by RudyG
I moved this discussion here for those who wish to continue either: 1. the Quebec separation question (below) or 2. the Spanish-in-italics discussion (please add comments to "Nothing italic about DT", in the column at the right).
RudyG last wrote:
"The Quebecoise are a minority within Canada who've fought battles against what they see as oppression by the dominant Canadian culture."
Martini Republic editor's response:
Rudy, with all due respect--have you ever been to Montreal, or any part of Quebec? Or even to Canada? This statement strikes me as a vast underestimation of French Canada. First off, both French and English titles appear on all national government correspondence. But beyond that, the battles in Quebec have typically been for complete separation, and also over the exclusion of English in Quebec; any sense of Anglophone cultural or linguistic “oppression” is extremely vague in Quebec--indeed, it is the French speakers who have tried to exclude English, to the economic detriment of the city. Quebec is gigantic--it feels like a country, and when you are cinq kilometres outside of Montreal, English language speakers disappear completely.
March 31, 2005, 13:33
Response from RudyG:
"Have (I) ever been to Montreal, even to Canada?" you ask. I doubt that looking across from Niagara Falls counts, so I'll say, Je crois que non. Nor have I set foot on African soil, so my info about the "reputed" apartheid there may have been simply self-delusion. And since I never visited Antarctica, penguins possibly don't, in fact, reside there.
Since I'm something less than a world traveler, I'm forced to depend on your personal observations that "the battles in Quebec have typically been for complete separation, and also over the exclusion of English in Quebec".
Good enough. "Complete separation" sounds like a battle, one against the gov't and dominant culture of Canada, I assume.
I've read--though never seen them all in person--of many others who wanted the same. Do the Northern Irish ring a bell? Chicanos, blacks, Hawaiians and many indigenous peoples from the continental U.S. (which I have seen some of) also come to mind. They had/have good reason (however "extremely vague" they may seem), but were not "given" the power to do so.
Those who say such peoples may have no right to decide their own fate, since they might makes "mistakes" like the Quebecoise, might seem to be aligning themselves with the dominating gov't's and cultures--not a wise, defensible affiliation in front of, say, the World Court. (I think that's in The Hague, which might be in Europe.) But then, maybe they know better because they've seen more of the world, I assume.
Rudy Ch. Garcia
Las Blogueras Los Blogueros
Click to email a writer. Denver CO • Pasadena CA • The San Fernando Valley CA • Eagle Rock CA • Lincoln NE • Glendale AZ • Santa Barbara CA • Lincoln Heights CA • Kansas City MO • Santa Monica CA
Thursday, March 31, 2005
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Thanks, Corky, and have a safe journey.
msedano
There’s un montón de gente walking around all abashed right now, having heard Corky Gonzales has gone home to wait for la muerte to come calling. Have a safe journey, vato.
I like Gonzales’ small epic, Yo Soy Joaquin , and always have. But that montón of avergüenzados number among the poem’s detractors. With the man’s decision to die with dignity, I hear people saying they need to rethink their attitude toward the piece, and similar revisionist thoughts. Good for them. The poem merits respect.
I Am Joaquin is one of those poems that has to be read out loud because it sounds so darn good, even when a poor reader gets hold of it. Let an accomplished oral interpreter sink one’s teeth into the poem and audiences will be rising at the end, sharing the poem’s triumphant declaration, "Yo perdudaré! I will endure!"
I’ve heard critics bad mouth the piece for its simplistic imagery. But when the piece first appeared, Gonzales had captured the sound and feel of the times, the burgeoning of popular awareness that "chicano" could mean more than a simple self-referent, the term could be invested with motive power and used to give added urgency to the movimiento.
I love the opening for its echo of another important United States poem of modern landscapes, Ginsberg’s "Howl":
Yo soy Joaquín,
perdido en un mundo de confusión:
I am Joaquín, lost in a world of confusion,
caught up in the whirl of a gringo society,
confused by the rules, scorned by attitudes,
suppressed by manipulation, and destroyed by modern society.
Gonzales’ poem is full of hope and optimism, whereas Ginsberg’s vision looked hopelessly across the chaotic landscape of US culture, with no redemption on the horizon:
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night,
who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness of cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities contemplating jazz,
"Howl" is too damn long, and so is "Joaquin," though not so much. And so, too, grows this blogpistle. Hey folks, think good thoughts for Corky Gonzales. And before he’s gone, go out and buy a copy of "Yo Soy Joaquin" and read it out loud to someone you care for. Then, when you get the inevitable news the poet’s left us, go outside and scream out the final lines, because, sabes, you are Joaquin, too:
La raza!
Méjicano!
Español!
Latino!
Chicano!
Or whatever I call myself,
I look the same
I feel the same
I cry
And
Sing the same.
I am the masses of my people and
I refuse to be absorbed.
I am Joaquín.
The odds are great
But my spirit is strong,
My faith unbreakable,
My blood is pure.
I am Aztec prince and Christian Christ.
I SHALL ENDURE!
I WILL ENDURE!
mvs
There’s un montón de gente walking around all abashed right now, having heard Corky Gonzales has gone home to wait for la muerte to come calling. Have a safe journey, vato.
I like Gonzales’ small epic, Yo Soy Joaquin , and always have. But that montón of avergüenzados number among the poem’s detractors. With the man’s decision to die with dignity, I hear people saying they need to rethink their attitude toward the piece, and similar revisionist thoughts. Good for them. The poem merits respect.
I Am Joaquin is one of those poems that has to be read out loud because it sounds so darn good, even when a poor reader gets hold of it. Let an accomplished oral interpreter sink one’s teeth into the poem and audiences will be rising at the end, sharing the poem’s triumphant declaration, "Yo perdudaré! I will endure!"
I’ve heard critics bad mouth the piece for its simplistic imagery. But when the piece first appeared, Gonzales had captured the sound and feel of the times, the burgeoning of popular awareness that "chicano" could mean more than a simple self-referent, the term could be invested with motive power and used to give added urgency to the movimiento.
