Melinda Palacio
La Bloga represents at the
International Latino Studies Conference in Chicago this week. Since my plans to join La Bloga's panel and reunion were squashed by my broken leg, Amelia asked me to write a short statement, one paragraph, she could read as mediator of our panel. My short statement turned into a long letter, which I decided to post today. Everyone may read my contribution to La Bloga's panel, even if you are missing out on the conference.
July 18, 2014
First, I'd like to thank Dr. Amelia Montes and my fellow members of La Bloga for this opportunity. This conference, celebrating the past, present, and future of Latino Studies is very important. Had I not broken my leg, I would certainly be amongst you. I was looking forward to connecting with academics from my past and those who have recently hosted me in my present role as author, poet and speaker. Furthermore, in my role as teacher, I've had the privilege to teach Fiction through the
online MFA program of theUniversity of Arkansas at Monticello. In my role as author, my novel, Ocotillo Dreams, has been included in a scholarly book by Dr. Cristina Herrera,
Contemporary Chicana Literature: (Re) Writing theMaternal Script (Cambria Press 2014).
Today, I am honored to discuss my work as a team member of La Bloga. I often cover the writing life. For this year's conference, I chose to present a past blog post from 2010 that documents my process as a "
low-tech writer."
Even though we, at La Bloga, take advantage of high-tech tools, such as our online web log or La Bloga you are used to reading everyday, some, such as myself, first sit down with pen and paper and draft what will become a dynamic non-fiction article or personal account, complete with links and photos for the world wide web archives. Writing for La Bloga has made keeping up my author website rather easy. I often add photos, events, and blog entries after they have been up on la bloga. In other words, I steal from myself. This open letter to the conference will be up on La Bloga today and later next week, on my author website. All of our La Bloga posts remain in the web archives for future perusal by our readers and study by professionals in the fields related to Chicano and Latino Studies.
In documenting the writing life, I also feature other writers in forms of interviews, Q&As, and guest columns so that my blog posts represent a larger, mostly Latino, but global (or world wide) writing community. However, sometimes, I simply document events from my life, such as taking a stroll through Audubon Park in New Orleans, where I live part-time, or the events of my broken leg and subsequent operation (
see my blog post from July 4). Today, if you didn't hear all of this letter, you can read it on La Bloga.
Gracias! I hope to see everyone next time. If you have specific questions for me that this open letter does not answer or if you wish to invite me to speak to your students, please email me at
[email protected]. You can also find me on twitter at
LaMelinda or on
Facebook or on my
website.
Thank you, again,
Melinda Palacio
by Rudy Ch. Garcia
I followed Ramos' advice from yesterday: "Let it all go. Sit back. Allow your mind to drift. Enjoy the slow passing of time. Breathe deeply. Follow the breath with your mind through your lungs, heart, gut. Chase it from your body, slowly. To help with the contemplation." Below is what resulted. Ergo, blame him, not me.
It's the end of 2012 and apparently not of the world. The clowns and uneducated "scholars" who used Nostradamus or the Maya calendar to misinterpret "el fin del mundo" scored a zero. Federal and financial-world "experts" predicting where the economic, so-called recovery is headed act like tea leaves and entrails hold the truth. And the needle gauging your retirement portfolio's prospects acts like you're running toward and then away from the Fukushima power plant. So what?
So, as my last post for 2012, I'll throw in my dos centavos and ten predictions of what the future holds, at least for La Bloga. I won't consult my deceased bruja abuela about what ths, since it doesn't work for others less wise than me. But I'll go for a more positive take and list what I, and possibly others, would like to see happen. To keep one foot in reality, I'll also acknowledge what may not develop as positively.
Uno. The first wide-screen film of Rudy Anaya's Bless Me, Última will win at least one Academy Award. AridZona Sheriff Arpaio will have his militia raid the Phoenix premier showing, arrest half the audience and provide U.S. born, Spanish speakers with vacations, south of the border. Obama will miss the premier.
Dos. Bloguero Manuel Ramos' next novel, Desperado: A Mile High Noir, will receive critical acclaim and garner more female followers than any latino since Pancho Villa.
Sheriff Arpaio will try to have it banned, but given his I.Q., will get confused and wind up banning the Roberto Rodriguez movie, instead. Obama will watch that movie.
Tres. My first novel, the break-through Chicano fantasy, The Closet of Discarded Dreams, will win two 2012 awards.
