Weekend With the Word: Poets, Punks, Veteranos, Bukowski

July 13, 2015, 11:00 pm

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Michael Sedano

Some weeks bring art gallery openings, some bring poetry readings, others bring reunions and activism. Some weeks nothing, others, like the one recently completed, come with a plethora of fun, the emphasis on the U in fun.

Happy Birthday to an Old Cultural Warrior

Rosalio Muñoz and Mita Cuaron at Muñoz' birthday celebration. Muñoz and Cuaron were in the leadership that organized the Chicano Moratorium of August 29, 1970, along with other events.

July’s second week surpassed many other weeks for words, arte, and activism. There were poets in Altadena, chicana punk rock originators, a birthday meeting for movimiento veterano Rosalio Muñoz, and an homage to quintessential LA poet and writer Charles Bukowski.

These were big, wonderful events. But for me, the best part of the weekend occurred in a quiet moment with a trio of former classmates that brought me a rare gift.

I was bidding my despedidas to the hosts of Rosalio’s pachanga, Terry and David Trujillo, when a man told me “you were my teacher at Cal State.” Sadly I didn’t remember Ruben Vargas exactly. For several memorable years in the 1980s, Terry and David and I were members of Teatro a la Brava. David wrote actos. Terry was a leading actor. I was the director.

“We had an argument about downtown LA,” Ruben remembered. I liked the central city area around Broadway and 7th and urged students visit for intercultural immersion. I celebrated the place, Ruben wanted me to focus on the deprivations. “There are a lot of problems down there,” he insists and I agree. Then the highlight of an old speech coaches life.

I met Terry as a member of a public speaking class, a GE requirement. Terry told her nieces at the registration table, "this was my teacher," then complimented me that I taught her to be comfortable in public speaking, even when she’s nervous.

Back in the 1980s when Terry was a freshman, professor me would have run through his standard communication-apprehension theory and coaching session. Even today the c-a lessons emerges as a reflex.

“Nervousness is a good thing,” I start the rote respose and Terry makes my day, echoing the lesson she heard back in the 80s, “because if you’re not nervous it means you don’t care.” I give Terry a big hug while silently exulting to myself "it worked!"

top, David Trujillo, Terry Trujillo, Ruben Vasquez

The beauties of such moments belong only to those who have taught. What an affirming event, a former student remembering and attesting to the usefulness of long-ago lessons. A teacher's career is puro delayed gratification. Rarely does one get to know of the benefits students gained. The fulfillment of that magic moment fills me with joy.

With Terry’s words echoing in my heart I make my way to Avenue 50 Studio, getting there early to ensure parking in the lot.


Bluebird reading presents : Homage to Bukowski

Michael Sedano

The same sensibility that informs hard-boiled fiction inheres in Charles Bukowski’s work, except the wino poet replaces a sucker punch to the gut with a knee to the emotions and a sharp stick to the funny bone. In poetry and prose, that was the point in Bluebird Reading Series’ Homage To Bukowski, concluded Sunday at Highland Park’s Avenue 50 Studio.

Kym Ghee, John Martinez, Jim Marquez, Felicia Gomez Verdin, Tomas Benitez

Bukowski was honored more in the breach than the observance, as most performers honored the late artist with their own writing under the influence, along with a nice set by Felicia Gomez Verdin featuring Bukowski’s work, and host-emcee Jessica Ceballos’ inaurgural recitation of “Bluebird,” Ceballos’ inspiration in founding the readings series.

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too clever, I only let him out
at night sometimes
when everybody's asleep.
I say, I know that you're there,
so don't be
sad.
then I put him back,
but he's singing a little
in there, I haven't quite let him
die
and we sleep together like
that
with our
secret pact
and it's nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don't
weep, do
you?


For the writers on the program, they do their weeping onto their manuscripts. Their tears come off the page as personal narratives, the words with sharp edges that hurt so hard one has to laugh, grin and bear it. That was Tomas Benítez’ QED to open the readings.

Tomas Benitez

Benitez led off the afternoon with a set of beautifully crafted expressions that balance a satyr’s conscience against abruptly changing situations. In one, the poet has lost his woman, his six-figure job, and he’s broke. Wistfully, a poet recalls the shape and allure of his former wife’s leg, the perfection of it, then comes a heel stomp on the funny bone, “too bad it was yours.” The SRO audience let Benitez, who produced the event, continue well past his allotted time. He dug it, we dug it.

Felicia Gomez Verdin

Felicia Gomez Verdin sat at the table to read a few short Bukowski classics, including the classic valedictory every writer needs to hear annually, “So You Want To Be A Writer.” Verdin makes a beautiful change of pace from Benitez for the audience. He stood. She sits. He was loud and exuberant. She is cool, controlled, understated.

if you have to sit there and
rewrite it again and again,
don't do it.
if it's hard work just thinking about doing it,
don't do it.
if you're trying to write like somebody
else,
forget about it.


John Martinez tells the house he forgot about it for a number of years, but complying to his late brother Victor Martinez’ wish that John pursue writing again, he has.

John Martinez

In counterpoint to Benitez’ exuberant horniness, Martinez’ longings and lusts come from a dark place somewhere in memory, sometimes out of hunger, often an ineluctable regret. The Fresno native’s work is more unlike Bukowski than similar. Martinez belongs here for their correspondences, and no Bukowsky pastiche, he’s writing like no one else.

With Bukowski, Martinez shares a lust for talking about reality as he sees and lives it. Except where Bukowski lays bare a mind at the edge of incipient violence—will it be the bluebird or the mean drunk?--Martinez is likely to damn his consequences while baring unsalved wounds for which the balm is the poem.

Kym Ghee

Kym Ghee goes into harm’s way as an ingenuous literary journalist learning one of life’s hardest lessons: your dreams don’t matter to anyone but yourself.

Ghee discovers one of those unknown novelists found in a thrift store or a hoarder’s attic. She travels an hour north to visit her imagined genius. She meets up with an agoraphobic hypochondriac uninterested in the past. Worse, the man’s vengeful landlady makes her mission in life to tear the sweet young thing a new asshole right between the eyes for being all dreamy-eyed about the great author. Mean for the sake of being mean.

if it doesn't come bursting out of you
in spite of everything,
don't do it.
unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut,
don't do it.

Jim Marquez makes eye contact 3 out of 4 frames

Bukowski didn’t know Jim Marquez but the viejo wrote the opening lines of “So You Want to Be a Writer” about Jim Marquez. The author of 14 books in the recent 8 years, Marquez reads from his upcoming 15th title, "A Moveable Beast." It’s not about cooking nor Hemingway, it’s puro Marquez.

A high energy reader, Marquez’ writing explodes with drama and aggression. And, à la Bukowski, a lot of fucking sexual tension. A wino tío introduced me to Bukowski’s world so I would know to avoid it. From what I hear of Marquez’ Los Angeles, I’m glad I’m from over here, a homebody. It’s hard out there. Or it’s hard being the fictional Jim Marquez.

When the “filthy speech movement” arose parallel with Berkeley’s free speech movement in the 60s, poet Lenore Kandel proclaimed that the beauties of fucking makes the word inappropriate as interjection, intensifier, or curse. “May you not be fucked,” Kandel said, was among the worst things you could wish upon a person.

Kandel’s ethic had its five minutes’ fame and conscientious gente went ahead tossing out the standard seven-letter gay repartee without a hiccup. Still, I recommend Kandel’s sensibility to Jim Marquez.

Until Marquez took the Bluebird seat I hadn’t heard so many gratuitous “fucks” since the Army, though a pair of skateboarders came close one day on the bus. I wonder if Marquez goes home for thanksgiving dinner and, like the apochryphal soldier, “Mom, would you please pass the fucking mashed potatoes?”

Felicia Gomez Verdin makes eye contact

Notes On Reading Your Stuff Aloud

Last week I shared news that USC’s Digital Library now archives the video recorded performances of the poets and other writers who accepted an invitation to 2010’s Festival de Flor Y Canto. Yesterday • Today • Tomorrow. Like the 1973 Festival de Flor Y Canto that launched the floricanto movement, those were important readings and it was unthinkable not to have the record that now stands alongside the videos from 1973.

Jesus Treviño, creator of Latinopia, directed the documentation for the reunion floricanto. Latinopia will be a place to view snippets of performances with fast-loading convenience. Treviño limits each video segment to three minutes. USC’s Digital Library together with Latinopia’s ever-growing library—Treviño updates weekly--will be a visual index to writers of chicano literature reading in their own voice.

The Bluebird Homage to Charles Bukowski is an important literary event, too. It was recorded. When that recording becomes public, La Bloga will make sure to provide a link. Viewers will see how tough it is to read and communicate at the same time. Writers who do do it, owe their work, and the audience an effective reading, the best reading the writer’s ever performed. An early goal is ongoing improvement of eye contact.

Although this set illustrates Jim Marquez denying his audience eye contact, portraits for each reader would show the same. Eye contact is a universal opportunity for improvement.

Eye contact challenges anyone working with text. Memorization works for prodigious writers, but manuscripts are de rigueur for most readers. Here’s a tactic for readers who are so text-bound they rarely look up from the page: sell everyone a book, have them turn to a page to read silently along with you. Hearing you bring alive your prose, capturing every word.

Beside selling more books, this is an eye contact work-around. Writer’s eyes on the page, audience’s eyes on the page: eye contact irrelevant. Maybe every now and then you’ll look up together, make eye contact, and recognize what you people are doing here.

Kym Ghee can read at a glance but her facing audience can't see her

Eye contact creates opportunities where more is more. More direct, more convincing, more expressive, more personal, more satisfying minutes with each other here. Ditto the internet where that one reading is your unravished bride moment.

Jim Marquez presentation style is as energetic and edgy as his fiction. He’s comfortable in the narration, using voice and gesture to imbue key words and passages with power. What Marquez doesn’t do as well is establish a bond with the listener through more frequest moments away from the text.

John Martinez makes eye contact, establishes a bond with audience.

He’d be more comfortable and the goodwill engendered would encourage people to sit still during lulls in the energy, like elongated narratives to set up something or flesh out an irony. When Marquez hits a sizzling paragraph, he leans into the screen to capture the line; he sizzles along with it. Power flows out of the words into coiled arms, thrusting fists, whimsical appeals to the ceiling.

I would love seeing that energy he directs at that computer screen turned to the expectant house. Mejor for the writer, a break from the text to the seats is feedback, both to performer and page: what’s working? what do they want more of? Do they get it? Should I skip to the end?

“Old men love to give good advice. It consoles them for the fact they no longer can set a bad example.” Except for eye contact. It’s an expectation that doesn’t get old and the benefits so dramatic writers put a “kick me” sign on their back for a week after discovering the job satisfaction that comes with an eye contact personal performance best. So, if you want to read your stuff to other people, and you can’t find ways to make more eye contact, don’t do it.

Avenue 50 Studio • 131 N. Avenue 50 • Highland Park CA 90042 • 323-258-1435
www.avenue50studio.org

The Bluebird Reading series is a component of Avenue 50 Studio's literary arts programming. Avenue 50 Studio is supported in part by the Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council, the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, and the California Community Foundation.



Altadena Poetry Summer Series at Coffee Gallery Backstage

Toti O'Brien and half the audience

Listeners enjoy the air-conditioned backstage galley and intimate interaction with the readers

There’s a great performance space just across the border from Pasadena. It’s the converted back room of a coffeehouse that advertises itself as the last place for coffee in Altadena on Lake Avenue, The Coffee Gallery. La Bloga friend and guest columnist Thelma Reyna, who is Poet Laureate of Altadena, secured the Coffee Gallery Backstage, for a series of readings featuring poets published in the laureat’s anthology, Altadena Poetry Review: Anthology 2015. (ISBN-10: 069239978X
ISBN-13: 978-0692399781)

The day’s lineup included two poets I’d photographed at other venues—Ricky Luv and Toti O’Brien, along with three seasoned writers new to my ear and lens-- Gloriana Casey, Mina Kirby, and Mary Monroe. The highlight of the day was the way Gloriana Casey addresses manuscript conundrum readers face with each trip to the lectern.

Mina Kirby

Ricardo Lira Acuña, Ricky Luv

Casey explains she chose stiff carboard sheets to keep the pages upright, and writes in big letters. Holding the card at table top level, Casey catches the phrases with peripheral vision or a quick downward glance and in this way holds eye contact more than she doesn’t.

Gloriana Casey

Gloriana Casey prepares her readings for eye contact and legibility

Writers electing letter-size paper or a laptop screen will want to use 18- or larger point fonts and lots of white space between lines and stanzas or paragraphs. Such a tactic avoids situations when the speaker holds a manuscript up to the face providing an excellent view of the text while blocking one’s sight and muffling the voice.

The backstage gallery provides excellent amplification. Microphone stands lure readers into planting themselves at the mic where they hold onto home base like their shoes were nailed to the floor. Speakers may swivel their neck or pivot at the waist to see and address the whole audience, but are as likely to ignore one side of the house.

Mary Monroe makes contact with both sides of the center aisle

The backstage space offers a tight and confined enough room that readers could easily project their voice across the twelve feet from lectern to back row, and, freed from a mic could use the ample stage riser to move about and encompass the entire house.

