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Today is a double feature! To kick off the Blogging from A to Z April 2015 Challenge we are featuring the letter "A"
and I'd like to focus on Authenticity.


Definition: noun
To live one's life with authenticity is to be true to one's self and to let your talents bloom. Don't compare yourself to others, for that will certainly stall you in your quest for success. Can we live a life with authenticity beyond the scope of our professional talents? Of course we can. It's important to strive to live a life of pure genuineness in all that we do. From the simplest most mundane tasks to the more complicated tasks in our lives, if we strive for authenticity it will put a spring in our step and our hearts desire will soar. 

Here's to your authenticity!!



Now on to #IWSG. It's the first Wednesday of the month and I'm delighted to announce the awesome co-hosts for April...


Suzanne Furness, Tonja Drecker, Toi Thomas, Rachna Chhabria, Fundy Blue, and Donna Hole 

Be sure to click on their names above to visit with them! 

And to visit with fellow IWSG members:

http://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html

This month I'm continuing to break out of my shell of isolation and I'm engaging more with visitors to my blog and visiting blogs and commenting. I've been making more connections and it's it an honor to meet so many new people. 

Thanks to Alex Cavanaugh for inviting me to be the guest author on March 18th at IWSG - take a gander... 

http://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/2015/03/book-festivals-must-have-for-your-book.html

Thanks Alex!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Best wishes,
Donna M. McDine
Multi Award-winning Children's Author

Ignite curiosity in your child through reading!

Connect with Donna McDine on Google+

A Sandy Grave ~ January 2014 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc. ~ 2014 Purple Dragonfly 1st Place Picture Books 6+, Story Monster Approved, Beach Book Festival Honorable Mention 2014, Reader's Favorite Five Star Review

Powder Monkey ~ May 2013 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc. ~ Story Monster Approved and Reader's Favorite Five Star Review

Hockey Agony ~ January 2013 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc. ~ New England Book Festival Honorable Mention 2014, Story Monster Approved and Reader's Favorite Five Star Review

The Golden Pathway ~ August 2010 ~ Guardian Angel Publishing, Inc. ~ Literary Classics Silver Award and Seal of Approval, Readers Favorite 2012 International Book Awards Honorable Mention and Dan Poynter's Global e-Book Awards Finalist

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Kwame Alexander, Newbery Award Winner 2015, is one of my new favorites. His writing is poetic and fun. His personality is huge. He is a way cool dude.

I had the pleasure of listening to Kwame in New York at the SCBWI mid-winter conference, and he was inspirational.

Kwame says that to write diverse books, we need to live diverse lives. That to write authentic books, we need to live authentic lives.

I'm not saying most of us don't do that, but I think we could all do more. When Kwame talks about diversity, he may not think about the fact that I live in Idaho, in Boise, where the level of racial diversity is sparse. However, I started thinking about the diversity I do experience every day.I look at my neighborhood. While it's all white, it has different kinds of diversity: a Jewish family on the corner whose adult son is autisitc, a next door neighbor raising her meth addicted daughter's child, political activists across the street who commit to their causes, a gay couple around the corner who are raising twin girls born of a surrogate. The public schools my kids have attended include immigrants and refugees from across the world, especially Bosnia, Sudan, Uganda, and Afghanistan.

But how can we increase the diversity we experience, whatever level we have in our daily lives? I think the best way is to stretch ourselves, go beyond our comfort zones, hang out with people we normally wouldn't be in contact with. I live very close to downtown Boise, which is where most of the homeless community congregates. And yes, they are a community. They interact like a large family, with the usual squabbles and infighting, but they are fiercely loyal when someone from "outside" tries to hurt or harass them.  I help serve them meals at our church. I could do more. I could be at the shelters or even on the streets with them. I have been active in lobbying for LBGT rights in our state legislature, and through that I have met many transgender folks I never knew before. That has brought into my life some awesome people, as well as expanded the way I think about gender and the pronouns I use.

What are your comfort zones? Where could you expand yourself, expose yourself to more diversity? It doesn't have to be racial diversity, although that is a good place to start if it's not something you are routinely exposed to. It could be age diversity, or gender diversity. It could be volunteering to build homes at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation (I grew up next to the rez)--the poorest place in the U.S. It could be traveling to another country to help victims of a disaster. Or it could be simply hanging out where the poor in your own community are and talking to them like real people.

Another fantastic way to increase the diversity in your world is, of course, reading diverse books! Read about people in other countries, in other times, of other races, religions, genders, and ages. Read authentic books.

Then proceed to write diversely and authentically.

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some soppy wish-fulfilment, aged 15

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I just checked out this video made on the messages of 2012. There was a big conference in Sedona recently I missed because I didn’t have patience for. Watching this video gave me some big realizations.  I trusted my empath radar as I watched.

 

 

What was disappointing is some of the leaders I previously liked I wasn’t resonating with their messages and I’ll tell you why.

I want to feel EXPANSIVE, and the opposite of boxed in. I want to feel HOPEFUL.

I don’t know about you but whatever is going on in my life, I want to feel EXPANSIVE, and the opposite of boxed in. I want to feel HOPEFUL. I don’t want feel powerless victim, ever. When I am in that space, I shut down. As an empath, my greatest gift is trusting how I feel to guide me to my right radio dial of what is good for me and what is not so great for me. I listened to one speaker  and it didn’t matter what words were being said, I felt like that awful feeling in my stomach and I felt hide under the bed fearful. His words didn’t ring true inside of me.

I listened to the Swami, who by the way, resonates more to upbeat, fairy energy — and I felt good! I love the idea of laughing and feeling empowered. Hello! Who the heck doesn’t? And I really didn’t resonate to the channeled messages which basically said all the things I all ready knew. Why would I think a dead person or spirit would be more wiser or connected to wisdom/the divine then all of the rest of us? Aren’t we all able to tap into that?

What I hope we are moving more into, new age terms aside which are starting to not resonate with me, is going more into our own guidance and sense of what works or resonates with ourselves. We’re becoming guru-less. I see that with every person who takes a class or buys my book. They are accepting themselves and finding their own answers. Woo Hoo! Isn’t that goal?

You decide…watch the video and feel. Each spiritual teacher is talking from their own perspective and seeing through their own lens on life. And who you resonate with or hear simply matches how you see things.

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Do you ever wonder if you’re a REAL writer? If you have doubts, it might be because you have a bad case of the “shoulds.”

Symptoms of the “shoulds” include:

• You should write first thing in the morning.
• You should write daily.
• You should keep a journal.
• You should write down your dreams every morning.
• You should have a room of your own and be organized!
• You should write for publication.

What if some of the “shoulds” just go against your grain? Are you not a real writer then? What if you write best after 10 p.m. instead of first thing in the morning? What if you start journals repeatedly and never last more than three days? What if you can’t remember your dreams? What if an organized office makes you freeze and you secretly prefer writing in chaos?

Are you a REAL writer then? YES!

What Am I Exactly?

If you struggle with your identity as a writer–if you don’t seem to fit the mold no matter how you’ve tried–you would love the book I found over the weekend. It’s called The Write Type: Discover Your True Writer’s Identity and Create a Customized Writing Plan by Karen E. Peterson, who wrote the best book on writer’s block I ever read.

This book takes you through exercises to find the real writer who lives inside you. You’ll explore the ten components that make up a writer’s “type.” They include such things as tolerance for solitude, best time of day to write, amount of time, need for variety, level of energy, and level of commitment. Finding your own personal combination of traits helps you build a writer’s life where you can be your most productive and creative.

Free to Be Me

To be honest, the exercises with switching hands (right brain/left brain) didn’t help me as much as the discussions about each trait. I could usually identify my inner preferences quite easily through the discussion. It gave me freedom to be myself as a writer. It also helped me pinpoint a few areas where I believed some “shoulds” that didn’t work for me, where I was trying to force this square peg writer into a round hole and could stop!

We’re all different–no surprise!–but we published writers are sometimes too quick to pass along our own personal experience in the form of “shoulds.” You should write first thing in the morning should actually be stated, It works well for ME to write first thing in the morning, so you might try that.

What About You?

Have you come up against traits of “real writers” that just don’t seem to fit you? Do you like to flit from one unfinished project to another instead of sticking to one story until it’s finished and submitted? Do you need noise around you and get the heebie jeebies when it’s too quiet?

If you have time, leave a comment concerning one or two areas where you have struggled in the pas

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Is the advice “write what you know” valid? Yes, definitely. And no, not always.

It’s confusing advice!

Practical Knowledge

“Write what you know” makes sense when you’re ignorant in some area. For example, I know nothing about vampires, have never read a vampire book, can’t understand the whole vampire movie thing, and can’t for the life of me figure out why a blood-sucking boyfriend would be romantic. It’s just me.

This is the point though: I don’t know about vampires, and I have no business sitting down today to write a vampire novel. It would be so full of ridiculous ideas and mistakes that it would be laughable. I don’t care to look that foolish.

Use Yourself

On the other hand, says Ursula K. Le Guin in “Make your fiction truthful” (The Writer, July, 2010), “Write what you know doesn’t mean you have to know a lot. It just tells you to take what you have, take who you are, and use it. Don’t try to use secondhand feeling: use yourself.” So, does ”write what you know” mean “write exclusively about your personal experiences”?

No, I don’t think so. What you “know” can come from your personal experience–that’s true. But it also comes from other people’s experiences, from books you’ve read and movies that moved you, from research and travel–all blended together when you use your imagination.

The Best of Both Worlds

I believe in “write what you know,” but I’ve also had eleven mysteries published. I will swear to you that I’ve never stolen, kidnapped, set a place on fire, or blackmailed anyone, but I’ve written about it.

However, I made aspects of those stories familiar too. I set those mysteries in the midwest, where I lived all my life. Five are set in real places I’d visited many times. I used many people I knew for my characters. I developed themes that were coming true in my own life or my children’s lives. The character growth and change was real–and it was often me.

Get to Know Yourself

Le Guin says it this way: “If you take it in its deepest meaning, ‘write about what you know’ means write from your heart, from your own real being, your own thoughts and emotions…If you don’t know who you are and what you know, if you haven’t worked to find out what you yourself truly feel and think, then your work will probably be imitation work, borrowed from other writers.” (I hope you’ll get a copy of The Writer and read her entire article.)

You may not think you know much or have had enough interesting experiences, but you’d be wrong. If you have my Writer’s First Aid book, read the chapter on “Getting to Know You…” Take the lengthy survey about your life and keep the information in a writer’s notebook.

The answers to that survey will unearth enough information about YOU to last you a writer’s lifetime.

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One of my pet peeves about a lot of YA is that the authors don't get the voice right. And time and time again, when I ask teens why they stop reading a particular book, they say: "It doesn't sound like anyone I know. I don't know where these kids are from." The teens assume the kids live somewhere else and since teens are natural narcissists, they really want to see reflections of themselves. They don't think the author got anything wrong, just wrote about kids who live where they don't.

And, of course, the folks who write YA are all artifacts to teens, so it's not easy to conjure authentic teenspeak. I think one of the toughest struggles is that teenspeak is not predictable. Plus, it's a weird mix of little kid inhibition mingled with adult observations.

Last week, my oldest guy took four days of standardized testing. To fill in the time, he had to go to one class each morning. His was health. The teacher, not wanting to tax the kids, showed "the birth film" -- the kind of film with such biological accuracy you have to sign a permission slip to allow your child to view it.

Now Christopher never took health in junior high because he's a band kid and they have trouble fitting in electives. So not only had he suffered through three days of writing and math, on the fourth day he saw the story of human birth. I knew immediately when he walked through the door that something was wrong.

"So I saw that movie today," he said before the door was shut. (This is a kid who normally has to be plied with tacquitos and ice cream before I can even find out if he had a math quiz)

"Mom, did you know that more than the baby comes out?"

"Uhh, yeah, I did. I read that somewhere."

"That was absolutely...I can't eat. Why did you sign that slip? Do you know what I just had to watch? You have no idea."

