Okay, hermanos: it's taken me six Three Kings Days to get this recipe down. From the first time I tried a coquito at my Tia Georgina's in Guaynabo, I was hooked (that was also my first experience with a Puerto Rican Paranda, but that's a whole other column. If my friends showed up at my house at 6:00am playing musical instruments and expecting to party all day I could not be held responsible for any injuries I inflicted). But when I returned home determined to share this discovery with my family and friends, like the osito of fairy tale fame, none of the recipes I encountered were quite right. Most ended up too thick like a fast food milkshake (which, by the way, are thickened with cellulose. Once I found out I was drinking vanilla movie film, I swore off them for good). Others were just too light on the rum for the Caribbean half of my taste buds. There was something to this obsession of getting the recipe right that took on additional meaning. I was treating it as if arriving at the perfect coquito recipe was evidence of the sangre Boricua that runs beneath my skin that's the color of the very drinks I was so eagerly concocting. It was as if the alchemy of this traditional cocktail was a test.
So each year I changed it a bit—increasing the rum, tweaking the spices—getting just a little closer each time. This year I finally enlisted the help of my bartender extraordinaire husband, Doug (he's sober, but he's forgotten more about mixing drinks than most 25-year-old hotshots have ever known). After all, it was he who joined me on my journey to truly embrace my Puerto Rican roots after my mother's death. It was the son we had together who inspired us to begin our yearly sojourns to her island. And he was there when I tasted my first coquito. Therefore it made sense that it was Doug who helped find the final piece and suggested cutting the condensed milk with the lowfat, allowing the rich, sweet taste to remain while achieving the perfect consistency, the perfect balance of milk and cinnamon. When I took my first sip the other day, I knew we had done it: yes, Rizos de Oro, it was just right, my island pedigree was in evidence as the smooth milky taste of rum and coconut danced across my tongue.
And because I'm so dedicated and grateful to my La Bloga brethren, I've decided to share my super secret recipe with you today.
So as the sixth of January approaches, be sure to hit your supermercado for some Coco Lopez, and mix up a batch of Lupe's Killer Coquitos for you and yours. I think it's sad that most people have forgotten that the twelve days of Christmas are NOT the shopping days before. And I find it depressing to walk out on New Years Day to see the green, skeletal remains of Christmas trees sticking out from a pile of snow, banished before their time and negating the last five days of festivities. There are still many of us tuck our kids in at night with hay stuff-shoeboxes beneath their beds as they await the arrival of the three Magi on their camels (or in Puerto Rico, horses). It took me some time, but I have learned what you probably already know: that the party should continue for more than one day (we won't even touch on los octavos…that's too much even for me). So join me in a toast, gentle readers, y ¡Feliz Día de Reyes!
Lupe's Killer Coquito
1 cans cream of coconut
1/2 can sweetened condensed milk
6 oz. 2% lowfat milk
10 oz white rum
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla extract
Directions:
Pour all the ingredients in a blender, and blend at high speed for at least a minute. Chill in the refrigerator for a minimum of two hours. Shake well, and serve with a sprinkle of nutmeg on top. Serve in small glasses. ¡Qué rico!
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Sunday, January 06, 2008
Friday, January 04, 2008
Scene From the Movie Giant -- And a Few Bits
Manuel Ramos
SCENE FROM THE MOVIE GIANT
Tino Villanueva (Curbstone Press, 1993)
It's been several years since I watched the classic movie Giant, whose cast included James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, Sal Mineo, and Rock Hudson. The first time I saw it, I was a young boy, probably eight or nine. It was the middle of the 1950s and I was in the Rialto Theater on Main Street, in a small Colorado town. The Rialto was one of those movie palaces that used to occupy places of respect in almost every American town -- a gaudy, blinking marquee, deep red carpeting, elaborate wall fixtures, and thick curtains that majestically opened when the lights dimmed and the newsreel flickered on the screen.
I remember Saturday afternoon matinees with my buddies and an occasional midweek night out with my parents and younger brother for some special screening. The Rialto was where I first encountered American icons of comedy such as the Three Stooges and the Little Rascals, and red-blooded heroes like John Wayne and Burt Lancaster. It's also the place where I practiced my recently acquired reading skill. Sitting on a worn cushion and scraping my shoes on the sticky floor, I read all the credits as they rolled up the screen; I learned that the director was always last and when his name appeared, the flick was about to start.
But my experience with Giant was different. Going in, I thought it was only a love story but it had some attraction for me because of James Dean. Back then, and maybe for years afterwards, I deluded myself that I was something of a rebel, even at that young age, and so I was drawn to teenage outlaw myths created by the movies and other facets of mass culture in the immediate post-War years. In another movie I thought Sal Mineo was perfect when he sauntered down a nameless New York street hunched over in a shiny red jacket, smoking a cigarette and flashing a switchblade. I saw the first four Elvis Presley movies and every rock and roll melodrama that passed through the Rialto.
And so I checked out Giant, mainly to see what James Dean had been up to after his surly bulldozing of the decaying middle American landscape in Rebel Without a Cause. Of course, I didn't think of it that way when I was a kid -- he was cool, man, and that was enough.
But what I got from Giant was this amazingly complicated story about Texas -- quick money from oil, cowboy aristocracy clashing with political tensions created by a vanishing Old West; rich and poor whites mixing it up in their own private class war; and, eventually, Mexicans: people who looked like my grandparents, who were scattered throughout the film as so many props.
I felt uncomfortable watching this movie. I didn't like the way the Mexicans were treated in the film but somehow I thought that maybe it was the Mexicans' fault. Why were they in a movie anyway? Movies were for slapstick comedy, outer space monsters, the glory and bluster of John Wayne on the shores of Iwo Jima, and juvenile delinquents.
Texas poet Tino Villanueva has focused his own reactions to this movie and created an epic poem entitled Scene From the Movie Giant. In his marvelously written book he capsulizes a lifetime of provocations inspired by the movie. In particular, he deals with one scene where a trio of quiet, almost submissive Mexicans are subjected to blatant and violent racism.
Villanueva agonizingly chronicles his own attitudes about the crucial scene, which portrays the apparent victory of brute force and hatred over the humble Mexicans. Sarge, owner of a diner, refuses to serve a Mexican family. When cattleman Rick Benedict (Rock Hudson) objects, Sarge savagely beats him up. Villanueva stretches his images over the years and miles to Boston where, as a graduate student, he still grapples with the real meaning of the scene from the movie. As Villanueva writes, he constantly must turn back to the time when his offended small world was disrupted, unresolved. As is made clear in Villanueva's pages, his own resolution comes through the words he has chosen to present to the reader, so many years after he watched a movie in fear and awe. He has presented the truth as only a poet can understand it.
(this review first aired on Denver radio KUVO in 1995)
A BIT OF NEWS
How Else Am I Supposed to Know I'm Still Alive?
If you can't read the image, it's an announcement of a presentation of How Else Am I Supposed to Know I'm Still Alive, written by Evelina Fernández and starring the very talented and always entertaining Debra Gallegos and Yolanda Ortega on January 19 at 7:30 PM at the Troutman Theater at Aurora Central High School, 11700 E. 11th Avenue, Aurora, CO. $35 for adults, $10 for students and seniors. The performance benefits the Nuñez Foundation College Scholarship Program. We love these women and their enthusiastic performance art, and I know I'll see many of you at the play.
Nation of Immigrants
The Art Students League of Denver sent the following announcement about their upcoming exhibit, Nation of Immigrants, curated by Tony Ortega and Susan Sagara Bolton: "This exhibit brings together a wide range of media, styles, concerns, and sensibilities from artists whose inspiration is the immigration experience. Walking through the exhibit, you will experience the history each artist brings to their art and how culture and heritage resonate through their work." Participating artists include Polly Chang, Manuel Cordero, Carlos Frésquez, Ken Iwamasa, Clara Martínez, Emanuel Martínez, Sylvia Montero, Adriana Restrepo, George Rivera, Danny and Maruca Salazar, Carlos Santistevan, and several others. Exhibit opens January 4, 5:30 - 8:00 PM and runs through February 27. The Art Students League is at 200 Grant Street, Denver, 303-778-6990.
Dolores Huerta
Dolores Huerta will be the keynote speaker at the Latina/o Advocacy Day event to be held February 24-25 at the Adams Mark Hotel in downtown Denver. Sponsored by the Latina Initiative and the Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights, the event provides advocacy and lobby training on policy issues of concern to Latinas and Latinos in Colorado. For those who might not know, Dolores Huerta is a long-time human rights activist and a co-founder with César Chávez in starting the United Farm Workers in the 1960s. Info., send an email to: dusti@latinaadvocacyday.org. Image courtesy of favianna.com.
Sacramento Poetry Center
I'm passing on the following piece:
Another great night of poetry is coming up this Monday, January 7 at the Sacramento Poetry Center, 1719 25th Street, at 7:30 pm.
Starting off the new year will be Barbara Jane Reyes and Oscar Bermeo. It will be an exciting night of powerful poetry hosted by Arturo Mantecon. Don't miss it!
Barbara Jane Reyes was born in Manila, Philippines and raised in the SF Bay Area. She is the author of Gravities of Center (Arkipelago, 2003) and Poeta en San Francisco (Tinfish, 2005) which received the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets. Her other honors include an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship and numerous Pushcart Prize nominations. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Asian Pacific American Journal, Chain, New American Writing, North American Review, Notre Dame Review, among others. She lives with her husband, poet Oscar Bermeo, in Oakland.