The next event at the Coffee Gallery Backstage is Saturday, July 18, featuring poets laureate from Altadena, North Hollywood, and Sunland-Tujunga.


Avenue 50 Studio Rocks Punks

Photographer Louis Jacinto likes his 4tych of Alice Bags

 What with the Bluebird Reading Series homage to Bukowski and the Saturday evening opening of several gallery shows, Avenue 50 Studio was LA’s happening spot closing July's second week.

In the main gallery, Roberto Gutíerrez paid homage to the up-for-demolition Sixth Street Bridge spanning the cement channeled LA River. Gutierrez’ work in the background of the Bluebird readers add just the right shades of color and design to the portraits.

Roberto Delgado is happy to take a foto with a young artist and his brother.

In the confined space of a side gallery, Louis Jacinto greeted visitors to his “PUNK MEETS ART” exhibition of photographs from the seminal Los Angeles Punk Rock Music Scene.

The wall of Alice Bag portraits held interest for anyone passing through from the refreshments table to the main gallery. La Bloga friend The Good Mexican Girl paused for a snap of herself with Alice Bag. Reina Alejandra Prado joined 2010's reunion floricanto; her Santa Perversa reading is here.

Reina Alejandra Prado with Alice Bags by Louis Jacinto

Followers of the music scene will enjoy a reading at Avenue 50 on Sunday July 19. Bag reads from her recent book, Pipe Bomb for the Soul, based on Bag’s 1986 Nicaraguan diaries. Publicity for the reading and performance observes the book offers a “post-punk look at life in a post-revolutionary socialist society, Pipe Bomb for the Soul explodes consumerist, capitalist, racial and gender assumptions and proposes a new model for growth from witnessing an alternate version of reality.” Link here:

Bits and News
Casa de Colores Call for Ideas: Poet Laureate

US Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera has a call out for ways the laureate can build a magnificent Casa de Colores for the entire nation. Here's Juan Felipe's announcement:

Hey peoples -- Can you send me suggestions for rolling out projects under the banner of CASA DE COLORES, our National Laureate project starting September.

I definitely want a lot of participation with Library of Congress, with each other, across all communities, a lot of voices, languages and abilities, as well as translations of work into all languages, spoken word choruses -- just to give you an idea... then I'll see if I can incorporate your ideas into CASA DE COLORES, our HOUSE OF COLORS -- let's jam a little, brain storm...thanks mucho!

Contract Herrera with your ideas via his Facebook page, or via La Bloga.

Bits and News
Adult Stepchildren's Help Sought

La Bloga friend Dawn O. Braithwaite of the University of Nebraska, Lincoln writes:

So many focus on the negatives in stepfamilies, rather than the positives. My name is Dawn O. Braithwaite from the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. We are studying turning points and communication in the relationships of adult stepchildren who have an overall positive relationship with their stepparent.

Please help us find adult stepchildren to take part in an interview with us. We are looking for adult stepchildren age 25 or older with an overall positive relationship with their stepparent. We are looking for stepfamilies that started no less than four years ago and at an age stepchildren would remember the start of the family. The parent and stepparent are currently living together or are married.

Those willing to participate should contact Jordan Allen jordan.allen75@huskers.unl.edu or me dbraithwaite@unl.edu and we will send you more information.  Thank you!

Please let the researchers know you heard about the opportunity via La Bloga.

Mariposa Poetry Workshop Applications Now

La Bloga friend Maritza Rivera, a woman recently retired from the world of work, opens registration for the fourth annual poetry workshop she sponsors in Pennsylvania's Catoctin Mountains. Rivera writes:

The 4th Mariposa Poetry Retreat builds community among poets and writers and provides them the time and space to focus on their work in a serene and beautiful setting away from the pressures of daily life.

The retreat promotes a safe and instructive environment that addresses the creative challenges faced by writers of all genres. The 2015 weekend retreat will take place at the Capital Retreat Center in Waynesboro, PA from Friday, October 2nd to Sunday, October 4th and is open to writers 18 years of age and older.

Email Maritza Rivera or visit www.MariposaPoetry.org for registration forms and details.

Thank you for visiting La Bloga. Please share your comments and observations by clicking the Comments link below. Be sure to click the "email follow-ups" link when you comment.


Barrio Writers Finds You Can Go Home Again

La Bloga friend (and 2010 floricanto reader) Sarah Rafael Garcia has created an impressive legacy in the Barrio Writers organization. Expanding into Texas when Garcia attended graduate school in the state, the founding term in California's Orange County grew moribund. No more.

Click here to read about this important development:
http://www.barriowriters.org/2015/07/barrio-writers-returns-home-to-santana.html

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Luna's Press

July 14, 2015, 11:06 pm

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by Mahcic Riley-Hernández

Mahcic and his brother playing the congas 

Luna's Press is a bookstore on Mission Street that is run by Jorge Argueta. Named after his daughter, Luna, it has been host to authors whose books are sold there.  Luna Press has been part of us ever since it opened because of Jorge Argueta, the owner.  Jorge has been a friend since…well, I don’t actually remember. But it’s definitely been a long time.  I remember the time Jorge had an event for his book, Guacamole, at the restaurant, Sunrise, and it was very interactive because he asked for volunteers for the demonstration of preparing guacamole. It was a public space, and that made me happy because it represents the community we have here.  He also visited my 4^th grade classroom, and all my friends were so happy and surprised that he was there. He did an activity in my classroom with corn kernels and beans.  He made it rain in the room!  There have also been events with some really cool authors like Yuyi Morales and Duncan Tonatiuh at the bookstore.  Yuyi Morales read Niño, a book abouta sort of Lucha Libre champion who can only be defeated by las hermanitas.  She was very interactive at her reading, and she made the audience cheer “¡Niño!” every time he beat someone in the book.  Later on, we made luchador masks of the characters in the book. Duncan Tonatiuh read many books, one being Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote, a story about Pancho’s journey to find his papá in the carrot and lettuce fields, and Separate is Never Equal, a story about the fight that Sylvia’s parents put up just to get her into a segregated school.  Recently, there was a reading with René Colato Laínez, which is where we are here in this picture.  He was also at the Flor y Canto last year when Jorge invited me to read at El Tecolote.  René read the books Señor Panchohad a Rancho and The Tooth Fairy meets Ratoncíto Peréz.  He connected two different cultures in each book, different beliefs, and made them interact and intertwine.   I was honored to be at the Flor y Canto for the second time, the first one being at C.C.M., the Children’s Creativity Museum.  Reading at a Flor y Canto was a good experience for me.

This Is How It Is

by Mahcic Riley Hernández

I’ll be walking down the street with a straight brimmed hat

And people will look at me and get scared or whisper

Among each other talking mess about me just because of

The way I groove and the way I move,

I’ll be at The Chronicle, telling them to put this in the news,

“News Flash, we are human,” or

“Go back to where you came from, Techies!”

But they say no cause we say yes,

Apparently, we are invisible, ignored,

We were cool with it, but not anymore.

We have suffered through our struggle, put in jail, our

Houses bombed, hit with teargas,

And yet we say “Bring it on!”

But they haven’t stopped

Not after M.L.K had a dream,

Not after Che fought in the revolution,

Not after César Chávez fought for farm worker’s rights

Not after our generation, fighting for

Evictions, police brutality, and just putting up with society

So the family tree of freedom fighters keeps growing

Which is where those that don’t give up sprout

And those that believe sprout

And where I sprout.

Mahcic Riley-Hernández is ten years old and will be attending middle school in the fall. He plays guitar and baseball, and is a Mission native. He has read poetry at Flor y  Canto events for Luna Press, El Tecolote Newspaper, and San Francisco’s Poet Laureate, Alejandro Murguía. He is an artist in the making, and his parents are his inspiration. He also likes all Latin American cuisine. 

René Colato Laínez, Mahcic Riley-Hernández and David Canepa, Daily City Council Member 

Cubanabooks

July 15, 2015, 11:00 pm

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Cubanabooks is a small independent press devoted to bringing first-class literature from Cuban women to a United States audience as well as to a global English and Spanish-speaking public. Publishing select literary gems in English or in bilingual English/Spanish volumes, Cubanabooks aims to correct the current U.S. unavailability of excellent literature from Cubans living in Cuba. Cubanabooks prioritizes the dissemination of works by living female writers who reside on the island.

 

Selected titles from Cubanabooks:

The Bleeding Wound / Sangra por la herida 

by Mirta Yáñez, Trans. Sara E. Cooper

  Tones of disillusionment and wistful longing permeate this novel about the passage of time, the city of Havana, and death. Within its complex structure, a concert of diverse voices narrates the compelling sagas of a generation of Cubans who embraced the 1959 socialist revolution in their adolescence, as well as today's twenty-somethings who inherited its boons and its banes. The common question asked throughout the novel is two-fold: where are we now? how did we get here? The novel is a palimpsest: diverse layers of personal narratives overlay the story of Havana, one that she can't tell for herself. Readers will delve into the complicated actuality of Cuba as it is today, an island nation cherished by its inhabitants despite the harsh quotidian existence that it offers. The wound is bleeding, Havana is dying, and readers will want to know the answer to the questions posed in Yez's novel, questions as universal as they are intrinsically Cuban: Who are we? Why are we here? And what will become of us?

An Address in Havana/Domicilio habanero: Selected Short Stories 

by María Elena Llana, Trans. Barbara Riess

Llana has always been committed to a mixture of fantasy, dark humor, what could be called gothic comedy. Her stories humorously represent a vision of the world through a palpable irony leading up to a subversive guffaw that, because of her scathing wit, may also be read as an anguished holler. This quality is at the heart of Llana's stories teeming with specters of every type, dramatic or ridiculous, but always efficiently suggestive of circumstances underlying what we take for reality.

Her short stories contain a rich and thoroughly entertaining representation of a particular social class in Cuba during the last forty years: the bourgeoisie who struggled to maintain their social status and participated only by default in the construction of the new socialist society. Portraits of family and twisted gender roles abound, within a mysterious and uncanny domestic sphere that is unmistakably set in Havana.

The Memory of Silence / Memoria del silencio

by Uva de Aragón , Trans. Jeffrey C. Barnett

The Memory of Silence is de Aragón's first major novel, but it is by no means her first major literary contribution. Since her first publication in 1972, she has penned numerous works in the genres of short story, poetry, and critical essay. Her works have been published by equally diverse presses in Spain, the United States, and Cuba. Likewise, her translated fiction has appeared in well-known anthologies, including "Not the Truth, Not A Lie" in Ann Louise Bardach's Cuba and "Round Trip" in Peter Bush's The Voice of the Turtle, among others. Professor, poet, journalist, critic, and artist, de Aragón has spoken on Cuban themes through a wide range of media, but it is in The Memory of Silence where she has found her most resonating voice.

The Memory of Silence explores the lives of two sisters separated at the outset of the Cuban Revolution. In 1959, at the age of 18, the twin sisters Lauri and Menchu share a common past, but their lives abruptly take on seemingly irreconcilable differences as Lauri leaves with her groom for Miami and Menchu remains in Havana. For the next forty years, both lead distinct lives in terms of their daily concrete realities yet, often unknowingly, they share common milestones, attitudes, values, and intimate secrets. The reader is witness to the challenges of their lives through the memoirs that both sisters have kept. The text, then, becomes a series of interpolated chronicles, as each alternating chapter recounts one sister's life and then the other until finally in the present, now reunited, the sisters must confront the pain of the past and as well as the promise of the future.

De Aragón's novel stands apart in many respects. First and foremost, the underlying theme of reconciliation is a refreshing message and, most importantly, a timely one. As a sophistical story that intertwines two simultaneous histories, Memory serves as a cultural and historical window into a formative era that has defined in many ways both the United States and Cuba. For the reader of English who seeks to understand more fully how we arrived at this moment, The Memory of Silence offers a unique and convincing voice about a life left behind and life forged ahead.

While it is true that the novel most forcibly speaks to those interested exclusively in Cuban matters, its English translation, in my opinion, will transcend that scope and also be of interest to students of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Women and Gender Studies, literature in translation, and Diaspora studies among others.

—Jeffrey C. Barnett

Always Rebellious: Selected Poetry by Georgina Herrera / 

Cimarroneando: Poemas Escogidos de Georgina Herrera

Of African descent, Georgina Herrera (April 23, 1936–) was born in Jovellanos, the capital of Matanzas, to a family with great pride in its racial pedigree. From an uneducated background, she was brought up in an environment lacking in basic material resources, let alone books. This home was controlled by a repressive patriarchal hand with rules of obedience that discouraged thinking, and therefore, by extension, incomprehensive of this daughter’s rebellious spirited and poetic inclination. In any case, Georgina never considered submission a viable alternative. Authoritarian parenting could not contain her creative genius nor tame her independent spirit. It prompted within her a contrarian reaction, fanning an irrepressible cimarron rebelliousness that would lead the poet to express an overflowing creativity. 