"I have an idea."

"So does the guy have to stay, like when the wife has the baby? And like watch?"

"I sent Dad home to take care of you when your brother was being born. You had just turned two and..."

"So he doesn't have to stay?"

"I would say that's sort of up to the woman. It's kind of her show."

"But you could like agree before the baby was born that the guy doesn't have to be there, right?"

"Sure. You just check that option off when you're ordering your wife."

"Because I would pass out. I felt really far away when I was watching it. I had to hold onto the desk for a few minutes."

"Your father did pass out. And you were born in spite of him being on a stretcher for about an hour. He actually didn't see anything."

"Maybe I'll do that."

"So how was the test? You had writing today, right?"

"Decent. Why did you leave these pants in my drawer? They're from like middle school or something."

"There are clean pants folded on the dining room table. I just didn't get a chance to put them in your drawer."

He takes a sandwich and looks at me, "Cause these are so tight, I could actually feel my sperm dying."

"I heard that helps you write better."

"Gawd, Mom. It's like you don't hear anything I say."

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I had time over the break (break for the teachers, I made enough pizza rolls and bagel bites to feed a sub-Saharan village)to look over some of the manuscripts I tell people I'll never get a chance to read. I explain that I teach writing and don't want to see any additional typed pages in my spare time. But writers are either gamblers or terrible listeners and they send them anyway. Usually, I glance at them and put them on the recycle pile. But with one kid sick the entire break, I got sort of bored and snooped through a few of them.

One of the reasons I dislike looking at manuscripts is because if I were an editor, I would send back acute observations such as: I don't like this and I don't know why. Something's just off...

Mostly, I can't articulate why I don't like someone's work, but I'm pretty good at saying why I do. You can guess which category most of the manuscripts I get fall into. But this time was different: this time I could put my finger on exactly what was "wrong" with the three manuscripts I leafed through. They were all YA, and the voices were, to borrow a highbrow editorial term, daffy.

Somewhere out there this snarky, sarcastic, wise cracking, semi cynical teen voice has emerged, and it's just awful. After a few pages, you recognize the the voice of an adult looking back on his/her teen years. I call it the "reunion" voice, that nostalgic remember-how-we-were-then voice, full of poignant memory and a kind of subtle admiration for your younger self. It's really fine for reunion weekends, but teens would tolerate it for about two pages before moving on.

The part that bugs me about about these stories (and you were thinking you already knew what bugged me) is that so much else about them had potential. The plot was well thought out, the characters were involved in intriguing situations, and there were truly funny scenes. It's just that the voices were not authentic, and that kills a story before it begins.

It's really hard to pin down what makes for good voice in a story. In the movie, Juno, when she says, "Silencio, old man," while buying a pregnancy test, I thought,
"Yik. Wrong." Most teens I know verge on hysterical if their hair straightener shorts out. But in Napoleon Dynamite, when he figures out his salary at the chicken farm and says, "That's like a dollar an hour..." it just sounds right. I can't explain why, but I can say that if the voice is right, probably a whole lot of other things about your manuscript are, too.

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Sheryl Luna was born and raised in El Paso, Texas. Her collection of poetry Pity the Drowned Horses won the first Andres Montoya Poetry Prize sponsored by the Institute of Latino Studies and the creative writing department of the University of Notre Dame. The judge was Robert Vasquez. The collection was profiled in "18 Debut Poets who Made their Mark in 2005" by Poets and Writers Magazine. A graduate of Texas Tech University, she earned a doctorate in contemporary literature from the University of North Texas and a M.F.A. from the University of Texas at El Paso. She also holds a M.A. in English from Texas Woman's University. Her work has appeared in Feminist Studies, Notre Dame Review, Georgia Review, American Literary Review, and many other nationally acclaimed journals. She's received scholarships from the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center and the Napa Valley Writer's Conference. Pity the Drowned Horses was a finalist for the National Poetry Series and the 2006 Colorado Book awards. Her second manuscript of poems, titled 7, was recently runner-up for the Ernest Sandeen Poetry Prize sponsored by University of Notre Dame. She currently teaches at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado.

Bones

Once, as a girl, she saw a woman shrink

inside herself, gray-headed and dwarf-sized,

as if her small spine collapsed. Age

and collapse were something unreal, like war

and loss. That image of an old woman sitting

in a café booth, folding in on herself, was forgotten

until her own bones thinned and hollowed,

music-less, un-fluted, empty.

She says she takes shark cartilage before she sleeps,

a tablet or two to secure flexibility and forgets

that pain is living and living is pain.

And time moves like a slow rusty train

through the desert of weeds, and the low-riders

bounce like teenagers young and forgiving

in her night’s dream. She was sleek in a red dress

with red pumps, the boys with slick hair, tight jeans.

She tells me about 100-pound canisters of lard

and beans, how she could dance despite her fifth

child, despite being beaten and left

in the desert for days, how she saw an angel

or saint glimmer blonde above her, how she rose

and walked into the red horizon despite

her husband’s sin.

I’m thinking how the women

in my family move with a sway, with a hip

ache, and how they each have a disk

slip. The sky seems sullen, gray, and few birds

whisk. It’s how the muse is lost

in an endless stream of commercials, how people

forget to speak to one another as our ending skulks

arthritically into our bones, and the dust

of a thousand years blows across the plain,

and the last few hares sprint across a bloodied

highway. Here in the desert southwest, loss

is living and it comes with chapped lips,

long bumpy bus rides and the smog of some man’s

factory trap. And there are women everywhere

who have half-lost their souls

in sewing needles and vacuum- cleaner parts.

In maquiladoras there grows a slow poem,

a poem that may only live a moment sharply

in an old woman’s soul, like a sudden broken hip.

And yet, each October, this old woman rises

like the blue sky, rises like the fat turkey vultures

that make death something beautiful, something

towards flight, something that circles in a group

and knows it is best not to approach death alone.

Each October she dances, the mariachis yelp

and holler her back to that strange, flexible youth,

back to smoky rancheras and cumbias, songs

rolling in the shadows along the bare Mexican hills.

She tells me, “It’s in the music, where I’ll always

live.” And somehow, I see her jaw relax,

her eyes squint to a slow blindness

as if she can see something I can’t.

And I remember that it is good to be born of dust,

born amid cardboard shanties of sweet gloom.

I remember that the bare cemetery stones

in El Paso and Juarez hold the music, and each spring

when the winds carry the dust of loss there is a howl,

a surge of something unbelievable, like death,

like the collapse of language, like the frail bones

of Mexican grandmothers singing.

Ambition

Danny Lopez was so dark that some thought he was black.

His eyes were wide and wild.

When he ran, his short frame’s stride heated the streets.

Sweat trickled down his bony face, and his throat

lumped with desire, the race, the win.

We used to sit on the hood of my parents’ car,

gaze at the stars. He would win state,

dash through the flagged shoot in Austin,

get a scholarship to Auburn, escape the tumbleweeds,

the dirt floors of his pink adobe home, his father’s rage.

We were runners.

Our thin bodies warmed with sweat, and the moon round

with dreams of release. We lived a mile from the border;

the Tigua Indian drums could be heard in the cool evenings.

Our rhythmic hopes pounded dusty roads, and cholos

with slicked hair, low-riders, were only a mirage.

We drove across the border, heavy voices, drunk

with dreams, tequila, and hollow fears. We ran

trans-mountain road, shadows cast cold shivers

down our backs in the hundred-degree sun.

Danny ran twenty miles, finished, arms raised

with manic exultation.

The grassy course felt different beneath his spikes,

and the gun’s smoke forgotten in the rampage of runners,

his gold cross pounding his chest to triumph, his legs

heedless to pain, his guts burning.

Neither of us return to the cement underpasses,

graffiti, and dry grass, though I know

the drums still beat when we look at the stars,

and our eyes flicker with ambition.

Brown children in tattered shorts still beg for pesos,

steal pomegranates and melons.

Young men with sweaty chests and muddy pants

ask my mother for work, food,

passage to that distant win

somewhere on the other side of Texas.

Today the green trees are wet with rain,

and I am too lazy to run. The desire to run my fingers

down an abdomen tight with ambition, is shaky, starved.

It’s been too long since I’ve crossed that border,

drunk tequila, screamed victorious

at the mountain. The stars seem small tonight,

they don’t burst over the sky like they did back then.

These poems, these books don’t ravish me

the way Danny could, the way the race could.

His accented English, broken on the wind, and his run,

his lean darkness, drove exhaustion to consummation.

The wind seems too humid in this preferred place,

and when I hear throaty Spanish spoken in the lushness,

I long for the grimy heat,

the Rio Grande’s shallow passage,

the blue desert, and the slick legs of runners

along the smoggy highway.

The Cordova Bridge

I’m not writing delicate silver birds or some Southwest

aubade. I am rough in a pebbled and stickered dead sea.

And here, crazy-sad among the flowerless places

I sweat my way through the dirge of horns and radio

blues. Smog- filled air. Sweaty dark-dirty children hang

on my car. Their paper cups hold out a coinless surrender.

El Pasoan’s call them scam-gangs. Bumper to bumper

as a rainbow smears the sky, window-washers beg for dimes.

The streets narrow in Juarez. Gaudy green hand-painted

school buses block signs. The poor wait. A bright scholar

described las ciudades hermanas as unmoving. Blue hills,

the river’s banks deceiving us to see one-sided, blind. Juarez,

me later driving in circles, cursing the mad stops, the move-over

hurriedness. El Paso’s streets are wide, people erect chain-

link fences, bars over windows. They love their small plots

of land, their jalopy cars. A poet once sang a maid’s daily

dread over Cordova. I think I see her sweating away.

I once drew a breath of lush serenity, words danced

as small breaths, gilded beads. But you see, I was cursed

in this dust, crystallized among charcoal frowns and smiles.

At times, anger is an unnamed cry. Must one sing lichen,

lagoons, a glint of sky, creamy white breasts? Here, men

and women living bare dance among crumbling things. A man

without a leg has hopped that bridge for thirty years eyeing

shiny red Firebirds. What was a bird of red-fire to him?

Do we all rise phoenix-like from our tumbleweeds? Rain-

wash twirls about brown knees, rolled jeans, bare feet.

Popsicle-sellers close tiny carts, cigarette boys cover

damp cartons. And I am dry as an American can be.

• ISBN-10: 0268033749
• ISBN-13: 978-0268033743

Lisa Alvarado

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Gente! Exciting poetry news here in Chicago...Palabra Pura kicks off their third year January 16th, 8:30 PM, at their usual local, California Clipper, 1002 N California Ave.

For those of you unfamiliar with this superb salon of Latino poetry, here's an interview I did with one of its founders, La Bloga friend and excellent poet in his own right, Francisco Aragón. Believe me, a Palabra Pura experience is NOT to be missed, and it's been my pleasure to be part of the local steering committee, especially in the company of the likes of Ellen Placey Wadey, Mike Puican, Mary Hawley, y La Divina, Johanny Vazquez. Below is the first line up of what promises to be a stellar year of local Chicago poets paired with poets who've made their mark on the national scene.


In her debut collection of poems, My Sweet Unconditional, ariel robello meets us at the horizon, where worlds blend in the blush of sunrise and sunset, where land meets sea, air – earth, and where man and machine interrupt the natural ebb and flow of life. Unapologetic, she declares her faith in a love that defies borders and with each poem she weds herself to a belief that unconditional love can still be found in the cracks of a urban sidewalk, dancing above puffing smoke stacks, behind a guerrilla’s mask, in the worn paint brush of an island love, blundering below a street lamp in Ensenada, spelled out in daisies on a Veteran’s tombstone, in the stitch of a huipil and most importantly—deep inside one’s own reflection. With language as radiant and dangerous as broken glass ariel robello cuts away at the political dogma and superficial beauty of a world unhinged to reveal a bloody but dignified glimpse of love in the hands of a New World survivor.

