Chicanonautica: Ancient Chicano Sci-Fi Wisdom Online

 

by Ernest Hogan

 

Good news, writers of the Latinoid continuum, Somos en escrito and MeXicanos 2070 are presenting the Palabras del Pueblo Writing Workshop 2030, and this time, I’ll be teaching one of the classes. It’ll be called Papí Sci-Fi’s Ancient Chicano Sci-Fi Wisdom. Here’s the official description:

Ernest Hogan was born in East L.A. during the Atomic Age and his mother’s maiden name is Garcia. His 40 years of writing and publishing science fiction and other strange things have caused some call him the Father of Chicano Science Fiction, though there has not yet been a DNA test.

He is now willing to share his vast Ancient Chicano Sci-Fi Wisdom. Come, learn about how to use the weirdness of the Latinoid Continuum in your writing, and how to market yourself to the Anglo-centric publishing industry, use the social media for self-promotion, as well as hear outrageous—sometimes hair-raising—firsthand anecdotes of living a professional writer’s life.

Ernest will also answer your questions, wants this to be an interactive experience, hopes to learn a few things himself, and maybe even get his mind blown.

Goal for the workshop: During the course of the workshop, he will start and write a story, sharing how he does it, and help the students do the same.

Then we will all set our creations loose on an unsuspecting world . . .

It’ll take place over two weekends: May 20-23 and May 27-28, 9am to 1pm Pacific Standard Time, and will be online.

The deadline to apply is May 1^st. The workshop is free to apply. The minimum cost is $100, payable after acceptance before the class begins. If you can't afford $100, please write for options at somosenescrito@gmail.com.

 

Apply now! Space is limited! Don’t miss out!

 

Let’s rattle the planet!

Ernest Hogan is known as the Father of Chicano Science Fiction, but Papí Sci-Fi is shorter, and screams the freewheeling, rasquache approach he has to everything.

Latinx Kidlit Book Festival February Fiesta!

From https://www.latinxkidlitbookfestival.com

 

 

The Latinx Kidlit Book Festival is a FREE virtual celebration of Latinx KidLit authors, illustrators, and books for all students, educators and book lovers around the globe.

 

Over the upcoming year, the LKBF intends to expand programming, increase school and library outreach, hire full-time staff to fulfill the festival’s mission, and more.

 

This auction will support the festival's 2023 goals and help us fulfill our mission.

 

About Latinx Kidlit Book Festival, Inc.

The Latinx KidLit Book Festival was created in 2020 during the COVID pandemic by members of Las Musas Books. Our aim was to connect Latinx authors and illustrators with readers and educators in classrooms around the globe. Since then, and with the help of countless volunteers, the festival has continued to foster a love of story and literacy as well as increase empathy and conversation among educators, students, and book lovers while uplifting the voices of Latinx kidlit book creators.

 

We thank the many volunteers who have shared our vision for this beautiful event and have given their time, energy, and talents to make it a reality. The Latinx Kidlit Book Festival is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization funded by the generosity of our sponsors and donors.

These are some of the bids.

Memory Is Final

 Michael Sedano

 

Dementia of the Alzheimer's type hits in stages: Onset. Mild cognitive impairment. Mild dementia. Severe dementia. After dementia. I’ve been writing a Memory Series recounting my family’s caregiver life with Alzheimer's since our 2018 diagnosis. Barbara died yesterday. Or was it the day before? (Barbara would have liked the allusion. Her sense of humor was the last cognitive skill Alzheimer's took away. Barbara made a pun only a week ago. or was it the week before?)

 

Love, First Sight. December 1966.

 

Barbara Cauchon wasn’t ready to call it a night, especially with one more paper to write. But then, it was Friday night, and Karen was celebrating the end of Finals at Mike’s apartment just down the street. 

 

Barbara had heard all about this Mike, Karen’s study partner who could knock out a term paper without having to pull an all-nighter. A few minutes with Karen, Barbara figured, would help more than it hurt. And she’d get to meet the famous Mike.

 

The windows and door of Apartment C did little to muffle the loud music playing inside. Something classical, that was different, Barbara thought. She knocked. Karen pulled the door wide open and the music got much louder as it poured out into the night.

 

Mike’s apartment was your typical Isla Vista student lair. A stereo sat on a study desk in the corner. A typewriter occupied another desk. They’d hung a cut-and-paste term paper on the grey-white wall, term paper detritus lay crumpled on the rug near the trash basket. The room smelled of coffee and grass.