Born in Ecuador and raised in the Bronx, Oscar Bermeo is a BRIO (Bronx Recognizes Its Own) award winning poet, educator & literary events coordinator. Oscar now makes his home in Oakland, where he is the poetry editor for Tea Party magazine and lives with his wife, poeta Barbara Jane Reyes.
Sacramento Poetry Center
1719 25th Street
Sacramento, CA
916.451.5569 - www.sacramentopoetrycenter.org
Later.
SCENE FROM THE MOVIE GIANT
Tino Villanueva (Curbstone Press, 1993)
It's been several years since I watched the classic movie Giant, whose cast included James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, Sal Mineo, and Rock Hudson. The first time I saw it, I was a young boy, probably eight or nine. It was the middle of the 1950s and I was in the Rialto Theater on Main Street, in a small Colorado town. The Rialto was one of those movie palaces that used to occupy places of respect in almost every American town -- a gaudy, blinking marquee, deep red carpeting, elaborate wall fixtures, and thick curtains that majestically opened when the lights dimmed and the newsreel flickered on the screen.
I remember Saturday afternoon matinees with my buddies and an occasional midweek night out with my parents and younger brother for some special screening. The Rialto was where I first encountered American icons of comedy such as the Three Stooges and the Little Rascals, and red-blooded heroes like John Wayne and Burt Lancaster. It's also the place where I practiced my recently acquired reading skill. Sitting on a worn cushion and scraping my shoes on the sticky floor, I read all the credits as they rolled up the screen; I learned that the director was always last and when his name appeared, the flick was about to start.
But my experience with Giant was different. Going in, I thought it was only a love story but it had some attraction for me because of James Dean. Back then, and maybe for years afterwards, I deluded myself that I was something of a rebel, even at that young age, and so I was drawn to teenage outlaw myths created by the movies and other facets of mass culture in the immediate post-War years. In another movie I thought Sal Mineo was perfect when he sauntered down a nameless New York street hunched over in a shiny red jacket, smoking a cigarette and flashing a switchblade. I saw the first four Elvis Presley movies and every rock and roll melodrama that passed through the Rialto.
And so I checked out Giant, mainly to see what James Dean had been up to after his surly bulldozing of the decaying middle American landscape in Rebel Without a Cause. Of course, I didn't think of it that way when I was a kid -- he was cool, man, and that was enough.
But what I got from Giant was this amazingly complicated story about Texas -- quick money from oil, cowboy aristocracy clashing with political tensions created by a vanishing Old West; rich and poor whites mixing it up in their own private class war; and, eventually, Mexicans: people who looked like my grandparents, who were scattered throughout the film as so many props.
I felt uncomfortable watching this movie. I didn't like the way the Mexicans were treated in the film but somehow I thought that maybe it was the Mexicans' fault. Why were they in a movie anyway? Movies were for slapstick comedy, outer space monsters, the glory and bluster of John Wayne on the shores of Iwo Jima, and juvenile delinquents.
Texas poet Tino Villanueva has focused his own reactions to this movie and created an epic poem entitled Scene From the Movie Giant. In his marvelously written book he capsulizes a lifetime of provocations inspired by the movie. In particular, he deals with one scene where a trio of quiet, almost submissive Mexicans are subjected to blatant and violent racism.
Villanueva agonizingly chronicles his own attitudes about the crucial scene, which portrays the apparent victory of brute force and hatred over the humble Mexicans. Sarge, owner of a diner, refuses to serve a Mexican family. When cattleman Rick Benedict (Rock Hudson) objects, Sarge savagely beats him up. Villanueva stretches his images over the years and miles to Boston where, as a graduate student, he still grapples with the real meaning of the scene from the movie. As Villanueva writes, he constantly must turn back to the time when his offended small world was disrupted, unresolved. As is made clear in Villanueva's pages, his own resolution comes through the words he has chosen to present to the reader, so many years after he watched a movie in fear and awe. He has presented the truth as only a poet can understand it.
(this review first aired on Denver radio KUVO in 1995)
A BIT OF NEWS
How Else Am I Supposed to Know I'm Still Alive?
If you can't read the image, it's an announcement of a presentation of How Else Am I Supposed to Know I'm Still Alive, written by Evelina Fernández and starring the very talented and always entertaining Debra Gallegos and Yolanda Ortega on January 19 at 7:30 PM at the Troutman Theater at Aurora Central High School, 11700 E. 11th Avenue, Aurora, CO. $35 for adults, $10 for students and seniors. The performance benefits the Nuñez Foundation College Scholarship Program. We love these women and their enthusiastic performance art, and I know I'll see many of you at the play.
Nation of Immigrants
The Art Students League of Denver sent the following announcement about their upcoming exhibit, Nation of Immigrants, curated by Tony Ortega and Susan Sagara Bolton: "This exhibit brings together a wide range of media, styles, concerns, and sensibilities from artists whose inspiration is the immigration experience. Walking through the exhibit, you will experience the history each artist brings to their art and how culture and heritage resonate through their work." Participating artists include Polly Chang, Manuel Cordero, Carlos Frésquez, Ken Iwamasa, Clara Martínez, Emanuel Martínez, Sylvia Montero, Adriana Restrepo, George Rivera, Danny and Maruca Salazar, Carlos Santistevan, and several others. Exhibit opens January 4, 5:30 - 8:00 PM and runs through February 27. The Art Students League is at 200 Grant Street, Denver, 303-778-6990.
Dolores Huerta
Dolores Huerta will be the keynote speaker at the Latina/o Advocacy Day event to be held February 24-25 at the Adams Mark Hotel in downtown Denver. Sponsored by the Latina Initiative and the Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights, the event provides advocacy and lobby training on policy issues of concern to Latinas and Latinos in Colorado. For those who might not know, Dolores Huerta is a long-time human rights activist and a co-founder with César Chávez in starting the United Farm Workers in the 1960s. Info., send an email to: dusti@latinaadvocacyday.org. Image courtesy of favianna.com.
Sacramento Poetry Center
I'm passing on the following piece:
Another great night of poetry is coming up this Monday, January 7 at the Sacramento Poetry Center, 1719 25th Street, at 7:30 pm.
Starting off the new year will be Barbara Jane Reyes and Oscar Bermeo. It will be an exciting night of powerful poetry hosted by Arturo Mantecon. Don't miss it!
Barbara Jane Reyes was born in Manila, Philippines and raised in the SF Bay Area. She is the author of Gravities of Center (Arkipelago, 2003) and Poeta en San Francisco (Tinfish, 2005) which received the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets. Her other honors include an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship and numerous Pushcart Prize nominations. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Asian Pacific American Journal, Chain, New American Writing, North American Review, Notre Dame Review, among others. She lives with her husband, poet Oscar Bermeo, in Oakland.
Born in Ecuador and raised in the Bronx, Oscar Bermeo is a BRIO (Bronx Recognizes Its Own) award winning poet, educator & literary events coordinator. Oscar now makes his home in Oakland, where he is the poetry editor for Tea Party magazine and lives with his wife, poeta Barbara Jane Reyes.
Sacramento Poetry Center
1719 25th Street
Sacramento, CA
916.451.5569 - www.sacramentopoetrycenter.org
Later.
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Floricanto Press News
FLORICANTO PRESS NEWS
Mujeres de Conciencia/ Women of Conscience. Spanish English parallel text and photography by Victoria Alvarado. ISBN: 978-0-9796457-7-8. 2008 $69.95 Oversize Hard bound. Especial Holiday advanced purchase for individual customers $49.95. Save $20.00
This is an art book with magnificent black and white photos of prominent Latinas who have made definite and long standing contribution to the Hispanic community and the country at large. This photographic essay constitutes an important collective biography as well, with great journalistic insight and integrity into the lives of leading Latina women in the fields of education, science, literature, business, law, the arts, journalism, politics, and other fields of endeavor. This coffee table monograph, which has been published with art-book quality as a collector's edition, provides stunning artistic, B&W photographs of each subject with a parallel biographic journalistic essay in Spanish and English. The biographies explore the life-changing events of each subject, the personal mix of elements, circumstances, and values which allowed these women to set goals and objectives toward most successful careers and contributions to society. There are 72 leading women included in this collective biography and an extraordinary photographic essay offering the most incredible array of role models to inspire, guide and motivate young Latinas. This title is an important addition to reference collections and individual libraries for they are testament to the vision and values of la mujer Latina.
Operation Familia. By Donna del Oro. ISBN: 978-0-915745-96-8. 520 pages. $24.95
Dina Salazar likes to think she has it together. Dodging the bullet of early marriage and motherhood that every other female in her family has succumbed to, she_s her own woman. Or is she? Is she free ...or just lost?
