Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Guest Review: Infidelis by Vincent Cooper

Review: Vincent P. Cooper. Infidelis
                    MouthFeel Press October 2023, 79 pages, $16 

Rey M. Rodríguez

 

 “Infidelis,” written by Vincent Cooper (link) employs poetry for its most noble purpose – to lift up Chicano voices and those who are often the first to go to war. At a moment when conflicts in the Ukraine and the Middle East harken back to World War II because of their potential contagion to larger, multinational dangers, Cooper’s book reminds us of the cost of resorting to violence to resolve disputes at a societal and personal level. 

 

I was drawn to this book because, although I did not live this experience, my brother did and countless other Chicanos who wrestled with the decision to sign up for service. With the flick of a pen marking a commitment to the military their life’s trajectory dramatically shifted, and not always for the better. Sometimes the need to escape poverty or a small town served as the reason for this momentous decision and other times who knows what is going through the mind of an 18 year old. In Cooper’s case, it was a girlfriend. He writes in his poem, “Then: The Ultimatum”: 

I had fallen in love with Carmen, who worked with me

at the downtown Marriott. I was a pool boy in aqua/khaki

and didn’t have the balls to tell this teary Chicana in the car, 

that I wanted to leave her. 

I stare at her hard. 

 

I pulled the door handle, 

bolted out of the driver’s seat of her father’s ivory Sedan De Ville 

and joined the United States Marines Corps. 

 

 The reader might think this is a laughable reason to base such an important decision, but to so many teenagers, boys and girls, who do not have a caring adult to serve as a sounding board, then this reason is as good as any other. 

 

 Cooper’s ability to draw us into his poetry with stark honesty runs throughout the book. A perfect example is, “Phone Booth.” 

 

J: Hello . . . What’s up babe . . . you okay? 

V: I fucken cheated . . . I cheated on you. I am sorry. I’m so sorry. 

J: Who was it? 

V: Some girl. I don’t know her. 

 

Dial tone. 

 

This poem, on its face, supports the reason for the title of the book, “Infidelis,” which means in Latin “not faithful.” But Cooper’s book goes beyond the infidelity of a young man towards a woman. His poems suggest this word also refers to the infidelity of a democracy to its citizens, especially Brown and Black people, when it calls them to military service or to fight a war. In “Chicano During Wartime,” he writes: 

 

Afghanistan was not a war at first. 

It was a business proposition. 

Contracts, chess, checkers, choices, Cheney 

—everyone wanted in. 

 

Already there was infidelity to the country’s aspiration to equality as inscribed in the U.S. constitution when Mexican-Americans returned home from service after World War II, such as Cleto Rodríguez, who received the Congressional Medal of Honor from President Harry S. Truman to become the first Mexican American in the Pacific theater of operations to receive the nation’s highest military award, only to be treated as a second class citizen. But if this infidelity was not enough, then the pain faced by Chicano veterans returning from Vietnam certainly did the trick. In “The Chicano Hero,” Cooper writes: 

 

Hippies of the sixties protesting the war 

keep “baby killer” in their mouths, 

tight like the clothes in your seabag. 

 

 You strut on through. 

 

 The cab driver is one of the few to say 

“Thank you for your service.” 

You don’t remember his name. 

 

 At home, on the westside of San Antonio, 

no welcome party, 

just Dad watching T.V., 

no friends on the front lawn waiting with a beer 

 

 . . . Nothing 

 

“Infidelis” is a Chicano perspective, but it is also a universal U.S. story. One where the newly-arrived immigrant and marginalized people are used as fodder to fight often unnecessary conflicts for a government and a country that finds them expendable and less than citizens. It is for this reason that “Infidelis” is such a relevant and vibrant poetry book that should be widely read. “Infidelis”offers the reader a counter-narrative to a view of military service held by a majority, seemingly color blind, because Cooper shows how ultimately racist the Corps is in practice. 

 

If the United States is deciding to enter another ethically unsupportable war, maybe, just maybe, policymakers will be confronted by the human cost brought to light by these poems and other nonviolent voices. 

 

At the very least, some Chicano from San Antonio, or anyone else who is trying to avoid breaking up with his girlfriend by enlisting to become a Marine, may read this book of poetry and change his mind. 

 

I believe that art saves lives and “Infidelis” in the right hands definitely has the power to do so given how accessible and honestly Cooper writes. 


 

 Meet la Bloga's Guest Reviewer: Rey M. Rodríguez



Rey is a writer, advocate and attorney, who lives in Pasadena, CA.  He is currently working on a novel set in Mexico City and the Mayan Underworld and a nonfiction book on Proyecto Pastoral at Dolores
Mission, a nonprofit serving the immigrant community of Boyle Heights for over 30 years.