 

Karen’s study partner, the term-paper whiz, was seated guru-style on the floor, leaning into the stereo speakers, rocking with the swelling brass of The Ride of the Valkyries. Barbara assumed this is the famous Mike, because what Barbara sees is a shape covered head to foot in a green blanket.

 

“Mike,” Karen said, “Barbara’s here.”

 

Unseen fingers grasp the blanket from underneath to start pulling material from back to front. The blanket gets caught at the shoulders so the figure gives a shudder while yanking the blanket across the back of his head, sliding it slowly down his forehead, across his eyes, his nose, his lips, his chin, finally revealing his face looking curiously at Karen’s friend, Barbara Cauchon.

 

Barbara looks into shiny curious eyes of a barefoot guy with short-long hair wearing a rumpled blue dress shirt. This is her first sight of Michael Sedano. They have their first date in May 1968, a whirlwind courtship, and 54 years of married life.

 

 

Veiled Woman. August 1968.

 

The boy fights sleep but he can’t stop the veiled woman from appearing at his bedside, persisting into his dreams. Dressed in shadow, the woman holds his hand saying nothing only humming softly. He can’t shake her loose; he squeezes his eyes until the eyelids tremble, but even closed, his eyes perceive a seated woman in the dark, her face obscured by an even darker shadow. He wants to see her face but he knows he won’t see it.

 

The veiled woman returns night after night, sits beside his bed, for years. The family moves to a new house; the veiled woman sits beside his new bed. The family moves again. Again, the veiled woman holds his hand while he vainly seeks escape in sleep. But he no longer fears the woman, wonders only Who is she, What does her face look like? Why is she with me?

 

The young man does not notice that the veiled woman stops holding his hand. Occasionally her memory surfaces as he falls into college and grad school dreams, but she remains at the edge of awareness, always masked behind unasked questions.

 

Michael kneeled a lot longer than he’d rehearsed so when the priest let the couple stand, relief and joy magnified Michael’s expectation the ritual is culminating. He promises to love, honor, and cherish, in sickness and in health, all the days of our lives, until Death us do part. He means it.

 

“You may kiss your bride.”

 

Barbara turns toward Michael and lifts her veil. She takes the bottom hem in both hands and pulls the diaphanous material up and away from her lips, her nose, her eyes, and over her forehead. She stares for the first time into her husband’s face. Michael looks into Barbara’s eyes knowing instantly her face is that veiled woman of earliest memory, the Soul who guards my sleep all the days of my life.

 

Barbara May Cauchon Sedano. 

b. May 14, 1944 

d. February 4, 2023

Q E P D

Presente!

Book launch of “To the North/Al norte: Poems” by León Salvatierra: February 10, 6:00 p.m.

The University of Nevada Press is pleased to publish its first dual-language (Spanish-English) book of poetry, To the North/Al norte: Poems, by the Nicaraguan poet León Salvatierra. The work is rooted in the Central American diaspora that emerged from the civil wars in the 1980s. The poems are tied together through the experiences, memories, visions, and dreams of a 15-year-old boy who embarked on a journey to the United States with a group of forty other migrants from Central America. After being undocumented for eleven years, Salvatierra established himself in the United States, first becoming a naturalized citizen and then obtaining a university education.

Salvatierra mixes lyrical and prose poems to explore the experience of exile in a new country. His powerful metaphors and fresh images inhabit spaces fraught with the violence, anxiety, and vulnerability that undocumented Central American migrants commonly face in their transnational journeys. His vivid memories of Nicaragua tie the personal experiences of his poetic subjects to the geopolitical history between the Central American region and the United States.

Praise for To the North/Al norte

“By combining prose and poetry, and blurring the boundaries between genres and nations, Salvatierra manages to assert individual agency and wrest control of his own story.”

—Diego Báez. Poetry Foundation

“Largely translated by Javier O. Huerta, it is simultaneously heartbreaking and hilarious — even more so if you can read it in both languages.”

—Daniel A. Olivas, Los Angeles Times

“The collection chronicles the poet’s journey from Nicaragua to the U.S. as he faces obstacles as an undocumented teenager and as he adjusts to the demands of life in a new land. To read this book is to get is poignant and poetic look at what it means to be marginalized in the U.S.”

—Jose B. Gonzalez, Latino Stories

“The poetry here is at once intimate and public, which makes for a complex and rich alchemy. León Salvatierra’s range of registers is breathtaking.”

