We recently were informed about two new books by Pasenos that you need to look at. We don't release our next Pluma Fronteriza until the fall, so here is a heads up:
One of our most preeminent Chicano historians, Mario T. Garcia, has released a new book, Padre: The Spiritual Journey of Father Virgil Cordano . The descriptions says, "The story of a priest's tumultuous, challenging journey toward his place in the church. This is a biography of Father Virgil Cordano, now the spiritual and administrative head of Santa Barbara's Old Mission. His poignant journey and personal and spiritual issues mirror the tumultous times for his beloved Catholic Church. Father Virgil, through all his tests, is committed to his religion, his family, and his community. Includes discussion of the emerging freedom of the Catholic lay community, the shifting winds of change within the church, and the agonizing effects of the sexual abuse crisis."
Mario T. Garcia graduated from La Cate and UTEP and currently teaches at the University of California, Santa Barbera. He is Professor of History and teacher in the Department of Religious Studies. He is the author of numerous books, including Desert Immigrants: The Mexicans of El Paso,1880-1920; Memories of Chicano History: The Life and Narrative of Bert Corona;Border Correspondent: Selected Writings, 1955-1970; Migrant Daughter: Coming of Age As a Mexican American Woman ; Chicana Feminist Thought: The Basic Historical Writings editor w/ Alma M. Garcia; Luis Leal: An Auto/Biography; The Making of a Mexican American Mayor: Raymond L. Telles of El Paso ; Mexican Americans: Leadership, ideology; and identity, 1930-1960; and is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.
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The other book we got our hands on is Child of Many Rivers: Journeys to and From the Rio Grande (Texas Tech University Press ISBN 0896725561) by Lucy Fischer-West, with forward by Denise Chavez. It has blurbs by Daniel Chacon. Here's the press' description:
Lucy Fischer-West knows the power of birthplace and of borders and rivers. Her memoir begins with the story of her parents, one reared in Germany, the other in Mexico, and how they found each other on the Texas-Mexico border. Fischer-West's own journeys take her from her birth in the Hudson River Valley; to her upbringing on both sides of the Rio Grande; across the Atlantic to Scotland and then France; and finally to India's River Ganges, halfway around the world from the El Paso barrio where she grew up. Hers is an ordinary life made extraordinary by its path and by the people who, having touched and enriched her life, stay with her, as nurturing to her spirit as the rivers that help her mark time.
By focusing not on the conflicts of border life but rather on everyday experiences made rich by her appreciation of them, Fischer-West honors her rivers and the people who travel them, cross them, live on their banks, and bathe in their waters. Her story touches on the emotions that bind us to others: anger, sorrow, equanimity, exuberance, and serenity.
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PRESS SPOTLIGHT
The press I share with you today is Heyday Books. Here's a little history of Heyday books: "Last year, Heyday Books celebrated thirty years of deepening appreciation for the culture and history of California through its publications. Marking this anniversary was a great change for Heyday Books: the independent publisher has merged with its nonprofit wing, the Clapperstick Institute.
Malcolm Margolin founded Heyday Books in 1974 when he wrote, typeset, designed, and distributed East Bay Out, a quirky, personal, affectionate guide to the natural history of the hills and bay shore around Berkeley and Oakland.
Today, Heyday's fifteen employees work with zest, creativity, integrity, and a sense of adventure to produce about two dozen books a year. In these past thirty years, Heyday has published over one hundred books and two successful magazines, News from Native California and Bay Nature, and the company has taken a lead role in dozens of prominent public education programs throughout the state.
Heyday Books covers a wide range of other topics with the same kind of thoroughness and commitment to quality that it invests in California Indian subjects. Anthologies of poetry, literature, and nonfiction writing encourage a variety of California voices to tell the state's fascinating story. Examples of such collections are California Poetry and Under the Fifth Sun.
Some of their recent books by Chicano(a)s and Latino(a)s are:
Farmworker''s Daughter:Growing Up Mexican in America by Rose Castillo Guilbault.
Skin Tax
Tim Z. Hernandez w/ Foreword by Juan Felipe Herrera. My review of Skin Tax will be coming out on Xixpas.com very soon.
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