December 2004
IN MEMORIAM
New Mexico State University Spanish professor Ricardo Aguilar-Melantzon died September 24,2004, at Providence Memorial Hospital in El Paso, where he had been hospitalized for about a week after a heart attack.
Aguilar, the 2003 New Mexico Professor of the Year and an NMSU Regents Professor, had been a faculty member in the languages and linguistics department for more than 10 years. He served as department head for languages and linguistics and as a member of the board of directors of the New Mexico Hispanic Cultural Center during 1994-97. He also was acting director of the Center for Latin American and Border Studies in 2002-03.
He was known internationally for his research in Chicano literature and for his own creative writing.
"As an acclaimed writer, Dr. Aguilar-Melantzon had a distinguished national and international career," said Waded Cruzado-Salas, dean of the NMSU College of Arts and Sciences. "On behalf of the College of Arts and Sciences, I express my deepest condolences to his family, friends and colleagues."
"Dr. Aguilar-Melantzon was a gifted, caring teacher and mentor who combined high expectations from his students with great support for thei! r work," said Jeff Brown, associate dean of the college. ! "He will be greatly missed by his colleagues, by his students and the staff members who worked with him and by his many friends."
Aguilar received his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Texas at El Paso and his Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico.
ANUNCIOS
RUDOLFO AND PATRICIA ANAYA PREMIO ATZLÁN LITERARY PRIZEDeadline: December 31, 2004The Rudolfo and Patricia Anaya Premio Atzlán Literary Prize is a national literary prize, established to encourage and reward emerging Chicana and Chicano authors. A prize of $1,000 is given for a work of fiction published in the 2004 calendar year. Authors who have published no more than two books are eligible for the prize. For guidelines and more information, visit
http://elibrary.unm.edu./ Questions may be directed to Teresa Marquez at tmarquez@unm.edu, (505) 277-0582 or Dina Ma'ayan at dinam@unm.edu , (505) 277-7197 at the University of New Mexico General Library.
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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Mexican Literary Fiction in Translation
Mexico: A Traveler’s Literary Companion,
an anthology of contemporary Mexican literary fiction
to be edited by C.M. Mayo
for Whereabouts Press, 2005
Need translations of quality contemporary literary Mexican fiction with a strong sense of place (e.g., Oaxaca, Sierra Tarahumara, Guadalajara, the border, etc.). Reprints welcome. Novel excerpts OK if can stand alone.
Please include both translation and the original work; author’s bio; translator’s bio; contact information for translator, author; and— this is especially important— any other contact information that would be needed for securing permissions. Please also include a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) for reply. (Please do not send unsolicited e-mail attachments; because of viruses, such attachments are automatically deleted.)
C.M. Mayo is the author of Miraculous Air: Journey of a Thousand Miles through Baja California, the Other Mexico (University of Utah Press, 2002) and Sky Over El Nido (University of Georgia Press, 1995), which won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. A long-time resident of Mexico City, Mayo is also a translator of Mexican poetry and short fiction and founding editor of Tameme, the bilingual literary journal. For more about C.M. Mayo, visit
http://www.cmmayo.com/
Whereabouts Press is the publisher of the highly regarded Traveler’s Literary Companions series which includes Chile, edited by Katherine Silver; Costa Rica, edited by Barbara Ras; Cuba, edited by Ann Louise Bardach; and Spain, edited by Peter Bush and Lisa Dillman. For more about Whereabouts Press, visit
http://www.whereaboutspress.com/
DEADLINE: December 30, 2004
Send to:
C.M. Mayo Editor, "Mexico" P.O. Box 58063, Washington DC 20037**
Call for Submissions
Pluma Fronteriza is a nationally distributed publication that covers news on Chicana(o) and Latin(o)a writers from the El Paso, TX/Las Cruces, NM/Cd. Juárez, Chihuahua, Mex. tri-state region.
Main SubmissionsWe are currently accepting submissions of open letters, essays, poetry, and short memories in honor of Abelardo B. Delgado and Ricardo Aguilar, both passed away this year.
Guidelines for writers
Poetry: No more than two 8 ½ x 11 pages on a Microsoft Word or WordPerfect format.Essays should be no longer than 400-500 words on MS Word or WordPerfect format.Short memories (remembranzas) should be no longer than 100 words on the formats listed above.We are hoping to dedicate two issues to these great fronterizo writers. Submission deadline for the spring issue is March 15, 2005.
Submissions for the winter issue should be postmarked Jan. 3, 2005.