—Francisco Aragón, poet, editor, director of Letras Latinas at the Institute for Latino Studies, University of Norte Dame, and author of After Rubén
 
“To the North/Al norte makes poetry feel essential, that without it, Salvatierra’s speakers would become unmoored, losing everything that they have tried so hard to recover. Salvatierra clearly revels in language. . . . This collection is a significant contribution to the growing body of undocumented literature as well as Latinx literature.”

—Maceo Montoya, professor, University of California, Davis, author of Preparatory Notes for Future Masterpieces

“The memory and humanity that Salvatierra reaps along the way are ultimately challenged, and subdued . . . What we’re left with is the impression of autonomy; and its anatomy of longing.”

—Delphic Reviews

                                                    ***

You may read my Los Angeles Times interview with León Salvatierra here.

Book Event in Ventura for Arty's Amazing Accordion

Melinda Palacio 

Arty's Amazing Accordion/El Acordéon Assombroso de Arty
by Amada Irma Perez 

Award-winning author Amada Irma Perez has worked with traditional and non-traditional publishers. Lately, she has been self-publishing and owning all of the laborious creative process. You wouldn't know the books were self-published, based on the professional quality of her new book, Arty's Amazing Accordion/El Acordéon Assombroso, illustrated by Lili Sosa. 

Ever since her college days, Amada knew that she would write the story about her husband's journey as an accordion player. Dating a a college student and musician, who played in several bands meant little time for their romance. However, 50 years later, their children and grandchildren are often regaled with Arty's world class playing. In college, he was in a Norteño band but played music from all over the world and was sought after for celebrations. 

Gifted from the start, his farm working parents picked lemons in Upland and grapes further north. Music classes were a luxury that his parents struggled to afford, but they didn't spare their son. Amada says his mother saved to buy the best accordion money could buy. "They sacrificed for him to play music. His mother would rush home from the packing house to get him to his lesson. If she was late, she would get a taxi." The sacrifice paid off, in Junior High and High School, Arty won talent shows and he became a much sought after accordion player for his ability to play musical styles from all over the world.

Although a back injury caused him to trade the accordion for the piano for ten years, his students appreciated his piano playing. Several on facebook have thanked him for playing Happy Birthday for them. And much to his relief, he was able to return to his beloved accordion after the long decade of healing.  

Amada surprised him with the book for his 78th birthday. The delightful bilingual children's book tells the story of his love for music. The gorgeous book is endorsed by Sandra Cisneros who writes: "Arty reminds us that we all need art to feed our hungry hearts, especially if we are amazing children."

Everyone is invited to Amada's book signing, Saturday, February 4 at 2pm at Timbre Books in Ventura, 1924 E. Main Street. You can meet the real life Arty who will play some songs, along with their son. 

At the Border

                                                                                   

The desert beyond

     

February 16, 2009 

       At noon, the border town moved with life, mostly Mexicans, from the other side, shopping in stores owned by Koreans and Lebanese, in old, stark buildings leased from absentee landlords who had long ago moved out of town to cooler climates in upscale cities, like San Diego, Balboa, and Los Angeles. The American Graffiti days were long gone, no J.J. Newberry, or kids enjoying English movies at the Fox Theater, the locals shopping at the new mall and Wall Mart outside of town, where they lunched at Applebee's and Coco's. Instead, window displays and racks on the sidewalks were filled with knockoff clothing, cheap houseware goods and plastic toys. 

       By 3:00 P.M., the crowds had thinned. Shoppers made their way back across the border, and by 6:00 P.M., except for a few stragglers, the rest had abandoned the area downtown. As night fell and a cool chill swept through town, there was an eerie silence, a reminder of the great desert beyond. Across the border came the faint echo of voices and music. 

       I asked a friend if the downtown area was always this dead at night. "It's changed a lot since I was a kid," he told me. "But you should see it in the morning, early, before sunlight. “It’s another world.” He didn't elaborate.

       I set my alarm for 4:00 A.M. I hadn't been up that early in a long time. I wiped the sleep from my eyes, washed, dressed, and a half hour later, I stood downtown at the corner of 3rd and Paulin. The sidewalks and streets breathed, crowds everywhere. Men and women in work clothes walked into the donut shops and cafes, some of them small store fronts that had remained closed during the day. Lines of workers stood outside open windows and took bag lunches from cooks who had prepared their food. The workers put the lunches into their backpacks. They congregated in groups, talking and waiting.

       At certain locations, their "connections" would come for them. “Si, pa’ avisarnos,” as one man told me, waiting for a company contractor to "notify" him, a type of approval to guarantee him a day's work. Another man said, in Spanish, “Sometimes they arrive early to get us. Sometimes they don’t come until after 6:00, and sometimes they don’t come at all.” 