Having earned her chops on both the stage and the page, ariel robello represents a generation of poets as concerned with performance as they are with line breaks. ariel robello received a PEN West Rosenthal Emerging Voices Fellowship in 2002 and published her first collection of poems, My Sweet Unconditional in 2005 with Tia Chucha Press. The inspiration for her poetry stems from her work as a poet-in-residence and mentor to teens, advocate for immigrants’ rights, and teacher of English in schools, sweatshops, juvenile detention centers, and most recently at the community college where she now lives with her hijito in Tampa, Florida.

“Effortlessly, swimmingly, yet every line a ‘florescent ember’, seething and praying, these poems mark the debut of a powerful woman of letters; young yet wise, weary yet hopeful. ariel robello is the revolution in verse we’ve been waiting for – the spoken unspoken, the dreaded effervescence of truth conspiring with our souls. Chicana voices have always pushed deeper into the emotional terrain of conscience and witness, ‘My Sweet Unconditional’ does what poetry collections should always do – pull us into a universe so familiar yet frighteningly unknown with poems that awaken us to the political and personal traumas of our times, yet sweetened by the beauty of word and verse.

—Luis J. Rodriguez is an award-winning poet, journalist, memoirist, children’s book writer, essayist and fiction writer. He is author of the critically acclaimed “Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A.”

"Ariel Robello's My Sweet Unconditional is never insincere or sentimental. This first collection of point-blank narratives of the heart never misses. Playful and reasoned, witty and serious, My Sweet Unconditional's insinuation beckons and disarms. Ariel Robello's voice is one of a kind."—Yusef Komunyakaa, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet.

"Poetry Lover, beware the fire-and-ice urban joys of Ariel Robello! These are brutally savvy and deliciously vicious paeans to life, relentless in their celebrations of love, sacrifice and sex--and once beheld by the eyeheart, humbles rescues redeems."
—Wanda Coleman, poet, Los Angeles

"Ariel Robello has crafted remarkable poems that demand no less than a pure appreciation of art from you, even as they break your heart. There is nothing easy here: the music is grafted from a painful if illuminating life, but they shimmer with a rage that is transformative.
A voice to watch for." —Chris Abani, author of GraceLand and Dog Woman.

www.nupress.northwestern.edu

Paper -1-882688-29-5 $13.95

Available for sale on www.amazon.com

Juan Manuel Sánchez was born and raised on the US side of the San Diego/Tijuana border. He holds an MA in Literature from UC San Diego and is currently in the final throes of his MFA at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has worked as an assistant editor for Ninth Letter, has lectured at various universities and is now Lecturer of Spanish at the University of Chicago. His work is forthcoming in Pembroke and in the anthology Junta: Avant-Garde Latino/a Writing.

LisaAlvarado

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187 Reasons Mexicanos Can’t Cross the Border:
Undocuments 1971-2007
by Juan Felipe Herrera
November 15, 2007
ISBN:
978-0-87286-462-7 $16.95












Congress debates immigration legislation, Americans grow more polarized in their opinions, and Juan Felipe Herrera provides a fresh and accessible perspective on this crucial human rights issue through this collection of his poetry, prose, and performance.

Catch the 187 Express!
Addressing immigration issues with dynamic innovation, the 187 Express tour launched on Nov. 15, 2007 at City Lights Books in San Francisco.

Herrera, frequently accompanied by guest artists, will present a mix of spoken word performances, music, and poetry throughout the Border States and up and down California.

Herrera has spent the last three and half decades assembling the collection found in 187 Reasons – at rallies, walkouts, under fire and on the run, in cafés, under helicopters and in the midst of thousands of marchers for civil rights and new immigration policies.

Raised in the fields of California in a family of migrant workers, Herrera has blended art and activism for over 30 years as a pioneer of the Chicano spoken word movement. Juan Felipe Herrera is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside. Author of 23 books, he is a community arts leader and a dynamic performer and actor.

Lisa Alvarado

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Tia Chucha's Events for October 2007


Author Reading with Anna Marie Gonzalez
Saturday Oct. 6th at 2 p.m.




Ann Marie Gonzalez will present her new book and discuss its purpose. Divine for Life is a book written for people in search of divinity and understanding of who we are and what we are capable of. It is the Divine being's guide to life. This book will open doors to the truth of our existence.

"My deepest prayer is that sharing this information contributes to the empowerment of all who read this and ultimately to the spiritual evolution of humanity." Ann Marie Gonzalez


Book Reading with Mario Garcia
Saturday October 13, 2007 at 2 p.m.


Author and professor of History and Chicano Studies at UCSB Mario Garcia will present and read from his newly released book The Gospel of Cesar Chavez: My Faith in Action.
This is a book of spiritual reflections, prayers, or mantras from Cesar Chavez, one of the great spiritual leaders of our time. Perhaps the best-known Latino historical figure in the United States, a key aspect of why he did what he did was his faith. He was a devout Catholic and a man of deep moral and spiritual values, which is what drove him to seek basic rights for farm workers as well as recognition for their human dignity as children of God. Now, for the first time, The Gospel of Cesar Chavez calls attention to the spiritual side of this great leader through his own words.



Special Day of the Dead Workshop # 1
Satuday Oct. 20th from
11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The first workshop of our 3 piece Dia De Los Muertos celebration!

-Danza Temachtia Quetzalcoatl
-Intro to group
-Historical Prospective of Day of the Dead
-Sugar Skull Workshop

Come join Danza Temachtia Quetzalcoatl as we introduce ourselves to the community and provide a historical and cultural perspective of the importance of Dia de los Muertos. This visual presentation will close with a sugar skull making workshop. It's fun for Everyone!

All the workshops are free!



Poetry Reading with Jim Moreno: The Artivist Movement
Saturday October 20th at 2 p.m.

Poet Jim Moreno will present and read from his newly released poetry collection, Dancing in Dissent: Poetry for Activism.

Dancing in Dissent is an artivist's (artist and activist) collection of poetry resonating with the legacy of speaking out against injustice and oppression. Moreno is a member of San Diego's Langston Hughes Poetry Circle and a past board member of the African American Writers and Artists.

He teaches poetry workshops for gang youth in lockups, children in after-school programs and adults who are beginning or practiced poets.



Michael Heralda Performs Aztec Stories
Saturday Oct. 20, 2007 at 6 p.m.

Come and experience the origins of this very special ceremony from the indigenous perspective in a presentation of music, songs, and stories.

The ceremony has evolved due to European influences, the artistic influence of Jose Guadalupe Posada's fanciful stylizations, and the commercial forces of our "modern" world. This program is for those interested in learning about the origins of this ceremony. It is also an opportunity to help establish a "balance" between today's modern practice and the ancient ceremony's true relevance and importance. You will hear things that touch your heart and at times seem very familiar. This is the ancient voice that you hear intuitively speaking to you from the past through your heart. Some of the information revealed in this presentation may surprise you, and some may validate an intuitive understanding you possess and have contemplated.


Special Day Of The Dead Workshop # 2
Sunday Oct. 21st from
11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The second day of our 3 piece Dia De Los Muertos celebration
-Danza Temechtia Quetzalcoatl
-Historical Perspective of Danza
-3 groups
-dance, song, drumming
Day II of our Dia de Los Muertos workshop introduces the importance of danza in Day of the Dead celebrations. After the discussion, each participant is invited to learn an element of danza-drumming, dancing and/or Mexica songs-themselves!

All workshops are Free!
Special Day of the Dead Workshop # 3
Monday Oct. 22nd from
6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
This is the last workshop of our 3 piece Dia De Los Muertos celebration!

-Danza Temachtia Quetzalcoatl
-Mexica story telling
This will be a review and expansion of first 2 workshops. Day III of our workshop will continue to teach the elements of "la danza" and will close with Mexica storytelling for all!

On this final day of the workshop, Danza Temachtia Quetzalcoatl will host a community ceremony for all its participants. Traditional face painting will begin the celebration and everyone who participated will have a chance to share what they have learned!

All workshops are free!


Friday Oct. 26th at 8 p.m.

Join us for our famous Open Mic Night, this week featuring poet Thomas Gayton, along with some of the local poets and musican performers!

Works and Performances.
Thomas has read his poetry on Pacifica Radio, KPFK-Los Angeles and has performed with Jazz greats Charles McPherson, cousin Clark Gayton and Daniel Jackson. He has taught verse writing at the Writing Center in San Diego, founded the Poetry Workshop in La Jolla, California, at D.G. Wills bookstore and also cofounded the San Diego Poets' Press.
Book Reading with Beto Gutierrez


Saturday Oct. 27th at 1 p.m.
Author Beto Gutierrez will read and discuss his newly published book A Sentence with the District.

A collection of essays based on actual experiences of a former at-risk youth who became an inspired high school teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District, Gutierrez sheds insight from a first person point of view that others dare not mention. A must-read book that advocates educational equity and quality.

Sugar Skull Workshop Hosted by Norma
Sunday Oct. 28, 2007 at 12 p.m.

Come experience a hands-on workshop for the whole family in preparation for Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) with the making of Sugar Skulls, a centuries-old tradition in Mexico that plays an important symbolic role in this holiday. You are welcomed to join us in tribute of this fun and mysterious holiday.


Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural
10258 Foothill Blvd.
Lake View Terrace, CA 91342

(818) 896-1479

www.tiachucha.com
e-mail us at: [email protected]


Donate to Tia Chuchas! Tia Chucha's Centro Cultural & Bookstore | 10258 Foothill Blvd. | Lake View Terrace | CA | 91342

Reyna Grande update



Under the Bridge Bookstore and Gallery
e-mail: [email protected]
When:
Saturday Oct 06, 2007
at 5:00 PM
Where::
Under the Bridge Bookstore and Gallery
358 West 6th Street
San Pedro, CA 90731

UNDER THE BRIDGE BOOKSTORE AND GALLERY CELEBRATES DEBUT AUTHORS!

RSVP not required


SPREAD THE WORD...

Join us as Eduardo Santiago, author of Tomorrow They Will Kiss; Rosa Lowinger, author of Tropicana Nights and Reyna Grande, author of Across A Hundred Mountains, read and sign their new books.

Our readings/booksignings are a great opportunity to meet an author, hear them read from their work, or purchase an autographed copy of their latest book. As always, our events are free and open to the public.

If you are unable to attend an event and are interested in purchasing a signed book please please give us a call at 310-519-8871 or contact us via email at [email protected]. We're happy to hold a book for you.



Some random autumnal thoughts...

Here in the Midwest, there is always a clear sense of seasons changing, of the time and life broken into segments. Now on my walks, I see the start of red gold rustling in the trees, the yellow and orange suns of zempasuchitl, and in my dreams, the faces of loved ones on the other side reminding me to make an ofrenda. On my good days, I see my things linked as a whole, a cycle beginning and ending and beginning.

Somehow too, at middle age, I feel more and more an affinity with autumn, I seem more in touch with the fullness of things as they begin to pass away. Somehow in the still of winter, the expectation of spring, and the busyness of summer I forget to quiet myself and take in what's everyday beautiful ---the walk in the park near my house, the full moon veiled partially with papel picado clouds.

Maybe it because I know once again things will fall away soon into a wintersleep , it seems more important to take time to walk, feel the crunch of leaves and grass under my feet, the smell of wood smoke from neighbor's fireplaces. Maybe it's because I have enough experience remembering and forgetting this, that this year I'm writing it down.

Lisa Alvarado

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Mind you, gente, there can be no substitute for a Daniel Olivas post, but he's getting a little well-dererved R & R, so consider this a humble placeholder. -- LA

In French Seduction, art historian Eunice Lipton explores her sensual obsession with the icon of France, the pool of memory and the way that obsession is fused to a contradictory history of her childhood and her connection to the Holocaust. But before that, Lipton authored a biography on Degas and in Alias Olympia, she attempts to cast light on a pivotal, but now obscure figure in the Impressionist movement.

Victorine Meurent was the model for Manet’s notorious painting, Olympia. In it, Manet re-stages that ancient pose of the odalisque, however, Victorine appears in the painting as bold, sexually aware and powerful. This caused an outrage in Paris at the time, and sadly, is still the reaction a sexually self-aware woman receives in present time. I stumbled upon this book, looking for more role-models, fodder, inspiration, other lifelines.