I love the opening for its echo of another important United States poem of modern landscapes, Ginsberg’s "Howl":
Yo soy Joaquín,
perdido en un mundo de confusión:
I am Joaquín, lost in a world of confusion,
caught up in the whirl of a gringo society,
confused by the rules, scorned by attitudes,
suppressed by manipulation, and destroyed by modern society.
Gonzales’ poem is full of hope and optimism, whereas Ginsberg’s vision looked hopelessly across the chaotic landscape of US culture, with no redemption on the horizon:
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night,
who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness of cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities contemplating jazz,
"Howl" is too damn long, and so is "Joaquin," though not so much. And so, too, grows this blogpistle. Hey folks, think good thoughts for Corky Gonzales. And before he’s gone, go out and buy a copy of "Yo Soy Joaquin" and read it out loud to someone you care for. Then, when you get the inevitable news the poet’s left us, go outside and scream out the final lines, because, sabes, you are Joaquin, too:
La raza!
Méjicano!
Español!
Latino!
Chicano!
Or whatever I call myself,
I look the same
I feel the same
I cry
And
Sing the same.
I am the masses of my people and
I refuse to be absorbed.
I am Joaquín.
The odds are great
But my spirit is strong,
My faith unbreakable,
My blood is pure.
I am Aztec prince and Christian Christ.
I SHALL ENDURE!
I WILL ENDURE!
mvs
Monday, March 28, 2005
Nothing italic about Devil Talk
by RudyG
If you could cross Stephen King with Albert Camus, and the milkman Zeta Acosta snuck a dab of his in, either you'd get an ugly, disturbed boracho or you'd get Daniel A. Olivas, writing stuff like Devil Talk: Stories. (Bilingual Press. 2004)
As I've said before, I don't know how to review lit, Chicano or otherwise. I know what I like. I like Devil Talk.
Unlike Rudy Anaya's Serafina's Stories (Sedano's review Wed. 1/26/05, "Friday End of January"), don't plan on reading many of them to younger kids. At the same time, as Olivas informs me, some could be great material for high schoolers. So after you buy the book, keep it with your stash so young ones don't get their hands on it. It might mentally cripple them, and then they'd turn, not to crime, but to wanting to destroy the world.
The DT stories are creepy. The book's Chicano. It's weird. That's why I like it. Plus, I write this stuff, except mine don't get published; figure it's 'cause I write like I review.
Enough de mí, though. Read what Olivas says about his own book ("Cuento de Fantasmas"- essay, March) if you want a real review. I got otros pescados to fry.
There's 26 chingos of short stories here, running the spectrum from the existential to Chicano adaptation of folklore. They vary in pace, topic, genre and mood--from lightly dark to as much as there is inside your culo.
Para mí, it's refreshing to see a Chicano writing the Unreal, the urban folklore noir, the Absurd of East L.A. I've gotten muy cansado de Chicano characters written by the Non who portray us as Spanish-surnamed, brown-looking tokens and quota-meeters in meager attempts at non-Eurocentric literature. To that type of author, I say, please don't use me/us or my surname if you don't know what you're talking about, anymore than you would when portraying a Frenchman or Hmong.
In Devil Talk we get Chicanos. Real ones. Imaginary ones. Lots of evil or sick ones. Plots are twisted, sordid, fantastical, gruesome. It's worth the cover price and makes a fine gift for someone who likes horror, "ethnic", literary, or speculative lit in general. With more than a dash of dark, remember? I might not buy it for my priest, if I had one, or my mom, which I do, but a mature reader will enjoy it.
What I don't like about the book has nothing to do with the stories. I wanna bitch about the fact that Spanish & SpangliCH are not in italics. According to Olivas,
"It is Bilingual Press's editorial policy (and mine now) that Spanish should not be in italics. As I understand the policy, it emphasizes the idea that Spanish is as valid a language as English and also de-emphasizes the "otherness" of non-English languages. In my encounters with other fiction writers who come from non-English speaking cultures, this is the trend and prevailing philosophy. In essence, it is a political statement."
I understand the point and can agree with its intent as a political statement. As I see it, it's comparable, in some ways, to using he/she, which also makes a political statement.
Now me, I got no problem. I'm bilingual enough that my SpangliCH brain can make the switch back and forth if Spanish isn't italicized (comprehension level excluded, in either idiom).
Still, I have a different take on the practicality of this trend. We Chicanos are "italicized" in real life. We stick out as different (and are often treated suchly by many non-Chicanos), and I say our "special" status in America should be acknowledged. Yeah, we're a part of here, but not generically like regular typefaces, or people.
Spanish is validated worldwide as language, in part due to Lorca, Garcia Marquez, Neruda and others. Its "otherness" in America is a special problem, mostly a vestige of the U.S. stealing the Southwest. Today's Spanish-speaking Chicanos and mexicanos are the Other reminder of that. I say, that should be remembered; we are the Other. To bring us in from the frio, the U.S. should change everything that keeps us on the fringe of society. Eliminating italics seems like a light swat at a rampaging elephant.
What would be next in such a trend? Should italics be eliminated for all "Muslim languages", Vietnamese, Korean, Aleut and Sioux? Would it even prevent the U.S. people from invading Iran, Korea or Cuba? No, 'cause there's BIGGER problems at the root.
I don't recall seeing Ebonese or Brother-speak ever italicized, but how much better off are they for that?
Plus I got practical problems with the non-italics idea. Readers of Devil Talk and similarly formatted books read this line from DT, for example:
"Yes, hombre. Pinche heavy."
If you're the monolingual gringo (or agabachado Latino who lost his Spanish), do you read "hombre" and sound like John Wayne or definitely assume the character's speaking Spanish? More importantly, what about "Pinche heavy."? Do you read it like "pinch" and think it's maybe a typo and not understand Olivas isn't really talking about using two fingers and that the word has a profane edge?
If "hombre" and "pinche" are italicized, it's a clear sign to that gringo (and agabachado) that it's in Spanish and time to pull out the diccionario. Easier for them to grasp, no? If you want to keep and teach them to become literate readers, that is.