Non-writers on Abelardo DelgadoWe will accept letters and 200-word memories from non-writers. By non-writers, we mean individuals who do not write creatively, academically, or journalistically but were somehow influenced by Abelardo Delgado as students, farmworkers, or members of the many organizations he founded and ran.Special call for current high school students and Denver-area collegesWe are accepting submissions of letters, essays, poetry, or short memories honoring Abelardo Delgado as an educator. If you had Delgado as an instructor in Upward Bound or a Chicano Studies class, we invite you to submit. Note, in this category, submitters must be either current high school or college students. We will accept submissions from high school graduates who have not started college. We ask you write something on how Abelardo Delgado influenced your life or education. Please include the name of your college, university, or high school as well as your age.
We are accepting visual art and photo submissions as long as they are placed onto a digital format (*JPEG). Must relate to the themes of honoring Lalo Delgado or Ricardo Aguilar.Submissions selected will be featured in our winter and spring issues.
Send submissions to:Pluma Fronteriza1510-J Greenway Dr.Eudora, Kansas 66025E-mail submissions are accepted as attachments to
plumafronteriza@msn.com or
rayrojas@sunflower.com
If sent by postal mail, please include a copy on a 3"-diskette or CD; however, we do not require submissions be on a computer disk. All visual arts or photo submission must be on a computer format.All submissions should include your postal address, phone number, and e-mail address.
PLEASE LET US KNOW OF LIBRARIANS YOU MAY KNOW
THAT SHOULD BE RECEIVING PLUMA FRONTERIZA
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CALL FOR ABSTRACTSPanel session on Chicana/o Environmental Writingat the Sixth Biennial Conference,Association for the Study of Literature and EnvironmentJune 21-25, 2005, University of OregonWalden Pond in Aztlán?: Chicana/o Writing and the EnvironmentChicano activists in the 1960s and 1970s drafted plans to establish anation within the territories taken from Mexico by the U.S. in 1848, andthey agreed to call the place Aztlán. Treated like second-class citizensin the U.S. and no longer claimed by Mexico, the Chicano community longedfor a homeland after more than a century of alienation andoppression. Though nationalistic fervor no longer rules the movement,present-day Chicana/o writers, activists, and scholars alike still consider
Aztlán an imaginary ideal, consisting of a social justice agenda that willachieve decent living and working conditions, access to educationalopportunities, and attainment of political leadership positions, as well as strategies for building alternatives to exploitative social and economicsystems. Still, the question remains: what place does environmentalismhold in the Chicana/o vision? Is there space for a "Walden Pond" in Aztlán?This panel will showcase the significant but little-noted contributionsthat Chicanas/os have been making to environmental thought ever since, atleast, the conquest of northwest Mexico by the U.S. in 1848. Henry DavidThoreau built his log-cabin retreat at Walden Pond when the U.S. was on the brink of waging war against Mexico, and his famous act of civildisobedience was, in part, to protest this war: "Witness the presentMexican war, the work of comparatively a few individuals using the standing government as their tool; for in the outset, the people would not haveconsented to this measure," (Thoreau, "Civil Disobedience"). Thus, in themiddle of the nineteenth century, U.S. imperialism reaps two significantchallenges: how to deal with the gente (people) that accompanied theconquered Mexican lands, and how to respond to critiques from its attentive citizens, like Thoreau. This common chronology might suggest a possiblealliance between Mexican American thought and environmentalwriting. However, this connection remains largely unexplored-by ecocritics and Chicana/o literary scholars alike. Why? This panel will attempt tointerrogate various aspects of the possible connections and critiques thatemerge when considering Mexican American and Chicana/o writers alongsideenvironmental thought--not only in the nineteenth century, but into thetwentieth (and twenty-first) century as well. Some questions to considermight include:* Where do Chicana/o and environmental writing meet?* Does the Chicana/o imaginary homeland of Aztlán make space for a"Walden Pond" within its borders, or at its borderlands?* How has Mexican American thought historically addressed environmental issues?* How does contemporary Chicana/o writing speak to current ecological crises?* Must the categories of nature and environmental writing makefundamental changes to accommodate nineteenth century Mexican Americanwriters and twentieth century Chicana/o authors? Would Mexican Americansand Chicanas/os want to be considered "nature" or "environmental" writers?Papers may consider: discussions of specific works by Mexican American and Chicana/o writers in an environmental context, such as María Amparo Ruiz de Burton, Jovita Gonzáles, María Cristina Mena, Américo Paredes, CherríeMoraga, Ana Castillo, Denise Chávez, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Ray Gonzáles, and others; or, reflections on specific challenges and/or insights resultingfrom considering Chicana/o writers in an environmental context, includingbut not limited to environmental justice, land rights, bioregionalidentity, political activism, traditional environmental knowledge,environmental citizenship, and more.Please submit 1-page abstracts to Priscilla Ybarra at
pybarra@rice.edu
Priscilla Solis YbarraPh.D. Candidate LecturerRice University Yale UniversityDepartment of English American StudiesPhone: (713) 294-1278 Fall 2004
For more info:
http://www.asle.umn.edu/conf/asle_conf/2005/cfp.html
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The editors of Ventana Abierta, at UC-Santa Barbara, Luis Leal and Víctor Fuentes, have issued a call for poems, essays and short stories dedicated to the diverse aspects of today's Latino Literature, to be published on February and August 2005.
