An evening with Texas Poets and Writers

Saturday, March 31, 2007
9:30 am - 4:00 pm

Main (Downtown) Library, El Paso, Texas
501 N. Oregon

915-543-5401

Free & Public is Invited

* Art Exhibit and Mercado by Writers and Artists

* Panel Discussions

* Readings & Book Signing

* Musical and Dance Performance

Featuring Writers featured in Hecho en Tejas: An Anthology of Texas Mexican Literature: Dagoberto Gilb (Editor), Sergio Troncoso, Ben Alire Saenz, Dr. Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Christine Granados, Richard Yañez, Cecilia Balli, Tammy Gomez, Norma Cantu, and Sheryl Luna

6:00 pm -- Fiesta Celebration Dinner/Drinks ($20.00 per person) featuring reading by Dagoberto Gilb & music by David Garza, Main (Downtown) Library

Useful Links:

http://www.elpasotexas.gov/library/_documents/Hecho_en_Tejas_Poster_2007.pdf

http://www.unmpress.com/Book.php?id=11280144152120

http://www.newspapertree.com/culture/1159-a-storm-made-in-tejas-review-of-hecho-en-tejas-an-anthology-of-texas-mexican-literature

http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2374&print=true

Hecho en Tejas events; Trini Sanchez, Jr. recieves award; Espada readings

Hecho en Tejas Events

I just got my copy of Hecho en Tejas in the mail and I am very impress. Don’t miss Dago’s roadshow:

El Paso: 30-31 March
Austin: 1 May

Scenic Drive in Cd. Juarez!

Mountain road aims to speed travel around Juárez

By Louie Gilot / El Paso Times

http://www.elpasotimes.com/business/ci_5491426

Carne Verde, Piel Negra: An Avocado from Michoacán

C.M. Mayo who edited Tamame which stopped publishing its review and now is focusing on chapbooks. The first one out the door is a story by the winner of Mexico’s San Luis Potosí Award for Short Story called Carne Verde, Piel Negra: An Avocado from Michoacán. www.tameme.org.

Agustin Cadema was born in 1963 in te Valle del Mezquital, Meico. A poet, fiction writer, essayist, and translator, he’s published more than 20 books. He currently teaches s seminar on Mexican culture and literature at the University of Debrecen in Hungary.

Carlos Callejo Interview

Check out this video interview with El Paso artist Carlos CAllejo: Link to video:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5174935911009382751

Former UTEP Chicano Studies Secretary Walks on

I received notice that former UTEP Chicano Studies secretary Ana Osante died in San Diego, California in February. A memorial services for her was hosted on Feb. 31^st

My carnal Trinidad Sanchez, Jr. still receiving awards

Happy news from St. Mary's University!

Trinidad Sanchez, Jr. has won an award posthumously from the President's Peace Commission, The Art of Peace Award. The PPC is 21 years old now, we have been giving this award to people who promote peace and human understanding through their art.

The pogram was held last week combined with the annual President's Peace Concert. Poets/friends of Trino's read from his work. Interspersed were musical pieces. It ended with a speech honoring Trinis work and then the award was presentation” a plaque that incorporates a piece of art by Bro. Cletus Behlmann.

Regina notes to us that Trini will have a book out this year from University of Texas at San Antonio and another from St. Mary's University next year. He will also be honroed at Wayne State University in Detroit April 5, 2007.

