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From Our Friends at The Border Book Festival

Dear BBF Friends,

Raul Salinas, known as raulsalinas, that great human being, transformed by
life and fire, has died.  Raul was a featured poet at the Border Book
Festival in 2000.  It was a memorable performance as Raul danced, sang and
gyrated through the power of his words his English, Spanish and Xicanindio.

His life was hard, yes, as he was incarcerated for many years in U.S.
prisons, but those who knew and loved him saw his transformation into a
light indescribable--beatific, really.  We celebrate his great beauty and
his gifts of spirit and words.

We will display his portrait taken by Daniel Zolinsky starting this
Saturday, February 16 at 7:00 p.m. at a reception at the Cultural Center de
Mesilla for The Love of Arts Month.  The evening will feature the portraits
of 14 BBF Artists taken by Zolinsky.

In addition, we will offer a program of poetry by Multilingual poets of the
Ages with readings in English, French, Spanish, Urdu and Bengali by featured
readers: Dr. Richard Rundell, Dr. Jan Hampton, Jorge Robles, Denise Chavez,
Sudeshna Sengupta and Ayesha Farfaraz.  Musicians Bugs Salcido on guitar and
Debarshi Roy on sitar will also join us.

Please join us as Raul has made his way to the Ancestors.

This message comes to us from our friends in San Antonio:

"Words, sounds, speech, men, memory, thought, fears and emotions, - time -
all related...all made from one..all made in one" - John Coltrane

Elder statesmen, Xicanindio leader, poet of the people, giver of hope to the
oppressed and incarcerated, Raul Salinas passed away last night in Austin,
Tejaztlan.

Raul will be greatly missed. His work, poetry, and philosophy will live on
in the good works of poets, artists, musicians and cultural centros
throughout America. His spirit we lead us all and help us to survive and
thrive in difficult times.

His words/poems should serve as maps for us all in our quest to keep
culture, heritage and tradition alive in our barrios, cul de sacs, suburbs,
ranchos...wherever you/we live.

Thank you, Raul. You have blessed us all.

Manuel Diosdado Castillo, Jr.
San Anto Cultural Arts

A BIO OF RAUL SALINAS

Raúl Roy “Tapon” Salinas was born in San Antonio, Texas on March 17,
1934. He was raised in Austin, Texas from 1936 to 1956, when he moved to Los
Angeles. In 1957 he was sentenced to prison in Soleded State Prison in
California. Over the span of the next 15 years, Salinas spent 11 years
behind the walls of state and federal penitentiaries. It was during his
incarceration in some of the nation’s most brutal prison systems, that
Salinas’ social and political consciousness were intensified, and so it is
with keen insight into the subhuman conditions of prisons and an inhuman
world that the pinto aesthetics that inform his poetry were formulated.

His prison years were prolific ones, including creative, political, and
legal writings, as well as an abundance of correspondence. In 1963, while in
Huntsville, he began writing a jazz column entitled “The Quarter Note”
which ran consistently for 1-1/2 years. In Leavenworth he played a key role
in founding and producing two important prison journals, Aztlán de
Leavenworth and New Era Prison Magazine, through which his poetry first
circulated and gained recognition within and outside of the walls. As a
spokesperson, ideologue, educator, and jailhouse lawyer of the Prisoner
Rights Movement, Salinas also became an internationalist who saw the
necessity of making alliances with others. This vision continues to inform
his political and poetic practice. Initially published in the inaugural
issue of Aztlán de Leavernworth, “Trip through a Mind Jail” (1970)
became the title piece for a book of poetry published by Editorial Pocho-Che
in 1980.

With the assistance of several professors and students at the University of
Washington - Seattle, Salinas gained early release from Marion Federal
Penitentiary in 1972. As a student at the University of Washington, Salinas
was involved with community empowerment projects and began making alliances
with Native American groups in the Northwest, a relationship that was to
intensify over the next 15 years. Although Salinas writes of his experiences
as a participant in the Native American Movement, it is a dimension of his
life that has received scant attention. In the 22 years since his release
from Marion, Salinas’ involvement with various political movements has
earned him an international reputation as an eloquent spokesperson for
justice. Along the way he has continued to refine and produce his unique
blend of poetry and politics.

Salinas’ literary reputation in Austin earned him recognition as the poet
laureate of the East Side and the title of “maestro” from emerging poets
who seek his advice and a mentor. While his literary work is probably most
widely known for his street aesthetics and sensibility, which document the
interactions, hardships, and intra- and intercultural strife of barrio life
and prison in vernacular, bilingual language, few people have examined the
influence of Jazz in his obra that make him part of the Beat Generation of
poets, musicians, and songwriters. His poetry collections included
dedications, references, and responses to Alan Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac,
Charles Bukowski, Charlie Parker, Herschel Evans, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles
Davis, for example. Academics have primarily classified Salinas as an
important formative poet of the Chicano Movement; yet, while he may have
received initial wide-scale recognition during the era, it would be unfair
to limit a reading of his style, content, and literary influence to the
Movement.

