2015 Reading Rock Stars - Rio Grande Valley Authors

Lydia Gil, René Saldaña, Jr., Libby Martinez, Pat Mora, Laura Lacámara, Carolyn Dee Flores

and Texas Book Festival Outreach Coordinator, Kendall Miller

McAllen, TX

Last week I had the good fortune of participating in the "Reading Rock Stars"--a fantastic program of the Texas Book Festival that brings authors from around the country to present their books in schools along the Rio Grande Valley. So students get to meet an author or illustrator AND each gets an autographed copy of the book!

According to Kendall Miller of the Texas Book Festival, for many students this is the first non-school book they will own. Professor Amy Cummins of UTPA added that the impact of "Reading Rock Stars" on the cultural literacy of the area has been enormous.

We visited schools in Pharr, Mission, Edinburg and McAllen, where teachers, principals and librarians rolled out the red carpet for us. They went all out to engage students with the readings through super creative pre- and post-reading writing activities and crafts. It was such a treat to meet our readers and learn about their connections to our books!

Here are some highlights of our "Reading Rock Stars" experience:

René Saldaña, Jr.

"Steph picked Laura and me up at the airport; on the drive to the hotel, she explained to us that Reading Rock Stars and the Texas Book Festival have given out over 60K books to children over the last several years. As the Rio Grande Valle is where I was born and raised, this number is important to me. Most of the recipients have never owned a book in their lives. Now they do, and they have the added benefit of having met the author or illustrator.

Walking up and down the hallways is always a highlight, seeing what art and reading connections our readers have made. At Zapata, one boy had drawn a portrait of me from off a promotional shot. At the same school, each classroom dedicated it's door and hallway to one number and image from Carolyn's and my picture book.

One fifth grader asked which of the American Revolution patriots I hated the most. I can honestly say I've never been asked about nor have found occasion to think about this topic. I answered Benedict Arnold, who it turns out was not a true patriot but a Royalist-wanna-be. The boy said Ethan Allen was his."

Carolyn Dee Flores

"There is no organization closer to my heart than Reading Rock Stars. We see first-hand how the smallest of children love books. I found this one little girl reading our book Dale, dale, dale/Hit It, Hit It, Hit It underneath a library table, and nobody knew she was there.

Pat Mora & Libby Martinez

"One of my special moments during RRS was at Zapata Elementary when a young boy said,

'I just want you to know that even though your visit is ending, it will continue in my heart.' So incredibly moving..." - Libby

"I treasure the memory of the pre-K girls dressed as the Statue of Liberty and a judge in connection with the book my daughter and I shared, I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE. I also cherish the children's smiles when they received their books." -Pat

Lydia Gil

"I loved reading the children's letters to heaven, to their loved ones who had passed away... Some were open for everyone to read; others were in envelopes because they were too personal.

I met a girl who said her grandma died the week before they started reading Letters from Heaven.

'It helped me a lot,' she said."

Laura Lacámara

"I experienced many gratifying, touching moments at the Reading Rock Stars event in Texas last week. There's one moment in particular that stands out for me. After one of my author/illustrator presentations of my book, Dalia's Wondrous Hair, one little girl made her presence known. She hugged her copy of my book tightly, swished her long braid back and forth, and declared: “I love this book. I love my hair. I love it all!”

RRS Authors:
Laura Lacámara is the award-winning author and illustrator of Dalia’s Wondrous Hair / El cabello maravilloso de Dalia, and Floating on Mama’s Song / Flotando en la canción de mamá. Illustrated by Yuyi Morales, Floating on Mama’s Song was a Junior Library Guild Selection for Fall 2010 and was a Tejas Star Book Award Finalist for 2011-2012. Laura illustrated the 2012 Tejas Star Book Award winner, The Runaway Piggy / El cochinito fugitivo, as well as Alicia’s Fruity Drinks / Las aguas frescas de Alicia. Laura earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drawing and Painting at California State University, Long Beach. She studied printmaking at Self Help Graphics in East Los Angeles.Laura lives in Southern California with her husband and their daughter.

René Saldaña,Jr. is the author of several books for young adults. His most recent title is Dale, dale, dale: Una fiesta de números/Hit It, Hit It, Hit It: A Fiesta of Numbers (Carolyn Dee Flores, illustrator), a bilingual counting book celebrating Mexican American fiestas that includes piñatas and friends and family. With Erika Garza-Johnson, he co-edited Juventud!, an anthology of short fiction and poetry for young adults. He teaches in the College of Education at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, where he lives with his family.

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Carolyn DeeFlores (Trinity University) is a rock musician/composer, turned computer analyst, turned children’s book illustrator. Dale, dale, dale / Hit It, Hit It, Hit It : Una fiesta de números / A Fiesta of Numbers, written by René Saldaña Jr., is her latest book. Carolyn’s debut book Canta, rana, canta / Sing, Froggie, Sing is about an underwater singing frog and is currently on the Tejas Star 2014 Reading List. Her second book, Daughters of Two Nations, won a 2014 Skipping Stones Honor Award for excellence in multicultural literature.

Lydia Gilwas born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. She is the author of the bilingual children’s picture book, Mimí’s Parranda / La parranda de Mimí, and the middle-grade novel Letters from Heaven / Cartas del cielo. She teaches at the University of Denver and writes for EFE, the leading Spanish-language news agency. She holds a Ph.D. in Spanish from the University of Texas at Austin and a Master of Arts in Comparative Literature from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Libby Martinez is the co-author of two children’s picture books – I Pledge Allegiance (Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers) and Bravo, Chico Canta! Bravo! (Groundwood Books). Her mother, the award-winning author Pat Mora, was her writing partner for both of these books. Prior to becoming a children’s book author, Libby worked in the Texas political arena, served as the director of school and community partnerships for the Philadelphia Zoo, and founded a strategy consulting practice. She is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and Stanford Law School, and now lives in Colorado with her husband and a cat named Squirrel.

Pat Morais the author of more than forty-five books for all ages. She has published poetry, nonfiction, and children’s books, some in bilingual formats and Spanish editions. An educator and literacy advocate, in 1996, she founded Children’s Day, Book Day/ El día de los niños, El día de los libros (often known as Día), a year-long family initiative that honors children and connects them with bookjoy. Annually, across the country, April book fiestas reach out creatively to all children and families in all languages. Pat, a native of El Paso who now lives in Santa Fe, is the mother of three grown children and a sweet, Austin granddaughter.

Melinda Palacio

A hidden oasis in Alhambra

Terry Wolverton, Luivette Resto, Melinda Palacio, Lisa Cheby, and Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo

Last Sunday, Hitched, the reading series, started by Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo at Beyond Baroque in Venice five years ago, to Alhambra at Holy Grounds Coffee & Tea.

A week ago, everything was going without a hitch until two of the featured readers, Sharon Venezio and Karineh Mahdessian took sick. Terry Wolverton filled in for Sharon and I filled in for Karineh. In the spirit of women helping women and International Women's Day, there was an all-female lineup.

Terry Wolverton opened the set with her powerful poems.

Lisa Cheby read from her new chapbook, Love Letters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Lisa receives flowers.

Four years ago, I had the honor of reading in Hitched at Beyond Baroque with Alicia Partnoy, Ramon Garcia, Sholeh Wolpe and Bilal Shaw. The space at Beyond Baroque is dark with all the doors and windows blacked out for an intimate theatre setting. Beyond Baroque is famous for being the place in L.A. where poets read.

Bird fountain at Holy Grounds

Holy Grounds is a light and airy oasis in the middle of East L.A.'s warehouse district. You really do feel like you're in church, listening to a poet read in front of a stage, surrounded by tall stained glass windows.

Luivette Resto and Melinda Palacio

I was happy to heed the call of poetry and get "hitched" with Luivette Resto and fill in for Karineh who lost her voice and was under the weather. Luivette and I are often paired together at poetry events since we are both Tía Chucha Press poets. In fact, we have both represented Tia Chucha Press at several events and venues, including Beyond Baroque, the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Chicago's Guild Literary Complex, and the Words and Music Festival.

Perhaps, this was why I felt comfortable reading in my temporary salon chanclas. In the morning, my sister Emily had insisted we get pedicures. This was my first pedicure since I broke my leg in July, and I had forgotten what a great deal of time needed for toe nails to dry. I had planned on putting on my shoes before the reading, but I was at home with fellow female poets on International Women's Day.

Luivette's butterfly tattoo and my spa chanclas.

Luivette closes the show with her memorable poems.
(No RBF here; (you had to have been there))

Poet, Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo was invited to be a curator at Beyond Baroque by then board member and poet, Jerry Garcia, who was also in the audience. In an email, she explained why she moved the series to Alhambra.

"I was excited for the opportunity because it's a prestigious poetry center with a long history grounded in the Venice beat scene, but running the reading series grew difficult over time because it's a history and community I don't feel particularly connected to. I grew up going to school at the San Gabriel Mission and spent my weekends running after ice cream trucks at my grandparents' house in Boyle Heights, so the east side of L.A. is where my heart is. On top of that, so many exciting things have been happening in the last few years around the east and northeast parts of L.A. that I enjoy and support like the La Palabra and Blue Bird reading series at Avenue 50 in Highland Park, Las Lunas Locas women's writing circle at Here & Now in El Sereno, and the ZzyZx WriterZ, and I just hope HITCHED can add to the scene."

Alhambra avenue is full of surprises. Someone mentioned one of the furniture stores turns into a nightlclub. You never know what you might find, but a respite of poetry and cafe de olla is perfect for a Sunday afternoon.

Hitched is a quarterly series. The next reading will be June 21 at 4pm and features Rachelle Cruz with Micah Tasaka and Ben Loory with Tommy Moore.

NPR's list of Top 100 Science-Fiction & Fantasy Books had one USican Spanish-surname, Diana Gabaldon. I left a comment that there really were zero, since Gabaldon, to my knowledge, doesn't call herself anything but "American" and doesn't write about any Latinos. At public readings, she insisted her name be pronounced as an English word. So, 0--zero--USican Latinos on another best-of list. [Actually, not even Octavia Butler was included!]

Kids and adults reading this may not realize the message NPR is sending. It's the message of same-ole exclusionary, white-privilege, not only that Latinos don't write spec-lit, but that none of it compares to The100. To use a kid-expression, it made me want to throw up in my mouth and deliberately swallow it.

Pero, ya basta. Times are changing. The old White Guy Hero Saves the World is being chipped away.

No matter what you read or write, pumping out the classic tropes, classic plots, cardboard characters and stereotyped fiction is the receding wave of the past. The ivory tower of USican literature has been spray-painted with the graffiti art of people of color. The cornerstones crumble.

To glimpse the promise of the future, here's excerpts from articles that are worth reading in their entirety. Again, no matter which genres interest you, nearly all these articles can serve your art. Most of them are by women--some white--which possibly says something about who's carrying the good fight. Hint: Not enough old white guys have found their huevos and jumped in.

10 ways white people are more racist than they realizeby Kali Holloway

Here's links to the science, the studies, the books, the facts that'll convince everybody but racists and right-wingers. Demographics that can be used in any fiction.

Set Truth on Stun: Reimagining an Anti-Oppressive SF/F by Daniel José Older

A great roundtable discussion of spec-lit authors, led by DanielJosé.

Putting the I in Speculative: Looking at U.S. Latino/a Writers and Stories by Sabrina Vourvoulias

"The U.S. Latino/a speculative fiction writer is largely invisible to the speculative mainstream editor, publisher, reviewer and anthologist. U.S. Latin@s are writing anyway. Fictions haunted by mestizo, Afro-Latino/a and indigenous ghosts, legends and magic. Fictions of future cities built on the foundations poured by Latino/a immigrants and Mexicans whose roots in the United States go back more than 400 years. Fictions populated by sinuous and spiky sentences in English mixed with Spanish, with Spanglish and Nahuatl and Chicano Caló."

They are not ghosts: On the representation of the indigenous peoples of North America in science fiction and fantasyby Maureen Kincaid Speller

Read this before you stick a Native American character in your next story. Or if you want to know what those Indians are doing in that novel.

"In the same way that Hollywood relegates Native Americans to the Old West, so the Ghosts [novel] exist mainly in the Empire’s past. They have no present, and apparently no future either."

Boys Read Girlsby Ana S.

Enough with the excuses about why you didn't put girls in your YA or children's book.

"The problem that needs to be fixed is not kick all the girls out of YA, it’s teach boys that stories featuring female protagonists or written by female authors also apply to them. Boys fall in love. Boys want to be important. Boys have hopes and fears and dreams and ambitions. What boys also have is a sexist society in which they are belittled for 'liking girl stuff.' Male is neutral, female is specific.

On sniping, women and SFby Brenda Cooper

"Most of the men who are part of the problem in written science fiction simply don’t know it. They don’t mean women writers harm, they aren’t meeting in back rooms plotting against us, and they aren’t dreaming about misogynistic ways to express themselves. So when someone twitter-slams them over a clueless phrase, they’re either embarrassed, or more likely, defensive. When they’re defensive, they bite. I do too.

"We don’t want them to bite. We want them to change."

Writing Women Characters as Human Beings by Kate Elliott

"I get asked if I have any advice for writers on how to create believable female characters while avoiding clichés, especially in fantasy novels where the expectations and settings may be seen to be different from our modern world. There is an 'easy' answer to this. Write all characters as human beings in all their glorious complexity and contradiction…. Three Basic Pieces of Advice: 1. Have enough women in the story that they can talk to each other….

Writing Strong Female Characters? That's A Great Goal, But I'd Rather Write Strong Kick-Heart Characters by Catherynne M. Valente

Kick-ass females are not the ultimate.

"I have never once been asked how I write male characters, nor how to write strong, kickass male characters, nor whether I’m concerned about making the men in my books vulnerable as well as tough. Yet our culture at large seems to peer into novels (and movies and television) as through the bars of a cage at the zoo: Here we see the endangered strong female protagonist in her natural habitat! What strange markings she has! What goes through the head of such a bizarre creature?"

Rewriting the Future: Using Science Fiction to Re-envision Justice by Walida Himarisha

This article doesn't just shred the envelope; it throws it away to develop new packaging. "We started an anthology with the belief that all organizing is science fiction. When we talk about a world without prisons; a world without police violence; a world where everyone has food, clothing, shelter, quality education; a world free of white supremacy, patriarchy, capitalism, heterosexism, we are talking about a world that doesn’t currently exist. But collectively dreaming up one that does means we can begin building it into existence."

Es todo, hoy, but not for el futuro

RudyG, a.k.a. Chicano spec-lit author Rudy Ch. Garcia

"My images come from the subconscious. Many of the figures I create appear in 'other-world' environments: their outward composure in direct contrast to their inner turmoil," writes artivist, Liliana Wilson on her website. With the publication of Ofrenda: Liliana Wilson's Art of Dissidence and Dreams, we are offered Liliana's paintings, drawings, silkscreens, along with essays by various scholars and friends who focus on the many aspects of her work. The book also includes song lyrics by well-known singer, songwriter, and composer, Lourdes Pérez that describe the intertwining of pain and joy in Liliana's art, (example of one line: "They say that/With only one brushstroke/You drew yourself an exit"). As well, an essay by Gloria Anzaldúa, (author of Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza), describes Liliana's paintings through the lens of nepantla: "In her most successful paintings, the conscious aspects never overwhelm the unconscious elements, but are held in nepantla, the midway point between the conscious and the unconscious, the place where transformations are enacted" (essay originally published in this bridge we call home: radical visions for transformation).

