La Bloga

Interview with Emanuel Xavier

2009-07-06T00:01:00.007-06:00

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Emanuel Xavier is the author of the poetry collection Americano, editor of Bullets & Butterflies: Queer Spoken Word Poetry and Mariposas: A Modern Anthology of Queer Latino Poetry. He also selected finalists for Best Gay Erotica 2008. The tenth anniversary revised edition of his novel, Christ Like, was recently published by Queer Mojo and is (hopefully) available at LGBTQ bookstores everywhere.

Regarding Emanuel's novel, Christ Like, the publisher says: "Mikey is a spirited but self-destructive survivor of sexual abuse, a gay Latino native New Yorker caught somewhere between Catholic guilt and club kid decadence looking to fit in as part of a family. Instead, Mikey delves into a demimonde of petty thieves, prostitutes, and pushers. Haunted by a father that Mikey has never met, a difficult childhood, recurring nightmares, the reality of death, and Christ, the story unfolds through the '80s and '90s following him on his journey through a fascinating world filled with Santeros, transsexuals and voguing queens."

Emanuel kindly agreed to answer a few questions for La Bloga:

DANIEL OLIVAS: Have you noticed a change or evolution in LGBTQ literature during the last decade since "Christ Like" was first published? If so, how has it changed or evolved?

EMANUEL XAVIER: There have been many changes in LGBTQ literature in the past decade for better and for worse. On the one hand, more people take advantage of purchasing their books over the internet, which has made titles available on a larger scale and more accessible for those who feel uncomfortable shopping for an LGBTQ title at a bookstore. However, this and the major chains have also caused the unfortunate demise of many queer bookshops. Unless you have the fan base of an Augusten Burroughs or your book is published by a major publishing house, chain bookstores will not bother carrying a single copy of most independently published queer titles while still ordering several quantities of others, which end up on the remainder bin. Therefore, on the one hand, there is more opportunity to reach a wider audience on questionably LGBTQ supportive sites such as Amazon and on the other hand, there is less visibility on actual bookshelves. The few queer bookshops that still exist throughout the country are genuine gems to our community, which should be supported as much as possible.

OLIVAS: The novelist Michael Nava has noted in interviews the tension between his identities as a Latino writer vs. his identity as a Gay writer. Such tension usually comes from straight Chicano/Latino writers' less than accepting attitude toward LGBTQ writers, though this seems to be changing. What has been your experience?

XAVIER: My own personal publishing experience would have me believe that I will never achieve the level of success of my fellow Latino literary peers and contemporaries because my queer identity creates unfortunate limits. I agree with Michael that it is more of a challenge for us because there continues to be much homophobia within the Latino community so it is difficult to reach that audience. However, I sometimes get letters and emails from straight male Latino fans that could care less about my sexuality and relate to my work as a writer. I have had strange occurrences like being asked for permission to reprint one of my poems in a newsletter for The Almighty Latin King & Queen Nation, being invited to perform for inmates at Riker’s Island Prison and even appearing on Russell Simmons presents Def Poetry. I think those that are secure enough in their masculinity and genuinely cool enough to accept the differences in people appreciate and enjoy a better sense of humanity. It is important for writers like Michael Nava and so many others, like me, to continue sharing our experiences and expressing ourselves as writers because it is the only way we could tear down these boundaries and share in our universality. Some of my poetry is political and cultural and not all of my work is queer specific but, as an openly queer artist, I occasionally wonder what it would be like to be a closeted Latino writer. I suppose I will never know the answer to that but I imagine it difficult trying to come across as something that you are not.

OLIVAS: What was your inspiration for creating the character of Mikey? Would you write a different novel today if you were to approach Mikey in 2009?

XAVIER: By my own admission, there is a lot of myself in Mikey X. The tenth anniversary edition is edited as more of a memoir but remains a fiction novel. If I wrote the novel today, it would probably be approached differently because I have had more experiences in life that have provided me with more opportunity to reflect on who I was back then. Originally, I wrote this book to come to terms with the mistakes I had made in life and make some sort of sense of them. I learned a lot about myself through this publication. Ten years later, it is nice to be able to look back and laugh at myself. However, I chose not to revise it too much for this publication because it is who I was as a writer at the time and it is, after all, Mikey’s story so I wanted to keep the language authentic to the character.

OLIVAS: Can you describe some of your more memorable experiences (good or bad) doing public readings of "Christ Like"?

XAVIER: It is a bit of a challenge for me because most of my career has been as a spoken word poet. It’s different reading a series of poems, which are often political, and reading excerpts from a novel with the purpose of selling the book to an audience. You have to select scenes that stand on their own or establish the characters, which is unlike reading a poem that has its own beginning and end. I naturally prefer to do reading events as a spoken word poet but I’ve been having fun sharing excerpts from the novel which have a lot of dialogue which I could play with and act out for the audience, if not my own entertainment. A lot of the novel is very dark and depressing so it’s humorous for me to read excerpts with a lot of Spanish dialogue. I don’t always bother to translate because I think the non-Spanish speaking audience members understand from my gestures and tone of voice what that character is trying to say. If they don’t, it’s amusing to look out and see the expressions on their faces. It’s so wrong but it’s funny because it’s true.

OLIVAS: Are you working on any new projects?

XAVIER: I am collaborating with producer El David on a compilation CD featuring my spoken word poetry accompanied by music. Many people have approached me about doing this throughout the years but, coincidentally, it took one of those cool straight guys (and former member of the Latin Kings) to make it happen. However, to maintain my pseudo reputation as a rebellious queer writer living on the edge, I also have a new poetry collection coming out from Floricanto Press before the end of the year appropriately titled (ahem) - If Jesus Were Gay & other poems. We’ll see if Barnes & Noble carries that one!

[Photo Credit: Shirley Miranda-Rodriguez, Somos Arte, 2009, http://www.somosarte.com/.]

◙ Rigoberto González, an award-winning writer living in New York City, reviews for the El Paso Times Helena Mesa's debut collection of poems, Horse Dance Underwater (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, $15.95 paperback). He notes, in part:

Horse Dance Underwater, with its strange and magical title, contemplates and celebrates "the moment before it's gone," because before an event locks itself into the immobility of memory or the past, it thrives with possibility.

Though fire and water dominate the imagery, neither can exist without oxygen -- that is, without breath or pause. And in Mesa's poetics, each of these moments opens up into a world of making sense of "what is, what was" and what can be: "leaves raise their silver hems / to walk though puddles not yet formed."

You may read the entire review here.

◙ A new online literary journal, The Coachella Review, is now live. Aside from having tasty literary treats such as an interview with Billy Collins, the editors have been kind enough to publish one of my sudden fictions entitled, Orange Line. If you have a few minutes, drop in, read (and hopefully enjoy) my story, and leave a comment under it, just so they know people are reading. Also, consider submitting your fiction, non-fiction and poetry.

◙ The 25 Most Influential GLBT Latinos were recently named by Mi Apogeo (My Latino Voice). Antonio Gonzalez writes:

Who are the top movers and shakers in the gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans American Latino community?

We tried to make our list as comprehensive as possible including suggestions from different editors in the office as well as some polling of our dearest blogger friends. That said, we probably missed someone. The good news is, we make lists like this all the time -- See our 7 LGBT bloggers to watch -- so, there's a solid chance that your nominee will be included in an upcoming list. Names are listed in alphabetical order by last name. The numbers do not represent a ranking order or countdown.

Included in this list are more than a few writers. Here are their listings:

4. Nilo Cruz, Playwright: Nilo Cruz was the first Latino to win a Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2003 for his play Anna in The Tropics. The play was later adapted for Broadway with Jimmy Smitts in the lead role. That version of the play was nominated for Tony Award in 2004.

9. Rigoberto Gonzalez, Author/Critic: Gonzalez (pictured) is an award-winning author of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and bilingual children's books, and self-identifies in his writing as a gay Chicano. He is also contributing editor for Poets & Writers Magazine, an executive board member of the National Book Critics Circle, and is on the Advisory Circle of Con Tinta, a collective of Chicano/Latino activist-writers.

15. Himilce Novas, Author/Activist: Novas has worked as a journalist, magazine editor and publicist for Vanidades, The New York Times, The Connoisseur, and The Christian Science Monitor. As a human rights activist, Novas was a founding member of the National Organization for Women. She continues to work on behalf of women and those in the GBLT community and was featured in the book Feminists Who Changed America.

25. Emanuel Xavier, Poet: He transitioned himself from being a street hustler and a drug dealer to become one of the most significant and unlikely voices to emerge from the neo-Nuyorican spoken word movement using political, sexual and religious themes throughout his work.

Read the entire list here.

◙ That’s all for now. So, in the meantime, enjoy the intervening posts from mis compadres y comadres here on La Bloga. And remember: ¡Lea un libro!

Book winners, finally!

2009-07-05T07:08:00.005-06:00

Okay, this is a day late, but after some thought, much beer and a little coin tossing, we have the winners of the Drollerie Press Ebook anthology Needles & Bones that includes my Chicano fantasy story Memorabilia.

The original contest rules were to "compose a synopsis of what a book entitled Agujas & Huesos (needles & bones) might be about. 'Best' synopsis wins."

N.G. Rodriguez submitted: "No podia ser de otra manera. Con cara de preocupación les ordeno que le trajeran media docena de agujas, (una por cada extremidad mas una extra), y un rollo de hilo blanco. Abrieron ataúd, y Don Jose se dio a la tarea de ligar los huesos como si remendara un pantalón roto. Eran las cinco de la tarde, y hacia calor. Observando el desorden en se encontraban los huesos pensó que antes de las tres de la madrugada habría terminado de hilar el esqueleto de Domingo Rosas, eso suponiendo que no faltara ninguna pieza."

Blogger Artful Chica submitted: The dreams came in spurts, sometimes leaving Ofelia paralyzed and disoriented. She would wake up screaming and flailing at things that didn't exist. "Mama what are we going to do?"
"Go get your Abuela and hurry." Nana came running with her little black bag. Just as the old Indian woman unfurled a piece of ancient cloth that held a needle and bones. Ofelia sat straight up and screamed CHANECO!

Since I couldn't decide which was "better", both submitters win.

The following week I changed the rules to:
"Submit the names of three of Ramos's novels, spelled correctly, and I will randomly draw the name of one winner."

Out of the submissions--and here's where the coin tossing came in--the winner is . . . (insert drumroll here): Pati!

Since I don't know if I can get three copies of Needles & Bones, I'm going to see if one of the U.S. winners will accept a copy of Latinos in Lotusland instead. (Autographed by myself and Ramos, who also has a story in it.)

One encouraging thing to read in the readers' submissions was the following:
""LOVE the Blog...
"*Love, love, love* the blog as well!!!"
"Love the blog!"

We probably get more direct E-mails from readers telling us what they like (or don't) than we do Comments on the site. Maybe gente just prefer to give that personal touch, but I think I speak for all La Bloga Contributors who make this site what it is when I say that we love all feedback, but especialmente feedback left in the Comments section.

Lastly, you've only got one more week to get in on winning one of the five copies of The Disappearance of Irene Dos Santos by Margaret Mascarenhas that will be provided by the Hachette Book Group. Go here for details.

Speaking of contests

Mario Acevedo, another Denverite, of vampire novel fame, is running a really stupid contest called "Man, was I dumbass!" Here's the rules:

"The contest, in 75 words or less: Man, was I dumbass! Post your submission as a comment. The contest will be judged by our panel of crack contest judges in India. (Yes, in order to reduce costs, Biting-Edge has off-shored our contest judging.) Submissions will be graded on originality, spelling, and of course, the all important dumbassness. Contest decision will be final and not subject to appeal or bribery or complaining. Contest ends Midnight, Thursday, July 16, 2009."

He's even giving away prizes, but you're going to have to do better than Mario's testament. For more details go to The Biting Edge.

4th of July

For a different take on this 4th, go to Sedano's piece.

Es todo,
RudyG

Living things from two "deserts"

2009-07-03T01:51:00.000-06:00

Why grow cactus in Colorado?

Since Manuel Ramos (who assumedly will be back next week) left no protocols on what I should post in his usual Friday spot, I'm sharing photos of two deserts.

The first set is in my Denver front yard, although with the Portlandish monsoons of recent weeks, it appears more like selva than llano.

The set that follows is from my cousin Annette's yard in Phoenix. She's posted articles on La Bloga about our family and other topics, and may again(?).

Plants have obsessed me for more than the month I've spent weeding and pruning, apparently with no end in sight because it's supposed to rain heavily again over the weekend. Anyway . . .

I never been able to remember the names, neither scientific nor common, of all the varieties I've got. (If you're interested in such, use this site to try identifying cacti.) I sometimes classify them in terms of color. It's also useful, and important, to remember their classification in terms of their espinas. This one doesn't have the nastiest spines, which means I don't cry for my mom when I get stuck by one. I just . . .

These are the first type I ever grew and are the rose-colored. Again, their spines don't draw that much blood. As for why I grow these, Denver is normally an arid state--pretty, but with little precipitation (excluding the next 2,000 years of global warming). Clay, instead of dirt, sits under our yards and isn't conducive to anything green that requires regular watering. Over time, like fifteen minutes, it compacts down into medium-grade concrete. But prairie grass, buffalo grass, yuccas and cacti thrive . . .

This is a type of fat barrel cactus that I only have one of. This is its actual pinkness: swear I didn't Photoshop it. Many of these flowers only last one day. The largest type that are a good foot high I decided not to put into this post for fear the cactus bandits might be enticed to pay a midnight visit to my desert . . .

This one likes to spread itself, traveling wherever I haven't put stones in its path. Its white espinas aren't just a pretty face. They're mean enough to make even a Denver cop put his baton away. And it's obviously known as the . . .

Lastly, come what are definitely chollas. It's difficult to distinguish, given their growth this year, but there's two on the sides from El Paso--part of my Uncle Jess's legacy--and one in the middle that is a Colorado cholla. I've also got another one that's six-foot tall, but its flowers pale in numbers compared to these smaller ones.

This year the chollas flowered much later than usual, which I also attribute to the extended cold and wet. Nor have they ever all bloomed together, at least not to this extent. You might recognize these from some of Ramos's photos of the same. I snuck into his yard late one night. . .

Global warming may eliminate homo and hetero sapiens from contention, but it appears that along with the cucarachas, cactus, at least cholla, may prevail.

Like selling cactus in the desert

Now we come to my cousin's front yard. Sure, hers are bigger, but how hard could it be to raise saguaros where daytime temps get to 110? This hovel is not her house, but the photo was taken nearby. As you can see, the neighbors aren't very good about watering their lawn. Reminds me of someone down the block. . .

There seemed to be a lot of animals around, birds too, usually moving too quickly for me to take a photo. These two are the best I could do. The javelinas I saw one morning across the street when I went out to get the morning paper didn't wait long enough for the camera. Take my word for it though, they were serious mero meros of the desert.

Two forms of wildlife posing in the inevitable tourist photo. I had to take one, no? This is of an Arizona cactus and one from Colorado. (In case you're wondering, yes, I did ask the barrel if he'd allow me to take his photo.) The taller one is my wife Carmen. If she doesn't look that tough, you try hugging a barrel cactus, even a willing one, and see if your sunglasses stay put.

This little beauty was anything but little. Would you believe I took this shot from fifty feet away and that the thing's got three climate zones? I didn't think so.

I've got about fifteen varieties of cacti throughout my front yard. I've got opuntia, I've got yucca, I've got echinocereus, but none can compare to the saguaro. How could they? The saguaro stand, hell, they thrust themselves, above the sand as if they know the javelinas don't amount to a pig in a poke. They may not have three climate zones, but they probably could if they wanted to. For some reason they've allowed people, including my cousin, to live amongst them. At least for now. If you get to Phoenix, stop to see the plant life, not at her place but at the Desert Botanical Gardens. Warning! Afterward, you too may tear out the water-hungry grass in your yard.