There were many dimensions to Salinas’ literary and political life.
Though, at times, some are perplexed at the multiple foci of Salinas’
life, the different strands of his life perhaps best exemplify what it means
to be mestizo, in a society whose official national culture suppresses
difference: his life’s work is testimony to the uneasy, sometimes violent,
sometimes blessed synthesis of Indigenous, Mexican, African, and
Euro-American cultures. Salinas currently resides in Austin, Texas, were he
is the proprietor of Resistencia Bookstore and Red Salmon Press, located in
South Austin. Arte Público Press reissued Salinas’ classic poetry
collection, Un Trip through the Mind Jail y otras Excursiones (1999), as
part of its Pioneers of Modern U.S. Hispanic Literature Series. He is also
the author of another collection of poetry, East of the Freeway: Reflections
de Mi Pueblo (1994).

Salinas resided in Austin, Texas, were he was the proprietor of Resistencia
Bookstore and Red Salmon Press, located in South Austin. Arte Público Press
reissued Salinas’ classic poetry collection, Un Trip through the Mind Jail
y otras Excursiones (1999), as part of its Pioneers of Modern U.S. Hispanic
Literature Series. He is also the author of another collection of poetry,
East of the Freeway: Reflections de Mi Pueblo (1994).


En paz descanse.  May he rest in peace.

Lisa Alvarado

I recently posted an article about a piece of speculative fiction, Solstice. It's a novel that's sharp-edged, haunting and has some kick ass-heroines. The following is a conversation with
Ulises Silva, its author, and the founder of an independent press, Tragical Mirth Publishing.

(If you missed my piece, you can read it here.)


1. Tell me about the genesis of Tragical Mirth Publishing. Do you see yourself as a niche publisher? If so, what do you feel are the strengths of that? The downside?

Tragical Mirth Publishing is the independent publishing house I established in order to self-publish Solstice in 2007. I took the dreaded self-publishing route primarily for creative control.

After all, one of the earlier comments I got on an earlier draft of Solstice was that the characters’ names (i.e., Itztli, Jai Lin) were too difficult and different for most audiences, and that I should change them. I think that’s what I feared the most about going through a traditional publisher—that they’d want to change the characters’ ethnicities and names in order to make them more commercially appealing. That would have defeated the purpose of writing this story. So I took the chance and created Tragical Mirth to self-publish, and it’s a gamble that’s surprisingly paid off. Despite it being a self-published book, Solstice received positive reviews in Booklist, Library Journal, SciFiNow magazine, and now here at La Bloga. I see TMP as a niche publisher in the sense that I want to focus on giving authors of color an entry into the crowded literary marketplace. While I’mnot yet ready to publish other writers, I do hope to eventually start working with authors of color and let them tell the stories they want to tell.

I want them to see TMP as an alternative to the big publishers that seem naturally inclined toward labeling anything written by us as Urban Fiction or what have you. I think that focus on letting writers of colors tell the kinds of stories they want to tell is our greatest strength. Hopefully, down the line, TMP will be a very viable publisher with a full roster of good and promising writers of color. The downside, of course, is that TMP is an independent publisher, and not currently set up to publish anything. And, assuming I can ever get to the point where I can publish other people’s works, writers will still need to temper their expectations. I doubt we’ll ever be about giving someone a $10,000 advance and promise to get their book into every top review magazine and best-selling list. But if a writer is willing to work with us and be willing to take some of the risks with us, then hopefully we can accomplish something special. And considering the unexpected success of Solstice, I truly believe we can achieve anything.

2. Your novel is a piece of speculative fiction. How does that sync up with popular ideas of 'Latino/Chicano' fiction?

A lot of ‘Latino/Chicano’ fiction is based on telling stories from our historically marginalized point of view. We tell stories that, while familiar to Latinos, might seem alien to most everyone else. They’re stories about growing up as hyphenated Americans, about Latino/Chicano political activism, about all our experiences on the fringes of mainstream American consciousness.

They’re about telling the stories no one else can or cares to tell. Solstice, although grounded in speculative fiction, is deeply influenced by this aspect of Latino/Chicano writing. The notion that Scribes can use the English written word to literally manipulate reality is based on my belief that mainstream media has the power to invent our reality and historical awareness (or, in some cases, efface it altogether).