I was glad this book found me. The story is so much more than the telling of the painting controversy. Meurent was an artist, a brilliant one in her own right. She and her work were buried in a barrage of lies as result of her posing for Manet. The popular story about Meurent was that she had descended into prostitution, drunkenness and despair. Not so different than the double-standard of scrutiny and criticism that women who push the barriers, especially, barriers of the body and sexuality continue to face. There still is a threat, albeit more sub-rosa perhaps, that in claiming one’s full physical and sexual power, a woman leaves herself open to the psychic version of public stoning for her ‘lewd’ behavior.

While Meurent did know despair, it was one born out of a career thwarted, and a reputation slandered. She lived a ‘comfortable’ life as bourgeois wife, but not one in which she could move freely, express her ideas or create within the confines of women’s roles at the time. Lipton wrote the book in a narrative style, so that it reads and moves like a novel. No stuff of fiction here, but the complex and brilliant story of a women who dared conventions, and was meted out the punishment of a gilded, dulled existence and obscurity as a result.

I was struck with how women are still offered the choice of ‘comfort’ vs. authenticity, with the implied message that an authentic will surely be the more painful one, the one with the greatest social and emotional costs. To the extent that this blackmail is still being played out, Lipton’s book is a sadly cautionary tale.

ISBN-10: 0801486092 ISBN-13: 978-0801486098



Lisa Alvarado

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René Colato Laínez



Writing Outside the Culture

There are many opinions and controversies about writing multicultural literature:

*Authentic books include only those written by a member of an ethnic group about that ethnic group, its cultural traditions, and its people.

*The most accurate portrayal of a culture will come from authors who have lived within the culture they are writing about all or most of their lives regardless of their race.

*Authors can write authentic books if their writing is based on experience and a growing awareness in our society of other cultures and provided an accurate representation of the culture being portrayed.

If you are writing outside your culture, you must never write off the top of your head. If you have never lived in Mexico, China or Morocco and want to write a story about these cultures, you will have to do extensive research in libraries, archives, and museums. But the best way to research is to meet the people you want to write about. Talk to them, participate in their games, visit the country, eat their food, become one of them while you are writing your story. Remember, it is better to overdo your research, later you can pick what is important for your story. When you finished your manuscript show it to organizations and people it is written for and ask them to look for stereotypes and misconceptions.

The people most passionate and involved in a culture are typically the best ones to write about a multicultural story. With the passion comes the desire to spend hours and hours in a library or most important with the people you are writing for. If there is no passion, there will be no desire to write an authentic story.

I need this passion to research and spend hours with people I am writing for. Being Hispanic does not make me the right person to write about the Mayans or the Aztecs, or to write about the people in El Salvador that made rubber from the trees, or to write about the artisans who create and paint great ceramic in Oaxaca, Mexico. My knowledge about these topics is very limited. I did some research to write my picture book PLAYING LOTERIA/ EL JUEGO DE LA LOTERÍA. Lotería was my favorite game when I was growing up in El Salvador. I did not know that this game arrived all the way from Europe to Mexico more than two hundreds years ago. It was Don Clemente, a man from France, who created the images of the games using Mexican colors, flavors and traditions. I did not use all this research in my picture book but by knowing the history of la lotería, I feel more secure that I was writing an authentic story.

Most important, keep in mind that the same criterion for authenticity in multicultural literature is the same in any good book: strong characters, good plot, great climax, convincing ending plus no stereotypes and misconceptions.
The following is a criteria developed by teachers to choose authentic literature for the classroom. I believe that the same criteria can be use as a checklist for writers of multicultural books.

*No distortions or omissions of history. Look for various perspectives to be represented.

*Authenticity. Look for books with accurate representations of the cultural attitudes, feelings, and perspectives, both visually and literally.

*Stereotyping. There are no negative or inaccurate stereotypes of the ethnic group being portrayed.

*Loaded words. There are no derogatory overtones to the words used to describe the characters and culture, such as savage," primitive," "lazy," and "backward."

*Historical Representation. Look for books that dispel misconceptions by reflecting truths.

*Lifestyles. The lifestyles of the characters are genuine and complex, not oversimplified or generalized.

*Dialogue. The characters use speech that accurately represents their oral tradition.

*Standards of success. The characters are strong and independent, not helpless or in need of the assistance of a white authority figure. Characters do not have to exhibit extraordinary qualities, or do more than a white character to gain acceptance and approval.

*The role of females, elders, and family. Women and the elderly are portrayed accurately within their culture. The significance of family is portrayed accurately for the culture.

*Possible effects on a child's self-image. There is nothing in the story that would embarrass or offend a child whose culture is being portrayed. A good rule of thumb: would you be willing to share this book with a mixed-race group of children?

* Author's and/or illustrator's background. The author and/or illustrator have the qualifications needed to deal with the cultural group accurately and respectfully.

*Illustrations. The illustrations do not generalize about or include stereotypes of a cultural group and it's people. The characters are depicted as genuine individuals. Characters of the same ethnic group do not all look alike, but show a variety of physical attributes.

*Relationships between characters from different cultures. Minority characters are leaders within their community and solve their own problems. Whites do not possess the power while cultural minorities play a supporting or subservient role.

*Heroines and Heroes. Heroines and heroes are accurately defined according to the concepts of and struggles for justice appropriate to their cultural group. They are not those who avoid conflict with and thus benefit the white majority.

*Become Proactive. Read and recommend quality multicultural literature to students, teachers, librarians, curriculum committees, administrators, and student’s parents.

In conclusion, the writer who wants to write about any specific group, must research, read, visit, meet and have personal connections with members of that group. By doing this, the writer will be less likely to have stereotypes in the story. When the author finishes the story, it would be a great idea to show it to members of the specific group. In this way, the author will have an authentic story. A story that depicts the variety of ethnic, racial, and cultural groups within U.S. society and allows young children opportunities to develop their understanding of others, while affirming children of diverse backgrounds. Good luck and have fun writing a multicultural story or any story that you have the passion for.

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René Colato Laínez



Stereotypes or Misleading Information

NINE DAYS TO CHRISTMAS A STORY OF MEXICO by Marie Hall Ets and Aurora Labastida was written 1959 and was one of the first multicultural books about Mexico. This book is full of stereotypes. On the cover we see a boy and a girl carrying a nativity scene. They are wearing sandals and serapes. The boy wears a straw sombrero. Basically, these children are depicted as Mexican peasants coming from a remote village but the irony is that according to the illustrations they live in a city and Ceci, the girl comes from a family with money who has servants and a nice house. Marie Hall Ets even writes:

Ceci- who had dressed up in her village costume, because she liked that better than her other clothes—and her cousin Manuel led the procession which starts every posada. (38-39)

The book also refers to tortillas as pancakes and infers that all baby sitters come from remote villages. The illustrations through the entire book portray the stereotypical Mexican with a big sombrero, sandals, long braids and colorful clothes. But surprise, surprise this book won the Caldecott Medal for its illustrations.

But how can we break those stereotypes. Let’s look at ESTELA’S SWAP by Alexis O’neill. In this story Alexis presents an energetic Estela who wants to be part of, el ballet folklórico. But in order to be part of the group, she needs a falda, a colorful skirt. Estela is an everyday girl and wears everyday clothes. She would wear the skirt only for her special dances. Ballet Folklórico is becoming very popular in states like California, Texas, Florida and other states. This book touches the lives of all those little girls who are or want to be part of a ballet folklórico group.

Estela is going to her first Swap Meet, where people sell, exchange and bargain. She hopes to earn the ten dollars she needs to pay for folk-dancing lessons by selling a colorful music box that plays Cielito Lindo, a very popular Latin American song. By including this song, Alexis is being authentic to the ballet folklórico. After they have set up their stand, her father introduces her to the art of bargaining.

“See how it’s done?” Papa asked as they walked back to their space.
“As the seller, you name a price that’s a little more than what you are willing to take. That way you have room to bargain. Now it’s time for you to try.”

Estela handles the customers' offers well, but no one wants to pay anywhere near the price she's asking. Then, she meets an older woman who sells paper flowers and is sewing a falda, and who admires the music box and its sounds that remind her of her childhood. When a strong wind creates a chaos of goods flying everywhere the flower seller's wares are gone. In a gesture of generosity and compassion, the little girl gives her the treasured box so she can listen to the music as she makes more flowers, but wonders how she will earn her money now. At the end Estela is surprised to receive something wonderful in return, the skirt for the ballet folklórico.

“Since we are at a Swap Meet,” the woman said, 'it is only fair that we swap.” (n.p).

O'Neill weaves details of trades and bargaining into the fabric of her story to give readers a tangible taste of swaps or flea markets that are very popular in Latin America and in many states in America. The author presents a character that shares her music box and receives something back for her great generosity. Latino girls will be proud to read this book and readers from other cultures can learn about ballet folkórico and flea markets.

There is the stereotype that individuals from a certain culture are all the same. Sandra Cisneros proves that this stereotype is wrong in her bilingual picture book HAIRS/ PELITOS.

“Everybody in our family has different hair. My Papá’s hair is like a broom, all up in the air. And me, my hair is lazy. It never obeys barrettes or bands.” (n.p).

This picture book is a good example of authentic multicultural literature because it breaks the stereotype that members of the same culture are exactly alike. Sandra Cisneros shows, through simple, intimate language, the diversity among us.

The author uses child like poetic language and the five senses to describe each family member. Her father's hair looks “like a broom”, her mother's hair smells like “baked bread”, and her brother's hair feels like “soft fur.” Cisneros concludes her story:

“But my mother’s hair, my mother’s hair, like little rosettes, like little candy circles, all curly and pretty because she pinned it in pin curls all day, sweet to put your nose into when she is holding you, is the warm smell of bread before you bake it, is the smell when she makes room for you on her side of the bed still warm with her skin, Mamá’s hair that smells like bread.” (n.p).

Before leaving the topic of stereotypes, this is what editors are seeing in
the multicultural manuscripts that they receive.

Many of the manuscripts that I receive are filled with stereotypes and misconceptions. Before deciding to publish a multicultural story, we make sure to have it reviewed for stereotypes. I also get stories about themes that I feel are overused and not a fair or complete representation of a particular culture. For instance I get many many manuscripts about tortillas. I feel that the Latino culture extends far beyond tortillas so I tend to turn down those stories. (Theresa Howell, Rising Moon).

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René Colato Laínez



One of the first picture books portraying an African America child was THE SNOWY DAY by Ezra Jack Keats published in 1962. One of the first picture books depicting a Hispanic child was GILBERTO AND THE WIND by Marie Hall Ets published in 1963. But are these picture books really multicultural? The answer is no.

In THE SNOWY DAY, we see a happy Peter playing in the snow. In the same case, In GILBERTO AND THE WIND, we see a curious Gilberto playing with the wind. But are we reading about Peter’s or Gilberto’s cultures? No. We just see two children playing. If the writers/ illustrators had used a different name and had used another tone of skin color, we would have the same story. In this case the names and cultures of the protagonists do not affect the story at all.

This is one of the major problems that writers make when writing a multicultural picture book, a foreign name or skin color on a page is not enough to have a multicultural picture book.

BONESY AND ISABEL by Michael J. Rosen is the story of Isabel, an adopted girl from El Salvador. Her new parents bring her to the United States. In her new house, Isabel meets a new friend, an old dog named Bonesy. Isabel loves to play with her dog. One day, Bonesy gets sick and dies. Michael J. Rosen does a great job describing Isabel’s house and garden. The relationship between the dog and Isabel is lovely and tender. However, this story cannot be considered a multicultural story. The reader does not learn anything about Isabel’s culture. The reader only knows that she is from El Salvador. The story is just about the relationship between Isabel and the dog.