Eliseo Diego calls Herrera's work poetry of origin, pain, heartbreak, and consolation. With a lyrical voice, the poet uncovers her most intimate self, with her loves, her fears, her pains and her orphanhood. In a process of sublimation, Herrera manages to transform her pain into central aesthetic components of her work, which point to the legacy of sorrow and sacrifice inherited from the 16th century.

Though she indeed has suffered, Georgina Herrera possesses courage, energy, and a penetrating intelligence accompanied by a profound sense of dignity and an age-old wisdom that enable her to "take to the hills" and run away in order to go on and tell us of both "the truths" of her cultural memory and those of her mind, of her soul, and of her vast experience accumulated in 75 years full of anxiety, exclusion, violence, and discrimination.

With a terse but disquieting voice, Georgina Herrera assumes the power of the written word, which, as she has expressed before, embodies all at once the "contrast of light and shade," of dream and truth, of fire and water. At the end, her self-definition is intimately related to validation of dignity and empowerment. It challenges the representation imposed upon the black woman, replacing it with positive images and becoming a dynamic source of power.

"Georgina Herrera continues in our midst as on of the deepest roots of feminine lyrical creation in Cuba. Her poetry of origin, pain, heartbreak, and consolation, like that of Avellaneda and Luisa Pérez de Zambrana in the previous century, is the center of this chapter—perhaps too full of tenderness—that rises out of the literary panorama as a beautiful enigma."

Eliseo Alberto Diego
Havana, Cuba Internacional, December 1974

From Texcoco to New Orleans, Mary Helen Lagasse

July 16, 2015, 11:00 pm

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Melinda Palacio

  

Mary Helen Lagasse

            I've known New Orleans author Mary Helen Lagasse for a few years. She's the only author I know who was born in New Orleans, but whose parents are from Mexico. Lagasse emphasized that her father instilled a pride in being Mexican and only allowed his children to speak Spanish inside the house. She regrets not retaining a strong command of the language. Her first novel, The Fifth Sun (Curbstone Press 2004), won the Miguel Mármol Prize and the Premio Aztlán Literary Prize. Eleven years later, Curbstone also published her new novel, Navel of the Moon, which mines Lagasse's childhood in the Irish Channel of New Orleans. The Irish Channel, a neighborhood settled by Irish immigrants in the early 19th Century.

            Set in the 1960-70s Irish Channel, the novel is the coming of age story of Vicenta Lumière, "Vicky," a young girl whose street and intellectual savvy lead her to become a journalist who visits Lonnie, her childhood friend, in prison. It's clear from Vicky's feisty and precocious personality that she will prevail. What makes this book endearing is the sense of community brought to the place and the secrets that unfold as Vicky befriends a holocaust survivor and her sister.

            Heart of the Channel was the working title of the novel. Lagasse says she reserves the right to settle on a final title until the themes become more defined, a process that takes three or four drafts. At the center of Navel of the Moon is Mimi, Vicky's grandmother, who steals the show from Vicky as she delivers the title line and declares to Vicky and her friend that she is from the navel of the moon. For Vicky, a traviesa dreamer who wants to right the wrongs of the world around her, the navel of the moon symbolizes a place of safety and refuge, says Lagasse. For the grandmother, navel of the moon is the more literal term for the nahuatl word for mexica.

            Betrayal is a central theme of Lagasse's novel, from betrayal of the Catholic priests to betrayal among family and friends, Lagasse weaves a truthful story and infuses her characters with so much complexity that the novel reads like non-fiction. However, the author assures us that the events and characters are made up. "Some of my most vivid or 'real' characters sprung whole and complete from my imagination," Lagasse said, "Valentina Himel and her sister, The Cat Layd, Holocaust survivors are one hundred percent fictional, as are the parental figures." But the adage of write what you know certainly adds vividness to the novel set in the milieu of Mary Helen's real childhood in New Orleans. For Lagasse, lyricism and word choice are important in her narrative. "I will wrestle to find the right word that moves me," she said. "I strive for a beautifully written work." Lagasse also took the photograph to the cover of Navel of the Moon. She taught herself Photoshop to produce the perfect cover for her novel.

Navel of the Moon by Mary Helen Lagasse

            Lagasse's next book takes on the subject of Irish immigrant workers who died at the New Basin Construction site in New Orleans. Her current working title for this book is Brigid Fury.

Mary Helen Lagasse's book launch for Navel of the Moon will be at Octavia Books, July 30 at 6pm.

Frida, latino author interviews, new books, kids' book publisher

July 17, 2015, 11:00 pm

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We can never get enough Frida

From the Huffington Post:"Kahlo was not a prolific artist. Due to her long list of health problems, she had a lot of time on her bed. That's why [many works appear in] small format. She had a whole stretcher built specially so she could paint on her bed. Kahlo was very particular, only completing around 130 paintings and an additional hundred or so drawings."

Latinos put politics into fantasy

From The National Book Foundation's interview of Daniel José Older:

"People of color need stories about history and about how we’ve gotten here, and we also really want magic and fantasy and excitement. We can tell great, adventurous stories and talk about painful truths in a contemporary context. Racism and racial violence are still abundant today, and we need to address it in literature, in a realistic setting, and sometimes we need to address that in a fantastic setting."

a Triangle Square book

Publisher of children's fiction books on social justice

From Authors Publish: "Triangle Square focuses on publishing high quality, children's books that focus on education and social justice, even if they are fictional." They accept unagented submissions.

Inclusive literature & the future of genre fiction

From Geekachicas'interview of Chicano author David Bowles: "I wrote The Smoking Mirror in just a couple of months. Then, as you can imagine, shopping it around was a lot of fun--it got rejected by several agents who didn’t see it as very marketable. There’s not a single Anglo character in the book. Most of it happens either on the border with Mexico, in Mexico, or in the Aztec underworld."

Marx predicted the age of Internet technology?

From a new book, Postcapitalism by Allen Lane: "In 1858 Marx wrote The Fragment on Machines. He imagined an economy in which the main role of machines is to produce, and the main role of people is to supervise them; the main productive force would be information that did not depend on the amount of labor it took to produce them, but on the state of social knowledge. Organization and knowledge made a bigger contribution to productive power than the work of making and running the machines.

Recent releases & discount from Arte Público Press

Houston Public Media interviews author Raquel Ortiz for its website's Arte Público Press Author of the Month. Along with the transcript, their conversation is available through on-demand audio streaming here.

"Young Sofía walks to the bodega near her apartment to buy milk for her mom. From the sidewalk, she becomes entranced by a vibrant public mural that celebrates Puerto Rican culture. The dancers in the mural pull Sofía in, and she finds herself transported to Puerto Rico, listening to the island's music, singing traditional songs, and dancing with new friends." - Kirkus

There’s a Name for this Feeling: Stories / Hay un nombre para lo que siento: Cuentos

These short and accessible contemporary stories are alternately amusing and poignant as they explore issues relevant to today’s youth. Teens deal with everything from grandparents suffering from dementia to difficult customers at a first job. In one story, a young girl grieves the loss of her baby, a miscarriage her mom calls a blessing. The stories highlight the emotional tailspins of living in a complicated world."

New edition of the bestseller, Y no se lo tragó la tierra:

"One of the first major novels of the Chicano literature revival."- The New York Times

"Rivera is the finest Chicano writer to appear on the scene from the beginning of the Chicano movement."- The Texas Observer 

Take 35% off your entire purchase when you buy books by calling 800-633-ARTE, from now until Aug. 21, 2015. Mention coupon code SUMMER15 when placing your order.

Arte Público Pressis the nation's largest and most established publisher of contemporary and recovered literature by U.S. Hispanic authors. Its imprint for children and young adults, Piñata Books, is dedicated to the realistic and authentic portrayal of the themes, languages, characters, and customs of Hispanic culture in the U.S. For more information, please visit our website at  www.artepublicopress.com.

Es todo, hoy,

RudyG

A Mexican American Diary from WWI Just Published!

July 19, 2015, 12:00 am

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We welcome Barbara Renaud Gonzalez (see her BIO below) as a guest on La Bloga today. She brings us a book review of:  
The World War I Diary of José de la Luz Sáenz.  

Texas A& M University Press, 2014

Originally published in 1933

A century ago, a great uncle of mine, born and raised on the King Ranch, brincó el río, to avoid getting drafted into the war:  WWI.  My tío apparently had witnessed his father, my great-grandfather, killed in cold blood, and decided he was not going to defend a country that didn’t value Tejanos:  The Mexican Texans. 

José de la Luz Sáenz looked at all this differently.  He was a Tejano and a teacher of Mexican-American children and enlisted for military duty toward the end of the war, in 1917.  Sáenz signed on to World War I believing that if he and other Mexicanos made the “ultimate sacrifice,” then surely we could claim equal rights for ourselves and our children. 

He wrote down this dream, this fever, this ambition, repeatedly, in a diary, keeping a record of his sixteen months in the 360^th Infantry Regiment of the 90^thDivision of the U.S. Army.  The diary begins with his enlistment and ends in a last entry where he announces his release from the military. 

The diary was published (funded by benefactors) in 1933 by the San Antonio-based Artes Gráficas at the cost of $4.00.  The cloth-covered, 298-page book was titled, Los Mexico-Americanos en la Gran Guerra y Su Continente en pro de la Democracia, la Humanidad y la Justicia. 

In writing down his experiences for sixteen months, Sáenz found his place in Mexican-American history, over a half-century after it was first published.  If ever there was a reason for our mothers, fathers, and comadres to write down their stories, this is it.  The bilingual Sáenz wrote in Spanish—and not just any Spanish, but the ornate Spanish of our grandfathers, a Spanish of silk, tissue-paper, and old-world protocols.  Language is fluid, as my writer friends know, and the Spanish of that time is not the Tex-Mex of today with its swirly vocabulary – a multicultural graffiti to be reckoned with.  All this makes the translation of such a book a masterpiece all by itself. 

“I am aware of the pivotal role I play as a translator and editor,” writes Emilio Zamora, Professor of History at The University of Texas/Austin.  Professor Zamora has had to translate a young man’s conflicted idealism about the war which makes for a deeply layered narrative. 

“I have translated the diary because I recognize Sáenz’s masterful critique of these inequalities, his bold reconfiguration of the Mexican cause, and his sensitive treatment of Mexican people and their veterans.  I also admire his expansive and far-reaching statements about a shared Mexican history and culture and his ability to speak prophetically about a Mexican cause that continues to draw on The United States’ foundational principles to justify itself.” 

The diary begins on February 25^th, 1917, when Sáenz reports to the “local board in New Braunfels.”  He writes every day for sixteen months, until his return from serving in France and Germany on June 17^th, 1919. 

Sáenz was born in Realitos, Texas, near San Diego, Texas, in 1888.  He was eight years old when his mother died. He attended public school in Alice. An exemplary student, Sáenz also completed studies in two independently operated community schools, taught by local intellectuals.  At the time, private learning institutions were present in some communities to supplement the official curriculum because “the public schools either misrepresented or entirely excluded Mexican history and culture, even in places like South Texas,” says Zamora.  His mother, Cristina Hernandez, was descended from The Canary Islands.  His father’s family traced its lineage from the Aztecs who escaped the violence of the Spanish Conquest in 1519. Sáenz benefitted from a rich knowledge of his Mexican history, referencing Benito Juarez, the French occupation of Mexico (1861-1867), the Mexican War for Independence, the Alamo, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. 

As noted, Sáenz had been teaching Mexican schoolchildren in the segregated area of South Texas.  He was married and had two children.  But he wanted to prove his American love of democracy while still claiming his Mexican heritage.  He was about twenty-nine years old.

For Sáenz, a patriot, World War I was also an opportunity and a journey.  A man of his talents surely dreamed of so much more that he was already.  From Camp Travis, one senses the wonder of a huge military camp in a city he’d never lived in before, on the brink of his departure to a global war zone.  To Sáenz, a patriot, the war was also an opportunity and a journey. 

While in the army, Sáenz applied for Officer’s School.  His application was denied.  Later, he learned French and some German. He began translating newspapers and telegrams to his superiors during the war, working in the Intelligence Office.  In his spare time, he taught his fellow Mexican Americans how to read and write.  Many were illiterate, yet this did not deter the U.S. from conscripting them. 

Sáenz’s writing is often mundane, the naiveté of a young man, the imbibed language of the patriot, and yet it seems that in the sheer process of writing, his ghosts want to speak, and then the historical allusions appear, along with the questions rising from his sublime consciousness.  Here’s a good example: 

Saturday, August 24 (1918)

I started cleaning the typewriter after breakfast.  I can see that I will now use this weapon to battle the subjects of William II . . . The German shells do not understand French or Spanish, but they have shown how one man’s failure required a replacement and the officers thought of me.  Studying won out . . . The risk is everwhere on the front, but I came to fill a position that is more difficult than carrying a rifle.  Millions carry rifles but few can make the typewriter keys click and send orders in Spanish, English, or French.  I say this with confidence.  My buddies look to me in the evenings so that I can tell them the news from around the world.  This includes some of our soldiers of German descent. 

The climax of his diary is witnessing the fall of Germany while he is fighting in Villers-devant-Dun, France, and being alive after so much death around him on Armistice Day, November 11, 1918. 