       A column of white school buses hauling toilets on trailers, Elkhorn Packing and Southeast Growers, filled the streets, picked up workers, and rushed out of town, crisscrossing the roads and highways, delivering workers to packing sheds and to the fields. It’s a world within a world. 

     The town sleeps. A mass of humanity waits, moves, trudges, and hopes for work. They have faces and voices. They talk, they laugh, and they grow sullen. A handsome man, movie-star handsome, with a neatly trimmed beard looks inside a donut shop window. Dressed for the cold, he carries a backpack, as do most of the people on the street. Is he an artist, or a musician who must work the fields during the day to survive? 

       There are other men, clean-cut, blue eyes, light skin, expressive when they talk, smiling and grimacing, signs of life, real stories evident on their faces and in their speech. There are young women who appear to hide their femininity in the bulkiness of their clothing, gender neutral. Another man, with tattoos sneaking up his neck, a serious look on his face, a heavy jacket, hoodie, and a backpack hanging behind him, waits like the rest, surviving, desperate as the ghost buses move orderly through the streets, more people than buses. Some men are old, wrinkled, barely hanging on, yet they look experienced to this life of the morning, this other world. 

       It’s dusk, the sun rising, swallowing the dark, and the buses are gone, the groans of the engines silenced. The workers, remaining, men and women, walk away in different directions. Many disappear towards the border, crossing back to the other side. By 6:30, it’s light, the last bus moves up Imperial Highway, away from the international border and out towards the desolate fields and packing houses, into the mouth of the desert, Yuma barely an hour away. 

       The streets stand empty. The small, nondescript stores close, until tomorrow morning when it all starts again. I enter a coffee shop and order one large cup. I take a seat at a bench beside an old woman dressed in work clothes, a backpack beside her, a baseball cap covering her gray hair. I ask her if she works in the fields. She must be somebody’s grandmother. She tells me “Yes,” she does work. She crosses the border each morning, hoping, but when the contractors look at her, they think she’s too old, and they will only hire her if there is a shortage of workers. 

       “Today,” she says, “they had plenty of workers. I’ll come, again, tomorrow. Maybe I will be luckier.” She sips her coffee and gives me a smile, as if to tell me not to worry. She knows what she is doing.

American Library Association Award Winners 2023

 

For a complete list of ALA awards and winners visit,

 

https://www.ala.org/news/press-releases/2023/01/american-library-association-announces-2023-youth-media-award-winners

 

 

Pura Belpré Awards honoring Latinx writers and illustrators whose children's and young adult books best portray, affirm and celebrate the Latino cultural experience: 

 

“Where Wonder Grows,” illustrated by Adriana M. Garcia, is the 2023 Pura Belpré Youth Illustration Award winner. The book was written by Xelena González and published by Cinco Puntos Press, an imprint of Lee & Low Books Inc.

 

Six Belpré Youth Illustration Honor Books were named: 

“The Coquíes Still Sing,” illustrated by Krystal Quiles, written by Karina Nicole González and published by Roaring Brook Press, a division of Macmillan Children's Publishing Group.

 

“A Land of Books: Dreams of Young Mexihcah Word Painters,” illustrated and written by Duncan Tonatiuh and published by Abrams Books for Young Readers, an imprint of ABRAMS.

 

“Magic: Once Upon a Faraway Land,” illustrated and written by Mirelle Ortega and published by Cameron Kids, an imprint of Cameron + Company, a division of ABRAMS.

 

“Phenomenal AOC: The Roots and Rise of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,” illustrated by Loris Lora, written by Anika Aldamuy Denise and published by HarperCollins Children’s Books, a division of HarperCollins Publishers.

 

“Srta. Quinces,” illustrated and written by Kat Fajardo, translated by Scholastic Inc. and published by Graphix, an imprint of Scholastic Inc.

 

“Still Dreaming / Seguimos soñando,” illustrated by Magdalena Mora, written by Claudia Guadalupe Martínez, translated by Luis Humberto Crosthwaite and published by Children’s Book Press, an imprint of Lee & Low Books Inc.

 

***

 

“Frizzy,” written by Claribel A. Ortega, is the 2023 Pura Belpré Children’s Author Award winner. The book is illustrated by Rose Bousamra and published by First Second, a division of Macmillan Children's Publishing Group. 

 

Three Belpré Children’s Author Honor Books were named:

 “The Coquíes Still Sing,” written by Karina Nicole González, illustrated by Krystal Quiles and published by Roaring Brook Press, a division of Macmillan Children's Publishing Group. 