Some might say books like Devil Talk aren't intended for that gringo. Apparently not. But I say, why not? In this part of the country we will outnumber them, eventually, and we need to start now on their bilingual literacy. Otherwise we're gonna wind up with a bunch of monolingual fringe elements of society. We don't need to carry them anymore than we already have and do.
Sure there's a lot of SpangliCH in DT and other books that would need italicizing. So what? How's a gringo gonna learn?
Anyway, check out Olivas's Devil Talk. I did, and I can still sleep at night. But I get these strange dreams I'll tell you about another time.
© Rudy Ch. Garcia
If you could cross Stephen King with Albert Camus, and the milkman Zeta Acosta snuck a dab of his in, either you'd get an ugly, disturbed boracho or you'd get Daniel A. Olivas, writing stuff like Devil Talk: Stories. (Bilingual Press. 2004)
As I've said before, I don't know how to review lit, Chicano or otherwise. I know what I like. I like Devil Talk.
Unlike Rudy Anaya's Serafina's Stories (Sedano's review Wed. 1/26/05, "Friday End of January"), don't plan on reading many of them to younger kids. At the same time, as Olivas informs me, some could be great material for high schoolers. So after you buy the book, keep it with your stash so young ones don't get their hands on it. It might mentally cripple them, and then they'd turn, not to crime, but to wanting to destroy the world.
The DT stories are creepy. The book's Chicano. It's weird. That's why I like it. Plus, I write this stuff, except mine don't get published; figure it's 'cause I write like I review.
Enough de mí, though. Read what Olivas says about his own book ("Cuento de Fantasmas"- essay, March) if you want a real review. I got otros pescados to fry.
There's 26 chingos of short stories here, running the spectrum from the existential to Chicano adaptation of folklore. They vary in pace, topic, genre and mood--from lightly dark to as much as there is inside your culo.
Para mí, it's refreshing to see a Chicano writing the Unreal, the urban folklore noir, the Absurd of East L.A. I've gotten muy cansado de Chicano characters written by the Non who portray us as Spanish-surnamed, brown-looking tokens and quota-meeters in meager attempts at non-Eurocentric literature. To that type of author, I say, please don't use me/us or my surname if you don't know what you're talking about, anymore than you would when portraying a Frenchman or Hmong.
In Devil Talk we get Chicanos. Real ones. Imaginary ones. Lots of evil or sick ones. Plots are twisted, sordid, fantastical, gruesome. It's worth the cover price and makes a fine gift for someone who likes horror, "ethnic", literary, or speculative lit in general. With more than a dash of dark, remember? I might not buy it for my priest, if I had one, or my mom, which I do, but a mature reader will enjoy it.
What I don't like about the book has nothing to do with the stories. I wanna bitch about the fact that Spanish & SpangliCH are not in italics. According to Olivas,
"It is Bilingual Press's editorial policy (and mine now) that Spanish should not be in italics. As I understand the policy, it emphasizes the idea that Spanish is as valid a language as English and also de-emphasizes the "otherness" of non-English languages. In my encounters with other fiction writers who come from non-English speaking cultures, this is the trend and prevailing philosophy. In essence, it is a political statement."
I understand the point and can agree with its intent as a political statement. As I see it, it's comparable, in some ways, to using he/she, which also makes a political statement.
Now me, I got no problem. I'm bilingual enough that my SpangliCH brain can make the switch back and forth if Spanish isn't italicized (comprehension level excluded, in either idiom).
Still, I have a different take on the practicality of this trend. We Chicanos are "italicized" in real life. We stick out as different (and are often treated suchly by many non-Chicanos), and I say our "special" status in America should be acknowledged. Yeah, we're a part of here, but not generically like regular typefaces, or people.
Spanish is validated worldwide as language, in part due to Lorca, Garcia Marquez, Neruda and others. Its "otherness" in America is a special problem, mostly a vestige of the U.S. stealing the Southwest. Today's Spanish-speaking Chicanos and mexicanos are the Other reminder of that. I say, that should be remembered; we are the Other. To bring us in from the frio, the U.S. should change everything that keeps us on the fringe of society. Eliminating italics seems like a light swat at a rampaging elephant.
What would be next in such a trend? Should italics be eliminated for all "Muslim languages", Vietnamese, Korean, Aleut and Sioux? Would it even prevent the U.S. people from invading Iran, Korea or Cuba? No, 'cause there's BIGGER problems at the root.
I don't recall seeing Ebonese or Brother-speak ever italicized, but how much better off are they for that?
Plus I got practical problems with the non-italics idea. Readers of Devil Talk and similarly formatted books read this line from DT, for example:
"Yes, hombre. Pinche heavy."
If you're the monolingual gringo (or agabachado Latino who lost his Spanish), do you read "hombre" and sound like John Wayne or definitely assume the character's speaking Spanish? More importantly, what about "Pinche heavy."? Do you read it like "pinch" and think it's maybe a typo and not understand Olivas isn't really talking about using two fingers and that the word has a profane edge?
If "hombre" and "pinche" are italicized, it's a clear sign to that gringo (and agabachado) that it's in Spanish and time to pull out the diccionario. Easier for them to grasp, no? If you want to keep and teach them to become literate readers, that is.
Some might say books like Devil Talk aren't intended for that gringo. Apparently not. But I say, why not? In this part of the country we will outnumber them, eventually, and we need to start now on their bilingual literacy. Otherwise we're gonna wind up with a bunch of monolingual fringe elements of society. We don't need to carry them anymore than we already have and do.
Sure there's a lot of SpangliCH in DT and other books that would need italicizing. So what? How's a gringo gonna learn?
Anyway, check out Olivas's Devil Talk. I did, and I can still sleep at night. But I get these strange dreams I'll tell you about another time.