Then in January of 1919, while in occupied Germany, Sáenz applies French and English universities, only to be denied—ostensibly because he is only a private.  Instead, he asks for an assignment to teach English to his fellow Mexican soldiers:

Tuesday, January 14, 1919

I accepted the responsibility of teaching my own because no one is interested in them.  This reminded me of a newspaper notice that appeared before the war, that soldiers who did not know how to read or write would not be sent to the trenches.  Clearly, bullets do not represent proclamations.

His family writes him.  A brother is sick with the flu.  His brother Eugenio dies.  The 1918 flu pandemic was an unusually deadly pandemic, infecting 500 million people across the world, killing three to five percent of the world’s population, making the pandemic one of the deadliest natural disasters in human history.  But WWI soldiers were not informed because their superiors wanted to keep up their morale.  Later, his wife writes him to say she has been ill too.  But he cannot leave, as he has no employment back in the states. Soldiers will have no employment once they return from war.  He tells his sister not to try to have him discharged. 

Sáenz visits Paris and dreams of seeing Rome.  He makes friends with the local priests, teachers, and even German villagers who are willing to talk with him.  He meets Oklahoman Indians who do not speak Spanish, but share a common hope for a better life.  Yet, he evinces the standard prejudices against Blacks, Jews, Gypsies—people he does not really know. 

Sáenz returned to a hero’s welcome in Boston and was honorably discharged from Camp Travis in San Antonio, Texas on June 21, 1919. 

Zeltingen,  Germany

April 11, 1919

I am intrigued by the possibility that this place may have originated racial prejudice, the fuse that will no doubt set the globe on fire during the next world war.  They tell their children of their racial superiority over all the other races on each much like they would teach the ABC’s. 

BIO

Barbara Renaud Gonzalez is the author of Golondrina, Why Did You Leave Me?, the first Chicana novel published by The University of Texas Press, 2009.  She has also published an interactive children’s book on the life of voting rights pioneer, Willie Velasquez. The book is entitled, The Boy Made of Lightning (Alazan Arts Letters and Stories, AALAS, 2013).  

Trump's anti-immigrant comments help Democrats

July 19, 2015, 11:01 pm

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By Alvaro Huerta

As a scholar and proud Latino of Mexican descent, I'm appalled, but not surprised, by Donald Trump's disparagement of Mexican immigrants.

In announcing his bid for the White House, Trump didn't mince his words: "When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. ... They're sending people that have lots of problems. ... They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."

I will not try to counter these baseless remarks. In doing so, I will fall into the trap that Trump sets up, like provocateur extraordinaire Ann Coulter. It's not about logic or reason. It's about branding and self-marketing.

Trump and Coulter are very intelligent. By dismissing them, critics ignore one simple point: When they make ridiculous or bombastic comments, Trump and Coulter know exactly what they're doing. They're grabbing national headlines. Free of cost.

Since he's entered the crowded Republican presidential race, Trump has become a major liability for his party. Due to his remarks and his feuding with the influential Spanish-language network Univision, among other Latino groups and individuals, Trump has taken the spotlight from his Republican opponents. Instead of attacking the likely Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, the GOP contenders have been relegated to spectators on "The Trump Show."

Trump's comments will not only tarnish his image among the more than 54 million Latinos, the majority of Mexican ancestry, but his hurtful words will also continue to sully the already damaged Republican brand among this country's largest minority group. This is a lesson that 2012 GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney learned the hard way when his advice to undocumented immigrants to "self-deport" didn't go down too well. Given that Republican leaders haven't adequately condemned Trump's statements, the party's weak response speaks volumes to Latinos.

If Democrats want to win the White House in 2016, they should not only denounce Trump's remarks, but secretly hope that he secures the Republican nomination. Then Democrats can cross their fingers that Trump selects Ann Coulter as his running mate.

[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 (San Diego State University Press). He wrote this for Progressive Media Project, a source of liberal commentary on domestic and international issues; it is affiliated with The Progressive magazine.]

La Comida. First Chicano Bukowski Poem in History. First Issue. On-line Floricanto.

July 20, 2015, 11:00 pm

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My Gramma's Molcahete
Michael Sedano

My grandmother's molcajete and her piedra from Michoacán. They sit on a slab of raw lava from the Mojave desert.

A Facebook friend shared a video from Azteca Michoacán of a man sculpting blocks of hard basaltic lava into tripod-footed stone bowls. Hammering relentlessly but skillfully each conforms to a design he finds in the rock. He's been practicing the art since an early age, learning from his father. His molcajetes stack uniformly, clones of a master form in his mind. This is the most culturally interesting and satisfying demonstration video I've seen in a long, long time. What a gem!

UN INSTRUMENTO ANCESTRAL QUE AÚN ESTÁ VIGENTE EN MUCHOS HOGARES
Posted by Azteca Michoacán on Friday, July 17, 2015

Family legend holds that when a girl in Michoacán became a señorita she fashioned her own molcajete in preparation for the time when she would leave her mother’s side and take on the responsibility of making the chile in her own casita. Gramma's molcajete is uniquely not mass produced. My grandmother’s molcajete might be the last in an ancient line of home-made molcajetes.

Stubby nubs for the tripod, my grandmother’s 19th century molcajete sits squat and shallow, one deep chip along two inches of interior rim serves as a pouring spout. Perhaps an error, perhaps a strategic blow one long-ago instant, quien sabe? Small and light enough to hold in one hand, my gramma’s molcajete is the right size and weight to pack away and carry on a long journey that started at a place, she used to tell tiny me, with butterfly nets.

I jumped with joy every time my mother told me she was taking me to visit her abuelita in San Bernardino. When we visited at the tortilleria where little gramma worked, I got a big plate of guisado or caldo and a hot fresh thick tortilla de maíz. When we visited abuelita’s upstairs room at Aunt Lucy’s house, smoke from the chiles she roasted choked me and I fled outside. Chile was all she ate, and a tortilla that she dipped into her molcajete with its deep, red chile. I never learned to make that and I don’t know who got her molcajete after she passed to the other side.

Here is the piedra and molcajete my grandmother owned since she was a young woman in Michoacan in the latter 19th century. The metate it rests on is a grinding surface Indians carried to use when they didn't have pot-holes to grind acorns.

My paternal grandmother used to herd sheep in what had been the back country of Redlands, where my family found the metate. Gramma knew the spot in that canyon, but didn't recognize the metate, nor have a story about these objects, so it comes from long before her time.

A Day Without Chile is Like A Day Without Sunshine

My grandmother’s, and mother’s, molcajete chile I remember well. Encimoso, I observed gramma closely. I was young enough that my tías let me watch when they made their versions of my gramma’s chile. My mom answered my questions but didn’t teach me so I learned her technique from observation.

Ingredients are what the garden produced today, and how big your molcajete is. Three or four small tomatoes, 3 or 4 garlic cloves, a small onion, 4 or 5 fresh chilies: huero, serrano, jalapeño, pico de pajaro, japones; what have you. A squeeze of lemon. At the end, crush some raw chile piquin and add to taste to enhance the picoso, if needed.

Put the chiles, garlic, onion and tomatoes on a hot frying pan or the open flame. Shake or turn frequently so they blacken all over not just in one spot. When opaque paper-thin skin begins to steam loose from the whole fruits all over, put them on a clean surface. You can toss them into iced water for a few seconds and they peel better and don’t burn you.

Peel away the skin from the limp, draining vegetables. Core the tomatoes and cut off the tops of the chiles. Leave some seeds, don’t take them all out. If you have unhappy diverticuli, split the roasted chiles under water and the seeds float out at the brush of a thumb.

Add a pinch of salt unless, you know.

My mother's molcajete and stone, purchased 1941.

Transfer the fire-roasted ingredients to the molcajete and begin crushing slowly to avoid splashing. (You can grind seeds in the molcajete first to season automatically; or, add powdered comino seed, coriander seed, black pepper, salt to the crushed chile sauce. This is optional.)

With the wide end of the piedra, crushing and stirring hard, reduce the roasted material to a ragged liquid consistency. Add a squeeze or more lemon. (You can stir in cubed or minced aguacates and fresh cilantro now, optional.)

Provecho! Seal left-overs in a jelly jar and pour over your eggs the next morning.

Note on world’s hottest capsicums. Don’t put "ghost" or "jolokia" chilitos in food because they’re so hot you can’t taste anything for ten or twenty minutes. Habaneros is OK. Chile and salsas need heat to hold the chile-maker’s street cred, but genuinely critical is being so flavorful that la familia always asks you and only you to bring the chile.

¡Hijole! Summer is harvest time for chile, tomatoes, onions, garlic, aguacates. Dare you eat a hot healthy chile de molcajete? Hurry up, please, it's time.



The Gluten-free Chicano Cooks
Chicano Hot Dog

Wrap a warm corn tortilla around a kosher hot dog and you have yourself a weenie taco. Only a small amount of extra effort converts those simple ingredients into a crispy Chicano Hot Dog that you garnish however your tastes take you.

The Gluten-free Chicano is a food nationalist with a soupçon of hegemonism in his claim that anything he cooks is Chicano food. If he makes a baloney sandwich that's a Chicano baloney sandwich. Like the time a woman at an awards dinner asked a Chicano teenager if his family "ate a lot of Mexican food at home?" He answered, "every day."

The Chicano Hot Dog is not by dint of its maker but in the nature of the thing itself. Like a bacon-wrapped weenie grilled by a street vendor, the Chicano Hot Dog is sui generis.

Step one: toast the tortilla de maiz.

Put those burned spots from the open burner on one side of the commercial tortilla. Wrap it around a kosher sausage. If the tort doesn't hold its shape, pin the flap down with a wooden toothpick.

Step two: Get the frying pan sizzlng hot and cook.

Spill a small amount of olive oil to coat a flat pan. Over medium flame, fry until the tortilla has crisped and browned, turning every minute or so. Start with the fold down. Use tongs to hold and turn the taco.

Adding half a teaspoon of bacon grease to the olive oil enhances flavor. The kosher dog is more unlikely to have wheat-based thickeners and extenders, but read the package ingredients to be sure.

Step Three: Chow Down.

Serve with conventional condiments. Here is a mayonnaise dip for a mustard-topped crispy shell, a garlic pickle, and a green onion. Needs some of that molcahete chile, que no?

Provecho!


The First Shall Be First: Oldest Published-By-A-Chicano Bukowski Poem

Last week, La Bloga reported on the landmark Bluebird Reading Series' reading honoring Charles Bukowski. It was one of the best Bluebird Readings yet, LA writers honoring a quintessential LA writer, in LA's essential spot of arte and poetry, Avenue 50 Studio.

More than a favorite of Los Angeles writers, Bukowski develops quick rapport with writers wherever his books land.

In 1990, Carlos Cumplan worked a Tantalus-type job, in Chicago. Selling books at an indie bookseller, Cumpian would ring up Bukowskis with far more regularity than ordinary poets. The uptick of public interest ticked up the clerk's. Bukowski won a new reader, not a new customer. Black Sparrow Press books came with a hefty price tag the minimum wage reader couldn't cover.

Since the clerk couldn't afford to buy his own copies, Carlos Campaign wrote his own Bukowski-flavored poem. If you can't buy 'em, join 'em.

From what Carlos Cumpian can averiguar, his is the first published Chicano poem about Charles Bukowski. If anyone knows of an earlier piece, please share it by contacting La Bloga via the Comments link at the foot of today’s column, or email.


Barflies Have Feelings Too
By Carlos Cumpian

I once dreamt about
Old Charles
“poetry is like a good shit”
Bukowski.
He wanted a new look,
His mean reflection,
Always getting lost in the
Moon pores and liver lines.
Don’t ask why he called me
At some loop bar,
A place even he wouldn’t visit
to take a piss in.
So while swigging
A cold beer from Wisconsin
And reading the collection
Of business cards
Visible in the joint’s fish bowl,
The phone rings, it’s Bukowski,
Wants me to find the names of
All the plastic surgeons…
Up comes a card that reads:
“Discreet work from head to feet.
World’s Best in all of South America.
VISA and Master Card accepted.”
Only the doctor had a long
German name and a p.o. box
In Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Bukowski said,
“Great, see you when I get back.”
Before I could say, “Adios”
He’s standing in front of me
Showing off the results of his
Trip to the doc,
His nose back peeled and
Pores filled with smooth pellets
Of steel and wax.
It was a most manageable beak,
The nose he wanted at thirty,
He seemed satisfied, only wondered
If it was safe to pick.
To celebrate he pulled from a sack
a bottle of Irish whiskey,
raised a drink to his lips and sipped,
but when he put his booze down,
his old nose was back.

Carlos Cumpián ©1990

Carlos Cumpián is the author of four poetry collections: Coyote Sun, Latino Rainbow, Armadillo Charm, and 14 Abriles: Poems. He has been a contributor to more than two-dozen poetic anthologies, as well as the editor of small press journals and books for March Abrazo Press. Cumpián has taught creative writing and poetry writing through community arts organizations, as well as at Columbia College Chicago. His most recent essay, “Learned to Read at My Momma’s Knee,” appears in With a Book in Their Hands: Chicano/a Readers and Readerships Across the Centuries (University of New Mexico Press, 2014), ed. Manuel M. Martín-Rodriguez. Cumpián resides in Chicago, which boasts the second-largest Mexicano population in the U.S.