RudyG

N.B.: Tomorrow's the last day to enter to win an Ebook copy of the Drollerie Press's latest anthology Needles & Bones that has a story of mine entitled Memorabilia. It's easy to win, but you do have to enter.

Reading Algarín

2009-07-02T10:45:00.003-06:00

I just finished reading "Survival/Supervivencia," the Miguel Algarín anthology recently published by Arte Público. It chronicles his more than 35 years of literary activism in prose and poetry, describing in a new language of "raw verbs and nouns" the Nuyorican experience, naked and luminous.

I came upon Algarín's poetry by chance, some 15 years ago in Austin, in a second-hand bookstore on the Drag (the Gwa-da-loop). Reportedly misshelved under "Caribbean writers," I found a volume titled "Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Café". I opened it at random, as Unamuno used to do with the Bible, and found the following words: "CONGRATULATIONS: YOU HAVE FOUND THE HIDDEN BOOK." How could I stop reading? Especially as it assured me that I would not have to bother reading the book... "It will read to you," it said. So I moved stacks of books piled high on the floor and sat down to let it read to me...

For the first time I heard the story of the Piñero's death and the scattering of ashes, some years before its Hollywood moment. I heard the poem "Sunday, August 11, 1974" peaceful, joyful, celebratory. A true call for independence. I was enthralled. And also pissed off.

You see, after 12 years of school in Puerto Rico and many others of undergraduate and graduate work in the US in the field of Latin American literature, I'd never been formally introduced to Algarín's work and the questions it so forcefully raised. Soon after my chance encounter with his poetry, I discovered that Nuyorican poetry was indeed taught and discussed in many schools and universities, just not in Puerto Rico and certainly not as pertaining to Puertorrican literature. I hear this has changed drastically in the past decade. Yet, although Nuyorican poets are beginning to appear in dictionaries of Puertorrican literature, there's still great resistance on the island to recognizing their work as part of, or at least related to, Puertorrican literature. This reticence, I believe, is mostly owing to language. Many independentistas on the island seem to identify their goal with linguistic purity. (Never mind that the language they seek to keep from "foreign" contaminants is that of a former ruler...) Still, I find it odd that many independentistas should persist obstinately in advocating, through practice and exclusion, an anachronistic purity of language--and if you've watched a certain TV program dedicated to cultural matters, you'll know what I'm talking about--when, in my humble opinion, such linguistic snobbery has made them deaf to the solidarity of those across the pond who champion their very cause, yet, in a hybrid, real, and always-new language.

But, anyway, back to the anthology, it's a jewel. Just this time, do judge the book by its cover: a vibrant photo of the poet with his eyes closed, mouth wide open, laughing? crying? yelling? As his poems will read to you: all of the above!

Sundays on Fourth Street/ Los domingos en la calle Cuatro

2009-07-01T01:20:00.002-06:00

Written by Amy Costales

Illustrated by Elaine Jerome

*Reading level: Ages 4-8
*Hardcover: 32 pages
*Publisher: Piñata Books/Arte Público Press (October 2009)
*Language: Bilingual English/Spanish
*ISBN-13: 978-1-55885-520-5

My cousin Pepe combs my hair back just like his, and Aunt Pilar laughs. Then she slides her red lipstick across my lips, but Mamá wipes it off because I’m too young. Mamá puts on her new jeans, and Aunt Pilar polishes her high heels. Uncle Armando finishes washing his old car.

Thus begins a family’s journey to Fourth Street. A little girl and her two cousins eat mangos, long for new boots, ride the carousel, get hair cuts and buy groceries on a family excursion to the center of Santa Ana, California. The cousins enjoy treats, a loving family and lots of excitement, even if nobody gets new boots. The journey ends with the sleepy girl’s last thoughts as she is being tucked into bed next to her cousins:

I know that once I outgrow my boots, I may not get the red ones with the fringe and the silver tips. I know that I may not get a new bike. But what I do have is an uncle who will carry me and my sleepy cousins to bed. I have an aunt who lets me pretend to be grown-up. I have a mother who tells me stories at night. And I have my cousins Pepe and Edgar beside me to share every Sunday on Fourth Street.

From the author:

Several years ago, when I sent my first manuscript to a publisher, I got a hand-written note, suggesting I write a story about Día de Los Muertos or Cinco de Mayo. Hungry for an acceptance letter, I really tried to write those books, but it didn’t work. Those weren’t the stories in my heart. I wanted to write about every day, not holidays. My efforts of write a story about my dead grandmother turned into my second book, Abuelita Full of Life. As for the Cinco de Mayo book, well, I set it in Santa Ana, but I couldn’t get away from memories of my daughter and her two cousins on Sunday excursions to Fourth Street. I ended up celebrating, not a holiday, but two things important to me; extended family and every day life on Fourth Street. It was bitter-sweet writing this book. My nephews, who spent almost their whole lives in California, had just been deported to Mexico. Edgar is working with his dad near Toluca, Pepe is in university in Tampico, and Kelsey is in university in Oregon.

From the publisher:

A young girl enjoys her family's weekly trip to Fourth Street, where she and her cousins eat mangos and tacos, look at clothes and shoes, watch all the people on the busy street and take care of such chores as haircuts and grocery shopping.

Based on real-life visits to Fourth Street in Santa Ana, California, author Amy Costales has written a story that pays homage to a special street and—more importantly—time spent with loved ones. Paired with Elaine Jerome’s colorful illustrations that depict lively street scenes, readers of all ages will enjoy Sundays on Fourth Street.

Amy Costales grew up in Spain and on the U.S.-Mexico border. She has taught Spanish in California, Thailand, India and Oregon and completed an M.A. in Spanish literature at the University of Oregon. Her daughter Kelsey and nephews Pepe and Edgar spent many Sundays of their childhood on Fourth Street in Santa Ana, California. After spending most of their lives in California, Pepe and Edgar were deported to Mexico with their parents. Kelsey and her cousins are separated by the border, but memories of Fourth Street live on. Today Amy lives in Eugene, Oregon, with her family. This is her fourth picture book. To learn more about the author, visit www.amycostales.com

Elaine Jerome grew up with a love of travel after living in both Hong Kong and New York as a child. She has a background in both art and science, and finds illustrating for children a field that unifies her past experiences. She is the illustrator of The Woodcutter's Gift / El regalo del leñador (Piñata Books, 2007). Elaine currently resides in Lake Tahoe, where she and her husband enjoy snowboarding together. To see more of Elaine's work, visit www.jeromeillustration.com.

Review: The World In Half.

2009-06-30T00:01:00.006-06:00

Cristina Henríquez. The World In Half. NY: Riverhead Books, 2009.
ISBN 9781594488559

Michael Sedano

Cristina Henríquez’ The World In Half is a deceptively complex, deeply romantic novel that should be next on your summer reading list, and an ideal choice for book groups who enjoy a rich discussion that balances decisions looked back on from middle age against possibilities open only to youth.

Deceptive because on its surface it recounts a naïve young woman’s search for an absent father whose identity has been a closely guarded secret by a steely, abrasive mother. Complex because the still-young mother’s mind has begun to fail under the merciless attack of Alzheimer’s Disease. As mother’s memory fades, the daughter fears what her own future health may bring, the total loss of her mother, and along with that, all connection to the mystery of her father.

Miraflores Reid, “Mira,” a University of Chicago scholarship student majoring in Geology, knows only that her mother lived in Panama with her husband, a Marine stationed in the Zone, where she conceived the child with an unnamed local. The pregnant woman returned to New York to live with her family near West Point, where Catherine Reid’s father taught. Mira wonders how difficult the pregnancy and birth must have been in that small-minded military town. Catherine is white. Was Gatún black? Danilo has “brown” skin, and Mira may “look” Puerto Rican, or like a local of whom Panameño travelers ask directions.

Escaping that life, Catherine takes her child to Chicago where she works a series of survival jobs as waitress, pizza delivery, receptionist. Mother keeps a wall between herself and the social world, treating others abruptly and welcoming little humor or flirtation into her privacy. Mira carries herself similarly, but this may simply reflect her nerdly scientific bent.

Much of the mother’s personality emerges over the course of the story. Early in the novel, as Mira is organizing her mother’s property, she comes across a box of letters her father mailed to the woman who abandoned him. Mira’s mother led the daughter to believe the man had no interest in either of them. The letters open Mira to a poetic and broken heart whose longing for a daughter and fugitive lover cries off the pages.

The letters provide two vital clues to help Mira unravel the mystery. A name, Gatún Gallardo, and an address in Panama. With these, the desperate young woman launches herself on an ill-planned, desperate quest to recover the facts of her own birth and reconnect with the heart-broken man. Fortunately for Miraflores, her mother has enrolled the child in Spanish language classes and, as a Spanish minor, she has superb bilingual skills.

Arriving in Panamá--note the diacritic, an authorial denotation that the English-language narrative is taking place in the local idiom—Mira makes friends with Hernán, a hotel bellman, and his nephew Danilo, an ambulante flower seller. Hernán invites Mira to move into their home while Danilo helps Mira track down the clues leading to her father. Danilo warms to the task of tour guide and intercultural informant.

Mira is a guileless virgin and would be easy prey for a womanizing school dropout like Danilo. But he wants to be her friend. In fact, the most serious crisis in their relationship occurs when, nearing the end of her stay, a drunk Mira caresses her host in a late-night conversation. He bolts and she spends the next day tracking him down instead of tracking down clues to her still-unreachable father.

Danilo looks into Mira’s heart and fears, and draws them out in conversation. On the surface, they talk of her fears that Alzheimer’s will strike Mira young, as it has her mother. On a different level is the parallel of Catherine coming to Panama to find a man, and here is the daughter, come to Panama and finding a man. The mother, nineteen years earlier, had returned home pregnant. Now here is the fruitless frustration Mira experiences of not finding any trace of her mother’s lover, even as Danilo unwittingly draws Mira’s affection toward himself.

The canal across the isthmus cut the world in half. That is what the laborers who dug the waterway used to say. Alzheimer’s is cutting Catherine and Mira’s world in half, as their personalities do in their social world. Mira stands astride both halves, her parental history on the one side, her own future on the other. How much will history repeat itself, will Mira make the same errors her mother has, abandoning love in Panama to a bitter life of denial in Chicago? Adding complexity to themes of choice and circumstance, Danilo’s story echoes Mira’s. He’s been abandoned by his parents, a difference being he has their address and phone number but they never call. That story lurks in the background as we work through Mira’s story.

Henríquez draws a parallel between mother and daughter when Mira meets her father’s sister in a rich part of town. A box of letters Gatún Gallardo never mailed to Catherine fills in blanks missing from the letters Catherine closeted. Mira gets unreasonably angry that Hernán and Danilo knew and didn’t help until her stay was near its end. Unlike her mother, however, Mira lets it out, confronting Danilo angrily. He convinces her that friendship and love were the motive for what Hernán and Danilo suspected, only suspected. They believed it would be preferable to keep hope alive in Mira’s heart, rather than break it with a hard truth.

The World in Half tells a complex story that a casual summary can only hint at. Cristina Henríquez rewards her readers with compelling narrative and touching personal portraits of the city and residents. Much of the enjoyment of the romantic nature of the novel comes as the story unfolds, and to disclose details will spoil the pleasure of seeing it firsthand with your own eyes. One indication of this comes in the names. Both Miraflores and Gatún are names of locks on the canal. It’s not just that a lock allows the uniting of both halves of the world, but that Catherine, despite closing off her daughter’s life from her father’s, gave her daughter a name like her father's, one that foretells her quest to bring both worlds together.

As the novel ends, Catherine’s illness grows increasingly severe and dictates much of what must come next. But beyond a daughter’s responsibilities lie the choices Miraflores can make, but that Henríquez leaves open to delicious speculation. Your book group will enjoy discussing and accounting for what happened in Catherine’s life, more so the undefined what ifs that lie ahead for a young woman like Mira and a young man like Danilo.

There's the final Tuesday of June 2009. A Tuesday like any other Tuesday, except you are here. Thank you for visiting La Bloga. And a quick question, with Independence Day hard upon us. How many other countries have a fourth of July?

mvs

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Summer reading list

2009-06-29T00:01:00.009-06:00

For those of you who are planning a much-deserved vacation (or staycation), here are a few recent releases that will bring great enjoyment as you sit back and re-charge that internal battery. And if you have a few titles you want to recommend to La Bloga readers, post a comment below. Remember: be safe, have fun, use sun screen and: ¡Lea un libro!

Best of Contemporary Mexican Fiction (Dalkey Archive Press) edited by Álvaro Uribe; translation edited by Olivia Sears (hardcover and paperback)

From the publisher: Sixteen of Mexico's finest fiction writers born after 1945 are collected in this compelling bilingual anthology, offering a glimpse of the rich tapestry of Mexican fiction, from small-town dramas to tales of urban savagery. Many of these writers, and most of these stories, have never before appeared in English. Readers will meet an embalmed man positioned in front of the TV, a mariachi singer suffering from mediocrity, a man's lifelong imaginary friend, and the town prostitute whose funeral draws a crowd from the highest rungs of the social ladder. The writers that Mexican editor Álvaro Uribe selected for this volume are deeply engaged in the literary life of Mexico and include prominent editors, translators, columnists, professors, and even the young founder of a new publishing collective. Between them they have received dozens of prizes, from the Xavier Villaurrutia prize to Guggenheim fellowships and other international awards.

Praise: "It is a fine book for either those curious about current Mexican fiction or those simply in search of some good things to read." —Scott Esposito for The Quarterly Conversation (read whole review here)

Christ Like (Queer Mojo) by Emanuel Xavier (paperback)

From the publisher: Mikey is a spirited but self-destructive survivor of sexual abuse, a gay Latino native New Yorker caught somewhere between Catholic guilt and club kid decadence looking to fit in as part of a family. Instead, Mikey delves into a demimonde of petty thieves, prostitutes, and pushers. Haunted by a father that Mikey has never met, a difficult childhood, recurring nightmares, the reality of death, and Christ, the story unfolds through the '80s and '90s following him on his journey through a fascinating world filled with Santeros, transsexuals and voguing queens.

Praise: “Christ Like is the harrowing first novel by Emanuel Xavier. When it was first published ten years ago, it announced the arrival of a unique and important new voice among both gay and Latino/a writers. Ten years later, the novel retains its compelling power as it takes the reader on a jagged journey though the New York club scene; in theme and naked urgency, it may be justly compared to Dancer from the Dance and Last Exit to Brooklyn, but its heartbeat is puro latino.” —Michael Nava, author of The Little Death and Rag and Bone

Land of a Thousa n d Dances: Chi cano Rock 'n' Roll from Southern California (University of New Mexico Press) by David Reyes and Tom Waldman (paperback, revised edition)

From the publisher: Reyes and Waldman tell the stories of Chicano rock music in Southern California and the musicians who continue to make pop music with a Latin beat.

Praise: "It's fascinating to read this alternative history of pop music, as Land of a Thousand Dances offers a wealth of anecdotes, interviews, and facts that have never been so meticulously documented. The book helps fill one of the biggest gaps in the rock timeline, ensuring that rock 'n' roll's Chicano roots will not be forgotten." —A. V. Club

"Authors [David] Reyes and [Tom] Waldman give a flavorful overview of the ever-changing East L.A. scene. . . . They note that barrio culture, which so richly intertwines American and Mexican traditions, has given rise to groups who move through many different types of music with ease, as well as the type of fans who can appreciate them all." —Raza Report

La tinos and the Nation's Future (Arte Público Press) edited by Henry G. Cisneros (hardcover)

From the publisher: The outgrowth of a conference involving Latino leaders and exploring the impact of the dynamic growth of the Hispanic population in the U.S., Latinos and the Nation's Future contains essays by leading scholars, civil rights leaders and other professionals on issues impacting the advancement of Latino citizens—and therefore, all U.S. citizens. Contributors include Harry P. Pachón, Tamar Jacoby, Sarita E. Brown and Elena Ríos, M.D.