© Rudy Ch. Garcia
Saturday, March 26, 2005
Pedacitos y Pedazos - Sabado Santo
Manuel Ramos
One Book, One Boulder, One Denver
Curious New Voices
And Yet More Best Books of 2004
Art For Easter Weekend
One Book, One Boulder, One Denver
I've already written about the selection of Sandra Cisneros's book Caramelo for the One Book, One Denver event (Pedacitos y Pedazos). So it's double cool that Rudolfo Anaya's Bless Me, Ultima was selected by Boulder for its One Book, One Boulder festivities, especially in light of the flap created by the high school principal in rural Colorado who banned the book (I'm Not Making Up Any Of This). What a mistake that turned out to be and what a public relations nightmare for that school.
Boulder has an interesting series of events scheduled for Anaya including An Evening With Rudolfo Anaya, April 22, 7:30 PM, St. Julien Hotel Ballroom. Tickets are free (limit 2 per person; personal pick-up only; no reservations) and until they are gone can be picked up at the main entrance desk of the south wing of the Boulder Public Library (11th and Arapahoe) starting April 12.
Rudy Anaya is another treasure of Chicano culture we should support and acknowledge while he is still with us and, apparently, writing wonderful books. I haven't read his latest yet, Jemez Spring, but it is racking up super reviews. For example, the LA Times, the Albuquerque Journal, the San Antonio Express-News.
Meanwhile, Denver moves on with its One Book celebration. I am scheduled to be on a panel that will discuss Caramelo at the University of Colorado at Denver on April 4 from noon to 1:30 PM at the Auraria Campus Student Center. Other panel participants include Angel Vigil, educator and storyteller who specializes in the traditional stories of the Hispanic Southwest and Mexico; John-Michael Rivera, author and Assistant Professor of English at the University of Colorado, Boulder; Cate Wiley, poet and Associate Professor of English, University of Colorado at Denver; and Margarita Barceló, Professor of English and Chicana/o Studies at Metropolitan State College of Denver. Should be a good time.
Curious New Voices
An announcement from the Curious Theatre Company (Denver) -
"This year, one of our guest instructors for Curious New Voices (the youth playwriting program) will be Pulitzer winner Suzan-Lori Parks. If you know folks between the ages of 15-21 who would be a good match for the 3 week intensive workshop, encourage them to talk to Dee here at the theatre for more details. She's at 303-623-2349 or dee@curioustheatre.org. Somehow it's really tough to get kids to apply and it's a phenomenal program.
Plus, tuition is fully underwritten this year- i.e. FREE (thanks to a matching grant from the Olsen-Vander Heyden Foundation and many individuals who have stepped up to help). They'll need to apply by submitting a short play by June 1st.
I also have a great 5 minute DVD that explains the program. If I can send one to you for your consideration to present to a class, drop me a line.
For information on Suzan-Lori Parks go here. She was the screenwriter of the recent TV adaptation of Their Eyes Were Watching God. Her Pulitzer-prize winning play Topdog/Underdog opened on Broadway with Jeffrey Wright and Mos Def in the leading roles. The Shadow Theatre will have the regional premiere of this play in June-July 2005.
Mare Trevathan
Marketing Director
Curious Theatre Company
http://www.curioustheatre.org/
303-623-2349
Playing through April 23rd:PARIS ON THE PLATTE: The Remarkable Reign of Robert Speer"
And Yet More Best Books Of 2004
These books are from Publishers Weekly's list of The Best Books of 2004. There are dozens of books listed by PW; below are the Latino-themed. The comments are from PW
Locas: The Maggie and Hopey Stories, Jaime Hernandez (Fantagraphics) Masterful stories about the lovers Maggie, girl mechanic, and Hopey, punk chick troublemaker, in the midst of the 1980s Southern California Chicano-youth and punk rock scene
Traveling with Che Guevara: The Making of a Revolutionary, Alberto Grando, trans. from the Spanish by Luciá Álvarez de Toledo (Newmarket) A moving, perceptive memoir recounting an eight-month-long South American tour that Granado, then a 29-year-old doctor, and Ernesto "Che" Guevara took in 1952
Infinitas Gracias: Contemporary Mexican Votive Painting, Alfred Vilchis Roque; text by Pierre Schwartz (Chronicle) Intensely moving work from Mexico City retablo master Roque and his sons; a deep introduction to a vital art of prayer.
Parenting with Pride——Latino Style: How to Help Your Child Cherish Your Cultural Values and Succeed in Today’s World, Carmen Inoa Vazquez (Rayo) For Latino parents, a primer on how to raise children biculturally, from an expert in the field.
Art For Easter Weekend
The Denver Post highlights Spanish Colonial Art, Santos and Santeros in an article that begins:"New York had the Hudson River School. Illinois spawned the Chicago Imagists. And California was home to Bay Area Figuration. But Colorado and New Mexico can lay claim to something that few other states can match - not just a movement but a distinctive, indigenous style with more than a 300-year history. Known today as contemporary Spanish colonial art, this predominantly religious work traces its roots to Spanish-controlled Mexico but took on its own distinctive look after the country received its independence in 1821."
Santeros y Santeras: Expanding Traditions
THROUGH MAY 8 Show of contemporary Spanish colonial art
Foothills Art Center, 809 15th St., Golden
FREE 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays (303-279-3922) or www.foothillsartcenter.org
Belated feliz cumpleaños a Don Benito.
One Book, One Boulder, One Denver
Curious New Voices
And Yet More Best Books of 2004
Art For Easter Weekend
One Book, One Boulder, One Denver
I've already written about the selection of Sandra Cisneros's book Caramelo for the One Book, One Denver event (Pedacitos y Pedazos). So it's double cool that Rudolfo Anaya's Bless Me, Ultima was selected by Boulder for its One Book, One Boulder festivities, especially in light of the flap created by the high school principal in rural Colorado who banned the book (I'm Not Making Up Any Of This). What a mistake that turned out to be and what a public relations nightmare for that school.
Boulder has an interesting series of events scheduled for Anaya including An Evening With Rudolfo Anaya, April 22, 7:30 PM, St. Julien Hotel Ballroom. Tickets are free (limit 2 per person; personal pick-up only; no reservations) and until they are gone can be picked up at the main entrance desk of the south wing of the Boulder Public Library (11th and Arapahoe) starting April 12.