Born in Valparaíso, Chile, Liliana Wilson began drawing at a young age. She didn't go to art school right away. Instead, she attended law school in Chile. Her studies were interrupted in 1973 when military leaders took over the democratically elected Allende government and thus began the 17-year Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. As a result, Liliana never received her law degree. In 1977, she left the country, arriving in the U.S. and settling in Texas. Liliana never returned to Chile. In Texas, she turned to her art, depicting her memories of Chile (historical and personal), the immigrant experience, her observations of the human experience. Her work has been exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the U.S.

Dr. Norma Cantú, author of Canícula: Snapshots of a Girlhood en la Frontera and professor in the Department of English and Latina/Latino Studies at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, is the editor of Ofrenda: Liliana Wilson's Art of Dissidence and Dreams. In an interview with The Kansas City Star, Cantú says, "I like to promote others, to put the flashlight on people who have been in the dark. Like all good art, Wilson's work touches viewers subliminally. Her work is subtle, pleasing to the eye, but it still can change the way one sees the world." Today, Dr. Cantú gives us a "back-stage" glimpse into the making of this impressive book.

Amelia Montes: Tell us how about this book was conceived.

Norma Cantú: When I first met Liliana through our mutual friend, Gloria Anzaldúa, I was impressed by her artwork, but I had no idea that almost 30 years later, we would discuss putting together a book of essays on her work. But that’s how it happened. After Gloria died, we saw each other several times and the subject kept coming up. I first submitted it to Palgrave but they couldn’t include color images and so we pulled it and submitted it to Texas A&M.

Amelia Montes: The title of this book is “Ofrenda” and the title of your introduction is “Finding Nepantla.” How do both titles complement each other?

Norma Cantú: In the introduction, I speak of how the book is an offering, an ofrenda, with its other meaning too, an altar. I also speak about the in-between state, Nepantla, where we exist as mestizos, as immigrants, as mujeres and lesbians in the United States. These two concepts complement each other and are emblematic of the work itself. The art and the essays work in tandem to render a view of Liliana, the person, Liliana the activist, and Liliana the artist.

Liliana Wilson (left); Dr. Norma Cantú (right)

Amelia Montes: In your introduction to the book, you describe Liliana as an “Artivist.” What do you mean by “Artivist” and how does Liliana fit the description?

Norma Cantú: The blend of Artist and Activist is not my coinage. It has been around for a while to describe art with conciencia—with a social justice aim. In many ways, Liliana’s activist work in the community, with her teaching and her prints, is an outgrowth of her art. So it seems a very fitting term for who Liliana is as a committed artist and advocate for change.

Amelia Montes: When did you first become acquainted with Liliana’s work?

Norma Cantú: As I mentioned earlier, I met Liliana through Gloria Anzaldúa sometime in the 1980s, but it was in the 1990’s, and more specifically, after the Third Woman Press edition of This Bridge Called My Back that I became more interested in her work, attending her exhibitions, and talking to her about the conceptual background to the paintings. After I moved to San Antonio in 2000, I saw her more frequently either at the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center events or in Austin.

Amelia Montes: How would you describe Liliana Wilson’s impact on Chicana and U.S. Latina art?

Norma Cantú: Her impact is tremendous in terms of influence. First, the influence of Chicana and Chicano art on her is tremendous as she will tell you. She studied art at Austin Community Collegeand became friends and hung out with the artivists in that community. Her association with Las Manitas and MexicArte, both Austin institutions that promoted and promote art and artists, had a profound impact on her. Then, through her teaching and her example, she has had an impact on younger artists. Art is at the center of her life as an activist in Texas and, I would say, she thus impacts the artists just as they impact her—both working from a social justice perspective and with aims of educating and in some ways politicizing audiences through the work.

"Muerte en La Frontera" by Liliana Wilson (Color pencil on paper)

Amelia Montes: Tell us about Liliana’s connection with Gloria Anzaldúa.

Norma Cantú: Well, for me, the connection was critical as I met Liliana through Gloria. Perhaps the greatest connection was forged during their work together in the Nepantla workshops where they and two other Chicana artists came together to explore and create art around the concept of borders and Nepantlism. I know that when Liliana moved to California, their friendship deepened, and that often Liliana would visit her and stay for extended periods, and it was very fruitful for both of them. Moreover, if you notice, many of the essays reference Liliana’s connection to Anzaldúa’s ideas and concepts. I see that there is a deep connection at that level of how they see the world, how they analyze their role in the world, if you will—the level of the conceptual and intellectual engagement with the world. In Anzaldúa’s case, it is manifested, obviously, in her writings. In Liliana’s, it is in the artwork.

Amelia Montes: Tell us about the essay contributors to the book. How did you go about choosing them to write for Ofrenda. What do you feel they bring to the text?

Norma Cantú: When Liliana and I first met to discuss the project, we drafted a rough Table of Contents: mostly what we wanted to see, including Anzaldúa’s essay. We then added contributors based on the rough skeleton of the book. We knew we wanted Marjorie Agosínas a fellow Chilena. We felt it was important to have her voice included. So the first section was set—it is a more imagist reaction to the work and not the more academic treatment that we find in the other essays. I learned of Ricardo Romo’s fascination and admiration of Liliana’s work, so I asked him for an essay that became the preface. I also invited Patricia Ruiz Healy whose work I knew from being on her MA committee at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She was a doctoral student at UT Austin at the time, and she had conducted an interview with Liliana. Her piece fit just right with George Vargas’s whom Liliana invited, as he had also interviewed her. The others were invited because of their connection to Liliana’s work or because we felt they could contribute significant perspectives. Guisela Latorre, Laura Perez, Kay Turner, and Alicia Gaspar de Alba fit this category. There were a couple of other contributors that we invited but it just didn’t work out. I was more than pleased, though, when those we invited agreed and then turned in essays. I then grouped them into the three parts.

Left to Right: Norma Cantú, Lourdes Perez, Annette D'Armatta, Jordana Barton,
Gloria Ramírez, Liliana Wilson, Gloria Lopez.

Amelia Montes: Yes, I find this a really well, thought-out design. Part one, two, and three, contain the essays. What is the significance to each section?

Norma Cantú: Part two gathers the essays that specifically treat the artwork using particular scholarly approaches. In other words, the authors take a particular lens to talk about Liliana’s work. For instance, Part I is a more personal reaction to the work by two friends who obviously love and admire Liliana and her art. Part two is a more academic treatment, and the essays reflect the author’s critical approaches. As an academic, I was thrilled to see the level of sophistication of the analysis, and the intellectual engagement with the artwork. The essays in Part three, while also academic and scholarly, are more grounded in the interviews conducted with Liliana and thus provide a slightly different analysis that employs the information from the interviews to conduct the scholarly analysis. Now, the inclusion of Lourdes Pérez’s "Tango" constitutes a blending of genres—something I am very fond of doing in my own work. I take the task of editor very seriously as a creative endeavor, and in this particular book, especially perhaps because of the connection with Anzaldúa, I wanted to leave my own mark. I did something similar in Moctezuma’s Table: Rolando Briseño’s Mexican and Chicano Tablescapes where I included personal essays along with academic essays and poetry. When Liliana clued me in and shared Lourdes’s beautiful song dedicated to her and her work, I just had to have it in the book. I consider it a variant, a kind of Anzaldúan mixed genre kind of text.

Amelia Montes: And it works beautifully. You also placed the artwork at the end as if it would be Part IV. It reminds me of Anzaldúa placing her poetry in the second half of Borderlands/La Frontera.

Norma Cantú: Right. It is Part four – a continuation of what the essays have prepared you for, although the essays refer to the artwork and the process should be interactive and recursive as the reader can easily flip back and forth from text to artwork.

Amelia Montes: Wonderful. I'm hoping many of our La Bloga readers will enjoy reading the essays, and appreciating the important and poignant artwork Liliana has offered us throughout the years. Is there anything else you would like to share with our La Bloga readers?

Norma Cantú: Only that Ofrenda has a long publication history and that I am extremely grateful to everyone involved in it for their patience. We are very happy to be part of the Joe and Betty Moore Texas Arts Series at Texas A&M University Press. Altogether I think it took almost 10 years for this baby to be born, but I for one think it was worth the labor and the long wait. So I guess the lesson is to be patient and allow the process to happen as it must.

by Ernest Hogan

It's coming – the Anthology With No Name. Really, for now it's being refered to as the Diverse Weird Western Anthology. There are two volumes scheduled.

It'll be edited by Cynthia Ward and feature stories by La Bloga's own Rudy Ch. Garcia, Misha Nogha, Don Webb, and may other fine writers.

I'm sure somebody will come up with a snappy title.

Oh, yeah, I'll have a couple of stories in there:

My poststeampunk romp, “Pancho Villa's Flying Circus” (previously published in We See A Different Frontier: A Postcolonial Speculative Fiction Anthology) will be in Vol. 1.

And “Lupita's Hand,” a fantasy of Wild, Wild Aztlán (previously published inUnconventional Fantasy: A Celebration of Forty Years of the World Fantasy Convention) will be in Vol. 2

Another reason I'm enthusiastic about this anthology: I was one of the inspirations for it. Editor Cynthia Ward wrote about fantastic westerns on Facebook and mentioned “Pancho Villa's Flying Circus” among others, and wouldn't it be great to have an anthology of such stories? Over the next few hours, there was a FB discussion that ended in a deal being made and Diverse Weird Western coming to unnatural life. This is what the social media is for, muchacho/as!

This is part of a larger trend, an extension of the Great Genre Meltdown of the '00s: the western is back but not in a traditional way. Used to be if you tried to mix anything fantastic or sci-fiish with the western, editors would automatically turn it down, saying that they didn't know what to put on the cover and the audience would be confused. Now publishers are experimenting with supernatural and steampunk westerns. And they don't seem to have any problem coming up with cover images.

I see an opportunity here for Chicano/Latino/Hispanos and writers of other cultures. The western is American mythology, though it has threatened to go global ever since the invention of the spaghetti western. Every generation recreates the western, updating the myth for its own needs. And do we ever have needs in the 21^st century.

As Marshall McLuhan said in The Medium is the Massage: We look at the present through a rear-view mirror. We march backwards into the future. Suburbia lives imaginatively in Bonanza-land.

And Star Trek and Star Wars are just Bonanza in space drag.

This is a time for new visions. Let us take this genre about clashing cultures and blow the subrban minds, give them new ways to live imaginatively. Let's blow the old stereotypes wide open. How about westerns for the recombocultral era of Postcolonialism, Afrofuturism, and Chicanonautica? Let other cultures into the new frontier! Go wild!

I'm hoping for things like Ishmael Reed's Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down and Alejandro Jodorowsky'sEl Topo. Only wilder.

Ernest Hogan is descended from New Mexico Irish vaqueros and Villaista curanderos, lives in Arizona, and often listens to Tejano radio stations through iTunes when he writes.

I've dug deep into an overflowing bag of goodies to present the following literary news, cultural events, and good-timey happenings. Hope you get to enjoy some of these.

New Books

Electra's Complex
Emma Pérez

Bella Books - May, 2015

[from the publisher]
Electra Campos has kept her life cleanly divided. By week she tends to her academic duties and her students. Weekends she frequents the Down Under, a Chelsea sex club for women.

When her spiteful ex Isabel Cortez issues yet another petty threat, she brushes it off—until she finds Capital College’s dean in a pool of his own blood. At first, NYPD Detective Carolina Quinn seems concerned only in Electra’s details of finding the body. Then the interest grows intensely professional…and personal.

Why would the police think Electra had a motive for murder? She had no personal interaction with Dean Johnson. But his wife was no stranger to the Down Under, and Detective Quinn is extremely curious about every detail of Electra’s other life.

A Bella After Dark erotic, romantic mystery!

Electra's Complex is a sexy romp through queer New York and the groves of academia from a writer who knows the landscape and is a confident and engaging guide. Emma Pérez's book is a pleasure!-- Michael Nava, critically acclaimed author of the seven-volume mystery series featuring gay attorney Henry Rios.

About the author:
Emma Pérez has published essays in history and feminist theory as well as The Decolonial Imaginary: Writing Chicanas into History. Pérez’s novel, Gulf Dreams, was first published in 1996 and was considered one of the first Chicana lesbian novels in print. Aunt Lute Books reissued the second edition in May 2009. From 1990 until 2003, she was a faculty member of the Department of History, University of Texas, El Paso. In fall 2003, she joined the Department of Ethnic Studies at University of Colorado, Boulder where she is currently Chair and Full Professor. Her recent novel, Forgetting the Alamo, Or, Blood Memory, (University of Texas Press, 2009) is a “Chicana lesbian western” that challenges white-male-centered westerns. The novel was awarded the Christopher Isherwood Writing Grant in December 2009, won 2nd place in Historical Fiction from International Latino Books and was a finalist in Fiction from the Lambda Literary Fiction Awards as well as a finalist in Historical Fiction from the Golden Crown Literary Awards. She is currently conducting research on a speculative novel that uses Antonio Gaudí’s architecture in Barcelona as the backdrop and landscape of the novel. Pérez continues to theorize how our work may decolonize race and sexuality.

Ends of Assimilation
John Alba Cutler
Oxford University Press - January, 2015

[from the publisher]
Ends of Assimilationexamines how Chicano literature imagines the conditions and costs of cultural change, arguing that its thematic preoccupation with assimilation illuminates the function of literature. John Alba Cutler shows how mid-century sociologists advanced a model of assimilation that ignored the interlinking of race, gender, and sexuality and characterized American culture as homogeneous, stable, and exceptional. He demonstrates how Chicano literary works from the postwar period to the present understand culture as dynamic and self-consciously promote literature as a medium for influencing the direction of cultural change. With original analyses of works by canonical and noncanonical writers--from Américo Paredes, Sandra Cisneros, and Jimmy Santiago Baca to Estela Portillo Trambley, Alfredo Véa, and Patricia Santana--Ends of Assimilation demands that we reevaluate assimilation, literature, and the very language we use to talk about culture.

John Alba Cutler is Assistant Professor of English at Northwestern University.

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The Good Son by Sergio Troncoso

Illustration by Marc Burckhardt

Brilliant writer and La Bloga's good friend Sergio Troncoso has an essay in the April Texas Monthly entitled The Good Son. The lead is:

I left El Paso at the age of eighteen and never looked back. Decades later, with my father’s health failing, I realize what I left behind.

It's a moving, personal piece that resonates with me and, I am sure, with many of our readers who care for ailing or fragile parents. It's also about the things that actually are important in life, as opposed to those things we want to be important.

You can jump to the articleat this link.

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Symposium on Gabriel García Márquez

A Tribute to Gabriel García Márquez, Friday, April 17, 2015

[from the CSU College of Liberal Arts April Newsletter]

Organized by the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at Colorado State University

Last year the world mourned the death of Latin America’s most prominent author, Gabriel García Márquez. The author of novels such as Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera, Chronicles of a Death Foretold and Autumn of the Patriarch won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982. Beloved among readers for the magical realism of his novels, he is one of the main voices of the Latin American literary boom of the 1960s and 1970s. His writing has shaped the image of Latin America as one of solitude and exuberance and has had a lasting, often hotly debated impact on the region’s literature.

This symposium pays tribute to his life and work by featuring a keynote by Gene H. Bell-Villada, Williams College, MA, workshops by CSU faculty and affiliates, presentations by students, as well as fun workshops in writing and story-telling for teenagers, students and creative minds!