So it’s no coincidence that the Editors tasked with watching over these Scribes are all people of color, people who operate in the shadows and whose native languages serve as a defense against Scribes. Solstice’s protagonist, Io, is a Mexican-Japanese anti-heroine. She’s the best of The Editors, but she moonlights as a vigilante, and her mantra is that only cruelty can destroy cruelty.

But she’s haunted by the loss in her life, including the loss of her parents and her own normalcy. She carries a reminder of this loss with her—a copy of Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street given to her by her mother as a reminder of “where she came from.” Although her character is adrift at the start of the story—caught between two distinct ethnic identities, occupying the fringes of common law, trapped in the purgatory that is her own aimless vigilantism—it’s her mother’s book that keeps her oriented, even if she doesn’t know it.

And, of course, there’s Nadie, the novel’s antagonist. She’s the Scribe who decides that humanity is irreparably corrupt and destructive and must therefore be exterminated. But she wants the world to know why it’s being destroyed, which is why she sets out to tell a story—in her own unique way—that recounts history’s many unpunished crimes, including the horrors of colonialism. It’s one of the book’s ironies that this young girl whose name means "no one" is the one who brings these crimes to light and issues her final judgment.

3. In Solstice, you create a world similar to Dick's Blade Runner. Talk about that as a landscape for your characters, and the decision to pit Scribes and Editors against each other as the central theme.

The story is set in an alternate near future where the U.S.’ power and influence have eroded following three catastrophic military ventures (there are vague references throughout to Iraq, Iran, and Taiwan). I wanted the story’s landscape to present an uncanny glimpse into a foreseeable future, where government corruption has gone unchecked thanks to stolen elections, interest groups, and widespread apathy. Part of this landscape, of course, are Scribes, people with the power to make whatever story they write come true. Scribes are meant to reflect the notion that the written word, in the hands of certain people, can create reality. We see it in history books, of course. How many of us have heard that it was Mexico that provoked the war of 1846 -- a war Americans call the Mexican War and that Mexicans call La Invasion Norteamericana?

But consider this also: If we think on the ways mainstream media helped the current administration launch its wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and how they invented for all of us the reality of Iraq’s nuclear stockpiles and willingness to use them against us, then we can see that the written word really does have power. It’s no coincidence that I make references throughout to a Scribe named Don Poinsettia, a Scribe Io takes down with the help of a Chinese Scribe, Xiu Mei Xiang. Poinsettia is a Murdoch/Rove figure who’s used his powers and his MIX media empire for personal gain.

The suggestion is that he single-handedly brought about the U.S.’ downfall. I actually plan a prequel to Solstice that will focus on him and Io’s attempt to hunt him down. She’s the top Editor, after all. Editors are, in essence, a representation of post-colonial theory. So much of what Latinos and other writers of color do is write the stories that colonial and mainstream texts have skipped or effaced. I wanted the Editors—all people of color whose native languages serve as a defense against a Scribe’s powers—to represent that ongoing struggle.

4. Solstice is populated by strong female characters, outside the 'norm.' Can you share what motivated you and what you hope you engender in the reader with that choice?

It really began with my mother, a strong Mexican woman who never backs down from any fight, and who always taught me to respect women’s rights and equalities.

From a very early age, she let me see the inherent ludicrousness of the machismo that was (and perhaps still is) rampant in Mexico and Latin America. I remember seeing Aliens for the first time, and seeing the Ripley and Vazquez characters in action, and being totally awestruck by them.

I think that was the first time that I saw a female character that kicked butt with the best male characters, and the first time I started to ask myself why we didn’t see more characters like them in movies. We’ve all seen male action heroes, but not nearly enough female ones, at least not many that weren’t just Barbies with guns (e.g., Lara Croft). I’ve always believed that, as a writer, you should embrace the control the written word offers you. As writers, we can tell whatever stories we want with whatever characters we want. That’s why, when it came time to start writing my stories, I always featured a strong female lead, because those were the kinds that I always appreciated the most.

With Solstice, I saw an opportunity to create Io, a heroine who’s very strong, very independent, and not just a sexualized, hot-blooded LatinAsian woman bowing down to stereotypes. I wanted her to have real layers, real depth, and real flaws. And despite her troubled beginning (she really is a monster at first), I wanted readers to sympathize with her plight, and appreciate her eventual redemption. Maybe more importantly, I wanted people to read her and the rest of the characters, and say to themselves, “why aren’t there more characters like these in books and film?” I wanted to give Latino/a and Asian audiences a set of strong central characters they could appreciate and even embrace. And I wanted to show other audiences that a Latina/Asian woman could have other roles than the ones people are used to seeing them in.