Adventurous, athletic Dina has a satisfying career and her freedom from emotional entanglements. She has it all. All except the love of her life, Rick Ramos_THE HATED ONE--who ended up marrying another woman nearly six years before. All except the closeness of her blue-collar family, who live in a latino barrio of Salinas, ninety miles south of Silicon Valley. All except the feeling of belonging to her cultural heritage. She speaks Spanish but who is she really? Is she a mixed mutt with an American mind and a latino heart? In her attempts at educating herself and climbing the socio-economic ladder into the middle-class, has Dina lost her latino heart and soul? Then, like an artichoke, Dina begins to peel away the secrets to get at the heart of her family. When Dina learns that her stern, disapproving Mexican-born grandmother has a shameful secret-- a son Grandma Gómez had to abandon in Mexico sixty years before-- Dina is reluctant at first to get involved. The uncle she has never known has died mysteriously-- killed, her grandmother believes, by a rival in the Juarez drug cartel. And Abuelita_s grand-daughter, Teresa--Dina_s Mexican cousin-- is in danger and is on the run. To Dina_s dismay, her grandmother urges HER to find out where her grand-daughter and great grandson are seeking refuge in Mexico. Her grandmother tells her that Dina is the only one that can rescue Teresa and her son, for Dina is the only one who speaks fluent Spanish. What_s a girl to do when la familia calls?
"A delightful, endearing story! You can_t help but root for Dina in her journey of self-discovery."--Brenda Novak, Nationally Best-selling Author
"Dina is a character that many Latinos can identify with a woman trying to weave her own place between cultures. Around Dina, Donna Del Oro has done her own weaving: a heady plot of crime, romance, family conflict and intrigue."
--Carlos Alcalá, Sacramento Bee Columnist
Shadow of the Fathers. By Robert Friedman. ISBN: 978-0-915745-75-3. 2007. $14.95
In Shadow of the Fathers, Robert Friedman turns a disturbing, possibly tragic historical event in Puerto Rico into a captivating work of fiction. Personal obsessions and public events collide as the novel's characters grapple with lies, false identities, puzzling connections, U.S. wars and colonialism. A rich, suspenseful tale, the novel moves from the colorful life of San Juan to the snow-covered streets of New York, from the pastel heat of Miami to the fog-shrouded canals of Amsterdam. Pablo Camino is the son of a doctor sent to Puerto Rico over four decades earlier to research a cure for pernicious anemia. While there, Dr. Cornelius Rhoads claimed in a letter to his close friend, "Ferdie" that he had purposely killed eight of his Puerto Rican patients and planned to exterminate several more of "that degenerate race." The letter was discovered and Rhoads was forced to leave the island. He later insisted it was all a joke. Pablo, a highly regarded Puerto Rican artist, is haunted by his dead father's past. Did the doctor really kill those patients? Has Pablo inherited from him the feelings of murder that often grip his own heart? When Pablo kills an intruder in his home, he vows to finally discover the truth about the father he never knew -and about himself. He flees Puerto Rico to look for Ferdie. Back on the island, Ralph Camacho, Pablo's best friend, carries out his own search into a past that casts heavy shadows on individual lives in the present.
Diadema. Carlos Aceves. ISBN: 978-0-9796457-6-1 $24.95
Carlos Aceves has created an allegorical story rooted in the deepest essence of the Latino soul. Diadema is a symbolic artifice very much like Doña Marina, La Malinche, searching for her child, her very being. Knitted in a true story, Aceves bring forward the Latino imperative of who really are we? What are our roots? This is the Hispanic crucial element of understanding self. Latinos are not alone. Spain if often called by Spaniards "the whore of Europe" for it was invaded by most every group in Europe creating a concatenation of races and cultures; today there are over five different languages spoken there. Latinos to a certain extent inherited this dilemma, and Aceves attempts to use fiction weaved in reality to address the Latino, Chicano predicament of self-preservation and self-understanding. Aceves propounds a clear lyric message begin your journey for genuineness and self-understanding and let the road lead you where it may: "Se hace camino al andar." Roberto Cabello-Argandoña, Editor.
Unamuno: A Lyrical Essay.
By Pedro Blas González. ISBN: 978-0-915745-75-3 $22.95
The most extraordinary and exemplary piece of Latino prose writing, bordering in Rational lyricism. Scholarship and art in Europe, traditionally crisscrossed each other, particularly when the brightest minds where at it. Germany has Goethe, the Hispanic world has Unamuno. Both were consummated philosophers and creative writers, who left indelible marks, both in culture and philosophical argumentation. Goethe's "Werther" is credited with initiating Romanticism in Europe. "El Sentido Trágico de La Vida" ponders the ever-present human (and Hispanic) preoccupation for life, death and beyond, immortality. However, it takes a Latino scholar to analyze, scaffold, and present in an very understandable way to us the grandiosity of Unamuno's philosophical concerns and his scrupulous argumentation. Dr. Pedro Blas González is the first Latino scholar to elaborate and deconstruct Unamuno's philosophical work and related creative writings. This is a lyric work of prose, as well as of literary criticism, philosophical analysis, and pure rigorous Latino erudition advancing Hispanic thinking. Roberto Cabello-Argandoña, Editor.
Waves of Recovery: The Life of an Advocate of Latino Civil Rights. By Maurice Jourdane. ISBN: 978-0-915745-95-1 $26.95
This a riveting personal account of Maurice Jourdane--currently a Superior Court Judge and a member of Jerry Brown's California Attorney General's Office--leading to his legal representation and advocacy for farm workers and César Chávez's organizing efforts. Mo's life reads like a Greek mythic tale in which the hero suffers and endures moral and physical affliction in his quest, his now legendary legal fights and successes against the powerful California growers and agricultural interests in court. This biography is a testament to human strength in behalf of justice for Latinos. The success of César Chávez's civil rights movement and union organizing efforts cannot be fully understood without knowledge of the life and sacrifices of Maurice Jourdane, El Cortito. His legal successes, at great personal costs, solidified Chávez's leadership and prepared the way for the consolidation of the Farm Workers' Union, and ultimately for the farm workers to prevail against the powerful political and economic interests of the California growers. Roberto Cabello-Argandoña, Editor.
Latina Filmmakers and Writers: The Notion of Chicanisma Through Films and Novellas. Jenny Dean. ISBN: 978-0-9796457-1-6. $26.95
During the Chicano Movement in the 1960s and 1970s, Chicanas helped Chicanos achieve equal rights, while at the same time suffered oppression as women within their own race. In the 1970s, the Chicana Feminist Movement was founded to address the specific needs of Chicanas as women of color in the United States. Chicana artists began to write and produce works in which Chicanas were given a proper name, voice, and image. Soon, Chicanisma, a sense of sisterhood and feminist discourse, emerged to confront the triple oppression of race, class, and gender. Latina Filmmakers and Writers: The Notion of Chicanisma Through Films and Novellas examines the works of seven celebrated Latinas who collectively represent a 20-year history of Chicanisma: Chicana (a film by Sylvia Morales), Puppet: A Chicano Novella (a book by Margarita Cota-Cárdenas), La Ofrenda: The Days of the Dead (a film by Lourdes Portillo and Susana Muñoz), Paletitas de Guayaba (a book by Erlinda Gonzáles-Berry), El Espejo/The Mirror (a film by Frances Salomé España) and Loving Pedro Infante (a book by Denise Chávez). These works demystify masculine power and offer realistic portrayals of Chicanas and give them a rightful name, image, and voice in American culture.
"Dean provides a thoughtful and honest account of ... the concept of Chicanisma. Latina Filmmakers and Writers cleverly situates Chicana literature and film at the perilous yet unique intersection of class, gender and race ...and weaves a Chicana feminist theory and original oral history research " Guisela Latorre, University of California. Santa Barbara.
"This book deals with the voices and works of Latinas [whose voices]... must be heard since they elaborate on the concept of "Chicanisma."This is an important new book in the development of Chicana Studies and Latina thought. Kudos!" Dr. Luzma Umpierre, Human Rights Advocate.
"...This book... is a must read text for contemporary society. ...[it] will be most helpful in Chicana and Chicano Studies, Women and Feminist Studies, Ethnic Studies, and Cultural Studies in understanding the experiences and issues concerning diversity in a postmodern situation." Dr. T. Osa Hidalgo de la Riva
Huevos y la Mujer Latina: The De-masculinization of the Macho. Julián Camacho-Segura. ISBN: 978-0-9796457-4-7 $19.95
Huevos is not a politically correct articulation of the plight of Latino men in this era of so called gender equity and diversity. The author contends that while White women have made progress, Latinos, particularly Mexican men, have been entirely ignored; they have become the epitome of the poor working class. Ambitious and upward mobile Latinas often look down upon Latinos, and particularly Mexican males' lackluster economic success preferring other males. Latino males have been left out of any gender or racial discussion, yet suffer the highest work related death rates, lowest college attendance and graduation rates, high incarceration rates, the highest poverty even though they have the highest labor participation rates. The Latino male have become the Sisyphus's of America condemned to low wages by globalization, to ignorance by mediocre, highly-unionized schools, and destined to be marginalized of any equity-political-solution.
The progress of White women has maintained White power by driving the diversity dialog, praxis, and remedy away from Latino males-the working, and uneducated poor. As Latino men have been relegated to a caste style social gender structure-the hard working indigent-Latinas have been blinded into believing that feminism and Chicanisma are positive, weakening Latino traditional social fabric and support system, while simultaneously ignoring the societal divide distressing Latinos, and especially Mexican males. "Huevos! Ya era hora! In an era of such political correctness, the timing couldn't be better. Once again Julian Camacho tackles the issues that are relevant in this truly academic discipline of Latino Studies." John J. Morales Jr. Chair and Professor of Chicano Studies, L.A. Mission College. "Julian Camacho's work is thought provoking and it is bound to create deep conversations and debate. Thank you for addressing the real challenges Mexican men face everyday in US society." Marcos Ramos, College of Letters and Science. University of California, Berkeley "An exciting and enthralling design to educate the body and stimulate the mind. Destined to be one of the most discussed books in 2007!" Oscar Barajas, Author of soon to be realized book "Tales From The Wireless Clothesline"
Clásicos de la Literatura Hispanoamericana Colonial en su Contexto Sociohistórico.