(6-page limitation, double space). The deadlines for submitting a piece to these issues are Dec.31 and June 30, respectively.Center for Chicano StudiesUniversity of CaliforniaSanta Barbara, CA 93106FAX (805) 893-4446
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Dear Artist and or Poet,You might remember "FacingFaces", the international art- and poetry project against violence towards women and children.
The project now being in its fourth succesive year it proudly announces D.I.S.A. a new project called D.I.S.A. which stands for Direct Individual Support Action.
C.A.U.S.E., through its website and real time activities and on a tri-monthly basis, will directly support a victim of domestic i.e. sexually orientated violence through donation campaigns, this apart from offering artworks and E-books in further support of the D.I.S.A campaigns and C.A.U.S.E..
Core goal of the D.I.S.A. campaigns is to help victims of domestic i.e. sexually oriented violence to, through educational programms, (re-) gain self-confidence and independency.
Please visit the website
http://www.the-cause.org/ for more info on the first campaign.Your support is highly needed and appreciated. Domestic i.e. sexually oriented violence is a huge social problem and any support for C.A.U.S.E. and/or D.I.S.A. is one more voice helping. Thank you!Sincerely,Gino d'ArtaliDirector C.A.U.S.E.**
BOOK REVIEWS
Marcos McPeek Villatoro’s "On Tuesday, When the Homeless Disappeared"
http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/living/20041128-200173.shtml
Ernesto Quiñonez's "Chango's Fire"
http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/living/20041121-197363.shtml
Luis A. Lopez's "Warrior Poet of the Fifth Sun"
http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/living/20041114-194394.shtml
Carlos Morton’s "Dreaming on a Sunday in the Alameda"
http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/living/20041107-191410.shtml
"Alambrista and the U.S.-Mexico Border:Film, Music, and Stories of Undocumented Immigrants"
http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/living/20041017-182312.shtml
Valerie Martinez’s "World to World: Poems"
http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/living/20041010-179134.shtml
Daniel A. Olivas’s "Devil Talk"
http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/living/20040926-173286.shtml
E.A. Mares’s "With the Eyes of a Raptor"
http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/living/20040926-173284.shtml
Benjamin Alire Sáenz’s "Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood"
http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/living/20040919-171019.shtml
Ernesto Mestre-Reed's "The Secibd Death of Unica Aveyano"
http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/living/20040905-165026.shtml
Lolita Hernandez’s "Autopsy of an Engine"
http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/living/20040829-162203.shtml
Albino Carrillo's "In the City of Smoking Mirrors"
http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/living/20040822-159107.shtml
NOTICIAS
Luis Alberto Urrea Wins Prestigious Lannan Literary Award
CHICAGO, Nov. 11 (AScribe Newswire) -- Luis Alberto Urrea, a University of Illinois at Chicago creative writing professor, has been named winner of the $125,000 Lannan Literary Award for non-fiction.
The awards, presented by the Lannan Foundation, recognize writers who have made significant contributions to English-language literature through poetry, fiction and non-fiction.
Full Announcement:
University of Illinois at Chicago Writer Luis Alberto Urrea Wins ...
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MacArthur Recipient
Rueben Martinez Bookseller, Owner and Founder, Libreria Martinez Books and Art GallerySanta Ana, California
Rueben Martinez has elevated bookselling from a business to a campaign in support of underserved populations in California and throughout America. His Santa Ana bookstore, Libreria Martinez Books and Art Gallery, was originally a barbershop and is now among the largest commercial sellers of Spanish-language books in the country, serving as the cornerstone of cultural events and community activities that promote the benefits of reading to Hispanic-Americans and Spanish-speaking immigrants.
More Info:
http://www.macarthur.org/programs/fel/winners_overview.htm
NPR interview con our latest MacArthur winner Martinez:
http://www.theconnection.org/shows/2004/10/20041005_b_main.asp
(Thanks to Manuel Muñoz for the links)
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Renato Rosaldo, author of "Prayer to Spider Woman/Rezo a la mujer araña"received an American Book Award Prsented by the Before Columbus Foundation
Full Listing:
http://www.bookweb.org/news/awards/1293.html
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Abelardo "Lalo" Delgado Denver’s First Poet Laureate
Announcement Made at Memorial Tribute For Celebrated Chicano PoetMayor John Hickenlooper announced the establishment of a new post of Poet Laureate of Denver and posthumously named Abelardo "Lalo" Delgado the first to hold the honorary post. The announcement took place at a memorial tribute for the nationally-known poet who passed away at the age of 73 on July 24, 2004.
