13, 2018, Tia Chucha's will hold its annual fundraising gala at La Plaza De Cultura Y Artes, 501 North Main Street, Los Angeles CA 90012 from 6 pm to 10 pm. The location is central to everybody defeated by the drive to San Fernando.

There will be music, art, healthy Mexican food from Guayaba Kitchen, and an awards ceremony to honor three key leaders of our literary and arts community:
Cherrie Moraga,
Yreina D. Cervantez,
Trini Tlazohteotl Rodriguez.

News 'n Notes
Chicago Chicano Museo

The National Museum of Mexican Art cordially invites you to join us for the opening reception for two extraordinary exhibitions: Día de Muertos: A Spiritual Legacy and ¡No se olvida! Remembering the Tlatelolco Massacre on Friday, September 21 from 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm.

The Día de Muertos exhibition celebrates life and the dearly departed loved ones of our communities through traditional and contemporary works of art. Among the many installations this year will also be an ofrenda from the Parkland, Florida community that underwent a horrific loss of 17 lives this year at the Stoneman Douglas High School.

Click here for ticket information.

Click here for Tickets and information 

Get your tickets now for Tía Chucha's Gala 2018!

In many ways, La Bloga is a celebration of Latinx culture in its many forms: literature, art, food, politics, you name it. And we try to bring you news of where and how you can join in the celebration.

Tía Chucha’s Centro Cultural in Sylmar one such place to celebrate culture. The mission of Tía Chucha’s is to transform community in the Northeast San Fernando Valley and beyond through ancestral knowledge, the arts, literacy and creative engagement.

Tía Chucha’s began as a café, bookstore and cultural space owned and run by former Los Angeles Poet Laureate Luis J. Rodríguez, his wife Trini Rodríguez, and their brother-in-law Enrique Sánchez. Tía Chucha’s provides year-round on-site and off-site free or low-cost arts and literacy bilingual intergenerational programming in mural painting, music, dance, writing, visual arts, healing arts sessions (such as reiki healing) and healing/talking circles. Workshops and activities also include Mexica ("Aztec") dance, indigenous cosmology/philosophy, and two weekly open mic nights (one in Spanish, the other in English). Tía Chucha’s host author readings, film screenings, and art exhibits as well.

Now is your chance to celebrate the spirit of Tía Chucha’s at its annual gala, Saturday, October 13, 6:00 p.m. at Plaza de Cultura y Artes, in downtown Los Angeles. The honorees are Cherrie Moraga, Yreina D. Cervantez, and Trini Rodríguez.

Tía Chucha's Gala not only allows the community to come together and celebrate our collective achievements, it also allows a celebratory space to honor those who have given to our community. Also, it provides a chance to help raise the much-needed resources to continue Tía Chucha's mission.

So, please buy your tickets now by going here, and if you purchase before September 30, you will pay the lower, pre-sale price. And we look forward to seeing you!

Té in my life, by Antonio SolisGomez

Té de Canela

On wintry day abuela would drop a couple of sticks of canela into a pan of boiling water, letting it boil for a few minutes before pouring a small amount of cold water to deepen the red color. By then the fragrant aroma was wafting throughout the kitchen. I liked mine with milk and sugar and it was even more wonderful when there was pan dulce to accompany my warm drink.

We also drank té de Yerba Buena, té de Manzanilla, té de Oregano with honey when we had a sore throat and té de Limon, my abuela teaching me a ditty “té de Limon si no te gusta vete al cabrón”.

I did not encounter tea from Asia until years later when I read a moving description in the Good Earth, by Pearl Buck, of a poor Chinese couple dropping a few leaves into a cup of hot water and savoring it as if it were a gift from heaven. I was moved to try tea but unfortunately at the time the only teas available were tea bags from Lipton, an awful product whose taste couldn’t be improved even with massive amounts of sugar.

 In the 1970’s Good Earth began marketing a spice semi-sweet tea for the Good Earth Restaurants and about the same time Celestial Seasonings sprung up that had a larger selection of herbal teas. I began purchasing boxes of tea bags from both companies regularly, but never abandoning my childhood teas either, tea bags were just easier to prepare in the staff room of the library were I worked.

Naturally I had by then tried the green tea served with meals in Chinese restaurants but I saw them more as a curiosity, not thinking of ever incorporating them into my lifestyle. That perception changed when I returned to Tucson in 2005 and was trying to write a fictional story about a Chicano who was living under the radar, wanted no digital footprints, got by with cash by working as a day laborer with jobs obtained at the Home Depot parking lot.

