Your daily dose of Chicano poetry
"I write poems on walls that crumble and fall
I talk to shadows that sleep and go away crying.”
Luis Omar Salinas (1937–2008)
Tafolla’s “Las Voces de San Antonio”
Amigos,
Next Wednesday night, Feb. 3, nationally recognized filmmaker Jesus Trevino will be in San Antonio to film my one-woman show dramatic performance “Las Voces de San Antonio”at 7 p.m. at Trinity University’s Attic Theater. The event is free and open to the public.
While a complete recording is being made for eventual distribution, excerpts from the show will be included in his new documentary on Chicano Writers. Please come join us, if you can, for a fun evening. (see attached flyer for more information.)
con carino,
Carmen
Carmen Tafolla, Ph.D.
Writer & Educational Consultant
www.carmentafolla.com
****Thought IS energy****
5 poems by Timothy Perez
Gourds
I’ve planted no winter garden.
The summer squash have gone soft,
and split in gruesome grins; I notice
seeds germinating from inside:
in time—anything will eat itself.
Mother’s back aches from the pulsing
root in her rib cage; organs pushed
up against spine, breathing labored
like a bullfrog. My son is coming,
won’t be long now—mother’s belly
has taken its final shape. The dried prickly
head of a sunflower rests easily in the grimy
corner; kernels trip over themselves
in a dust devil; ants eat fallen offerings
next to pumpkins rotting in their shells.
These gourds remind me of the bloated bellies
of the infirm, of the starved.
The grape’s wispy tendrils are tough—their
orbs dried into hard wrinkled nuggets
and the people are hungry and the men stand
around with leathery hands stuffed deep into
second hand store jeans, the collars of worn
jackets turned up against the chill:
this is the way of the world. The warmth will
soon return, and saplings will be planted and grape
vines will come again tough as horse-hair twine,
stubborn as an adolescent, and the women will watch
the men watch as an overripe harvest hits soft ground,
and the men will walk in wide circles avoiding veils
of gorging flies, the soles of heavy boots force tufts
of earth to rise and settle. I want to become a blue heron
and hold mother gently in my thin beak and deliver
her to foreign sands where she’ll dine on stone fruit,
caviar. Fare that crunches and snaps with life,
and together we will wait patiently for sun to return.
VISIONS OF AZTLAN
Dear Friends, VISIONS OF AZTLAN, a one-hour documentary which I directed and which was produced by my friend and colleague Armando Acevedo, will be premiered at the San Antonio film festival on February 5th! I hope you can attend and pass the word. Saludos, Jesus Treviño
CINEFESTIVAL PREMIERE FEATURES
HOLLYWOOD FILMMAKERS & TEXAS ARTISTS
Texas artists are central to the one-hour documentary that headlines the San Antonio Cinefestival at the Guadalupe Theater on Friday, February 5th. “VISIONS OF AZTLÁN,” a one-hour documentary about the birth of the Chicano Art movement in America, directed by veteran Chicano filmmaker Jesús Salvador Trevino, produced by Armando Acevedo, and featuring original music by Germaine Franco, premieres at the Cinefestival at 7PM. The film chronicles the birth of the Chicano art movement in the 1960s and 1970s and features such Texas-based artists as César Martinez, Santa Barraza, Carmen Lomas Garza and photographer Kathy Vargas. Artists from California, New Mexico and Arizona are also part of the powerful story.
“Before the 1960s, there was virtually no imagery about our Mexican American community on television, in the movies, or in magazines,” explains “Visions of Aztlán” director Jesús Trevino, “and then a generation of Mexican American artists arose, inspired by the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, who began to portray our community, its goals and aspirations, our customs and our lifestyles, through murals, paintings, silkscreens and sculpture.”
Producer Armando Acevedo notes that the artists are now part of the contemporary American art scene. “They created a unique movement that is now recognized internationally for its quality and content. But at the same time, they held up a mirror that reflected our community at a time when we were ignored. That’s the story we try to tell in VISIONS OF AZTLAN,” he says.
The film also celebrates the contributions of 1970s Con Safos art collective, led by San Antonio artist Mel Casas and shaped by participation from other Tejano-inspired artists–José Esquivel, Joe López, Amado Pena, Jesse Trevino, Santa Barraza and Carmen Lomas Garza–that have helped define what we today know as Chicano Art.
Convocatoria: Confluencia 26:1
En conmemoración de 25 años de publicación, Confluencia: Revista
Hispánica de Cultura y Literatura publicará un número especial sobre
la literatura chicana. El volumen 26:1, que se editará en el otoño de
2010, solicita ensayos, entrevistas y obras creativas en los diversos
temas de la literatura chicana desde el período fundacional hasta la
actual época transnacional y globalizada. Se invita a los interesados
a enviar su manuscrito de 4000 a 6000 palabras con bibliografía a los
editores invitados: Dr. Oscar U. Somoza (osomoza@du.edu) o al Dr.
Jungwon Park (jungwon.park@unco.edu). La fecha límite para mandar su
colaboración es el 15 de marzo de 2010 y la selección final se
anunciará el 15 de abril. Se aceptan trabajos tanto en español como en
inglés. Se aceptan sugerencias para reseñar libros.
Sitio de Confluencia en la red: http://www.unco.edu/hss/confluencia/
Call for papers: Confluencia 26:1
“Chicana/o Literature: From the Foundational
In commemoration of 25 years of publication, Confluencia: Revista
Hispánica de Cultura y Literatura will publish a special commemorative
issue on Chicana/o literature. Volume 26:1, scheduled for the fall of
2010, invites submissions of articles, interviews and creative works
on a variety of topics on Chicana/o literature from the foundational
period to the present transnational and global era. Please send your
manuscript of 4000 to 6000 words including references to the guest
editors: Dr. Oscar U. Somoza (osomoza@du.edu) or Dr. Jungwon Park
(jungwon.park@unco.edu). The deadline for submissions is March 15,
2010 and selected papers will be announced on April 15. Articles,
interviews and creative works may be either in English or Spanish.
Suggestions for book reviews are also accepted.
Confluencia website: http://www.unco.edu/hss/confluencia/
For more information, contact: jungwon.park@unco.edu, osomoza@du.edu
Xican@ Poetry Daily 