Dr. Clary Loisel. ISBN: 978-0-915745-97-5. $24.95
Esta monografía va dirigida a los lectores que ya tienen un conocimiento básico de la literatura hispanoamericana colonial pero que quieren un análisis más profundo de algunas obras principales del canon. Este libro sobre la literatura colonial constituye un esfuerzo por reunir el testimonio de nueve escritores de los siglos XVI y XVII que han expresado algunas experiencias y vicisitudes principales de varios pueblos de Hispanoamérica para acercarse a su identidad nacional y artística. Seleccioné a estas figuras por sus contribuciones únicas a las letras hispanas. El tema central de este libro es la transformación y la "nativización" de los modelos peninsulares por los escritores del Nuevo Mundo. Es mi esperanza que, volviendo a estudiar a estos autores y obras, podamos comenzar a comprender mejor una pequeña parte de la enorme producción literaria de los dos siglos después de la llegada de Cristóbal Colón en 1492. Divido el libro en dos partes principales: "El Siglo XVI: Literatura de la Conquista" y "El Siglo XVII: El Barroco, Arte Hispánico". Al principio de cada parte hay una introducción sobre el marco histórico-social así como de las corrientes estéticas de cada época. Cada uno de los nueve capítulos se dedica a las biografías y al análisis de la obra de los autores seleccionados: Hernán Cortés, Bernal Díaz del Castillo, Alonso de Ercilla y Zúñiga, El Inca Garcilazo de la Vega, Bernardo de Balbuena, Juan Ruiz de Alarcón, Juan del Valle Caviedes, Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora y Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.
"El lector se siente atraído a la lectura de Clásicos de la Literatura Hispanoamericana Colonial por la claridad de su presentación y por la curiosidad de ciertos detalles que me han animado a releer a algunos escritores de la literatura colonial, por ejemplo a Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz". Ramón Corro, Profesor de Español Emeritus; University of Montana.
"Este libro muestra de forma muy clara la transformación de los modelos literarios españoles realizados por diferentes autores en el Nuevo Mundo. Por lo tanto, puede servir como recurso útil para el profesor así como texto de trasfondo para el estudiante de letras renacentistas y barrocas". Robert S. Stone, Profesor Asociado; US Naval Academy.
"Clásicos de la Literatura Hispanoamericana Colonial , por el profesor Clary Loisel, es un aporte importante a los estudios hispanoamericanos coloniales. Es de gran utilidad para un público general y para especialistas". Mark Cox, Profesor Asociado de Español; Presbyterian College.
"Con Clásicos de la Literatura Hispanoamericana Colonial , Clary Loisel ha sabido abarcar las obras claves de la literatura colonial con la precisión y erudición necesarias para el especialista y con la claridad y llaneza para el gran público". Andre Moskowitz, City University of New York Graduate Center
Café Chronicles.
Francisco J. Zermeno. ISBN: 978-0-915745-98-2 $17.95
Life is wonderful, and I have learned from it twice, my first 12 years in México, in Spanish, and the many others in California, in English. I know that every one has a unique life, but I could claim that mine has been a bit more unique. Why? I am a 6'4" café Mexican, that's why! In a land of chaparros, there I was in México. In a land of whites, here I was, and am. I was born in the high sierras, then was transplanted to urban Guadalajara. I survived. Then, I went back to the rural sierra, and this now city slicker couldn't rope a cow, especially in my black shoes. Heck, I tried playing soccer in México.too tall. I tried playing soccer in the USA, there was none in the 1960s. So, when I went into basquetball, my feet were faster than my hands on concrete. Shooting? A slingshot at a bird, ok, but a ball at a basquet? I went to the fields. Have you ever tried short hoeing lettuce or picking strawberries from my height? I had my gringo phase.
Result? I couldn't even convince mother, who kept telling me, 'gringo culo prieto' - with Mexican motherly tender love, of course. I tried to fit in as a Freshman at UCSanta Bárbara. I was taking Bonehead English with Dr. Fernández. I couldn't. Heck, I've even made a run a city politics. Result? Missed it by 1,500 votes. The reason given me? Latinos don't vote. Yes, I wondered if the political machine is just not ready for a 6'4" Mexicaned café to join the elected elite. As a good Mexican, I have always adapted, fatallisticly, as is my, our, nature. Yes, I have always wondered if a caféless, tallless, USAless life would have been different. Yes. I think so. But this one's mine, and I'll keep it. So, what I have been doing is writing, and reading, kilos of words, from the outside looking in. It's been a two year plus weekly column, with what I've observed, with a café Latino consciousness. Some love it and learn from it. Others hate it and have told me to take my culo prieto back to México. Hey, is life wonderful or what? Hope you agree. Live on!
Chat Room & other Latino Plays.
Leo Cabranes-Grant. ISBN: 978-0-9796457-5-4 $22.95
"It gives me great pleasure to introduce Floricanto's New Series: Latino GLBT works. In this edition, we have "The Chat Room and Other Latino Plays" which explores the complexities of Latino gay life through characters and events that challenge our expectations in both funny and disturbing ways. Several closeted men meet in a public space to flirt with each other, but end up discussing the joys and pains of fatherhood. A bisexual man surprises his gay partner with an unusual birthday gift: a Puerto Rican. A Latino-Rican decides to pursue a chat room date with a mysterious man that slowly takes over his apartment and even brings a woman in. All three plays are an invitation to revise our values and to experiment with new identities. " Carlos T Mock, MD "...That's one very important reason why this new line from Floricanto Press exists: to provide Latinos/as and other readers, writers, and interviewers with GLBT writers of quality who will provide significant work about the Latino-American gay experience. Writers like Leo Cabranes, whose plays Floricanto is putting out, in effect, leading the way. Leo addresses the issue: what does it mean to be a Latino-American in the U.S? How does the color of your skin, or your accent, or any of a dozen of perceived differences affect not only how you may be treated-demonized, vilified, adored, iconized-but also how you come to perceive yourself? And how does that change who you become?
In Mortality, the changing and changeable nature of Latino American GLBT identity becomes a toy played with by the characters and the author to express and illuminate the underlying anxiety that this topic always incites. And we've not yet begun to explore other themes of this writing: machismo versus homosexuality, male versus female, and how or even why that should alter to catch up to the rest of the world. Or the role of the various religions-Catholicism versus Santeria for example-that are touched upon in these works. So much to read. So much to think of. Meanwhile welcome to this new line of Floricanto gay Hispanic books. I hope you enjoy the work, as much as I've enjoyed it." Felice Picano
Papi Chulo . Dr. Carlos T. Mock. ISBN Complete: 978-0-9796457-0-9 $24.95
"If self-identity is a crucial issue in this literature, then national identity is what Carlos Mock addresses; and Papi Chulo, actually is the story of a country as seen through the eyes and lives of three strong women of several generations. For Carlos Mock, the theme is felt so strongly that it must be openly expressed. "To Puerto Ricans, I've become an American. But to Americans of Puerto Rican descent, I'm insufficiently Puerto Rican because I've not undergone the years of prejudice they have." So the question becomes, who are any of these characters, these authors, these people? And we've not yet begun to explore other themes of this writing: machismo versus homosexuality, male versus female, and how or even why that should alter to catch up to the rest of the world. Or the role of the various religions-Catholicism versus Santeria for example-that permeates in the novel. So much to read. So much to think of. Meanwhile welcome to this new line of Floricanto gay Hispanic books. I hope you enjoy the work, as much as I've enjoyed it." Felice Picano
Dr. Carlos Mock was born in San Juan, PR in 1956. After a career in Medicine, he turned to literature. Papi Chulo is his third novel. He currently edits Floricanto's LGBT Latino series
Diversity: Mestizos, Latinos and the Promise of Possibilities. By Amardo Rodríguez. 978-0-915745-92-0 $18.95. 152 pages
This book is about the hope that resides in brown, the color of creation. It defines brown ideologically rather than racially. That is, brown is about peoples who are increasingly defying the borders of ethnicity, nationality, sexuality, and race that limit imagination and possibility through various anxieties, insecurities, and paranoia that make us afraid of the world's ambiguity, mystery, and complexity and, in so doing, make us afraid of our differences. It is about peoples who are of borderlands-conceptual, communicational, relational, communal, theoretical, and cultural spaces, such as Spanglish and Ozomatli, which are devoted to possibility. Thus in a world where too many believe in a coming clash of civilizations and that Latino immigration poses the most serious threat to the prosperity of the U.S., this book introduces and expounds on various theoretical notions that make for new visions of the world and ultimately new ways of being the world.
La Gringa
by Pedro Martínez. ISBN: 978-0-915745-94-4. 428 pgs. $25.95
Joe García, a Marine Colonel and childhood friend devoted to the President, La Gringa is also told from multiple points of view that push at the edges of literary tradition.