Although the future is never certain, it is inevitable that the Latino community is destined to shape the future of the United States, and Cisneros contends, it is imperative that Americans accept this fact and work to harness its growth, develop its educational potential, engage its community-building energies, and transform it into the next middle class.

Media coverage: Watch a panel discussion at Center for American Progress.

Postnationalism in Chicana/o Literature and Culture (University of Texas Press) by Ellie D. Hernández (hardcover)

From the publisher: In recent decades, Chicana/o literary and cultural productions have dramatically shifted from a nationalist movement that emphasized unity to one that openly celebrates diverse experiences. Charting this transformation, Postnationalism in Chicana/o Literature and Culture looks to the late 1970s, during a resurgence of global culture, as a crucial turning point whose reverberations in twenty-first-century late capitalism have been profound. Arguing for a post nationalism that documents the radical politics and aesthetic processes of the past while embracing contemporary cultural and sociopolitical expressions among Chicana/o peoples, Hernández links the multiple forces at play in these interactions. Reconfiguring text-based analysis, she looks at the comparative development of movements within women's rights and LGBTQI activist circles. Incorporating economic influences, this unique trajectory leads to a new conception of border studies as well, rethinking the effects of a restructured masculinity as a symbol of national cultural transformation. Ultimately positing that globalization has enhanced the emergence of new Chicana/o identities, Hernández cultivates important new understandings of borderlands identities and post nationalism itself.

Read an excerpt of the book.

Crazy Chicana in Catholic City: Poems (Ghost Road Press) by Juliana Aragón Fatula (paperback)

From the publisher: "Juliana Aragón Fatula is one of those rare poets who can grip the smoke of myth and pack it with her two hands into clay. She takes the largest subjects—the death of a parent, drug and alcohol abuse, even massacre and colonization—and transforms these into hats, lizards, coffee, pennies, bullets. She offers us the tiniest artifacts of the most beautiful, unthinkable human experiences. Here is a poet of great skill and resilience. Here is a master of the lyric of sorrows." —David Keplinger, author of The Prayers of Others

While Ramos is away, more books to giveaway!

2009-06-26T07:49:00.007-06:00

Built a contest, and they didn't come . . .

My attempt to give away a copy of the new Drollerie Press anthology, Needles & Bones, didn't produce a rush of contestants. It was supposed to officially end tomorrow, but I will invoke my right as contributor and extend it for one more week. Given that the original rules appear to have asked for too much, I'm changing those as well.

Since today's post replaces Manuel Ramos's usual wealth of literary fare, the new rules are simple: in the Comments below, submit the names of three of Ramos's novels, spelled correctly, and I will randomly draw the name of one winner. Contest ends (a la verdad) next Saturday, July 4th.

How 'bout a Latino book giveaway, instead?

While I'm in the mood to press my luck, Hachette Book Group has provided us with cinco--get that: 5!--copies of The Disappearance of Irene Dos Santos by Margaret Mascarenhas.

Here's a description of the book from the publisher's website:

"Irene dos Santos disappeared at age 15. Believed to have drowned while on holiday with her best friend, Lily Martinez, her body was never found. Now, years later, she appears ghostlike in Lily's dreams, prompting a quest for the truth behind her disappearance.

"Mysteriously, Lily, eight-months pregnant with her first child, slips and falls on the same day that the statue of Maria Lionza, Patron Saint of their Venezuelan town, cracks in two. Confined to her bed, Lily is surrounded by her family and closest friends, who agree that a Novena to Maria Lionza will guide the baby's spirit safely into the world.

"Together, through their nine nights of prayer, each offers a story to entertain Lily and her baby. What emerges is a vivid picture of Venezuela during a time of revolution and uncertainty and the unraveling of the mystery behind Irene dos Santos."

To avoid the errors of my last contest, the rules this time are much simpler: in the Comments below indicate the color of the female's dress (of the cover) and what country she's likely in. I'll randomly draw five winners from the correct entries, but they will have to provide us with a U.S. or Canadian address, not a P.O. box, to receive the prize. Contest ends July 11, 2009. (Wait to hear if you've won before providing your address.)

N.B.: for the only contestant so far in the Needles & Bones contest, even if she doesn't win that, I will send a special surprise for her effort to date.

Native American Joe Montoya Receives Award

And speaking of contests, from out Califas way come this news:
Calaca Press, the Red CalacArts Collective and Red Salmon Arts proudly announce that the winner of the First raúlrsalinas Guerrilla Chapbook Poetry Contest is New Mexico writer Vernon “Joe” Montoya.

In a close contest, judged by University of Minnesota Chicano Studies professor Louis G. Mendoza, Ph.D, Red Salmon Arts Executive Director Rene Valdez and Calaca Press publisher Brent E. Beltrán, Mr. Montoya edged out runner up Jonathan Gomez of East Los Angeles. By winning the first raúlrsalinas Guerrilla Chapbook Poetry Contest Joe Montoya will have his work published in chapbook form by Red CalacArts Publications and Red Salmon Press, receive 100 copies of the chapbook, a $500 honorarium and travel to and from book release readings in San Diego, California and Austin, Texas.

Joe Montoya’s poetry reflects the heartbreaking realities of life on the rez. Though pain and loss are a recurring theme his work also presents the beauty and joy of being Native in 21st century America. “We are proud to have him join our Calacaverse,” said Brent E. Beltrán of Calaca Press. “His voice is an important voice that needs to be shared with all.” Vernon “Joe” Montoya is a young Native American poet and short story writer born in Albuquerque, New Mexico and raised on the Santa Ana and San Felipe Pueblos. He was incarcerated on drug offenses and used his time in prison to read and write poetry. Joe has won several slam competitions and reads, lectures and teaches workshops in jails, prisons, juvenile facilities, middle and high schools. He is currently a student at the University of New Mexico and works with youth as a drug preventionist.

Calaca Press and Red Salmon Arts looks forward to publishing this talented young voice. The untitled chapbook will feature cover art by San Antonio, Texas artist Gerry Quetzatl Garcia. Stayed tuned for publication date and chapbook release reading information.

The raúlrsalinas Guerrilla Chapbook Poetry Contest was created to honor the lifework and interests of Xicanindio poet activist raúlrsalinas (1934-2008). By organizing this contest Calaca Press, the Red CalacArts Collective and Red Salmon Arts hope to inspire a new generation of activist writers to carry on the work of raúlrsalinas. The contest is supported in part by the Ford Foundation, JP Morgan Chase and Southwest Airlines through a grant from the NALAC Fund for the Arts. .

(Calaca Press is a Chicano family-owned small publishing house dedicated to publishing and producing unknown, emerging, and established progressive Chicano and Latino voices. With a commitment to social justice and human rights Calaca Press strives to bring about change through the literary arts.)

------------

Ramos is off vacationing or surfing or something somewhere out there, but will return in July. Should you have the luck to find him in your village or monastery, please share a bit of pan seco or sangria fria with him, as he has just come from Denver, which seems to have global-warmed into Portland's humid weather. It's rained or tornadoed for weeks now. Everything's growing, even the rocks, but it's all soggy here.

Es todo,
RudyG

Cristina Acosta: Luminous Work, Lasting Art

2009-06-25T00:01:00.007-06:00

Cristina Acosta

Guadalupe with Crown, the World is Her Heart

La Conquistadora/The Corn Maiden/Dine Spider Woman

Exhibit: Reshaping the Divine - Contemporary Hispanic Retablos Exploring the Divine Feminine

When: Summer 2009

Where: El Museo Cultural, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Click here to see this series of Hispanic Retablos.

This is quintessentially female, strong, sinous, visual art. It is a contemporary re-visioning of traditional retablo, hinting at the aesthetic of popular commercial artists like Laurel Burch, but containing a depth of spirit. There is a certain richness, an evanescence emanating from the figures portrayed.

Acosta has an ability to make a heart connection with the observer beyond the demands and trends of the marketplace, or the prevailing winds of "fine" art communities and critics. I find Acosta's work to be completely accessible, capitalizing and re-visioning icons from a metizo heritage, as well as feminist ideas of the female God-force.

She's also creative in the use of precious and mundane material in the creation of these retablos. In an in depth look at her site, piece after piece reveals she is truly a renaissance woman balancing comerciality with content and succeeding admirably.

Take a look at what Cristina herself has to say about her work:

Over the past twenty years, my series of Madonna retablos came to me in ebbs and flows via a series of powerful dreams. The dreams started during my pregnancy with my daughter. For the entire pregnancy I dreamt of being a woman on a journey north across dusty plains and through arroyos as I mostly walked behind an oxcart. The dreams ended in a room lit by a wooden candelabra filled with tallow candles and the birth of my daughter, Isabella Pilar in 1993.

I called these dreams my Maria Dreams because in the dreams, I/she was named Maria. Seeking the meaning of those dreams over the years brought me down a path I could never have imagined and deepened my understanding of my cultural heritage. Searching for the meaning of my Maria Dreams eventually lead me back to New Mexico, the land of my Ortiz ancestors.

My paternal grandmother, Catalina Maria Ortiz Acosta, born in 1904, was the daughter of J. Nestor Ortiz and Maria Elena Salazar, descendents of the original Spanish settlers founding the cities and villages throughout New Mexico. Researching my family genealogy (my grandmother spoke vaguely about her ancestors), I discovered that my direct ancestors had participated in the initial 16th and 17th century migrations of the Spanish, traveling North from Mexico City into the region that is now the State of New Mexico. I read books about the era and became fascinated by the types of experiences my female ancestors must have had while living on the New Mexican frontier for generations. With this research nurturing my experience of my personal history, my calling to paint Madonna’s began to take shape.

Born in Los Angeles to an Anglo mother and Hispanic father, early on I was aware of cultural concepts because of the differences between the two sides of my family. Despite their differences, Catholicism was the central theme for my parents. Celebrating their devotion resulted in religious images from the Americas and Europe scattered throughout our home and those of our relatives. Images of Mary the Mother of God as the Guadalupe, Conquistadora and many other versions were always present. Along with those images were displayed American Indian items from the Ortiz ranch.

The artifacts from the Ortiz family ranch consumed my imagination from as far back as I can remember. Handmade Indian blankets and pots, and even a gold menorah (referred to as a “candelabra” by my grandmother) made by Ortiz ancestors generations past (some of the men were renowned filigree gold smiths). Those as well as the chili ristras hanging in my grandmother’s kitchen hinted at another world far from the Southern California beach scene of my childhood home. For reasons I can’t sufficiently articulate, the mix of these images and experiences coalesced into my calling to visually explore and create new images of the Madonna as an expression of the feminine divine.

Each of the retablos I paint results in a new vision of the sacred. For example, painting La Conquistadora opened the door to re-balancing the dominant patriarchal and European view of the divine with the North American native and feminine. In La Conquistadora I layer symbols of the Dine Spider woman and the Puebloan Corn Maiden, seeking to blend the indigenous ancient female images and concepts harmoniously with the Catholic image of Mary. The result is a Madonna that hints of ancient goddesses many thousands of years old at the same time she conveys the current blend of cultures in the Southwest.

I create my work in the traditions of the Spanish/Mexican retablo to reinforce my expression of reverence and convey the intimate experience of sacredness. I find antique, reclaimed timbers for the substrate. I mix gold, silver and copper metals into my oil paintings to both embellish the image and in homage to the gifts my ancestors created for me with their existence. The vintage gold glazed ceramic tiles come from a tile company that operated near my childhood home in Southern California during the 1950’s and 60’s. When I finish a retablo, I write a blessing on the backside of the retablo to convey love to all who view the images.

My Maria Dreams from over a decade ago continue to influence this series of work. May you find your own meanings and blessings within these images.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

And from none other than our own recently published Rudy G,

Win a book!
Midnight, Friday, June 26 is the deadline to enter to win a copy of the just-released Needles & Bones anthology, featuring a fantastical story by La Bloga contributor Rudy Ch. Garcia.
Click here for details.

Lisa Alvarado

New Bilingual Books from Children's Book Press

2009-06-24T21:32:00.000-06:00

My Papa Diego and Me
Recollections by Guadalupe Rivera Marín
Artwork by Diego Rivera

32 page • Ages 6 and up
8 3⁄4” x 10 1⁄4”
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-89239-228-5
Available Fall 2009
Hardcover
$17.95

When most people think of my father, Diego Rivera, they think of him as a famous painter. And they’re right, he did grow up to be a famous painter… His hard work, dedication, and talent taught me that if you work hard at your passion, you can achieve your dreams. –Guadalupe Rivera Marín

Guadalupe Rivera Marín had a very unusual childhood, growing up in Mexico among world famous artwork. Her papá, Diego Rivera, was a larger-than-life figure who created unforgettable images of working people, of life in Mexico, of industrial machines and flowers. But Diego Rivera also loved to paint children — children just like you — and you’ll find them inside the pages of this book, along with the lessons and wisdom he passed along to his eldest daughter.

Guadalupe Rivera Marín shares some of her childhood memories of the world-renowned artist who also happened to be her papá. Her recollections are tender, humorous, and unexpected. This intimate artistic portrait will delight readers, from the youngest art lovers to Diego Rivera’s biggest fans.

Guadalupe Rivera Marín is the daughter of Diego Rivera and Guadalupe Marín. Her early childhood was spent in rural Mexico, while her father created government-sponsored murals for the Secretaria de Educación Pública. An accomplished author and lecturer, Dr. Rivera Marín lives in Cuernavaca, Mexico.

Diego Rivera was one of Mexico’s most famous and influential painters. Born in 1886 in Guanajuato, Mexico, he began studying art as a child and went on to create paintings and murals that can be seen in public spaces and museums around the world. Diego Rivera was also a passionate advocate for working men and women, and he featured them in much of his artwork. He died in 1957.

I Know the River Loves Me
Written and illustrated by Maya Christina Gonzalez

Bilingual in English and Spanish
24 pages • Ages 4 to 8
8 1⁄4” x 10”
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-89239-233-9
Available Fall 2009
Hardcover
$16.95

Listen. . . Can you hear the river calling you? Rushing and bubbling, splashing or still, the river has so much to teach us.

Whenever Maya visits the river, the river jumps up to greet her. It cools her down when the summer sun is too hot, and holds her up when she dives in. It keeps her company in the quiet of winter. The river takes care of Maya and Maya takes care of the river.

In this gentle story of love and respect for nature, Maya Christina Gonzalez combines her award-winning talents as an artist and storyteller. Young readers will be inspired by the joy and wonder of being outdoors, and learn powerful lessons about their environment and themselves.

Maya Christina Gonzalez is an acclaimed fine artist, educator, and award-winning children's book illustrator. This is the second book that she has both written and illustrated. She has also created artwork for 20 other children's books, including: My Colors, My World, My Very Own Room, and Laughing Tomatoes and Other Spring Poems.

Review: Down to the Bone.

2009-06-23T00:01:00.003-06:00

Mayra Lazara Dole. Down to the Bone. NY: Harper Teen, 2008.

ISBN: 9780060843106

Michael Sedano

Down to the bone is among the more challenging YA novels I’ve had the pleasure to read.The challenge is less to the reader than to the author, Mayra Lazara Dole. Not only must Dole work her coming of age plot to a happy ending, the author tasks herself to address gay sexuality in an ambiente of Miami’s Cubano cultura. The specific geography provides background for a work that should have widespread appeal for kids everywhere.

Dole, or her editor, recognizes the language gap between Spanish-literate readers and those less endowed. There’s a Spanish-English glossary that clarifies the majority of italicized expressions, even to obvious cognates like música and gringo, and the conjunction y. I looked for a description of a tortilla de platano, but it was omitted. As a certified senior citizen who digs YA and chica lit and is hip to a certain amount of patois, I would have appreciated glossaried help with such English expressions as “hooking up” and the title. Given the popularity of the phrase—a movie and a band share the name--“down to the bone,” I suspect that means something beyond the novel’s final line, “This is where I belong, loved and understood right down to the bone.” In my vocabulary, “hooking up” seems a clearly metaphorical allusion to forming a social alliance, but in Laura’s world, the phrase seems restricted to sexual union.