Chano, my character, had a penchant for marijuana and had collected a wide assortment of yesca. I wanted to be like my character who was not only a collector but a connoisseur of mota, with hundreds of samples from all over the world. He had jars of Acapulco Gold, Black Russian, Maui Wowie, Panama Gold, Texas Tea, Mexican Green. Sadly this option was not open to me as I no longer indulged in the practice.

I explored in my mind what other commodity I could collect in such a fashion. Wine and beer were a possibility but I no longer drank. That’s when I hit upon the idea of collecting tea and as I read more about it I realized that a true connoisseur would never stoop to brewing tea from sachets but instead would brew loose tea. I also learned that I could purchase it in bulk from the Food Co-op Market in Tucson or order online, both options which I exercised.

My first online purchase was from the Monterey Bay Spice Company and I bought some herbal teas that were familiar but I remembered reading that Lao Tzu said “Tea is the elixir of life” and knew that he was referring to green tea so I purchased some Oolong and one called Gun Powder.

Harvesting tea in Kenya

Tea in China, were it was first developed, has a prominent history going back as early as 2700 BC. Considered a national treasure the cultivation and processing of tea was a guarded secret for hundreds of years. The introduction of tea to the palate of the British when they began trading with China in the mid 1600’s was nothing short of revolutionary and now it is hard to think of the British without their cup of tea.

Two hundred years of trade between the two nations was beginning to unravel in the 1840’s when China, who was receiving opium grown by the British in India in exchange for tea, began to cultivate their own opium. Even before it began to unravel China was keeping the best tea for itself and sending what they did not want.

The circumstances set in motion efforts to acquire the well kept secret of tea cultivation and processing. The Chinese had reason to be vigilant having encountered a previous breach when secrets related to the production of silk were stolen by two monks sent by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian in 552 BC.

Described as a plant gatherer, a gardener, a spy and a thief, Robert Fortune was contracted by the east India Company in 1847 to venture into the heartland of tea cultivation where he had been previously for scientific reason. But now he had a specific plan to steal some of the seedlings and ship them in sealed glass containers to India along with a few Chinese men who had the expertise for tea cultivation.

One of the secrets that Fortune discovered was that the many varieties of tea originate from one plant Camellia Sinensis. Even Black Tea, known in China as red tea, is derived from the same plant that produces green tea, the difference being a matter processing. And the hundreds of varieties depend on the conditions of where it is grown, how and when it is harvested and how it is processed. All these factors contribute to taste and thus some growers produce higher quality teas not unlike the production of wine.

One Fact that interested me right away was that tea can also be aged, like wine, by pressing it into blocks or disks. Known as Pu erh, this tea is either raw or cooked and can sell for astronomical prices. “….a tong of FuYuanChang puerh tea from the early 1900s. The price achieved for this 2060g of tea was just over £1 million (1.7 million USD). At over £500 a gram, a pot of this tea would set you back around £4000. (Essence of Tea website)

A tong of Pu-erh

My wife bought a nice iron teapot and we began to have a morning ritualistic teatime with Pu-erh upon arising. It was nothing as elaborate as the tea ceremony developed by the Japanese but it was a way to connect at the start of the day. A few years into our practice I happened to mention it to my Chinese friend,  Ben, whom I have known since the 4th grade. We spent a lot of time at each other’s house throughout elementary and high school, his mom with limited English was quite traditional. When I told Ben about the pressed Pu-erh cakes he said. “You know when my mother died we found an old stack of those cakes and I didn’t know what they were so I offered them to my aunt. She said are you sure these are worth a lot of money? I said sure take them.”

I gasped when ben told me that story. True I don’t know if the tong Ben gave to his aunt was of high quality but I sure would have liked to find out.

After Fortune sent his stolen haul, India began cultivating tea and now produces the world famous Darjeeling Tea and although China’s monopoly was broken it still produces more tea than anyone else.

Japan also cultivates and harvests tea from seeds taken from China by Buddhist monks one thousand years ago. Sencha, the Japanese Tea, can be processed using different methods to produce a variety of Teas. Matcha a powder form is touted for its superior health benefits and has been used in the Tea Ceremony and in Buddhist Temples.