Rosen could have a multicultural story if he had concentrated more on Isabel’s feelings and reactions toward her new family and country. How does Isabel feel about leaving her country? What are her reactions to her new parents who do not speak her language? What would Isabel do to adjust herself to her new environment? What is she bringing to the family? What is she learning? These questions are never addressed in the story. Obviously, the writer’s intention is to write about a girl and an old dog, and he does a wonderful job with this. This story pretends to be multicultural by having a girl with a Spanish name who comes from a Latin American country. Unfortunately, this is not enough to consider this an authentic multicultural story.

I also had this problem when I wrote my first manuscripts. In one of my stories, I had a Latino child trying to find a gift for his mother. As a teacher, I had the privilege of meeting an editor at CABE (California Association for Bilingual Education). After reading my story she told me, “You don’t have a multicultural story." I was sure that my story was multicultural. The story was based on a real event. How come she said that my story was not multicultural?

The editor told me that she liked my story but that it was not a multicultural story at all. She gave me a hint on how to prove if a story is multicultural or not. If I changed the name of my character to an English name and eliminated the Spanish words, my story would still work. I did it and she was right. I understood that in my case a multicultural story is more than a Hispanic character and a few Spanish words. The story must be unique and authentic. It has to be a story that minority children can relate to.

A multicultural picture book must authentically and realistically portrays themes, characters, and customs unique to the minority group for which they are written. A good example IS FIRST DAY IN GRAPES by L. King Pérez.

For Chico, a son of migrant workers, places don't have names but rather are associated with whatever fruit or vegetable is being harvested. Chico has experienced first school days in artichokes and first days in onions, and now his first day in third grade would be in grapes. Chico is understandably apprehensive about starting third grade at yet another new school because his previous experiences involved bullying and name calling- maybe because he's always new, or maybe because he speaks Spanish sometimes.

This is a very common experience that immigrant children deal with at school. Chico does not want to go to school not because he does not like to study but because he does not fit in. Children laugh and bother him at school. Chico is the new boy, the migrant boy who works in the fields and who does not speak good English yet. Chico struggles to write in English at school but he his good with numbers. He can add and subtract numbers in a flash. His teacher, Ms. Andrews, admires his remarkable math talent and invites Chico to compete in the Math Fair.

Remembering his mother's advice to study hard in order to be someone important in the future and his newly recognized math talent, he stands up to the bullies and wins the respect of his new third-grade peers. When the bullies return at lunch, Chico stands up to them and challenges them with math questions until they retreat. With enough positives to compensate for the challenges, the child finishes his first day of the school year with a sense of pride and accomplishment.

This story resonates with migrant students and those who have moved frequently. For others, it's an insightful glimpse of another way of life and a reminder that different kids have different talents. The author presents an authentic story of the migrant child. L. King Pérez lets the reader see Chico’s experiences and his fears of not fitting in. This is a story that can touch not only migrant children but also children who do not have a permanent home. This is a multicultural story.

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Tell us about Palabra Pura, what it is, how it came together, who are the principals?

Palabra Pura originated at the Guild Complex in Chicago. Board member and poet Mike Puican thought there needed to be a poetry reading series that welcomed work by poets who wrote in Spanish and for Latino/a poets in general. It would be a series that included an open mic but, most importantly, a space where Latino/a poets and the Spanish language were welcome.

My involvement came about in a very interesting way. Momotombo Press had published a chapbook by Brenda Cárdenas, who has long-time Chicago connections and is a former Guild board member. From the Tongues of Brick and Stone (Momotombo Press, 2005) had found its way into the hands of Mike and his wife, the poet Mary Hawley, who is also on the Palabra Pura steering committee. Initially, they thought about Brenda as a Palabra Pura collaborator, but since Brenda was about to move to Milwaukee, she gave them my name. Mike e-mailed me (This would have been the Fall of 2005). It felt like a gift: a project of this nature was very much consistent with the work I was doing at the Institute for Latino Studies at Notre Dame. Mike and Ellen Wadey, the Executive Director of the Guild, then drove to Notre Dame and we had lunch to discuss the project and my involvement. Because the Institute for Latino Studies has offices in Chicago and we view Chicago as one of the places we do outreach, it was a perfect match. Among the first tasks was coming up with a name for the series and a mission statement.

What's the particular niche you hope to fill in Chicago's poetry scene? Do you see the potential for national impact, i.e., Palabra Pura becoming a nexus for Latino/a poets? Can you talk about the visibility/invisibility of Latino/a poets in relation to what the group is trying to accomplish?

Although I'm based elsewhere, my sense is that there seems to be a lot going on—from the events the Poetry Foundation puts on to the fairly well-known Danny’s Reading Series (and others). And then there is the Poetry Center housed at the Art Institute and something called Chicago Poetry Project and, of course, events at the various universities, which mostly cater to students. But a cursory glance at these venues, with very few exceptions, suggests that these aren’t spaces where Latino/a poets have a history of appearing, let alone reading work in Spanish. So Palabra Pura serves two functions: it seeks out local Chicago poets who write in Spanish and Chicago Latino/a poets. We also want to look beyond Chicago for emerging Latino/a poets who have recently published a book or won an award in order to give them a place to share their work with a Chicago audience. The series is in its second year and the challenge is to try and reach different constituencies. One of the ways the Guild Complex does this is by forming partnerships. Among our partners are the Latino Cultural Center at UIC, and the community-based publications revista contratiempo and Arena Cultural. More recently, we were very fortunate and pleased to partner with the Poetry Foundation for Victor Hernández Cruz’s reading. By forming these alliances, it increases the possibility of gathering people under one roof who might not normally be in the same space together. And the idea that Latino poetry is what brings them together is quite gratifying. As for a national impact, it’s funny you mention that because I am re-locating to the Washington, D.C. area this summer but will continue to work for Palabra Pura and get to Chicago. The Guild Complex and I are in conversation about starting a Palabra Pura satellite, if you will, in the DC area.

This idea occurred to me after learning of, and recently experiencing, a wonderful series in the south Bronx called Acentos, whose mission is like Palabra Pura’s. I do think these gestures can be replicated—though always taking into account the particular circumstances of each community, which is why partnerships are crucial. And the fact remains that there is a need for the simple reason that despite the fact that books are being published by Latino/a poets, there isn’t a plethora of places for them share that work. A series like Palabra Pura attempts to remedy that. Until I had the experience of curating a series like this, I couldn’t properly appreciate how scarce reading slots in a good series are. We do ten readings a year. That means I can invite five men and five women which, when you come to think about it, isn’t a whole lot if I’m tapping the entire country.

How would you describe the work and artists featured as they compare with the slam and spoken word scene?

Let me speak about the visiting features, which has been my primary responsibility. In Palabra Pura’s first two seasons, I invited people whose work I admired, primarily, on the page. So the first difference might be that while those in the slam and spoken word scene seem to privilege performance, this wasn’t necessarily something I thought about too intently when it came to inviting poets for Palabra Pura.

My first contact with a poet is usually with one of their poems on the page. But I do believe that reading a poem well in front of an audience is an acquired skill that takes practice. I am currently thinking about who the visiting poets will be in 2008 and my philosophy continues to be that the work has to work on the page, but I am being more intentional about someone’s performance/reading skills, and I am also aiming for aesthetic diversity.

Having attended a few events, its clear to me there is sense of curation involved with the pairing of poets and their material. How does your own background, and that of the other organizers feed that?

Before Palabra Pura, I didn’t have much experience with curating per se. But from an editorial perspective, I’ve been working in the field of Latino poetry pretty intensely for the last few years—above all with Momotombo Press and The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry (University of Arizona Press, 2007) and, soon, with Latino Poetry Review. Mike Puican and Mary Hawley (who reads and speaks Spanish), the other poets on the Palabra Pura steering committee oversee the curation of the Chicago poets who appear. They rely, to a great degree, on our local partners, such as the people at contratiempo. But we are always interested in learning more about who’s out there. Mary and Mike have also published a book and chapbook with Tia Chucha Press, respectively, and have both been very active in the Chicago poetry scene for many years.

You also host a dinner gathering with visiting poets prior to their reading. It definitely has the feel of a salon...lively discourse, the ability to share ideas and break bread. This seems like an important element, can you talk about that? Do you think it's related to Latin ideas of art and culture, of hospitality?

When we first started mapping out what Palabra Pura would look like, I don’t think—at least I wasn’t—we were fully aware of how important and special these pre-reading dinners would be. What I’ve come to believe is this: the pre-reading dinner affords an opportunity for the visiting poet to meet and interact with the local Chicago poet, other invited writers and people in the arts. I put myself in the category of client here, as well, because these dinners have allowed me to have meaningful interaction, in the last several months, with such poets like Ada Limón, Cynthia Cruz, Jorge Sanchez and Carl Marcum. Although one can’t control these things, our hope is that these dinners create an ambiance where Latino poets can make interesting and meaningful connections with other writers. This is very much a part of our mission. Your comment about the dinner having the feeling of a salon is something I hadn’t particularly thought of. But it makes sense.

During the ten years I lived in Madrid, Spain, one of my favorite activities—one I miss immensely—was my Saturday afternoon “tertulia”—an informal gathering with a few friends at a particular Madrid café to talk politics, films, and books. It suddenly occurs to me that my monthly Palabra Pura dinners have come to fill that function. Personally speaking, I might even venture to say that these are as important to me as the readings that follow. I am very happy to hear you use the word “hospitality.” We want our poets to leave Chicago thinking that, if nothing else, they felt very welcome and everything about their time with us was a model for hospitality. And these dinners are crucial for that. If someone were to ask me advice about starting a series or improving one, I would say: feed your poet a meal and curate your guest list at that meal with as much care as you curate your series.

You're also personally connected with the release of an anthology, The Wind Shifts. In what ways is it connected to Palabra Pura? Share with our readers some pieces that you feel are emblematic of the book.

With Palabra Pura as a model, Letras Latinas and the Guild Complex intends to partner to produce something called, “The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry ON TOUR”. If a particular funder comes through, we will be organizing six readings over the next two years: four different poets from the anthology will appear at each venue. The proposed cities are Palm Beach, FL; Minneapolis, MN; Seattle, WA; San Jose, CA; Chicago, IL; and New York, NY. As far as sharing pieces from the anthology, I am currently preparing a six-poem sampling with brief commentaries for a prominent web venue. It’s very possible that by the time this interview gets posted, those six poems will be up. But I will share with you who the six poets are: Richard Blanco, Brenda Cárdenas, Steven Cordova, Kevin A. González, Deborah Parédez, and Emmy Pérez. I would invite readers of this interview to stay tuned at: http://latinopoetryreview.blogspot.com/

Let's daydream for a minute. Who's on your wish list to perform at Palabra Pura? What's the future you envision for the series?

I’m in conversation with a number of poets about 2008 and I hope to have the visiting poets portion finalized fairly soon. As soon as I do, I’ll post it. But I will say that while we want to emphasize emerging voices, we are hoping to partner with the Poetry Foundation again next year to produce a reading with two established voices. That’s all I can say right now. As for the future of the series, I would like Palabra Pura to become known as a touchstone of sorts—a series where a Latino/a poet aspires to promote his/her first book; but also a series that spawns not exact replicas as far as the nuts and bolts of a reading series are concerned, but yes a replica where Latino/a poets gather not only to connect with an audience, but also with each other.

Lisa Alvarado

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René Colato Laínez



Ellen Levine is the author of several picture books including I HATE ENGLISH!, HENRY’S FREEDOM BOX, and IF YOUR NAME WAS CHANGED AT ELLIS ISLAND.

What does a picture book need to have in order to be multicultural?

Multiculturalism is by the cleanest definition the recognition of multiple cultures/ethnicities/races in a society. This, to my way of thinking, can only be a good thing: first, it recognizes reality; second, it reminds the dominant culture's institutions to work to reflect that reality.

When the term multiculturalism is invoked here (USA) about a piece of literature, it usually refers to a book centered around a world and characters who are not of the dominant white protestant world, although white protestants can certainly be part of the story. Although I haven't thought a great deal about this, I'd say off the top of my head that such a book generally has a viewpoint character who's not of the dominant culture/ethnicity/ race of the country in which the book is published. I'd be careful how much further I'd go in defining the category.