Scrunchy, née Laura Sofia, has already hooked up with Marlena, or maybe tonight's the night. For sure, they've shared passionate kisses. Laura and Marlena are eleventh graders and deeply in love. Back in the day, this might have been called “puppy love” by adults who remember the first time is not necessarily lasting. But that’s not Laura’s world view. Por vida, that’s what Laura feels. And that’s what Marlena says, too, in a love note Laura’s reading on the last day of school as the novel opens. Daydreaming, the vivacious teen doesn’t hear Fart Face, Sister Asunción, ask a question. That daydream leads to a world of hurt.

Adults in Laura’s world fit one of two types. There are the horrorshow assholes, like the nun and Laura’s mother, or there are the totally cool, like Viva, the mother of Laura’s best friend, Soli. Mostly it’s a world of the former, until Laura discovers Miami’s gay society. Laura’s classmates fit into the former tipos, too. “Muff diver!” they shout, after Sister seizes and reads Marlena’s note to the entire classroom.

Being kicked out of Catholic school is not punishment enough. Laura’s mother demands to know the identity of Laura’s degenerate friend, and, failing that, kicks Laura out of her home until Laura identifies the lover and accepts heterosexuality. Find a man, get married.

Viva and Soli love Laura unconditionally, mirror images of the horrid mother whose love is conditioned on the teenaged girl complying with the mother’s every demand. As much love as Laura feels in her cramped temporary abode, still the daughter wants to go back home to her mother’s love, and to remain in her little brother’s life. I worry about that kid, given that mother.

Laura meets a boi—another term some readers will learn—who befriends the emotionally devasted Laura. Tazer, a rich woman virtually abandoned by her father to a luxurious pad, prefers to present himself as a male. Tazer wants to start a love affair with Laura, but he is not what Laura wants. It’s an interesting view of gay choices. Dole makes the point that gay gente don’t hook up with promiscuous abandon. Like all people, Laura and the gay world she enters are concerned with choices and motivated by emotional attraction. The one who flits from lover to lover is la Soli, a confirmed heterosexual. (Who will come around in the end to a decent but spurned lover).

The worst choice a person can make is to conform to outside pressures, especially when these are inimical to one's self. Laura denies her desires and starts dating a hot-to-trot man. Hoping she’ll fall in love with him, she falls into his arms and into his bed, but doesn’t “hook up” with the conquest-minded hottie. Marlena, on the other hand, is whisked away by her family to Puerto Rico, to be brainwashed by a fundamentalist church. Laura finally gets a “dear Jill” letter from the about-to-be married Marlena, who washes her hands of their love, wishing for Laura to reject herself and become a betrayer like Marlena.

I’ve summarized only a few key plot lines in this engaging novel. Dole’s depiction of Laura’s peers takes the novel into a similar direction as the adultcentric line. There are STD, clubbing, dancing, blind hatred, krypto personae; all adding rich texture to the teenage scene. Sadly, Dole doesn’t dwell on the tragedy of Laura quitting school to work full time to support herself, nor look forward to what happens in three or five years. Will Laura graduate? Get her landscape architect degree? A contractor’s license? Such unexplored possibilities are sorely lacking in an otherwise edifying story that likely mirrors what’s happening for countless teens facing amor prohibido, whether parents like it or not.

Irrespective of sexual identity or activity, teenagers and adults will take serious thought from the novel. Laura and Soli are healthy, happy children. As such—children—they control only some elements of their environment, and expose themselves too much to risky behaviors, e.g. a speeding cab runs down Laura on her bicycle in a late-night accident. Adults might find difficulty allowing a child the kind of freedom Laura takes, but only because her awful mother is such a narrow-minded person. Viva, perhaps, allows her daughter and live-in friend too much liberty, but because the girls make good choices, little harm comes of going overboard in this direction. Obviously the restrictive nuns and birth mother’s rules produce dysfunctional results. Dole’s lesson is a good one: trust the kids to make good decisions. Despite the poor raising Laura got from her mother, she makes those decisions because that’s the right thing to do. Trust the kid to know her heart and take the proper course.

Still, there’s nothing like reasoned adult upbringing to help a kid grow into the kind of adult I hope Laura, Soli, Tazer and the rest will. Adults would profit from YA work like this, if only to know what, or whom, is influencing the next generation's views of their inheritance. As my dad liked to say, pa'lla va la sombra. Let's see what kids can do that we didn't. In Dole's world, there's a montón of intractable caca that won't take care of itself.

That's June's penultimate Tuesday. A Tuesday like any other Tuesday, except you are here. Thank you for visiting La Bloga. Please invite your friends to stop by, read, leave comments--las huellas de sus pasos.

ate,

mvs

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Waves at LPR

2009-06-22T00:01:00.004-06:00

Guest post by Francisco Aragón

Over a year ago, in Latino Poetry Review’s inaugural issue, it was Eric Murphy Selinger’s long essay-review that lit the fuse. Sparks flew over his take on a passage in Corky Gonzales’ seminal poem, “I am Joaquín.” They surfaced mostly at Javier Huerta’s blog and Craig Santos Perez’s. When the dust settled, the following comment to Huerta, who was the first to take Selinger to task, seemed to wrap things up:

“Longtime lurker here, first-time commentator... Just wanted to express my appreciation for this discussion, which I've been following with interest for a while now. As a non-Latino reader, I also had mixed feelings about Eric Selinger's Parnassus review, and it's heartening to see him respond to criticisms in an open-minded, non-defensive manner. Javier Huerta, your eloquence and insightfulness pushes this discussion toward ever-expanding spheres of consideration. You are shedding some much-needed light on questions of culture, craft, ethnicity, and intergenerational dialogue that have been swirling around in my mind for a long time. I haven't quite seen anyone else articulate these issues with as much clarity, objectivity, and relevance as you have done here.”

This year, in Latino Poetry Review’s recently launched second issue, it’s been Steven D. Schroeder’s assessment of Richard Vargas’ McLife and American Jesus that has provided this year’s spirited discussion, especially after Vargas himself decided to pen a letter that Schroeder posted on his blog.

Barbara Jane Reyes offered the following comment to Schroeder:

“The bodily functions and body parts, which you discuss in your review, and which Vargas brings up in his letter: whereas your assessment of these brings you to the conclusion that the work is perhaps immature or 'macho,' have you considered Oscar Zeta Acosta's Brown Buffalo, which seems a fair comparison. From what I understand about Zeta Acosta, his writing openly and unrestrained about bodily functions and body parts has much more to do with the body politics of brown men and standards of beauty for brown men in the USA than it has to do with immature boy humor. Body politics seems relegated to the realm of women's writing, but I think it's totally fair to say men of color also must write against mainstream American objectification and commodification, which are both emasculating, and which are major sources of man of color rage….”

Later, Vargas himself responded at Barbara Jane Reyes’ blog, where she contributed a post of her own in the unfolding discussion:

“[M]y real question is for the LPR, and why they thought this guy was on the up and up? what statement does this make about their literary agenda? again, thank you, ms. reyes, for facilitating what i consider to be an open minded and rational approach to this subject. rvargas”

What I have found encouraging about these latest “waves” is that people have been specifically talking about seeking out, acquiring and reading Vargas’ two books. Regardless of how one might feel about Schroeder’s review, would we be talking about Vargas—two years after the latest of his books had been published—if LPR Schroeder's review hadn't appeared, or if LPR hadn't commissioned a review on Vargas to begin with? Vargas himself had this to say in his comment to Reyes:

“…i’ve always written with the belief that if everyone liked my poetry, then i was doing something wrong. i’ve been waiting for someone like schroeder to sit down and “review” me for quite a while. it was due.…”

As far as LPR thinking Schroeder was on “the up and up,” I can only offer this: A couple of years ago, I was giving a poetry reading in Saint Louis, MO. I met Schroeder there. I’d occasionally read his blog and noticed that he sometimes commented on Eduardo C. Corral’s blog. The reading took place in a micro-brewery so a small group of us stuck around for a few beers afterwards. Schroeder and I talked poetry and publishing: he was on the verge of launching Anti-. It was a cordial and engaging interaction. What I don’t recall is if I asked him then and there or if I waited until I got home. But at some point, I asked if he’d write a piece for LPR. He said Yes: I sent him Vargas’ books.

That night I also met Heather Treseler, a doctoral candidate at Notre Dame who was writing a dissertation on American poetry. I made her the same pitch I made to Schroeder; she said Yes: I sent her A Weakness for Boleros by Lidia Torres, and This Side of Skin by Deborah Parédez. It might be worth noting that neither Schroeder nor Treseler are Latino/a. To some that might matter. To LPR, it doesn’t. Vargas asks about LPR’s “literary agenda.” Here’s its mission statement:

Latino Poetry Review (LPR) publishes book reviews, essays, and interviews with an eye towards spurring inquiry and dialogue. LPR recognizes that Latino and Latina poets in the 21st century embrace, and work out of, a multitude of aesthetics. With this in mind, its critical focus is the poem and its poetics.

Perhaps these episodes, these “waves” might also be considered “growing pains.” LPR could have, from the get go, commissioned two reviews on Vargas. This was the case with Roberto Tejada’s book, Mirrors for Gold. LPR #2 published one by poet and editor Carmen Giménez Smith, and another by Notre Dame doctoral candidate, Todd Thorpe. Full disclosure: I presented this option to Schroeder after the fact—that is: getting an additional review on Vargas, and posting them both in LPR #3. I let Schroeder make the call because he had been so patient with LPR’s delay in publication, and because I suspected his review might elicit some of the responses it got. In the end, he opted for having his review published sooner rather than later.

Barbara Jane Reyes got one thread of the discussion started in a post that referenced Schroeder’s claim that Vargas was an “outsider” in the poetry world. Vargas’ letter or, rather, Schroeder’s decision to publish the letter, took the discussion up a notch.

LPR would like to commission another piece on Vargas, if for no other reason than to underscore that its agenda is none other than to give Latino and Latina poets their due in the arena of poetry criticism—something they don’t get in most poetry reviewing venues. It’s the reason LPR exists. This gesture should not, however, be viewed as an expression of regret for publishing Schroeder’s piece. LPR believes that books by Latino and Latina poets should be reviewed from a plethora of perspectives, including Schroeder’s. LPR doesn’t censor. Unless someone writes a piece that is laced with personal attacks, LPR will publish it. There is no aesthetic nor cultural litmus test for a potential LPR contributor. If LPR does have a bias, it might be its inherent interest in reviews and essays that explore how poems are made.

And yet, if a reviewer slips up in the eyes of some readers (i.e. doesn’t bother to do any homework about the work or writer being reviewed or is simply a lazy reader who let’s his/her preconceived notions about “Latinos” have too much sway) well…here’s Eric Selinger on his piece in LPR#1:

“I was told that my glib comment about a particular poet’s lack of artistry showed that I hadn’t read him closely. And guess what? I hadn’t. I’d substituted a flip, offhand remark for actual thinking, and got caught….I don’t call that an 'attack.' I call it 'peer-review.'
In academic journals, it happens before a piece is published. In literary journals, it happens afterwards, in public. It’s not fun, but it’s awfully educational.”

My hope is that discussions generated by the pieces in Latino Poetry Review won’t, however, solely stem from reviews that are perceived as negative. I’ve linked a number of other reviews in the current issue in this guest post. What do readers of La Bloga think about them?

◙ CALL FOR PROPOSALS FOR BOOK PANELS AND PRESENTATIONS:

Preparations for the new and improved 2009 Los Angeles Latino Book & Family Festival are now underway! The festival will take place October 10 & 11 on the campus of California State University, Los Angeles. We are now accepting proposals for panels/presentations on any topic having to do with literature or anything of interest to the Latino community. American Book Award-winner Reyna Grande, author of Across a Hundred Mountains and Dancing with Butterflies, will be in charge of scheduling. Please submit your proposal to Reyna Grande at reynagrande@yahoo.com.

◙ THE LATEST ON LATINOLA.COM:

Remembering El Espectador by Agustin Gurza
California is Broke. Why? by Alberto Marrero Salas
La Pistola: Tribute to my Mexican father by Alvaro Huerta
"Descarga" in CityWalk This Summer By Mariluz Gonzalez
Rockin' & Rollin' with the Marines in Reseda by Frankie Firme

These are just a few great stories on LatinoLA. You should drop by and check them out and make it a daily habit. You may also submit essays, reviews, short stories, poems, upcoming event news, etc. Go to LatinoLa.com.

◙ GETTIN' MORE PRESS:

In the new issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, the column Page One: Where New and Noteworthy Books Begin includes Stephen Gutierrez's new short story collection, Live from Fresno y Los (Bear Star Press). If you missed it, you may read my review of Gutierrez's collection here.

◙ DESPERATELY SEEKING MARISELA:

Marisela Norte, if you're reading this, could you drop me an e-mail at olivasdan@aol.com please? I don't have your current e-mail. If any La Bloga readers are eavesdropping right now, I might as well remind you that Marisela is a wonderful poet who published her first collection recently, Peeping Tom Tom Girl (San Diego City Works Press, $12.95 paperback). You may read my review of it here.

◙ That’s all for now. So, in the meantime, enjoy the intervening posts from mis compadres y comadres here on La Bloga. And remember: ¡Lea un libro!

You say "commercial" like it's a bad thing: reflections on the Black Eyed Peas and their new Album The E.N.D.

2009-06-21T00:01:00.000-06:00

I was nervous about the new Black Eyed Peas album. Though I enjoy “Boom Boom Pow” and “Imma Bee”—the singles they released as teasers to the album—both fall into the category I discussed in my last article “Is Cockiness Passé?” They are original and danceable songs, but much of the lyrics fall into that dated, self-aggrandizing category I am so tired of. Like “I’m so 3008 you’re so 2000 and late” from “Boom Boom Pow,” or “Imma be looking all fly and shit, Imma be the flyest chick” from…well, the song is obvious. But after spending the last two weeks listening to it over and over again I am very pleasantly surprised: it is a solid and creatively diverse album. No, it doesn’t have the raw quality of the early Peas, this is clearly a commercial venture, but it is a damn good one. And I was pleased to see that they tapped internal talent rather than relying heavily on outside artists as they had in the past.

And speaking of internal talent, I have to admit, I like Fergie. Though her solo work leaves something to be desired I always thought she was a smart addition to the group. I know there was an uproar at one point because supposedly someone isolated her singing (as they did with Linda McCartney) and it was awful, and from there it was deduced that she was merely a decorative and token pair of breasts for the group. There’s SO much I hate about this accusation. First of all, they never accuse men of such things (no one accused Taboo of being a dancing penis, and John Legend he ain’t). Secondly, since when is rap or hip hop about singing? Last I checked it was more spoken than sung and didn’t require the vocal stylings or acrobatics of a Marc Anthony. It is more about personality and story, and I think Fergie is as well-suited as her male counterparts to tell these stories.

In keeping with the BEP’s philosophy, the songs are not about drugs or hos or pimp-slapping (though they still have a sophomoric obsession with women’s body parts there are thankfully no revisits to the murky depths of “My Humps”) and the collection is positive to the point of being downright cheery. There are several party anthems—“Rock That Body,” “I Gotta Feeling,” “Party All the Time,” “Rockin to the Beat”—relationship songs—“Meet Me Halfway” and “Missing You”—and even mild social commentary in “Now Generation” (which has a strong 80s new wave vibe) and “One Tribe.” I was particularly pleased with how the melancholy story of “Missing You” then segues to “Ring-a-Ling,” the techno but quite lyrical song about a late night booty call.

There is all kind of speculation that the title The E.N.D. (Energy Never Dies), implies this is the last album from the group. Much though I adore the Black Eyed Peas, that would be okay because I imagine that this creative energy won’t die but will rather go in four unique directions with solo work, production, movies and more. I am particularly looking forward to hearing the forthcoming solo albums from the less publicized members Taboo and my favorite, Apl De Ap. I really enjoyed the cultural insights of “The Apl Song” (off of Elephunk) and “Bebot” (from Monkey Business) and am always impressed with the depth and introspection of his rap. But if they do stay together I hope they continue to grow and evolve. For one, they’re getting older (they’re all in their mid-30s) and personally I find artists in their 40s or 50s singing songs about partying all night long kind of depressing (yes, that includes you Mick Jagger, I mean for Christ’s sake, you’re 65!).