The deciphering of the Da Vinci Code discovered Jade Stewart as the descendent of the Davidic Dynasty. Her existence threatens the legitimacy of Christian orthodoxy, and she is anathema to the Christian fundamentalists. Beautiful, brilliant and single, she is a controversial and charismatic President at a time of great change in America, including a schism between the American Catholic Church and the Vatican, the admission of English speaking Canada into the United States, and the political emergence of the Mexican-American community. Her election to the Presidency in 2008 is carried on the brown backs of Chicanos in Texas and California.
By the age of fifteen Jade Stewart was uncontrollable, and her wealthy, widowed father, David Stewart, takes her from the family estate in New York to his ranch in South Texas. In Laredo Jade Stewart becomes involved with Beto Guerra, a Chicano mix of Elvis and James Dean. At the age of seventeen, Jade Stewart has a child out of wedlock by Beto Guerra who had enlisted in the Marines and not returned from the wars of the Middle East. The day after the child_s birth, David Stewart tells Jade that her baby boy had died. After her election eighteen years later, President Stewart_s enemies, the terrorist Christian Militias, steal the records of her child_s birth and presumed death. Threatening to charge that the President had had an abortion, they attempt to blackmail her. The President sends Joe García to Laredo to recover the evidence that her child had died the day after birth. Embedded with compelling characters from across the spectrum of the American narrative, La Gringa is an imaginative and disturbing vision of what the future may bring. Sprung tightly by metaphor at the beginning, the plot springs to a violent conclusion, as Joe Garcia follows a trail that skirts taboo, tests his loyalty to the Anglo America of Jade Stewart, and careens towards Monarchy.
Soul Twins: A Latino Journey From The Edge To Self-redemption. By Oscar Vega Romero. ISBN 978-0-915745-93-7. $22.95 162 pages.
Oscar Vega Romero was born and raised in Mexico. He was the second child in a family of six sons and a daughter. His parents, a hard-working laborer father and a home-maker mother, impressed upon him the importance of education and setting a good example. Romero immigrated to the United States in 1998. He is a videographer, an artist, and a writer who uses his artistic talents to teach, entertain, and make others more aware of their hidden potential.
NEW
Latina Mistress.
By R.F. Sánchez 978-0-915745-91-3. 332 pgs. $24.95
This story is about young and pretty illegal alien women in El Paso, Texas, who unknowingly fall or conveniently acquiesce to the sexual demands of their male employers, who most happen to be Anglo Americans. Much what has been written about El Paso and the southwest is about its history, its settlers, its movers and its heroes. Latina Mistress, however, is about ordinary people, illegal aliens, their loves, hates, beliefs, and more importantly their circumstances. The events which take place in the novel intersect the Hispanic and Anglo worlds, with their own good and evil characters. This novel follows the long tradition of historical fiction in the sense that all the anecdotes told here are actually true, although the names have been changed to protect the guilty. The author gathered these very human stories through years of observation as well as personal experience and much research. The author and his wife, Helen, actually knew personally Berta, one of the tragic heroines of this novel. He also interviewed scores of males and females of both cultures attesting to the accuracy of the story. What is a young and beautiful illegal alien to do to survive two alien worlds, the Hispanic and Anglo worlds, with their own good and evil characters? The answer is shivering in its clarity: whatever is required. This novel depicts the dramatic lives of two beautiful sisters, both illegal aliens, and how some people take advantage of their weakness and their sex. In this sense this novel is a classic tale of what has always occurred with the disadvantaged all along; the powerful taking advantage of the weaker and more disadvantaged members of society. Although the novel starts with the arrival of the two pretty young women in the United States, dramatic events unleashed, which change the lives of these women. Some of these circumstances are simply traumatic, others are downright heart-breaking, and some others are happy events, which they must undergo before setting roots in this country. As in real life, not every immigrant coming to the United States makes it, in this novel; Rosario did, but not her sister, Berta. Some characters in this novel are truly loveable, others quite detestable; all nevertheless are quite human. The reader weeps at times, is angry at times, rejoices at times, but at the close you will find a new meaning for what is meant for a Latina Mistress.
Amazon.com Bestseller!!!
NEW
Mosaic Virus.
By Carlos T. Mock, M.D. 9780915745798 $24.95
It is 1983. In Rome, Cardinal Siri, the most powerful Cardinal in the Vatican, summons a young Jesuit priest and assigns him a grave and urgent task. The Vatican has been keeping secret an epidemic of deaths among priests in the northeastern United States. Father Javier Barraza must determine how and why they are dying-and whether a suspected international conspiracy against the Holy Roman Church is coming to fruition. Barraza is an Argentinean who has risen swiftly through the ranks to the post of Devil's Advocate-an investigator of candidates for sainthood. In his new assignment, his path immediately intersects with Lillian Davis-Lodge, a special agent with the FBI, and a compelling figure from Barraza's past. The reappearance of Lillian is more than mere coincidence; she is far from the "special agent" she claims to be. She occupies the highest echelons of power in the United States, with full access to information and influence. Secrets and spies inhabit the subterranean world of the Church just as they do the government of the United States, and a disturbing trail of evidence strongly indicates to Barraza that his Church may be complicit in what he has been assigned to investigate. Set in the arcane, yet alluring world of the Vatican, The Mosaic Virus will grip you in its terrifyingly-true-to-life tale of secrets, sex and violence. At the end, you'll pray that it's only fiction. Carlos Mock's maiden voyage proves he is already a master storyteller.
NEW
Notes From Exile. By T.M. Spooner. 978-0-915745-89-0 302 pgs. $22.95
Rich in language and imagery, Notes from Exile is a skillfully crafted novel. A blend of humor and drama thread this tale, concluding in what can best be described as a haunting modern tragedy. Struggles both large and small remind us of human frailties and how in the final analysis, we go it alone. For its wit and passion, this novel should not be missed! Mexico has long been a land of enchantment and mystery, a place where more than one foreigner has sought refuge, fleeing real or imagined demons. In a quaint village along the shores of Lake Chapala, two recent college graduates join two men living in self-imposed exile. One, a journalist and jaded philosopher is escaping an inherited family destiny; the other, a British combat veteran is fleeing what many viewed an unnecessary war. Notes from Exile is a venerable creation, containing humor, love, and sorrow - each in their own time and measure, all ingredients for a story of escape and hope. Through the novel we learn, often harshly, how each one of us is responsible for defining our destiny. The dilemma is that while some will succeed, others will tragically fail. Excerpt from Notes from Exile - In the vigilant distance, the jacaranda trees and the African tulips remained still and breathless. The long, fragile egrets waded in the muddy shores of the great lake. Lirio acuático, water hyacinth, and tules, water rushes, nursed in the shallow water, their roots a web of thickness and lust. The lake was sick, dying of a disease called neglect. The mountains nestled beside it, powerless to heal, and the long, loping line of the woman cradled it in her lap. She had bravely turned to face the deprivation. Fishers, naked to the waist, cast their wide nets, each harvest more meager. What a disease this thing called neglect.
New
Latina Instinct.
By Michel Estrada. Translated by Robert Nasatir. ISBN:978-0-915745-71-5. $24.95
In Michel Estrada's Latina Instinct, Carmen leaves her modest life in rural Pinar del Río to attend the University of Havana. When she gets there, she confronts the harsh reality of contemporary Cuban life. Latina Instinct is an exceptional document of daily life in today's Havana, faithfully recording the challenging existence of university students struggling to make the grade. Before she can learn from her trials, Carmen must mature amidst the dangerous and complex streets of Havana. Michele Estrada's novel offers the first honest and riveting glance to present-day Cuban urban life.
She attends the University to study computer science but the politics of academic life and the demands of school are quickly upstaged by the excitement and danger of Havana. She rooms with a group of experienced students who teach her how to get along: studious Paula, playful Dunia, naïve Monica, and Lili, the free-spirit. And the men in Carmen_s life are equally important: Arturo, the womanizing fifth-year student, and Sebastián, the debonair Spanish businessman. When Carmen first meets them, she is gullible, but each teaches her a valuable lesson by example, and they are not always good examples. She learns about survival, both at school and in the city, but the most important lessons are those that she can only learn on her own.
Over the course of a year, Carmen encounters good and bad relationships, short-lived and lasting friendships. Her innocence leads her into difficult situations, but her wits, and a little luck, get her out of them. Along the way, Carmen changes from an innocent country girl thrown into the big city to an experienced and savvy young woman equipped to face the challenges of present-day Cuba.
New
Latina Icons: Iconos Femeninos Latinos e hispanoamericanos.
Edited by María Claudia André.La Mujer Latina Series ISBN: 978-0-915745-85-2. $26.95
These articles, written by well-known Latin Americanists, many of them Latinos themselves, reflect a most revealing landscape of iconization of these women ranging from religious, political, and popular sectors. These figures help us understand the complex discursive process of the creation of popular female images, and the influence that institutions and cultural traditions play in their creation. La Malinche, the movie actress María Félix, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, María Ilonza, Frida Khalo, Selena, Yemayá, Carmen Miranda, and Malena, the woman object of a most notable Tango, are among the figures discussed in this highly recommended book.
Esta colección de ensayos explora los procesos de representación y de iconización de algunas de las figuras femeninas más prominentes de América Latina. En ella se intenta definir qué significado tienen estas figuras dentro del contexto popular y determinar cuál es la función que desempeñan en la construcción de una identidad colectiva e individual. Los ensayos aquí incluidos presentan un revelador panorama sobre las múltiples articulaciones entre lo religioso, lo político y lo popular que nos permite vislumbrar no sólo la compleja red discursiva que circula a través de los diversos medios de producción cultural, sino también establecer el nivel de participación e influencia que ejercen de los organismos institucionales en la construcción de símbolos, imágenes y tradiciones culturales. La Malinche, la actriz del cine María Félix, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, María Ilonza, Frida Khalo, Selena, Yamayá, Carmen Miranda, y Malena, la mujer centro del tango mas famoso escrito, son las figuras femeninas aquí discutidas extensivamente en este extraordinario libro.