Rudy Anaya is another treasure of Chicano culture we should support and acknowledge while he is still with us and, apparently, writing wonderful books. I haven't read his latest yet, Jemez Spring, but it is racking up super reviews. For example, the LA Times, the Albuquerque Journal, the San Antonio Express-News.
Meanwhile, Denver moves on with its One Book celebration. I am scheduled to be on a panel that will discuss Caramelo at the University of Colorado at Denver on April 4 from noon to 1:30 PM at the Auraria Campus Student Center. Other panel participants include Angel Vigil, educator and storyteller who specializes in the traditional stories of the Hispanic Southwest and Mexico; John-Michael Rivera, author and Assistant Professor of English at the University of Colorado, Boulder; Cate Wiley, poet and Associate Professor of English, University of Colorado at Denver; and Margarita Barceló, Professor of English and Chicana/o Studies at Metropolitan State College of Denver. Should be a good time.
Curious New Voices
An announcement from the Curious Theatre Company (Denver) -
"This year, one of our guest instructors for Curious New Voices (the youth playwriting program) will be Pulitzer winner Suzan-Lori Parks. If you know folks between the ages of 15-21 who would be a good match for the 3 week intensive workshop, encourage them to talk to Dee here at the theatre for more details. She's at 303-623-2349 or dee@curioustheatre.org. Somehow it's really tough to get kids to apply and it's a phenomenal program.
Plus, tuition is fully underwritten this year- i.e. FREE (thanks to a matching grant from the Olsen-Vander Heyden Foundation and many individuals who have stepped up to help). They'll need to apply by submitting a short play by June 1st.
I also have a great 5 minute DVD that explains the program. If I can send one to you for your consideration to present to a class, drop me a line.
For information on Suzan-Lori Parks go here. She was the screenwriter of the recent TV adaptation of Their Eyes Were Watching God. Her Pulitzer-prize winning play Topdog/Underdog opened on Broadway with Jeffrey Wright and Mos Def in the leading roles. The Shadow Theatre will have the regional premiere of this play in June-July 2005.
Mare Trevathan
Marketing Director
Curious Theatre Company
http://www.curioustheatre.org/
303-623-2349
Playing through April 23rd:PARIS ON THE PLATTE: The Remarkable Reign of Robert Speer"
And Yet More Best Books Of 2004
These books are from Publishers Weekly's list of The Best Books of 2004. There are dozens of books listed by PW; below are the Latino-themed. The comments are from PW
Locas: The Maggie and Hopey Stories, Jaime Hernandez (Fantagraphics) Masterful stories about the lovers Maggie, girl mechanic, and Hopey, punk chick troublemaker, in the midst of the 1980s Southern California Chicano-youth and punk rock scene
Traveling with Che Guevara: The Making of a Revolutionary, Alberto Grando, trans. from the Spanish by Luciá Álvarez de Toledo (Newmarket) A moving, perceptive memoir recounting an eight-month-long South American tour that Granado, then a 29-year-old doctor, and Ernesto "Che" Guevara took in 1952
Infinitas Gracias: Contemporary Mexican Votive Painting, Alfred Vilchis Roque; text by Pierre Schwartz (Chronicle) Intensely moving work from Mexico City retablo master Roque and his sons; a deep introduction to a vital art of prayer.
Parenting with Pride——Latino Style: How to Help Your Child Cherish Your Cultural Values and Succeed in Today’s World, Carmen Inoa Vazquez (Rayo) For Latino parents, a primer on how to raise children biculturally, from an expert in the field.
Art For Easter Weekend
The Denver Post highlights Spanish Colonial Art, Santos and Santeros in an article that begins:"New York had the Hudson River School. Illinois spawned the Chicago Imagists. And California was home to Bay Area Figuration. But Colorado and New Mexico can lay claim to something that few other states can match - not just a movement but a distinctive, indigenous style with more than a 300-year history. Known today as contemporary Spanish colonial art, this predominantly religious work traces its roots to Spanish-controlled Mexico but took on its own distinctive look after the country received its independence in 1821."
Santeros y Santeras: Expanding Traditions
THROUGH MAY 8 Show of contemporary Spanish colonial art
Foothills Art Center, 809 15th St., Golden
FREE 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays (303-279-3922) or www.foothillsartcenter.org
Belated feliz cumpleaños a Don Benito.
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Four legs, two legs, three legs; is age the answer, or the riddle?
mvs
I was reading Cicero's essay on old age, De Senectute, the other day, and it's got me wondering what I will read next. Coincidentally, I'd just read Penelope Lively's The Photograph, a novel populated with folks in their late 50s, like me. But the characters, generally, are shits, and they're all Brits. Sadly, I couldn't find profoundly insightful portraits that resonated in my experience. Sad because the novel's a fine piece of writing, especially the earlier chapters' explorations of time and memory. Characters hold eventful moments in their memory, frozen in time like that still unravished bride on a side of that Grecian urn, or like that incriminating photograph. That Lively’s old folks come to tortured recriminations and dissatisfying outcomes signals something Cicero talks about. Bitter old folks get that way because they live bitter lives, not because they get old.
So right now, I’m acutely aware of how old folks get treated by their authors. I can’t really come up with a “literature of the old”, at least not in chicana chicano literature. There are a number of chicana chicano characters who are old. I enjoyed Ana Castillo's Peel My Love Like an Onion, a coming of age novel for women celebrating their cinquentañera that I strongly recommend to all thirty-ish women. Unfortunately, la Castillo disappeared her essay on the cinquentañera, so I can’t link it, but if you can find it, lucky you.
Carmen La Coja at forty has wised up to worthless men and worthwhile passions. Good for her. That is Castillo’s point about getting older. More typical is the generally unsympathetic treatment of generational change and old relatives in Sandra Cisneros' family saga, Caramelo. Growing old is hard for some people, having some nieta start dragging skeletons out of the closet seems to me elder abuse, but that's Cisneros' choice.