Issue 1

La Bloga friend, poet Iris de Anda, sends word of her publication in the premiere number of Angel City Review. Editor Zachary Jensen plans to bring two free issues a year. Jensen's Foreword observes:

When initially starting this project, I questioned if there was really a need for another literary journal. There are tons of them out there already. In fact, you can walk in to most bookstores and find them on the shelves varying from $7 to $24 for the larger collections. The problem, though, is not everyone can afford to shell out even $7 to experience new poetry and fiction. Also, many (but not all) of these journals are inaccessible to new and emerging writers making it difficult for new writers to be heard. With these two problems in mind Angel City Review was born. We are dedicated to providing cutting edge poetry and fiction for free on a twice-yearly basis in eBook format. Our goal is to be inclusive to writers of all backgrounds, whether they went to college, or never took a single creative writing class. There will also never be reader fees. Every issue will be anchored by a few more established names (with this issue being. . . .


Witnessing the beginning of a productive career in literary ephemera is a pleasure. That it's a PDF or eBook is a pleasure for its sustainability while confuting the definition of "ephemera."

Visit Angel City Review's website here to get a free copy. Angel City has begun the reading period for issue two. Find submissions details on the site.

On-line Floricanto At Summertime's Peak 
Betty Sánchez, Jon Hepworth, Paul Aponte, Tom Sheldon, Sandra Barrios Del Mar

The Moderators of the Facebook group Poetry of Resistance, Poets Responding to SB 1070 nominate five poets for La Bloga's July On-line Floricanto.

El Cielo Se Está Cayendo Por Betty Sánchez
2015 – Ojos Que No Ven (Eyes That Do Not See) By Jon Hepworth
The Drumming By Paul Aponte
Beyond Language By Tom Sheldon
No Al Racismo Contra Los Inmigrantes Por Sandra Barrios Del Mar

El Cielo Se Está Cayendo 
Por Betty Sánchez

El cielo se está cayendo
Nadie parece notarlo

Hillary lanza campaña
Para ser la presidenta
Promete darnos papeles
Si le brindamos el voto
Candidatos nuevos
Promesas viejas
Nada cambia

El clima global
Altera ecosistemas
Altas temperaturas
Causan un índice
Mas alto de evaporación
Y por consiguiente sequías

Restricciones de agua
En California
Las cosechas perecen
Los empleos desaparecen
¿A quién le importa?
Importaremos
Frutas y vegetales del Sur
Ahorrar agua
No es nuestra prioridad
Darme una ducha
De media hora
Es mi derecho
El no regar mi jardín
O dejar de lavar mi coche
No solucionará el problema

La población de Siria
Se ha reducido
Un quince por ciento
En cuatro años
De conflicto armado

España se hunde
En un pozo de pobreza
Desigualdad y desempleo

No hay un plan definido
Para evitar
El tráfico de humanos

Mas de doscientos cincuenta
Inmigrantes inician
Huelga de hambre
En un centro de detención
En Eloy Arizona
Por las condiciones inhumanas
Y el trato injusto que reciben

La brutalidad policiaca
Aumenta en el país

La violencia en México
Es una realidad cotidiana

Las muertes en las fronteras
Ya no hacen noticia
De primera plana

La depresión
Y el suicidio infantil
Se aceptan
Como un mal de sociedad

La obesidad
Es cuestión personal

Los sucesos del mundo
Están a nuestro alcance
Con un click

Aunque la poesía no vende
Seguimos escribiendo

El cielo se está cayendo
Nadie parece notarlo

Mientras tanto
La Copa América
Chile esta en todo
Su apogeo.

Betty Sánchez

14 de Junio de 2015

Betty Sánchez, residente de California, Sus poemas se han publicado en Voces del Nuevo Sol, Mujeres de Maíz, Zine 10 y 13, La Palabra, La Bloga, y próximanente en la antología POETRY OF RESISTANCE: VOICES FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE,




2015 – Ojos Que No Ven (Eyes That Do Not See)
By Jon Hepworth

No, I am not OK.
I am wounded.
I am broken.
I have eyes that do not see.

Today, I privilege my existence
with love given to me in great abundance.
Today, I luxuriate in $100 cleated bicycle shoes.
Today, I fondle an erect penis at the Lone Star.
But no, I am not OK
Because, I have eyes that do not see.

On an alley near 9th Street is a homeless man.
He holds an unshielded point or “short” insulin syringe
containing 65 units of blood saturated drug
In his left hand,
as I place a $1 bill into his right hand.

This man is homeless
because of me
because I failed to act as human
because I failed to see that he is my brother in need.

Am I in a dream?
Am I sleepwalking?
I am scared that Francisco Alarcon’s “Mariposas Sin Fronteras” will awaken me.
I am scared to admit that my hands are stained in blood.
I am an accomplice in this American conspiracy that allows humans to live without homes.

I prefer to sleepwalk with everyone else.
I prefer to look away from our crime of abandonment.
I prefer to shelter myself in denial because
I have eyes that do not see.

Jon Hepworth,MPH is an IT Analyst at the San Francisco Department of Public Health. Jon has written human rights/social justice oriented poetry and commentary mostly in a private sphere since 1989. He has a Master’s degree in Public Health from UCLA and a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology from UC Santa Cruz. Originally from Oakland, Jon has also lived in Los Angeles and Mexico City. At present, Jon lives in San Francisco.





The Drumming
By Paul Aponte

The drums keep their sounds
You may be gone
Slipped into the deep oceans of time
But the beats are still heard
The cathartic drumming
The energy raising thumps echoing in our chests
The happy rhythms of your creation
The percussive varied instruments melodiously instilling love
The compositions that brought visual still beauty that seemed to move to the beats you captured
The elevated, spiritual, reverberations still alive

The sounds of unity and bravery you left us all with.

Paul Aponte is a Chicano poet from Sacramento, California. Paul, is a prolific writer and member of "Escritores del Nuevo Sol", and can be seen reading at various venues throughout the SF Bay and Sacramento areas. He is the author of the book of poetry "Expression Obsession" , and has been published in "La Bloga" and in other publications. Many of his poems can be found on his Facebook "Notes" under the pseudonym Wolf Fox.




Beyond language
By Tom Sheldon

Sprawled on our mother in slumber
beneath a salt studded indigo sky
at the mercy of the midnight mind
dreaming of sunshine
and the morning to come

My name is Tom Sheldon and I was born and raised in New Mexico and come from a large Hispanic family. I have always loved and appreciated the gift of creating in various forms. Southwestern themes and landscapes are among my favorites and the wonder and beauty of the the history here and my surroundings continually inspire my artwork. Thank you greatly for considering my words. Mil gracias



NO AL RACISMO CONTRA LOS INMIGRANTES
Por Sandra Barrios del Mar

Estimado racista este es nuestro continente...

La fruta que llega a tu mesa
es abonada con la sangre
de los inmigrantes…

La ropa que luces es confeccionada
por las manos de color...

Tus hijos son cuidados por nanas latinas...
belgas, coreanas o chinas...
que les entregan su corazón....
de noche y de día…
mientras sus propios hijos...
lejos de ellas...
viven en melancolía.

Las oficinas, escuelas, hospitales,
mansiones, edificios, casas...
calles, banquetas,
marquetas, restaurantes son limpiados...
con afán y esmeros…

Los cristales de los rascacielos
brillan...
aunque los que los limpian
Sus vidas cuelgen en lasorillas...

Los aviones que usas
son higienizados...
por las manos de color.

No juegues con el dolor
de nuestra clase trabajadora
que solo quiere vivir y trabajar en paz...

Los campos florecen
bajo la irrigación de su arduo sudor...
Las fábricas rugen ...
Y grandes ganancias producen
Muchos inmigrantes mueren
en los campos de California
y Arizona...

Bajo la inhóspita insolación...
otros mueren en los desiertos...
devorados por los coyotes...
y abandonados a la merced...
Del hambre, fío y sed...

¿Qué coyotes son los más voraces
Los de cuatro o dos patas ?
Es cruel que los sueños...
sean mutilados...
sean secuestrados...
y llegue al otro lado del muro
algunos órganos...
para ser vendidos al mejor postor...
r a c i s t a...

Recuerda que llegaste del otro lado
del Atlántico.

No a la deportación...
De nuestro continente!...

Tus patéticos tratados de comercio...
Tu patética presencia en los patrocinios de guerras...
La explotación desmedidas de las transnacionales...
De nuestras tierras
mos obligan...
a emigrar...
¿Por qué me obligas abandonar
Mi hogar?...

¿Por qué me incriminas?
En mi tierra...
en mi continente...
Solo luchamos por el amor
a nuestra gente...
Respeto a la dignidad
de la clase trabajadora.
Los inmigrantes somos
humanos !!!!

Autora: Sandra Barrios del Mar
Todos los derechos reservados sonde mi autoría.

---

Macondo Workshop 2015

July 21, 2015, 11:00 pm

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Originating at the kitchen table of poet and writer Sandra Cisneros in 1995, the Macondo Workshop focused on bringing together a community of poets, novelists, journalists, performance artists, and creative writers of all genres whose work is socially engaged. In 2012, Cisneros handed over the workshop to the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center after she decided to relocate to San Miguel de Allsende, Mexico.

This year, the Macondo Workshop will take place from July 22-26, 2015 at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in San Antonio and include two nights (Friday & Saturday, July 24 & 25) where the community is invited to enjoy readings by acclaimed writers, including Richard Blanco.

“We’re very proud to be continuing the rich tradition of Macondo, which is really a gem of the local and national Latino literary scene,” said Guadalupe executive director Jerry Ruiz. “It’s a great opportunity for that literary community to gather, hone their craft together and share their work with each other. It’s important for our writers to have access to that kind of network to develop and advocate for their writing.”

Since its initial founding 20 years ago, the list of Macondistas has grown and members are dedicated more than ever in working toward community-building and non-violent social change through their writing. Through a major gift to the Guadalupe late last year from Sandra Cisneros and the Alfredo Cisneros de Moral Foundation, the Macondo Workshop is laying a new foundation for the longevity of the program at the Guadalupe.

On Friday, July 24 at 7:00 pm, the community is welcome to the Guadalupe Theater to listen to readings from a host of Macondo writers. In the past, attendees have been treated to the readings of Macondistas including Cisneros, Julia Alvarez, and Luis Rodriguez. Free public event.

On Saturday, July 25 at 7:00 pm, poet and civil engineer Richard Blanco, who was named by President Obama as the fifth inaugural poet in 2013, will read excerpts from his published works and participate in a book signing. Blanco’s printed collections of poetry include City of a Hundred Fires, Directions to the Beach of the Dead, and Looking for the Gulf Motel.

Tickets can be purchased on this link,

http://www.guadalupeculturalarts.org/richard-blanco-reading-book-signing/

Chicanonautica: Could This Be Chicanonautic Art?

July 22, 2015, 11:01 pm

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By Ernest Hogan

Oh yeah, I'm also an artist. Our specialist culture doesn't like you to be more than one thing. It's just too rasquashe. I can't help it; like writing, like drawing, it's what I do.

When I wrote Chicanonautica Manifesto – that will soon be published in Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies– I was thinking about literature, but since Chicano is all about attitude, it can also be applied to all kinds of art. Damn the borders, full speed ahead!

Which brings me to those three drawings of mine that were in Josh Ríos and Anthony Romero's Please Don't Bury Me Alive, Part Twoshow, in Sector 2337 in Chicago. They all sold. Now I'm really feeling like some kind of big chingón artist!

Could this be the Chicano Art I was talking about? Or maybe Chicanonautic Art?

Damn the labels, full speed ahead!

The full title of this one is Videodoo: An Altered State of the Union. It's also labeled A Quetzalcoatlist Anti-Propaganda Production. Très Chicano, non? Très political, too. I drew it back in 1983, and the conflicts that inspired it are still going on – I keep expecting them to go away, but they don't. Does anybody these days recognize the caricature of Ronald Reagan?

Serpent-Head Spaceshipsis a Chicanoid injection of pre-Columbian imagery into sci-fi, providing an alternative to the all-white, middle class vision of the future that had dominated the popular imagination until very recently. Looks like an attempt at cultural subversion. Or could it be gonzo archeology/anthropology?

Inner Space Manis a humanoid stripped down to a monstrous essence. Naked Raza Cosmica? Since Chicano is a science fiction state of being, are we all Chicanonauts under the skin? Dare we peel it back and see?

And they all sold. A long way from the days when people would look at my art, then ask if I had ever shown it to a psychiatrist.

Has the world finally caught up with my radical aesthetics? Can I turn my stacks of battered sketchbooks into a money machine? Should I sell fine art originals, or go the Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction route? Or both?

To be continued . . .

Ernest Hoganhas a bad habit of assembling his knowledge and experience into disturbing art and writing. Giving him money for it only encourages him.