We invite the Fort Collins and Colorado community to join us for this special day. The event is free and open to the public. Events held in English and Spanish.
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Panel: When Crime Fiction Matters: A Transborder Dialogue with Lucha Corpi, Alicia Gaspar de Alba, and Patricia Valladares

[from the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Newsletter]
Wednesday, April 29, 2:00–5:00 p.m. CSRC Library–144 Haines Hall

In the last twenty years, noir feminist narratives have had a steady ascent into the Latin American and U.S. Latina/o literary scene. Chicana writers Lucha Corpi, born in Veracruz, México, and Alicia Gaspar de Alba, from El Paso, are a part of a small group of U.S. Latina writers who have contributed to the noir-crime fiction genre. Mexico City-native Patricia Valladares, whose debut novel Tan frío como el infierno (2014) picks up the literary conversation on social, political, and economic issues currently confronted by twenty-first century women from Mexico City to Palestine. Each writer in her own way combines activism with art. This panel will bring these three noir feminist authors together for the first time for a transborder dialogue to reflect on the origins and the impact of their written work and their binational activism in an era where noir-crime fiction provides an everyday mirror to nota roja realities lived by women in Mexico and the United States. Co-curated by Sandra Ruiz, visiting lecturer in Chicana/o studies and Spanish & Portuguese, and Héctor Calderón, professor in the Department of Spanish & Portuguese. This event is cosponsored by the UCLA César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o Studies, the Department of Spanish & Portuguese, and the CSRC.

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CHAC Norte Presents: Selena Quintanilla, Dreaming of You

March 31^st Art Show Opening 5-9pm
Selena Quintanilla Candle Light Vigil
Please bring a special item to put on the Community Offrenda, Aztec Dancers (Grupo Tlaloc), Music by Miss Vero (Veronica Gallegos), Spoken Word by Dr. Ramon del Castillo.

April 3^rd First Friday 5-9pm featuring Los Latineerz Band
April 17^th Third Friday 5-9pm Selena look-a-like contest and Karaoke
3 different categories Women’s, Children’s, and Alternatives

April 18^th 12-4pm Selena Children’s Art Education hosted by Arlette Lucero (1:00- 2:30) and Selena Car Show hosted by the Viejitos Car Club y Amigos

All events will be held at CHAC Gallery 772 Santa Fe Dr, Denver, except the Selena Car Show which will be at the Bill Trust parking lot 6^th Ave and Santa Fe Dr.

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Nearly 100 Authors on Board for 2015 Library of Congress National Book Festival

[from the Library of Congress press release]

Library to Celebrate Two Important Milestones

Almost 100 of the nation’s best writers, poets and illustrators have already committed to appear at the 2015 Library of Congress National Book Festival, which will be held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center on Saturday, Sept. 5, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

More information on the National Book Festival is at www.loc.gov/bookfest. Additional authors will be announced in the coming weeks.

The festival will mark its 15th anniversary since its establishment in 2001 and will also honor the Library’s spiritual founder, Thomas Jefferson, whose personal library covering all subjects guides the universal collecting policies of today’s Library of Congress. Jefferson sold his books to the Library of Congress in 1815, after a fire destroyed the original Library collections during the War of 1812. The theme of this year’s festival is “I cannot live without books,” a famous statement by Jefferson.

“In 2015, the Library will welcome back many authors who have been with us over the past 15 years, as well as many first-timers,” said Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. “The diversity of authors and the subjects they write about are what make the National Book Festival an event for everyone. No matter your interest, there are sure to be authors you will want to see and hear.”

Among the scheduled authors listed so far that may be of interest to La Bloga readers are these few Latina/o authors: Daniel Alarcón, Lalo Alcaraz, Sonia Manzano, Ray Suarez, Hector Tobar.

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Lydia Gil - Colorado Book Award Finalist

Congratulations to La Bloga's Lydia Gil! Letters From Heaven was named a finalist for a 2015 Colorado Book Award in the Juvenile Literature category. A list of all the finalists can be found at this link.

Letters From Heaven has been described as “A poignant and uplifting story about the special bond only a grandmother and a granddaughter can share. Delicious and magical!” Reyna Grande. Click here to learn more about the book.

Lydia writes for La Bloga on alternating Thursdays. Winners will be announced at the Colorado Book Awards ceremony Sunday, June 21, 2015 at the Doerr-Hosier Center at Aspen Meadows Resort in Aspen. Tickets are available by calling Colorado Humanities, 303.894.7951, x10.

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Museo de las Americas - Best of Denver

This just in from our pals at Museo de las Americas:

TheDenver Westwordrecently named Museo best of Denver in two categories! The current exhibit, CHICANO, celebrating the Movimiento that occurred in Denver in the 1960's-70's was highlighted
as "Best Two-Fisted History Lesson." Stop by and participate in a march or two and experience the Chicano Movimiento first hand!

This powerful political exhibit will be on display from now- May 29th!

In addition to this wonderful accolade, Museo's summer exhibit, Outside In 303 was named "Best Indoor Display of Outside Art." Museo took a chance this summer by transforming the white walls of the museum into a graffiti paradise representing local artists throughout the West side of Denver.
Museo is honored for this recognition and will continue its duty of accessibility as a cultural and communal art institution in Denver!

Museo de las Americas

861 Santa Fe Drive

Denver, Colorado 80204

303-571-4401
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Now, some bsp:

From the Tattered Cover:

09 Apr 2015 - Thursday 7:00 pm

Tattered Cover Colfax Avenue

2526 East Colfax Avenue, Denver, CO 80206

Multiple award-winning Colorado author Manuel Ramos will read from and sign his new collection The Skull of Pancho Villa and Other Stories (Arte Público Press). Many of these gripping stories feature Mexican Americans struggling with their circumstances as an ethnic minority in the United States. Others cover historical events, from the Mexican Revolution to an encounter with Jack Kerouac. All spotlight Ramos' artistry and dexterity as he shifts from noir to historical and even flash fiction.

"The Godfather of Chicano noir hits us hard with this collection. Great range, dark visions, and lots of mojo - much of it bad to the bone. A fine book!" -Luis Alberto Urrea, author of Into the Beautiful North

Can't make it to the signing? Request an autographed copy here: books@tatteredcover.com.

And from the Broadway Book Mall:

SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 3:00
MANUEL RAMOS and his new collection, The Skull of Pancho Villa and Other Stories
Come listen to this master storyteller and all-around Good Guy.

200 S. Broadway
Denver, CO 80209
303-744-BOOK

Later.

What's "better" than a sci-fi or fantasy or thriller about One White Guy to Save Us All? What about, One Chicano Hero to Save Us All? Or better than that, One Chicana Heroine? Or maybe a multinational superhero team of both sexes. We've come a long way, bebé. But is it enough?

In fact, new books, movies and network series seem to be coming out every week where the old White Guy won't be hoarding the hero role. This has been resisted by white male writers and fans complaining about how they're being "oppressed," if you can believe.

Unqualified white guy leader

A year ago, noir author Daniel José Older analyzed a sci-fi movie and exposed how white-male privilege works on the screen. His Al Día News article was called "Snowpiercer and 'the one white dude to rule them all'." When picking a new leader, the white guy gets chosen over the People of Color (PoC), even though he was a cannibal and of course saves humanity at the end. Because he's the guy. And white. And not even "oppressed."

Then, last month on thenerdsofcolor website, Walidahi Marisha wrote about sci-fo and social justice in the article "Rewriting the Future: Using Science Fiction to Re-envision Justice." Her article is worth reading in its entirety, and many of her points made me wonder about protagonists I've created in speculative stories.

Some of the old [white-male] guard of speculative fiction haven't totally understood the achievements that new PoC--Chicano, Latino, black, Indian--authors have accomplished by reinvigorating the literature. Some of the old guard still maintain that science and technology just have to be re-imagined better to bring new life to spec-lit.

For instance, Project Hieroglyph emphasizes"technical innovation, techno-optimism and a forward-thinking approach to the intersection of art and technology that has the power to change our world." Not about changing the inequality of the social structure. Or about people organizing to stop fossil fuel production or neverending wars or the oligarchy of the 1%.

a book that promises hope

But the lessons of nonfictional history apply to the cycles of fiction. To forget the lessons--worse, to ignore them--is to be condemned to relive them. Or as Marish put it, "We forget to envision what could be. We forget to mine the past for solutions that show us how we can exist in other forms in the future."

The history in question is the exclusion not only of minorities of all types. What nearly all of spec-lit also ignored is that the changes in Earth history were not accomplished by lone heroes. Good leaders led, yes. But the strongest movements were those supported by the collective of humanity, carrying out to the best of their ability the desires of their peoples. That's history.

In creating fantasies, futuristic sci-fi tales, many historical lessons can be appropriated by today's new, rising and especially young authors. Latino, Chicano, black, red--it doesn't matter. Marisha states, "The science fiction — or speculative fiction, fantasy, horror, magical realism, etc. — we humans create doesn’t appear out of the ether." It comes from what we were, are and could become.

Writing about possible futures should inspire, not depress, the young people who will replace us and be reading our works for years to come. The dismal dystopias of vampires, Armageddons and Snowpiercers don't provide hope; they inculcate sheepish acceptance of bleak powers beyond anyone's control. Even if you're a young person, of any color.

Will this contain any hope?

The awe and magic and wonderment of speculative literature requires we look further than simply replacing the old White-Guy Hero with a multinational cast of Superheroes. What Marisha called "decolonization of the imagination."To merge Daniel José Older's and Marisha's articles, that replacement is the people. Organized. Engaged. Democratically. Not blindly hero-worshipping another Big Hero Saves the Day. Hundreds, thousands, millions of people determining the revolutionary future as they've determined the past.

The youth and all PoC and all people deserve hope. Their literature should reflect that. In a world of Climate-Change-for-the-worse, assaults on all civil rights, and the gentrification of the U.S. that's driving poor, ethnic and working people out of the cities, speculative literature can spread seeds of how to save and rebuild society.

How do you write a thriller where the protagonist succeeds by keeping the peoples' interests at heart? How can a society be saved from Global Warming with masses of people as the prime movers? Will a successful blockbuster be written that shows young people, or even us, avenues whereby they can save their planet? That's up to speculative fiction writers.

No one novel, movie or series could accomplish all that, though we'd all love to experience such a work. In the meantime, many short stories and longer works, on-screen too, can chip away at the One or A Few Heroes myopic trope. Maybe an example will better explain my meaning.

Below, I took, and edited for this article, part of a chapter from my debut novel, the alternate-world of The Closet of Discarded Dreams. How the book's characters begin to face their own dystopia is one of my endeavors to get away from the One or A Few Heroes Save Us All. I'm not the first to put the lessons of how history has been changed into a novel's plot. And I am definitely not the last. I welcome comments about other stories that accomplish this better than mine has.

[extracted from the chapter entitled A Gathering of Souls]

People had covered over a stage constructed from ornate coffins, pirates' chests and inverted Jacuzzis, covered by scores of Oriental rugs and medieval tapestries. Someone in the audience yelled, “We’ll do anything that’ll keep us safe. But why are we here?”

I didn’t respond. Our plan or strategy couldn’t develop out of my ideas alone. It didn’t help that the reason many had come centered on their worries about losing their regular lives. Conservatism motivated those who wanted to maintain the routines. But the times called for the opposite.

People had shifted the flooring to form a shallow amphitheater. Several thousands sat around inside it, leaving aisles every hundred feet or so. Not everyone I knew had shown up, but most had. Apparently some mosquitoes too, given the slapping sounds.

A solution to save us had to spring from a new source. Even the nearly limitless knowledge I’d acquired didn’t meet our needs. Something was missing that was beyondme, likely beyond any one of us. From that we’d reasoned that everyone needed to pool their resources, put their heads together and close ranks if a solution were to be found. We had nowhere else to turn. Our first problem now was how to begin.

Brian presented the report covering logistics. "People can access the database through terminals here and at specific locations in other sectors, or search for info via the Grapevine. Ideas, questions, clarifications will becentralized in this area."

He withdrew, waved me forward. My turn had arrived, an honor I’d tried to decline. “I hope to make this short. We think the new, strange incidents indicate it may be the end of us all. We have no idea of how to stop the process,help it heal, fix itself. That’s why we’re all here or tied in via the systems.

“There’s nowhere else for us to go, nowhere to seek safety. Even

escaping the affected areas might only amount to a temporary reprieve for a handful of us. We need something more, to save us all. That’s how it is, as best as we can guess.” I gave them time to digest that before continuing.

“In reality, we have a greater task than that, a responsibility, if you will. We are not real. There is no us. We’re the dreams of Earth’s people. We’re not from Earth, because physically we never lived there. That's just a fact.

“We are the ethereal, what every human being ever aspired to, dreamed to one day be, or maybe even envisioned angels to be like. We’re not all angels and not all the dreams we live sound desirable, judicious or in some cases even humane. That’s not our concern at the moment. Something to discuss another time. What we do have to deal with, face up to is how to change our destiny, and not just for our own sake.

“We don’t know what the repercussions would be for people on Earth if we all disappeared. Whether humanity would survive. We have to assume, not!”

Close by a child giggled, which for no apparent reason irritated some listeners.

“Out there amongst you are ideas, questions, possibilities that no one has thought of before, some way of stopping the destruction. At least, that’s what we’ve got to come up with. If we don’t, so be it, but we’re here to make the attempt.

“As we come up with an idea, we’ll allocate resources to

implement it. We can't imagine what that may require, but we’ll

mobilize for it. For all our sakes.

“Whoever you are, whatever you come from, you can contribute.

There are no limits to what we should consider. Nothing is too silly or outrageous. Any idea may be the key. Open your minds, talk amongst yourselves. Share anything you've noticed or you once thought about or that just pops into your head … especially what pops into your head. That’s all we’re here to do.

“Despite whatever you heard about me, I don’t have the answers.

I need your help. We all need each other’s help, for our, for Earth’s survival. For all the living things in that beautiful blue place.”

I took my first full breaths since I’d started, wondering what had happened to my keeping it short and why they’d let me go onand on. Someone

handed me a liter of Knob Creek. I took two swigs and saw Stubby

pantomime a scissors cut with his one hand.

I took a last breath. “Until we’re forced to move, this is our headquarters. Facilitators will always be up here and regularly going through the aisles. If you have questions, direct them to us or relay them through the system. Ask, suggest, talk with your buddies alongside you. Anything you think of, however absurd it may sound, might provide a clue to our predicament.”

I hadn’t wanted an ovation, and I didn’t get one. People turned, formed circles and started talking with one another. I turned the podium over to Stumpy and headed down the aisle.

* * * *

What transpired next astonished more than me. There were the expected suggestions about physically dealing with the spreading erosion, like cementing up the cracks. Some people wanted to stack vehicles to create some sort of dam out of the larger, heavier machines to prevent the ground from shifting, just as a temporary solution. Nevertheless, people and equipment were mobilized. We had ample resources and little to lose.

We knew there’d be those who’d advocate mass, spiritual meditation or prayer marathons to gods they followed and we’d made preparations to channel the religious types into supervised areas.

We gazed at the Jumbotron, listening to Fedir who wielded a laser pointer.

“Dr. Martin Luther and Cesar Chavez’s marchers have encampments here, here and here. They’re doing what we’re doing and told us they’re ready whenever we need them, for whatever. They’ve got one zany idea: to link themselves all the way across, making themselves into a human dam. We’re letting them go with it even though the engineer types think the forces involved make that a moot effort.”

Fedir ignored some moans. “We’re still bringing the densest, heaviest material we can find along this line: lead, gold, platinum, tanks, tractors, etcetera. It’s our last line of defense, you might say, against draining away what’s under us. It won’t last long.”

Brian scooted in, touched computer keys and took over. “We’ve

put hundreds of psychics, magicians, prophets, sorcerers, levitationists,

shamans and all the Houdinis as close to the here as we can. There’s more juju, black magic and karma being thrown at it. So far, no response.”

Brian was giddy, nervous, stressed. “On the theoretical side, the cosmologists, the Einsteins, Hawkins, and Alcubierres can’t come up with a model to answer our questions. The physics here isn’t what they studied and has its own rules. Since we're in a box with walls, no matter how thick, there should be an outside, something out there. However, it’s also possible there’s nothing behind them, or something we couldn’t survive. They just can’t imagine with any certainty what’s…”

“…out there,” a bunch of people murmured.