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Lisa Alvarado
Ulises Silva, Tragical Mirth, and Pushing the Envelope
I recently posted an article about a piece of speculative fiction, Solstice. It's a novel that's sharp-edged, haunting, and has some kick ass-heroines.
The following is a conversation with Ulises Silva, its author, and the founder of an independent press, Tragical Mirth Publishing.
(If you missed my piece, you can read it here.)
1. Tell me about the genesis of Tragical Mirth Publishing. Do you see yourself as a niche publisher? If so, what do you feel are the strengths of that? The downside?
Tragical Mirth Publishing is the independent publishing house I established in order to self-publish Solstice in 2007. I took the dreaded self-publishing route primarily for creative control.
After all, one of the earlier comments I got on an earlier draft of Solstice was that the characters’ names (i.e., Itztli, Jai Lin) were too difficult and different for most audiences, and that I should change them. I think that’s what I feared the most about going through a traditional publisher—that they’d want to change the characters’ ethnicities and names in order to make them more commercially appealing. That would have defeated the purpose of writing this story. So I took the chance and created Tragical Mirth to self-publish, and it’s a gamble that’s surprisingly paid off. Despite it being a self-published book, Solstice received positive reviews in Booklist, Library Journal, SciFiNow magazine, and now here at La Bloga. I see TMP as a niche publisher in the sense that I want to focus on giving authors of color an entry into the crowded literary marketplace. While I’mnot yet ready to publish other writers, I do hope to eventually start working with authors of color and let them tell the stories they want to tell.
I want them to see TMP as an alternative to the big publishers that seem naturally inclined toward labeling anything written by us as Urban Fiction or what have you. I think that focus on letting writers of colors tell the kinds of stories they want to tell is our greatest strength. Hopefully, down the line, TMP will be a very viable publisher with a full roster of good and promising writers of color. The downside, of course, is that TMP is an independent publisher, and not currently set up to publish anything. And, assuming I can ever get to the point where I can publish other people’s works, writers will still need to temper their expectations. I doubt we’ll ever be about giving someone a $10,000 advance and promise to get their book into every top review magazine and best-selling list. But if a writer is willing to work with us and be willing to take some of the risks with us, then hopefully we can accomplish something special. And considering the unexpected success of Solstice, I truly believe we can achieve anything.
2. Your novel is a piece of speculative fiction. How does that sync up with popular ideas of 'Latino/Chicano' fiction?
A lot of ‘Latino/Chicano’ fiction is based on telling stories from our historically marginalized point of view. We tell stories that, while familiar to Latinos, might seem alien to most everyone else. They’re stories about growing up as hyphenated Americans, about Latino/Chicano political activism, about all our experiences on the fringes of mainstream American consciousness.
They’re about telling the stories no one else can or cares to tell. Solstice, although grounded in speculative fiction, is deeply influenced by this aspect of Latino/Chicano writing. The notion that Scribes can use the English written word to literally manipulate reality is based on my belief that mainstream media has the power to invent our reality and historical awareness (or, in some cases, efface it altogether).
So it’s no coincidence that the Editors tasked with watching over these Scribes are all people of color, people who operate in the shadows and whose native languages serve as a defense against Scribes. Solstice’s protagonist, Io, is a Mexican-Japanese anti-heroine. She’s the best of The Editors, but she moonlights as a vigilante, and her mantra is that only cruelty can destroy cruelty.
But she’s haunted by the loss in her life, including the loss of her parents and her own normalcy. She carries a reminder of this loss with her—a copy of Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street given to her by her mother as a reminder of “where she came from.” Although her character is adrift at the start of the story—caught between two distinct ethnic identities, occupying the fringes of common law, trapped in the purgatory that is her own aimless vigilantism—it’s her mother’s book that keeps her oriented, even if she doesn’t know it.
And, of course, there’s Nadie, the novel’s antagonist. She’s the Scribe who decides that humanity is irreparably corrupt and destructive and must therefore be exterminated. But she wants the world to know why it’s being destroyed, which is why she sets out to tell a story—in her own unique way—that recounts history’s many unpunished crimes, including the horrors of colonialism. It’s one of the book’s ironies that this young girl whose name means "no one" is the one who brings these crimes to light and issues her final judgment.
3. In Solstice, you create a world similar to Dick's Blade Runner. Talk about that as a landscape for your characters, and the decision to pit Scribes and Editors against each other as the central theme.
The story is set in an alternate near future where the U.S.’ power and influence have eroded following three catastrophic military ventures (there are vague references throughout to Iraq, Iran, and Taiwan). I wanted the story’s landscape to present an uncanny glimpse into a foreseeable future, where government corruption has gone unchecked thanks to stolen elections, interest groups, and widespread apathy. Part of this landscape, of course, are Scribes, people with the power to make whatever story they write come true. Scribes are meant to reflect the notion that the written word, in the hands of certain people, can create reality. We see it in history books, of course. How many of us have heard that it was Mexico that provoked the war of 1846 -- a war Americans call the Mexican War and that Mexicans call La Invasion Norteamericana?
But consider this also: If we think on the ways mainstream media helped the current administration launch its wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and how they invented for all of us the reality of Iraq’s nuclear stockpiles and willingness to use them against us, then we can see that the written word really does have power. It’s no coincidence that I make references throughout to a Scribe named Don Poinsettia, a Scribe Io takes down with the help of a Chinese Scribe, Xiu Mei Xiang. Poinsettia is a Murdoch/Rove figure who’s used his powers and his MIX media empire for personal gain.
The suggestion is that he single-handedly brought about the U.S.’ downfall. I actually plan a prequel to Solstice that will focus on him and Io’s attempt to hunt him down. She’s the top Editor, after all. Editors are, in essence, a representation of post-colonial theory. So much of what Latinos and other writers of color do is write the stories that colonial and mainstream texts have skipped or effaced. I wanted the Editors—all people of color whose native languages serve as a defense against a Scribe’s powers—to represent that ongoing struggle.
4. Solstice is populated by strong female characters, outside the 'norm.' Can you share what motivated you and what you hope you engender in the reader with that choice?
It really began with my mother, a strong Mexican woman who never backs down from any fight, and who always taught me to respect women’s rights and equalities.
From a very early age, she let me see the inherent ludicrousness of the machismo that was (and perhaps still is) rampant in Mexico and Latin America. I remember seeing Aliens for the first time, and seeing the Ripley and Vazquez characters in action, and being totally awestruck by them.
I think that was the first time that I saw a female character that kicked butt with the best male characters, and the first time I started to ask myself why we didn’t see more characters like them in movies. We’ve all seen male action heroes, but not nearly enough female ones, at least not many that weren’t just Barbies with guns (e.g., Lara Croft). I’ve always believed that, as a writer, you should embrace the control the written word offers you. As writers, we can tell whatever stories we want with whatever characters we want. That’s why, when it came time to start writing my stories, I always featured a strong female lead, because those were the kinds that I always appreciated the most.
With Solstice, I saw an opportunity to create Io, a heroine who’s very strong, very independent, and not just a sexualized, hot-blooded LatinAsian woman bowing down to stereotypes. I wanted her to have real layers, real depth, and real flaws. And despite her troubled beginning (she really is a monster at first), I wanted readers to sympathize with her plight, and appreciate her eventual redemption. Maybe more importantly, I wanted people to read her and the rest of the characters, and say to themselves, “why aren’t there more characters like these in books and film?” I wanted to give Latino/a and Asian audiences a set of strong central characters they could appreciate and even embrace. And I wanted to show other audiences that a Latina/Asian woman could have other roles than the ones people are used to seeing them in.
5. What are the themes you find yourself returning to? What's their significance personally and creatively.
Creatively, I’m fascinated with end-of-the-world scenarios, maybe too much for my own good. I guess, growing up in the 80s and thinking that the Emergency Broadcast Network was going to come on at any moment, I thought the end of the world could really happen. So I migrated to these kinds of stories. I was always fascinated with the human response to apocalypse, and especially how the media would react and spin stories if an end-of-the-world scenario began to unfold. That’s why there are many instances in Solstice where Io and her companions are listening to the radio or watching TV; they’re forced to watch the horrors of Nadie’s actions through the filters of network news and talk shows. Personally, I’m just as adamant about writing stories featuring people that look and act like us. Growing up, I didn’t see a whole lot of Latino/a protagonists that were strong or three-dimensional or even law-abiding.
So it’s important to me, as a Latino writer, to create characters we can relate to. Because I genuinely feel that our people, especially our younger audiences, still don’t have a whole lot of positive portrayals in mainstream media to inspire them. There aren’t enough characters like us out there that make us think we can be heroes or awe-inspiring or even strong. I’m just one person, but I make it a point to always feature strong, central Latino/a characters in all my fiction. With Solstice, it’s Io.
With my next novel, Inventing Vazquez, it’s a Chicana named Liliana Vazquez. With my next speculative fiction novel, The Mourning Syndrome, it’ll be a Chicana writer named Clara Solis. That will always be my goal: to have real characters that we, as Latino/as, can readily identify with, and maybe even be inspired by.