EL ALMA BOHEMIA DE VENECIA EN CANNAREGIO

July 23, 2015, 11:00 pm

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EL  ALMA  BOHEMIA  DE  VENECIA  EN  CANNAREGIO

Maurilio de Miguel

 

Tal vez corra la suerte del Mitte berlinés, en los pasados años 90, caído el Muro y de moda su estilo alternativo. O acuse la especulación del Eastern de Londres, rediseñada chic la orilla fabril del Támesis. Puede que le espere el devenir pintoresco de la Butte parisina, en su día habitada por la bohemia de Picasso. Acaso deje de ser pronto la reserva espiritual y espirituosa de artistas que Venecia necesita, para seguir siendo Venecia. Pero de momento mantiene su desenfado y ángel, sus trattorías, arcos bizantinos y jardines. La genuina Venecia se refugia en el distrito de Cannaregio, conservando redes de pescador y, sobre todo, memoria isleña anterior al puente con que los Habsburgo la unieron a terra ferme. Canna-regio fue islote original de cañaverales. Fondearon los mercantes de la Ruta de la Seda en su muelle, hoy de recreo. Pasaron ocho siglos, la poblaron ex presidiarios y los almacenes de aquel monopolio comercial con Oriente han terminado en el caleidoscopio de ateliers, centros culturales y galerías de un nuevo Renacimiento en Venecia.

   

El acceso a Cannaregio por la calle Priuli, dando esquinazo a su atestada Strada Nuova, revela cómo Venecia se repliega sobre sí misma. Tan a solas te enfrenta a las fachadas de piedra labrada y contraventanas de madera, por una estrecha calzada, que contempla hasta tres sotoportegos, para que su túnel del tiempo cobre dimensiones reales bajo viga vista. Apenas indicado por un bajorrelieve y con taller de zapatero remendón dentro, el primero te conduce a la Fondamenta de la Misericordia. El segundo muere a pie de canal. Y el tercero penetra hasta la Corte del Lovo, patio vecinal con una profusión de tiestos y profundidad de campo que deja boquiabierto. El secreto mejor guardado del angosto y laberíntico Cannaregio está en sus pulmones, en sus insospechados jardines interiores. Jardines monásticos como el del Cottolengo. Jardines públicos, caso del que desvela su Centro Cívico. Jardines, cómo no, señoriales, en el entorno de la Fondamenta Ormasini, que debe su nombre a los asentandores medievales llegados del Estrecho de Ormuz. 

    

Tres modelos de luz al final del “túnel” definen atajos y puntos de fuga en este distrito, habituado a los amores clandestinos, el espionaje y las emboscadas. Que se lo pregunten al libertino Casanova...Sin embargo, también se adscribe a la monumentalidad de iglesias como la jesuítica, la de Sant`Alvise, Sant`Ipi Duni y la renacentista de los Milagros. Es más, aparte de su puente de las Agujas con cuatro pináculos, Cannaregio cuenta con el de San Giobbe, el único de los 500 en Venecia con tres arcadas.

   

Una imprenta, dos salas de teatro independiente y la entrada a otros tantos palazzos deja ver la Calle de Sta Caterina, antes de vislumbrar las islas de Burano y San Miquele. El palazzo Pesaro-Papafava lo ocupa la universidad Warwick, reeditando la formación clasicista del Grand Tour, peregrinación por Italia obligada para todo artista decimonónico. El otro palazzo lo fundó en el Quattrocento la familia Bianchini, en origen artesana del mosaico, con el culto a Sta Caterina de Siena. Ambos palazzos tienen majestuosa entrada por el Canal de Cannaregio, divisado desde la Fondamenta de l`Abazia. Y con puertas al Gran Canal, al costado sur del distrito, quedan el palazzo de Vendramin y el Ca d`Oro, los dos más celebrados. Wagner, que habitó el Vendramin, nunca imaginó que ahora sería casino.  Dicen que el gótico Ca` d`Oro trajo la ruina a cuanto noble lo compró. No así a Tota Fraino, la restauradora del barrio que lo adecentó tal cual se ve hoy. 

   

Abiertas a la laguna norte por la Bahía de Re, el Chiovere y San Girolamo, habitan Cannaregio 20.000 de las 60.000 almas que tiene Venecia, al noreste de la Ferrovia. Y su dédalo urbano se anuncia intemporal, también, a pie de Puente Le Giuglie. Otro sotoportego, uno más en su intrincada tela de araña, te lleva bajo sol chico al Ghetto judío, cuyo Campo Vechio nació fragua en el Quatrocentto. Gettare significa “fundir” en italiano, bautizó ghetto a tal comunidad y, por extensión, a todas las posteriores en Europa. Allí los hebreos mantienen sus finanzas en el Banco Rosso, scuola española y tedesca, una sinagoga-museo, casa de reposo y un cementerio venerado por Lord Byron. Es allí donde vive Claudio Cinti, editor amanuense de Sinopia, último de su especie en cuanto a mimo y buen gusto para con la poesía.

   

La salida del ghetto a Ormasini detiene al turísta en la primera línea de cafés, enotecas y trattorias que da la bienvenida a Cannaregio, a lo sumo con visita a la Iglesia de la Madonna dell Orto donde se enterró al pintor Jacobo Tintoretto, no lejos de su atelier tardo gótico, en la trasera Fondamenta dei Mori. Tres fondamentas más, paralelas a ella, ponen rumbo al costado septentrional de Venecia, entre conventos, cortiles no anunciados de artesanos, altanas de pintor y hangares. Nada, en fin, que llame bulliciosamente la atención, más allá de los bajorrelieves otomanos de Rioba, Sandy y Afani, mercaderes del Peloponeso que allí levantaron, en el año 1.112, el Palazzo Mastelli, con el hueco-grabado de un camello en su fachada. La convivencia artística del barrio transita con santo y seña de cena en party casero, salvo si se inaugura una mostra, por ejemplo, en el Spazio Artí dei Mori, donde la pintora japonesa Yasuosumi, epígono del movimiento Gutai, cede su galería a las iniciativas de la arquitecta Andreina Visconti y su Asociazione Fondamenta. El fotógrafo Francesco del Negro acaba de exponer en ella su proyecto Body Mount, el autor plástico Pietro Russo tiene su atelier en el propio Campo di Mori, para mayo el Festival Parole nel Mondo convoca allí poesía hispanohablante y, en septiembre, A Venecia se llamará el hotel artístico que el barrio necesita, para alojar a poetas como el albanés Gezim Hajdari, candidato al Nóbel, al surafricano Douglas R. Skinner, a Gintaras Grjauskas y Jakob Ziguras, que hace un año protagonizaron el recital In Croce de Civilitas, a iniciativa de la universidad Ca`Foscari.

   

A la lógica actividad bajo techo de las ciudades norteñas se suma, en Venecia, la mirada de reojo al visitante que la invade en masa, consume decadentismo y se marcha con souvenirs madeinChina. Cuesta penetrar en la camaradería cultural de Cannaregio. Pero, al lograrlo, se entiende la nueva cruzada histórica de Venecia en pos del turismo sostenible. El aprecio actual a Venecia no compra sólo reproduciones de Tiziano o Tintoretto, sino originales de sus artistas en activo, valorando su modusoperandi, su idiosincrasia cosmopolita.  Flavio sigue trabajando en una herrería, callejón de la Fundamenta Nova adentro, para dar soporte único al cristal de Murano, soplado ya industrialmente. Miño y Valeria sostienen la tradición local del mosaico y el artesonado. Hace lo propio Papussa Calegheri, en tanto Nicolao se dedica a la alta costura y la entente Giovi& Paolo, sin abandonar tal Fondamenta, restaura ebanisterías con paciencia de San José obrero. Así mismo vive en la parroquia la profesora Mª del Valle Ojeda, que junto a Susanna Regazzoni sostiene con tesón el aprendizaje universitario de letras hispánicas. La crisis halló a los activistas de Cannaregio sin más ostentación que el placer del trabajo vocacional y a mano. Igual que a Cristina Contini, conservadora del Museo Fortuny, cuando de vuelta al palacette familiar hunde sus dedos de escultora en el barro. A pie por el Ramo de los Mudos se accede a la residencia taller de Cristina... Sigilosa viene a ser hoy la escena artística de Venecia, que reciclaría cualquier meca demodé de las bellas artes. Mil años lleva Venecia de moda. Pasarán otros mil, acaso, para que suban al Parnaso sus creadores contemporáneos. Mientras, los cineastas Joachim Ronning y Espen Sandberg terminaron de rodar una nueva teleserie sobre Marco Polo, hijo predilecto del distrito, repoblando de vestuario medieval la Abazia. Su superproducción se puede ver on line.

CLAVES DEL CALLEJERO VENECIANO

Fundamentase denomina en Venecia a la acera paralela a un canal de agua. Sesitiereequivale a distrito. Corte y cortile viene a ser un patio abierto de vecindad. Campo y campiello, suertes de plazoleta. Por Sotoportegose entiende un pasaje o pasadizo techado de calle a calle. Y, al hablar propiamente de calle, en Venecia nos referimos a una estrecha calzada, que cambia de nombre tras el puente con que salva cuanto canal la atraviesa. Conviene saber, además, que en esta ciudad-laberinto no existe el concepto de “vuelta a la manzana”: muchas de sus vías terminan en el agua. Por otro lado, la numeración cardinal de las casas en sus calles, vías o stradasse remiten al orden cronológico con el que se levantaron en su distrito. Así las cosas, las viviendas de una calle con apenas cincuenta metros pueden llevar numeraciones hasta de cuatro cifras, caso de la que comienza llamándose Priuli cuando parte de la Strada Nuova que conduce sin cesar turistas de la estación de tren al Puente de Rialto y a San Marco. La calle Priuli se continúa por la Rachette, al salvar su primer puente, para acabar llamándose Santa Caterina, superado el segundo, que ya permite al transeunte asomarse a laguna abierta, en el costado norte de la ciudad.

 

 

LITERATURA Y CINE INTRAMUROS

 

 

Anna Lombardo y Giulia Grando, poetisa y psicoanlista, respectivamente, son las vecinas que gestionan, desde Canaregio, el Festival Internacional Parole nel Mondo, junto a Luzia Guidorizzi, Fabia Ghezovich y Cristina Faccanoni, entre otras plumas vernáculas, más las profesoras Sussana Regazzoni y María del Valle Ojeda en retaguardia. Marco Fazzini se llama el filólogo que lo pregona, desde su laboratorio TheArtsBox. Sebastiano Gatto, su traductor todoterreno. Su socióloga, Sussana Kuby. Y banda sonora al verso de Ezra Pound y Joseph Brodsky, enterrados venecianos de adopción frente a la Fondamenta Nove, la pone en la RAI el cannaregiano Marino Baratello, músico contemporáneo. El Bistrot Venice suele presentar la literatura encuadernada del distrito, en tanto la librería Aqua Alta acumula sus títulos en góndolas y bañeras, cara al público. Alex Mistrorigo, investigador de la universidad Ca`Foscari, la recopila en su web Phonodia.

 

 

Maurilio de Miguel es ensayista, novelista y poeta. En 2010 fijó su residencia en Venecia para trabajar en el comité artístico del “Festival Parola nel Mondo”.  Sus poemarios son, Geografías privadas del sueño (2003), Terrorista del silencio (2009), Baladas para ciudades perdidas (2013) y Poetry Vicenza (2015).

"Going Indian" in some ways

July 24, 2015, 11:00 pm

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Chicanos, puertoriqueños, domicanos, cubanoamericanos--many of us consider ourselves mestizos, part Native American, even when we aren't sure which tribe to trace our ancestry to.

My family history is filled with memories of Tarahumara, Yaqui and even Aztec ancestors, though I may never learn what's true.

Reclaiming and resurrecting our native heritage play a large role in the children's and Young Adult literature I write, however much my works are hodgepodges of native lore. I do this believing that the salvation of our species--not only our country--will can only come from reconnecting to past ways that respected many forms of life that are disrespected by modern society.

Here are a few news items that make me wish my mestizo half was more pronounced and ingrained. And evidence of why to go Indian.

A lifelike violent video game

"Ehdrigohr,designed over the course of several years by black, American Indian game designer Allen Turner, Ehdrigohrfilters Dungeons and Dragons-style roleplaying experiences through a distinctly Native cultural lens rather than a European one.

"There is violence and conflict in Ehdrigohr, but only in the sense that human beings are victims of a violent world. The game as a whole is far more focused on finding exciting challenges and hashing out interesting solutions, and there’s an inherent beauty in how people persevere peacefully in spite of the struggles they face.

"Later, the players face off against a Shiver, a shadowy monster that can't be killed by a sword. Instead of attacking their bodies, it attacks their minds, trying to capitalize on their insecurities and manipulate them into giving up. The mental strain takes its toll, but they are able to repel and destroy it through sheer strength of will. In over a decade of playing roleplaying games, I've never had an experience quite like that."

Sherman Alexie's Young Adult sci-fi novel

From NPR: "Call me Zits." It's not quite as memorable as call me Ishmael, but arresting nonetheless. The 15-year-old narrator of Sherman Alexie's novel, Flight, is half Native American, half Irish. He's never seen his father. His mother died when he was six, and he shuttled through dozens of neglectful and abusive foster homes.