5. What are the themes you find yourself returning to? What's their significance personally and creatively.

Creatively, I’m fascinated with end-of-the-world scenarios, maybe too much for my own good. I guess, growing up in the 80s and thinking that the Emergency Broadcast Network was going to come on at any moment, I thought the end of the world could really happen. So I migrated to these kinds of stories. I was always fascinated with the human response to apocalypse, and especially how the media would react and spin stories if an end-of-the-world scenario began to unfold. That’s why there are many instances in Solstice where Io and her companions are listening to the radio or watching TV; they’re forced to watch the horrors of Nadie’s actions through the filters of network news and talk shows. Personally, I’m just as adamant about writing stories featuring people that look and act like us. Growing up, I didn’t see a whole lot of Latino/a protagonists that were strong or three-dimensional or even law-abiding.

So it’s important to me, as a Latino writer, to create characters we can relate to. Because I genuinely feel that our people, especially our younger audiences, still don’t have a whole lot of positive portrayals in mainstream media to inspire them. There aren’t enough characters like us out there that make us think we can be heroes or awe-inspiring or even strong. I’m just one person, but I make it a point to always feature strong, central Latino/a characters in all my fiction. With Solstice, it’s Io.

With my next novel, Inventing Vazquez, it’s a Chicana named Liliana Vazquez. With my next speculative fiction novel, The Mourning Syndrome, it’ll be a Chicana writer named Clara Solis. That will always be my goal: to have real characters that we, as Latino/as, can readily identify with, and maybe even be inspired by.

6. Share with Bloga readers where you hope to take them with Inventing Vazquez.

From the writer that brought you Solstice, a dark, apocalyptic novel, comes…a light-hearted comedic satire. That’s going to be a nightmare to try and market, but… In any event, Inventing Vazquez is my new novel (with a release date sometime late 2008 or early 2009) that takes
on an issue very important to me: the (mis)portrayal of Latino/as in American cinema. Like I said before, I don’t think our people have a lot of positive examples to look up to in film. Most of the time, we’re portrayed as gang members, or domestic servants, or crime victims. And even when films do cast Latino/as, half the time they play non-Latino roles. It’s like America Ferrerra said in Ugly Betty: "Mexicans don’t have action heroes. All we have is a fast little rodent."

So Inventing Vazquez is my little critique of the whole industry. (As an aside, even the title of the book is in reference to the Vazquez character from Aliens. Yes, the same one I mentioned earlier. I eventually learned that the actress wasn’t even Latina; it was a non-Latina actress with brown contact lenses, bronzed skin, and a fake accent. I was so discouraged, because for so long, I’d really liked that character and what I thought she represented.)

The story centers around Liliana Vazquez, a mousy Chicana who’s hired by a major film studio to serve as a “Hispanic Sensitivity Issues Consultant” following the widespread outrage among Latino/as over a recent film. She’s hired to read scripts and alert the studio if she thinks it’s going to offend Latino/a viewers, but she comes to realize that the position is a token one. She, like the Asian Sensitivity Issues Consultant and the Arab Sensitivity Issues Consultant (a Sikh man), is just a PR gimmick.

And although she starts off as soft-spoken and mousy (she’s ashamed of her voice because it’s so girly despite her being 29), she has to find her voice—literally and figuratively. The story is about her finding a way to make her voice heard among people who don’t want to hear it. It’s a comedic satire, so I hope to make audiences laugh. But I also hope to get people to think about the issues I raise. Because although the films mentioned in the book are loosely based on real-life films (e.g., “Empire of Blood” instead of “Apocalypto”), some of them should resonate with the audience (i.e., “yeah, I can see them making a movie like that”) despite being so off-the-wall silly (like one film, “Latin Lover,” about a guy that gets women to fall for him when he bites into a magical habañero pepper).

7. Where would you like to see Tragical Mirth in ten years? Where would you like to see yourself?

Ideally, I’d like Tragical Mirth Publishing to have a full roster of writers of color, and a full line of good books that tell good stories about us. And I’d like to be able to work with writers, and give them the kind of encouragement and feedback they’ll need to keep writing. Because I genuinely believe that people of color, especially Latino/as, need to write more, and we need to start creating the kinds of stories and characters that mainstream media won’t. So hopefully, with enough lucky bounces and maybe some more commercial success with Solstice and my future novels, I can work toward this.

As for myself, writing is what I love, so I plan to keep writing. I always said that to simply publish Solstice and present it to my family as mygift to them (because nothing says “I love you, mom, dad, and brother” like a novel about the end of the world) was my only goal; anything after that would be gravy. So I’m just enjoying the ride, and embracing the joy that is writing fiction. Hopefully, in 10 years, I will have published a few more: Inventing Vazquez, The Mourning Syndrome, a sequel to Solstice, and maybe one or two more. And I genuinely hope that, by then, the kinds of characters I like to feature won’t be ‘outside the norm’ anymore.