 

 

Monday, March 18, 2024

“Chicano Frankenstein” is out in the world!

 

On March 5, my eleventh book, Chicano Frankenstein, was published by Forest Avenue Press of Portland, Oregon. 

The next night, we had our official book launch at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena. We packed the house! I was interviewed by the wonderful writer, Désirée Zamorano. 

I want to thank Vroman’s and all of my friends, family, and strangers who showed up in the pouring rain to celebrate my new book. 

Here are a few photos of the evening. You will recognize some of the faces, no doubt. And if you missed it, Vroman’s has autographed copies available in store or online.










And a few days later, it was off to the Tucson Festival of Books where I signed copies of Chicano Frankenstein and saw old friends. I also got to celebrate with my publisher, Laura Stanfill, and her husband, Jonathan. What a lovely time!

 





I have many more events set for this year with more being planned, so if you missed me at Vroman’s or the Tucson Festival of Books, there will be other opportunities. Check out my website for my events page. Also, if you are interested in having me as a guest on a panel, classroom presentation, or other literary events, drop me a line at olivasdan (at) aol.com.

***

In other news, the venerable Teatro Espejo in Sacramento will be producing the world premiere of my play, Waiting for Godínez. The play will run each Friday, Saturday and Sunday from April 5 to 21. You may purchase tickets here. My play had previously been produced in readings in Los Angeles and New York, but this is the first fully staged production (an abridged version was staged in 2021 by Playwrights' Arena under the title Waiting in light of pandemic protocols). We have a magnificent director and cast! I will be attending the April 13th performance and will participate in a talkback afterwards. I hope you can join us for an evening of live theatre!


Thursday, March 14, 2024

Discussing the "Great" Books

                                                                                 
Is there such a thing as a "great" book, like greater than a '57 Chevy?
                                                                                  