Matrin Espada On the Road Again

March 29: Reading, 7 PM, Living Literature, Northeast Campus, Tarrant County College, Hurst, TX. Contact: Rebecca Balcárcel REBECCA.BALCARCEL@tccd.edu or Cynthia Baw CYNTHIA.BAW@tccd.edu

March 30: Workshop, 9 AM, Living Literature, Northeast Campus, Tarrant County College

Hurst, TX, Contact: Rebecca Balcárcel REBECCA.BALCARCEL@tccd.edu or Cynthia Baw CYNTHIA.BAW@tccd.edu

April 5: Reading, 7 PM, Albion College, Albion, MI, Contact: Helena Mesa. hmesa@albion.edu

April 14: Reading, Boundaries and Alliances in the Americas and Beyond, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, Contact: Marcus Rediker, marcusrediker@yahoo.com

Apr16: Reading, 6 PM, Six O’Clock Series, Ohio Room, Hadley Union Building, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA, Contact: Ken Sherwood, sherwood@iup.edu

April 20: Reading, 7 PM, Poets Against War, Border Book Festival, Mesilla Community Center

Mesilla, NM, Contact: Denise Chávez, bbf@zianet.com

April 21: Lecture, 1PM, The Redemption of Pablo Neruda, Border Book Festival

Mesilla Community Center, Mesilla, NM, Contact: Denise Chávez bbf@zianet.com

April 21: Reading, 7PM, Premio Fronterizo, Border Book Festival, Mesilla Community Center

Mesilla, NM, Contact: Denise Chávez bbf@zianet.com

April 27: Reading, 10AM, Crispus Attucks Middle School, Indianapolis, IN, Contact: Rafael Méndez, RMendez@imcpl.org

April 27: Reading, 7:30PM, Etheridge Knight Festival of the Arts, Basile Theater, Indiana History Center, Indianapolis, IN, Contact: Eunice Knight-Bowens, EKFestival@aol.com

For more information see www.martinespada.net.

Mujeres Escritoras Reading in EPT

El Paso Community College Spring Arts Festival presents

Howls in the Desert: Mujeres Escritoras A Literary Event featuring Sehba Sarwar

and Special Guest Readers

Wednesday, March 28

6:30-8:00 p.m.

EPCC Rio Grande campus

Little Temple (906 El Paso St.)

Free Admission Public is Invited

Sehba Sarwar's critically-acclaimed, first novel, Black Wings was published in 2004 through Alhamra Publishing. Born in Karachi, Pakistan, Sehba is presently based in Houston, Texas, where she serves as Founding Director of Voices Breaking Boundaries, a non-profit multi-media arts organization, and cohosts a radio show and is involved in the anti-war/ pro-immigration movement. Recipient of several artist awards from Houston’s Cultural Arts Council, Sehba’s fiction/poetry has been published in anthologies in the US, Pakistan and India. She contributes to The News and Chowrangi while working on a second novel.

For more information, contact Richard Yañez: ryanez4@epcc.edu

Book signing and reception hosted by EPCC PaPaGayo Literary Center and Women Writers' Collective (www.womenwriterscollective.org)

Ocean Sur: A new Spanish-language publishing project

After developing a strong editorial line of books on and from Latin America over its nearly 18-year history, early in 2006 Ocean Press decided to establish a separate Spanish-language publishing project: Ocean Sur.

Ocean Sur now has a list of almost 60 titles in Spanish and is presently publishing about four new titles each month. Ocean Sur will publish the Spanish-language editions of Che’s works as part of the important Che Guevara Publishing Project that Ocean Press initiated in association with the Che Guevara Studies Center in Havana. Aleida March is the director of this Center.

Ocean Sur has already met with an immediate enthusiastic response in several countries in Latin America where distribution agreements have been made. These include: Venezuela, Colombia, Chile, Bolivia, Argentina and El Salvador.

Ocean’s office in Havana, being the only foreign language book publisher with a presence in Cuba, will continue its longstanding distribution of both English and Spanish books to the tourist market in that country. And new offices of Ocean Sur have now been established in San Salvador and Caracas.

Ocean Sur titles will be distributed by CBSD, Ocean Press’s distributor in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.