I’m sure critics will slam the Peas for this unapologetically commercial record, but I feel this is was a natural progression for them. My IPod has not played anything else since its release and though I ‘m not sure how long it will endure or whether it will ever be considered “important,” it is relentlessly listenable, catchy and really quite fabulous. I’ve said before I think that will.i.am is the greatest musical genius of the last twenty years (though Wyclef is a close second) and for this BEP fan, he and his crew didn’t disappoint with this release either.

Needles & Bones anthology & a contest

2009-06-20T07:32:00.002-06:00

Ours is probably the only household on the block with no cell phone and cable or satellite TV. Our Internet service clunks along at DSL speed--which means slow--although we did succumb to wireless, which is great for early Sat. mornings out on the patio, surfing the Web.

Consequently, much of 21st Century tech has bypassed me. No apps for an IPhone I don't have, etc. So, when I got word from Drollerie Press that my short story Memorabilia had been accepted for their anthology Needles & Bones, this segment made me realize how behind the times I was: "N&B will be available in PDF, Microsoft Reader format, Mobipocket format, ePUB, Sony Reader, and HTML reader for Windows."

My ignorance began after the word PDF. Drollerie's editor Deena Fisher asked which format I wanted. I didn't know what to tell her, nor which format might one day be of use to me.

Anyway, here's where you, the La Bloga reader, can become the beneficiary of my technological uncouthness. I'll run a contest for a week and the winner will receive a copy of Needles & Bones in whatever format he, she or it desires. Before I explain the contest rules, here's a bit about the book so you can decide if it's your copa de té.

Blurb from the publisher:
"Needles & Bones is a collection of poems and short fiction by a double handful of brilliantly creative artists-with-words. It begins gently, with fairy tales, but its tendrils of surreality spread from the stories of our childhood, into our adult world, and on to places beyond our own. We visit heaven, and hell, and places we might never imagine, peopled by creatures who are only sometimes like us."

There's also a link about the authors, and you'll find that these are twenty-two contributions from a great pool of talented and well-published novelists, poets and short story authors. To get a better idea, you can read two excerpts if you go to Drollerie's website. Or you can buy it for the strange price of just $8.46.

My story Memorabilia uses a premise from the epilogue:
“Surely all material things have a form of sentience, even the inorganic: surely they all exist in some subtle and complicated tension of vibration which makes them sensitive to external influence and causes them to have an influence on other external objects, irrespective of contact.” [from “Edgar Allan Poe”, Studies in Classic American Literature, by former N.M. resident D.H.Lawrence, 1923]

If that doesn't pique your interest, I'll say Memorabilia is the crazy story of Tomás Chaneco Martinez, a near-immortal Aztec shaman-sorcerer, who finds himself in contemporary, rural, northern New Mexico. He's gotta clean out decades' worth of knick-knacks that somehow found their way into his adobe. It seems that his nemeses, some ancient dragons, have taken possession of the things and are threatening to disturb more than his sleep. What starts out as a spring housecleaning turns into a series of fantastical encounters that Harry Potter would never have survived. Anyway, if you enjoy fantasy, dragons, azteca lore, No. New Mexico, and maybe a little humor, I expect you'll like this one.

Now for the contest:
Compose a 50-word (more or less, but not much more) synopsis of what a book entitled Agujas & Huesos (needles & bones) might be about. Everything is up to you--any genre, any authors you want to include, any hyperbole you care to wield. Do it scholarly, humorous, satirical, in Spanish--whatever. "Best" synopsis wins. Post your entry by clicking the Comments section below. Must be posted by Friday, midnight, June 26th, 2009. No more than two entries per person, please.

P.S.: In the event my fellow La Bloga contributors enter, they won't be destined to win.

Rudy Ch. Garcia

New and Newer Books - Cristina Henríquez

2009-06-19T00:01:00.003-06:00

NEW BOOKS
From the publishers' websites

Lonesome Point
Ian Vasquez
(Minotaur - June, 2009)
The Varela brothers are bound by a decades-old secret from their childhood back home in their native Belize. Today Patrick is the Miami-Dade County commissioner and a probable candidate for mayor of Miami, while his brother, Leo, a sometime poet and mental health worker, spends more time getting high than anything else. Still, they’ve both been struggling for years to completely sever their ties to their father, his illegal businesses, and his secrets.

But those years quickly vanish the moment an old friend recently released from prison asks Leo to release a patient from the mental hospital where Leo works. He calls it a favor, but the threat is clear to Leo, Patrick, and---more dangerously---the men with a stake in Patrick’s political career. The request sets off a chain of events destined to lay bare once and for all the truth about what happened that night, and maybe even to pit brother against brother in their efforts to finally set things right.

Moody, atmospheric, and evocative, Lonesome Point showcases the distinct and rhythmic voice that makes Ian Vasquez a unique talent among today’s crime writers.

About the author
Ian Vasquez received his MFA while working on a psychiatric ward and counseling at-risk high school students. Raised in Belize and now a copy editor at the St. Petersburg Times, he lives with this family near Tampa Bay, Florida. This is his second novel.

The Angel's Game
Carlos Ruiz Zafón, translated by Lucia Graves
(Doubleday - June, 2009)
In an abandoned mansion at the heart of Barcelona, a young man, David Martín, makes his living by writing sensationalist novels under a pseudonym. The survivor of a troubled childhood, he has taken refuge in the world of books and spends his nights spinning baroque tales about the city's underworld. But perhaps his dark imaginings are not as strange as they seem, for in a locked room deep within the house lie photographs and letters hinting at the mysterious death of the previous owner.

Like a slow poison, the history of the place seeps into his bones as he struggles with an impossible love. Close to despair, David receives a letter from a reclusive French editor, Andreas Corelli, who makes him the offer of a lifetime. He is to write a book unlike anything that has ever existed—a book with the power to change hearts and minds. In return, he will receive a fortune, and perhaps more. But as David begins the work, he realizes that there is a connection between his haunting book and the shadows that surround his home.

Set in the 1920s, Zafón takes us into a dark, gothic universe first seen in the Shadow of the Wind and creates a breathtaking adventure of intrigue, romance, and tragedy. Through a dizzily constructed labyrinth of secrets, the magic of books, passion, and friendship blend into a masterful story.

About the author
Carlos Ruiz Zafón, author of The Shadow of the Wind and other novels, is one of the world's most read and best-loved writers. His work has been translated into more than forty languages and published around the world, garnering numerous international prizes and reaching millions of readers. He divides his time between Barcelona and Los Angeles.

CRISTINA HENRIQUEZ INTERVIEW AT OXFORD AMERICAN
Here's the intro to this interview from the Oxford American website:

She's not yet thirty years old, but Cristina Henríquez has already: published two books of fiction (an award-winning collection of stories, Come Together, Fall Apart, and the just-released novel The World in Half); appeared in the country's most respected literary publications; and inspired so much praise from discerning critics* and devoted readers that you might expect her to be, well, just a little bit cocky. But when we met her at the Arkansas Literary Festival a couple of months ago, we found she is not only charming and energetic, but she is also hardworking and humble.

Born in Delaware, Henríquez spent her childhood summers in Panama with her father's extended family. Her intimate knowledge of that country, with its unique relationship to the U.S., informs most of her work.

Henríquez has lived in at least seven states and is now based in Chicago, where she lives with her husband and young daughter. Her first article in The Oxford American, an ode to the "Big Sam" statue near Houston, appeared in our 2006 Best of the South Issue. She will also appear in our forthcoming Southern Lit/Writing on Writing Issue.

We wanted to find out more about this intriguing writer, so we asked her.

* The New York Times says that Henríquez's prose is "fluoridated with traces of John Updike and Ann Beattie." The legendary novelist Isabel Allende describes Henriquez's stories as "truly unforgettable." The Chicago Sun-Times praises Henríquez's subtle use of hope in lieu of all-too-tidy conclusion.

Read the interview here.

NEW BOOKS IN 2008

In case you missed some of the excellent books published in 2008, our friend Teresa Márquez compiled this list of up-and-c0ming writers and their books. Thanks, Teresa.

From Here You Can Almost See the End of the Desert
Aaron Michael Morales
Momotombo Press Institute for Latino Studies University of Notre Dame
This is subversive and sly work, as knowing in its effect as it is exciting to read. For all its thrilling nature, and for all his hard-edge style, this is a deeply moral effort. Morales wrestles with nothing less than the parameters of the human soul.
Luis Alberto Urrea

The Smell of O l d Lady Perfume
Claudia Guadalupe Martínez
Cinco Puntos Press
Martínez’ highly episodic first novel is a quiet story that is filled with such coming-of-age staples as mean girls, popularity contests, first romances, sibling rivalries, and more. However, readers will also find the book’s loving portrayal of Chela’s family, its nicely realized setting, and its artful exploration of the problems of assimilation to be both engaging and heartfelt.
Booklist. Read La Bloga's interview with the author here.

Las Ninas: A Co llection of Childhood Memories
Sarah Rafael García
Floricanto Press
Las Niñas is a Latina Little Women, a real-life Judy Blume saga, alternately hilarious, touching, and poignant, but always written sharply. If you have a daughter, get rid of her American Girl collection and give her this book!
Gustavo Arellano

Esperanza: A Latina Story
Sandra C. López
Floricanto Press
Esperanza is an admirable and too real story of many Latino youth lacking role models, who find themselves lost and isolated in the paved jungles of the inner cities and overwhelmed by the dissonance of barrio life. Sandra C. López has created a resilient and likeable character, Esperanza, who seems closer to a naked truth-seeker than to a barrio kid desperately trying to get out of a crappy world, but not knowing exactly where she was going to. Highly Recommended.
Andrea Alessandra, University of California, Berkeley.

Ghosts of El Grullo
Patricia Santana
University of New Mexico Press
Winner of the Premio Aztlán Literary Prize for 2008 from the National Latino Writers Conference and the History and Literary Arts program of the National Hispanic Cultural Center. Winner of the San Diego Book & Writing Award for General Fiction from the San Diego Book Awards Association (SDBAA).

The Case Runner
Carlos Cisneros
Arte Público Press
Best Novel - Mystery - English, International Latino Book Awards

Chic ken Foot Farm
Anne Estevis
Arte Público Press
Life goes on - it always goes on, and one has to keep up with it to survive. "Chicken Foot Farm" is the story of a Mexican American family, set just after World War II has begun in Europe. They deal with random events that life throws at them - consuming fires, the senility of old age, sibling rivalry, approval of one's parents, and the omnipresent influence of a world war. Though all these things are horrible, it is heartwarming to see how the family copes with each of them. "Chicken Foot Farm" is a deftly written literary novel, highly recommended for community library collections.
Midwest Book Review

Dese rt P as sa ge
P. S. Carrillo
Arte Público Press
A summer journey on a motor scooter becomes a transformative rite of passage for two teenage cousins.... Definitely a “guy” book, with a strong male-bonding subtext that should appeal to boys, who will enjoy Ramón and Miguel’s desert adventures.
Kirkus Reviews

__________________________________________

With all this good writing available there's just no excuse for not reading a book. Take the time to enjoy the words.

Later.

Guest Columnist: Lydia Gil. Críticas reviews are back!

2009-06-18T16:13:00.007-06:00

Lydia Gil

In February of this year, Reed Business Information decided to stop publishing Críticas magazine, which for eight years offered some of the most complete coverage of the U.S. Spanish-language book market.

As essential as this tool proved for librarians, teachers, booksellers and, of course, readers, the publishers based their decision to shut it down not on a decreasing readership, but on (surprise!) decreased ad support.

Shortly after the announcement, writer Adriana V. López asked readers to respond to the publishers and to let them know why Críticas was important to them. Apparently, enough readers took the time to write, since Críticas is back... Or at least their book reviews.

Yesterday, Library Journal sent an email announcing that reviews of Spanish-language books for adults and children can now be found on the LJ website [http://www.libraryjournal.com]. According to the message, reviews of Spanish-language fiction for adults will continue to appear monthly "by the same expert reviewers who have been covering these books for Críticas for years." Reviews of children's books, however, will appear every other month.

This is mixed news, however, because Críticas offered a lot more than just book reviews. They also reported on industry news and literary trends and published a monthly Spanish-language best-sellers list. While some of these topics can be found at the America Reads Spanish website [http://www.americareadsspanish.org], what gets placed under "Industry News" is rather miscellaneous, to put it nicely...

Estoy leyendo... TENGO UNA TIA QUE NO ES MONJITA (Ediciones Patlatonalli).

This adorable children's book by Melissa Cardoza Calderón is about a young girl named Meli (¡ajá!) and her wonderfully eccentric aunt, who is single, doesn't have kids, and is not a nun. She does have a lot of fabulous amigas, and one day Meli catches her kissing one of them... ¡en la boca! It's amazingly beautiful how Cardoza can tell so much in such few words. Great illustrations too!

La Bloga welcomes back for her second guest column, Lydia Gil. La Bloga, and Lydia, appreciate your comments. Click on the Comments counter below. La Bloga welcomes guest columnists. If you'd like to be our guest, click here to send us your idea.

2009 Américas Award - Winners

2009-06-17T21:13:00.002-06:00

I am so glad that we have many awards that celebrate and honor Latino literature. In the children's area, we have the amazing Américas Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature. To learn more about the award visit Américas Award website.

The Américas Award is given in recognition of U.S. works of fiction, poetry, folklore, or selected non-fiction (from picture books to works for young adults) published in the previous year in English or Spanish that authentically and engagingly portray Latin America, the Caribbean, or Latinos in the United States. By combining both and linking the Americas, the award reaches beyond geographic borders, as well as multicultural-international boundaries, focusing instead upon cultural heritages within the hemisphere. The award is sponsored by the national Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs (CLASP).

2009 Américas Award Winners

Just in Case: A Trickster Tale and Spanish Alphabet Book by Yuyi Morales. Roaring Brook Press (A Neal Porter Book), 2008. 32 pgs. ISBN 978-1-59643-329-8

The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom by Margarita Engle. Holt, 2008. 169 pgs. ISBN 978-0-8050-8674-4

Américas Award Honorable Mentions

The Best Gift of All: The Legend of La Vieja Belén / El Mejor Regalo del Mundo: La Leyenda de la Vieja Belén by Julia Alvarez. Illustrated by Ruddy Nuñez. Alfaguara/Santillana, 2008. 32 pgs. ISBN 978-1-60396-325-1

Dark Dude by Oscar Hijuelos. Atheneum, 2008. 440 pgs. 978-1-4169-4804-9

The Storyteller's Candle / La velita de los cuentos by Lucía González. Illustrated by Lulu Delacre. Children's Book Press, 2008. 32 pgs. ISBN 978-0-89239-222-3

Animal Poems of the Iguazú/Animalario del Iguazú by Francisco X. Alarcón. Illustrated by Maya Christina González. Children's Book Press, 2008. 32 pgs. ISBN 978-0-89239-225-4

Arco Iris de Poesía: Poemas de las Américas y España selected by Sergio Andricaín. Illustrated by Olga Cuellar. Lectorum, 2008. 40pgs. ISBN 978-1-930332- 59-1

Baila, Nana, Baila / Dance, Nana, Dance: Cuban Folktales in English and Spanish retold by Joe Hayes. Illustrated by Mauricio Trenard Sayago. Cinco Puntos, 2008. 128 pgs. ISBN 978-1-933693-17-0

Cesar Chavez: Crusader for Social Change by Brenda Haugen. Compass Point, 2008. 112 pgs. 978-0-7565-3321-2

The Disappeared by Gloria Whelan. Dial / Penguin, 2008. 136 pgs. 978-0- 8037-3275-9

Divali Rose by Vashanti Rahaman. Illustrated by Jamel Akib. Boyds Mills, 2008. 32 pgs.