Over the course of the next few days, what impressed me most were ideas that had little to do with saving our necks. A village of Quiché Maya proposed mystical methods to contact Earth, to inform them they needed to keep on dreaming. There was more. Some of it choked me up, from people’s unselfish hopes for the future, even if we all would soon cease to exist.

Whenever the committee deemed new plans were worth attempting, teams were organized to develop the details and carry them out. Thus, when a group came up with the idea of using the increasing abundance of Pink Stuff as glue, eight thousand people joined those already building dikes from Sectors 242 through 334.

We didn’t want to kill creativity, nor assume we could foretell what wouldn’t work. In some sense, almost anything was worth the effort, since it might give us additional breathing space till we came up with a real solution….

– – – –

Learn the cost of our drugs-&-guns addictions

On a more contemporary, historical note, family of the 43 missing students from Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, Mexico, who were tortured and disappeared by the Mexican state,will be in Colorado April 12th and 13th, as part of the national speaking tour, Caravana 43 (Caravan 43). The group will visit Denver, Greeley and Longmont.

The purpose of their visit is to provide to share their continued struggle for justice and to bring national attention to the systematic violence and impunity that continues to plague Mexico. The arrival of Caravana 43 in Colorado will mark over six months from the night of the attack that occurred in the city of Iguala on the evening of September 26, 2014, which left six people dead and 43 students forcibly disappeared.

Caravana 43 will be in other cities, listed here.

Es todo, hoy,

RudyG, a.k.a. Chicano lit author, Rudy Ch. Garcia, hoping to help bring back some wonderment and promise, like in The Closet of Discarded Dreams

I emerge from 103 at the same time she does from 106.
The hallways full of blondes
whitewashing the walls.
We've never seen this many white people in the building before.
Has gentrification already hit this side of Dale?
Did someone plant a bomb
that exploded with blonde people while we slept?
One of them tells me it's the U of M women's rowing team,
volunteering.
My neighbor asks me for a ride to work, usually her husband
comes home around when she has to leave,
but today he is stranded with a grumpy alternator.
She is Somali. I am Vietnamese. How long have you been here?
Between us this is not offensive. Five years. You? Twenty-six.
She speaks English like my mother.
Her son will speak English like me.
She like Minnesota.
I don't have the heart to tell her that her son
probably won't.
We don't use the word refugee. Somalia, Viet Nam,
both far away, both missed.
In the theaters, Black Hawk Down and We Were Soldiers play
across whitewashed screens.
One day she will have to tell her son he doesn't have to be like Joshua Hartnett
to be a hero.
If I ever have a daughter I will have to tell her
that she does not have to love someone the same color as Mel Gibson
to be beautiful.
Words fill my car.
Laughter untranslated.
Languages beautiful.
Together here, we are not broken.

Poem from Sông I Sing, Coffee House Press, Minneapolis 2011.

To hear/read more of Bao Phi's poetry:

http://www.baophi.com/in/poetry/

http://www.baophi.com/

If you will be attending AWP 2015, here are two performances that Bao Phi will be a part of:

Page Meets Stage Tenth Anniversary Showdown
hosted by Taylor Mali
w/ Richard Blanco, Mahogany Browne, Bao Phi, & Nikola Madzirov
Thursday, 4/9/2015
12:00:PM – 01:15:PM
Room 101 J, Level 1

Contemporary Vietnamese American Poetry, 40 Years After the War
moderated by Cathy Linh Che
with Bao Phi, Paul Tran, Hieu Minh Nguyen, and Tiffanie Hoang
4/10/2015
10:30:AM – 11:45:AM
Room L100 F&G, Lower Level

Author Photo by Charissa Uemura

A performance poet since 1991, Bao Phi has been a two-time Minnesota Grand Slam champion and a National Poetry Slam finalist, and appeared on the HBO series Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry. His work has been featured in the Best American Poetry, Screaming Monkeys, and Spoken Word Revolution Redux. His poetry on CD includes Refugeography and The Nyugens EP. He performs across the country, acts as an Asian American community organizer, and works at the Loft Literary Center, where he creates and operates programs for artists and audiences of color. His series, Equilibrium, recently won the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits Anti-Racism Initiative Award. Phi lives in Minneapolis with his partner and daughter.

Xánath Caraza

POETRY IN CHICAGO: REVISTA CONTRATIEMPO

Con Tinta NaPoMo 2015 is here. Send your poem to creativexc@gmail.com and/or mouthfeelpress@yahoo.com (Mouthfeel Press) and celebrate la poesía. This is Con Tinta’s fourth year celebrating NaPoMo. Previously published poems are welcome! Send your poem in English, Spanish, Spanglish, Nahuatl or other language in a word document. Viva la poesía and NaPoMo 2015!

Next are some of the poems from the Con Tinta page, which have had the most readership. Enjoy!

POETRY IN AUSTIN: FLOR DE NOPAL LITERARY FESTIVAL

Cuzco: Ombligo del Mundo

Francisco X. Alarcón

mírame danzar

incansable

como puma
como cóndor

por calles
y por plazas

con mis pies
de adolescente

ahora
en la tierra

luego
en el aire

al ritmo
del tambor

y quenas
andinas

ondeando
la bandera

de los siete
colores

del Cuzco
de mi gente

el arco iris
multicolor

que une
la tierra

la lluvia
el sol

porque
Cuzco es

el Ombligo
del Mundo

© Francisco X. Alarcón

Cuzco: Bellybutton of the Earth

Francisco X. Alarcón

watch me dance
tirelessly nonstop

like a puma
like a condor

through streets
through the plazas

with my feet
of a teenager

right now
on the ground

right then
up in the air

to the rhythm
of drums

and Andean
reed flutes

waving
the flag

of the seven
colors

of Cuzco
of my people

the multicolor
rainbow

the rain
the Sun

because
Cuzco is

the Bellybutton
of the Earth

© Francisco X. Alarcón

Jovian
By Charlie Luis Vázquez©

(From Hustler Rave XXX)

I fall down drowned by your winds, Jovian.
Your love song now whistled by leaves,
mad are its harmonies in the hissing trees,
the universe you torched rages wildly above.

I with your ghost and your music, Jovian.
Your howls of need trail long through the night,
in the fading cries of your blackbirds in flight;
as I plunge through an emptied sea that knew love.

labwork
By Ire’ne Lara Silva©

i gave them

my arm i’ve found it hurts less

if i watch everything but the exact moment the needle pierces my vein my blood is a deep almost black red i watch it being drawn

out of me enough to fill three vials

i remember when my blood was bright

red the red of poinsettias the red

of other people’s blood

it’s not my imagination, i said to the young nurse, my blood is darker than it was, isn’t it yes, she said, flicking her ponytail,

it’s the insulin

of all the changes diabetes has brought to my body the sensitivity to heat the painfully dry skin the weight gain the exhaustion

this change in the color of my blood makes me sad seems to say i am changed

changed irredeemably

changed without return

what else of me has changed

what would i tell the lover now the one who said my skin carried the scent of sunlight and maíz the one who murmured against my thighs that i tasted of night jasmine

and the earth after rain

do i taste of illness now of medications

acid and poison is my skin marked over with toxic warnings no lover now could know my body young or strong or healthy no lover now could know the taste of me before insulin before disease

is this still my body to give

and who would find this body beautiful

when i can’t even

recognize it

POETRY IN SEATTLE: LOS NORTENOS WRITERS

Teatro Urbano: A Moment on Stage

By Esmeralda Bernal

Adelina Carrasco

San Jose, CA 9/1968

We are here to form vanguard impressions;
visual resistance to our oppression.
“El Espirito habla por mi raza”
is to be unleashed on stage.
What will the spirit say tonight?

Tryouts are easy. We are so few,
all will have a part. Regardless
of the outcome we are all happy,
enthused to be together; free to be.

Cholula, name of the main character,
we roll on our tongues, we smile;
the ancient sounds of the continent
are a sweet encounter.
The root begins to show and we begin
to excavate with our minds. We dig
and delight in our discovery. So many
names we did not have to be branded with:
Maria, Juana, Estella.
The names of our ancestors bubble forth,
beautiful sounds of cascading pristine water
that we could have been named after.
I begin to feel the first rays of the sixth sun.

You my dear sister
are the first one on stage.
The spirit of Cholula you will channel.
In anticipation I watch your every move.
I am awestruck. My culture on stage
without Marlon Brando translating for us.
It is the first time in my life that
I see a Chicana on stage and
sisterhood is imaged.

I am mute, my thoughts are frozen.

Anticipation smolders a beginning,
the unfreezing begins, the past is now.
The sixth sun currents my heart,
I am becoming Indian woman
rooted to freedom.

The men are being hombres,

their task is drowned by their slobber.
They see flesh and commit the original sin.
Like Western serpents they conjure apples
of discord. The married one forgets his wife;
the single one forgets his love. Freedom can not
reign in triangles of masculine disrespect.

I become womanist. I become indianista.

I feel the rays of the sixth sun and walk out
the door guided by their truth.

Phoenix, AZ

Border Crossing

By Gabriel H. Sanchez

Somewhere within your midst I starve

As I wait to be taken in by you
And the words from your mouth say no
Somewhere within I ashen and die

This is the story of my life

That you tell over and over
To flowers that won't bloom in autumn
To my heart that withers in your winter

But I will rise!

Rise from within!
From below the ground!
From beneath your skin!

Here I lie defiant
Digging my roots upon the deserts
Diggin’ the taste of that toxic Rio stream
Here you never say no, for my cold ears

Won’t heed your words, mister border patrol
Here I rot embalmed in fears of yesteryear
Breaking the passions, decomposing the lyrics of your rejection
Here I wait as mist in the air that poets breath

As a ray in the sun that lights their way
As a star studded sky shining Coyolxialqui by night
To be born from within...your heart
And inspired by this change

I disarm your shackles and drones
As I relax my wary bones on the Rio Grand
As your no's die from without
And walls fizzle and borders break
And only people exist…as neighbors, as one

Al límite
Por Gerardo Cárdenas©

A Diana Azcona

Cruzo a pie la frontera sin más equipaje

que la caja en la que guardo mis silencios.

Recorro un largo túnel blanco:

las paredes retroceden a mi paso.
Al final
me espera un guardia solitario y dormido.

Deposito mi caja en el suelo,

mis silencios aprovechan y escapan.
El guardia abre un ojo

                   me mira compasivo
                         murmura una antigua plegaria
                              se vuelve bruma.

Al otro lado de la raya

un gato
se relame los bigotes
y se traga mi último silencio.

Guardar (in memoriam)

Por Silvia Favaretto©

Vivo la vida

recordada por mi bisabuela.
Ella en mí quiso y defraudó.
Sacó las entrañas a colgar al viento,
barrió el piso con su pelo.
Sus placeres quitaron el polvo de la cómoda.
Ella se acostó con mi estirpe.
Yo, en cambio,
viajaré con la maleta cargada de sus sueños,
soplaré en el oído de
sus amantes,
me bañaré en el agua caliente
que tanto añoró
me limpiaré su cara con manos
espumosas de jabón fino,
me pondré crema en sus piernas
para hidratarlas después de estos
100 años de ultratumba,
me pintaré sus uñas con
esmalte escarlata
y me encamaré con sus progenitores.

Vendrá el pasado y

me encontrará muerta
con el pelo enmarañado en el polvo
y los dedos de los pies
esmaltados de rojo.
Y contenta, por Dios,
contenta.

POETRY IN KANSAS CITY: BLACK ARCHIVES OF MID-AMERICA

Ebriedad de Dios

Por Luis Armenta Malpica

De niña me enseñaron que yo era una manzana;

los hombres, el cuchillo.
Las mujeres debíamos conseguir que nos pelaran
se hundieran hasta el mango en nuestra carne
y le dieran salida a las semillas.

Ya en espiral

—con nuestra piel deforme, oscura por el tiempo—
el amor podía ser algún mordisco
un apretar los dientes
y ser mujer
callando...

Pero yo no callaba... me decía en los poemas.

A golpes —como aprendió su madre—
fue lección de mi madre: la cocina es el mundo
de la mujer que calla.
Entre especias, vinagres y embutidos
esa dulce manzana de mi vida se llenó de gusanos.

No callaba: mis hijas me costaron, cuando menos, un grito.

El amor, esa lata carísima
se quedó en la alacena.

Un día, por buscarle acomodo al aguardiente

lo tiré a la basura.

Sé lo que hacen los lazos en todas las mujeres

aunque sean familiares.
Al encender el horno (¡ay, Sylvia Plath, te envidio!)
al picar la cebolla lo recuerdo...

Las profundas estrías de la garganta

son mi paso
de Dios a la intemperie.

Perdí mi casa
cuando llegó el alcohol como el mesías.
Después perdí a mis hijas, una a una.
Pero rezaba, así, como callando: «Señor, ésta es tu sangre...»

Tu madre se nos muere, les digo a mis tres hijas

luego de cada sorbo.
Ellas tan solo lloran, muy quedito
como diciendo: ¿cuándo!

Incluido en Ebriedad de Dios / The Drunkenness of God de Luis Armenta Malpica (Traducción al inglés de Lawrence Schimel. Libros Medio Siglo, USA, 2015)

©Luis Armenta Malpica

Westside Girls
By Reyes Cardenas©

for ct

Even now

the Westside girls

smell of fresh tortillas

their lips

taste like a Mexican Bakery
the crooked dusty streets

of the barrio

make them stronger

the Westside girls

I grew to love

so long ago

and now

their beautiful granddaughters

stand proudly in their place

Mece sus plumas de lapa

Por Zingonia Zingone©

Al pie de un Guanacaste

el viento empuja
las áridas ilusiones
ella mece sus plumas de lapa
acaricia su piel
tigrillo que trepa las horas
de un mediodía sin fin
el ternero berrea y su madre
lo ignora
y lame el pasto hastiada
sudando
todas las áfricas
designadas por el azar
y encorvadas espigas de arroz
se revuelcan
como las olas del Pacífico
giran
al ritmo furioso
de un terco verano
y ahuyentan al blanco ibis
el amor huido
en el cabalgar de un potro

ella sujeta el lazo

cierra el puño
los ojos
aguarda el concierto de los zanates
otro atardecer
que desbarate el fuego

II.

piso la hierba del silencio
buscando
una palabra que resuma
átomo y estrella

escucharlo todo en una flor
abriéndose despacio
en el campo

Above Drudgery

By Carlos Cumpián©

for Cynthia

to be Aphrodite today

must be confusing
no one knows a real goddess
when they see one—
no one has the paunch
of patient concern anymore—
flat bellies or nothing.
Or archangel of desire
i keep my shirt on while
your apricot mouth
castigates a whole
generation.
your conch shell ears
offer evidence amid
the grimace of
ordinary faces,
your old boyfriend cyclops
reads the paper,
his sunglasses the
size of cymbals.
your damp deity body
lays on a used towel,
while my eyes dehydrate
from following you
like a gladiator
in the desert.

Coyote Sun by Carlos Cumpián (MARCH/Abrazo Press, 1990)

POETRY IN THE BRONX

In Other News

La Pachanga & Award Ceremony: Ray Gonzalez

What: Pachanga & Award Ceremony 2015 Honoring Ray Gonzalez

When: AWP Minneapolis 2015: Friday, April 10, 2015 from 2 – 3:30 p.m. (Doors open at 1:30 p.m.)
Where: Bryant Lake Bowl(Restaurant, Bowl and Theater) 810 W. Lake St., Minneapolis, MN, 55408-2846, (612) 825-3737. Click here for directions.