The problems arise to my way of thinking when rules are set forth and arbitrary standards mandated. Have you looked at Hazel Rochman's book AGAINST BORDERS: PROMOTING BOOKS FOR A MULTICULTURAL WORLD? In her introduction she writes about moving "beyond political correctness" both because it's stifling in itself and because it often provokes a backlash of reactionaries. Usually I myself avoid the term "political correctness" because it is used most often as a weapon by the right wing to stifle discussion. Call something "pc" and we all smile uncomfortably and don't discuss the substantive issues. But I acknowledge there are legitimate issues to discuss -- who can write about what. Actually for me, there's not much discussion when the question is phrased that way.

Can an author write books outside his/ her culture?

My answer is anyone can write anything. And we all reserve the right to critique a work based not on the skin color or ethnic origin of the author, but on the accuracy, power, and beauty of the story.

What do these authors need to do in order to write an authentic multicultural picture book?

Most important, and this applies to whoever writes the book: the same criteria exist that make any book good (or by contrast, unsuccessful or poor)-- no stereotypes and no socio-political-cultural errors. My point is if you think about it, we use these criteria even when we don't call a book "multicultural." To be sure, these criteria do take on meaning contoured in slightly different ways when we talk about nondominant cultures. Prejudice is often deeply embedded in socially-accepted images that are really reflections of the dominant culture's values and not accurate reflections of the culture portrayed. And so we get "lazy" Blacks or "chattering" and "noisy" Hispanics, or "stingy" and "inscrutable" Asians, etc. The reverse danger is that we romanticize or sentimentalize and keep "pure" and make "perfect" our minority protagonists and their stories. Both are to my way of thinking equally unacceptable.

We're often quick to question the motivation of the writer who's not a member of the group depicted if he or she has written of the characters with open eyes, that is, the ugly along with the beautiful. We should demand the same (rounded characters, real stories) of writers who are of the group they're writing about. The imperative is for accuracy, and this applies to fiction or nonfiction. There are many Hispanic, Black, Asian, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, etc., sub-societies. No one person ever can speak for all. If writers are of the group they're writing about, then they start out with some bona fides, but they must recognize that notwithstanding their "insiderness," they still can't automatically count on being accurate, i.e., there are too many variations in any large social/ethnic/racial group.

If writers are not of the group they're writing about, they must have explored it deeply enough to reflect and reproduce it with accuracy and understanding. I don't know about the market in general; I tend to think about books one at a time, so I'm not much good to you there.

What inspired you to write I HATE ENGLISH!?

I can tell you a few things about I HATE ENGLISH! I spent several years working first on a television documentary about Chinatown in New York (we covered a little of San Francisco, but were really focused on NYC) and then tutoring Chinese immigrant kids at a Chinese community center. I even served a term on the board of the organization. I spent hundreds and hundreds of hours with Chinese immigrant young people, tutoring, counseling, sharing cups of tea and coffee, celebrating triumphs, sharing sadness, etc. When years later I sat down to write I HATE ENGLISH!, I was able to travel back in my mind and heart to those days.

And here's an interesting twist. The publisher decided to run the manuscript by a Chinese-American editor on staff. Her comments, as I told my editor, made little or no sense. And this wasn't surprising. She was born here to upper middle class parents and lived in that world, not the world of Chinatown with its immigrants and first generation kids. And so she didn't know the world I was writing about, even though she was of Asian background and I wasn't.

Another story: a Danish-born American I know (caucasian) wrote a children's book about the Hopi Indians. The first fan letter she got was from a Hopi couple who loved her book and, as they said in their letter, assumed she was Hopi. What she was in fact was a good researcher and writer.

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René Colato Laínez

Kent Brown is the publisher of Boyds Mills Press and Highlights for Children Magazine.

What does a manuscript need to have in order to be multicultural?

My belief is that depiction of events, traits of persons, customs, which reflect a culture make a book multicultural. So, a book about baseball, where the kid has a minority name, unless there is some substantial culture learned by the reader, is just a book about baseball.

For example, I did a book with Laurence Pringle called Octopus Hug. In it, a father plays special games with his kids, including one that is a big pile-up on the floor, the octopus hug. So far there is only suburban US culture depicted. The illustrator chose to depict an African American family. The book got special use because it was a book depicting a father taking an active role with his children, and many members of the African American community praised the book as an important work to the African American community. Was this book multicultural? I don't know. I don’t think is was in the sense that it depicted any cultural flavor; it did, however, "teach" that suburban families might all have the same routines and fun, regardless of ethnic background, which is likely true (more of a statement about economic class than ethnicity).

Of all those manuscripts that you receive in a daily basis how many are real multicultural or have the potential to be multicultural?

Ah, if Octopus Hug is multicultural just because of the artwork, then a high fraction of the fiction we receive could be multicultural.In my definition, less than 5% of submissions reflect some multicultural claim. I believe that some fraction could be made multicultural by superficial editing, such as the use of ethnic groups in the artwork. Again, not sure how to count them.

A thought: we do books that have kids in wheelchairs, completely incidental to the story. So these books are not about a physical disability, but they tend to reinforce the normalness of seeing disabled persons, and show that they are a regular part of society. That is a desirable thing with respect to multicultural topics: that we see, incidentally, a mix of ethnic groups, cultural artifacts, ethnic observances, etc. But those incidental pieces, while working toward better acceptance of differences and a celebration of our diversity, do not themselves constitute multicultural.

What is lacking in these stories?

What is lacking in a great many stories presented as multicultural is a perspective that lets the reader know more of unique cultural or accurate historical viewpoints.

Are they full of stereotypes or misconceptions?

Well, the bad ones are. And there are some instances where an accurate depiction, however accurate, may reinforce stereotypes.
Two examples:

I receive awful lot of stories about Mexican culture that has kids whacking a Piñata. Nothing wrong with this artifact of Mexican holiday celebration, but having stories about piñatas, over and over, as if that the only thing we might identify with Mexican tradition, subtly reinforces that Mexicans are a people who spend their time whacking piñatas.

Another common example: Chinese New Year. We did this in Highlights magazine. Has the advantage of being attractive to illustrate, picking the parade in San Francisco. Surely that is a part of Chinese (on Chinese-American culture and tradition). But its portrayal has the tendency over time to "teach" that Chinese people are people of big parades and big dragons.

Can an author write books outside his/ her culture?

Absolutely.
Can a Euro-American capture the emotion of emigrating from Central America across mountains and rivers? Can you make it up? Not without understanding its relevance in American culture, the experience as shared by many living in the US, and the likely high emotional stake in the whole process.
Can someone read about it enough to capture all the flavors? Probably. Do they usually? No. Can men write about the emotional lives of women? Some can. But it takes insight, extensive research, and pure effort.
So now lets take the other side of the coin.

I did a book by a suburban white middle class woman. She illustrated a book set in Jamaica. Was it accurate? Was it appropriate? Yes, because this woman had a passion for Jamaican culture; lived there seven years, and had a post-graduate degree in cultural ethnology.

She went on to illustrate a book set in Nigeria. She had not been there. But she got books from the British Museum of the period. She studied the look of the landscape. She did research into the trees and plants of the area the book was set. She got a cultural anthropologist at Harvard to review her sketches, and presented them as well for comment to the Nigerian born author. Could and African American yuppie, born in Westchester County, NY, going to Ivy League schools, and generally having no interest in Nigerian culture, done better?

My example is art. You asked about writing. Yes, I think anyone can write about a specific culture. But it does not happen authentically very often. The people most passionate and steeped in a culture are typically the best to write about it. Most of those examples are members of the culture.

What do these authors need to do in order to write an authentic multicultural picture book?

Passion, anyone can do it. But those who care are most likely to get it. With the passion is an intense knowledge. Mostly such passion and knowledge exists in a within the ethnic group members. But I think it’s not exclusive.

I never lived the life depicted in What Jamie Saw, by Carolyn Coman, for a magnificent example. I doubt Carolyn lived exactly that life. But she knows it. She nails it cold. We are there, and it is believable.

Virginia Ewer Wolfe nails down the character and thoughts of a young woman living near poverty, though she has not lived that way. Somehow she has studied it, not just imagined; living as a youngster on an apple ranch with connected labor housing, watching her mother stitch up a worker on Saturday night at the kitchen table, gave her some credential, not quite living it, but clearly pretty important in her development.

Muchas gracias Kent

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René Colato Laínez



ALEXIS O’NEILL is the author of LOUD EMILY (Simon & Schuster),THE RECESS QUEEN (Scholastic Press), and ESTELA'S SWAP (Lee & Low Books). She is the Regional Advisor for the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI)-Ventura/Santa Barbara Region.

WHAT DOES A PICTURE BOOK NEED TO HAVE IN ORDER TO BE MULTICULTURAL?

The answer to “What does a picture book need to have in order to be multicultural” is: “authenticity” in the story and in the illustrations. I won’t say “accuracy” because even within what appears to be a single culture, there are multiple perspectives based on individual experiences. But the words and images must ring true to people within that culture in terms of syntax, behavior, beliefs and dress.

OF ALL THOSE BOOKS IN THE MARKET HOW MANY ARE REAL MULTICULTURAL? HOW MANY PRETEND TO BE MULTICULTURAL WHEN THEY ARE NOT? OR HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO BE MULTICULTURAL? WHAT IS LACKING IN THESE BOOKS? ARE THEY FULL OF STEREOTYPES OR MISCONCEPTIONS? CAN YOU GIVE ME TITLES OF BOOKS THAT HAVE THESE OR OTHER PROBLEMS?

I haven’t yet read every book there is to be read so I really can’t answer these questions fairly. A few years ago, there was a push by publishers – (rightly pressured by educators) -- to represent a variety of ethnicities in children’s books. Some book creators addressed the issue by making a visual potpourri of skin colors in the illustrations and a variety of exotic character names in the text to suggest diversity. But in many books, this was purely a superficial fix. (One test for authenticity in the text would be that the story could be clearly identified with a specific culture or group within a culture without looking at the illustrations.) Today, there is a better representation of authentic stories told by a diversity of authors and illustrators.

CAN AN AUTHOR WRITE BOOKS OUTSIDE HIS/ HER CULTURE?
I think passion should direct what an author writes about and what illustrator draws. After the heart of the story is created, then it’s their responsibility that the story is as true as it can be.

WHAT WAS YOUR PROCESS IN WRITING ESTELA'S SWAP?
I moved to Southern California in 1991 and fell completely in love with this state and the diversity of people in it. But the longer I was here, the more annoyed I became that there were too few children’s books that celebrated living in this part of the country. I wanted to write a book that was distinctly Southern Californian. I wanted to write a book that kids here might identify with.

On Sundays, my husband, David, and I often wandered through the Swap Meet that was held at our local drive-in in Simi Valley. Growing up in New England, I had experienced garage sales and flea markets, but never anything like a Swap Meet. It was like a carnival and neighborhood garage sale all rolled in one. Families would often drop by after church to check out the goods, eating chili dogs and tacos, and walking in time to the Latino music blaring over the loudspeakers. Sometimes, David brought computer equipment or car parts to sell. Other times, we just picked through boxes of treasures. I also loved seeing kids in a bargaining mode, earning money for the things they wanted to buy. Before my experiences at Swap Meet, I was a nuts-and-bolts shopper. If a seller told me a price, I paid that price. But once I swung into the rhythm of the Swap Meet, I began to love negotiating agreeable prices.

The more I went to Swap Meet, the more I wanted have a book take place in this particular California setting. Then I began to wonder, what kind of story might take place here? Who would my main character be? What might he or she be doing here? What would be the problem he or she would have to face?