Some of the first titles already published under the Ocean Sur logo have been:

• America Latina entre los siglos by Roberto Regalado (a leading Cuban political analyst). Launched in recent months to great acclaim in several countries (including Argentina, Chile, El Salvador, Colombia and Mexico) this book, published in a second, updated edition after Evo Morales’s electoral victory in Bolivia, discusses the options for left political parties and social movements today, arguing that the road of social democracy will not be able to meet aspirations in Latin America for social justice and economic development. (This book is now available in English as Latin America at the Crossroads.)
  http://www.oceanbooks.com.au/product_info.php?products_id=171

· Una guerra para construir la paz by Schafik Handal (FMLN leader who died in January 2006), a brief review of the historic peace process in El Salvador. This book was launched in San Salvador in January 2007 as part of the Sao Paolo Forum in the presence of 600 people. General coordinator of the FMLN Medardo González presented the book, which is a coedition of Ocean Sur with Editorial Morazán, the recently established publishing house of the FMLN.

· Guerra o paz en Colombia: Cincuenta años de un conficto sin solución by Carlos Lozana (editor of Voz, the only left-wing newspaper in Colombia). A highly successful launch of this book was organized in Bogotá in late November, attended by over 400 political figures.

Three new books on Venezuela from Ocean Sur were launched in November at the Caracas bookfair.

• Venezuela y Chávez by Fidel Castro, a selection of Fidel's speeches and letters on Venezuela, from his first visit in January 1959 to his speech in 2006.

• Por qué soy chavista: Razones de una revolución by Farucco Sesto, a significantly expanded new edition of a book by Venezuela's minister for culture.

• La unidad latinoamericana by Hugo Chávez, a book that includes Chavez's speeches at Porto Alegre in 2005 and at the UN in September 2006 and which shows how the Bolivarian revolution is gaining pace in Venezuela and having a growing impact on the continent.

In addition to a wide range of books on Latin America, Ocean Sur will also publish Contexto Latinoamericano, a quarterly journal of political analysis and commentary. Contexto is edited by Roberto Regalado (a leading Cuban political analyst) with an editorial advisory board representing a broad range of political currents and individuals of the Latin American left. It will be published four times a year and the first two issues have just been printed. Individual copies can be ordered now for US$14.95. For subscriptions, write to info@oceansur.com

Aleida Guevara remembers her father, Che

Oceanfilm has just released a moving new documentary on DVD in which Che’s daughter recalls with great tenderness the extraordinary bond between her parents and describes a side to Che previously unseen — Che as the loving husband and father.

Aleida also recounts several fascinating anecdotes from her childhood and describes coming to terms with her father’s decision to go to Bolivia, as well as her own decision to follow in his footsteps as a doctor and social activist.

http://www.oceanbooks.com.au/product_info.php?cPath=27&products_id=163

Aleida Guevara is the eldest daughter of Ernesto Che Guevara and Aleida March. She works as a pediatrician in Havana and is an international activist for social justice.

The DVD is in Spanish with English subtitles, and contains some unique footage and stills of Che with his family. Order now for US$24.95 (individuals only).

Fabián Escalante on the secret war against Cuba

Cuba’s former counterintelligence chief Fabián Escalante has now completed his three-volume history of the CIA’s secret war against Cuba with the publication of two new books:

• JFK: The Cuba Files. The untold story of the plot to kill Kennedy
• Executive Action: 634 Ways to Kill Fidel Castro

Escalante himself was recently accused of complicity in the Kennedy assassination in the Miami Herald, but in this series he argues convincingly that the crime was the result of a conspiracy between those who had violently opposed the Cuban revolution — the Cuban exiles, the Mafia and the CIA — who all felt betrayed by the Bay of Pigs debacle and Kennedy’s apparent moves toward a rapprochement with Fidel Castro.