Ultima is old, que no, and magical? Rudolfo Anaya had a couple of oldster sidekicks helping Sonny Baca out of jams–but the old folks had to die. Don’t we all. I haven't seen the fourth Baca mystery, but it won't surprise me if Anaya conjures up the old folks' cucuys to help Sonny foil Raven.
Nor have I read Lucha Corpi's latest, and I'm reckoning Gloria Damasco's getting old, too. Now that I'm thinking of it, Luis Montez is back, in Brown On Brown. And I just got my copy.
mvs
c/s
I was reading Cicero's essay on old age, De Senectute, the other day, and it's got me wondering what I will read next. Coincidentally, I'd just read Penelope Lively's The Photograph, a novel populated with folks in their late 50s, like me. But the characters, generally, are shits, and they're all Brits. Sadly, I couldn't find profoundly insightful portraits that resonated in my experience. Sad because the novel's a fine piece of writing, especially the earlier chapters' explorations of time and memory. Characters hold eventful moments in their memory, frozen in time like that still unravished bride on a side of that Grecian urn, or like that incriminating photograph. That Lively’s old folks come to tortured recriminations and dissatisfying outcomes signals something Cicero talks about. Bitter old folks get that way because they live bitter lives, not because they get old.
So right now, I’m acutely aware of how old folks get treated by their authors. I can’t really come up with a “literature of the old”, at least not in chicana chicano literature. There are a number of chicana chicano characters who are old. I enjoyed Ana Castillo's Peel My Love Like an Onion, a coming of age novel for women celebrating their cinquentañera that I strongly recommend to all thirty-ish women. Unfortunately, la Castillo disappeared her essay on the cinquentañera, so I can’t link it, but if you can find it, lucky you.
Carmen La Coja at forty has wised up to worthless men and worthwhile passions. Good for her. That is Castillo’s point about getting older. More typical is the generally unsympathetic treatment of generational change and old relatives in Sandra Cisneros' family saga, Caramelo. Growing old is hard for some people, having some nieta start dragging skeletons out of the closet seems to me elder abuse, but that's Cisneros' choice.
Ultima is old, que no, and magical? Rudolfo Anaya had a couple of oldster sidekicks helping Sonny Baca out of jams–but the old folks had to die. Don’t we all. I haven't seen the fourth Baca mystery, but it won't surprise me if Anaya conjures up the old folks' cucuys to help Sonny foil Raven.
Nor have I read Lucha Corpi's latest, and I'm reckoning Gloria Damasco's getting old, too. Now that I'm thinking of it, Luis Montez is back, in Brown On Brown. And I just got my copy.
mvs
c/s
Saturday, March 19, 2005
Pedacitos y Pedazos - Guerrero, Hinojosa, Olivas, Myers, Thompson
Again, this is a long post. Click on the title that interests you and you can go right to it.
Lalo Guerrero - Father Of Chicano Music
New Publications From Rolando Hinojosa
Call For Submissions From Daniel Olivas
More Notable 2004 Books - The Gustavus Myers Awards
Hunter Thompson And The Cannon
Lalo Guerrero - Father Of Chicano Music Dies
As reported in The Desert Sun, Eduardo "Lalo" Guerrero, known as the Father of Chicano Music, died on March 17 at the Vista Cove assisted living facility in Rancho Mirage after suffering gradual declining health. He was 88. The Sun article is detailed, respectful and filled with good information about the man who gave us Canción Mexicana, Chicas Patas Boogie, Marihuana Boogie, I Love Tortillas (The Tortilla Song), No Chicanos On TV, and so many more that his complete discography numbers more than 700 songs and millions of records sold in Spanish and English. The Chicago Tribune also has a good article about Lalo. There isn't much I can add except that the man truly was a legend and an icon, and deservedly so. His music covered the spectrum from pachuco boogie to sentimental ballads to spoofs and satire. His fans included Cesar Chavez, Los Lobos, Cheech Marin, Luis Valdez, and a lot of us common folk. The Desert Sun has a site where people can post their memories or tributes - it's here at this link.
New Publications From Rolando Hinojosa
The esteemed Rolando Hinojosa sent me the following great news about reprints, a new book, short stories, so forth, and he says that there is more to come. Órale, Rolando.
Arte Público Press will release Rolando Hinojosa's Dear Rafe/Mi querido Rafa in June 2005. Hinojosa's newest work, We Happy Few, a comic novel with an academic setting, is set for a June 2006 publication. His essay, This Writer's Sense of Place, appears in the University of Texas Press publication Rio Grande (2005), an anthology of Texas writers compiled by Jan Reid. Norton Publications' anthology Texas Literature from the Red River to the Rio Grande, compiled by Don Graham (2005), includes Hinojosa's The Gulf Oil-can Santa Claus. Prótesis, publicación consagrada al crimen (Madrid) published his detective short story, El puñal de Borges, (2005).
Call For Submissions
Daniel Olivas, writer and lawyer from LA, sends a message that he's putting together an anthology that will have as its theme a favorite of many writers, the seathing cauldron of soul and cariño - the City of Angels. Daniel contributed to La Bloga a few days ago with his essay, Cuentos de Fantasma, well worth checking out below.
Here's Daniel's call:"I am editing an anthology of short fiction by Latinos/as in which the City of Los Angeles plays an integral role. I am interested in provocative stories on virtually any subject by both established and new writers. Stories may range from social realism to cuentos de fantasma and anything in between. Los Angeles may be a major 'character' or merely lurking in the background. I'd like to see characters who represent diverse backgrounds in terms of ethnicity, profession, age, sexual orientation, etc. Preferred length: 500 to 5,000 words. Stories may be previously published (please indicate where). Chapters from novels will be considered if they can stand alone. Award-winning publisher is interested but wants to see final manuscript. Please e-mail your story, using standard submission formatting, as a Word document to olivasdan@aol.com. In the e-mail, include your contact information, list of previous publications (if any), and the ethnicity(ies) with which you identify. Feel free to visit my Web page at http://www.danielolivas.com/. DEADLINE: September 1, 2005."