Dolores Huerta: Labor Leader and Civil Rights Activist by Robin S. Doak. Compass Point, 2008. 112 pgs. 978-0-7565-3477-6

Down to the Bone by Mayra Lazara Dole. HarperCollins, 2008. 351 pgs. 978-0-06-084311-3

Facts of Life by Gary Soto. Harcourt, 2008. 174 pgs. 978-0-15-206181-4

He Forgot to Say Goodbye by Benjamin Alire Sáenz. Simon & Schuster, 2008. 321 pgs. 978-1-4169-4963-3

Kitchen Dance by Maurie J. Manning. Clarion. 2008. 32 pgs. ISBN 978-0-618- 99110-5

Pablo (Cuando los Grandes Eran Pequeños) by Georgina Lázaro. Illustrated by Marcela Donoso. Lectorum, 2008. 32 pgs. ISBN 978-1-930332-09-2

Peace Jam: A Billion Simple Acts of Peace by Ivan Suvanjieff and Dawn Gifford Engle. Puffin/Penguin, 2008. 197 pgs. ISBN 978-0-14-241234-3

A Perfect Season for Dreaming / Un tiempo perfecto para soñar by Benjamin Alire Sáenz. Illustrated by Esau Andrade Valencia. Cinco Puntos, 2008. 36 pgs. ISBN 978-1-933693-01-9

Reaching Out by Francisco Jiménez. Houghton Mifflin, 2008. 194 pgs. 978-0-618-03851-0

The Secret Legacy by Rigoberta Menchú. Illustrated by Domi. Groundwood, 2008. 64 pgs. ISBN 978-0-88899-896-5

The Smell of Old Lady Perfume by Claudia Guadalupe Martínez. Cinco Puntos, 2008. 249 pgs. 978-1-933693-18-7

Voices in First Person: Reflections on Latino Identity by Lori Marie Carlson. Photographs by Manuel Rivera-Ortiz. Illustrated by Flavio Morais. Atheneum, 2008. 84 pgs. ISBN 978-1-4169-0635-3

The Walls of Cartagena by Julia Durango. Illustrated by Tom Pohrt. Simon & Schuster, 2008. 150 pgs. 978-1-4169-4102-6

What Can You Do With a Rebozo? by Carmen Tafolla. Illustrated by Amy Córdova. Tricycle Press, 2008. 28 pgs. ISBN 978-1-58246-220-2

Review: Contemporary Chicana and Chicano Art: Artists, Works, Culture, and Education / Holden Caulfield missing.

2009-06-16T00:01:00.006-06:00

Gary Keller, Joaquín Alvarado, Kaytie Johnson, and Mary Erickson. Contemporary Chicana and Chicano Art: Artists, Works, Culture, and Education. Bilingual Review Press. 2002.

ISBN 1-931010-14-5. 2 volumes, 642 pages.

If you really love the old man, or have abundant cash, Boxed Set (slipcased): $175.00/cloth set, ISBN 1-931010-11-0

Michael Sedano

Thanks to the wonders of next day parcel service, you're just under the deadline to get a fabulous father's day present that can't be beat, if you act now! That's not a sales pitch but un consejo from someone who recently discovered the existence of this 2002 treasure of Chicanarte. Vini, vidi, sold!

The volumes compel attention. Once opened, hours pass unnoticed in the sheer pleasure of exquisite color printing and generally interesting text. Oversize, the heft and feel of the book in one's lap is one of life's non decadent luxuries, multiplied by the fact of ownership. Hot damn, these are beautiful art books and they're mine!, your well-deserving papi will sing. Your less acquisitive Dad tipo will be reluctant to lend them out until he's consumed every page and all 600 plus artworks by 200 plus artists, mostly painters.

Among the best features of this encyclopedic treatment are the thematic excursions into such themes as La Virgen, Farmworkers, Dia de los Muertos, Lotería. These offer page after page of reproductions, often featuring deluxe fold-outs. In these thematic pages, Keller et al assembled sparkling gems of visual variety, interrupting the regularity of the two-column look. The sections would easily be assembled into their own book. Photographers Craig Smith and Marilyn Szabo merit special notice for their superb work handing the editors quality work. Quality-In, Quality-Out.

Gente who follow chicanarte will recognize many an artist's name and work. Ester Hernández' calavera Sun Mad raisin carton, Alma Lopéz' flower bikini'd Virgen de Guadalupe, Magú's perro character, Carlos Callejo's river crossers. Given the wide geographical spread of the artists, everyone will discover new work and new artists. In a way, I hope Dad doesn't know a lot of Chicana Chicano artists, this way every page will be new, delightful, knock him on his ass potent. Will the old man be freaked out by Alex Donis' Ché kissing César? Will he get pissed at heroic pachuco icons? Will he fall in love with that chola?

Even if Dad never reads more than a few words of the text, you will. And so will your kids and the nieces and nephews. It's an extraordinary work of research disguised as a coffee table book. The two-volume set has been designed with simplicity. Volume one publishes surnames A through G, volume two G through Z. Two page spreads cover each artist. A hundred word sans-serifed artist's statement and mug shot leads each featured artist, along with the artist's signature. Two-column body text mixes biographical information with explications of the one or two works reproduced in the spread. Most entries conclude with an exhibitions listing, reminding readers of all the shows they've already missed, but adding urgency to attending regularly from now on.

Eight years is a lifetime in an artist's productivity. Work in the two volumes is a snapshot of what the artist was doing back around 2002. Thankfully, most artists on display are still alive and exhibiting. Thanks to this collection, attentive gift-givers will recognize an artist showing at a local gallery. Invite Dad to come along for the wine and cheese snacks. Let this two-volume set be a gift that keeps on giving; that keeps you giving the old man what he deserves. Your company. The art is just a bonus.

Just as the content of chicanarte constantly manifests itself in new and familiar ways, so too will these books. Bilingual Review Press supports the contents with a rich set of web pages featuring artist and gallery directories and calendars of events. It's gratifying to see the Events/Announcements page features current data, such pages often are the first to go when an endeavor is "flavor of the month". Obviously ASU, Bilingual Review, and Gary Keller, are serious in their commitment to these outstanding volumes, and chicanarte.

The editors dedicate the collection to Sister Karen Boccalero. Sister Karen founded Self Help Graphics and Art in Los Angeles. Thanks to Sister Karen's efforts, chicana chicano artists found a market for their work and patrons found an excellent, low-cost source to buy many of the works featured in Contemporary Chicana and Chicano Art: Artists, Works, Culture, and Education. Sadly, none of Sister Karen's work made the book. I own a Sister Karen lithograph and for sentimental reasons alone, I'd like to have seen her make the artist roll call. But then, lots of outstanding Chicana Chicano artists didn't make the roll call here. Ni modo, unless you're one of the omitted. What you see is what you get, and what you've got here is an outstandingly broad selection. And you can always look stuff up on the internet.

Speaking of Not Making the Roll Call.

You may have read recently that J.D. Salinger has sued a writer for using Salinger's Holden Caulfield character in a book purporting to show this catcher in the rye as an old man. Perhaps that author has not read Salinger's "This Sandwich Has No Mayonnaise." Holden went missing as a 19-year old GI in the Pacific, circa 1945. Maybe he survived. Here's Holden's brother, also a G.I., thinking about the kid:

Why, he came through the war in Europe without a scratch, we all saw him before he shipped out to the Pacific last summer—and he looked fine. Missing.

Missing, missing, missing. Lies! I’m being lied to. He’s never been missing before. He’s one of the least missing boys in the world. He’s here in this truck; he’s home in New York; he’s at Pentey Preparatory School (“You send us the Boy. We’ll mold the Man—all modern fireproof buildings...”); yes, he’s at Pentey, he never left school; and he’s at Cape Cod, sitting on the porch, biting his fingernails; and he’s playing doubles with me, yelling at me to stay back at the baseline when he’s at the net. Missing! Is that missing? Why lie about something as important as that? How can the Government do a thing like that? What can they get out of it, telling lies like that?

Read Salinger's story here.

That's the middle Tuesday of June, a Tuesday like any other Tuesday, except You Are Here. Thank you for visiting La Bloga. La Bloga welcomes your comments on this and all posts. Click the Comments counter below to share your views. La Bloga welcomes guest columnists. When you have a book, arts, or culture review, or an extended response to something you read at La Bloga, please click here to discuss your invitation to be our guest.

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The Audacity of Privileged White Men: Racist Attacks Against Sotomayor

2009-06-15T00:01:00.009-06:00

By guest essayist Álvaro Huerta

In deconstructing the conservative’s recent rhetoric on key issues of the day, we can forget about Cuba’s Fidel Castro or Valenzuela’s Hugo Chavez, since America faces a bigger national “threat”: the Bronx’s Sonia Sotomayor. Following a long tradition of Latin American leaders who allegedly pose eminent danger to this country, the “wise Latina” Supreme Court nominee must be prevented from joining the highest court, in the eyes of the dwindling conservatives, or else American democracy as we know it will cease to exist.

If Sotomayor succeeds, the conservatives’ greatest nightmare might come true: not only will America’s democratic traditions and values be at risk—the same ones that brought us slavery, Jim Crow and inner-city segregation, let’s not forget—but also the nation’s “most” vulnerable group will be in jeopardy: privileged White men.

While minority leaders and liberals often decry America’s racist and brutal history against African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans, in the absence of George W. Bush, who will defend the interests of the Fortune 500 CEO’s, super rich and powerful politicians, should soon-to-be Justice Sotomayor decide to “impose” her wisdom on the Supreme Court and “construct” policy from the bench? Leave it to the conservatives’ fearless leaders—Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich and Karl Rove—to “save” the day and lead the GOP in a vicious campaign against a highly qualified candidate who just happens to be Latina from the Bronx.

In their aim to derail the first Latina candidate to the nation’s highest court and further alienate Latino voters to their own detriment, the conservatives have painted an unfavorable portrait of Sotomayor as being unqualified and biased. Sotomayor has also been characterized as a radical and racist.

Speaking of the racist claim, former Republican congressman Tom Tancredo had the audacity—to use Obama’s term in a perverse way—to assert that Sotomayor’s association with the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) correlates to being a member of the KKK. If this is indeed the case, maybe Mr. Tancredo can provide some evidence linking the NCLR to recent (or past) hate mongering, lynching or cross-burning acts in America’s exclusive suburbs?

Apart from the slanderous racist accusations, the idea that Sotomayor is intellectually unqualified for the Supreme Court only makes a mockery of America’s elite, Ivy League universities: Princeton University and Yale Law School. This is not George W. Bush we’re talking about, a self-admitted “C” student who attended Yale as a legacy kid—children of alumni who get preferential admissions treatment, i.e., affirmative action for the rich. Sotomayor excelled both as an undergrad and law student. Not an easy task for someone who grew up in the Bronx’s housing projects and whose late father only had a grade-school level education.

In the view of conservatives, unless you’re a loyal Republican and token minority, such as Clarence Thomas, Condoleezza Rice and Alberto Gonzalez, racial minorities don’t meet their expectations. In a way, racial minorities face a major contraction in this country: if we excel in society, it’s because of preferential treatment and if we fail, then we lack the so-called Protestant work ethnic. In other words, we’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t.

The idea that Sotomayor is a radical represents another lie from the conservatives. For instance, radicals don’t usually work as prosecutors for the district attorney’s office or represent corporate interests in private law firms. Prosecutors typically represent law-and-order individuals who want to “clean” the streets of crime. Who knows, maybe Sotomayor put away some shady individuals from the same housing projects where she grew up? To look for so-called radical attorneys, we can more commonly expect to find them working as public defenders or non-profit, legal aid attorneys.

Also, the conservative’s argument that Sotomayor is biased and can’t be trusted because she has boasted about her Puerto Rican heritage in numerous speeches represents another fabrication. What’s the big deal with being proud of your ethnic or religious heritage? What about John F. Kennedy (Irish American), Joe Lieberman (Jewish American) and Antonin Scalia (Italian American), just to name a few prominent Americans? If there’s something wrong with ethnic pride, then why do we have China Town’s and Little Italy’s in this country? Why do we celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day or the numerous annual parades in honor of the various ethnic groups taking place in throughout the U.S.? If this is truly a free country where free speech is cherished and promoted, there’s nothing wrong with Sotomayor being proud of her ethnic background and humble beginnings. And, if the conservatives want to identify the real racially biased individuals, they should only look in the mirror.

Finally, I must say that as an ethnic minority myself (Chicano) who also grew up in housing projects (E.L.A.’s turbulent Ramona Gardens housing project) and attended elite universities (UCLA and now UC Berkeley), I don’t see Sotomayor as a natural ally who will risk her career when it comes to controversial issues, such as the death penalty, police abuse, inhumane treatment of immigrants or the marginalization of working class people in this country. I do see, however, the hypocritical and racist attacks by conservatives of a highly qualified Latina who not only played by the rules all her life, but has also excelled by the same rules and elite institutions—originally set up by privileged White men—that have denied countless racial minorities and working class people from fulfilling the American Dream.

***

Guest writer Álvaro Huerta is a visiting scholar at UCLA’s Chicano Studies Research Center, and a doctoral student in city and urban planning at UC Berkeley. His story, "Los Dos Smileys," is featured in Latinos in Lotusland: An Anthology of Contemporary Sou thern California Literature (Bilingual Press, 2008).

◙ A SPECIALREQUEST FROM THE UCLA CHICANO STUDIES RESEARCH CENTER:

Help the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center celebrate its 40th anniversary with a gift of $40.

Since its creation in 1969, the Chicano Studies Research Center (CSRC) has been a dynamic community resource, promoting research that makes a difference in a number of critical areas:

Public Policy - CSRC original research helps to inform policy in such areas as education, broadcast media, labor, healthcare, and immigration.

Classroom Resources – CSRC Press publications are in classrooms across the country, helping to shape curriculum with books like The Chicano Studies Reader, now in its 4th printing.

Diversifying Higher Education – Through its research work-study positions, postdoctoral fellowships, and faculty appointments, the CSRC provides professional opportunities for Latino academics and students.

Preserving Chicano/Latino History – The CSRC Library and Archive houses the personal papers and photographs of Latino leaders like Congressman Edward R. Roybal, as well as documents related to community-based organizations. The Frontera Collection is the largest online digital depository of U.S.-based Spanish recordings in the country.

Civic Engagement – The CSRC engages in research-oriented projects with community organizations, including Self-Help Graphics and Casa Libre / Freedom House.

Leadership – CSRC alumni have gone on to become judges, state senators, and film and television producers. Fellows and work-study students gain valuable insight and training in fields like education, government policy, non-profits, and the arts.

The CSRC has earned a national stature for our groundbreaking research and high quality programming. We invite you to join us in celebrating this important milestone by making a gift of $40 to commemorate 40 years of service to the community.

If you’d like more information about any of CSRC's programs or if you’d like to make a multi-payment pledge, please contact Christopher Best at (310) 206-5270 or cbest@support.ucla.edu.

To learn more about the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center, visit the Center 's website or email the Center.

UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center • 193 Haines Hall • Box 951544 • Los Angeles, CA 90095-1544 Campus Mail Code: 154403 • Tel: (310) 825-2363 • Fax: (310) 206-1784

◙ C. M. Mayo's newest book is a novel entitled The Last Prince of the Mexican Em pire (Unbridled Books) and it is receiving very nice reviews, indeed. Mayo sets her narrative in mid-19th century Mexico City and concerns the true story of the short and turbulent reign of the archduke of Austria, Maximilian von Hapsburg, who was made emperor of Mexico in 1864. Writing for the American-Statesman, Rebecca Markovits opines, in part:

"The Last Prince" is Mayo's first novel, and it is a real pleasure to see her sharply focused, academic intelligence stretch comfortably out into the expanses that the form offers. It is a hefty, sprawling work, more than 400 pages long, but at no point does it begin to sag under its own weight. Perhaps because its spread is solidly supported by facts, Mayo's intricate plot trips along at a natural, inexorable pace, easily traveling the sweeping map she has laid out for it, from Washington to Mexico City and all the way to the imperial halls of Europe.