By assassinating President Kennedy and presenting the crime as a Cuba-inspired plot, Escalante says they hoped to remove an obstacle to their plans and to provide a pretext for decisive military action against Cuba. He also explains the intimate links between the Kennedy assassination and the plots against Fidel.

http://www.oceanbooks.com.au/product_info.php?cPath=28&products_id=118

Escalante’s account of the more than 600 attempts on Fidel’s life is rather melodramatic and occasionally quite farcical. But there is no denying that these attempts were deadly serious — and illegal, as subsequent US government inquiries such as the 1975 Church Commission concluded.

http://www.oceanbooks.com.au/product_info.php?cPath=28&products_id=169

Read Fidel in his own words

Amid all the speculation about what will happen in Cuba after Fidel, Ocean Press offers an outstanding range of books by Fidel Castro that help anyone interested to fully understand the man and the revolution. These include two new titles:

• Fidel and Religion: Conversations with Frei Betto on Marxism and Liberation Theology, a new edition of an international bestseller with a new preface by Frei Betto explaining the impact of the first publication of this fascinating dialogue.
  http://www.oceanbooks.com.au/product_info.php?products_id=152

• Fidel: My Early Years, with an introductory essay by Gabriel García Márquez and some unique photos of Fidel as a child and young man.

http://www.oceanbooks.com.au/product_info.php?products_id=101

Forthcoming in early 2007 will be the long-awaited Fidel Castro Reader, which presents the voice of one of the great masters of the spoken word, as this selection aptly demonstrates. This book features some of Fidel’s most memorable speeches, including his addresses to the UN General Assembly: the first in 1960 on the famous occasion when he and his entourage left the Waldorf Astoria and went to stay up in Harlem, where he met Malcolm X; and the second in 1979 when he spoke representing the Nonaligned Nations Movement.

The Fidel Castro Reader will also include Fidel’s response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and his “Letters to George Bush” written in 2004 in response to provocations against Cuba at the UN. These two epistles have all the fire and brilliance of classic Fidel and read like his “parting shots” at what he calls the US “Empire”. The Fidel Castro Reader concludes with his message from his hospital bed in August last year.

Guerrilla Warfare: A new edition of a Che classic

Often regarded as a manual for would-be guerrillas, this is, in fact, Che’s own incisive analysis of what actually happened in Cuba and why. As part of the Che Guevara Publishing Project, in association with the Che Guevara Studies Center (Havana), Ocean Press has released a new, authorized edition of this classic revolutionary text with a new foreword written by Harry “Pombo” Villegas. This edition is a new translation and includes for the first time Che’s corrections and his suggestions for further improvements to the text.

For Che, the subjective factor is always primary: “The positive feature of guerrilla warfare is that each guerrilla fighter is ready to die not just to defend an idea but to make that idea a reality. That is the essence of the guerrilla struggle. The miracle is that a small nucleus, the armed vanguard of a great popular movement that supports them, can proceed to realize that idea, to establish a new society, to break the old patterns of the past, to achieve, ultimately, the social justice for which they fight.”

http://www.oceanbooks.com.au/product_info.php?products_id=156

Forthcoming in early 2007 will be Che’s unpublished and highly controversial book on political economy, Critical Notes on Political Economy: A revolutionary humanist approach to Marxist economics.

ORDER DIRECT FROM OCEAN PRESS FOR A 25% DISCOUNT

info@oceanbooks.com.au

www.oceanbooks.com.au

Ennio Moricone and El Paso Connection: Italian film composer Ennio Morricone to recieve the Life-Time Achievement Award at teh Oscars in March

My long-time favorite cinematic composer, Ennio Morricone will be receiving the Life-Time Achievement Award at the Oscars in March. I just caught Cinema Paradiso and The Battle of Algiers on Turner Classic Movies yesterday, both scored by Morricone. Others include most of Sergio Leone’s spaghetti Westerns (I wrote a paper in Willie Varelas’s films class a UTEP on Leone’s movies)(which in turn were used in Kill Bill No. 1 and No. 2)(especially “Silhouette of Doom” and the main title from The Good the Bad and the Ugly), The Mission (especially “On Earth as it is in Heaven,” “Vita Nostra,” and “Gabriel’s Oboe”), Casualties of War, The Untouchables (especially the main theme and Sean Connery’s death theme), 1900, Two Mules for Sister Sara, In the Line of Fire, The Thing, Once Upon of Time in America (especially “Deborah’s Theme” and his use to the classic song “Amapola”), Malena, and much more.

