I am not a Christian but I'll take the holidays. So much has happened, well really nothing.
Last week some events happened that are worth mentioning, Don't Ask Dont Tell was repealed which is good, all who want to fight should be allowed to join. But it also got me thinking, they must have too many gays in the military to be pushing this or they must not have enough soldiers. Either way it passed and many consider this a progressive issue. Lets clarify this, this is not a progressive issue. It doesn't bring minorities out of poverty, it really helps White people who seem to be successful middle class which eliminates the progressive rule and it really helps both conservative or liberal Whites who seem to be beholden to this issue. It just seems Whites have too many gays and they do not seem to be hindered by that, especially the Republicans which counters their core values when there is a segment requesting extra rights for bodily acts.
A second place which has too many of a certain people, was UCLA and other colleges. As the vote was counted for the Dream Act I couldn't help but notice that there were too many undocumented students anxciously waiting for the vote. Life must not be that hard if a student is undocumented and their parents can afford to send them to UCLA. I am an American by birth and I could barely afford to attend UCLA in the early 1990's when many of these students were being born in their countries of origen. So how does a population that technically does not have legality have the money to pay cash when my mother, also an American citizen could not afford to pay for my schooling nor me when tuition was much less. Granted in the early 1990's there was a major recession and I remember because I couldn't find employment as a young many in my early 20's and even with a USC degree in hand it did not help. Yet at the highest cost of tuition these undocumented students can.
I opposed the Dream Act because non citizens should not be given access over US citizens of any color, especially when it comes to Mexican Americans. These undocumented students are doing what took me 4 generations to do which was to complete college but they do it as an immigrant population. They are not even first generation Americans and yet they get through. Because the undocumented students who come from Mexico south to Latin America, can easily morph as a Mexican American, they easily by permission of colleges trumph Mexican Americans and really push us out. How is this fair to those of us born here with the mental scar of being raised American and segregated?
I have to realize that the longer we are in the US, the more psychologically we are harmed were we learned to self doubt even as toddlers. Immigrants don't have that history because they believe this is the land of promise and it's not. Especially, when their undocumented parents are employed and our American parents struggle for employment. The immigrant thinks the opportunity is the same when it's not.
I saw the tears on many students but I didn't feel pity for them because who has pitied or given me that hand of help. I would even argue that I have lost out to those that were amnestied in 1986 because they write their woe is me story and the system seems to always have a place for them while I as a person born in this country find myself looking in. The people who voted against them were not bigots they just felt that citizens have to be considered first by not bringing in more foreigners as permanent people. Foreigners cannot throw the racist card when they are not even citizens of that nation and are employed. If the Whites in Congress were bigots they would enact laws that made it impossible to be hired like in France.
I hear the clamor that they were brought here as children but birth is the sacredity of citizenship and that is what makes one a legal entity defined by space. We all have to abide by the law, when we drive we are to have a driver's license, when we apply for a job the id and social security card, when we travel a passport. There is nothing absurd about this and why should one be compensated for irresponsibility of the parents, who overstayed their visit. Maybe ICE isn't as bad as made out to be.
People might be against my opinions but truth of the matter, those of us born in the US should have a right to our opinion and truth of the matter, I don't have any relationship to these people. We are both of entirely different nationalities, I don't have any legal or even racial connection so why would I be guilt into supporting a group of people I believe are a direct competition to me and my friends.
The Senate did right by rejecting the dream act because ultimately, the country belongs only to those born here and not foreigners who show up because they are greedy and that includes the Naturalized. Lets have a Dream Act for the unemployed Mexican American who truly needs it as the LA Times reported that immigrants have gained 1.2 million jobs while US born Mexican Americans have lost 600,000 jobs. Who really has it bad? I have lost friends over this issue but if you were to listen to this unselfishly all would comprehend the dire crisis.
Congress needs to act more to ensure that US citizens are educated and employed first and the home countries need to become responsible for their citzens because I as a non citizen cannot petition anything from Mexico or Ecuador. Even though my name is Julian Camacho, I am still a gringo and a foreigner in Mexico.
Friday, December 24, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Chalino Review & Trixie
To Trixie, Thank you for your comments, in my world there is always room for a 40 something year old White woman, I need your audience. I do try to be critical but across the board. Just as I will criticize a White woman or male, I will do so to Mexican Americans who are fake, self serving and pretend to be righteous when they are not. I do have biases against southern Mexicans who think they are better than us Northern Mexican Americans and their offspring who want to claim our generational Mexican American space. But that is the Apache in Me speaking, we have history with that.
On another note, my book Chalino was reviewed by the Cal State Long Beach online magazine. I was surprised and honored simply because I was chosen and in this world that means something. The irony was that I was showcased but haven't worked there in two years because I was fired for my ideas through the excuse of budget cuts. I do oppose non Mexican Americans in Chicano Studies and they didn't like that. There shouldn't be people born in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Spain and Costa Rica in what is Mexican Ameican Studies. Those are immigrants and Mexican Americans are not immigrants apart from being desert Apache and Navajo, Chumash decended people. How can those Mexican Americans born in California be equated with someone born in Sinaloa, Jalisco or Michoacan? The spatial residence proves we are not even if some perceive them to be the same people.
Those born in Mexico have just pushed those of us born in the US aside and we have no say everthough we are Americans by birth. Why are foreigners being given the keys? I didn't fil out an application to become a citizen, it was a fate determined in US law and regional history. I didn't take a test nor get interviewed by a Phillipine worker or attend a swearing in ceremony with people from around the world.
