New Latino and Mexican Fiction Titles in August 2010, Garcia Marquez, Gloria Velasquez, Karen McClintock, Overated Writers, and Pink Triangles

Photolicious

We posted several very good photos of Luis Omar Salinas lately. We know they are very popular on the web. You can see which photos were are talking about by clicking on these two post:


1. Crazy Gypsy by Luis Omar Salinas - a fortune telling of good poetry to come by poet
2. New Books in July 2010 and 1970 Retrospective

These excellent photos are by Karen J. McClintock out of Fresno. Did you click on the link already; if so and you like the photos, visit Karen's website at: www.karenmcclintockfineart.com

Overrated

I was intrigued by the response that Rich Yanez posted to his page regarding the Huffington Post's Anis Shivani 's article "15 Most Overrated Contemporary Writers." Among those listed were Amy Tan and Junot Diaz. Interesting article from an author who wants a Pulitzer Prize.

Pink Triangle

I caught this story on PRI's The World about, "The man believed to be the last surviving person sent to a concentration camp for being a homosexual decided to speak out. He’s 97 now, and has just published a book about his experience." Here this story.

13 Great Books for Gay Teens

I also caught this on the Huffington Post, 13 Great Books for Gay Teens. Among those listed is Alex Sanchez' Rainbow Boys and The God Box.

Gloria Velasquez' Odes

We heard from our good friend Gloria Velasquez recently. She tells PF that she has a new children's CD out. It's a bilingual cd with baby y itunes. She says, "tiene una canción política para nuestros chavalitos "Atzi en Atzlán" that mentions Cesar y Dolores (you can hear it at www.

gloriavelasquez.com). Here newest Roosevelt Highschool Series book is out:
Rudy's Memory Walk, which you can read about on her website. She wrote the following poem over the Oscar Grant verdict here in Califas:

Ode to Rodney King

Oscar Grant

They shot and killed you.

They murdered you

for being African-American.

No justice for Black and Brown men

in Dr. King’s America

where the Tea Partyers,

the Glenn Becks and

the Rush Limbaughs rule.

“Has anybody here seen my old friend, John?

Can you tell me where he’s gone?

He’s freed a lot of people but it seems

the good they die young

I just looked around and he’s gone.”

“Has anybody here seen my old friend, Oscar?

Can you tell me where he’s gone?

He’s freed a lot of people but it seems

the good they die young

I just looked around and he’s gone.”

Coraje

Anger today

Shame

Pura vergüenza

Tristeza

And in Solidarity con mi gente

en Oakland,

I join the Uprising

Maldiciendo the Oscar Grant Verdict.

Written on July 8, 2010

By Gloria L. Velásquez

San Luis Obispo, CA

NEW LATINO AND MEXICAN FICTION TITLES

AUGUST 2010

90 Miles to Havana 

(Roaring Brook Press Aug 2010

ISBN-10: 1596431687)

Enrique Flores-Galbis

"Drawing on his own experience as a child refugee from Cuba, Flores-Galbis offers a gripping historical novel about children who were evacuated from Cuba to the U.S. during Operation Pedro Pan in 1961 . . . . this is a seldom-told refugee story that will move readers with the first-person, present-tense rescue narrative, filled with betrayal, kindness, and waiting for what may never come." -Booklist

 Bienvenidos a mi barrio! Mi mundo de la A a la Z

(Spanish Edition) 

(Scholastic en Espanol Aug 2010 ISBN-10: 0545094259)

Quiara Alegria Hudes

M es de murales de paisajes isleños. Selvas y cataratas que adornan los senderos. Cuando el amigo de Ceci, Chien, visita su barrio, ella le muestra las cosas que más le gustan del mismo. Hasta los detalles más insignificantes del barrio de Ceci cobran vida en el lenguaje poético que utiliza la autora, Quiara Hudes, quien fue nominada para el premio Pulitzer.

M is for las muralistas, making murals of island vistas. Waterfalls that hide brick walls. Rainforest full of tropical trees. N is for the noisy neighbors who sit on the stoop and catch the breeze. When Ceci's friend Chien visits her in the Barrio, she takes him on a tour of all of her favorite things about the neighborhood. From fire hydrants to ice cream trucks, bodegas to vacant lots, the sights and sounds of the Barrio -- even the less perfect things -- come to life in the poetic words of Pulitzer Prize finalist Quiara Hudes.

The Superman Project: A Chico Santana Mystery 

(Chico Santana Mysteries)

[Hardcover]

Minotaur Books (August 3, 2010)

ISBN-10: 0312375018

 A. E. Roman

After a series of low-paying jobs, Chico Santana, PI, is living in his tiny office on 149th Street in the Bronx. He’s in an absolutely foul mood when Pablo Sanchez and his mother drop in, seeking help for one of Chico’s old childhood pals -- the handsome and charismatic Joey Ventura. Chico has not seen Joey since Joey disappeared from St. Mary's Home for Boys, headed for Tahiti. He ended up, instead, on the island of TSP -- The Superman Project.

The Superman Project peddles German philosophy, Hinduism, and American comic book mythology as a method toward self-improvement, but its members are hiding more than a few secrets. The leader of TSP is a man named Father Ravi. One of his daughters, Gabby, who is also Joey’s wife, is missing. Joey was accused by the TSP leaders of killing Gabby and has fled the police. Pablo and his mother insist he is innocent.

Compelled to believe in his old friend, and by the promised payment of a very valuable Superman comic, Chico investigates the competing interests in the organization, falling for a beautiful suspect and trying to look out for a friend’s troubled niece in the process.

A. E. Roman brings New York City and its eccentric characters to life in this second in the original and energetic Chico Santana series.