It should be noted that the theme from The Mission in Gabriel’s Oboe has become one of the opera pop standards: “Nella Fantasia,” first performed by Sarah Brightman, but in my opinion the best rendition is by Russell Watson for the male voice and Chloe Agnew for female voice. I think Agnew’s father is the oboist on the original soundtrack.

In an interview with on NPR, the interviewer hinted how “The West” has become so signified with the music of this “Italian” composer. Check out “Morricone Recognized for Impact on Movie Music.” Also check out “This Time, Morricone Is an Oscar Lock” also on NPR. Also, “Appreciating the Music of Ennio Morricone”

What does this have to do with El Paso

Anyway, I’m sure by now you asking this: what does this have to do with El Paso? Well, UTEP professor Charles Leinburger put out last year a book titled, Ennio Morricone's The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: A Film Score Guide (Scarecrow Film Score Guides, No. 3). It should be noted also, that the bank robbery in For a Few Dollar’s More takes place in El Paso.

I also highly recommend Yo-Yo Ma’s 2006 recording: Yo-Yo Ma Playes Morricone.

Also, Turner Classic Movies will be running a three-week perspective on Ennio Morricone Tribute at the Film Forum: a 26-film, 3-week retrospective in February (Feb. 2-22). A schedule is available at the above link.

Pat Mora's newest and News from Dago on "Hecho en Tejas"

CHECK OUT RIGOBERTO GONZALEZ REVIEW OF MORA'S NEWEST BOOK

Pat Mora, Adobe Odes

http://www.elpasotimes.com/living/ci_5103856

HECHO EN TEJAS IS FINALLY OUT

THE SOUTHWESTERN WRITERS COLLECTION
at Texas State University-San Marcos

celebrates the publication of

HECHO EN TEJAS
An Anthology of Texas Mexican Literature
Edited by Dagoberto Gilb
from the University of New Mexico Press



SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10
Discussions, readings, and performances featuring
Sandra Cisneros and Dagoberto Gilb
plus special guests

January 18, 2007-TEXAS STATE] The Southwestern Writers Collection (SWWC) at Texas State University-San Marcos is pleased to announce the publication of the latest volume in its book series, Hecho en Tejas: An Anthology of Texas Mexican Literature, a historic benchmark that establishes the canon of Mexican American literature in Texas. The celebratory book launch at the SWWC on Saturday, February 10, will include discussions, readings, and performances from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm (schedule below), and an exhibit focused on the Mexican American experience in Texas and the anthologized authors.

The Lone Star State's literature has long attracted local, regional, and national audiences and critics; however, the state's Mexican American voices have yet to receive the attention they deserve. In recognition of this, SWWC Curator Connie Todd and Assistant Curator Steve Davis invited award-winning author Dagoberto Gilb to edit the first-ever anthology of works by Mexican American writers from Texas.

With close to one hundred selections, Hecho en Tejas: An Anthology of Texas Mexican Literature reaches back to the sixteenth century to begin with the exploration narrative of Texas's first Spanish-speaking writer, Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca.

More histories and stories are told by a timeline of prose writers, including Jovita González, Américo Paredes, Rolando Hinojosa, Tomás Rivera, and Sandra Cisneros. Among the poets are Tino Villanueva, Carmen Tafolla, raúlrsalinas, Benjamin Alire Sáenz, and Ricardo Sánchez. Corridos from the turn of the twentieth century and verses sung by music legends such as Lydia Mendoza, Freddy Fender, and Selena offer a sampling of songwriters' voices. In addition to established names, Hecho en Tejas introduces such younger writers as Christine Granados, Macarena del Rocio Hernández, Tony Díaz, and Sheryl Luna, the famous Tejano authors of tomorrow.