Hence the administration and Che Guevara idealist people like former chair Luis Arroyo have pushed and advocated for Latin America to move into an American realm and with no qualms have killed a department that was intended for US born Mexicans. That is what Chicano means, a Mexican American, not someone born in Mexico and raised in the US much less a Puerto Rican. White people didn't kill Mexican American Studies, illogical Che Guevara followers who believe that from the Rio Grande to Tierra del Fuego are all the same, did. Well Mexican Americans are born north of the Rio Grande or north of the New River in the Imperial Valley so how would they fit in to Che Guevara's stupidity. If that was the case, only one country from Mexico to Brazil-Argentina would exist, but they are not. Their borders prove that and occasional wars over boundaries.
The ultimate damage was that discriminated Mexican Americans have the doors closed like me and I can't use the " I was born in Mexico syndrome and I was undocumented" line while people who are not Americans have moved in an American field and have subverted it and changed it to immigrant studies along with the east Latino identity which has nothing to do with us Mexican Americans. We are not Puerto Ricans.
Thus with a smile in my face I relished the fact that I was show cased as the author of the month even though I don't work there anymore. I am not judged by merit but then again, this is America where a political agenda is always at work.
http://www.csulb.edu/misc/inside/?p=15885
On another note, my book Chalino was reviewed by the Cal State Long Beach online magazine. I was surprised and honored simply because I was chosen and in this world that means something. The irony was that I was showcased but haven't worked there in two years because I was fired for my ideas through the excuse of budget cuts. I do oppose non Mexican Americans in Chicano Studies and they didn't like that. There shouldn't be people born in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Spain and Costa Rica in what is Mexican Ameican Studies. Those are immigrants and Mexican Americans are not immigrants apart from being desert Apache and Navajo, Chumash decended people. How can those Mexican Americans born in California be equated with someone born in Sinaloa, Jalisco or Michoacan? The spatial residence proves we are not even if some perceive them to be the same people.
Those born in Mexico have just pushed those of us born in the US aside and we have no say everthough we are Americans by birth. Why are foreigners being given the keys? I didn't fil out an application to become a citizen, it was a fate determined in US law and regional history. I didn't take a test nor get interviewed by a Phillipine worker or attend a swearing in ceremony with people from around the world.
Hence the administration and Che Guevara idealist people like former chair Luis Arroyo have pushed and advocated for Latin America to move into an American realm and with no qualms have killed a department that was intended for US born Mexicans. That is what Chicano means, a Mexican American, not someone born in Mexico and raised in the US much less a Puerto Rican. White people didn't kill Mexican American Studies, illogical Che Guevara followers who believe that from the Rio Grande to Tierra del Fuego are all the same, did. Well Mexican Americans are born north of the Rio Grande or north of the New River in the Imperial Valley so how would they fit in to Che Guevara's stupidity. If that was the case, only one country from Mexico to Brazil-Argentina would exist, but they are not. Their borders prove that and occasional wars over boundaries.
The ultimate damage was that discriminated Mexican Americans have the doors closed like me and I can't use the " I was born in Mexico syndrome and I was undocumented" line while people who are not Americans have moved in an American field and have subverted it and changed it to immigrant studies along with the east Latino identity which has nothing to do with us Mexican Americans. We are not Puerto Ricans.
Thus with a smile in my face I relished the fact that I was show cased as the author of the month even though I don't work there anymore. I am not judged by merit but then again, this is America where a political agenda is always at work.
http://www.csulb.edu/misc/inside/?p=15885
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Writing
I should write more but I'm lazy just as readers are even more lazy. I should then try to be like other Mexican American writers who believe they are spiritual writers or zen zies after a life of danger and desmadre. I'm not quite sure I can believe somebody whose been engaged in a former life of crime for the mentality never stops.
My father in law use to state he couldn't become a born again Christian because everybody attempting to convert him were all losers, he would state they were former drug addicts, criminals, and engaged in every sin possible to now preach to him the virtues of being saved. I feel the same way.
I'm not going to listen to no former criminal turned preacher, come to think about it, I wouldn't even listen to God or his chosen son Jesus much less to someone who's been in jail for harm committed to somebody else. I grew up in Lennox and I was taught by my mother to know the difference. I didn't engage in danger to anybody else except for some emotional pain for ex girlfriends--but that is normal. We didn't like each other's personalities and wouldn't admit to it. Like they were all innocent.
I'll keep listening to my mother and my dogs versus some reformed criminal preaching spirituality. Right.
My father in law use to state he couldn't become a born again Christian because everybody attempting to convert him were all losers, he would state they were former drug addicts, criminals, and engaged in every sin possible to now preach to him the virtues of being saved. I feel the same way.
I'm not going to listen to no former criminal turned preacher, come to think about it, I wouldn't even listen to God or his chosen son Jesus much less to someone who's been in jail for harm committed to somebody else. I grew up in Lennox and I was taught by my mother to know the difference. I didn't engage in danger to anybody else except for some emotional pain for ex girlfriends--but that is normal. We didn't like each other's personalities and wouldn't admit to it. Like they were all innocent.
I'll keep listening to my mother and my dogs versus some reformed criminal preaching spirituality. Right.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Narrow Minded People
So I have done some commentaries on facebook, part comical, part comical, part serious and what ever anyone reads into it. However on one of the commentaries I was sent a nasty reply by the cartoonish Lalo Alcaraz. I'm not one that sits back, I go on the offense and defense simultaneously.
So we went back and forth on points that merit a discussion but when the heat got too hot he de friended me. Technically we were never friends. But for the simple reason that he did not like what I told him. I at least heard him out but he was quick to cut me off.
Then the same happened with Ask a Mexican, Gustavo Arellano but with him it was a commentary over Muslims and I went back and forth with a woman whose in love with that culture and claims that Mexican culture comes Middle eastern roots. As I told her, the numbers of Spaniards never made it to Mexico and much less north. I took a cultural point, Muslims will push their culture and you can forget about anything pork. And when Spaniards claim they are part North African then I might be open but I doubt that.
So the Ask a Mexican response was to de friend me, but as I said, we were never friends. I could never be friends with people from Zacatecas--something about those people rubs me the wrong way.