"So Zits is a little, shall we say, angry. He finds himself in the middle of a bank, about to gun down random customers when he's transported through time and space before coming back as himself in the end."

Stephen Graham Jones. Because.

I recently received a copy of The Faster Redder Road by Stephen Graham Jones, of the Blackfeet tribe. On his website, he lists "15.5 novels, 6 story collections, 220-odd stories, 1 PhD, and way too many boots."

That's as intimidating to me as the 408 pages in this collection from UNM Press. I'm not done reading it, but I wish … the publishers had put out a two-volume edition instead of one. I wish … the type was bigger. I wish ... I could read faster. I wish … Jones wasn't so prolific, no, call it, fertile. The man's not Blackfeet, not human, he's a literary geyser.

From UNM:

"This collection showcases the best writings of Stephen Graham Jones, whose career is developing rapidly from the noir underground to the mainstream. The Faster Redder Road features excerpts from Jones’s novels—including The Last Final Girl, The Fast Red Road: A Plainsong, Not for Nothing, and The Gospel of Z—and short stories, some never before published in book form."

Reservation children stolen from their families

"This is probably one of the most depressingly heart-wrenching photos I've ever seen. Native American children taken from their families and put into school to assimilate them into white society. the slogan for this governmental campaign, 'kill the Indian to save the man'. No official apology has ever been issued." [from Sunny A Redcloud's FB page. 

Neo-Aztec cradle for new nieto

My word-working attempt of going Indian.

A driving joke, from the rez

A man and woman are driving on the same road. They pass each other.

The woman yells out the window, “Pig!”

The man yells at her, “Bitch!”

He rounds next curve.

Crashes into a huge pig in the middle of the road. And dies.

Thought for the day: If only men would listen....

by Elk Richardson

My favorite mestizos

My immediate family, who are unsure of their Indian roots.

Es todo, hoy,

RudyG, Chicano author Rudy Ch. Garcia, wondering which tribe(s) he's lost

Kikiricaja Unlocks Your Imaginación: Guest Post by David López

July 25, 2015, 11:00 pm

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I remember long summers and days after school as a kid when I would run outside to play. For me, playing was an exploration outside of my backyard walls through my own imagination. It was an adventure into the bushes only to enter into the selva, the gripping of a broom that suddenly transformed into a sword, or a hammock that was really a pirate ship on which I escaped countless attempts to throw me overboard and be eaten by vicious tiburones. I was invincible and there was no limit to what I could do…because I believed. The older I get, I realize that that creativity and imagination I had has essentially gone dormant and I have become more practical and my inner child locked up. But when you experience a moment so special that your imagination unlocks and you shrink down to that child-size you one more time, don’t let it get away. Grab it y déjate llevar.



Kikiricaja logo

Such is the epiphany one gets with the play Kikiricaja: Una historia de payasos, written by Miguel Ángel Garrido Ramón and produced by Tijuana’s alternative company Inmigrantes Teatro. Recently, Kikiricajacompleted its run as part of South Coast Repertory’s Studio SCR Series in Orange County, being the first all-Spanish production to be presented at the award-winning theater. Here is where I was fortunate enough to fall in love with this story, its characters and had a beautiful return to my niñez.

Directed by Raymundo Garduño, Kikiricaja is the story of friendship between two clowns, Bartolomeus y Comino, who live in boxes, but do not subject themselves to the restrictions or the definition of a box. As you are introduced to Bartolomeus, played by the talented Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, and Comino, portrayed by Ariadnalí de la Peña, you are immediately reminded of the comedic legends that have shaped the world through their disguises and payasadas. Greats like Cantinflas, Roberto Gómez Bolaños “Chespirito”, Lucille Ball, Cepillín, Charlie Chaplin, María Elena Velasco “La India María” have all paved the way, but herein is a cast of modern-day clowns that are classic in archetype but contemporary in how they touch your heart.

 

Foto courtesy of Inmigrantes Teatro, credit Alejandro Montalvo

 

The two payasosshare a love-hate relationship, always in direct competition with one another, trying to outdo and undo what the other has accomplished. Their boxes are their homes where they keep their most prized possessions, the objects that are part of them. To the common eye these cajas are just rundown crates, but with the help of their imagination, these boxes become larger-than-life interpretations of identity and how Bartolomeus and Comino truly see themselves as more.

Kikiricaja takes you into the world of a circus and through the ebb and flow of a ship imagined by the play’s characters. Humor mixes with pathos through the masterful interpretations that Rodríguez and de la Peña leave on the stage. Their physicality and ease in transforming themselves is what makes Kikiricaja a play that astounds even in the subtleties. It is reminiscent of childhood yet surpasses any expectation of clowning because the language resonates with Spanish speakers and the sounds of the accordion and drum are characters of their own in this production.

 

Foto courtesy of Inmigrantes Teatro, credit Alejandro Montalvo

 

Loyalty and friendship is challenged when in enters El Músico. Played by Andrés Franco, El Músico is the symbol of the tests of greed and envy that too commonly come between us as a society. He represents the decisions we make to lower others in the effort to get ahead. Franco delivers another hilarious role as El Músico making Kikiricaja a trifecta for storytelling with corazónand imagination.

This historia de payasos takes turns that tug at the heartstrings, but ultimately teach that no matter who you are, you must always think outside the cockadoodle-box and never be afraid to believe.

On July 31^st, Kikiricajawill celebrate its 150^th performance at Cecut, Tijuana, Baja California. Inmigrantes Teatro and Kikiricaja will continue traveling with the production in the next few months to locations like Portland, Mexico City and Argentina, mentioned Garduño, but they would love to continue presenting the play wherever there is an audience and ultimately would love to present the work in Europe.

 

Performing arts manifested in works like Kikiricaja are vital in the continued dialogue about cross-border, cross-cultural, cross-generational storytelling. So the next time you’ve forgotten what it was like to laugh honestly, close your eyes, open your mind and let your imagination soar. You’ll experience something truly fantastomático!

 

Foto courtesy of Inmigrantes Teatro, credit Alejandro Montalvo

 

For more information on Kikiricaja, visit: facebook.com/kikiricaja

Or if you’d like to bring Kikiricaja to your theater space, contact inmigrantesteatro@hotmail.com

David López is a writer and award-winning librarian from Santa Ana, CA. His work has appeared in the Orange County Register, Connotation Press, Brooklyn & Boyle, and his poetry will appear in a forthcoming anthology by Kórima Press.

Sunday, Sun Day, Day of the Sun in Kansas City & Los Ángeles

July 26, 2015, 11:30 pm

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Xánath Caraza

Kansas City Latino Writers Collective members: Jose Faus, Gustavo Adolfo Aybar, Xanath Caraza y Chato Villalobos

 

Hoy en La Bloga un paseo por Kansas City, MO y Los Ángeles, CA.  Kansas City siempre está llena de actividades literarias, culturales y/o de activismo social.  Este pasado fin de semana no fue la excepción.  Tuvimos desde presentaciones de libros, entrevistas y una presentadora de Honduras.  También, hoy en La Bloga, noticias sobre una antología recién publicada en Los Ángeles.

Miembro fundador del Latino Writers Collective, José Faus tuvo la presentación de su libro, This Town Like That (Spartan Press, 2015) en Kansas City. ¡Enhorabuena!

This Town Like That Poems by Jose Faus

 

José Fausis an artist and writer. He has exhibited extensively and been involved in a series of mural projects locally and abroad. He is a 2012 Rocket Grant recipient for the community project VOX NARRO. He is a co-founder of the Latino Writers Collective and president of the board of the Writers Place. He is the 2011 winner of Poets & Writers Maureen Egen Writers Exchange award and one of four recipients of the Gift of Faith Award by the Regional Evangelical Council of Churches. 

This Town Like Thatis his first book, Faus conjures up memories and reflections in a narrative meditation on a love affair with his adopted hometown of Kansas City

Sobre This Town Like That unas palabras por Gustavo Adolfo Aybar también del Latino Writers Collective.

Gustavo Adolfo Aybar

 

This Town Like That by José Faus (Spartan Press 2015)

"From the first poem in this pocket-sized collection to the last, I found myself not only entertained, but intrigued; curious about “this town” and wondering how with fifteen years in this city, does Faus introduce me to new aspects of it, as well as make me wish I too knew 39^th Street and Kansas City/the Midwest as well as he does. " G. A. Aybar

 

 

Desde Honduras Reyna Tejada fue invitada por Cross Border Network, Judy Ancel Presidenta y Melissa Archer, coordinadora de Kansas City para presentar la plática, The Hands that Sew your Clothes: Garment Workers in the Honduran Maquila en la galería Vulpes Bastille de la ciudad.  Varios miembros del Latino Writers Collective dieron la bienvenida a Reyna Tejada con una breve presentación de poesía.  A continuación unas fotos del evento.

Reyna Tejada and Judy Ancel

Chato Villalobos at Vulpes Bastille Gallery

 

Jose Faus

 

Xanath Caraza

 

Gustavo Adolfo Aybar

 

Reyna Tejada at Vulpes Bastille Gallery

 

Kansas City Latino Writers Collective members: J. Faus, Jan Rog, G. Aybar and Chato Villalobos

 

 

 

Desde Los Ángeles, California, Víctor Sotomayor, Editor, nos informa que la antología, No Se Habla Español ya está a la venta.  Aquí el enlace para su adquisición. 

Editor Victor Sotomayor

 

 

Para terminar quiero agradecer a la Dra. Villalobos de la University of Nevada at Reno por la entrevista sobre mi quehacer literario, la cual será publicada próximamente.  Muchas gracias, viva la poesía y la literatura.

 

Dra. Villalobos de la University of Nevada at Reno

 

 

Verdolagas for Gluten-free Dining • eAnaya.

July 27, 2015, 11:00 pm

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The Gluten-free Chicano Cooks

Verdolagas: Garden-fresh, Gluten-free. Con Carne de Puerco.

Michael Sedano

These verdolagas show tight buds, no yellow showing.

Verdolaga, less well-known as Purslane, is a wonderfully prolific plant that crops up where gardeners wet the surface of scarified tierra. Within a few days, tiny cotyledon leaves carpet the ground. They grow rapidly. The plants spread along the ground, creating shade mulch, but are water stealers, requiring frequent weeding.

Controlling the spread of verdolaga in the garden is relatively simple, eat it. 

That, or make sure to remove the plants before the flowers open. Flowers produce seedpods that explode, casting microscopic fertility into la tierra. The plant is the subject of an old Pedro Infante song:

Los amores más bonitos

son como la verdolaga

no más le pones tantito

y crecen como una plaga

Verdolagas are at their piquant, pliant, tender best when just budding, when yellow petals have yet to show at the tip. Even young flowers have crunchy tiny seeds that threaten a hapless diner with the uneasy sensation of biting into sand. 

Plague or plethora, Verdolaga cotyledons.

The backyard garden remains one of the few safe places to forage verdolaga. Gone are the orange groves where lush green rows of verdolagas thrived between endless rows of trees.

Orange picker families and other gente in-the-know would take grocery bags into a good grove and in a few minutes everyone in the car would have a big bag of nutritious forage and the prospect of a delicious dinner to culminate a great day.

Who knows what agribusiness sprays on the huertas and fields nowadays? I wouldn’t eat verdolagas from a commercial grove.

As it happens, growing your own backyard purselane is simple. It's probably already growing on your land. If not, it probably will.

Use a garden fork to aerate an area of the garden and rake it smooth. Water and keep moist. The seed is endemic in most yards, lying waiting to be exposed to light, air, and water. A few days wait produces the green and red carpet signalling a crop of verdolaga in-the-growing.

Controlling the spread of verdolaga in the garden is relatively simple, eat it. That, or make sure to remove the plants before the flowers open and grow seed.

Verdolaga grows in Echinopsis pot.

Harvesting verdolagas means choosing young growth and pulling up the whole plant and root system. Grab a big handful of plants where the stems grows from the ground. Pull straight up. Gently shake off the loose dirt and anything clinging to the root ball.

Put the verdolagas in the collecting bag. Don’t get dirt in the bag. 

Transfer the plants to a basin of water deep enough to cover the roots. Swish the dirt off the roots then wash the entire bundle in case someone got dirt in the bag. Don't get dirt in the bag.

Transfer the washed verdolagas to a colander or toalla to drain. Pinch off and discard the roots.

Pull the tender branches off the main stem. On longer branches, pinch off where stems branch into “y.”  Discard the main stems or save them for the chickens. 

Verdolagas Con Carne de Puerco

Prepped verdolaga.

Chopped onion and cloves of garlic and a small carrot

Cubed pork drenched in gluten-free flour and seasonings.

Yellow cheese – longhorn, cheddar

Tomato sauce

Water

Dice an onion.

Mince two cloves garlic.

Wilt in hot oil.

Add cubed, floured pork, brown and sear. Sprinkle with spices—salt, pepper, ground chile, comino.

Add verdolagas and combine. One handful of prepared leaves per serving, and one or two for the pot. Cover and store unused verdolaga.

Add a small can or two of tomato sauce and the rinse water from the cans.