Following that, critics will brand it as "literarily deficient" and Sheriff Arpaio will have it banned in AridZona. Out of curiosity, readers will make it a belated best-seller. Obama will try reading the first chapter.
Cuatro. Sci-fi bloguero Ernest Hogan and vampiristo novelist Mario Acevedo will co-author the first gay-vampire space-opera, featuring aliens who look like celery stalks.
With its bisexual antagonist, Constable Apio, it will win no awards, but will produce several writing clubs devoted to obscure chicanada humor.
Sheriff Arpaio will take personal offense, and be arrested for shoplifting hundreds of WalMart copies for his book burnings. Obama will watch the YouTube trailer of that.
It will receive a XXXX-rating, and the royalties will allow the authors to hire publicists, secretaries, and hunky, personal-massage therapists.
They will establish a literary commune in the Taos Mts. where Sheriff Arpaio will be arrested on the grounds as a peeping Tom and stalker. Obama will give him a pardon.
Seis. Bloguero René Colato Laínez's fame in children's literature will lead to his being declared school-board Emperor of the LAISD, where he will institute massive reforms outlawing standardized tests and empowering teachers' unions.
L.A. will surpass China and India's academic standards, resulting in the adoption of thousands of latino orphans who relocate to Asia. Colato will use his book royalties to establish a psychiatric clinic for impeached sheriffs, and Obama will donate two cents to its funding.
Siete. Bloguero Dan Olivas will retire from the law profession and become a full-time writer. He'll readopt a dream he relegated to Garcia's Closet-of-Discarded-Dreams world and be nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature. Sheriff Apaio will put out a wanted-poster on Olivas, and Obama will send him a letter of support, promising to read something Olivas wrote.
Ocho. Bloguero Michael Sedano will open a chicken stud-farm and devote his acumen to producing his first book. It will win more awards than any other bloguero.
He will belatedly enjoy belated acclaim at the side of Tezcatlipoca, who will give it his five-demons endorsement. The god's night-soil collector, Sheriff Arpaio, will spill a bucket upon hearing this and be banished to gringo Hades to smoke cigarettes with Obama.
Nueve. Rudy Ch. Garcia's second novel, the dark YA prequel to The Closet of Discarded Dreams will incite a bidding war between corporate publishers, but the author will instead opt for a latino-friendly mid-list publisher.
It will win the 2013 Newbery Award, and every Anglo child in AridZona will keep it by their bedside. This will inflict Sheriff Arpaio with apoplexy, and Obama will text him his condolences.
Diez. Lastly, the Chicano literary website La Blogawill win no awards, but it will expand to a 12-day week to accommodate more authors to its ranks. It will adopt a logo depicting an AridZona sheriff and a dark U.S. President engaged in some disreputable coupling. La Bloga will be sued by the U.S. gov't and its $40 of assets will be seized. Los blogueros and the blogueras too will go underground to continue publication. Sheriff Arpaio will never locate them. Obama won't bother looking.
Merry, and happy, and feliz and próspero to my colleagues who work to make me more literary than I am. And to La Bloga's readers, our dear, tolerant supporters.
by RudyG, aka author Rudy Ch. Garcia of the upcoming 2013 YA prequel to The Closet of Discarded Dreams that everyone prays will be funnier than his posts.
Funny, funny, funny, Rudy (except the Obama lines; I support him). Looking forward to your 2013 blogs. Adelante!
Thelma et al, I voted for him, again.
When he does anything good, we should support him. But we shouldn't wait four years to make him do plenty of good things.
Gracias por tus palabras,
RudyG
la chickenada cackled at the remarks about stud-farm, "we don't need roosters!" then they grin wide through open lips. one of my books is forthcoming, how'd you know? obama called and asked if i wanted to re-enlist. i gave him your name.
I have based a character on Sheriff Joe. And thanks for reminding me, I need to let make it clear that the black president in SMOKING MIRROR BLUES is not based on Obama.
Verdad, Rudy, verdad. But let's not forget that he still has all those Republicanos that filibustered almost 400 times (way above the nation's historical record)and who intend to continue, and all those Tea Partiers who still act as if Romney/Ryan won the election. The stonewalling will continue, but we the people have to have his back and keep putting pressure on los GOP to do the people's will, not their own. Anyway, just a little bit of politics here, but your writing and the success of La Bloga are much more important than what happens politically. Adelante, y muy feliz Ano Nuevo!