The point I make is that these voices for Mexicans are quite close minded and don't like to be challenged and when they are, they turn and run. It's easy to critique people who don't know internally but when someone knows internally they can't handle being challenged. They act like their words are gospel when they are not. And when I mentioned to Alcaraz to stop spreading ignorance he acted like as if he was superior and being talked down to was not something he was used to.
It is easy to preach to the choir but to go outside of the comforts of the four walls is quite different.
And just because Whiteness has given them a voice does not mean they are correct. They push that undocumented are the same as Mexican Americans because they were raised here. Lets ignore laws because they don't matter. But the fact many are not US born proves that they are not Mexican Americans which is their own exclusive cultural legal animal created by law, US law.
The list could go on but why elaborate.
These guys represent the worse of American Higher Education, which is the creation of a close minded individual much like their professors. Why? Because they are never wrong for they are gospel. I'm glad I don't read their stuff and contribute to more ignorance.
So we went back and forth on points that merit a discussion but when the heat got too hot he de friended me. Technically we were never friends. But for the simple reason that he did not like what I told him. I at least heard him out but he was quick to cut me off.
Then the same happened with Ask a Mexican, Gustavo Arellano but with him it was a commentary over Muslims and I went back and forth with a woman whose in love with that culture and claims that Mexican culture comes Middle eastern roots. As I told her, the numbers of Spaniards never made it to Mexico and much less north. I took a cultural point, Muslims will push their culture and you can forget about anything pork. And when Spaniards claim they are part North African then I might be open but I doubt that.
So the Ask a Mexican response was to de friend me, but as I said, we were never friends. I could never be friends with people from Zacatecas--something about those people rubs me the wrong way.
The point I make is that these voices for Mexicans are quite close minded and don't like to be challenged and when they are, they turn and run. It's easy to critique people who don't know internally but when someone knows internally they can't handle being challenged. They act like their words are gospel when they are not. And when I mentioned to Alcaraz to stop spreading ignorance he acted like as if he was superior and being talked down to was not something he was used to.
It is easy to preach to the choir but to go outside of the comforts of the four walls is quite different.
And just because Whiteness has given them a voice does not mean they are correct. They push that undocumented are the same as Mexican Americans because they were raised here. Lets ignore laws because they don't matter. But the fact many are not US born proves that they are not Mexican Americans which is their own exclusive cultural legal animal created by law, US law.
The list could go on but why elaborate.
These guys represent the worse of American Higher Education, which is the creation of a close minded individual much like their professors. Why? Because they are never wrong for they are gospel. I'm glad I don't read their stuff and contribute to more ignorance.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Floricanto Press August Newsletter
sales@floricantopress.com
Floricanto Press
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Home
Twelve New Titles
Floricanto is pleased to announce the release of the following new titles:
Aurora. By Rafael Castillo. ISBN:978-1888205-30-5
Rafael Castillo's characters are a Chicano variation of Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks," sleepless souls lost in their own thoughts," Jacinto Jesus Cardona, author of Pan Dulce: Poems These eleven tightly-packed short stories, often allegorical yet visceral, range from the phantasmagorical "Aurora", whose misdeed has condemned her to a cyclical river of Eternal Return, to the agnostic Tomas and faithful Pedro in the theological "Penitent of Guadalupe Street", where truth is an enigma wrapped in a metaphor. In another story, a bellicose dwarf is murdered and the story is told from shifting points of view. In "Dwarfs and Penitents," an angry jilted husband searches the cobblestone streets of Prague in search of vengeance, while in "The Sands of Dhahran," a middle-age soldier battles his demons during Operation Desert Storm. In these luminous stories, Castillo give us penitents, dwarfs, lost youth, WWII vets, pachucos, doppelgangers, and memorable others populating the American literary landscape. ___ Rafael Castillo teaches writing and literature at Palo Alto College in San Antonio, Texas. He is the author of Distant Journeys, and his writing has appeared in The Arizona Quarterly, College English, Imagine, English Journal, Frank, New Mexico Humanities Review, Puentes, Southwestern American Literature, Saguaro, and ViAztlán. His fiction has also been widely syndicated and anthologized in Under the Pomegranate Tree (Washington Square Press), Lone Star Literature (W.W.Norton), Hispanic Link, (Washington, DC) and New Growth (Corona Press). "Castillo has a poet's feel for language and a gritty sense of urban reality. Aurora and other stories is a welcome addition to the growing body of Mexican American literature," Don Graham is the J. Frank Dobie Regents Professor of American Literature and English at UT-Austin, and a writer-at-large for Texas Monthly.
"Complicated, interesting, and enthralling, Castillo has one of the most authentic voices coming out of Aztlan. Our inheritance is in his words." Sheila Sanchez-Hatch, author of Strong Box Heart
"A personal memory of profound intimacy and delicately layered...Castillo's book is enticing and energizing." Carmen Tafolla, Sonnets To Human Beings.