8. Tell us something not in the official bio.

Some things that may or may not be true about me:

• I stay up until 2 a.m. every night writing, drawing, or watching horror films. This despite the fact that I have to be at work at 8:30 a.m. I started my writing ‘career’ in earnest with an Anime fanfic entitled, Nightmares in the Apocalypse, which was so horrid and badly written but nonetheless made me somewhat popular among a small group of teenage readers.
• I can make a mean guacamole.
• I write music on the side, and play bass guitar, electric guitar, and drums. All at once. Really.
• I’ve been in a punk band, am currently in a blues band, and am now trying to form an indie rock band.
• I draw pictures of my main characters to get a sense of who they are and what they look like. And all these pictures are done in Anime style.
• I don’t do windows.
• Having grown up in NYC, I naturally root for the Detroit Tigers, the Arizona Cardinals, the Miami Dolphins, and the Buffalo Sabres.
• I hate powdered laundry detergent.
• Having grown up in NYC, the city I most want to live in is San Francisco, or Chicago, or Toronto. Which is why I’m in Michigan.
• Being Mexican-American, naturally, my favorite kind of music is indie rock and Japanese rock.
• I was actually a terrible grad student, probably because I spent all my time writing instead of studying.
• Being Mexican-American, my favorite film of all time, naturally, is Lost in Translation.

Ulises Silva is an emerging Latino author whose fusion of academia, mainstream influences, and vivid storytelling present a fresh entry and perspective into the genre of speculative fiction.

A graduate of the University of Michigan, Silva’s dissertation work focused on science fiction and its retelling of American colonialism, including the westward expansion and its war against Native America. In particular, Silva studied the ways in which mainstream science fiction re-imagined American history by inverting historical roles and political ideals—retelling the story of exploration and expansion as an inherently benevolent venture.

As a fan and student of science/speculative fiction and its ability to re-imagine historical and contemporary realities, Silva was influenced by the literary works of H.G. Wells, Orson Scott Card, and Philip K. Dick. Authors of color, including Sandra Cisneros, Leslie Marmon Silko, Lucha Corpi, and Américo Paredes, have influenced Silva’s multicultural narrative approach.

Cinematic influences, such as George A. Romero’s Living Dead films, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, and Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later, which extrapolate the struggle of the human psyche under extreme and cataclysmic ordeals, played an equally large part in Silva’s writing. He is fascinated by what he calls the “psychology of apocalypse,” specifically the roles, actions, and decisions of characters in apocalyptic, end-of-the world scenarios. Indeed, the central question posited by his new novel, Solstice—“What would you do if you knew the world would end next week?”—looks to engage readers with the possibilities of such a scenario.

Taken together, Silva’s academic, literary, and cinematic influences produce a brand of fiction that tells gripping stories from historically marginalized points of view. (In Solstice, for example, the main protagonist is a Mexican-Japanese woman.) Silva delves deep into the fractured psyches of his beleaguered characters to uncover broader questions of race, gender, and the conceptualization of recorded history.

Gente, take a look at at a description of this novel and you'll be hooked.

Words are murder.

Scribes have a gift. Whatever they write comes true. Misfortune. Theft. Even murder. Editors—covert specialists operating beyond the law—watch over them. Among the Editors, Io is the best, and the most ruthless. But on her way to her next assignment, something happens. Her phone rings—along with every other phone on the planet.

What would you do if you knew the world would end next week?

A single phone call to the world’s population asks this question. The same message appears on walls, TV screens, even flesh. Confusion erupt into chaos. Violence spreads like wildfire. Io discovers a Scribe named Nadie sent the message. But the message is only the beginning.

The final winter solstice.

In two weeks, on the day of the winter solstice, Nadie promises a final judgment. Battling a world spiraling into mass hysteria and her own dark past, Io must race to stop Nadie. But as the world is engulfed in a series of supernatural catastrophes, Io uncovers a shocking possibility: Is Nadie writing humanity’s extermination? And is Nadie linked to her past?

ISBN: 978-0-9794513-0-0

Lisa Alvarado

187 Reasons Mexicanos Can’t Cross the Border:
Undocuments 1971-2007
by Juan Felipe Herrera
November 15, 2007
ISBN:
978-0-87286-462-7 $16.95












Congress debates immigration legislation, Americans grow more polarized in their opinions, and Juan Felipe Herrera provides a fresh and accessible perspective on this crucial human rights issue through this collection of his poetry, prose, and performance.

Catch the 187 Express!
Addressing immigration issues with dynamic innovation, the 187 Express tour launched on Nov. 15, 2007 at City Lights Books in San Francisco.