LA PACHANGA & AWARD CEREMONY: RAY GONZALEZ, MINNEAPOLIS

Almost ready for La Pachanga & Award Ceremony for Ray Gonzalez on Friday, 4/10, from 2 – 3:30 p.m. A symbolic gift and diploma in hand.

EL REGALO

PARA RAY GONZALEZ

Gracias a todos who have donated for La Pachanga & Award Ceremony 2015: Honoring RAY GONZALEZ in Minneapolis, MN. If you can and want to donate through PayPal, select “Send to friends and family” to contintaletrasaward@gmail.com. Please write “Con Tinta” or “donation” in the subject line with your generous donation—any amount helps! And if you want to snail mail it to us that is great también.

Review: Alma Luz Villanueva. Gracias. San Antonio TX, 2015. ISBN: 9781609403959

Michael Sedano

I wish I could read every poetry collection published in 2015. That would be the only method to say with certainty that Alma Luz Villanueva’s Gracias is 2015’s most interesting poetry collection. Gracias is the kind of collection that deserves selection as National Poetry Month’s “one city one book” title, if there were such a thing.

Gracias shares provocative ideas, applies interesting poetic strategies, makes readers laugh, makes readers cry, breaks some rules along the way. Villanueva organizes her sixty-six poems into four collections, Cozcacuautz, Buddha, Flower, Fragile Silk. In 230 pages, the poet leads the reader through a biographical journey spanning years of her bi-national Chicana career.

The opening section’s title piece recalls a poet’s naming ceremony by a Mayan man, making her part of an historical continuity yet reminding her to live for the moment. The final poem offers regeneration, the culmination of lived-in moments, death then rebirth.

“Vive en el momento,” her guide tells her, adding how beautiful she looks. The poet laughs at the irony of fleeting beauty. The poet wraps up this moment with this man. He kisses her lips with glistening eyes. “Gracias” she says. The reader smiles at the lust--him, her the woman, her the true believer, wondering if that’s what that moment's about.

The closing poem, “Thirteenth Womb, Unity (Dreams)” is preceded by “Ceremony,” then “Essence.’ Villaneuva’s created a poetic triptych to concentrate the force of the works that hurled across the prior 219 pages. The three propel the book to this closing metaphor that rounds out the poet’s journey from page one; birth, rebirth. For the reader, it’s a journey of twelve years of poetic exploration; the first is dated 2006, the closing 2012.

Villanueva makes her first and last pieces stand out by alternating the form she gives most of the book’s other poems. “Cozcacuautz” and “Thirteen Wombs” flow down the page with free verse form in first person. Flip the pages of the book, however, and one’s eyes immediately note the white space created by the poet’s adoption of a free verse quatrain stanza. There are only a few exceptions to this strict formalism.

The four line structure makes an interesting choice for readers. Overall, the book takes on the look of a single epic poem. Holding the heavily autobiographical subjects, the heroic look reinforces the synoptic character of the collection as a whole, creating a physical linkage between poems that Villanueva already links through subject, ties to her novels, language, and form.

The blank verse quatrain form brings plusses and minuses to Gracias. The strict formalism creates space on the page that leads the eye to pause, assess, seek the unit of expression. This distinctive form holds a reader’s eye in place long enough to consider, discover, seek more, or re-read before stepping across the two hard returns into the next quatrain.

Villanueva’s strategy is to encourage or discomfit readers via caesura, interrupting the flow of a phrase by spreading it across two quatrains, or allowing four lines to hold a complete thought. The poet enjoys breaking a reader’s expectation that the four lines will form a whole expression. The eye wants to stop, the lines want to keep going.

The closing four stanzas of “Ceremony” illustrate the strategy, the first and last stanzas can stand alone, despite the comma. The middle two, even absent a comma, cannot be read alone, with the second ending in “the” and stanza three hanging with suspense from its ambiguous preposition “over”.

be a gift, the
entire day, a
ceremony, the gift of
water and fire,

I hear the laughter of
my four grown
children, grandchildren,
great-grandchild in the

cosmic womb dreaming,
the ancestors singing
the rattle song, all
my friends, some over

thirty/forty years, my
students seeing me whole I
see them whole, we are the
gift. We are the ceremony. 224

Stanza after stanza, poem after poem, the poet weaves chains down a page like that. The rising and disappointing of expectation drives certain readers toward desperation for a whole expression. When one arrives, that stanza gets itself re-read a few extra times, just for the satisfaction of fulfilled formalist expectation.

A plurality of poems speak in conversational tones, the poet recalling driving in a car, being molested by a relative, intimidating locals by the way she walks like a bad ass, stabbing the tio who reached for her, chagrined at her ID picture.

Here and there poems become chants, heavy with repetition and rhythm. These make up some of the more interesting oral poems in the collection, ones that would be fun to read in chorus.

bliss
I surrender
I surrender to
I surrender to this

I surrender to this ancient
I surrender to this ancient new
I surrender to this ancient new always
I surrender to this ancient new always born

wet
wings
of
bliss, 87

Readers will come across descriptions and expressions that draw a smile, a chuckle, a laugh out loud snort. In the middle of the volume readers find one that pisses them off at the same time , “Breathing While Brown.”

To the beautiful, brave
young who have always
sat at lunch counters,
racists spitting on them, pulling

their hair, calling them nigger,
killing the brave, young, white
students who joined them, the
insane dogs taking bites of their
. . . .
station and had a fucking fit, what
do we do when an entire
state makes it perfectly legal
to punish humans for Breathing

While Brown – nine young, beautiful
brown warriors chained themselves
to the Capitol's
entrance, that’s what
we do, the beautiful, brave 113

There’s everything to recommend contacting an independent bookseller, or Wings Press,
to give a National Poetry Month gift to all your poetry-loving friends, all your Chicana Literature-loving friends, all your curmudgeonly friends, and all your strict formalist friends, Alma Luz Villanueva’s newest collection of poetry, Gracias. After they’ve read it, your friends will say without a moment’s hesitancy, no rhyme nor meters required, gracias.

On-line Floricanto for Poetry Month
Israel Francisco Haros Lopez, Betty Sánchez, Sandra Barrios Del Mar, Carolyn Holmes Gregory, John Martinez

The Academy of American Poets established National Poetry Month in 1996. April seemed as good a month as any, according to the Academy's website. The Academy asserts National Poetry Month is the largest literary celebration in the world, with tens of millions of poets, adjunct professors on food stamps, readers, students, K-12 teachers, librarians, booksellers, literary events curators, publishers, and bloggers marking poetry’s important place in our culture every April.

La Bloga On-line Floricanto happily joins the observance for 2015, with five poets working in two languages. Thanks this month to Carmen Calatayud and her fellow Moderators of the Facebook poetry community Poetry of Resistance: Poets Responding to SB 1070 for nominating today's celebrants:

“border song 2.0” by Israel Francisco Haros Lopez
“Equinoccio de Primavera” por Betty Sánchez
“NACÍ MUJER!!! Poema dedicado al Día Internacional de la Mujer” por Sandra Barrios Del Mar
“Spring and Counting” by Carolyn Holmes Gregory
“I Dreamed of a Child Crying” by John Martinez

border song 2.0
By Israel Francisco Haros Lopez

there are condors, vultures and coyotes
at the base of your tongue
when you cross the border
they will become both digitized and americanized
before they become legal notions
your dehumanized set of paper trails,
ITN's, social securities
don't forget to split your tongue
into seven
generations
at least.

Israel Haros is currently working on 1000 border sketch poems as part of an artist residency. He has been accepted into the Immigration/Migration themed residency at Santa Fe Art Institute.

He is a published author and has 6 published Adult Chicano Coloring Books. He is also currently working on 1000 sketches in a month as part of an inner artistic movement.

He can be found using facebook as his office and also on his wordpress "waterhummingbirdhouse." Chicano from Boyle Heights with an B.A. in English From UC Berkeley and an MFA from California College of The Arts.

Equinoccio de Primavera
Por Betty Sánchez

Fenómeno astronómico
De esplendor celestial
Nos traerá un eclipse
Total de luna
Durante el mes de Abril

Marte Venus
Júpiter y Saturno
Se harán visibles
En nuestro cielo vespertino
Disfrutaremos
De tres lunas llenas
Lluvias de meteoros
Y auroras boreales

El orden del universo
Me fascina
Me humilla al recordarme
Lo diminuto y efímero
De la existencia humana

Y sin embargo
Me permite valorar
La grandeza
De ser parte del cosmos

Por mi vientre
Ha fluido vida
Semillas que germinarán
Y continuarán
El ciclo más allá de mi

La primavera
Sinónimo de energía
De flores
Mariposas
Y renacimientos

De cara al sol
La recibo
Para usarla
Como una
Segunda piel.

Betty Sánchez

20 de Marzo de 2015

Betty Sánchez. Madre, abuela, maestra, poeta…en ese orden. Residente del condado de Sutter; trabajo como Directora de Centro del programa Migrante de Head Start.

Soy miembro activo del grupo literario, Escritores del Nuevo Sol desde Marzo del 2003. He colaborado en eventos poéticos tales como el Festival Flor y Canto, Colectivo Verso Activo, Noche de Voces Xicanas, Honrando a Facundo Cabral, y Poesía Revuelta; así como en lecturas organizadas por los Escritores del Nuevo Sol.

Ha sido un privilegio contribuir en la página Poetas Respondiendo al SB 1070, Zine 10 y 13 de Mujeres de Maíz y en La Bloga.

NACÍ MUJER!!!
Poema dedicado al Día Internacional de la Mujer
Por Sandra Barrios Del Mar

Cuando mi madre me dio a luz...
Llegaron los delfines…
A la orilla del mar...
Saltaron de felicidad...
Y juguetearon en el azul golfo de fonseca...

Y ángeles y querubines
Han sostenido mi alma...

Mi alma rebelde e inquieta
Que nació con la bravura
De las olas al estrellarse
En las rocas...

Bendito sea el esperma de mi padre...
Y bendito el vientre de mi madre…
Que nací mujer...
Nací del amor…
De un hombre valiente
Y de una mujer sorprendente...

Hoy tengo la sabiduría
De las estrellas...
Tengo la convicción...

De amar sin dolor...
Tengo un arcoiris
En el corazón....
Cuando me entregó al amor
Nacen volcanes en erupción...

Tengo la fuerza de mover
Montañas...
Tengo alas para volar...
Tengo sueños por los cuales luchar...
Tengo dos ovarios en su lugar...
Tengo en mis pupilas el secreto del universo...

Tengo la perfecta linea en mis labios para entregar
El beso qué nadie aún no descubrió....

Nací mujer
Y dentro de mi brota un verso cristalino....
Un verso ... Un verso..
El dulce verso...de libertad...

Nací mujer...
Nací poesía...
Tengo la fuerza de un tornado....
Tengo la magia en un puñado....

Soy mujer poesía
Porque nací de un gran amor!!!

Bendito sea el creador
Que nací mujer!!!
Soy madre
Soy guerrera
Soy poesía
Soy revolución....
Porque soy la misma evolución...

Soy creadora de vida
Con el privilegio más alto
De la creación...
Soy divina...
Soy mujer...

Soy extraordinariamente
M u j e r...!!!
Gracias al creador del universo por permitirme
Nacer....
Nacer mujer!!!

Sandra Barrios del Mar lives in Los Angeles. She is originally from El Salvador.

Spring and Counting
By Carolyn Holmes Gregory

Turbines fly, thousands of gallons
of radioactive water
in reactors deactivated
where men in tall boots and masks
measure sieverts

Beyond waves and rubble,
the dead have not yet drifted ashore
though thousands have been named
and many are children
who had no time
to write their names
on the blackboard

Puddles gather, sieverts growing
each day like notes
on a nuclear xylophone −
some get sick, some disappear,
counting the unknown particles
in puddles over warped fuel rods

counting the number of human minutes
exposed to the invisible
iodine, cobalt, molybdenum
Will the blossoms bloom pink
this spring?

Carolyn Gregory’s poems and music essays have been published in American Poetry Review, Main Street Rag, Off the Coast, Cutthroat, Bellowing Ark, Seattle Review, Big River Review, Tower Journal, and Stylus. She was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and previously won a Massachusetts Cultural Council Award. Her first book, OPEN LETTERS, was published in 2009 and a second book, FACING THE MUSIC, will be published in Florida in spring, 2015.

I Dreamed of a Child Crying
By John Martinez

Like a faraway boat, drifting
Into my ear, I hear,
The pressed mouth of sorrow,
A whimpering that rises, ghost-like,
From a black ocean fog,
This never-ending tone
That leads me to this

And I bring this to you, open,
Like a fig, that has fallen
From its tree, a tree,
Shouting its limbs
Into the pitiless grins
Of white and grey clouds

I bring this to you, today,
Because you looked away
And didn't hear it at first

It’s in your bones too.
Like mine, they vibrate
Every time terror dissipates
From the dying storm of her eyes,
It’s in our saliva, a stone,
A hollow seed sleeping
On our tongues, it’s not a curse,
But a reminder of our kinship
With her suffering

I am a man, tumbling this midnight
"Pesadilla,” passed down
Like a spinning molecule,
Dreaming, again, of her hand,
A small branch in the rubble

I tell my love, whose warm body
Rests near mine

"I think I dreamed of a child crying."

And this dream builds this poem,
As I reach to embrace her
With tears of a hypocrite;
That I should rise in the morning,
Eat and drink my milk,
Forgetting, that her frozen mouth,
The last shadow skipping by
Her dampened iris,
Is yet to form inside of me.

John Martinez has published poetry in several journals, including, LA WEEKLY, EL TECOLOTE, Red Trapeze and this will be his 19th poem published in LA BLOGA. Martinez studied creative writing in the early 80's at Fresno State University under, the late U.S., Poet Laureate, Phillip Levine and has attended seminars with several established American poets. For the last 30 years he has worked as an Administrator for a Los Angeles Law Firm and has recently complete his long awaited Manuscript of 60 poems entitled PLACES, which will be published by IZOTE Press in late 2015

By Gladys Elizabeth Barbieri

REFORMA is the National Association of Librarians to promote library and information services to Latinos and the Spanish speaking. It is an affiliate of the American Library Association (ALA). They develop library collections to include Spanish language, bilingual and bicultural books as well as other materials to meet the needs of the Latino community. REFORMA’S fifth national conference (April 1-4) was held in San Diego at the Omni Hotel. The theme was “Libraries Without Borders: Creating our future / Bibliotecas sin fronteras: creando nuestro futuro”.

I was lucky enough to be invited to speak on an author panel: Insights from Award Winning Children’s & Young Adult Book Authors. I was joined by Marie Elena Cortes, René Colato Laínez and the moderator, Maritere Rodriguez Bellas. We discussed bilingual books and bilingual education trends, writing tips to stay inspired, illustrations and the many writing processes used to make a picture book. An audience member shared she lays out visual images on the floor when she writes. It took me a while to figure out who she was and then I realized, “Oh my stars – it’s Mara Price, the author of Grandma’s Chocolate!” It took all of me not to run and hug her. I was also super excited to spend some time with one of my favorite children’s author, René Colato Laínez. I teased him I was a groupie because his book, Señor Pancho Had a Rancho, is our current “class book/class pet”. But more on that later…

Reforma 2015: Author Panel

After the author panel, I went to the book exhibit hall and perused the myriad of books for adults and children. Books are my dear friends and I felt so giddy to be in their company. I got to chat with librarians from Oakland, Portland, Santa Barbara and Texas. After sharing a few laughs with a lively librarian from Ponderosa Library (shout out to Ponderosa!), I even thought to myself, “I think I might really like being a librarian.” It was clear by their enthusiasm that they truly love being librarians and the service they provide their communities. The REFORMA conference was pretty big and while I didn’t get the opportunity to attend the entire conference, the little bit I did see was impressive.