I knew that my character should be Hispanic. Those were the faces I saw all around me. Then I began clipping newspaper articles and photos of young folkloric dancers and mariachi musicians. I attended Ballet Folklorico recitals and talked with educators in Oxnard who were working to revive traditional music and dances. Before long, I had my main character – Estela – who was trying to earn money for dancing lessons. When she tries to sell her music box at Swap Meet, a powerful Santa Ana wind throws her plans into chaos. But her spontaneous act of generosity and an old flower vendor’s unexpected swap eventually help her realize her dream.

The first version of this story was written as an early chapter book. But when Lee & Low Books expressed interest in it, I rewrote it as a picture book for them. What gratifies me is that the book has gone into a second printing and the publisher has just released a Spanish translation of it, Estela en el mercado de pulgas, in both hardcover and paperback. It was named to the Vermont Center for the Book Beyond Differences Top Ten Diversity Books list and was selected for the California Readers’ 2005 California Collection of 100 books for elementary readers. So, Estela’s Swap must feel authentic to enough readers to have all this happen!


WHAT IS YOUR ADVICE FOR AUTHORS WRITING OUTSIDE THEIR CULTURE?
I advise authors to be true to the story and authentic to the culture about which they are writing.

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René Colato Laínez

Theresa Howell is the Editor of Rising Moon and Luna Rising, Imprints of Northland Publishing.

What does a manuscript need to have in order to be multicultural?

Too many stories for children depict characters from the dominant culture. A multicultural manuscript tells the stories of characters outside of the mainstream. These manuscripts tell stories of people from wonderfully diverse cultures. They help readers look at the world from different perspectives.

Of all those manuscripts that you receive in a daily basis how many are real multicultural or have the potential to be multicultural?

I would say that approximately 10% of the manuscripts I receive are multicultural.

What is lacking in these stories? Are they full of stereotypes or misconceptions?

Many of the manuscripts that I receive are filled with stereotypes and misconceptions. Before deciding to publish a multicultural story, we make sure to have it reviewed for stereotypes. I also get stories about themes that I feel are overused and not a fair or complete representation of a particular culture. For instance I get many many manuscripts about tortillas. I feel that the Latino culture extends far beyond tortillas so I tend to turn down those stories.

Can an author write books outside his/ her culture?

I prefer to work with authors who are writing from inside their culture. It's not impossible to write from outside of your culture, but for a very long time, non-dominant cultures have been represented in literature by the dominant culture. I would prefer to the voices from those within the culture.

What do these authors need to do in order to write an authentic multicultural picture book?

People writing from outside their culture need to have an intimate knowledge of what they're writing about. They need to have real connections to people from within the culture. Their stories need to be "approved" by those who belong to the culture they're writing about.

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René Colato Laínez




This is the last part of Living To Tell the Story: The Authentic Latino Immigrant Experience in Picture Books. This was my critical thesis for my MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults at Vermont College. Living To Tell the Story won an honorable award during my last semester at Vermont College.

My Immigrant Experience


I have followed and kept close to my heart Juan Felipe Herrera’s message “Always believe in yourself; don’t forget where you come from and don’t be afraid of life”. El Salvador is my country of origin, Spanish is my native tongue, and I do not give up. I am an immigrant and have experienced the stages of uprooting myself. I have lived to tell the story.

I was born in El Salvador. As a child, I went to school, recited poetry, played with my friends and won a hula-hoop contest on national television. I had a dream to become a teacher.

When I was around ten years old, the water stopped running in our house and the electricity was cut off. The silent nights became very loud. Bombs destroyed factories and homes. Many innocent people died during shootings everywhere in the country. In the mornings when I walked to school, soldiers marched down the streets with big rifles. I saw more dead bodies than pebbles on the sidewalks. When I was fourteen armies of masked men broke into schools and recruited all the students. I did not even want to go to school or anywhere. I had constant nightmares about being caught and becoming the next victim.

The world turned upside down when my father and I fled to the United States. I was uprooted by necessity from my beloved country, relatives and friends. Without being prepared, I encountered the first stage of uprooting, mixed emotions. Luckily my mother had come a year earlier. She had a job for my father and a house where we felt secure.

The second stage of uprooting, excitement and fear in the adventure of the journey was unforgettable. On my long and tiring trip, we sneaked across three borders. I became an illegal immigrant in three countries. At the Mexican/ Guatemalan border, a Mexican Immigration Border Patrol took all my father’s money. We were allowed to cross the border in exchange for our money. In Mexico City, my father and I became homeless. An old trailer became our home for two months. During this time, my mother collected more money for our trip. Then, my nightmare began. I had to cross the American border illegally. For two days, I walked, ran and climbed big mountains without food or water. The brand new shoes that Mamá sent me for Christmas were all torn up and without soles. I reached the United States practically without shoes at all. In a park, my mother gave a packet of money to the coyote who brought us. Then we hugged each other. A few hours later, my mother bought me a new pair of shoes.

Soon, I was in my third stage of uprooting, curiosity. I was thrilled when I saw a color television in our new apartment. In El Salvador, my family had a small black and white television. Now, I had a big screen color television all to myself.

In June, I started ninth grade at Milikan Junior School. It was chaos, a very different world from home. I was in my fourth stage of uprooting, culture shock that exhibits as depression and confusion. I did not understand my teachers; children ran from one classroom to another; the books were filled with letters that I knew but words that did not make sense to me. For the first time in my student life, I hated school.

Within three months, I was a high school student. I studied hard and did my best at school but for me it was not enough. During my silent period, all the teachers spoke English. I had so many things to tell them but I did not know how. Mrs. Allen was the only teacher who spoke Spanish. In her class, I felt secure and began to participate. Mrs. Allen was the first teacher who believed in me. Thanks to her affection, I broke out of my silent shell and I started getting good grades at school in all the subjects. In my fifth stage of uprooting assimilation/ acculturation into the mainstream, I acculturated to school and my surroundings.

Years later, I graduated with honors from high school. Then, I studied at California State University, Northridge and received a Bachelor Degree in Liberal Studies. Eight years after leaving El Salvador, I accomplished my dream of becoming a teacher.

Now, I have accomplished another dream. I am an author. My first two picture books Waiting for Papá/ Esperando a Papá and I Am René, the Boy/ Yo soy René, el niño are based on my immigrant experience. Reading and analyzing the works of authors like Amada Irma Pérez, Jorge Argueta, Jane Medina and Juan Felipe Herrera have helped me write more genuine and authentic manuscripts.

My goal as a writer is to write good multicultural children’s literature. Stories where minority children are represented in a good positive way. Stories where they can see themselves as heroes. Stories where children can dream and have hopes for the future. I want to show readers authentic stories of Latin American children living in the United States.

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This column is devoted to a hub of Chicano literary life here in the Chicago. MARCH/Abrazo Press, an independent small press and publisher, has promoted literature by and about Latinos and Native Americans for nearly 30 years. It is is the publishing arm of March, Inc. also known as el Movimiento Artistico Chicano. The MARCH, Inc. organization was incorporated in Illinois in 1975 as a not-for-profit cultural arts organization.

Since its inception, MARCH/Abrazo Press has published numerous poetry books, anthologies, annotated bibliographies and analyses which feature writings by acclaimed poets such as Sandra Cisneros, Trinidad Sanchez, Carlos Cumpián, Carlos Cortez and other talented Midwestern writers.

Their goal is to promote Latino/Native American literary and visual arts expression with an emphasis on the Midwest and Chicago. Many of our books are published in a bilingual English and Spanish format in order to span many audiences.

Take a look at some of these joyas literarias and you won't be able to resist...In layman's terms, BUY THE BOOK!




Between the Heart and the Land / Entre el corazón y la tierra: Latina Poets in the Midwest Edited by Brenda Cárdenas & Johanny Vázquez Paz

"...While the literary voices of U.S. Puerto Rican poets and fiction writers and of their Chicano/a counterparts on the West Coast and in the Southwest have been anthologized, duly canonized and even mainstreamed by the Anglo literary market, very little is heard about the Latino/a writers and poets from the Midwest... Between the heart and the Land / Entre el corazón y la tierra encompasses a rich array of women of various national origins—Dominican, Cuban, Costa Rican, Bolivian, Salvadorian, Columbian, Argentinian, Mexican, Chicana, and Puerto Rican—as well as of diverse socioeconomic and work experiences, sexuality, sexual identities, age, and generational experiences…"
--- from the forward by Frances Aparicio, Ph.D. Latin American Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago

"Between the heart and the Land / Entre el corazón y la tierra is a poetic and bold testament of the undeniable Latina presence in the heartland of the United States." --- Ana Castillo

ISBN 1-877636-18-5





Serpent Underfoot by Frank Varela

"A Boricua poet now rooted in the Puerto Rican diaspora. These are poems that pay homage, to Crazy Willie, to the doomed Paulina, to his Korean War veteran uncle, in the language of real, lived experience. This is a poet who wants to send Willie Colon and his salsa into outer space, who tells us of forgotten African gods and the 'spics banished to Chicago' for forgetting. For his passion and his clarity, his humor and his memory, I welcome Frank Varela." --- Martín Espada, author of The Republic of Poetry

"I enjoy Varela most when he drops below street-level into the dark earth, which is something of the city's subconscious, the flip side of the urban experience. His poems about laboring with soil, rooting up growing things, are thoughtful and touching, redolent with the fragrant costs of mortality." --- Sesshu Foster, author of Angry Days

"Varela has accomplished a poet's fundamental objective: the creation of beautiful word paintings that convey personal, intimate, and yet, universal messages." --- Manuel Ramos, author of the Ballad of Rocky Ruiz

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René Colato Laínez



The Upside Down Boy/ El niño de cabeza is Juan Felipe Herrera's memoir of the year his migrant family moved to the city so that he could go to school for the first time. Neither of his parents had the opportunity to complete school, but valued the importance of education. Juanito is not an immigrant himself but his parents are. However, he has grown up singing and speaking Spanish with his parents, friends and neighbors. When he comes to school, he enters into a different strange world.

Just as other immigrant children do, he experiences the fourth stage of uprooting, culture shock that exhibits as depression or confusion. Juan Felipe Herrera writes:

“Don’t worry, chico," Papi says as he walks me to school.
I pinch my ear. Am I really here?
Maybe the street lamp is really a golden cornstalk with a dusty gray coat.
People speed by alone in their fancy melting cars. In the valleys, campesinos sang “Buenos dias, Juanito.”
I make a clown face, half funny, half scared. “I don’t speak English,” I say to Papi.
“Will my tongue turn into a rock?”

When immigrant children enter school for the first time, they have so many questions running through their heads and no answers at all. And if teachers answer their questions, immigrant children do not understand them because they are in English. Every time that I wanted to speak in English, I felt that my tongue stuck to my teeth. I could not produce a sound. I felt paralyzed.

When Juanito comes to his classroom, he is terrified. School was not what he had expected. The room looks so strange. It feels like everyone is staring at him. Juanito enters into the silent period:

¿Donde estoy? Where am I?
My question in Spanish fades as the thick door slams behind me.
Mrs. Sampson, the teacher, shows me my desk. Kids laugh when I poke my nose into my lunch bag. The hard round clock above my head clicks and aims its strange arrows at me.
“What is your name?” Mrs. Sampson asks.
My tongue is a rock.

This is the first interaction between Juanito and his teacher. When the teacher asked for his name, Juanito does not have a clue of what she is saying. He knows that he has to say something but he is not able to do it. This is a common experience for immigrant children. My first day at school, a counselor who spoke a few words of Spanish went over my classes for the semester. She spoke very slowly in English and asked me in Spanish, “Comprende?” (Do you understand?) I nodded the whole time, but I did not know what she was talking about.

During recess time Juanito does not know what to do. He sits down and eats his potato burrito while everyone else plays. He feels so strange. Juanito often does the wrong thing during times designated for other activities.

The high bell roars again. This time everyone eats their sandwiches while I play in the breezy baseball diamond by myself.
When I jump up everyone sits.
When I sit all the kids swing through the air.
My feet float through the clouds when all I want is to touch the earth.
I am the upside down boy.