Twenty full-color images representing the work of leading Texas Mexican artists provide additional insight into the culture highlighted by the literature, and dozens of vintage photos from the 1930s, taken by photographer Gregorio Barrios, Sr., offer intimate portraits of the Texas Mexican community during a pivotal period of its history.

In assembling this canonic reader, Gilb has created more than an anthology. Read cover to cover, Hecho en Tejas is not simply a literary showcase, but a mosaic portrait of a community. "What I have tried to do," Gilb says in the introduction, "is make Hecho en Tejas a strong, good read. Not simply as an anthology, a collection of different writers and styles, but as a book with chapters, so that all the voices might form one story, from one family's historyŠas the book puzzles forward, each piece connecting land to history, sorrow to joy, to what is Mexican, to what is American, what is assimilated, what cannot be."

Books will be for sale at the SWWC's February 10 event, and can be purchased through major booksellers or the University of New Mexico Press at www.unmpress.com. (7" x 10", 544 pages, 30 color plates, numerous halftones, $29.95, hardcover)

The Southwestern Writers Collection Book Series Editor is Curator Connie Todd; the Volume Editor is Assistant Curator Steve Davis. Additional funding for the anthology and book launch provided by the Katherine Anne Porter Literary Center, Texas State's Office of Equity and Access, the Texas Commission on the Arts, and private donors.


DAGOBERTO GILB

Dagoberto Gilb's books include The Magic of Blood, which won the PEN/Hemingway Award and was a PEN Faulkner finalist. His novel The Last Known Residence of Mickey Acuña was named a New York Times Notable Book, and Woodcuts of Women earned rave reviews. For Gritos, his collection of nonfiction essays, Gilb was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He has won a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, a Whiting Writers' Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. His short stories and essays have been widely anthologized, not least in the Pushcart Prize and Best American Essays series, as well as appearing in magazines such as The New Yorker and Harper's. His latest novel, The Flowers, is due out in the fall of 2007. A union high-rise carpenter for many years, Gilb has also been a visiting writer at the University of Texas, the University of Arizona, the University of Wyoming, and Vassar. He currently is on the faculty of the MFA in Creative Writing Program at Texas State University, in San Marcos, Texas. He lives in Austin.

HECHO EN TEJAS ON EXHIBIT

The Southwestern Writers Collection Spring 2007 exhibition highlights the new anthology with a comprehensive selection of books, photographs, and literary excerpts reflecting the Mexican American experience in Texas as seen in Hecho en Tejas-including the Collection's rare 1555 edition of Cabeza de Vaca's La relación y comentarios-plus biographical information on many of the anthologized authors. The exhibit runs February 1 through May 15, 2007.


BOOK LAUNCH | SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2007
Sandra Cisneros and Dagoberto Gilb joined by special guests

The Southwestern Writers Collection celebrates the new book with an exciting day full of discussions, readings, book signings, and performances-lunch included. Special guests Sandra Cisneros and Dagoberto Gilb will be joined by Conjunto Aztlán, Tony Díaz, Christine Granados, Rolando Hinojosa, Santiago Jiménez, Jr., Sheryl Luna, Arturo Madrid, Macarena del Rocio Hernández, Benjamin Alire Sáenz, raúlrsalinas, and Carmen Tafolla.

The event is free and open to the public. Attendees are asked to please RSVP to southwesternwriters@txstate.edu, or call (512) 245-2313. The SWWC is located on the seventh floor of the Alkek Library at Texas State University-San Marcos. Access directions online at http://www.swwc.txstate.edu. Books will be for sale at the event courtesy of Texas State University Bookstore. (7" x 10", 544 pages, 30 color plates, numerous halftones, $29.95, hardcover)

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS | FEBRUARY 10, 2007

10:00 am - 11:30 am
Morning Panel Discussion
Sheryl Luna, Benjamin Alire Sáenz, raúlrsalinas,
and Carmen Tafolla | moderated by Tony Díaz

11:30 am - 1:00 pm Lunch and Exhibit Viewing
12:00 noon Performance by Conjunto Aztlán

1:00 pm - 2:30 pm
Afternoon Panel Discussion
Sandra Cisneros, Dagoberto Gilb, Christine Granados, and
Macarena del Rocio Hernández | moderated by Arturo Madrid

2:30 pm - 3:30 pm
Remarks and Readings by Dagoberto Gilb and
Sandra Cisneros | introductions by Rolando Hinojosa

3:30 pm - 5:00 pm
Book signing with the guest authors
Performance by Santiago Jiménez, Jr.