Herrera, frequently accompanied by guest artists, will present a mix of spoken word performances, music, and poetry throughout the Border States and up and down California.

Herrera has spent the last three and half decades assembling the collection found in 187 Reasons – at rallies, walkouts, under fire and on the run, in cafés, under helicopters and in the midst of thousands of marchers for civil rights and new immigration policies.

Raised in the fields of California in a family of migrant workers, Herrera has blended art and activism for over 30 years as a pioneer of the Chicano spoken word movement. Juan Felipe Herrera is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside. Author of 23 books, he is a community arts leader and a dynamic performer and actor.

Tia Chucha's Events for October 2007


Author Reading with Anna Marie Gonzalez
Saturday Oct. 6th at 2 p.m.




Ann Marie Gonzalez will present her new book and discuss its purpose. Divine for Life is a book written for people in search of divinity and understanding of who we are and what we are capable of. It is the Divine being's guide to life. This book will open doors to the truth of our existence.

"My deepest prayer is that sharing this information contributes to the empowerment of all who read this and ultimately to the spiritual evolution of humanity." Ann Marie Gonzalez


Book Reading with Mario Garcia
Saturday October 13, 2007 at 2 p.m.


Author and professor of History and Chicano Studies at UCSB Mario Garcia will present and read from his newly released book The Gospel of Cesar Chavez: My Faith in Action.
This is a book of spiritual reflections, prayers, or mantras from Cesar Chavez, one of the great spiritual leaders of our time. Perhaps the best-known Latino historical figure in the United States, a key aspect of why he did what he did was his faith. He was a devout Catholic and a man of deep moral and spiritual values, which is what drove him to seek basic rights for farm workers as well as recognition for their human dignity as children of God. Now, for the first time, The Gospel of Cesar Chavez calls attention to the spiritual side of this great leader through his own words.



Special Day of the Dead Workshop # 1
Satuday Oct. 20th from
11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The first workshop of our 3 piece Dia De Los Muertos celebration!

-Danza Temachtia Quetzalcoatl
-Intro to group
-Historical Prospective of Day of the Dead
-Sugar Skull Workshop

Come join Danza Temachtia Quetzalcoatl as we introduce ourselves to the community and provide a historical and cultural perspective of the importance of Dia de los Muertos. This visual presentation will close with a sugar skull making workshop. It's fun for Everyone!

All the workshops are free!



Poetry Reading with Jim Moreno: The Artivist Movement
Saturday October 20th at 2 p.m.

Poet Jim Moreno will present and read from his newly released poetry collection, Dancing in Dissent: Poetry for Activism.

Dancing in Dissent is an artivist's (artist and activist) collection of poetry resonating with the legacy of speaking out against injustice and oppression. Moreno is a member of San Diego's Langston Hughes Poetry Circle and a past board member of the African American Writers and Artists.

He teaches poetry workshops for gang youth in lockups, children in after-school programs and adults who are beginning or practiced poets.



Michael Heralda Performs Aztec Stories
Saturday Oct. 20, 2007 at 6 p.m.

Come and experience the origins of this very special ceremony from the indigenous perspective in a presentation of music, songs, and stories.

The ceremony has evolved due to European influences, the artistic influence of Jose Guadalupe Posada's fanciful stylizations, and the commercial forces of our "modern" world. This program is for those interested in learning about the origins of this ceremony. It is also an opportunity to help establish a "balance" between today's modern practice and the ancient ceremony's true relevance and importance. You will hear things that touch your heart and at times seem very familiar. This is the ancient voice that you hear intuitively speaking to you from the past through your heart. Some of the information revealed in this presentation may surprise you, and some may validate an intuitive understanding you possess and have contemplated.


Special Day Of The Dead Workshop # 2
Sunday Oct. 21st from
11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The second day of our 3 piece Dia De Los Muertos celebration
-Danza Temechtia Quetzalcoatl
-Historical Perspective of Danza
-3 groups
-dance, song, drumming
Day II of our Dia de Los Muertos workshop introduces the importance of danza in Day of the Dead celebrations. After the discussion, each participant is invited to learn an element of danza-drumming, dancing and/or Mexica songs-themselves!

All workshops are Free!
Special Day of the Dead Workshop # 3
Monday Oct. 22nd from
6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
This is the last workshop of our 3 piece Dia De Los Muertos celebration!

-Danza Temachtia Quetzalcoatl
-Mexica story telling
This will be a review and expansion of first 2 workshops. Day III of our workshop will continue to teach the elements of "la danza" and will close with Mexica storytelling for all!

On this final day of the workshop, Danza Temachtia Quetzalcoatl will host a community ceremony for all its participants. Traditional face painting will begin the celebration and everyone who participated will have a chance to share what they have learned!