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Mourning for Papá: A Story of a Syrian-Jewish Family in Mexico. By Jacobo Sefamí. ISBN: 978-1-888205-31-2 $26.98
Using the death of the father as a point of departure, the novel is divided into ten chapters, a structure that is particularly effective because the chapters correspond to the ten days that begin on the Jewish New Year and end on the Day of Pardon... Thus the mythic time of a millenarian religion such as Judaism is strategically juxtaposed to the recapturing of a family's memory that is both contemporary and unmistakably Mexican... The dialogues are tinged with Jewish humor. Jorge Schwartz
Each character lives simultaneously within three cultures -Jewish, Syrian, and Mexican-in a hybrid narration that produces fascinating mixtures. Lucía Guerra
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Competing Truths in Contemporary Latin American Literature: Narrating Otherness, Marginality, and the Politics of Representation. By Sandro R. Barros. ISBN: 978-1-888205-32-9. $26.95
The overwhelming success of the filmic adaptations of Before Night Falls by Cuban exile Reinaldo Arenas, The Virgin of the Assassins by Colombian writer Fernando Vallejo, and City of God by Brazilian author Paulo Lins attracted audiences worldwide to rediscover and rethink the content of these works as enigmatic messages of disillusionment and abjection regarding the Latin American realities they promote. The original texts' representation of sicarios, favelados, and homosexual dissidents undermines the conceptualization of the Latin American continental identity as "Other" in relation to dominant Eurocentric and North American perspectives. Competing Truths delves into the question of to what extent the fictional and autobiographical truths purported by the aforementioned bestsellers engage in the process of fixating conventional paradigms of "Third World" identity, such as poverty, violence and exclusion, as images of consumption for world audiences. Furthermore, Competing Truths examines what constitutes truth and reality from a perspective that assesses Latin American history and culture in a contest for the very meaning of the postmodern truth. Competing Truths presents a critical reflection of three of the most compelling and successful novels emerging from the Latin American literary scene at the end of the 20th century, questioning the politics behind their historical, racial, and gendered representations. Competing Truths explores the Latin American identity within a literary fictional framework and realistic social paradigms, a dichotomy that challenges the reality of identity of the social types. Lector, The Hispanic Book Review Journal.
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Heaven is Hard to Swallow - Paraísos duros de roer. By Rafael Pérez Gay. Translated in to English by Dr. Eduardo Jiménez Mayo. ISBN: 978-1-888205-29-9 $26.95
A forlorn psychoanalyst; a cultural historian exploring the possibility of life after death; a middle-aged couple that schedules a rendezvous with a younger version of itself; a man who compensates for his phobia of death and dying with intense sadomasochistic practices; a writer who futilely explores the sexual habits and customs of Mexico City: These five short stories comprise the body of Heaven is Hard to Swallow (Paraísos duros de roer), the latest masterpiece of the phenomenal Mexican publisher, journalist and fiction writer, Rafael Pérez Gay.
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Dreams Sueños. By María del Pilar Muñoz. ISBN: 978-1-888205-24-4 $22.98
Interpretation of dreams has been practiced by mankind for thousands of years. The hermeneutics of dreams varies from culture to culture. Latino culture has always been fascinated with the mystery of dreams and has its own approach to their significance. We can learn a lot from our dreams about ourselves, our past, present and future, our fears and hopes, our community, our health, mental state, feelings and much more... Dreams is a book that will help you understand your dreams, look at the interpretations and meanings of dream symbols, learn special methods of self dream psychoanalysis, reveal the subtle inferences and meaning of common dreams, such as falling teeth, flying, falling, chase, and more. You will also find here interpretation of special dream themes like scenes, sounds, feelings and colors, numbers, animals, food, houses, ocean, forest and etc...look for items and symbols that are prevalent in your dreams. Piece together the bits of information, search for their meanings, then shape the significance, which may clarify the next steps you should take in life and enlighten understanding for a more fulfilling life. Dreams can be instrumental in guiding your decisions, providing you courage to accept fate, dealing with sorrow, self awareness, and understanding prophetic dreams and your future, and achieving psychological health. Norma Godina-Silva, Ph.D., Founder, Director, ESL-BilingualResources.com
"Dreams will open your minds avenues into a different cultural spectrum of understanding. A plus read for one who wishes to know more about the significance of dreams and how to use them to broaden one's scope of life." Elbert García, Santa Rosa, New Mexico.
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On a Train Called Absence/Paletitas de Guayaba. ISBN: 978-1-888205-20-6 $23.95 Bilingual edition.
This is a bilingual edition. On a Train Called Absence/Paletitas de Guayaba the story is narrated in the first person by the protagonist, Marina, who is traveling by train from New Mexico to Mexico City in search of her identity, her history, and answers to many questions that are tormenting her. As the train carries her through the Mexican landscape, she has flashbacks of her life in New Mexico, a failed romance, and a previous journey. The narration also flashes forward to her arrival, and to her discoveries and adventures in Mexico, where she confronts both her historical and mythical past as well as her complex, multicultural present.
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Cuba Libre. Mentirita! By Carlos T. Mock, M.D. ISBN: 978-1-888205-16-9 $25.95
The Cuba Libre ("Free Cuba") is a cocktail made of Cola, lime, and rum. This cocktail is often referred to as a Rum and Coke in the United States and Canada, where the lime juice is optional. Bacardi claims ownership of the original, while some have also claimed it for Havana Club. It seems unlikely, however, that anyone could safely identify the first individual to combine rum and Coca-Cola-when seven or eight individuals lay claim to the creation of the Margarita, a far more complex drink-let alone identify the brand. Both the cocktail and its name remain politically loaded due to the history and current status of Cuba-United States relations. The situation is further complicated by Bacardi's political involvement in Cuba. Cuba Libre is sometimes called "Mentirita" ("little lie") by Cuban exiles opposed to the current Communist government run by Fidel Castro, as a comment that Cuba is currently not free. Cuba Libre "Mentirita" is a history book.