Southwestern Writers Collection
Alkek Library Seventh Floor
Texas State University-San Marcos
Directions & event calendar: http://www.swwc.txstate.edu
512-245-2313
EXHIBIT HOURS (closed holidays)
Mon/Tue/Fri: 8 am to 5 pm
Wed/Thu: 8 am to 7 pm
Sat: 9 am to 5 pm
Sun: 2 pm to 6 pm

Admission is FREE

Hiatus until March

Hello folks,

I'm tackling another bar exam, so I will be on hiatus until March. Sorry. We'll post what we can and if any of you would like us to post something, simely make a direct request and we'll review it.

We've also run behind on our Pluma Frontirza and Libros, Libros issues. Bare with us and we will climb out of this trench soon. Meanwhile, keep tuned to La Bloga and Readraza.com to stay up to date.

Thanks.

Early Apocalypto Reviews: What The Hell’s Wrong With Mel Gibson?

December 1st, 2006 by daryl in Movies, Directors

’’

Dr. Felipe de Ortego y Gasca Says: December 10th, 2006 at 6:04 pm

Apocalypto is more like a pornographic looney tunes than a serious film about the Maya. Looking for cover from negative reviews of the film, Mel Gibson asserts that he consulted “experts” in the field in order to portray the Maya authentically. We don’t really know what the Maya were like. What we have are perspectives based on Spanish accounts which were unlikely to represent the Maya in anything but a savage and brutal point of view. From these accounts have emerged secondary sources that only poison the pot further against the Maya and the other indigenous peoples of Mexico. My research uncovers a different Maya than the one portrayed by Gibson’s Apocalyto.

Dr. Felipe de Ortego y Gasca, Ph.D.Visiting Scholar, Texas A&M University–Kingsville

NEW BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT

The California Chingasos

By Jesus Mena

The desmadre starts in El Chuco with some guey getting sliced and diced asta la chingada - it could end as 9/11 2.0.

For an excerpt: http://jesusmena.com

Sandra Cisneros is a Sellout!: Our Love Hate Relationship with Successful Chicano Writers, Part III

Note: Please read parts I and II of this post below

Waiting for the Fall

But what is it with us that we begin to hate our successful writers after supporting them through their careers as young writers up until they made the big time. It’s true, and I admit, there are many big egos made and even big egos made by those who haven’t made the big time -- but think they have.

However, don’t we want our authors to make it into the “mainstream,” the “big time”?

I think our dissing them once they make it is the American in us.

Chicano writers and activism

But Ray, you way, Sandra, or this writer, and that one, never comes to our rallies, we never see him yelling “si se puede.” First, that would be incorrect. Many of our writers do come to our community activist events. But others would say that when our famous writers go to rallies and the like, they are mobbed by the fans, somewhat taking away from the goal of the rally. When you’ve achieved such status as some writers have, this happens frequently.

So there are no real answers here and I do not have many solutions.

But looking back at many of the Chicana writers back in the day, for those of us who were in elementary school in the 1980s, Cisneros was probably the first Chicano(a) writer we read. In fact, aside, from an excerpt of Ernesto Galarza’s Barrio Boy in our literature anthology, the excerpt of House was the only Chicano(a) lit I was exposed to in elementary school.

Back to today

But again, in my opinion, the best Chicana writing today is being put out by smaller presses. This is especially true of the poets. And we thought poetry was dead. Then again, the big presses hardly touch poetry.