 

“The Notebook Keeper: A Story of Kindness from the Border,” written by Stephen Briseño, illustrated by Magdalena Mora and published by Random House Studio, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House.

 

“Tumble,” written by Celia C. Pérez and published by Kokila, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

 

***

 

“Burn Down, Rise Up,” written by Vincent Tirado, is the 2023 Pura Belpré Young Adult Author Award winner. The book is published by Sourcebooks Fire, an imprint of Sourcebooks. 

 

Three Belpré Young Adult Author Honor Book were named:

“Breathe and Count Back from Ten,” written by Natalia Sylvester and published by Clarion Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

 

“High Spirits,” written by Camille Gomera-Tavarez and published by Arthur A. Levine, an imprint of Levine Querido.

 

“The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School,” written by Sonora Reyes and published by Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

 

 

Coretta Scott King (Author) Book Award recognizing an African American author and illustrator of outstanding books for children and young adults.

 

“Freewater,” written by Amina Luqman-Dawson, is the King Author Book winner. The book is published by JIMMY Patterson/Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.  

 

Three King Author Honor Books were selected: 

“Star Child: A Biographical Constellation of Octavia Estelle Butler,” written by Ibi Zoboi and published by Dutton Children’s Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

 

“The Talk,” written by Alicia D. Williams, illustrated by Briana Mukodiri Uchendu and published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing Division.

 

“Victory. Stand!: Raising My Fist for Justice,” written by Tommie Smith and Derrick Barnes, illustrated by Dawud Anyabwile and published by Norton Young Readers, an imprint of W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

 

 

***

 

“Standing in the Need of Prayer: A Modern Retelling of the Classic Spiritual,” illustrated by Frank Morrison, is the King Illustrator Book winner. The book is written by Carole Boston Weatherford and published by Crown Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House.

 

Three King Illustrator Honor Books were selected: 

“Me and the Boss: A Story about Mending and Love,” illustrated by April Harrison, written by Michelle Edwards and published by Anne Schwartz Books, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House.

 

“Swim Team,” illustrated and written by Johnnie Christmas and published by HarperAlley, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

 

“Victory. Stand!: Raising My Fist for Justice,” illustrated by Dawud Anyabwile, written by Tommie Smith and Derrick Barnes and published by Norton Young Readers, an imprint of W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

 

***

 

Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Author Award: “We Deserve Monuments,” written by Jas Hammonds, is the Steptoe author award winner. The book is published by Roaring Brook Press, a division of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group.

 

***

 

Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Illustrator Award: “Choosing Brave: How Mamie Till-Mobley and Emmett Till Sparked the Civil Rights Movement,” illustrated by Janelle Washington, is the Steptoe illustrator award winner. The book is written by Angela Joy and published by Roaring Brook Press, a division of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group.

 

***

 

Coretta Scott King – Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement:

 

Dr. Claudette McLinn is the winner of the Coretta Scott King – Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement. The award pays tribute to the quality and magnitude of beloved children’s author Virginia Hamilton. Dr. McLinn is the founder and executive director of the Center for the Study of Multicultural Children’s Literature (CSMCL). She is a retired district supervising librarian for the LA Unified School District with over 34 years of experience, a former bookseller and a much sought-after book award juror/presenter.

 

 

John Newbery Medal for the most outstanding contribution to children's literature: “Freewater,” written by Amina Luqman-Dawson, is the 2023 Newbery Medal winner. The book is published by JIMMY Patterson/Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

 

Three Newbery Honor Books also were named: 

“Iveliz Explains It All,” written by Andrea Beatriz Arango and published by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House.

 

“The Last Mapmaker,” written by Christina Soontornvat and published by Candlewick Press.

 

“Maizy Chen’s Last Chance,” written by Lisa Yee and published by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House.

 

 

Randolph Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children: “Hot Dog,” illustrated and written by Doug Salati, is the 2023 Caldecott Medal winner. The book was published by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Penguin Random House. 

 

Four Caldecott Honor Books also were named: 

“Ain’t Burned All the Bright,” illustrated by Jason Griffin, written by Jason Reynolds and published by Caitlyn Dlouhy Books/Atheneum Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing.

 

“Berry Song,” illustrated and written by Michaela Goade and published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

 

“Choosing Brave: How Mamie Till-Mobley and Emmett Till Sparked the Civil Rights Movement,” illustrated by Janelle Washington, written by Angela Joy and published by Roaring Brook Press, a division of Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group.

 

“Knight Owl,” illustrated and written by Christopher Denise and published by Christy Ottaviano Books, an imprint of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.