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Suzanna. By Irene I. Blea. ISBN: 978-1-888205-21-3 $23.95
When young girls quickly grew up to be old women, young Suzanna was raised by her grandparents who received a letter from Don Felipe Montoya asking for the child's hand in marriage. Don Felipe is old enough to be her father. He agrees to the abuelito's condition that he delay obtaining Suzanna as a wife until she becomes a woman, or until her thirteenth birthday, which ever comes first. The wedding takes place in the northern New Mexico village church on a weekday with only the necessary parties in attendance. Thus, Suzanna becomes isolated on Don Felipe's failing prairie ranch with her home-made rag doll, Cleotilda as her only friend. In two years Suzanna gives birth to two sons. The remoteness of the ranch is made worse by drought, failing live stock, Don Felipe's silence, his sternness, and sexual appetite. Economic hardship forces Felipe to seek work elsewhere. He migrates north securing employment on a Wyoming sheep ranch. He arrives to announce they are moving to Colorado where he will work in a steel mill. Suzanna and does not want to move. Felipe beats her badly into relocating. Her grandfather sooths her bruises and agrees she must go with her husband. The truck is loaded with household furnishings and before the family crosses the state line Felipe stops for gasoline. During the trip Suzanna agonizes about leaving her children behind, but at a gas station she grabs a flour sack containing Cleotilda, a santo and a few articles of clothing and runs. Suzanne is a truly outstanding first novel. Don Bullis, Author-Historian
"A well written coming of age story of a young Spanish girl tossed into marital domesticity by her grandparents. It is filled with vividly captivating details that just entices you to read on." Sandra C. Lopez, Author of Esperanza: A Latina Story
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Chalino: A Chronicle Play of Fulgor and Death. By Julián Camacho Segura. ISBN: 978-1-888205-12-1 $22.95 Bilingual edition.
With "Chalino", Julian Camacho writes about a raw, unflinching Mexican icon with an unapologetic honesty only he can provide. He excels at bringing this story to larger than life tale because he possesses one of the most experienced voices among his contemporaries. Oscar Barajas, Author, "True Tales from the Wireless Clothesline"
Rosalino "Chalino" Sanchez was a Mexican immigrant from the Mexican state of Sinaloa who came to the US in search of opportunity. In his pursuit of perseverance his gift and talent for writing corridos for the common working class man initiated a world wind phenomena that appealed to Mexican-American youth in Los Angeles, California. Chalino's corridos provided a cultural medium in which Chicanos identified with their own roots. Chalino's contribution to the musical genre of corridos bridged Mexican immigrant music of the Mexican corrido with Mexican-American youth. Chalino's corridos and music have forever changed the social fabric of Chicanos in the music scene in Los Angeles. His music helped many Chicanos have a cultural reaffirmation of who they are allowing Mexican youth in Los Angeles to immerse more deeply into their own Mexican Norteño culture. Chalino's unique singing style turned him into a legend that many have tried to imitate, but there will never be another man like him. Chalino defied the odds and became successful starting his own legacy as the king of corridos. Through his art form Chalino left behind his fame and a corrido legacy that was materialized and created in el rancho de Los Angeles, California. Marcos A. Ramos, University of California, Berkeley
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Day of the Dead/ Día de los Muertos. By Manuel Luis Martínez. ISBN: 978-1-888205-19-0 $25.95
This is the most riveting and complex narrative of the Mexican Revolution. "I am Berto Morales. I am the false son of a nameless and blind man. I am War. I took his land through a pretense. I am Pestilence. When his heir returned to claim his birthright, I killed him. I am Murder. His comrades returned to find me, and failing to do so, took the life of my wife and child. I was Love. I determined to meet injustice with injustice. I am Hatred. I brought war to those who ended my life. I am Executioner. I am guilty of sins that have no name. I have come to the slaughter uninvited and have determined to give my life freely." And so begins the saga of Berto Morales set during the Mexican Revolution, the landscape of Day of the Dead is littered with the victims of a brutal war, one populated by a cast of villains, saints, heroes, and ordinary people whose roles are often impossible to reconcile.
"Martínez continues his fine writing on Day of the Dead, and offers further proof of the wide range of Chicano literature. The reader will acknowledge that our ties to tradition serve as a most appropriate title on this tightly-written work ." Rolando Hinojosa
"In his novels Manuel Martinez writes the naked truth, and he does so twice: once when he relates the almost unknown American history of underprivileged Mexican immigrants, who never had the power or status to tell their unbelievably courageous and human stories themselves; and a second time when he makes us confront questions of identity, morality, justice and vengeance that are as relevant to anyone living in present day America and the world as they are to his protagonists. In Day of the Dead, Martinez executes this feat in clean, compassionate prose, poignantly direct and lacking in clichés." Assaf Gavron, has published four novels, a collection of short stories. His fiction has been translated into German, Russian, Italian, French, English and more, won prizes, was adapted for the stage, and optioned several times for movies.
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Hasta la Vista, Baby! By Donna Del Oro. ISBN: ISBN: 978-1-888205-17-6 $22.95
"I thought it was great. I mean, I was hooked from the very first page because of all the wit and humor. I found myself laughing a few times ...and that was only the first three chapters!" Sandra Lopez, author of ESPERANZA and BEYOND THE GARDENS
"A fun romp to read! Hasta La Vista, Baby! is a deft mix of humor and raw emotion with unforgettable characters. Donna Del Oro is an author to watch!" Loucinda McGary, award-winning author of The Wild Sight and The Treasures of Venice.
Hasta la Vista, Baby! is a romantic comedy set in Silicon Valley.
Sonya, the artist, is blind to everything but beauty. She learns the hard way that it's never too late to wake up, wise up and grow up!
Muralist Sonya Reyes Barton experiences an emotional meltdown when her handsome, cheating husband, Earl, announces at a family BBQ that he needs a divorce so he can marry his pregnant girlfriend. In front of all the Bartons, Sonya has a nervous breakdown, chases Earl with a barbecue fork, eventually winds down and collapses.
How does the worst day of Sonya's life eventually become the best thing that ever happens to her? How does she gain insight into herself and her choice of men? More importantly, how does Sonya learn to forgive herself and move on? There's still life after forty-two and she's determined to find it.
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Mujeres de Conciencia/ Women of Conscience. Spanish English parallel text and photography by Victoria Alvarado. ISBN: 978-0-9796457-7-8. 2008 $79.95 Oversized, Hardbound.