All workshops are free!


Friday Oct. 26th at 8 p.m.

Join us for our famous Open Mic Night, this week featuring poet Thomas Gayton, along with some of the local poets and musican performers!

Works and Performances.
Thomas has read his poetry on Pacifica Radio, KPFK-Los Angeles and has performed with Jazz greats Charles McPherson, cousin Clark Gayton and Daniel Jackson. He has taught verse writing at the Writing Center in San Diego, founded the Poetry Workshop in La Jolla, California, at D.G. Wills bookstore and also cofounded the San Diego Poets' Press.
Book Reading with Beto Gutierrez


Saturday Oct. 27th at 1 p.m.
Author Beto Gutierrez will read and discuss his newly published book A Sentence with the District.

A collection of essays based on actual experiences of a former at-risk youth who became an inspired high school teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District, Gutierrez sheds insight from a first person point of view that others dare not mention. A must-read book that advocates educational equity and quality.

Sugar Skull Workshop Hosted by Norma
Sunday Oct. 28, 2007 at 12 p.m.

Come experience a hands-on workshop for the whole family in preparation for Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) with the making of Sugar Skulls, a centuries-old tradition in Mexico that plays an important symbolic role in this holiday. You are welcomed to join us in tribute of this fun and mysterious holiday.


Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural
10258 Foothill Blvd.
Lake View Terrace, CA 91342

(818) 896-1479

www.tiachucha.com
e-mail us at: [email protected]


Donate to Tia Chuchas! Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural & Bookstore | 10258 Foothill Blvd. | Lake View Terrace | CA | 91342

Reyna Grande update



Under the Bridge Bookstore and Gallery
e-mail: [email protected]
When:
Saturday Oct 06, 2007
at 5:00 PM
Where::
Under the Bridge Bookstore and Gallery
358 West 6th Street
San Pedro, CA 90731

UNDER THE BRIDGE BOOKSTORE AND GALLERY CELEBRATES DEBUT AUTHORS!

RSVP not required


SPREAD THE WORD...

It isn't often that you find an author who isn't clamoring for publicity. Imagine my surprise and delight in encountering a Chicago area poet who feels that his work should just stand or fall on its own. It took a little wheedling, but I was able to get a bio and a photo from this reluctant writer, Raúl Niño. For the record, the work is strong, deeply felt and beautifully rendered, but I'll say more about that later on in this article.

And as you can see for yourself, Niño doesn't take himself too seriously. Read his bio below and you'll see what I mean.

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"...While the literary voices of U.S. Puerto Rican poets and fiction writers and of their Chicano/a counterparts on the West Coast and in the Southwest have been anthologized, duly canonized and even mainstreamed by the Anglo literary market, very little is heard about the Latino/a writers and poets from the Midwest... Between the heart and the Land / Entre el corazón y la tierra encompasses a rich array of women of various national origins—Dominican, Cuban, Costa Rican, Bolivian, Salvadorian, Columbian, Argentinian, Mexican, Chicana, and Puerto Rican—as well as of diverse socioeconomic and work experiences, sexuality, sexual identities, age, and generational experiences…"
--- from the forward by Frances Aparicio, Ph.D. Latin American Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago

"Between the heart and the Land / Entre el corazón y la tierra is a poetic and bold testament of the undeniable Latina presence in the heartland of the United States." --- Ana Castillo

"A Boricua poet now rooted in the Puerto Rican diaspora. These are poems that pay homage, to Crazy Willie, to the doomed Paulina, to his Korean War veteran uncle, in the language of real, lived experience. This is a poet who wants to send Willie Colon and his salsa into outer space, who tells us of forgotten African gods and the 'spics banished to Chicago' for forgetting. For his passion and his clarity, his humor and his memory, I welcome Frank Varela." --- Martín Espada, author of The Republic of Poetry

"I enjoy Varela most when he drops below street-level into the dark earth, which is something of the city's subconscious, the flip side of the urban experience. His poems about laboring with soil, rooting up growing things, are thoughtful and touching, redolent with the fragrant costs of mortality." --- Sesshu Foster, author of Angry Days

"Varela has accomplished a poet's fundamental objective: the creation of beautiful word paintings that convey personal, intimate, and yet, universal messages." --- Manuel Ramos, author of the Ballad of Rocky Ruiz

ISBN 1-877636-11-8




de KANSAS a CALIFAS & back to Chicago by Carlos Cortez

Chicagoan Carlos Cortez was one of the U.S.A.'s leading Chicano artists and poets before his death in January 2005. In this collection of poems and scratchboard drawings by the author, Cortez shares his love and concern for the land of his mestizo and Yaqui ancestors. Cortez's art and words help us see with ''bicultural eyes" the history of the California (Califas) with a landscape alive with condors, cougars, tall saguaros, and even giant cloud formations.