Add an amount of cubed yellow cheese - longhorn, cheddar ¼ lb.

Bring to a boil over medium flame.

Cover, low simmer 20 to 30 minutes.

Remove from heat and prepare the tortillas and other dishes. This lets the sauce cool and thicken from the gf flour and cheese.

Verdolagas con carne de puerco  is a complete meal in itself, but tortillas de maíz and a side of refried beans have a way of rounding out a meal.


Digital Editions of Rudolfo Anaya Titles Recently Published

Open Road Media, a New York City-based publishing company, recently released the ebook editions of nine novels by La Bloga friend Rudolfo Anaya, including Alburquerque, the The Sonny Baca Novels, Serafina’s Stories, and more.

Those are stories that need reading even if the bookshelves leave little space for classics. Having an ebook reader is a way to travel with a library of well-deserved titles at the ready. The publisher writes: We are honored to bring Anaya's important work to digital audiences and new generations of readers. What's the e-equivalent of a page turner, a screen swiper?

European Union Visitors

Thank you for visiting La Bloga. In the European Union the masthead features a Google-provided template that brings La Bloga into compliance with EU laws regarding Cookies deposited on a reader's computer.

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Call Me Tree/ Llámame Árbol

July 28, 2015, 11:00 pm

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Written and illustrated by Maya Christina Gonzalez

Children's Book Press/Lee & Low Books

In this spare, lyrically written story, we join a child on a journey of self-discovery. Finding a way to grow from the inside out, just like a tree, the child develops as an individual comfortable in the natural world and in relationships with others. The child begins Within / The deep dark earth, like a seed, ready to grow and then dream and reach out to the world. Soon the child discovers birds and the sky and other children: Trees and trees / Just like me! Each is different too. The child embraces them all because All trees have roots/ All trees belong. Maya Christina Gonzalez once again combines her talents as an artist and a storyteller to craft a gentle, empowering story about belonging, connecting with nature, and becoming your fullest self. Young readers will be inspired to dream and reach, reach and dream . . . and to be as free and unique as trees.

What does it mean to be like a tree?

For one young child, it all begins

as a tiny seed

that is free to grow

and reach out to others

while standing strong and tall—

just like a tree in the natural world.

Maya Christina Gonzalez is a widely exhibited artist renowned for her vivid imagery of strong women and girls. She has illustrated nearly twenty children’s books, and her artwork has appeared on the cover of Contemporary Chicano/a Art. My Colors, My World was the first book Maya both wrote and illustrated. Books that Maya illustrated include Laughing Tomatoes, From the Bellybutton of the Moon, and Angels Ride Bikes. She lives and plays in San Francisco, California.

Maya Christina Gonzalez Reading Call Me Tree

New from Planeta: Las Impuras

July 29, 2015, 11:01 pm

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Carlos Wynter Melo

http://carloswynter.com

 

The main character of this story goes to the bus station every day searching for meaning in life. It is there where she unexpectedly meets a woman without a memory who asks her to construct a past for her.

Inevitably, for both of them, looking into the past means remembering the loss of a father, boyfriend and friends who were victims of the repression. The United States' invasion of Panama, the resistance and deaths have left their mark on recent history under circumstances where lies play an important role in survival. Reconstructing their memories becomes the only path to redemption.

Will they find meaning in life and discover and accept their true selves? Impure is the story of two women, but it is also the story of a country that, like them, must make peace with its past.

Editorial Planeta

ISBN: 9786070727740

Trade paper

152 pp.

Price: $10.95

Carlos Oriel Wynter Melo was born in Panama in 1971. In 2007 he was recognized as one of the most important young storytellers in Latin America during the Bogotá 39 event. In 2011 he participated in the Guadalajara International Book Fair as one of the Literary Secrets of Latin America. His stories have won him the National "José María Sánchez" Award (1998), third place in the National "Ignacio Valdés" Short Story Contest (2005) and an honorable mention for the Central American "Rogelio Sinán" Award (2010). Impure is his second novel.

Blue Moon Announcements

July 30, 2015, 11:00 pm

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Melinda Palacio

Tonight, expect a blue moon, a second full moon in the same month. The last blue moon was three years ago and the next one won't happen until 2018. Dip your feet into water and manifest your dreams and goals. My blue moon experience came earlier this week with an email solicitation from the Academy of American Poets. I was surprised to receive a request, asking if I had any unpublished poem, and on the same day, I received an acceptance. I'm calling the news, My Oscar Moment, since the Academy of American Poets will publish one of my poems in their online poem-a-day series in September. For me, this honor only happens once in a blue moon. I would thank the blue moon herself for seeing me standing alone without a dream in my heart. However,  I am not alone and I have plenty of dreams to spare. I certainly thank everyone at La Bloga. Speaking of blue moons, in a few days, I will have dinner with La Bloga's founder, Rudy. It seems as if it's been longer than a blue moon since I've seen Rudy. I will also meet my niece's baby and maybe a few other friends, certainly, my poetry pal Maria. Unfortunately, I will miss the other two Denver blogueros, Manuel y Lydia, who are traveling to places beyond Colorado. My summer travels will also include a train writing residency on Amtrak's Sunset Limited in a few weeks. What will your blue moon bring?

I will be back in California this time next week, just in time to participate in two readings.

August 8 in Ventura:

The Water and Stone ReadingSaturday, August 8 at 3pm in PDT, Art City Studios 197 Dubbers Ventura. La Bloga friend, Jessica Ceballos, will also be reading.

August 23 in Ojai:

The Ojai Art Center presents three Latino Poets: Angel Garcia, Melinda Palacio, and Emma Trelles, along with live music by Alas Latina (vocalist Claudia Simone and guitarist Don Cardinali), Sunday August 23 at 2pm, The Ojai Art Center 113 S. Montgomery Ojai-Literary Branch 805-816-4099.  Come for the poetry and music, stay for the food trucks.

In case you missed it...

A heartwarming story from my hometown, Huntington Park, by Vickie Vertiz for KCET departures. Read all about Chicas Rockers, the first-ever rock camp in HP for girls ages 8-17. 

Today – Speculative fiction authors & art

July 31, 2015, 11:00 pm

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Tejano David Bowles calls his work, "at the crossroads of myth and legend, genre and literature."Today he'll share some of it at Barnes & Noble Northcross in McAllen, Tex., from 2–3 pm. A reading from his YA fantasy novel, The Smoking Mirror, answering questions and signing books. He'll probably also talk about and share from his book, Border Lore: Folktales and Legends of South Texas.

  

Daniel José Older will be speaking, and reading from his Young Adult urban fantasy, Shadowshaper, at the Chilltown Lit Fest in Jersey City. 

Canadian-Chicana Silvia Moreno-Garcia, author of Signal to Noise, has a fantasy story called “To See Pedro Infante” that appears in Lightspeed Magazine, out today.

Lastly, award-winning artist John Picacio will be in Santa Fe later this month, offering prizes of his works, and a bit of gaming. Check it out.

Es todo, hoy, at least, that I know about.

RudyG, speculative fiction author Rudy Ch. Garcia

Testing Your Blood: The Importance and the Expense

August 2, 2015, 12:00 am

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Why read this post if you do not have diabetes, type 2?  Well, answer me this.  Do you know anyone with diabetes type 2?  (Click here for an explanation about diabetes type 1 and type 2.  For this post, I'm focusing solely on diabetes type 2.)  I’m guessing (especially if you are Chicana/Chicano or Latina/Latino) you will say “yes.”  You probably know a family member, a friend, a co-worker who has it. And if you have a child, know this statistic: 1 in three children born in the U.S. after the year 2000 will develop Diabetes.  Stay with me. 

Diabetes has become a widespread disease because it is exceedingly complex.  It touches all the multifarious and labyrinthine layers of our human body’s systems.  I’m talking about the cardiovascular, endocrine, respiratory, lymphatic, urinary, muscular, reproductive systems.  And because every body is unique (think fingerprint), the disease manifests itself differently in each individual.  That is why education is often lacking.  Doctors, nutritionists, diabetes cookbook authors, etc., tend to disseminate one solution to many without taking into account each person’s individual body and symptoms.  The impulse is to go for the simple, "one treatment for all" instead of taking the time to educate each patient toward a more complex and ongoing relationship with ones body, which is constantly in flux. 

So how can you truly get to know your body and/or individualize your diabetes management?  The answer lies with your blood.  Whether or not you have diabetes, your blood can tell you a lot about your health.  It can tell you if your blood glucose level is too high, too low, or stable.  It can tell you if your cardiovascular system is being compromised by plaque caused by an overabundance of glucose in the bloodstream.  You can truly become your own medical manager by becoming intimately connected with your blood.  But most people don’t know how much they can learn from a drop of blood.

Finger is pierced. A drop of blood placed on a glucose strip.  The meter then reads the glucose level.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve talked to people newly diagnosed with diabetes who say their doctor (1) told them they have diabetes and (2) prescribed a pill (most often metformin). I ask:  did your doctor tell you what your blood glucose was, or your A1C level?  Did they tell you what metformin does?  Most often they tell me “no” and that they don’t know what a normal glucose level is or what an A1C level is.  Then they tell me the doctor simply said to cut down on desserts. 

Today roughly 80% of individuals with diabetes are not managing the disease very well, and only 20% are successful at management.  What I mean by management is that the individual is able to keep track of her/his blood glucose levels and the individual is able to self-monitor and understands what to do when blood glucose levels are too high or too low.  Often, individuals are popping a pill or injecting insulin and continuing to eat whatever they want because they haven’t received education about carbohydrates, fiber, about how foods with a high glycemic load affect glucose levels (it's not about desserts). Exercise is crucial in managing this disease but the kind of lifestyle the average person in the United States leads does not often include exercise—especially for those individuals who are working long hours, who are living in areas where walking outside is too dangerous, whose family commitments are daunting.  Individuals with diabetes can be too busy placing other family members’ needs first before their own. 

Successfully managing diabetes demands shifting priorities, redirecting commitments and, unfortunately, management of the disease demands money.  Those who are working class or poor have much less means to manage this disease. If blood monitoring could become more affordable, if diabetes education were focused on empowering the individual to understand her/his own body, I believe the percentage of those successfully managing the disease (20%) would increase. 

The key, as I’ve said, is getting to know your blood and there are tools to do that. Here’s a quick lesson:

Glucose Meters

1.     Glucose meter:  not too expensive and sometimes they can be purchased with a discount.  They range from $5 to $30 (sometimes more).  The meter will come with a lancet device and lancets which pierce the skin (usually piercing ones’ finger) to draw blood.

Glucose strips

2.     Strips:  Here’s where it gets expensive. You place the strip into the meter.  After piercing your finger, the blood (just a drop) is placed on the end of the strip (see picture). 

Placing blood on the strip

The strip is designed (with enzymes) to react to blood chemically and transform it into electricity.  The meter will pick up the electrochemical signal translating the concentration of glucose into a number which appears on the meter. Because of the science behind the manufacturing the strip. pharmaceutical companies hike up the price of each strip.

50 Strips come in one container (over $1.00 a strip)

In her article, “Anatomy of a Test Strip,” Dr. Erika Gebel, writes, “Little test strips are big business.  At Roche’s plant in Indianapolis, giant machines work around the clock to turn out test strips, a projected 4.2 billion in 2012 alone.  And that’s just one manufacturer.”  At a little more than $1.00 per strip (that’s without insurance), one container of 50 strips is in the $60 range.  And if you are testing more than once a day, the monetary hit can be painful. This is one major reason why individuals with diabetes stop testing their blood.  Here are other reasons: (1) some strips are not as accurate as others and it can be frustrating; (2) it can be difficult to get used to piercing one's finger but lancets are getting more sophisticated and less painful. The Genteel Lancet is the latest proven easy-to-use and painless device.  It really does work, but it's not inexpensive. Here's an article about the Genteel Lancet (click here).  

An article by Amy Tenderich (published in 2007) explained that test strips actually cost 8 to 12 cents to manufacture.  Manufacturers make between 60-80% profit on strips.  Illness in the U.S. is high profit for pharmaceutical companies.  Have you ever noticed how many commercials you see on TV that have to do with pharmaceutical drugs?  Check next time.  Billboards, magazine/newspaper ads, online ads--most often are from pharmaceutical companies.  And many of them have their own glucose strips to sell.  Do you ever see any ads about educating people to get to know their bodies, to understand how food and exercise actually works to heal the body, to keep the body healthy? There has to be a way to stop sacrificing the lives of so many people in exchange for profits.  If we work toward having every individual (whether they have been diagnosed or not) learn how to become intimately connected with their own blood and body systems, I'm convinced we can prevent or help individuals with diabetes successfully manage the disease.  Our lives depend on it. 

For other posts I've written or interviews I've conducted, see below:
1. Why Diabetes is not like any other Disease
2. Talking to Young Chicanas & Chicanos/Latinas & Latinos about Diabetes
3. Diabetes on Madison Avenue
4.  Creating Art from Diabetes
5. The Body with Diabetes:  Interview with Christina Elizabeth Rodriguez

Sending all of you strong healing and positive energies!  Abrazos!