This is an art book with magnificent black and white photos of prominent Latinas who have made definite and long standing contribution to the Hispanic community and the country at large. This photographic essay constitutes an important collective biography as well, with great journalistic insight and integrity into the lives of leading Latina women in the fields of education, science, literature, business, law, the arts, journalism, politics, and other fields of endeavor. This coffee table monograph, which has been published with art-book quality as a collector's edition, provides stunning artistic, B&W photographs of each subject with a parallel biographic journalistic essay in Spanish and English. The biographies explore the life-changing events of each subject, the personal mix of elements, circumstances, and values which allowed these women to set goals and objectives toward most successful careers and contributions to society. There are 72 leading women included in this collective biography and an extraordinary photographic essay offering the most incredible array of role models to inspire, guide and motivate young Latinas. This title is an important addition to reference collections and individual libraries for they are testament to the vision and values of la Mujer Latina.
Floricanto Press
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Home
Twelve New Titles
Floricanto is pleased to announce the release of the following new titles:
Aurora. By Rafael Castillo. ISBN:978-1888205-30-5
Rafael Castillo's characters are a Chicano variation of Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks," sleepless souls lost in their own thoughts," Jacinto Jesus Cardona, author of Pan Dulce: Poems These eleven tightly-packed short stories, often allegorical yet visceral, range from the phantasmagorical "Aurora", whose misdeed has condemned her to a cyclical river of Eternal Return, to the agnostic Tomas and faithful Pedro in the theological "Penitent of Guadalupe Street", where truth is an enigma wrapped in a metaphor. In another story, a bellicose dwarf is murdered and the story is told from shifting points of view. In "Dwarfs and Penitents," an angry jilted husband searches the cobblestone streets of Prague in search of vengeance, while in "The Sands of Dhahran," a middle-age soldier battles his demons during Operation Desert Storm. In these luminous stories, Castillo give us penitents, dwarfs, lost youth, WWII vets, pachucos, doppelgangers, and memorable others populating the American literary landscape. ___ Rafael Castillo teaches writing and literature at Palo Alto College in San Antonio, Texas. He is the author of Distant Journeys, and his writing has appeared in The Arizona Quarterly, College English, Imagine, English Journal, Frank, New Mexico Humanities Review, Puentes, Southwestern American Literature, Saguaro, and ViAztlán. His fiction has also been widely syndicated and anthologized in Under the Pomegranate Tree (Washington Square Press), Lone Star Literature (W.W.Norton), Hispanic Link, (Washington, DC) and New Growth (Corona Press). "Castillo has a poet's feel for language and a gritty sense of urban reality. Aurora and other stories is a welcome addition to the growing body of Mexican American literature," Don Graham is the J. Frank Dobie Regents Professor of American Literature and English at UT-Austin, and a writer-at-large for Texas Monthly.
"Complicated, interesting, and enthralling, Castillo has one of the most authentic voices coming out of Aztlan. Our inheritance is in his words." Sheila Sanchez-Hatch, author of Strong Box Heart
"A personal memory of profound intimacy and delicately layered...Castillo's book is enticing and energizing." Carmen Tafolla, Sonnets To Human Beings.
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Mourning for Papá: A Story of a Syrian-Jewish Family in Mexico. By Jacobo Sefamí. ISBN: 978-1-888205-31-2 $26.98
Using the death of the father as a point of departure, the novel is divided into ten chapters, a structure that is particularly effective because the chapters correspond to the ten days that begin on the Jewish New Year and end on the Day of Pardon... Thus the mythic time of a millenarian religion such as Judaism is strategically juxtaposed to the recapturing of a family's memory that is both contemporary and unmistakably Mexican... The dialogues are tinged with Jewish humor. Jorge Schwartz
Each character lives simultaneously within three cultures -Jewish, Syrian, and Mexican-in a hybrid narration that produces fascinating mixtures. Lucía Guerra
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Competing Truths in Contemporary Latin American Literature: Narrating Otherness, Marginality, and the Politics of Representation. By Sandro R. Barros. ISBN: 978-1-888205-32-9. $26.95
The overwhelming success of the filmic adaptations of Before Night Falls by Cuban exile Reinaldo Arenas, The Virgin of the Assassins by Colombian writer Fernando Vallejo, and City of God by Brazilian author Paulo Lins attracted audiences worldwide to rediscover and rethink the content of these works as enigmatic messages of disillusionment and abjection regarding the Latin American realities they promote. The original texts' representation of sicarios, favelados, and homosexual dissidents undermines the conceptualization of the Latin American continental identity as "Other" in relation to dominant Eurocentric and North American perspectives. Competing Truths delves into the question of to what extent the fictional and autobiographical truths purported by the aforementioned bestsellers engage in the process of fixating conventional paradigms of "Third World" identity, such as poverty, violence and exclusion, as images of consumption for world audiences. Furthermore, Competing Truths examines what constitutes truth and reality from a perspective that assesses Latin American history and culture in a contest for the very meaning of the postmodern truth. Competing Truths presents a critical reflection of three of the most compelling and successful novels emerging from the Latin American literary scene at the end of the 20th century, questioning the politics behind their historical, racial, and gendered representations. Competing Truths explores the Latin American identity within a literary fictional framework and realistic social paradigms, a dichotomy that challenges the reality of identity of the social types. Lector, The Hispanic Book Review Journal.
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Heaven is Hard to Swallow - Paraísos duros de roer. By Rafael Pérez Gay. Translated in to English by Dr. Eduardo Jiménez Mayo. ISBN: 978-1-888205-29-9 $26.95
A forlorn psychoanalyst; a cultural historian exploring the possibility of life after death; a middle-aged couple that schedules a rendezvous with a younger version of itself; a man who compensates for his phobia of death and dying with intense sadomasochistic practices; a writer who futilely explores the sexual habits and customs of Mexico City: These five short stories comprise the body of Heaven is Hard to Swallow (Paraísos duros de roer), the latest masterpiece of the phenomenal Mexican publisher, journalist and fiction writer, Rafael Pérez Gay.