Tarde o temprano. Poemas (1958-2009)

(Spanish Edition)

[Paperback]

Tusquets (August 15, 2010)

ISBN-13: 978-8483832363

Jose Emilio Pacheco

Jose Emilio Pacheco (born June 30, 1939 in Mexico City) is a Mexican essayist, novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the major Mexican poets of the second half of the 20th century. He has taught at UNAM, as well as the University of Maryland, College Park, the University of Essex, and many others in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. 

He has been awarded the following prizes: Premio Cervantes 2009, Reina Sofia (2009), Federico Garcia Lorca (2005), Octavio Paz (2003), Pablo Neruda (2004), Raman Lopez Velarde (2003), Alfonso Reyes (2004), Jose Asuncion Silva (1996), and Xavier Villaurrutia. He was elected by unanimous acclaim to the Mexican Academy (Academia Mexicana de la Lengua) on March 28, 2006. He has been a member of The National College (El Colegio Nacional) since 1986.

La increíble y triste historia de la cándida Eréndira y de su abuela desalmada

(Vintage Espanol) (Spanish Edition) [Paperback] Vintage (August 31, 2010)

ISBN-10: 0307475786

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Este libro excepcional reúne la novela corta que le otorga su título y otros seis relatos más, de los que todos menos uno pertenecen a la etapa de plena madurez del escritor. Fueron los años en los que Macondo le abrió las puertas del realismo mágico, donde la realidad se expresa mediante fórmulas mágicas y legendarias y los milagros se insertan en la vida cotidiana. 

La cándida Eréndira y su abuela desalmada personifican la inocencia y la maldad, el amor y su perversión, y el relato recuerda al mismo tiempo las gestas medievales y los cantos provenzales o trovadorescos, aunque, como siempre, inmersos en ese mundo denso y frutal del Caribe americano. Estas siete narraciones no son ejercicios para conservar un estilo, ni muchísimo menos, sino siete exploraciones en el mundo definitivo que el escritor había conquistado de una vez por todas.

Ojos de perro azul 

(Vintage Espanol) (Spanish Edition) [Paperback]

Gabriel Garcia Marquez 

Estos relatos tempranos de Gabriel García Márquez fueron escritos y publicados entre 1947 y 1955, aunque, como libro, Ojos de perro azul no aparecería hasta 1974, cuando el escritor ya había publicado otros dos libros de relatos y cuatro novelas, de las que la última, Cien años de soledad, le proporcionaría su primer gran éxito internacional.

En este libro se incluye su primer cuento célebre, el Monólogo de Isabel viendo llover en Macondo, escenario de sus obras posteriores. El personaje de Isabel reaparecerá en su primera novela, y el tema de la lluvia cayendo interminablemente, en su personal versión del diluvio universal, acabaría integrándose suave y flexiblemente en Cien años de soledad.

Este relato, incluido en todas las antologías del cuento latinoamericano de nuestros días, fue la primera piedra de ese gigantesco edificio, tan imaginario como real, que terminaría fundando el espacio literario más poderoso de las letras universales de nuestro tiempo: Macondo.

Pecar como Dios manda 

(Spanish Edition) [Paperback]

Planeta Publishing (August 10, 2010)

ISBN-10: 6070704266

Eugenio Aguirre

en el principio era el sexo… y los dioses nahuas lo disfrutaban intensamente, tanto y con tanto vigor que originaron el universo. así, los antiguos mexicanos se vieron unidos al inicio candente de la vida y concibieron la sexualidad como un regalo divino que habría de acompañarlos a lo largo de su historia. mayas, zapotecas, mixtecas, nahuas… 

todos exaltaban a los dioses del amor y el placer, algunos utilizaban la carne de culebra como afrodisíaco, la flor adulterina como estimulante y no les era ajena la práctica de diversas desviaciones. las exquisitas cortes nahuas eran testigos de la poligamia y potencia sexual de algunos monarcas, y de la peculiar costumbre de una princesa que, tras satisfacer sus deseos, asesinaba a sus amantes para conservarlos dentro de ánforas de barro con las que decoraba su palacio. 

todo esto se perpetuó hasta la llegada de los españoles que, con brutalidad, impusieron la moral católica, transformando por completo el sofisticado mundo indígena. tras una exhaustiva investigación, eugenio aguirre inicia con este primer tomo una entretenida y reveladora crónica del placer y la moral de los mexicanos a través de la historia.

Santa: A Novel of Mexico City

(Latin America in Translation/En Traducci=n/Em Tradutpo) 

[Paperback]

The University of North Carolina Press (June 10, 2010)

ISBN-10: 0807871079

Federico Gamboa

This enduring classic of Mexican literature traces the path to ruination of a country girl, Santa, who moves to Mexico City after she is impregnated and abandoned by her lover and subsequently shunned by her family. 

Once in the city, Santa turns to prostitution and soon gains prominence as Mexico City's most sought-after courtesan. Despite the opportunities afforded by her success, including the chance to quit prostitution, Santa is propelled by her personal demons toward her ultimate downfall. 

This evocative novel -- justly famous for its vividly detailed depiction of the cityscape and the city's customs, social interactions, and political activities -- assumed singular importance in Mexican popular culture after its original publication in 1903. 

The book inspired Mexico's first "talkie" and several other film adaptations, a music score, a radio series, a television soap opera, and a pornographic comic book.

Naturalist writer Federico Gamboa, who was also a lawyer and politician, reveals much about Mexican mores and culture at the start of the twentieth century and beyond, from expectations regarding gender roles to the myth of the corrupting and decadent city. In describing how Santa is at the mercy of social problems beyond her control, Gamboa provides a rich historical portrayal of widespread conditions in the years leading to the Mexican Revolution.

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The link we share with you today is: Manuel Paul Lopez