So am I dissing the “successful” writers? I don’t know. I just always root for the small guy or gal.

As a critic, looking at many of the books written today, I am still apt to choose not releasing a bad book review to a publication and only letting the good reviews out. I guess that is my weakness as a critic. I frequently leave books half finished because I cannot bare to read them.

I will have more to write about this later. I know what you’re saying. You are probably comparing me to the caveman in Mel Brook’s History of the World, Part I pissing on the wall drawing at the Vallon-Pont-d'Arc caves in what is now France. I tell you, my bladder is frequently full.

The other topic I have to write about is this: “Are many of our new writers who are getting big book deals, slipping into oblivion after their fist book is published?” I guess Cisneros would be a testament contrary to that statement. She’s not a new writers, but nevertheless, her popularity had endured. Again, are/am we/I dissing our successful writers?

We love them while they are new and struggling, up-and-coming, but our love sours and grows cold when they become successful.

In a way looking at some Chicana and Latina writers being published big time, I’m sometimes saying to myself, “Bring back Sandra! Hurry up Denise, put out another book! (oh yea, she just did), Ana Castillo we need more?” Now there are some exceptions so don’t jump on me. There are even some deserving Chicano writers who are publishing big. The other strange thing is that Chavez and Castillo chose not to publish in New York for their last books. So what is happening?

Sell outs. Vendidos. Successes and unsuccesses. Mainstream or downstream, in conclusion, I guess the only thing that is 100% SELLING OUT are Cisneros books?

Texas Store Owner takes Samaniego to Court

Texas Store owner harassed by Sheriff for warning of Minutemen

KTSM - El Paso
December 5, 2007

The Paso del Norte Civil Rights Group decided to help Jose Rodriguez, because they say his case is a prime example of someone's constitutional rights being violated. Back in November, Sheriff's deputies cited Rodriguez for posting signs on a pole outside his store in San Elizario. One warned
people of upcoming roadblocks and the other spoke out against 'Minutemen'. Sheriff's deputies gave Rodriguez a ticket for the unauthorized use of City property to post them. However, Paso del Norte says this case violates his right to free speech, and is actually part of a bigger problem of deputies harassing people who can't defend themselves. In a written statement we received from the Sheriff's Office, they declined to comment on this case due to pending litigation. Rodriguez's court date is coming up later this month,,,

http://www.ktsm.com/home/ticker/4835931.html

New Books from the University of Texas Press

Alla en el Rancho Grande. Here's a new one from U of Texas Press: Remembering the Hacienda: Religion, Authority, and Social Change inHighland Ecuador, Lyon. A pathfinding study of how indigenous peasants experienced, responded to, and remember the often-harsh conditions of servitude in Ecuador's
haciendas.

Schlatter, Aryan Cowboys: White Supremacists and the Search for a New Frontier, 1970?2000

A startling analysis of how modern white supremacists have co-opted the mythology and environment of the American West to position their cause among historically American ideals.

http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/books/schary.html

Hernandez Castillo, and Stephen, Dissident Women: Gender and Cultural Politics in Chiapas

In this timely ethnographic study, nine Mexican and U.S. anthropologistsexamine the achievements of and challenges facing women participating inthe Zapatista movement .

http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/books/spedis.html

Brown, Maxwell, and Little, La utz awach?: Introduction to Kaqchikel Maya Language

An innovative language-learning guide that will help students,researchers, and professionals in many fields quickly develop basic communication skills in one of the four major Mayan languages.

http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/books/brolau.html

A Christmas Carol in Spanish
Though the Kansas City Repertory Theatre's A Christmas Carol is a long-established Kansas City tradition, there is a new way to experience the show that will be of interest to Spanish-speaking audiences.

by Steve Walker A Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens - directed by Linda Ade Brand
Spencer Theatre-4949 Cherry Street
Nov. 18-Dec. 24, 2006
26th Annual Production!