Later that Friday evening I walked around San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter. It was a delight to stroll and take in the beauty of the buildings, restaurants, shops and Petco Park. After my stroll, I made my way to the San Diego Central Library to attend the event, Noche de Cuentos.

Firstly, let me say that this library is stunning. I couldn’t get over the views, the size and grandeur of it. Since the event was on the 9th floor, I felt as if I were flying over the city.

San Diego Central Library – 9th floor

I found a spot next to this window and enjoyed the warmth and camaraderie of the group. The beats of Danza Mexi’cayotl were palpable. This scene reminded me of my college days long ago, as I learned with earnest about my Latino and Indigenous roots through literature, oral story telling and dance.

I would also like to highlight REFORMA’S International Book Share: Children in crisis project and Baja California libraries. Please consider donatingnew or gently used books or money to help refugee children. Books provide much healing, insight and companionship. Books also provide hope and we could all benefit from a bit of hope for a better tomorrow. For more information please visit: http://refugeechildren.wix.com/refugee-children#!about_us/csgz

Lastly, as I saw the many librarians carefully looking at books, I thought of Mrs. Maria Fernandez, Felton School’s librarian. We’re lucky to have her. Librarians are the gatekeepers of books and hope, because it is through their work that our children and communities continue to thrive.

I’m of a fearsome mind to throw my arms around every living librarian who crosses my path, on behalf of the souls they never knew they saved.

– Barbara Kingsolver

“Migration as a Universal Human Right”

By: Alvaro Huerta, Ph.D.

In life, as the saying goes, nothing is certain except for death and taxes. I propose another: migration.

Migration represents a universal human right.

Some economists want us to believe that humans migrate, especially the global poor, to more developed countries for better jobs and higher wages. But throughout time, humans also migrate because of climate change, natural disaster, disease, violence, war, repression, dictatorships, religious persecution, drug and gang warfare, free trade agreements and global capitalism.

Humans have been in constant movement throughout history, and always will be. If migration is certain and constant, why do so many Americans and their leaders, particularly conservatives, fuss about Latino immigration to the United States?

As a scholar, I'm interested in this and other questions as I try to understand the complex nature of international migration. When leaders label immigrants "illegal aliens,""anchor babies" or "threats to national security," the greater society will have less sympathy for these human beings when they are exploited or deported.

Instead of attacking and objectifying immigrants, let's appreciate their humanity and positive contributions to society. For me, this is not just an academic issue. It's personal.

Carmen and Salomon Huerta, 1954

I will never forget the stories my father, Salomon Chavez Huerta, told me about his experiences in the U.S. as a guest worker under the Bracero Program during the mid-1900s, toiling in this country's agricultural fields for meager wages.

I remember him telling me how he felt about being sprayed with chemicals and forced to live in overcrowded housing. He and other Mexican immigrants, his paisanos, were treated like beasts of burden. He was charged for food and rent from the company store. When people insult immigrants, I feel they are insulting the memory of my father.

Once my father's agricultural contract expired, my family moved from a small rancho in the state of Michoacán to the border city of Tijuana. Once settled in Tijuana, my mother, Carmen Mejia Huerta, worked as a transborder domestic worker, cleaning the homes of Americans and raising their children.

She treated these children like her own. And for this, what did my mother receive? Poor wages, lack of work benefits and disrespect.

During one of her extended work stays in the U.S., my mother was pregnant with me. With the help of extended family members in Sacramento, I was born in the California capital.

I was shortly reunited with my siblings in Tijuana, where I spent the first four years of my life. My parents eventually migrated to el norte and we settled in East Los Angeles' notorious Ramona Gardens housing project.

My father worked as janitor, and my mother was a domestic worker in West Los Angeles. Thanks to their hard work, four of their eight children attended elite universities.

"Mexican-Greek"

Painting by Salomon Huerta, hijo

I received two degrees from UCLA and a doctorate from UC Berkeley. My wife graduated from UCLA, too. Our immigrant parents sacrificed so we could have opportunities not available to them in their home country.

We all benefit from immigrant labor, provided by millions of people like my parents. So why are Americans so fixated with borders? Can we imagine a world without borders?

Professor Bridget Anderson of Oxford University argues that, yes, we should strive for this reality. While some claim that her views represent a utopia, she counters that borders represent a dystopia.

Similarly, should we, those of us who envision a more just world, demand that President Barack Obama tear down our southern border?

In his book about the failure of borders, professor Michael Dear of UC Berkeley argues that the U.S. government should tear down the U.S.-Mexico border. Borders don't work and will eventually come down, he contends.

We all started in one place and ended up in another place. We don't know where we'll land tomorrow. Before people judge and denigrate immigrants, they must ask themselves where their ancestors migrated from and if they have migrated or plan to do so in the future.

(March 29, 2015)

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Dr. Alvaro Huerta is an assistant professor of urban and regional planning and ethnic and women’s studies at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He is the author of Reframing the Latino Immigration Debate: Towards a Humanistic Paradigm, published by San Diego State University Press (2013).

In case you thought April was the month where Spring happens, along with Easter and Passover, and, if we are lucky, April showers, April is also National Poetry Month. As a poet, this means I'm busy. As a poet who broke her leg last Summer and is now mobile again, this means, I am super busy. It seems everyone wants some sort of poetry event to grace their calendar and show some love for National Poetry Month. This month, I have nine events in four different states, and, oddly enough, the list keeps growing.

The month started off with an event that was more than poetry. I was asked to give a keynote, motivational speech for the CAMP students at New Mexico State University. CAMP stands for College Assistance Migrant Program and consists of college students whose parents are migrant workers. The CAMP students were a fantastic audience; they asked great questions and bought lots of books. So much so that I didn't realize they had cleaned me out of the stock that I usually travel with. I was also happy to see some New Mexico friends in the house, Denise Chavez, Daniel Zolinsky, and Pat Minjarez. Although I was brought to Las Cruces to motivate and speak to CAMP students, they ended up motivating me. I was honored that they stayed and listen to me speak and read poetry, when many of their friends had already left town for the high holy holiday, Easter, and Spring Break.

Gina Ferrara, Melinda Palacio, Andy Young

My next stop was the day before Easter at the Latter Library in New Orleans. This was a fun reading featuring my Italian twin, Gina Ferrara, (people often mistake us for each other), and Andy Young. The venue is one of my favorites and I hope New Orleans will vote yes on the library millage in order to help restore funds that were cut to the libraries after Katrina. While much attention has been placed on gentrification in New Orleans, some basic needs, such as library funding and education continue to be ignored and overshadowed. The Latter library provided a wine and cheese reception for their National Poetry Month reading.

Two days later, I recorded poetry at WRBH, Reading Radio on Magazine Street. WRBH is New Orlean's radio for the blind. Last year, I recording my entire poetry book, How Fire Is a Story,Waiting over the course of four different session. This time I spent 30 minutes recording new poems for their poetry month program.

In case you are reading along and keeping tally with me, the recording at WRBH represented event number 3 out 9, and two different states: Louisiana and New Mexico. Today, I add Minneapolis and events 4 and 5, plus state number 3. I'm at AWP and I will be at the Tia Chucha Press/ Kaya Books/ Lit in Color Booth 1711 and I read with Coast to Coast Poetry Press Collective at Common Roots Cafe in Minneapolis tonight at 7pm. Happy National Poetry Month. I hope you've enjoyed the first two weeks as much as I have.

Melinda Palacio's Upcoming Poetry Month Events

California:

Los Angeles

Saturday: April 18, Cut Along the Line: An Evening of Readings in Conjunction with the Big Read at 7 pm. Craft & Folk Art Museum, 5814 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, California. In celebration of Luis Alberto's Urrea's novel Into the Beautiful North, writer Marisela Norte brings together writers Luis Alfaro, Kenji Liu and Melinda Palacio for a reading of poetry and prose.

Santa Barbara

April 19, Sunday Poets to read at the Book Den, 15 East Anapamu Street, Santa Barbara, CA, 3pm sharp. Last year, this reading started on time and was standing room only. Take a day trip to Santa Barbara and come early to the poetry reading.

Louisiana

Baton Rouge

April 21, Louisiana State Poetry Reading at the State Library, 3rd Street, Baton Rouge, LA

Metairie

April 26, Poetry Month Reading at Jefferson Parish Library, 4747 West Napoleon Avenue, Metairie, LA 70001. Melinda Palacio and Jose Torres Tama close out the library's poetry month program.

Cops caught on camera murdering blacks and Latinos. Chicano Studies programs shut down. Books by Sherman Alexie, Toni Morrison and Rudy Anaya banned. Latin American immigrants scapegoated. Republicans slashing benefits of the poor and unemployed. This is your country on drugs. Drugs of hate, ignorance, racism and militaristic aggression--let's call that HIRMA. Some think of themselves as "sad puppies" but in a different sense,they're sadder than that.

People may say I shouldn't have posted what's below. That I'm sensationalizing, maybe even stooping to the level of a HIRMA type. It's also possible my career may suffer from this. Well, it wasn't rocketing to stardom, anyway. Besides, there's no future in being a silent German when the socialists, radicals and non-pure Germans are being marched into cattle cars.

The following statements may sound familiar. What you may not know is where they originate. Take a guess.

"In the last decade we’ve seen voting skew more and more toward having barely any content. We’ve seen the voting skew ideological, as people have tended to use them as an affirmative action award: winning because he is an underrepresented minority or victim group or because she features an underrepresented minority or victim group."

"We seem almost permanently stuck on the subversive switcheroo: transgender socialists fight the evil corporations. Troops fight for evil, not good. Us as invaders and the natives as the righteous victims. Yadda yadda yadda."

"This story is merely about racial prejudice and exploitation. Or could it be an actual bona fide story? No, wait. It’s about sexism and the oppression of women."

"We strike back against the left-wing control freaks who have subjected our work to ideological control for two decades and are now attempting to do the same thing in other industries.”

"He slammed the black woman as being a half-savage, questioned the need for women’s suffrage. And said our national ills can be partially attributed to “the infestation of even the smallest American heartland towns by African, Asian, and Aztec cultures.”

"They call the pro-diversity crowd, the Hyper-Progressive Pissypants Club.”

"Many of these people are sending death threats to women and people of color, sending SWAT teams to the addresses of critics, and hijacking accounts and identities to try and silence those creating more-inclusive stories."

"I don’t write for leftist pussies so they’ve never read me.”

Martin, one author who spoke against HIRMA.

If you guessed Rush Limpbaugh, Ted Cruize or the Kuacha brothers, you deserve half-credit.

What might surprise you is that these HIRMA statements and positions all relate to or were written by famous, successful, American authors. Of science fiction. Award winners, public speakers, some college-educated, mostly males. Adults, if you will. Or their fans. [I deleted words about sci-fi that would've made it obvious what the quotes were about. But the gist of information, I left untouched.]

If you're interested in science fiction or fantasy, here are the names of some of the HIRMA leaders responsible for the above statements. Should you not read their works because of their political views? That's your decision; I myself would not. Their ideology and prejudice are outrageous for a supposedly civilized country. So, among others, you might want to know the names:

Brad Torgensen Larry Correia Theodore Beale

There is an uproar in the sci-fi/fantasy world because these HIRMAs hijacked one of the most prestigious awards for speculative literature, the Hugos. You can read about it, but the hijacking was meant to prevent feminist, gay, People of Color, or other progressive writers from winning the awards.

Surridge, someone you should read

From what I've read, the most comprehensive analysis about the reasons behind the hijacking is an exhaustive essay by Matthew David Surridge. Here's some highlights:

"In science fiction, the thesis was that Earthmen (all of whom, in the ideal Campbell story, resembled people of northwestern European extraction) were superior to all other intelligent races — even when the others seemed more intelligent on the surface.

"SF, and really any literature, has always, explicitly or implicitly, knowingly or unknowingly, had some sort of ideology behind it.

"It seems so to me, as a white male; broadly speaking, my impression is that issues of identity politics and social justice are increasingly prominent in North American society. Any society will have internal tensions over gender roles and the position of minorities, and, given that, it’s healthy for people in that society to address those tensions and be mindful of them.

"And art--specifically including ‘pop culture entertainment’--is a particularly worthwhile way in which to do that. I don’t mean that I think all art must be or should be explicitly concerned with these issues. But I think it’s clear that art that does so is speaking to the time and culture out of which it was produced.

"I think that art that tries to better represent the experience of women and minority groups is good to have. I think it’s good for society in general that it exists, and generally good that more and different points of view are represented in art. I think it’s good for me as a reader that I can find books that teach me new things. And I think that art that tries to present varied experiences and varied sensibilities is likely to be better art, in that it will have a deeper sense of the complexity of the world, and I think complexity is usually valuable in art."

The HIRMAs "call their progressive enemies the SJWs, “social justice warriors,” coinage describing a shadowy conspiracy of liberals and identity politickers out to trample white male freedom."

Some Anglo authors have not sided with the HIRMAs. "Matthew Surridge declined his nomination for Best Fan Writer, citing “strong” aesthetic and ideological disagreements with Torgerson. Kameron Hurley seemed inclined to wash her hands of the Hugos altogether." Also, George R.R. Martin.

If you're wondering whether I exaggerated how these ideas are manifestations of hate, ignorance, racism and militaristic aggression, here's a random selection of tweets written by them or their supporters. Warning: don't let your kids read these.

"If you think for one nano-second that we won’t burn this mother fucker to the ground and roast marshmallows over the corpses…. you’re dead wrong… And if you think we give a damn about your appeal for civility…. you’re also dead wrong."

"We will burn it to the ground, plow the ground, and salt it. You fuckwads don’t understand war. We do."

One of the nicer HIRMA types

"In my opinion, her parents were both: a.) circus people; and b.) first cousins."

"Scuttle back underneath the kitchen sink, and rejoin the rest of your chitinous cohorts."

"The endgame, besides using your guts to grease our tanks."

"You’re a pussy, boy. You don’t even have the guts to be an asshole."

"Pussy, you’re not worth a discussion. You’re a cockroach. Roaches are only to be stepped on."

"You can come here, to Virginia. Why, I’ll even loan you a decent gun. Pussy."

"I’ll keep you posted on my progress in identifying you, pussy."

"I can only agree that you’re a pussy. A coward. A liar. A piece of crawling shit."

If you want factual, logical, intelligent articles with details about the heisting of the Hugo Awards, go here, here, or here, or here for George R.R. Martin's thoughts.

My final thoughts on this idiocy? Science fiction, fantasy and all speculative fiction obviously need new, young blood, more Chicanos, blacks, Indians and radical thinkers to invigorate the literature. We've seen the dismal pit the HIRMA types would plunge it into.

Caravana 43 in Denver today & tomorrow

Family of the 43 missing students from Ayotzinapa, Guerrero, Mexico, who were tortured and disappeared by the Mexican state,will be in Colorado April 11th through the 13th, as part of a national speaking tour known as Caravana 43. While in Colorado, the group will visit Denver, Greeley and Longmont.

The purpose of the visit is to provide a platform for the group to share their continuing struggle for justice and to bring national attention to the systematic violence and impunity that continues to plague Mexico. The arrival of Caravana 43 in Colorado will mark over six months from the night of the attack that occurred in the city of Iguala on the evening of September 26, 2014, which left six people dead and 43 students forcibly disappeared.