You may read the entire review here.

◙ NEW STORIES ON LATINOLA:

Music Center Tours for Everyone

Don't Dress To Regress by Al Carlos Hernandez

Teada Works Call for Artists 2009/2010 Extended by Edward Padilla

Harley-Davidson Encouraging Harlistas to Share Their Stories by Juana Veliz

LAGRANT Foundation Awards $100,000 in College Scholarships by Veronica Potes

Jennifer Cetrone Sets the Stage for Theatrical Excellence

More at LatinoLA.com

◙ Gregg Barrios had his poem, "El hijo de Frida y Diego," published in the San Antonio Express-News. You may read it here.

◙ The new issue of Somos Primos is now live online. Edited by Mimi Lozano, Somos Primos is a "Dedicated to Hispanic Heritage and Diversity Issues" and is published by the Society of Hispanic Historical and Ancestral Research.

◙ The literary journal PALABRA (Issue 4) has been reviewed in NewPages.com. Click on "Literary Magazine Reviews" link. PALABRA is edited by elena minor. For more information regarding subscriptions and submission guidelines, visit PALABRA's website or write: PALABRA A Magazine of Chicano & Latino Literary Art, P. O. Box 86146, Los Angeles, CA 90086-0146. E-mail works too: palabralit@earthlink.net.

◙ COMICS ARE MUY COOL:

The prolific Frederick Luis Aldama has a new book, Your Brain on Latino Comics: From Gus Arriola to Los Bros Hernandez (University of Texas Press). The cover alone is worth the purchase price. Here's a description from the publisher:

Though the field of comic book studies has burgeoned in recent years, Latino characters and creators have received little attention. Putting the spotlight on this vibrant segment, Your Brain on Latino Comics illuminates the world of superheroes Firebird, Vibe, and the new Blue Beetle while also examining the effects on readers who are challenged to envision such worlds. Exploring mainstream companies such as Marvel and DC as well as rising stars from other segments of the industry, Frederick Aldama provides a new reading of race, ethnicity, and the relatively new storytelling medium of comics themselves. Overview chapters cover the evolution of Latino influences in comics, innovations, and representations of women, demonstrating Latino transcendence of many mainstream techniques. The author then probes the rich and complex ways in which such artists affect the cognitive and emotional responses of readers as they imagine past, present, and future worlds. Twenty-one interviews with Latino comic book and comic strip authors and artists, including Laura Molina, Frank Espinosa, and Rafael Navarro, complete the study, yielding captivating commentary on the current state of the trade, cultural perceptions, and the intentions of creative individuals who shape their readers in powerful ways.

◙ That’s all for now. So, in the meantime, enjoy the intervening posts from mis compadres y comadres here on La Bloga. And remember: ¡Lea un libro!

Cops, Spies, War Heroes and Flowers

2009-06-12T00:01:00.005-06:00

CHICANO SPY?

The first head of the Counter-intelligence Staff of the CIA had Chicano roots. His name was James Jesus Angleton and he was a core figure in U.S. espionage circles from World War II until his resignation in 1974. He was the son of the US-born James Hugh Angleton and Carmen Mercedes Moreno from Nogales, Mexico. It looks as though he never used his middle name later in life and that he didn't self-identify as a Chicano, so I won't go too far with the Chicano tag, but I thought this was an interesting historical footnote. (As Dr. Filipe de Ortego y Gasca has noted, Chicano is more of an ideological label than an ethnicity.)

A recent (2008) book explores Angleton's life and legacy: James Jesus Angleton, the CIA, and the Craft of Counterintelligence, Michael Holzman, University of Massachusetts Press, 2008. In a review of the book in the London Times Online, Terence Hawkes says:

By December 1954, a counter-intelligence staff within the Agency was created and Angleton was duly appointed its head: he became counterintelligence’s “chief theoretician”. It’s easy to condemn what followed. The American literary journal Ramparts was enthusiastically suppressed and any criticism of the government was automatically suspect. Huge lists were compiled of teachers and authors of socialist and even feminist persuasion. By 1967, the CIA began operation of the quaintly named CHAOS, which aimed to investigate the anti-Vietnam war press and the peace movement. The attack on universities was especially vigorous. Entire academic disciplines were sometimes shaped to the goals of the intelligence agencies, or were even initiated by them. All the members of Students for a Democratic Society were placed under surveillance, and most black groups were spied on. The end came for Angleton when the New York Times published Seymour Hersh’s story about CHAOS on December 22, 1974. It did not mince its words. “The Central Intelligence Agency, directly violating its charter, conducted a massive, illegal domestic intelligence operation during the Nixon Administration against the antiwar movement and other dissident groups in the United States.” This was bound to make a public figure of Angleton, who resigned in the same month.

Angleton considered himself a serious poet. He had ties to Ezra Pound, whom he helped capture in Italy; e.e. cummings, and T.S. Eliot. He was an avid fly-fisherman and orchid breeder. On the other hand he was infamous for his zeal and paranoia, and was forced to resign amid charges that he had almost destroyed the CIA. He cleared out the entire Russian Bureau of the CIA because he thought they were all Russian spies. Yet he was deceived for years by counter-spies such as Kim Philby. He helped create the present-day acceptance of Guantánamo, water-boarding, etc. in the CIA with his tactics and ideology. He may have called himself a poet but there's no evidence that he had a poet's sensibility. As my wife said once, even rapists ride bikes.

CHICANA COPS

On June 12, 2009, Conversations with American Heroes at the Watering Hole will feature a discussion with authors Sarah Cortez and Liz Martínez. The show airs at 9:00 pm (Pacific) at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/LawEnforcement/2009/06/13/How-to-Undress-a-Cop

About the Guests
Sarah Cortez has been in law enforcement since 1993. During her career she has worked as a patrol officer, field training officer and sexual assault investigator. After her writing career began, she continued in law enforcement as a reserve police officer and has been assigned as a juvenile bailiff, worked undercover during alcohol stings and assisted with the service of civil processes. Sarah Cortez is the author of How to Undress a Cop: Poems and a coauthor/editor of Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery.

Liz Martínez’ short stories have appeared in the anthologies Manhattan Noir, Queens Noir, and Cop Tales 2000, and in publications including COMBAT: the Literary Expression of Battlefield Touchstones and Police Officer’s Quarterly. Her short story Kris Kringle was Orchard Press Mystery’s Christmas 2000 feature. She is also the author of the non-fiction book The Retail Manager’s Guide to Crime and Loss Prevention, and her articles about security and law enforcement have appeared in publications around the world. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers, and the Public Safety Writers Association. She and Sarah Cortez are also co-editors of the anthology Indian Country Noir from Akashic Books (Brooklyn).

About the Watering Hole
The Watering Hole is police slang for a location cops go off-duty to blow off steam and talk about work and life. Sometimes funny; sometimes serious; but, always interesting.

About the Host
Lieutenant Raymond E. Foster was a member of the Los Angeles Police Department for 24 years. He retired in 2003 at the rank of Lieutenant. He holds a bachelor’s from the Union Institute and University in Criminal Justice Management and a Master’s Degree in Public Financial Management from California State University, Fullerton and has completed his doctoral course work.

Listen, call, join in at the Watering Hole:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/LawEnforcement/2009/06/13/How-to-Undress-a-Cop

Program Contact Information
Lieutenant Raymond E. Foster, LAPD (ret.), MPA
editor@police-writers.com
909.599.7530

CHICANO WAR HERO

Here's the text of Senate Concurrent Resolution 22 from the Texas legislature, sent to the Texas Governor for signing on May 28, 2009. It tells the story of Marcelino Serna, a brave man who some think never got the recognition he deserved.

SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The Medal of Honor is the nation's highest decoration for valor in combat awarded to members of the United States armed forces; generally presented to recipients by the president of the United States on congress's behalf, it is often called the Congressional Medal of Honor; and

WHEREAS, First authorized in 1861 for United States Navy and Marine Corps personnel and for United States Army soldiers the following year, Medals of Honor are awarded sparingly and bestowed only on those individuals performing documented acts of gallant heroism against an enemy force; and

WHEREAS, Since congress authorized the award, 70 Medals of Honor have been accredited to the State of Texas, yet other Texans have similarly distinguished themselves by acts of courageous gallantry in combat no less deserving of such recognition; one such individual is Marcelino Serna, a native of Mexico whose unflinching and selfless bravery and acts of uncommon valor on the battlefields of World War I made him one of Texas' most decorated heroes; and

WHEREAS, Born in the Mexican state of Chihuahua in 1896, he came to the United States as a young man in search of a better life, working various jobs in Texas, Kansas, and Colorado; and

WHEREAS, In 1917, Mr. Serna was working in Colorado when the United States, unable to remain neutral any longer while war raged in Europe, declared war on Germany; later that year, federal officials in Denver, Colorado, gathered a group of men and held them until their draft status could be verified; and

WHEREAS, Included in this group, Mr. Serna chose not to wait for such verification and instead volunteered for service in the United States Army; after only three weeks of training, 20-year-old Private Serna was shipped to England, where he was assigned to the 355th Infantry of the 89th Division, a unit that was to see action in some of the most arduous campaigns of the war; and

WHEREAS, By the time the unit arrived in France, Private Serna's status as a noncitizen had come to light, and he was consequently offered a discharge from the army; given the opportunity to return home, Private Serna refused the discharge, choosing to stay with his unit as it began its advance toward the Meuse River and Argonne Forest in northeastern France; and

WHEREAS, At Saint Mihiel, Private Serna’s unit was moving through thick brush when a German machine gunner opened fire, killing 12 American soldiers; with his lieutenant's permission, Private Serna, a scout, continued forward, dodging machine-gun fire until he reached the gunner's left flank; and

WHEREAS, Having come through a hail of bullets unscathed, despite being hit twice in the helmet, Private Serna got close enough to lob four grenades into the machine-gun nest, killing six enemy soldiers and taking into custody the eight survivors, who quickly surrendered to the lone American soldier; and

WHEREAS, This encounter was followed shortly by an even more astounding feat when, during his second scouting mission in the Meuse-Argonne campaign, Private Serna captured 24 German soldiers with his Enfield rifle and grenades, an episode that began when he spied a sniper walking on a trench bank; and

WHEREAS, Although the sniper was about 200 yards away, Private Serna shot and wounded him, then followed the wounded German's trail into a trench, where he discovered several more enemy soldiers; opening fire, Private Serna killed three of the enemy and scattered the others in that initial burst; and

WHEREAS, Frequently changing positions, Private Serna fooled the enemy into thinking they were under fire from several Americans, keeping up the ruse until he was close enough to lob three grenades into the German dugout; in about 45 minutes of furious action, Private Serna managed to kill 26 German soldiers and capture another 24, whom he held captive by himself until his unit arrived; and

WHEREAS, Enduring several months of combat action largely unharmed, Private Serna was shot in both legs by a sniper four days before the Armistice; while he was convalescing in an army hospital in France, General John J. Pershing, commander-in-chief of the American Expeditionary Forces, decorated Private Serna with the Distinguished Service Cross, the second highest American combat medal; and

WHEREAS, Private Serna also received two French Croix de Guerre with Palm medals, the French Medaille Militaire, the French Commemorative Medal, the Italian Cross of Merit, the World War I Victory Medal, the Victory Medal with three campaign bars, the Saint Mihiel Medal, the Verdun Medal, and two Purple Hearts; and

WHEREAS, Discharged from the army in 1919, Marcelino Serna settled in El Paso, where he became a United States citizen, entered the civil service, and lived out his retirement years until his death in 1992; although he lived the most ordinary of lives after the war, Mr. Serna was, for a brief moment in time, an extraordinary hero whose remarkable feats of bravery under fire elevated him into the pantheon of American heroes; and

WHEREAS, In 1993, Texas Congressman Ronald D. Coleman introduced a measure in the 103rd Congress to waive certain statutory time limits on awarding the Medal of Honor and thus bestow on Marcelino Serna the proper recognition he so richly deserves; unfortunately, the measure did not receive a proper hearing, thereby denying the legacy of Mr. Serna its proper place in history; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That the 81st Legislature of the State of Texas hereby respectfully urge the Congress of the United States to reopen consideration of this case to posthumously award the Medal of Honor to World War I hero Marcelino Serna and, be it further

RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to the speaker of the house of representatives and the president of the senate of the United States Congress, and to all the members of the Texas delegation to the congress with the request that this resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.

The resolution leaves out the part of the story where Serna was told that buck privates couldn't get the Medal of Honor (not true) and that because he didn't speak English he couldn't be promoted. You can read more about Serna at this link, or this one, or this one. There may be some information about Serna in Hispanics in America's Defense: by Department of Defense; Publisher: U.S. Government Printing Office (1990); ASIN: B000GWLOMU.

FLOWERS FROM FLO'S GARDEN

_____________________________________________

That was a bit different, no?

Later.

Identity in Two Parts -- 2 Poems

2009-06-11T00:01:00.001-06:00

Woodcut by Maria Arango (c)

(When I was twenty-five.....)

RECLAMATION

In this dream,
I am whole.
I am no longer
saving other people’s stories,
scavenging their words;
sifting thru their remains.

In this dream,
my fingers run
thru Frida’s hair.
In this hair, I plait
dark flowers
the color of blood.
She tells me
the jaguar comes
to bring me power.
The medicine
to end this pain,
the food for this hunger.

In this dream,
I have made magic
from the mud of the Rio Grande.
Wrapped in corridas and ranchero music;
are spells
and incantations
to undo
the age of forgetfulness
and indoctrination.

In this dream,
I have a lover
whose face is stone;
ancient as a temple marker.
His mouth is full,
his eyes half closed.
He whispers:

“Come to me, mí índia,
mí pequeña perdida.
Remember who you are
Remember who you are.”

(And twenty years later...)

MEXICO: 90 DAYS AND COUNTING OR YOU
REALLY CAN’T GO HOME AGAIN
iridescent electric pink
bougainvillea
line the boulevard
next to where
someone’s pissing
right in the middle of the day
yesterday’s pozole
slick and greenish
stains the street
around the corner
from the Monument to the Revolution
where a golden angel
looks down on prostitutes
with imitation Chanel bags
and taxis are
green and yellow beetles
carrying sour businessmen
who ask the teenage pimps
how much
the cross-eyed
boy in the Lucha Libre mask
stares at me
and runs past barefoot beggar children
in clown makeup
but the clowns never smile
and they’re on every corner
they block the path
of women going to work
wearing not quite
put together
cheap copies
of clothes they saw
in Vogue or Cosmo
but nothing really matches
they always wear
white heels
or a belt with a giant buckle
and the requisite miniskirt that makes
their ass stand out
so that the pesero driver
with one gold tooth
always holds their change for just that extra second
I don’t get the shits
but baby-faced doctors run IV’s in both arms
for migraines and food poisoning
the fat man who served me
chiles rellenos
laughed at my buzz cut
and winked
when he slid me the plate
outside the ER
stand private guards
with tight lips and clenched pistols
working their job
they scowl at the howling sushi delivery boys
on motorbikes
who rush to the bar for a quick one
in between deliveries
inside the Museo Bellas Artes
I see the outstretched arms of Rivera’s peasants
and refuse the outstretched arms
of the Indian sitting at the bus stop
I clutch my postcards
with Frida’s self-portraits
the one with the red dress
the one with the hammer and sickle body brace
down the street from my favorite helado stand
the one with flavors like
guayaba mango cajeta
a man grabs my crotch
to see if I have any balls
I almost knock over
a tianguis stand of charro Barbies
the seller’s daughter
a girl with an olive oval face
blinks her long lashes in disbelief
What is this American doing here?

From Raw Silk Suture/Floricanto Press/2008

Tejas Star Book Award 2008-2009 Winner

2009-06-10T01:00:00.000-06:00

The Tejas Star Book Award was created by the Region One ESC Library Advisory Committee to promote reading in general and for readers to discover the cognitive and economic benefits of bilingualism and multilingualism. All the children of Texas have the opportunity to select their favorite book from the Tejas Star list during the 2008-2009 school year.