6. Share with Bloga readers where you hope to take them with Inventing Vazquez.
From the writer that brought you Solstice, a dark, apocalyptic novel, comes…a light-hearted comedic satire. That’s going to be a nightmare to try and market, but… In any event, Inventing Vazquez is my new novel (with a release date sometime late 2008 or early 2009) that takes
on an issue very important to me: the (mis)portrayal of Latino/as in American cinema. Like I said before, I don’t think our people have a lot of positive examples to look up to in film. Most of the time, we’re portrayed as gang members, or domestic servants, or crime victims. And even when films do cast Latino/as, half the time they play non-Latino roles. It’s like America Ferrerra said in Ugly Betty: "Mexicans don’t have action heroes. All we have is a fast little rodent."
So Inventing Vazquez is my little critique of the whole industry. (As an aside, even the title of the book is in reference to the Vazquez character from Aliens. Yes, the same one I mentioned earlier. I eventually learned that the actress wasn’t even Latina; it was a non-Latina actress with brown contact lenses, bronzed skin, and a fake accent. I was so discouraged, because for so long, I’d really liked that character and what I thought she represented.)
The story centers around Liliana Vazquez, a mousy Chicana who’s hired by a major film studio to serve as a “Hispanic Sensitivity Issues Consultant” following the widespread outrage among Latino/as over a recent film. She’s hired to read scripts and alert the studio if she thinks it’s going to offend Latino/a viewers, but she comes to realize that the position is a token one. She, like the Asian Sensitivity Issues Consultant and the Arab Sensitivity Issues Consultant (a Sikh man), is just a PR gimmick.
And although she starts off as soft-spoken and mousy (she’s ashamed of her voice because it’s so girly despite her being 29), she has to find her voice—literally and figuratively. The story is about her finding a way to make her voice heard among people who don’t want to hear it. It’s a comedic satire, so I hope to make audiences laugh. But I also hope to get people to think about the issues I raise. Because although the films mentioned in the book are loosely based on real-life films (e.g., “Empire of Blood” instead of “Apocalypto”), some of them should resonate with the audience (i.e., “yeah, I can see them making a movie like that”) despite being so off-the-wall silly (like one film, “Latin Lover,” about a guy that gets women to fall for him when he bites into a magical habañero pepper).
7. Where would you like to see Tragical Mirth in ten years? Where would you like to see yourself?
Ideally, I’d like Tragical Mirth Publishing to have a full roster of writers of color, and a full line of good books that tell good stories about us. And I’d like to be able to work with writers, and give them the kind of encouragement and feedback they’ll need to keep writing. Because I genuinely believe that people of color, especially Latino/as, need to write more, and we need to start creating the kinds of stories and characters that mainstream media won’t. So hopefully, with enough lucky bounces and maybe some more commercial success with Solstice and my future novels, I can work toward this.
As for myself, writing is what I love, so I plan to keep writing. I always said that to simply publish Solstice and present it to my family as mygift to them (because nothing says “I love you, mom, dad, and brother” like a novel about the end of the world) was my only goal; anything after that would be gravy. So I’m just enjoying the ride, and embracing the joy that is writing fiction. Hopefully, in 10 years, I will have published a few more: Inventing Vazquez, The Mourning Syndrome, a sequel to Solstice, and maybe one or two more. And I genuinely hope that, by then, the kinds of characters I like to feature won’t be ‘outside the norm’ anymore.
8. Tell us something not in the official bio.
Some things that may or may not be true about me:
- I stay up until 2 a.m. every night writing, drawing, or watching horror films. This despite the fact that I have to be at work at 8:30 a.m. I started my writing ‘career’ in earnest with an Anime fanfic entitled, Nightmares in the Apocalypse, which was so horrid and badly written but nonetheless made me somewhat popular among a small group of teenage readers.
- I can make a mean guacamole.
- I write music on the side, and play bass guitar, electric guitar, and drums. All at once. Really.
- I’ve been in a punk band, am currently in a blues band, and am now trying to form an indie rock band.
- I draw pictures of my main characters to get a sense of who they are and what they look like. And all these pictures are done in Anime style.
- I don’t do windows.
- Having grown up in NYC, I naturally root for the Detroit Tigers, the Arizona Cardinals, the Miami Dolphins, and the Buffalo Sabres.
- I hate powdered laundry detergent.
- Having grown up in NYC, the city I most want to live in is San Francisco, or Chicago, or Toronto. Which is why I’m in Michigan.
- Being Mexican-American, naturally, my favorite kind of music is indie rock and Japanese rock.
- I was actually a terrible grad student, probably because I spent all my time writing instead of studying.
- Being Mexican-American, my favorite film of all time, naturally, is Lost in Translation.
Tragical Mirth Publications -- http://www.verytragicalmirth.com/index.htm
Solstice -- http://www.verytragicalmirth.com/solstice.htm
Lisa Alvarado
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
On Writing for Children
By René Colato Laínez
In children’s stories every word counts. But some times there is a lot of information to tell, information that you feel is worth telling. How are you going to do it with out using so many words? How to tell the short economic version instead of the long version? How are you going to cover a lot of ground quickly and move the story along? Well, you can use the technique MAKING A LONG STORY SHORT. It consists in writing a long event into a single sentence.
In the children’s book THE RELATIVES CAME, the relatives are coming all the way from Virginia. Author, Cynthia Rylant, makes the traveling part of the trip pass very quickly in this single sentence.
"So they drank up all their pop and ate up all their crackers and traveled up all those miles until finally they pulled into our yard."
By connecting “and's”, the author makes this move quickly in the story, letting a lot happen in one sentence. Because Rylant's main point in the story is for the relatives to meet and have a great time, she gets the whole trip in one sentence and gets those relatives to their destination quickly. Now Rylant is ready to tell their relative’s adventures.
Cynthia Rylant uses this technique again in her young adult novel I HAD SEEN CASTLES. John Dante is a soldier during the Second World War. When the war ends, he is ready to come home. Rylant puts the entire outcome of the war in one sentence.
"After the war ended, America made Germany its friend, Russia its enemy, and it helped rebuild Japan."
This time instead of connecting “and's”, she uses commas. In only a single sentence, she has saved many words. She would have used a page to describe what happened to Germany, Russia and Japan after the war. Rylant is making a long story short by using a single sentence instead of three pages.
I use this technique a lot in my own writing. On my manuscript in progress about the Salvadoran archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, I tell the story on how Romero became a hero and martyr for the Salvadoran community. The first pages of the story are about Romero as a child and his return from Rome to El Salvador as a young priest. Romero went through many steps in order to become an archbishop but I did not have the time to go over every single step in detail. I put everything together in one single sentence:
"First, Oscar was a priest, then an auxiliary bishop, then a bishop, and finally on February 10, 1977, he became the new archbishop of El Salvador."
Now I was ready to continue with my story.
The same technique came to the rescue on my forthcoming picture book MY SHOES AND I, illustrations by Fabricio Vanden Broeck, (BOYDS MILLS PRESS/ FRONT STREET, 2009). MY SHOES AND I is about a boy crossing three borders in order to arrive to the United States. There is a great connection between the boy and his shoes, and this connection is the heart of the story. But how was I able to put a long trip into the pages of a picture book? You guessed it. I used MAKING A LONG STORY SHORT.
"A bus, a sandwich, the first border, another bus and another sandwich, we are in Guatemala City."
I used MAKING A LONG STORY SHORT two more times in the book and in no time at all,
My young protagonist was ready to cross the last border.
By using this technique, I can save many words. I can concentrate in what is the most important event in my story and summarize in a single sentence what it is not so relevant. The trick is to put everything in one sentence that compresses time and detail.
I hope you can you this technique on your own writing.
MAKING A LONG STORY SHORT
In children’s stories every word counts. But some times there is a lot of information to tell, information that you feel is worth telling. How are you going to do it with out using so many words? How to tell the short economic version instead of the long version? How are you going to cover a lot of ground quickly and move the story along? Well, you can use the technique MAKING A LONG STORY SHORT. It consists in writing a long event into a single sentence.
In the children’s book THE RELATIVES CAME, the relatives are coming all the way from Virginia. Author, Cynthia Rylant, makes the traveling part of the trip pass very quickly in this single sentence.
"So they drank up all their pop and ate up all their crackers and traveled up all those miles until finally they pulled into our yard."
By connecting “and's”, the author makes this move quickly in the story, letting a lot happen in one sentence. Because Rylant's main point in the story is for the relatives to meet and have a great time, she gets the whole trip in one sentence and gets those relatives to their destination quickly. Now Rylant is ready to tell their relative’s adventures.
Cynthia Rylant uses this technique again in her young adult novel I HAD SEEN CASTLES. John Dante is a soldier during the Second World War. When the war ends, he is ready to come home. Rylant puts the entire outcome of the war in one sentence.
"After the war ended, America made Germany its friend, Russia its enemy, and it helped rebuild Japan."
This time instead of connecting “and's”, she uses commas. In only a single sentence, she has saved many words. She would have used a page to describe what happened to Germany, Russia and Japan after the war. Rylant is making a long story short by using a single sentence instead of three pages.