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Dreams Sueños. By María del Pilar Muñoz. ISBN: 978-1-888205-24-4 $22.98
Interpretation of dreams has been practiced by mankind for thousands of years. The hermeneutics of dreams varies from culture to culture. Latino culture has always been fascinated with the mystery of dreams and has its own approach to their significance. We can learn a lot from our dreams about ourselves, our past, present and future, our fears and hopes, our community, our health, mental state, feelings and much more... Dreams is a book that will help you understand your dreams, look at the interpretations and meanings of dream symbols, learn special methods of self dream psychoanalysis, reveal the subtle inferences and meaning of common dreams, such as falling teeth, flying, falling, chase, and more. You will also find here interpretation of special dream themes like scenes, sounds, feelings and colors, numbers, animals, food, houses, ocean, forest and etc...look for items and symbols that are prevalent in your dreams. Piece together the bits of information, search for their meanings, then shape the significance, which may clarify the next steps you should take in life and enlighten understanding for a more fulfilling life. Dreams can be instrumental in guiding your decisions, providing you courage to accept fate, dealing with sorrow, self awareness, and understanding prophetic dreams and your future, and achieving psychological health. Norma Godina-Silva, Ph.D., Founder, Director, ESL-BilingualResources.com
"Dreams will open your minds avenues into a different cultural spectrum of understanding. A plus read for one who wishes to know more about the significance of dreams and how to use them to broaden one's scope of life." Elbert García, Santa Rosa, New Mexico.
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On a Train Called Absence/Paletitas de Guayaba. ISBN: 978-1-888205-20-6 $23.95 Bilingual edition.
This is a bilingual edition. On a Train Called Absence/Paletitas de Guayaba the story is narrated in the first person by the protagonist, Marina, who is traveling by train from New Mexico to Mexico City in search of her identity, her history, and answers to many questions that are tormenting her. As the train carries her through the Mexican landscape, she has flashbacks of her life in New Mexico, a failed romance, and a previous journey. The narration also flashes forward to her arrival, and to her discoveries and adventures in Mexico, where she confronts both her historical and mythical past as well as her complex, multicultural present.
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Cuba Libre. Mentirita! By Carlos T. Mock, M.D. ISBN: 978-1-888205-16-9 $25.95
The Cuba Libre ("Free Cuba") is a cocktail made of Cola, lime, and rum. This cocktail is often referred to as a Rum and Coke in the United States and Canada, where the lime juice is optional. Bacardi claims ownership of the original, while some have also claimed it for Havana Club. It seems unlikely, however, that anyone could safely identify the first individual to combine rum and Coca-Cola-when seven or eight individuals lay claim to the creation of the Margarita, a far more complex drink-let alone identify the brand. Both the cocktail and its name remain politically loaded due to the history and current status of Cuba-United States relations. The situation is further complicated by Bacardi's political involvement in Cuba. Cuba Libre is sometimes called "Mentirita" ("little lie") by Cuban exiles opposed to the current Communist government run by Fidel Castro, as a comment that Cuba is currently not free. Cuba Libre "Mentirita" is a history book.
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Suzanna. By Irene I. Blea. ISBN: 978-1-888205-21-3 $23.95
When young girls quickly grew up to be old women, young Suzanna was raised by her grandparents who received a letter from Don Felipe Montoya asking for the child's hand in marriage. Don Felipe is old enough to be her father. He agrees to the abuelito's condition that he delay obtaining Suzanna as a wife until she becomes a woman, or until her thirteenth birthday, which ever comes first. The wedding takes place in the northern New Mexico village church on a weekday with only the necessary parties in attendance. Thus, Suzanna becomes isolated on Don Felipe's failing prairie ranch with her home-made rag doll, Cleotilda as her only friend. In two years Suzanna gives birth to two sons. The remoteness of the ranch is made worse by drought, failing live stock, Don Felipe's silence, his sternness, and sexual appetite. Economic hardship forces Felipe to seek work elsewhere. He migrates north securing employment on a Wyoming sheep ranch. He arrives to announce they are moving to Colorado where he will work in a steel mill. Suzanna and does not want to move. Felipe beats her badly into relocating. Her grandfather sooths her bruises and agrees she must go with her husband. The truck is loaded with household furnishings and before the family crosses the state line Felipe stops for gasoline. During the trip Suzanna agonizes about leaving her children behind, but at a gas station she grabs a flour sack containing Cleotilda, a santo and a few articles of clothing and runs. Suzanne is a truly outstanding first novel. Don Bullis, Author-Historian
"A well written coming of age story of a young Spanish girl tossed into marital domesticity by her grandparents. It is filled with vividly captivating details that just entices you to read on." Sandra C. Lopez, Author of Esperanza: A Latina Story
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Chalino: A Chronicle Play of Fulgor and Death. By Julián Camacho Segura. ISBN: 978-1-888205-12-1 $22.95 Bilingual edition.