Cortez's poems peak in the persona of Koyokuikatl (Coyote Song), who places his strong clear verse in defense of the natural world and its threatened inhabitants. In addition, he embodies the nostalgic traveler who is capable of "Beat" haikus or the wisdom of the Chicano working class.

If you trusted Edward Abbey not to steer you wrong, you'll be glad to know he enjoyed Cortez's ecologically and socially charged poetry--out there, west of the Mississippi.

ISBN 1-877636-09-6


Akewa is a Woman by Beatriz Badikian

"Everything is political, Beatriz said to me once and on several occasions. Love. Sorrow. Myth. Nostalgia. And the poems validate this. Badikian's poems tell stories, of Athens, Buenos Aires, Chicago. Yet the voice does not belong to any one city, any one country. Rather, Badikian admits she will write and 'name everyone/tell their story/our story.' Through this collective voice, everything in Badikian's world 'nos corresponde a todos, igualmente, socialmente, democraticamente.' Here then is a new voice that draws to it all things, little and large, with child-like charm -- sky, cloud, guitar, one lonely flute. Naive elements. Yet without blinking an eye, they tell you who and what they are fighting for. Just like that. As if to be so honest were easy."
--- Sandra Cisneros, poet and fiction writer

Out of print, facsimile available

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No profile of the MARCH/Abrazo would be complete without celebrating its heart and soul, Carlos Cumpián. A veteran Chicano writer, Cumpián examines American realities absent from mainstream poetry. Although he hails from San Antonio, Texaztlan, Cumpián has planted firm roots in the Midwest.

Cumpián was named among the Chicago Public Library's "Top Ten" most requested poets and his poetry has been published by some of the country's spirited small press magazines as well as in numerous anthologies. He has taught at Columbia College in Chicago and has offered many workshops on poetry and small press management. His other books Latino Rainbow (Grolier/Children's Press) and Armadillo Charm (Tia Chucha Press) have received positive reviews for its contribution to Chicano literature.


To order books published by MARCH/Abrazo Press, go to Small Press Distribution at www.spdbooks.org ; Click on "Advanced Search" and search for "March/Abrazo" under "Publishers" in the drop down search window.

For out-of-print book facsimiles, please send a check (plus $3.00 media mail shipping per order) made payable to MARCH/Abrazo Press, PO Box 2890, Chicago, IL, 60690




Lisa Alvarado

X-Rated Bloodsuckers
Author: Mario Acevedo
Publisher: Rayo
ISBN-10: 0060833270
ISBN-13: 978-0060833275

Felix Gomez is just your normal Chicano vato. He’s an ex-soldier recently returned from Iraq now living in Denver. Felix is a private detective now and has just been hired to find out who killed porn star Roxie Bronze. Oh yeah, did I mention Felix is a vampire? He got bitten in Iraq. Now that’s coming home with some bad war baggage, que no?

Somehow Roxie’s murder is connected to the vampire world and the bosses (like mob bosses vampire style) want Felix to take the case and find out what’s really going on with the L.A. vampires. There’s this cool Mission Impossible you’re message will self destruct trick when the message from the vampire bosses goes up in flames when Felix holds it to the sun. The message was written on vampire skin.

Felix doesn’t really want to go to the L.A. of his childhood, but he’s got the higher ups wanting him to go and he also finds himself intrigued by the case and by the woman who hired him, Katz Meow who has disappeared. He packs his bag and heads off to L.A.

“Even with supernatural mojo, I still felt queasy coming here. Since I had left many years ago, vowing never to return, I had graduated from college, gone to war, become a vampire, and settled in Denver. And here I was, back in Pacoima anyway.”

Once in L.A. he meets one hell of a crazy vato named Coyote who also happens to be the ancient vampire son of the Malinche and Hernan Cortez, the original hijo de la chingada. Coyote loves his rat blood chorizo. Blech.

X-rated Bloodsuckers takes you on a colorful trip to L.A.’s underbelly and the porn industry in the Valley. It’s a wild ride with interesting characters and that unlike anything else L.A. flavor, “Seen from the freeway, the sprawl of the San Fernando Valley stretched in relentless monotony. A line of homes clung to the surrounding hills like the ring around a bathtub.” The story is gripping, the investigation crazy with unexpected twists and turns culminating in a surprising ending with the most unlikely of murderers.

It’s not just a detective story, it’s not just a vampire story, it’s not just a Chicano story – X-rated Bloodsuckers is just a damn good story that transcends all that genre pigeonholing. It’s innovative, exciting, different and keeps you wanting more. Mas, mas mas!