***
I use this technique a lot in my own writing. On my manuscript in progress about the Salvadoran archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, I tell the story on how Romero became a hero and martyr for the Salvadoran community. The first pages of the story are about Romero as a child and his return from Rome to El Salvador as a young priest. Romero went through many steps in order to become an archbishop but I did not have the time to go over every single step in detail. I put everything together in one single sentence:
"First, Oscar was a priest, then an auxiliary bishop, then a bishop, and finally on February 10, 1977, he became the new archbishop of El Salvador."
Now I was ready to continue with my story.
The same technique came to the rescue on my forthcoming picture book MY SHOES AND I, illustrations by Fabricio Vanden Broeck, (BOYDS MILLS PRESS/ FRONT STREET, 2009). MY SHOES AND I is about a boy crossing three borders in order to arrive to the United States. There is a great connection between the boy and his shoes, and this connection is the heart of the story. But how was I able to put a long trip into the pages of a picture book? You guessed it. I used MAKING A LONG STORY SHORT.
"A bus, a sandwich, the first border, another bus and another sandwich, we are in Guatemala City."
I used MAKING A LONG STORY SHORT two more times in the book and in no time at all,
My young protagonist was ready to cross the last border.
By using this technique, I can save many words. I can concentrate in what is the most important event in my story and summarize in a single sentence what it is not so relevant. The trick is to put everything in one sentence that compresses time and detail.
I hope you can you this technique on your own writing.
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
New year, expectations & (in)certitudes
Michael Sedano
What is it about the winter holidays that I find myself reading desultory stuff, i.e. not chicana chicano novels? Last year I started the year with a review of an historical novel, Imperium, centered around my favorite Latino, the old Roman Cicero, plus a chapter from a creative non-fiction piece that didn't find a publisher.
December 07's year-ending novel was the less-than-satisfactory British thriller, Brian
Freemantle's The Namedropper. Freemantle normally produces reliably readable, engagingly plotted novels. His Charlie Muffin spy series held my attention for years. Charlie’s taken his sore feet and brown shoes into anti-hero retirement. Now Freemantle brings a true antihero in Harvey Jordan, an identity thief who rips off rich guys. Harvey is a despicable character whose malevolence marks him as one of the bad guys. Yet, Freemantle has the reader rooting for Harvey to stick it to an even bigger jerk, a slimy Wall Street broker.
I almost set down the novel several times, owing to crummy proofing and a poor design that makes me claustrophobic yearning for white space. Think inkhornist and pages that smell of the lamp. Yet there's something engaging, even compelling, in a story built around the quaint concept of "criminal conversation," a euphemism for adultery, and the emotional wringer the crooked Brit Harvey is put through by North Carolina's divorce laws. Freemantle never quite gets United States English right--another editing flaw--but all told, The Namedropper's an engaging courtroom thriller and cockeyed love story worth a visit to the library. I hope your holiday reading was more profitable for you.
It's a pleasure to announce our 2008 La Bloga experience is broadening with Ann Hagman Cardinal, our recent guest columnist, beginning her every-other-Sunday regular spot on January 6, which is Three Kings Day. Ann's column features a tasty Three King's Day libation you're gonna read and want to put into your own cup, I'm sure.
Speaking of recipes, among my favorite holiday treats is Cajeta de Membrillo. Quince is a wonderful but underappreciated fruit that suffers in comparison to apples and pears, both of which it resembles. Membrillo comes off the tree fuzzy and sticky, aromatic, bitter, and hard as a rock. But add sugar, heat, patience, and Uau! Cajeta de Membrillo becomes an unforgettable confection. I gave tiny chunks to my year old granddaughter Charlotte and she wanted more. Welcome to the ranks of membrillo lovers, Charlotte! One day we'll put up a batch together.
I posted the full recipe at Read! Raza. Here's a quick look at the details:
Step 1: Get your hands on the fruit. My family grows it, but some seasons the tree is less productive.
Step 2: Clean, cook, peel, core. This year I made a flavorful agua de membrillo from the peel and core, in the offal spirit of chicano cooking: everything but the squeal.
Step 3: Add sugar and cook for hours and hours
under high heat and constant stirring until the cajeta is just right.
Step 4: Test the cajeta and if it's not just right, cook it some more. If it is just right, let it sit in an oven or the sun to dry it out and let the paste turn into a toothy treat.
Step 5: Cut into rectangles and eat out of hand, or heat a quality tortilla and wrap it around a hunk of membrillo for an instant empanada sin pan. Use a tortilla de maíz and this is a completely gluten-free treat that Celiacs will find completely palatable. Use a tortilla de harina or a slice of wheat-based bread and make me jealous.
Agua de Membrillo. What a treat this is; the hit of any tamalada, especially for the kidlets and the tea-totallers. Save the peel and cores and the water you boiled the raw membrillo. Add a few sticks of canela and the lime you squeezed over the fruit to keep it from oxydizing. Add a little sugar and water to fill a big pot. Boil the heck out of it. Strain. Serve warm or chilled. Absochingaolutely delicious!
Do check out the full cajeta process description at Read! Raza and let me know if you have questions.
La Bloga's "old" regulars look forward to welcoming Ann Cardinal as the new La Bloga Bloguera. La Bloga welcomes your comments and guest column ideas. Email one of us and let us know of your interest.
So it goes, the first Tuesday of 2008. And, since I didn't receive any novels or poetry collections for Xmas, I'm open to sharing titles or volumes. Leave a comment with your recommendations, promises, or comments on comida chicana and cooking generally.
See you next week!
mvs
What is it about the winter holidays that I find myself reading desultory stuff, i.e. not chicana chicano novels? Last year I started the year with a review of an historical novel, Imperium, centered around my favorite Latino, the old Roman Cicero, plus a chapter from a creative non-fiction piece that didn't find a publisher.
December 07's year-ending novel was the less-than-satisfactory British thriller, Brian
Freemantle's The Namedropper. Freemantle normally produces reliably readable, engagingly plotted novels. His Charlie Muffin spy series held my attention for years. Charlie’s taken his sore feet and brown shoes into anti-hero retirement. Now Freemantle brings a true antihero in Harvey Jordan, an identity thief who rips off rich guys. Harvey is a despicable character whose malevolence marks him as one of the bad guys. Yet, Freemantle has the reader rooting for Harvey to stick it to an even bigger jerk, a slimy Wall Street broker.I almost set down the novel several times, owing to crummy proofing and a poor design that makes me claustrophobic yearning for white space. Think inkhornist and pages that smell of the lamp. Yet there's something engaging, even compelling, in a story built around the quaint concept of "criminal conversation," a euphemism for adultery, and the emotional wringer the crooked Brit Harvey is put through by North Carolina's divorce laws. Freemantle never quite gets United States English right--another editing flaw--but all told, The Namedropper's an engaging courtroom thriller and cockeyed love story worth a visit to the library. I hope your holiday reading was more profitable for you.
It's a pleasure to announce our 2008 La Bloga experience is broadening with Ann Hagman Cardinal, our recent guest columnist, beginning her every-other-Sunday regular spot on January 6, which is Three Kings Day. Ann's column features a tasty Three King's Day libation you're gonna read and want to put into your own cup, I'm sure.
Speaking of recipes, among my favorite holiday treats is Cajeta de Membrillo. Quince is a wonderful but underappreciated fruit that suffers in comparison to apples and pears, both of which it resembles. Membrillo comes off the tree fuzzy and sticky, aromatic, bitter, and hard as a rock. But add sugar, heat, patience, and Uau! Cajeta de Membrillo becomes an unforgettable confection. I gave tiny chunks to my year old granddaughter Charlotte and she wanted more. Welcome to the ranks of membrillo lovers, Charlotte! One day we'll put up a batch together.
I posted the full recipe at Read! Raza. Here's a quick look at the details:
Step 1: Get your hands on the fruit. My family grows it, but some seasons the tree is less productive.
Step 2: Clean, cook, peel, core. This year I made a flavorful agua de membrillo from the peel and core, in the offal spirit of chicano cooking: everything but the squeal.Step 3: Add sugar and cook for hours and hours
under high heat and constant stirring until the cajeta is just right.Step 4: Test the cajeta and if it's not just right, cook it some more. If it is just right, let it sit in an oven or the sun to dry it out and let the paste turn into a toothy treat.
Step 5: Cut into rectangles and eat out of hand, or heat a quality tortilla and wrap it around a hunk of membrillo for an instant empanada sin pan. Use a tortilla de maíz and this is a completely gluten-free treat that Celiacs will find completely palatable. Use a tortilla de harina or a slice of wheat-based bread and make me jealous.
Agua de Membrillo. What a treat this is; the hit of any tamalada, especially for the kidlets and the tea-totallers. Save the peel and cores and the water you boiled the raw membrillo. Add a few sticks of canela and the lime you squeezed over the fruit to keep it from oxydizing. Add a little sugar and water to fill a big pot. Boil the heck out of it. Strain. Serve warm or chilled. Absochingaolutely delicious!
Do check out the full cajeta process description at Read! Raza and let me know if you have questions.
La Bloga's "old" regulars look forward to welcoming Ann Cardinal as the new La Bloga Bloguera. La Bloga welcomes your comments and guest column ideas. Email one of us and let us know of your interest.
So it goes, the first Tuesday of 2008. And, since I didn't receive any novels or poetry collections for Xmas, I'm open to sharing titles or volumes. Leave a comment with your recommendations, promises, or comments on comida chicana and cooking generally.
See you next week!
mvs
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