With "Chalino", Julian Camacho writes about a raw, unflinching Mexican icon with an unapologetic honesty only he can provide. He excels at bringing this story to larger than life tale because he possesses one of the most experienced voices among his contemporaries. Oscar Barajas, Author, "True Tales from the Wireless Clothesline"
Rosalino "Chalino" Sanchez was a Mexican immigrant from the Mexican state of Sinaloa who came to the US in search of opportunity. In his pursuit of perseverance his gift and talent for writing corridos for the common working class man initiated a world wind phenomena that appealed to Mexican-American youth in Los Angeles, California. Chalino's corridos provided a cultural medium in which Chicanos identified with their own roots. Chalino's contribution to the musical genre of corridos bridged Mexican immigrant music of the Mexican corrido with Mexican-American youth. Chalino's corridos and music have forever changed the social fabric of Chicanos in the music scene in Los Angeles. His music helped many Chicanos have a cultural reaffirmation of who they are allowing Mexican youth in Los Angeles to immerse more deeply into their own Mexican Norteño culture. Chalino's unique singing style turned him into a legend that many have tried to imitate, but there will never be another man like him. Chalino defied the odds and became successful starting his own legacy as the king of corridos. Through his art form Chalino left behind his fame and a corrido legacy that was materialized and created in el rancho de Los Angeles, California. Marcos A. Ramos, University of California, Berkeley
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Day of the Dead/ Día de los Muertos. By Manuel Luis Martínez. ISBN: 978-1-888205-19-0 $25.95
This is the most riveting and complex narrative of the Mexican Revolution. "I am Berto Morales. I am the false son of a nameless and blind man. I am War. I took his land through a pretense. I am Pestilence. When his heir returned to claim his birthright, I killed him. I am Murder. His comrades returned to find me, and failing to do so, took the life of my wife and child. I was Love. I determined to meet injustice with injustice. I am Hatred. I brought war to those who ended my life. I am Executioner. I am guilty of sins that have no name. I have come to the slaughter uninvited and have determined to give my life freely." And so begins the saga of Berto Morales set during the Mexican Revolution, the landscape of Day of the Dead is littered with the victims of a brutal war, one populated by a cast of villains, saints, heroes, and ordinary people whose roles are often impossible to reconcile.
"Martínez continues his fine writing on Day of the Dead, and offers further proof of the wide range of Chicano literature. The reader will acknowledge that our ties to tradition serve as a most appropriate title on this tightly-written work ." Rolando Hinojosa
"In his novels Manuel Martinez writes the naked truth, and he does so twice: once when he relates the almost unknown American history of underprivileged Mexican immigrants, who never had the power or status to tell their unbelievably courageous and human stories themselves; and a second time when he makes us confront questions of identity, morality, justice and vengeance that are as relevant to anyone living in present day America and the world as they are to his protagonists. In Day of the Dead, Martinez executes this feat in clean, compassionate prose, poignantly direct and lacking in clichés." Assaf Gavron, has published four novels, a collection of short stories. His fiction has been translated into German, Russian, Italian, French, English and more, won prizes, was adapted for the stage, and optioned several times for movies.
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Hasta la Vista, Baby! By Donna Del Oro. ISBN: ISBN: 978-1-888205-17-6 $22.95
"I thought it was great. I mean, I was hooked from the very first page because of all the wit and humor. I found myself laughing a few times ...and that was only the first three chapters!" Sandra Lopez, author of ESPERANZA and BEYOND THE GARDENS
"A fun romp to read! Hasta La Vista, Baby! is a deft mix of humor and raw emotion with unforgettable characters. Donna Del Oro is an author to watch!" Loucinda McGary, award-winning author of The Wild Sight and The Treasures of Venice.
Hasta la Vista, Baby! is a romantic comedy set in Silicon Valley.
Sonya, the artist, is blind to everything but beauty. She learns the hard way that it's never too late to wake up, wise up and grow up!
Muralist Sonya Reyes Barton experiences an emotional meltdown when her handsome, cheating husband, Earl, announces at a family BBQ that he needs a divorce so he can marry his pregnant girlfriend. In front of all the Bartons, Sonya has a nervous breakdown, chases Earl with a barbecue fork, eventually winds down and collapses.
How does the worst day of Sonya's life eventually become the best thing that ever happens to her? How does she gain insight into herself and her choice of men? More importantly, how does Sonya learn to forgive herself and move on? There's still life after forty-two and she's determined to find it.
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Mujeres de Conciencia/ Women of Conscience. Spanish English parallel text and photography by Victoria Alvarado. ISBN: 978-0-9796457-7-8. 2008 $79.95 Oversized, Hardbound.
This is an art book with magnificent black and white photos of prominent Latinas who have made definite and long standing contribution to the Hispanic community and the country at large. This photographic essay constitutes an important collective biography as well, with great journalistic insight and integrity into the lives of leading Latina women in the fields of education, science, literature, business, law, the arts, journalism, politics, and other fields of endeavor. This coffee table monograph, which has been published with art-book quality as a collector's edition, provides stunning artistic, B&W photographs of each subject with a parallel biographic journalistic essay in Spanish and English. The biographies explore the life-changing events of each subject, the personal mix of elements, circumstances, and values which allowed these women to set goals and objectives toward most successful careers and contributions to society. There are 72 leading women included in this collective biography and an extraordinary photographic essay offering the most incredible array of role models to inspire, guide and motivate young Latinas. This title is an important addition to reference collections and individual libraries for they are testament to the vision and values of la Mujer Latina.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
New Book on My Christian Experience
It is strange to write a book about Christianity when I don't believe in the concept of Christ for cultural purposes. As a Cucapah Mayo Apache from Inglewood, CA I cannot believe in traditions from northeastern Africa. I just can't, those are myths that are not believable but more than that, they refer to customs and cultures from other people that I do not have a DNA relationship to. I'm not Middle Eastern, African or Mediterrenean. And I see Christianity as cultural genocide because most know the Bible stories but few know their indigenous stories. Even worse, they defend Christianity and laugh at our beliefs in brujeria-witchcraft and dreams. At least the dream was real but 2000 year old stories that were translated from translations has no place in North America. Could Apache traditions be imposed in the middle east and be told that the bible is fake? How would they react?
My new book deals with my experience in the 1980's attending an Anglo Mid Western Protestant Church. It is being edited but has been submitted for publishing consideration. The book is not fiction rather a lived experience.
My new book deals with my experience in the 1980's attending an Anglo Mid Western Protestant Church. It is being edited but has been submitted for publishing consideration. The book is not fiction rather a lived experience.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
I love blogging
Nobody reads them. And I don't want to beg them to read and sell myself like I was an unwanted oversize polo shirt that is either pink or purple. No wonder nobody wants them.
I'll keep writing and pretend somebody reads like I need attention.
I'll keep writing and pretend somebody reads like I need attention.
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