More 2004 Books - Gustavus Myers Award Winners
Continuing a thread I started a few days ago, here are more outstanding 2004 books. My earlier list focused on fiction - these are non-fiction books that deserve attention. This information is three months old but I guess it does not hurt to reinforce worthwhile reads.
A major purpose of the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights is "the review and identification of outstanding books written each year about discrimination and bigotry, and ways to develop equitable future communities and societies." On Human Rights Day (December 10, 2004) the Center announced its 20th annual list of Outstanding Book Award Winners Advancing Human Rights. The award is co-sponsored by groups such as the American Friends Service Committee, NAACP, Poverty & Race Research Action Council, etc. There are some excellent reading choices in the list of winners and the honorable mentions and I recommend the lists for help with your next reading selection.
I expect that readers of this blog will be interested particularly in the Latino books that made the Honorable Mention list. I could be wrong but I do not think any of the winning books deal specifically with Latino issues (although you might want to look at It's Test Day, Tiger Turcotte, by Pansie Hart Flood, a children's book about a stressed-out seven year old who has to signify his racial identity on a standardized test form - his parents are Indian and Latina). In any event, here are some of the 2004 books that the Myers Center selected for commendation (the comments are from the Center):
Migra Mouse: Political Cartoons on Immigration, Lalo Alcaraz - Refreshing look at the inconsistencies and contradictions in public perceptions of immigration, the border and mucho mucho mas. [Alcaraz is the LA cartoonist well-known for his La Cucaracha comic strip and as the illustrator for Ilan Stavans' Latino USA: A Cartoon History. Lalo's website is here].
Greasers and Gringos: Latinos, Law and the American Immigration, Steven W. Bender - The intersection between stereotypes and the law, with close attention to the role of mass media in perpetuating stereotypes.
American Gulag: Inside U.S. Immigration Prisons, Mark Dow - Exposes the "Catch-22" of immigration law practice and policy implementation.
"Is This English?": Race, Language, and Culture in the Classroom, Bob Fecho - About learning through process, and the inquiry-based process of learning.
The New Americans, Ruben Martinez - Stand-along companion to PBS documentary on seven families.
We Took The Streets: Fighting For Latino Rights With The Young Lords, Miguel "Mickey" Melendez - Part memoir, part polemic about the powerful voice in the 1960s of Puerto Rican self-determination.
Finally, one other honorable mention (and I swear I was not looking for this), On The Justice of Roosting Chickens: Reflections On The Consequences Of U.S. Imperial Arrogance And Criminality, Ward Churchill - Challenges with historical detail the myth of the U.S. as a "peace-loving nation."
Well, Not Really A Cannon, Dude
Turns out that Hunter Thompson, Oscar "Zeta" Acosta's protegé, didn't actually say that he wanted his remains shot from a cannon. As reported in the Rocky Mountain News, he wanted his cremated remains to be shot out of an upside-down, sculpted mushroom perched on a 150-foot-high, double-thumbed fist. Much better. Some folks are trying to get this done. Ralph Steadman said, "Why not do that if you can?" I know I'd drive up to Aspen to see it.
Manuel
Lalo Guerrero - Father Of Chicano Music
New Publications From Rolando Hinojosa
Call For Submissions From Daniel Olivas
More Notable 2004 Books - The Gustavus Myers Awards
Hunter Thompson And The Cannon
Lalo Guerrero - Father Of Chicano Music Dies
As reported in The Desert Sun, Eduardo "Lalo" Guerrero, known as the Father of Chicano Music, died on March 17 at the Vista Cove assisted living facility in Rancho Mirage after suffering gradual declining health. He was 88. The Sun article is detailed, respectful and filled with good information about the man who gave us Canción Mexicana, Chicas Patas Boogie, Marihuana Boogie, I Love Tortillas (The Tortilla Song), No Chicanos On TV, and so many more that his complete discography numbers more than 700 songs and millions of records sold in Spanish and English. The Chicago Tribune also has a good article about Lalo. There isn't much I can add except that the man truly was a legend and an icon, and deservedly so. His music covered the spectrum from pachuco boogie to sentimental ballads to spoofs and satire. His fans included Cesar Chavez, Los Lobos, Cheech Marin, Luis Valdez, and a lot of us common folk. The Desert Sun has a site where people can post their memories or tributes - it's here at this link.
New Publications From Rolando Hinojosa
The esteemed Rolando Hinojosa sent me the following great news about reprints, a new book, short stories, so forth, and he says that there is more to come. Órale, Rolando.
Arte Público Press will release Rolando Hinojosa's Dear Rafe/Mi querido Rafa in June 2005. Hinojosa's newest work, We Happy Few, a comic novel with an academic setting, is set for a June 2006 publication. His essay, This Writer's Sense of Place, appears in the University of Texas Press publication Rio Grande (2005), an anthology of Texas writers compiled by Jan Reid. Norton Publications' anthology Texas Literature from the Red River to the Rio Grande, compiled by Don Graham (2005), includes Hinojosa's The Gulf Oil-can Santa Claus. Prótesis, publicación consagrada al crimen (Madrid) published his detective short story, El puñal de Borges, (2005).
Call For Submissions
Daniel Olivas, writer and lawyer from LA, sends a message that he's putting together an anthology that will have as its theme a favorite of many writers, the seathing cauldron of soul and cariño - the City of Angels. Daniel contributed to La Bloga a few days ago with his essay, Cuentos de Fantasma, well worth checking out below.
Here's Daniel's call:"I am editing an anthology of short fiction by Latinos/as in which the City of Los Angeles plays an integral role. I am interested in provocative stories on virtually any subject by both established and new writers. Stories may range from social realism to cuentos de fantasma and anything in between. Los Angeles may be a major 'character' or merely lurking in the background. I'd like to see characters who represent diverse backgrounds in terms of ethnicity, profession, age, sexual orientation, etc. Preferred length: 500 to 5,000 words. Stories may be previously published (please indicate where). Chapters from novels will be considered if they can stand alone. Award-winning publisher is interested but wants to see final manuscript. Please e-mail your story, using standard submission formatting, as a Word document to olivasdan@aol.com. In the e-mail, include your contact information, list of previous publications (if any), and the ethnicity(ies) with which you identify. Feel free to visit my Web page at http://www.danielolivas.com/. DEADLINE: September 1, 2005."