The organizations Al Frente de Lucha and Colorado Sin Fronteras Unidos por Mexico consider it an honor and privilege to host the group of parents and classmates of the 43 disappeared students in Colorado. Below is the list of activities planned for this historic visit:

Saturday April 11/Sabado 11 de Abril

La Bienvenida: Official Welcome and Rally

Colorado State Capitol, 200 E Colfax Ave, Denver, 4pm-6pm

Sunday April 12/Domingo 12 de Abril

Breakfast & Presentation/Desayuno y Presentación

Casa de la Esperanza, 1520 South Emery Street, Longmont, 9am-11am

Community Forum/Foro Comunitario

Lincoln High School | 2285 South Federal Blvd, Denver, 3pm-6pm

MondayApril 13/Lunes 13 de Abril

Press Conference/Rueda de Prensa

Auraria Campus, Tivoli Student Union Room 444, 9am

University Forum/Foro Universitario

University of Northern Colorado, UC Aspen A | 2045 10th Street, Greeley, Colorado, 12pm-2pm

Presentation/Presentación: Ayotzinapa: Resistencia Popular

Rodarte Center, 920 A Street, Greeley, Colo., 6pm-8pm

Es todo, hoy,

from a Social Justice Warrior who needs to take a stand much more often

Please, por favor
do not place my worth
on the size of my stomach.

Do not judge how happy I am

by the size of my jeans.

I am much, much more than

how much I weigh
how pretty I look on Saturday nights
how close I can push up my breasts to my chin.

Look

I am not even remotely close
to your average
runway model, covergirl.

I do not eat yogurt, sprouts or Ex-Lax chocolates

on a regular basis.

I do not wake up

with a mascara brush in one hand
and a lipstick liner in the other.

Actually,

I find pride in how little time
it takes me to apply the little
make-up I do use
and still not cause
any major traffic accidents.

Don’t get me wrong

this is not a poem
dogging my sisters
who spend hours
painting their beautiful selves.

But me

I am more than
my breasts
my thighs
my love handles
my calves
my lashes
my lips.

Yes, you can be happy

and not be a size 6 or 7 or 8 or 9 or…
Well, that’s really not any of
your damn business.

Yes, I do like what I see in the mirror,

And yes, I will have some more tacos.
And no, I don’t want to walk to the market.

Listen

do not judge
my value
my abilities
my intelligence
my sense of humor
my disposition
by how I look
by what I wear
by a number on a scale
by how long it will take you
to put your arms around me.

Listen

I know una mujer Hermosa
piel morena, full lips, silken hair
size 1
thin as hell
who starves herself
who covers her Chicana beauty
with layers and layers of Revlon make-up
who runs four miles every night
and then heads for her aerobic class.

Listen

I know una mujer
size 1
thin as hell
who hates herself.

Alright already

I mean
is enough ever enough?
Do you really think
one size fits all?

Heaven,

Heaven must be that place
that one place
where all women
love themselves
make-up free
hair-spray free
high-heel free
panty-hose free
girdle free
scale free
exercise free
acrylic free
silicon free
blue contact lens free
underwire free
hair bleach free
Jenny Craig free
SELF-HATE free

Heaven,

heaven must be that place
that one place
where we are all free
free to be who we are

when we wake up in the morning

free to be who we were born to be.

Photo by Maritza Alvarez

Sandra C. Muñoz has an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University. She is the owner of the Law Offices of Sandra C. Muñoz located in East Los Angeles. For over 15 years, Sandra has worked on cases involving employment discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. She has been featured in the Daily Journal, written for the California Business Law magazine, and participated on various education panels. Her creative work is featured in the play Black Butterfly, Jaguar Girl, Piñata Woman and Other Superhero Girls, Like Me by Luis Alfaro.

Carmen Amato

By Daniel Olivas

In addition to a political thriller The Hidden Light of Mexico City,Carmen Amato is the author of the Emilia Cruz mystery series set in Acapulco, including Cliff Diver, Hat Dance, Diablo Nights, and the collection of short stories Made in Acapulco. Originally from New York, Amato has also lived in Mexico and Central America which brings an authenticity to her fiction. Her creation, Emilia Cruz, is the first and only female police detective based in Acapulco. Amato kindly made time to answer a few questions about Diablo Nights.

DANIEL OLIVAS: Emilia Cruz is a wonderfully complex character. What went into your creation of her and how has she developed in the series?

CARMEN AMATO: First of all, thanks so much for inviting me to chat. I’ve been up to my ears in the fourth Emilia Cruz mystery, King Peso, and am happy to take a break!

Emilia came about after a scary night in a church in Mexico City. We were an American family in Mexico City, embracing a new culture, exploring a vibrant city, and meeting people who were to impact our lives for years to come. Expatriate life was good.

But a drug-addled gun-waving man lurched his way up the aisle during midnight mass on Christmas Eve. He accosted our parish priest, Father Richard, who dug into a pocket beneath his robes and handed the man a few pesos. Several men from the congregation managed to get the man out of the church without further incident but we were all shaken.

The experience popped my lovely expatriate bubble. We read the worsening news over the next year: shootouts in major cities, multiple drug seizures, rising numbers of dead and missing, the murders of mayors, governors and journalists.

Now back in the United States, as a writer, I wanted to raise awareness of what's going on in Mexico. My weapons are plot elements straight out of the headlines, an authentic dive into one of the most beautiful settings on earth, and a little salsa fresca from my own years living in Mexico and Central America.

To carry the narrative, I had to create a strong, multi-dimensional character able to shoulder the burden of a cop in Mexico. Emilia has to walk a fine line between drug cartels and institutionalized corruption. Being female adds to the mix but also reflects reality in Mexico, as does her strong Catholicism. Her family’s poverty contrasts with her relationship with a rich gringo and is a nod to the extremes of wealth in Mexico, but she’s also a mean kickboxer and a good liar.

Have I mentioned that she’s also a mean kickboxer, hunts for missing women, and is a good liar?

DO: In Diablo Nights, Emilia Cruz battles everything from the drug cartels to incompetent or (worse yet) corrupt members of law enforcement to sexism to trying to find balance in her personal life. Could you talk about these challenges that Cruz confronts and what the reaction has been from your readers?

CA: The Emilia Cruz mystery series is based on reality. Emilia’s challenges are pulled right from the headlines in Mexico. There’s no need for me to make up bizarre serial killers when cartel violence and corrupt politicians provide more than enough inspiration. For example, Emilia’s perpetual hunt for women who have gone missing—referred to as Las Perdidas or the Lost Ones—was inspired by the hundreds of women missing from the Juarez area.

The majority of readers find Emilia because the books are catalogued as International Mystery and Crime, alongside books by Jo Nesbo and Ian Rankin. Those who love police procedurals tell me it’s a fresh take on the genre. Those who love female sleuths have embraced Emilia as a woman battling the odds. The scene in Cliff Diver when she takes down a would-be rapist is the most talked-about bit out of all the books.

Other readers find the books because they are interested in Mexico. Those readers invariably mention the authenticity of the food and setting. Many say how much they have learned about Mexico from the books.

I think another appeal of the Emilia Cruz series is that so much of the intrigue and mystery elements come from relationships. These mysteries aren’t powered by forensics or ballistics, but by the twisted connections between characters. The characters themselves are often twisted, too, by violence or greed.

DO: The Emilia Cruz novels would make a great movie or TV series. Any plans for the big or small screen and, regardless, who would you like to see play Cruz?

CA: You must have a sixth sense! By the time this interview goes live, the contract for the film rights to the Emilia Cruz series will have been inked. The screenwriter has really taken the time to get to know the characters and has been to Mexico several times. While a feature film is under consideration, a cable or Netflix series would be a terrific vehicle for Emilia, given material from both the novels and short stories. Tense, but with gorgeous views of Acapulco.

Think House of Cards meets Hawaii 5-0.

As for who would play Emilia on the silver screen, it’s a toss-up. Eva Mendes would bring physical and sensual power as well as a touch of humor to the character. But America Ferrera, best known for the Ugly Betty television show, is a superb actress and could really explore Emilia’s vulnerable side.

The only cast member I’m sure of is Salma Hayek as Acapulco mayor Carlota Montoya Perez. I wrote the character with the actress in mind and really hope she’s free next year about this time . . .

Maybe your readers have a few suggestions for the other characters, especially Emilia’s perpetually surly partner, Franco Silvio. I’d love to hear them!

***

IN OTHER LITERARY NEWS…

La Bloga’s own René Colato Laínez shares the following, and you can help:

I have been nominated by Talleres de Poesia and Lunas Press to Premios Actitud El Salvador awarded by La Prensa de Los Angeles. I am in the category “Personalidad con Actitud.” I need your vote. Please click the link. They will ask for your email address. Then they will send a code to your email address that you will need to finalize the vote. The last day to vote in April 15th. Thank you! ¡Muchas gracias!

He sido nominado a premios Actitud El Salvador otorgado por La Prensa de Los Angeles. Estoy en la categoría de Personalidad con Actitud. Necesito su voto para poder ganar. Visite el enlace para votar. Les pedirán su correo electrónico. Luego le enviaran un código a su correo electrónico que se debe agregar para poder finalizar la votación. La votaciones cierran el 15 de abril ¡Muchas gracias!

http://laprensadelosangeles.com/premiosactitud2015/perfilnominado.aspx?categoria=11#René

Review: Wendy C. Ortiz. Hollywood Notebook. Los Angeles CA: Writ Large Press, 2015.

Michael Sedano

That is a journal for old and young. The young in one another’s arms, scattershot subjects, heavy drinking, fidelity and infidelities, writer’s block, and a whelming sense of ageing intellect fill this “prose poemish memoir.” Wendy C. Ortiz’ Hollywood Notebook is a coming-of-age memoir, a past passing and to come account of a writer with a day job turning the corner into her 30s.

She thinks she’s getting old and nowhere, and is writing to kick herself in the muse and make something of herself. What she’s accomplished will please even old guys like me, tattered coat upon a stick, who doesn't understand some key stuff, but who knows that people will go through multiple comings-of-age in their consciousness and Ortiz’ 30s has been her first. I look forward to when she turns forty.

Hollywood Notebook reads a lot like that sounds, a commonplace book that assembles quotidian ephemera writ large. Setting it apart are those times when Ortiz’ meanderings build to flights of fun, eloquence, purposefulness, and more. For example, writing about writing in the book’s beginning, Ortiz observes, “I go through periods where my writing feels like a deep place I want to go to again and again, like a new lover whose first name I know, never asking about the last.”

It is not a ritual for me. It is not a wet place. It’s like walking around the lip of a volcano,
my body humming with the danger, and its beauty makes me just want to step inside. When it’s
not that, it’s the shadow next to me, lightly pressing its finger to my lips; when it’s not that, it’s
the shock of a lover I think I know everything about, until s/he brings out the instruments from
the box under the bed...and I want to know this experience again and again.
Which brings me here. (“eight” 11)

“Here” is Hollywood Notebook’s cast of themes assembled into tight little chapters. Lovers cheat, get over it. Peeping into neighbors’ windows. Drinking, a lot. Not writing, so she writes about not writing.

My pantyhose make me slip in the blood muck even as I insist that I like this life I agree
to go where he wants to go and agree to the hours that keep me running and the writing sits
abandoned in a corner like a mute tortured child waiting to be noticed. (44)

There’s a sense of declivity in the writer’s voice and in events she notices. Things go around and come around, like lovers and troubled relationships, rock music, and lovers. “I am hard-wired,” she writes, “to resist monogamy.”

Journeying to Irvine for a concert with big names Peaches, Bauhaus, and Nine Inch Nails, there’s a hint of resentment that adolescents today don’t know who Peaches nor Bauhaus are. Later in the notebook, the writer remembers sitting in cheap seats at rock concerts when she was 15, sneaking in with alcohol, and having more money at 15 than at 33.

People Ortiz' age will totally get this book. For old guys, Irony abounds in not knowing, witnessing the writer's enthusiasm:

but...wow. Who was this Trent Reznor, anyway? When not staring down the amazing light show and this cut, sexy man yelling and gasping and modulating his voice all over my eardrums, I was thoroughly entertained by the crowd. I wondered at the groups and clumps of people I saw and wondered: what is it that we have in common that we’re all here tonight? The people right around us were not even familiar with Peaches or Bauhaus, so we were all in for NIN...but really, what is the connection?

Good question, I ask, who is "Trent Reznor"? Luckily, there's Google, and I connect.

The blend of memoir with sentiment might lead one to think the writer suffers a Peter Pan complex, but Wendy is all grown up. As she observes after the concert and a end-of-the-night stop for doughnuts and companionship, “It made me happy to be an adult.”

Being a collection of the everyday, Hollywood Notebook has too many highpoints even to catalog, so finding all these makes reading Hollywood Notebook its own reward. One recollection, however, I cannot let pass unnoticed. Ortiz writes about reading her own stuff in “fifteen”:

I read at World Stage in Leimert Park. I drank two beers with S. and S. in a bar around the corner beforehand. I felt my voice go sing-songy as I read, with the cadence I wrote the piece in, with the nuances of the parentheses and brackets guiding me around in little labyrinths, which was just the effect I wanted.

It was a piece the writer had been reluctant to read. She floated on air after people complimented the piece. I’m sure the oral interpretation deeply influenced their praises, even if sing-songy.

Wendy C. Ortiz’s Hollywood Notebook makes a sterling contribution to the growing list of quintessential L.A. and Hollywood stories.

Visit the book’s website for ordering details.

San Gabriel Valley Poetry Festival
“Los Angeles,” locals say they’re from, when someone asks. “LA” means Pasadena, Anaheim, San Fernando and Chatsworth

Poets from around here will tell anyone who asks, they’re from “Los Angeles,” even though they’re from one of the valleys on the other side of those coastal flats where El Lay sits. Like the San Gabriel Valley, whose 2015 San Gabriel Valley Poetry Festival continues in Pasadena with events through the end of the month.

Saturday, the Festival offered a packed room in the Santa Catalina Branch of the city’s public library. Hosted by affable Don Kingfisher Campbell, the line-up included Alexis Rhone Fancher, Joe Gardner, Elmast Kozloyan, Raundi Kai Moore-Kondo, Liz Gonzalez, Lois P. Jones, Matt Sedillo, and Mike the poet Sonksen. Seven Dhar read his Broadside Contest winner ahead of Sonksen. I arrived tardy and missed photographing Carl Stilwell billed as CaLokie.

Alexis Rhone Fancher holds her manuscript up, near eye level but
without blocking her eye contact with her appreciative listeners.

You can view videos of each performer via the festival’s Facebook page, plus find details on remaining events.

A friendly audience encourages even uncomfortable poets to relax and work with the words to bring life into their own work. It’s an opportunity to lend aural presence to one’s expressions previously confined to print. Uniquely, reading one’s own stuff offers the only chance a writer gets to teach others how to read her or him.

Joe Gardner is trapped on the page, denying himself eye contact
and directing his voice toward the floor rather than his audience.

These poets have worked on their stuff. For most, they read their work effectively. Autobiographical content lends itself to dreamy readings and sentimental maunderings that these poets evade, more or less successfully. Most striking is the propensity of writers to adopt a “reader voice” so far variant from their conversational introductions that the manner shouts “poetry!” That’s what the words are supposed to do.

And what words! The day’s line-up ranges from Fancher’s noir account of a 16 year old with Uncle Kenny to Sonksen’s cadenced assemblages of places and personages that are puro El Lay. Gardner is a San Gabriel Valley poet, reading work located firmly in place with names like Dairy Valley. Kozloyan’s first piece bristles with indignation that she loads with significance. Kozloyan and Gonzalez are the only two poets to display their chap books. None were on sale.

Elmast Kozloyan reads with great animation.

As a photographer of public speakers and writers reading their own stuff, if I had my druthers, readers would not read. They would honor their art more by interpreting their expressions. Every writer made attempts to read words or passages with the emotion written and intended. Sounding natural, avoiding the artifice of the poetic voice is where they need practice.