Congratulations to Xavier Garza! His bilingual book Lucha Libre, The Man in the Silver Mask: a bilingual cuento (Cinco Puntos Press) won the 2008-2009 Tejas Star Book award.

This is the description of the book:

THEY'RE NO LONGER SOMEONE NAMED ALEJANDRO LOPEZ OR HORACIO BALDERA. THEY BECOME CHICANO POWER, THEY BECOME THE RED DEVIL.

Do you know what lucha libre is? Have you ever been to a lucha libre match and seen los technicos and los rudos—the good guys and the bad guys—dressed up in their wild costumes and crazy masks? How would you feel if the most famous luchador of all time actually stopped and smiled at you? Find out what happens to Carlitos when The Man in the Silver Mask—a man he’s never seen before in his whole life—turns and does that very thing to him.

Kids—of all ages—are drawn to the allure of lucha libre and its masked men and women. In Lucha Libre, young fans will see this fascinating world come alive: favorite heroes and much-feared villains, dressed in dazzling and outrageous costumes, strut and prance across the mat and bounce against the ropes, daring anyone to take them to the floor!

The 2008-2009 Tejas Star Book Award finalists are:

-Andricaín, Sergio (Comp). (2008). Arco Iris de Poesía: Poemas de las Américas y España. New York: Lectorum [Scholastic]. Olga Cuellar (Illus.) ISBN: 1930332599

-Argueta, Jorge. (2006). La fiesta de las tortillas/The Fiesta of the Tortillas. Miami: Alfaguara [Santillana]. María Jesús Álvarez (Illus.) ISBN: 1598200941

-Brown, Mónica. (2007). Butterflies on Carmen Street/Mariposas en la calle Carmen. Houston: Piñata Books [Arte Público]. April Ward (Illus.) ISBN: 9781558854840

-Colato Laínez, René. (2005). I am René, the Boy/Soy René, el Niño. Houston: Piñata Books [Arte Público]. Fabiola Graullera Ramírez (Illus). ISBN: 1558853782

-Cuenca, Héctor. (2008). La cucarachita Martina. New York: Lectorum [Scholastic]. ISBN: 1933032367

-Lázaro, Georgina. (2007). Juana Inés. Cuando los grandes eran pequeños. New York: Lectorum [Scholastic]. Bruno González Preza (Illus.) ISBN: 1930332572

-Pérez, Amada Irma. (2007). Nana’s Big Surprise/Nana, ¡Qué Sorpresa! San Francisco, Calfornia: Children’s Book Press. Maya Christina González (Illus.) ISBN 0892391901

-Romeu, Emma. (2007). El rey de las octavas. New York: Lectorum [Scholastic]. Enrique S. Moreiro (Illus.) ISBN: 193303226X

-Ruiz-Flores, Lupe. (2007). The Woodcutter’s Gift/El regalo del leñador. Houston: Piñata Books [Arte Público]. Elaine Jerome (Illus.) ISBN: 9781558854895

-Tafolla, Carmen and Sharyll Teneyuca. (2008). That’s Not Fair! Emma Tenayuca’s Struggle for Justice/¡No es Justo! La lucha de Emma Tenayuca por la justicia. San Antonio, Texas: Wings Press. Terry Ybañez (Illus.) ISBN: 9780916727338

-Zepeda, Gwendolyn. (2008). Growing up with Tamales/Los Tamales de Ana. Houston: Piñata Books [Arte Público]. April Ward (Illus.) ISBN: 9781558854932

....And the nominees for the 2009-2010 Tejas Star Book Award are:

-Alire Sáenz, Benjamin. (2008). A Perfect Season for Dreaming/Un tiempo perfecto para soñar. El Paso, TX: Cinco Puntos. Esau Andrade Valencia (illus.). Lluis Humberto Crosthwaite (trans.). ISBN: 978-1-933693-01-9. Gr. 1-5.

-Anaya, Rudolfo. (2007). The First Tortilla: A Bilingual Story. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. Amy Córdova (illus.). Enrique R. Lamadrid (trans.) ISBN: 978-0-8263-4214-0. Gr. 3+.

-Brown, Monica. (2007). My Name is Gabito/Me llamo Gabito. Flagstaff, AZ: Luna Rising. Raúl Colón (illus.). ISBN: 978-0-87358-908-6. Gr. K-3.

-Costales, Amy. (2007). Abuelita Full of Life/Abuelita llena de vida. Flagstaff, AZ: Luna Rising. Martha Avilés (illus.) ISBN: 978-0-87358-914-7. Gr. K-2.

-Garza, Xavier. (2008). Charro Claus and the Tejas Kid. El Paso, TX: Cinco Puntos. ISBN: 978-1-933693-24-8. Gr. 2-5.

-Gonzalez Bertrand, Diane. (2007). We Are Cousins/Somos primos. Houston: Piñata Books. Christina E. Rodriguez (illus.). ISBN: 978-1-55885-486-4. Gr. K-3.

-González, Lucía. (2007). The Storyteller’s Candle/La velita de los cuentos. San Francisco: Children’s Book Press. Lulu Delacre (illus.). ISBN: 978-0-89239-222-3. Gr. 3-6.

Review: Marie Arana. Lima Nights.

2009-06-09T00:01:00.004-06:00

NY: Random House, 2009.

ISBN: 978-0-385-34258-2 (0-385-34258-6)

Michael Sedano

Maria walks into the central city crowd, homeless, destitute, the rest of her life in front of her. And that’s that. Bluhm chases her, losing ground until suddenly she is not there.

After twenty years with Maria, before that life with a wife, his mother, two kids, a maid, Carlos Bluhm stares into the brownness of the city numb with pain, oblivious to the crowd’s resentment of his gringoness on their streets. In the distance, Bluhm’s German-Peruvian pals call his name to bring him back into their protective embrace. So ends Marie Arana’s Lima Nights. It’s a novel whose pages you keep turning not because the characters are endearing—quite the opposite—but to see if there’s a point to Carlos Bluhm’s loser of a life.

Maria has never been there throughout the novel, despite her pivotal role in the mess that is Bluhm’s life. He first spots her at a taxi dance bar, Lima Nights, where women keep men buying liquor, then after hours making whatever deals they can turn. An experienced woman counsels Maria to capture a man’s attention by slipping her datos into the guy’s coat pocket. Make a good choice and a woman earns long-term security and a taste of the good life that comes of being a man’s mistress.

Maria chooses Carlos, a forty-something man out on the town with his three pals. Not that Maria’s been on the job all that long, or other work for that matter. She’s fifteen years old, a couple weeks from turning legal. Maria desperately wants out of a life in Lima’s worst slum, her mother an alcoholic who takes in men and laundry to support Maria and her two brothers. Talk about highly motivated to do whatever it takes to shake free of that futureless history, that’s Maria. If something good has come of Maria’s years with Carlos it’s the slim chance that her future will not be to return to that slum and her mother’s footsteps.

But Lima Nights is not Maria’s story. And it’s not Carlos Bluhm’s, despite his central role. Lima Nights is a political novel. Marriage politics looms above all, defining the tragedy that comes to familia Bluhm. Arana casts a cold, subjective eye on men’s philandering and women’s tolerance. Except for Oscar the shrink, the cohort are scions of rich families down on their luck. With their grandfathers’ economic empires dismantled, the men live in Lima’s elegant houses but work regular jobs like camera salesman, appliance store entrepreneur, hotel manager. Bluhm struggles to make ends meet; to pay for his pleasures he begins dismantling his heritage, selling family silver and pre-hispanic artifacts.

Maria never gives a conscious thought to what she’s done to Bluhm’s family, other than one uncomfortable moment staring into the eyes of Bluhm’s younger son, who is older than Maria and who finds Maria beautiful. The women’s attitudes range from bitter resentment of the men covering for each other to zero tolerance only when confronted by hard proof. That’s Bluhm’s wife. Only when confronted with firm evidence of Bluhm’s tryst with the Indian girl, does the wife move out, taking Bluhm’s mother with her, and the maid. Maria moves into the empty house the first night. It is an empty dream but she takes full advantage of it, investing the next twenty years of escape in making the nest a comfortable home.

Bluhm’s friends cannot understand his actions. Not that the girl is not alluring, nor that she’s only fifteen. Only the psychiatrist is troubled by the child’s age. For his part, Bluhm anxiously waits until her birthday to make his first physical move on her. Maria’s main fault is being a chola--brown-skinned India. Indians like her, according to Bluhm’s buddies, are good for a one-night stand but not someone to settle down with. It’s an attitude Maria feels too, thinking herself disposable to men like Bluhm.

This vicious prejudice permeates Bluhm’s light-skinned society. It is the immovable force against the irresistible force of Peru’s indigenous and mestizo masses. This ugly undercurrent of hatred converts Lima Nights from a sadness-infused battle of the sexes fable to a frustrating metaphor for Peru’s decaying colonialism. The intractable divide between cholas like Maria and white-skinned Europeans like the Bluhm’s German-Peruvian social circle offers no escape to either side. There is hope. Bluhm’s sons wash their hands of their father’s past—neither of them wants nor needs the old place, they’ve carved out their own fortunes by dint of their own labor. Just as there’s hope that Maria’s future will not be like her past, if she can parlay into a job what she’s learned as a chola living a middle-class gringo life. If not, there’s always the slum, or the Shining Path, or something less.

A ver, Maria. Suerte. Carlos, you did it to yourself and whatever happens next, you have it coming. Readers have it coming to them to enjoy Arana's Lima Nights.

There's the second Tuesday of June 2009. A Tuesday like any other Tuesday, except you are here. And thank you for visiting La Bloga.

mvs

La Bloga welcomes your comments. Click the Comments counter below to share your thoughts on today's or any column. La Bloga welcomes guest columnists, as last week when Lydia Gil reported on Luis Urrea's reading at Denver's Tattered Cover. If you have a book review, or an arts or cultural event to report, click here and tell us about your guest column.

Specific lives, universal truths

2009-06-08T00:01:00.000-06:00

Author strikes balance in '70s coming-of-age stories

Live from Fresno y Los: Stories (Bear Star Press) by Stephen D. Gutierrez

Book review by Daniel A. Olivas

Stephen D. Gutierrez's new book of short fiction, Live from Fresno y Los: Stories (Bear Star Press, $16 paperback), bears witness to the excitement and pain, exhilaration and disappointments, of growing up Chicano in Fresno and Los Angeles during the 1970s.

He renders his world in honest, eloquent brush strokes, creating stories that are simultaneously grounded in a particular culture while remaining universal in their message. He does this without sacrificing his trademark sense of humor.

He so perfectly captures the awkwardness and yearnings of puberty in the new collection that some of his stories made me break out into a cold sweat. In a recent interview with him, I asked how he felt as he revisited that era through fiction.

Gutierrez acknowledged that he "felt emotionally drawn into the times of those stories, not necessarily painfully, but fully aware that I had somehow come to grips with whatever inspired the stories by writing about them somewhat artistically -- that is to say, with the detachment necessary to shape raw emotions into something meaningful."

But in the end, no matter how difficult it might have been to revisit the past, writing makes Gutierrez happy, which, he said, is the bottom line.

One of my favorite stories in the collection is "The Barbershop," which concerns an aging father's last days and his family's attempts to cope. The power of this story comes from the very simple attempt by the father to get a haircut and maintain some dignity.
The story, Gutierrez said, is "pretty much autobiographical." He explained that his father suffered from a "horrendous" form of early-onset Alzheimer's complicated by other maladies.

"One day I saw him take what I already knew to be a heroic walk up to the front door of his regular barbershop for his last haircut. The image of him setting off down the sidewalk stayed with me, and I tried to make something out of it."

In the story "Harold, All American," Gutierrez writes about the racial and ethnic tensions among East Los Angeles teenagers: Chicanos vs. "Okies" vs. "wetbacks." The youths' emotions are raw and tattered, and their reaction to the surrounding world is nothing less than brutal. I asked Gutierrez whether he thought this type of struggle continues into adulthood.

"I think it does change," he said. "Everybody grows up, matures, laughs about it, how stupid one was as an adolescent, how commonly adolescent one was after all, how narrow-minded and protective of one's own fragile identity against everyone else." However, Gutierrez acknowledged that "there are some who refuse to grow up and carry hate into their adult lives," which he said is simply sad.

Gutierrez's stories have a particular emotional resonance for me because they conjure up images and personalities from my old neighborhood near downtown Los Angeles.

But there is universality in his subjects: adolescent struggle, aging parents, deep friendships, falling in love, the need to make a place in the world. Gutierrez understands this aspect of his stories.

"I think all writing is geared toward a particular audience; the suburban novel is going to bore stiff the urban reader," he explained. "But let me amend that: Most writing, by default, is particularized and necessarily appealing to a smaller audience than intended."

In the end, he hopes his characters "are deeply recognizable from whatever background you have -- they are people caught in the crux of life, facing their own demons."

Without a doubt, Gutierrez has succeeded in creating characters that transcend accent, culture and place in these deeply moving, well-crafted stories.

[This review first appeared in the El Paso Times]

Is Cockiness Passé?

2009-06-06T23:10:00.003-06:00

Far be it from me to argue with Simon Cowell, but as I watched the finale of American Idol and boy-next-door Kris Allen win the title I finalized a theory I have been brewing for the last few months. You see Simon has told Kris from the beginning that he had to be more confident, cockier, but I would argue that the boy’s humility and lack of cockiness is exactly what won the competition for Kris. And I’m wondering…does this represent a sea change in the arts, particularly in the music industry?

I actually began thinking about this when I attended a keynote speech given by brilliant Dominican author Julia Alvarez. The conference organizer who was doing the introduction stood before us and read a long list of all of Julia’s publications as people shifted in their chairs. She listed every award and accolade (of which there are MANY) whilst the author herself sat on the stage in her rebozo looking uncomfortable and anxious as we were for it to be over with. Finally Julia leaned over to the woman and told her, “You can skip through all that. Please.” She really wasn’t about all that and clearly wasn’t comfortable being fawned over. Now you could argue that the very fact that she would tell the woman to move on displayed a certain level of confidence, but being confident and being arrogant are two very different things. Ms. Alvarez is the former but not the latter. But that very afternoon I was on my elliptical listening to Latin Hip Hop and Reggaeton and it came to me… Perhaps with the current national climate, the time for arrogance is fading.

I was listening to Pitbull and Daddy Yankee and began counting how many times they repeated their names and their record labels as part of the “lyrics.” When I play Nicky Jam’s album “The Black Carpet” it has become a joke between my son and I how many times he says, “Nicky Jams, yo!” over and over and over throughout the recording, as well as the name of the album. I mean, I KNOW who it is and what it’s called, I bought the damn thing, didn’t I? I stopped and admitted that this had begun to seem arrogant and self-indulgent to me. Now I know it was begun as a way for a people who fought for recognition and a voice to represent themselves, a way for unrepresented people to demand to be heard, and I know this has played an important part in the culture of modern music. But though I am far from the usual demographic I think things are changing. I think in this Obamera (Obama-era…I just made that up!) and with the country struggling with the economy and survival we are turning outward rather than inward, confident rather than arrogant.

Now I know the average AI watcher is not going to be into Reggaeton, but I can guarantee that a large amount of those young girls who voted for Kris also paid 99 cents to download Fergalicious, which could not be more self-promoting if it tried, but it was hard not to respond to his total non-pretention and lack of slickness. Though I am a serious Adam fan I couldn’t help but be drawn in to Kris’s shock as they announced his name as the winner. He, like Julia Alvarez, comes across as someone you could be friends with who just happens to be talented and famous. They don’t need to repeat their names over and over again because we remember their names because we like them. We like them because they’re not obnoxious and constantly reminding us that they’re better or more famous. They’re one of us.

Am I just an aging idealist whose channeling her socialist mother, or do you think the “me generation” is now become an “us generation?” One can only hope.