Full Story: http://www.hispanianews.com/archive/2004/09/16/04.htm
(More tributes to Delgado archived at
http://clica.blogspot.com/)
PUBLICATIONS
"Loosing My Espanish A Novel" by
H.G. Carrillo
A fiery, accomplished literary debut, Loosing My Espanish chronicles the struggles and vicissitudes of the men and women of a tiny Cuban-American community in Chicago who are haunted by history, memory, and myth as they encounter the American dream.
More Info:
http://www.randomhouse.com/pantheon/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=0375423192
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"Arroyo" by Lisa Gonzales.
Helena Maria Viramontes writes in her introduction: "There is nothing more exciting than discovering a rising light in American literature. No doubt, the work of Lisa Gonzales will shine bright. It already dazzles."
Visit their
http://www.momotombopress.com/ to read an e-interview with Lisa Gonzales—conducted by Maria Meléndez.
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"Warrior Poet of the Fifth Sun" by Luis A. Lopez
More Info:
http://www.aztecpoet/
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Hello teachers/friends. Over the past year I have been working with some high school students in Kyle Texas to help write a college hand book for young students. "Wiley's Way" is the book.
Already folks from the Rio Grand Valley have ordered class room sets for schools in Edcouch Elsa and McAllen.
Please visit the website:
http://www.wileysway.net/
The book is bilingual and very colorful. I think it will be a good book to get our students to start thinking about college at a very early age.
thanks,
david rice
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Voices of the New Sun: Songs and Stories / Voces del Nuevo Sol: Cantos y Cuentos: the 155 page anthology contain the works of 38 local authors, some very well-known, e.g., Jose Montoya, Francisco Alarcon, Olivia Castellano and others, as well as some for whom this will be their first work published. It contains the tribute poem, Las Murales, by the late Phil Goldvarg. Order it by mail, sending a check for $13.50, made out to Aztlan Cultural; mail to: Escritores del Nuevo Sol, P.O. Box 162714, Sacramento, CA 95816-2714. For more information, call (916) 456-5323, or (916) 451-1372.Website:
http://www.galeriaposada.org/escritores.htm
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Literal, Latin American Voices today offers its pages with a dual purpose: as a forum where the most important Latin American creative expressions converge and as a vehicle for the expression of new voices.
Thus Literal provides a medium for the critique and diffusion of the Latin American literature and art, recognizing its potential strength as a point of departure for understanding that the broad cultural universe is not overshadowed by any single language, but is bathed in the light of a unified spirit.
For Guidelines and a free year subscription visit:
http://www.literalmagazine.com/
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Literal, Voces latinoamericanas, abre hoy sus páginas con un doble propósito: convertirse en un foro donde confluyan las expresiones artísticas latinoamericanas más importantes y, a la vez, abrir un espacio que permita a las nuevas voces encontrar un sitio donde expresarse.
Así también Literal dará cabida a la crítica y difusión del arte latinoamericano en su sentido más generoso, atisbando la posibilidad de convertirse, también, en una voz de referencia obligada para la comprensión del amplio universo cultural que se reúne ahora ya no bajo una misma lengua, sino cobijados a la sombra de un espíritu similar.
En nuestro primer número acogimos voces como las de Gonzalo Rojas, Sandra Cisneros, Gioconda Belli, Malva Flores, Benito Pastoriza Iyodo, Rima de Vallbona, etc. Para recibir el próximo número gratis que sale en primavera y obtener más información de cómo participar en esta revista bilingüe, favor de comunicarse a Literal. 770 South Post Oak Ln, Suite 530, Houston, TX 77056. Tel. (713) 6261433, fax (713) 960 0880; ó visitar nuestra página web:
http://www.literalmagazine.com/
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"The Blood Cake Vendor and Other Stories" by J. L. Navarro: This collection of 43 stories has just been released and includes pieces published in Cafe Irreal, BIGnews Magazine, 3AM Magazine, Angeleno Stories, Suspects Thoughts, Shadowkeep, Margin, Aphelion, Bastard Fiction, Gang Related, Con Safos, XhismeArte, The Murder Hole, The House of Pain, Blue Food, Savage Night, Apocalypse Fiction, and The Dream People. The book is 522 pages in length and is available in hardcover, paperback, and ebook formats. For more info:
http://www.jlnavarro.com/
CLICA is an e-newsletter for theChicana/o & Latina/o literary community.This is a free service offered by Richard Yañez.Please submit literary announcements and requeststo join the list to
theclica@hotmail.com.