A good portrait of a speaker shows them in mid-speech; mouth and eyes open, a dynamic posture. For that to occur, a reader needs to play to the cameras in the room. Ignoring the devices pointed their way, poets should make eye contact with both sides of the room. Saturday’s readers all worked the right side of the house and rarely looked to their left. My seats were on the left.

Raundi Kai Moore-Kondo is comfortable in the spotlight, reading, playing guitar and singing.

Dark spaces are no longer a big deal for digital cameras. High ISO sensitivity settings allow suitable exposures under wretched lighting. I used manual settings, 1/125 f/3.2 and 1/160 f/3.2. This tends to overcome conditions that make fotos taken on the same occasion look brighter or darker than others like bright colors, dark skin, white skin, standing in hot spots or hiding in shadows, holding up a white piece of paper. The speed is fast to stop motion without blurring. The aperture fuzzes out the busyness of the library stacks and architectural features.

Campbell’s videos are wonderful training aids as well as invaluable records of an important poetic event. “You had to be there,” once the lot of the spoken word no longer applies. Push a button and document the event to a file. The performance will be identical no matter the number of viewings. You can rewind and repeat sections at a mouse’s click.

Liz Gonzalez' set smiles with cultura and the poet's high comfort level
with her work and audience.

Lois P. Jones delivers from seated position, a good option for folks in the front row,
problematic for the far rows who will crane their necks to see her.

Matt Sedillo delivers with power and works largely from memory,
allowing him to use the full technology of his body. In future, he will take
his hands out of his pockets to let him gesture freely.

Seven Dhar wins the broadside contest and gets
to share the lyrical piece in a "command performance."

Mike The Poet Sonksen chants his stuff like pounding a drum.

His is a virtuoso slice of oral life and puro El Lay.

Most readers were sharing new work, hence worked from letter-size paper or an electronic device. When reading from a published work, it's useful marketing to show the book.

The San Gabriel Valley poets to a woman and man need to consider an important element of beginning a reading called polarizing the audience. This means allowing the host's introduction hang there in the audience's attention. Let it sink in.

Several poets started talking as they were striding up to the front. The informality of the setting may have encouraged them to step into the flow but a more effective technique is to step onto the stage in glow of the introduction. Find home base, stop, set your body in the scene. Sweep the house making eye contact, and only then, begin the first piece.

"Polarization" is a speaker's method of helping listeners orient themselves to change--from one poet to the next, to prepare for your change of pace, to allow the speaker to define the roles of speaker-listener: "I'm going to talk, you're going to listen." Audiences thus prepared will derive enhanced satisfaction in the experience, knowing the speaker up front is in charge.

Vote for Bloguero René

La Bloga's Wednesday columnist, children's picture book author René Colato Laínez is nominated by
Talleres de Poesia and Lunas Press to Premios Actitud El Salvador awarded by La Prensa de Los Angeles.

René writes: I am in the category “Personalidad con Actitud”. I need your vote. Please click the link. They will ask for your email address. Then they will send a code to your email address that you will need to finalize the vote. The last day to vote in April 15th. Thank you! ¡Muchas gracias!

He sido nominado a premios Actitud El Salvador otorgado por La Prensa de Los Angeles. Estoy en la categoría de Personalidad con Actitud. Necesito su voto para poder ganar. Visite el enlace para votar. Les pedirán su correo electrónico. Luego le enviaran un código a su correo electrónico que se debe agregar para poder finalizar la votación. La votaciones cierran el 15 de abril ¡Muchas gracias!

http://laprensadelosangeles.com/premiosactitud2015/perfilnominado.aspx?categoria=11#René

Aprirl 18 & 19, 2015

USC Campus

Free Admission

The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books began in 1996 with a simple goal: to bring together the people who create books with the people who love to read them. The festival was an immediate success and has evolved to include live bands, poetry readings, chef demos, cultural entertainment and artists creating their work on-site. There’s also a photography exhibit, film screenings followed by Q&A’s and discussion panels on some of today’s hottest topics.

La Bloga Blogueros at the LA Festival of Books

Kaya Press hosts Los Angeles Poet Laureate Luis J. Rodriguez and Daniel Olivas for a poetry reading at noon on Saturday, April 18, Tent #380: http://t.co/501nJCMfqu

René Colato Laínez will be singing books at the East West Discovery Press, Booth 503 on Sunday, April 18 from 1:00-3:00 pm

To see the complete schedule of readings and events visit

http://events.latimes.com/festivalofbooks/

Premios Actitud El Salvador

Muchas gracias for all your votes. The last day to vote is today, April 15. I am in the category "Personalidad conActitud." Click in the link. They will ask for your email address. Then, they will send a code to you email address that you will need to finalize the vote. Nuevamente, muchas gracias.

http://laprensadelosangeles.com/premiosactitud2015/perfilnominado.aspx?categoria=11#René

by Ernest Hogan

I don't usually read YA. Maybe it's because I'm old. I remember when the category first appeared, and I wasn't impressed. It all seemed to be the bullshit stuff they had in the school library that was approved by church and municipal authorities. Why should I bother with that when I could read underground comix, Vampirella, and Harlan Ellison?

David Bowles'The Smoking Mirror is different, right up my weird artifact-littered alley – we've got hero twins (a boy and a girl), nagualism (shape-shifting in gringospeak), and all kinds of pre-Columbian mythology that dovetails in with gritty realities of modern life on the border, like drugs and gangs. Not only is this an exciting page-turner that will tear the kids away from their video games, but it could be used by clever teachers – and other gurus – as an introduction to our mythology for the new generation.

If there were books like this in my school library, I would have gone for them.

Bowles really knows his stuff, being a scholar who translates Nahuatl poetry. He also knows how to tell an exciting story. There are places in the book where I could smell Mexico.

Kids will love this Orpheus-like journey of a brother and sister, as they discover their shape-shifting nagual-powers, into an Aztec/Mayan underworld to find their mother. And they have fantastic adventures among places, things, and creatures the likes of which Harry Potter never encountered. And Tezcatlipoca himself showes up.

It's cleverly packaged with manga-like art. Not my cup of pulque, but the target audience will dig it.

It's subtitled Garza Twins: Book One, so more are in the works. Who knows, after a few years the young readers might prefer this to Harry what'shisname . . .

Ernest Hoganowes it all to Tezcatlipoca. His books are not recommended for childern. Please don't confuse David Bowles'The Smoking Mirror with Ernest Hogan's Smoking Mirror Blues(to be republished as Tezcatlipoca Blues, but that's another story . . . and Tezcatlipoca is probably responsible for that, too).

WordFest

Press Release from Su Teatro

SU TEATRO PRESENTS The FirstEver WordFest - EXPERIENCE THE POWER OF STORY!

DENVER, CO – Su Teatro will present their FirstEver WordFest April 20-26, a week-long festival dedicated to promoting a deeper appreciation of the written word and showcasing world-class writers and artists. Su Teatro’s FirstEver WordFest is the start of an annual vanguard event that will nurture artistic expression and connect our community with incredible Latino voices. The FirstEver WordFest details can be viewed at www.suteatro.org. Tickets are $10 general, $7 students/seniors with group discounts available. All events will take place at Su Teatro Cultural and Performing Arts Center, 721 Santa Fe Dr. Denver, CO 80204. The complete schedule for Su Teatro’s FirstEver WordFest may be viewed at www.suteatro.org, or call 303-296-0219 for more information.

Jimmy Santiago Baca

Acclaimed Poet Jimmy Santiago Baca to Open Festival

The FirstEver WordFest begins with award-winning poet from New Mexico, Jimmy Santiago Baca. Baca, a self-taught and talented writer, found his passion in poetry while incarcerated in federal prison. His works include A Place To Stand and a new book of poems Singing at the Gates. He writes about oppression, love and migration, and his poems range from a few lines to many pages. Baca is the recipient of numerous awards including the Pushcart Prize, American Book Award, and the International Hispanic Heritage Award. He will present his new film and will be available to sign books, April 20th at 7:30 pm.

Coming to Denver from San Pablo, California, Carlos Manuel presents La Vida Loca, an apolitical in-your-face odyssey of a Mexican Immigrant. La Vida Loca is stuffed full with life and is carefully constructed to both give hero status and to expose the author/performer to his audiences. His “crazy” life is revealed through an equally crazy quilt of carefully crafted memories, fantasies, dialogues, and excerpts from pop culture. The most recent awards received by Carlos Manuel include the Piper Scholars Playwriting Award and Anna Rozenzweig Memorial Theatre Award. See La Vida Loca on Thursday, April 23rd and Saturday, April 25th at 7:30 pm.

On Friday, April 24th and Sunday, April 26th see visiting artist Ruben C. Gonzalez, with La Esquinita: USA, a one-man work and “socio/spiritual theatre for a new age.” La Esquinita is an imaginary financially depressed town…think Anywhere, USA…it is peopled with eleven quirky characters from the barrio, male and female, aged and youthful, all seeking identity, connection and peace.

Local Artists Shine

Nationally acclaimed poet and spoken word artist, Bobby LeFebre, adds “playwright” to his resume with Northside a contemporary and historical perspective of the gentrification of Denver’s Northside. He counter poses an emerging Chicano middle class torn between tradition and opportunity. Northside cuts, critiques and cleanses with flowing words and passionate insight. The reading will be performed by Su Teatro company members. Northside will be presented on Tuesday, April 21st at 7:30 pm.

Maria Cheng

Maria Cheng, founder of the local pan-Asian theatre company, Theatre Esprit Asia, presents Spirit and Sworded Treks. Ms. Cheng is the writer, director and performer of the piece in which she brings together tai-ji forms, storytelling, stir-fry cooking, and stand-up comedy to demonstrate the spiritual difficulties that Chinese-American women face. Beheaded Barbie dolls may or may not also be involved. Spirit and Sworded Treks can be seen on Thursday, April 23rd and Saturday, April 25th.

Su Teatro actors present a reading of Dr. Al Ramirez’ family inspired musical “Remember the Alamo. This multi-generational story revisits the iconic symbol of US expansionism and is a national testimony to historical spin. The Ramirez family pre-dates the Alamo and the so-called Texas revolution. Their story places them directly in the middle of American history and carves a statement of Mexican-American identity and participation. Remember the Alamo will be presented on Wednesday, April 22nd at 7:30 pm.

Boulder based MOTUS Theater presents Do You Know Who I Am? the acclaimed new performance encouraging discussion on immigration in Colorado. Scripted by Kirsten Wilson based on monologues written and performed by Juan Juarez, Victor Galvan, Oscar Juarez, Ana Cristina Temu and Hugo Juarez. This presentation will be held on Sunday, April 26th at 7:30 pm.

The FirstEver WordFest happens April 20-26. The lineup is available at www.suteatro.org. Tickets are $10 general and $7 students/seniors with group discounts available.

Celebrate the written word and its vital place in Latino culture

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Cut Along The Line: An Evening of Readings in Conjunction with The Big Read

Saturday, April 18 | 7:00pm (doors open at 6:30) | Reception with the poets to follow reading | Free
In celebration of Luis Alberto Urrea's novel Into The Beautiful North, writer Marisela Norte brings together writers Luis Alfaro, Kenji Liu, and Melinda Palacio for a reading of poetry and prose on the immigrant imagination, erasing borders, and the great divide. The Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest. More information can be found at www.NEABigRead.org.
The Big Read Logo Gray

RSVP requested to rsvp@cafam.org

Craft and Folk Art Museum
5814 Wilshire Boulevard | Los Angeles, CA 90036 | Tel 323.937.4230 | www.cafam.org | info@cafam.org

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Bobby LeFebre's New Play Northside

[from Westword interview with Bobby LeFebre]

For his first endeavor as a playwright, poet, actor and activist, Bobby LeFebre wanted to tackle a sensitive subject that hit close to home: the changing face of the Denver neighborhood in which he grew up. In Northside, LeFebre explores the complex issues facing new and old residents in a part of the city that is currently experiencing massive socioeconomic shifts; the play tells the story of three couples as they deal with the Denver real-estate market and the underlying issues of race relations, gentrification and economic status. A staged reading of Northside next Tuesday, April 21 — when actors will read from a script on a bare stage at Su Teatro — will be followed by a talk-back to get audience feedback that will help shape the final theatrical product. Read the entire article and interview at this link.

The public reading of Northside starts at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 21 at Su Teatro, 721 Santa Fe Drive; a talk-back session will follow. For tickets, $10, and more information, visit Su Teatro's website or call 303-296-0219.
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REFORMA Colorado 2015 Mini-Conference

The 2015 REFORMA Colorado Mini-Conference will be on Friday May 1st, 2015 at the Denver Public Library B2 Conference Center from 1-5pm. The theme, as always, is about serving Latinos and Spanish Speakers.

Spotlight Events

Senator Jessie Ulibarri will deliver the keynote. In addition to being an outspoken champion of immigrant rights, Senator Ulibarri is also is a big fan of libraries (his mother is a librarian, so he’s Family).

Authors Mario Acevedoand Manuel Ramoswill team up for “Northside Noir” to discuss their experiences, surprises and tribulations as award-winning and best-selling Chicano writers who draw inspiration from one of Denver’s oldest Chicano neighborhoods.

Cost and Registration

$20 for REFORMA members
$25 for non-members
scholarships available through the Colorado State Library

Onsite registration will be available starting at 12:30 on the day of the conference (May 1st) in the B2 foyer of the Central Denver Public Library.

Here's the schedule for the conference. Click on the image for a larger version.

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Join me at the Broadway Book Mall, 200 S. Broadway, Denver on April 25 at 3:00 pm as I discuss and read from my new collection of short stories, The Skull of Pancho Villa and Other Stories. Scotch and other goodies are planned.

Later.

Reading Rock Stars - Rio Grande Valley

Hitched Moves to the East Side

Points about spec lit written for all peoples

10 ways white people are more racist than they realizeby Kali Holloway

Set Truth on Stun: Reimagining an Anti-Oppressive SF/F by Daniel José Older

Putting the I in Speculative: Looking at U.S. Latino/a Writers and Stories by Sabrina Vourvoulias

Writing Women Characters as Human Beings by Kate Elliott

Writing Strong Female Characters? That's A Great Goal, But I'd Rather Write Strong Kick-Heart Characters by Catherynne M. Valente

Finding Nepantla in _Ofrenda: Liliana Wilson's Art of Dissidence and Dreams_

Chicanonautica: The Wild West Ain't What It Used to Be

New Books. Troncoso. García Márquez. Noir Feminists. Selena. National Book Festival. Lydia Gil. Museo de las Americas. Pancho.

The real Superhero. And Caravana 43 in Colo.

A Poem by Bao Phi: "Giving My Neighbor a Ride to Her Job"

Con Tinta NaPoMo 2015, La Pachanga & Award Ceremony: Ray Gonzalez

Review: Villanueva's Gracias. Floricanto Month Floricanto

REFORMA National Conference 2015: A peek into the library services for Latinos & Spanish speaking

Guest Column: Alvaro Huerta, “Migration as a Universal Human Right”

April Is National Poetry Month

Sad Perros tell us we're not worthy

"For My Sister Who Thinks I’m Unhappy Because I, Like Her, Don’t Wear a Size 6": A Poem by Sandra C. Muñoz

The La Bloga interview with Carmen Amato regarding her Emilia Cruz mystery, “Diablo Nights”

Review: Hollywood Notebook. Foto Essay: San Gabriel Valley Poetry Festival

Los Angeles Times Festival of Books 2015

Chicanonautica: The Mirror is Smoking . . .

WordFest. Big Read. Northside. REFORMA. Pancho.

Cut Along The Line: An Evening of Readings in Conjunction with The Big Read

Spotlight Events

Cost and Registration