Immigrant children can vividly relate to this experience. When they enter school they feel frightened, shy, and "de cabeza," upside down, like an alien in another planet.
In Junior High school in El Salvador, students stayed in their own classroom and teachers moved from classroom to classroom. At my new American school, I sat down in the classroom while everyone left. I waited for my next teacher and he never came. “You have to go to another classroom,” a boy said in Spanish.

Fortunately, Juanito has a teacher like Jane Medina. Mrs. Sampson is very understanding with him. She became the light at the end of the tunnel.

Mrs. Sampson invites me to the front of the class.
“Sing Juanito, sing the song we have been practicing.”
I pop up shaking. I am alone facing the class.
“Ready to sing?” Mrs. Sampson asks me.
“Three blind mice, three blind mice,” I sing.
My eyes open as big as the ceiling and my hands spread out as if catching rain drops from the sky.
“You have a very beautiful voice, Juanito,” Mrs. Sampson says.
“What is beautiful?” I ask Amanda after school.

Mrs. Sampson is the one who helps Juanito to leave the fourth stage of uprooting and enter the final stage, assimilation and acculturation into the mainstream. Mrs. Sampson helps him find his voice through poetry, art, and music. With her encouragement and the support of his family, Juanito not only fits in, but shines. Mrs. Sampson is the teacher, the human being, the hope that every immigrant child desperately needs to feel useful in the classroom.

At the end of the story, Juanito feels fine at school. He is drawing, painting, singing and speaking. Juanito overcomes his fears in school despite the challenge of adapting to an unfamiliar language and culture. Juan Felipe is so grateful to his teacher that he dedicates this book to her.

For Mrs. Lucille Sampson, my third grade teacher at Lowell Elementary School, Barrio of Logan Heights, San Diego, California, 1958, who first inspired me to be a singer of words, and most of all, a believer in my own voice. Gracias. Thank you.

Mrs. Sampson had touched the future and filled Juan Felipe Herrera’s life with hope. After this experience, Herrera felt liberated and did very good at school. Now he is a poet, a writer and a creative writing teacher.

Juan Felipe Herrera uses his own experiences in third grade and gives a
message of hope to immigrant children. While Herrera was born in the United States to a family of Mexican immigrants, his native language was Spanish, and he grew up in a house with Mexican stories and immigrant relatives arriving from Mexico. Therefore, he can relate to the immigrant experience. In an e-mail interview, he said:

I was pretty insulated-- living on the outskirts of cities, in small, tiny towns, mountains, rancho and lake communities. When I did enter school, the big shock did come -- however it was a muted shock; how do you talk about it, what is it that is happening; it's like losing your voice when you are thrown into an opera on your life. My imagination flourished; I became a passionate observer and dreamer, I created a parallel universe.

Juan Felipe Herrera believes that Latino Children need more stories about their lives in the United States. He wants to see more new Latino authors writing for their own communities.

In order to write an authentic story, you need honesty at all levels, real words from real people and incidents, crises and transformation,suffering and joy. The book must have a kind mind and a warm giant heart.

As a creative writing teacher, Herrera’s goal is to awaken students' appreciation for their own voice, cultural life, and personal expression. He wants to pass on the encouragement and help that Mrs. Sampson transmitted to him when he was a child. His message for immigrant children is, “Always believe in yourself; don’t forget where you come from and don’t be afraid of life.”

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René Colato Laínez



My Name is Jorge On Both Sides of the river is a collection of 27 poems in English and Spanish about another Jorge’s immigrant experience in the United States.
Jane Medina starts with the second stage of uprooting, excitement and fear in the adventure of the journey. Every time that Jorge crosses the busy street to go to school, he always remembers the time when he crossed the river. Jane Medina reveals Jorge’s fears during this odyssey in the poem The Busy Street.

I’m holding Mimi’s hand very tight, again
as tight as I held it
When we crossed the river to come here.
I was so afraid.
Mimi and I had to cross first.
while my mamá and my papá waited
on dry, Mexican sand.
Mamá stands under the stop light
making us go first again.
She is pushing the air toward school with one hand.
She is telling us to go fast
-fast across the busy street.
At least we crossed the river only once.
We have to cross this street every day.

Many immigrant children can relate to this poem. Unfortunately, the majority of immigrant children must cross the Rio Grande or big mountains to come to the United States. Children who are not immigrants can read about the hard experience that immigrant children go through in order to be in America and understand them a little better. For immigrant children this experience is always fresh in their minds. It changes their lives. It is an unforgettable experience. Jane Medina concentrates on the fourth stage of uprooting, the culture shock that exhibits as depression and confusion. Jorge’s first culture shock is with his name. Jorge loves his name. But at school the teacher calls him George.

My name is Jorge.
I know that my name is Jorge.
But everyone calls me
George.
George.
What an ugly sound!
Like a sneeze!”
GEORGE!”
And the worst of all
is thatthis morning
a girl called me
“George”
and I turned my head.
I don’t want to turn
into a sneeze!

In this poem Jane Medina is validating Jorge’s name and the name of every immigrant child. Jorge is not a sneeze; he is a child. Even though George is the literal translation for Jorge in English, for the child it is a completely different word not related at all to his name. This is my favorite poem of this book, because I can relate to it. In the United States, Rene is a girl’s name. Everyone that saw my name thought that I was a girl. I could see the expression on their faces when they saw me responding to René, my name.

Immigrant children are very smart. However when they do not speak the language of instruction they cannot do the work. From one moment to another, their self-esteem drops. They are not brilliant anymore. Jane Medina writes:

Why am I dumb?
In my country
I was smart.
All tens!
Never even an eight!
Now I’m here.
They give me
C’s or D’s or F’s
-like fives
or fours…
or ones.
Well,
I’m still smart
in math.
Maybe dumb
in reading.
But math-
-all tens,
I mean,
A’s.

This poem describes the daily reality of immigrant children in schools around the country. I saw my own reflection in all Medina’s poems. For me Math was the safety belt that kept me from falling out of the English car that I tried to drive. Numbers are numbers anywhere.

It is very hard to see smart children struggle at school because they cannot do the work. It is typical for these children to fail a test. It could have been an easy test for any child who spoke the language. However, for immigrant children this strange language is a barrier too high to jump. In the poem The Test, Jane Medina writes:

I felt my black eyes
get blacker as I stared at the test.
Mrs. Roberts took a step.
I turned my head and she was looking at me.
She saw the tears
-like thick glasses stuck to my eyes.
We both tried to ignore them.
I push the paper away.
This test is too hard for me.

This poem can touch the heart of every immigrant child, because “This test is so hard for me,” is a very common phrase for these children. Immigrant students make up a large majority of children who drop out in big cities; children that could not do the work that teachers expected.

Jorge enters into the silent period. His heart jumps every time his teacher asks a question. This is not because Jorge does not know the answer. It is because, he is afraid of speaking English.

Invisible
If I stay very still
and breathe very quietly,
the Magic happens:
I disappear
-and no one sees me
-and no one hears me
-and no one even thinks about me
And the teacher won’t call on me.
It is very safe being invisible.
I’m perfect!
I can’t make mistakes
-at least nobody sees them,
so nobody laughs.

I have been the invisible student sitting in the last chair at the back of the classroom hoping that the teacher would not call on me. The first time that a teacher asked me to read an English text, I froze. I read the text using my Spanish phonic skills. Everyone laughed, I did not know why. From that day on, I decided to be invisible.

The silent period takes a long time. Especially when there is no support from peers and adults. For immigrant children this period is even harder when their native language is not appreciated. In Dirty Words, Jane Medina writes:

I wish my language didn’t
sound like dirty English words.
The grown-upsfrown
when I speak Spanish,
and the kids laugh.

All immigrant children in the United States can reflect on this poem. Jorge needs the affection from a teacher who can help and support him. When immigrant children see the work of their English-speaking classmates, they feel insecure even if they are doing their best. In the poem Sneaky, Jorge wants to hide his paper.

I hid the paper inside a
big, wavy, white stack of papers
on my teacher’s desk.
I want her to see it
-but not till after school.
I’m scared that it’s not good enough.
I think I spelled too many words wrong,
but I don’t know which ones.
I hope she understands it.
I hope she likes
me.

In this poem Jorge does not care as much about his paper. In the last line, just by using a word, me, Medina reveals what Jorge really needs, the affection of his teacher.

In my high school, at the beginning of the semester in an English Composition class, my English teacher asked the English learner students to raise their hands. Then she told us that most immigrant students failed her class. The teacher said that it would be a good idea to visit our counselors and ask for an easier class. This class was a college requirement. Even though I felt insecure, I decided to stay. A week earlier, I had sent my college applications to three universities. Like Jorge, I needed someone who believed in me. Many times a little affection and love from teachers can do wonders for immigrant children.

Jorge enters the fifth stage of uprooting, assimilation/ acculturation into the mainstream, when his teacher begins to believe in him. Jorge begins to feel proud of his work. He is not dumb anymore. He has hope that he could be smart again. In the poem My Paper, he is excited.

My Paper
She held up my paper
and all the noise stopped.
Everything became still.
Everyone turned their heads
To hear the words she read
-my words.
Then their eyes became a bit wider,
and their pencils moved a bit faster,
and I grew a bit bigger,
when she held up my paper
and all the noise stopped.

Immigrant children need to see more stories and poems like My Paper. They have to see positive role models in literature. When immigrant children read about characters like themselves who are struggling at school and finding ways to resolve their problems, they receive a message of hope.

In this English class, I paid attention, did all the work, and studied for many hours. One afternoon, the teacher was very upset because no one followed her instructions for one composition. She showed the class, the only paper that followed the rules; it was mine. My teacher smiled at me. That simple smile transformed my fears into hopes in that English composition class. I can proudly say that I got a B+ as my final grade in Miss Bass’ class. With effort and perseverance from the students and affection from the teacher, immigrant children can begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Now that Jorge is acculturated he is ready to defend and validate his name by himself. Jane Medina presents a proud Jorge that even gives his teacher a lesson in the poem T-Shirt.

Teacher?
George, please call me “Mrs. Roberts.”
Yes, Teacher.
George, please don’t call me “teacher!”
Yes, T- I mean, Mrs. Roberts.
You see, George, it’s a sign of respect to call me by my last name.
Yes…Mrs. Roberts.
Besides, when you say it, it sounds like “t-shirt.”
I don’t want to be turn into a t-shirt!
Mrs. Roberts?
Yes, George?
Please, call me “Jorge.“

Good for Jorge, he could defend himself. This is another poem that defends the native roots of every immigrant child. I could never defend my name by using words. When people said, “Oh, you are a boy!” I only nodded with pride. As an adult, I had the urge to defend my name. I Am René, the Boy/ Yo soy René, el niño, my second picture book was the way that I found to tell everyone the meaning of my name. I am pleased that it became a picture book with a good role model for immigrant children.
At the end of her book Jane Medina has an acculturation story. Jorge will not lose his roots. He lives and studies in the United States, but he will always be Jorge on both sides of the river.

Jane Medina was born in the United States but her husband immigrated to the United States from Mexico as well as most of her friends and students. In a telephone conversation with the author, she said:

I have lived the immigrant experience through my husband, friends and students. Jorge was one of my students in my fourth grade classroom. One year later, I saw him sitting on a bench. He did not look very happy. He told me that his new teacher called him George. He did not like it at all. It was then and there when I decided to write this book.

The result was this wonderful book that touched me very personally. Jorge is me, a student trying to do his best at school but struggling with his identity and a new language. This book is authentic because it reveals the struggles of immigrant children in Jane Medina’s classroom.

Jane Medina believes that there are many multicultural books that are not authentic. She has read many immigrants stories that go from one extreme to another--either all sweetness or a horrific experience. She says:

An immigration story needs to be three dimensional in order to be authentic. To say that to immigrate to another country is easy and wonderful is a lie. To say that to immigrate to another country is the worst thing that could ever happen to you is a lie too. To be genuine, an author must show the good things, the bad things, and also the ambivalent. The author needs to write a real story.

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