Attention writers, poets, historians, and photographers! Do you have a passion for Conjunto music and culture? Here’s your opportunity to showcase your work in Tonantzin, the program book for the 43rd Annual Tejano Conjunto Festival in San Antonio.
The submission deadline is March 17, 2025.
To submit your work:
Please email conjunto@guadalupeculturalarts.org
Include: Attention: Mariaelena Villarreal
Send your submission in Microsoft Word format
Include your contact information
We can’t wait to see your incredible contributions!
“Vincent Valdez: Just a Dream… is the artist’s first major museum survey and spans over two decades of his work, from early career drawings to current allegorical portraits. This exhibition cements Valdez as one of the most important American painters working today—imaging his country and its people, politics, pride, and foibles.” -Read more about the exhibit at Contemporary Arts Museum–Houston
Monica Rico is a Mexican American CantoMundo Fellow, Macondista, and the author of PINION, winner of the Four Way Books Levis Prize in Poetry selected by Kaveh Akbar. She holds an MFA from the University of Michigan’s Helen Zell Writers’ Program (HZWP). She has published poems in The Atlantic, The Academy of American Poets’ Poem-A-Day, The Slowdown, Ecotone, The Nation, Gastronomica, and The Missouri Review. Follow her at http://www.monicaricopoet.com.
What if you woke up quick to a rattling chain link
At camp america, where they make you piss where you drink
Imagine waking up to a missing Mother and Father
After sleeping on concrete and sipping on toilet water
There’s not a moment my mind blinks and pretends
That they have not deported my family and my friends
My hands feel powerless but still, I raise a fist
I use the words that the Lord gave me to write like this
I wrote a letter for BORE… but the judge wanted more
He didn’t get to hug his kids before they sent him out the door
We can’t save everybody, but we can educate
Know your rights, how to protect yourself, and how to mediate
Not everyone’s had opportunities like I did
I’m first-generation middle school, high school, and college
I’m first-generation jus soili and I’ll use it
I’ll exercise my freedom of speech until I lose it
This is a call to impeach every midday marauder
And a reminder that Flint still has no clean water
A call to bless the blood in the street where I was born
To bless all the hand-me-down clothes that we have worn
This is for every orphan at the border in a cage
Aqui ando rezando, quemando palo santo and sage
Some days we fly with angels, other days we creep with demons
It’s up to us to decolonize our own minds to supersede it
While everything is possible, nothing is certain
Ergo some of these obstacles are nothing more than a curtain
If we take the time to dream it, give it love, and let it happen
I believe that little spark of light will start a chain reaction
We’ve all overcome mentalities and risen from the depths
Of escapism, vices, and regretting what comes next
While this life I have ain’t much, I’d rather perish
Telling everybody I love them and holding the ones I cherish
There is happiness in consciousness and living in this presence
I suggest a dose and a dive into its sobering iridescence
Uxmar Torres is a proud son and sibling of Mexican Immigrants. He was born on the southside of Chicago, where he was heavily influenced by the MCs in his neighborhood, on the radio, and across the city. He began writing at age ten and quickly found his voice through verse. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Poetry from Augustana College and has since been showcased across the country for his spoken word poetry. In 2024 he was elected as the first poet Laureate of Joliet, making him the first Poet Laureate of Mexican descent in the state of Illinois.
Uxmar Torres is a proud son and sibling of Mexican Immigrants. He was born on the southside of Chicago, where he was heavily influenced by the MCs in his neighborhood, on the radio, and across the city. He began writing at age ten and quickly found his voice through verse. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Poetry from Augustana College and has since been showcased across the country for his spoken word poetry. In 2024 he was elected as the first poet Laureate of Joliet, making him the first Poet Laureate of Mexican descent in the state of Illinois.
Xican@ Poetry Daily 