More 2004 Books - Gustavus Myers Award Winners
Continuing a thread I started a few days ago, here are more outstanding 2004 books. My earlier list focused on fiction - these are non-fiction books that deserve attention. This information is three months old but I guess it does not hurt to reinforce worthwhile reads.
A major purpose of the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights is "the review and identification of outstanding books written each year about discrimination and bigotry, and ways to develop equitable future communities and societies." On Human Rights Day (December 10, 2004) the Center announced its 20th annual list of Outstanding Book Award Winners Advancing Human Rights. The award is co-sponsored by groups such as the American Friends Service Committee, NAACP, Poverty & Race Research Action Council, etc. There are some excellent reading choices in the list of winners and the honorable mentions and I recommend the lists for help with your next reading selection.
I expect that readers of this blog will be interested particularly in the Latino books that made the Honorable Mention list. I could be wrong but I do not think any of the winning books deal specifically with Latino issues (although you might want to look at It's Test Day, Tiger Turcotte, by Pansie Hart Flood, a children's book about a stressed-out seven year old who has to signify his racial identity on a standardized test form - his parents are Indian and Latina). In any event, here are some of the 2004 books that the Myers Center selected for commendation (the comments are from the Center):
Migra Mouse: Political Cartoons on Immigration, Lalo Alcaraz - Refreshing look at the inconsistencies and contradictions in public perceptions of immigration, the border and mucho mucho mas. [Alcaraz is the LA cartoonist well-known for his La Cucaracha comic strip and as the illustrator for Ilan Stavans' Latino USA: A Cartoon History. Lalo's website is here].
Greasers and Gringos: Latinos, Law and the American Immigration, Steven W. Bender - The intersection between stereotypes and the law, with close attention to the role of mass media in perpetuating stereotypes.
American Gulag: Inside U.S. Immigration Prisons, Mark Dow - Exposes the "Catch-22" of immigration law practice and policy implementation.
"Is This English?": Race, Language, and Culture in the Classroom, Bob Fecho - About learning through process, and the inquiry-based process of learning.
The New Americans, Ruben Martinez - Stand-along companion to PBS documentary on seven families.
We Took The Streets: Fighting For Latino Rights With The Young Lords, Miguel "Mickey" Melendez - Part memoir, part polemic about the powerful voice in the 1960s of Puerto Rican self-determination.
Finally, one other honorable mention (and I swear I was not looking for this), On The Justice of Roosting Chickens: Reflections On The Consequences Of U.S. Imperial Arrogance And Criminality, Ward Churchill - Challenges with historical detail the myth of the U.S. as a "peace-loving nation."
Well, Not Really A Cannon, Dude
Turns out that Hunter Thompson, Oscar "Zeta" Acosta's protegé, didn't actually say that he wanted his remains shot from a cannon. As reported in the Rocky Mountain News, he wanted his cremated remains to be shot out of an upside-down, sculpted mushroom perched on a 150-foot-high, double-thumbed fist. Much better. Some folks are trying to get this done. Ralph Steadman said, "Why not do that if you can?" I know I'd drive up to Aspen to see it.
Manuel
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Food in Chicana Chicano Literature?
Best Cocido in the World
mvs
The high green fence glowed in the diffused sunlight. Rain pelted me as
I stood on the sidewalk to shoot a picture. Worse, traffic suddenly appeared,
a car and two pickups slowly passing with curious stares at the vato standing in the
rain taking a picture.
Hunger growled in my stomach. I was near Millan's Ranchito, a restaurant
I'd passed many times driving to Tommy's, or El Gallo Giro, or Yoshinoya, or
a host of places. I squeezed into the tight parking lot, landing the last spot
as if I’d called ahead. Millan’s bowl of cocido came rich and hot to
the table with all the right garnishes: sopita de arroz, lime, chopped onion,
cilantro leaves no stems. Tasty flexible tortillas de harina. Maybe it was the cold
day but that was a darn good bowl of cocido.
So today, a beautifully sunny day, I find myself aimlessly cruising. Ended
up at 5803 Soto Street, a bowl of Millan's cocido de res on the table. The
hueso had the callo in it, the abundant meat had been cooked to fork tenderness.
A large papa sat on top. Unlike so many other’s cocido, Millan's Ranchito
doesn't substitute chayote for papas. The main difference between Millan's
cocido and the best homemade is that tiny chunk of corn. At home, you toss
in whole elotes. The best cocido in the world is the one my grandmother made. Neither
you nor I will ever taste its equal. However, you can taste the second best
cocido in the world, if you come to Huntington Park.
 | My grandmother lived on Lawton Street, close to the packing house at the edge of the orange groves that stretched from Redlands to Bryn Mawr to the wash. In those days she kept a wood-burning stove running and a pot of soup going. |
Was I four? Three? I remember taking my seat at the table, my grandmother places
a bowl of cocido in front of me. Ignoring my protests about the chile japones
pods, she pinches a few seeds into my caldo, shushing my protests. She squeezes
a lemon half into the soup, places a hot tortilla de harina in my hand.
Speaking of food, the Multi Ethnic Literature in the United States group solicits papers on the role or use of food in chicana chicano literature. What the? I’m challenged to think of novels that play on food. Laura Esquivel's Como Agua Para Chocolate is the only one that stands out. There's a menudo party in the same author's Swift As Desire, and I remember a falso writer whose ruse was uncovered when he has a Mexican lad sit down to a steaming bowl of Mondongo. Now in poetry, food abounds; from Alurista’s “Tortilla Host” in his collection Nationchild Plumaroja c.1968-69 to Elba Rosario Sanchez’ “Lover’s Ode” in Calaca Press’ When Skin Peels CD.
What am I missing here? Who, where, have chicana chicano writers made food
something notable?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)