     I got to thinking about a discussion I was having with two friends in a low-end restaurant, oh, sometime back in early ‘80s, when students still frequented the Westwood Village. 
     Both were Chicano grad students studying at UCLA, one finishing a Ph. D. in Latin American History, the other a Ph. D., also in history, focusing on the Southwest, the closest, he said, he could get to a doctorate in Chicano Studies. I was finishing an M.A. in English, at a local state university. I was listening more than talking. 
     Anyone who has ever watched two grad students argue over any given academic topic understands their passion, which was fueled as much by a few downed pitchers of beer than the heady topic under the microscope, so to speak. 
     The one studying history of the Southwest said he was pissed because he’d wanted a doctorate in Chicano Studies, but no university was offering it. The other argued, of course no university offered it. There wasn’t enough documented information to warrant a Ph. D. “What’s there to study?” 
     The future Southwest historian offered, “How can there be enough documentation if no universities offer advanced degrees for students to search the archives, personal letters, records,” etc., etc. Well, that opened the way for the Latin Americanist to argue, “What is Chicano studies, anyway? Chicanos can’t even agree about who is Chicano and who isn’t.” 
     The other said, “What about the documentation going back to the sixteen and seventeen-hundreds, the first explorations into Aztlan? That’s a lot of history,” to which the other responded, “That’s not Chicano history. That’s Mexican American history, not even, it's Hispanic history. Chicanos didn’t even start using the word “Chicano,” until the 1900s, probably the 1940s, the Pachuco era. How much documentation do you think pachucos left behind?” 
     And so it went, for at least an hour, getting louder and louder, nearly unruly, and students at other tables gawking at us, three Aztecas going at it in Westwood. My two friends finally calmed down, looked over at me, and said, something like, “And you, what?” They knew I was studying for one reason, because I wanted to write, not to research or teach, like them. “So," one said to me, "when you going to write the great Chicano novel?” 
     I told them I’d be happy if I could write a few good short stories. Funny, how ideas and past events come into our heads, with no warning, like this discussion I had with my two friends over thirty years ago. It must mean something or why would it stay locked in my memory? 
     After I recalled this discussion, I got to thinking about what we didn’t talk about -- this great “Chicano” novel I was supposed to write. What is it? Has it been written, yet? Maybe, maybe not. What is a “great” anything? Who is to judge? 
     Is the idea of writing the great Chicano novel a noble enough effort, or is it limiting? Why can’t a male or female Chicano, Mejico-Americano, Hispano del norte, set out to write the “great” American novel, up there with the big boys and girls, Hawthorne, Alcott, Hemingway, Harper Lee, Melville, Twain, Dos Passos, Faulkner, Mailer, Morrison, and all the others? What is this "great" novel that is supposed to be written, anyway? Is it finished or are readers still waiting for it? 
     As for the "greatest" novel, some might give the nod to Cervantes’ Don Quijote, even though many readers couldn’t hang with an old man and his hefty sidekick fighting illusions for 780 pages. Others say Tolstoy’s War and Peace is a might effort, even if it is, at times, confusing and too long, another rambling war story. How about Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment, the study of a psychopath’s mind? Naw, when all is said and done, it's just another who-dun-it, a moping killer suffering an existential crisis. Maybe Dickens' the Tale of Two Cities, Bronte's Wuthering Heights, or Orwell's 1984?
      Moby Dick took the world by storm, yet some critics said Melville was just passing off a boy’s adventure sea story as a classic, not enough adventure and way too much working-class moralizing and philosophizing. How about Victor Hugo, les miserables, a hit not only in print but in cinema and, most recently, on Broadway? Some beautiful writing, solid visions of France’s penal system, but also bewildering and meandering; easier to watch the Fugitive, with Tommy Lee Jones. 
     Recently, I read Norman Mailer’s WWII classic, what some claim the Great American War novel, the Naked and the Dead. Coming in at 700+ pages, a true epic but also, with that many pages, how can any writer develop the “great” novel, some say a little too sentimental and wandering? A pleasant surprise, to me, was Mailer's portrayal of a Chicano recon infantryman, Julio Martinez, of San Antonio, who had a significant role in the book, even if Mailer got the accent wrong, more native American than Mexican, but his courage and exploits, in the narrative, showed how Chicanos were important to the war effort. 
     Many consider Gabriel Garcia-Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, a “great” novel, and a beautiful work, poetic, line by line, but overall, for many readers, overwhelming, a long narrative having trouble sticking to one of its hundred characters and storylines. 
     I am not a Mexican/Latin American literature expert, not even close, but I do know writers from south of the U.S. border can write some of the best, short novels, in the spirit of an epic and “great” novels, from Mexicans Mariano Azuela, Juan Rulfo, Elena Poiniatowska, Carlos Fuentes, Rosario Castellanos to Mario Vargas Llosa, Julio Cortazar, Jorge Luis Borges, Isabel Allende, and so many others. To even think of a “great” novel is mind-boggling. 
     In the U.S., Ana Castillo, Oscar Hijuelos, Sandra Cisneros, Arturo Islas, Victor Villasenor, Luis Alberto Urea, Rodolfo Anaya, Americans of Latino descent, to name but a few, have written some powerful novels, but is any one of them considered the “great” Latino (or Chicano) novel? Some say Victor Villasenor’s Rain of Gold came close, one of the longer Chicano epics. 
     Then, we always get back to what is a “great” novel, or for that matter, what is a "great" anything? Do writers set out to write “great” novels? Many writers, some of the best and most beloved, have said they had no idea if their book would be “great” or “best”. That wasn’t on their minds as they wrote. What took up most of their brain power was simply -- writing a good story, for whatever reason, like John Steinbeck exposing the plight of Okie farmworkers in the 1930s, or Heminway telling a love story, between an American and a British nurse, in Italy, during some of the worst fighting during WWI. 
     Alfredo Vea’s novel, God’s Go Begging, something of murder mystery, touched on so many other issues, like the Vietnam War, and it kept the reader glued to the page. Mark Twain set out to write a simple story about the great Mississippi River, from a child’s perspective, and he hit upon the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and the complexity of slavery. 
     I believe writers sit down at a desk, or wherever they write, to tell a story, the best story they can. They spin a yarn that will entertain, and maybe even teach. They don't think their writing is representing a nation or an ethnicity. They write one word then another, sentence after sentence, paragraph after paragraph, entertaining themselves as they write, and maybe, just maybe, somebody might pick up the book once it’s written and tell a friend, “Hey, this is a great novel. You should read it.” 

Daniel Cano's most recent novel, Death and the American Dream, was presented first place, historical fiction at the 2010, International Latino Literary Book Awards

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Let's Play in the Park / Juguemos en el parque


Written by René Colato Laínez

Illustrated by Nomar Perez

 

 

Publisher: Holiday House 

Language: ‎ Bilingual edition: English, Spanish

Hardcover: 40 pages

ISBN-10: 0823453812

ISBN-13: 978-0823453818

Reading age: 3 - 7 years

Grade level: Preschool - 2

 

 

Joe and José play games in the park in this third bilingual picture book in the My Friend, Mi amigo series.

 

Two friends, an English speaker and a Spanish speaker, go to the park for a day filled with games and making new friends.

 

Hi, José! Let's go to the park. Hola Joe! Vamos al parque.

I like to climb. Me gusta subir.

I like to slide. Me gusta deslizarme.

 

Perfect for preschoolers, kindergarteners, and first and second graders who are learning to speak or read English and Spanish. A delightful reading experience for bilingual families.

 

René Colato Laínez, a teacher in a bilingual kindergarten classroom, has crafted an ingenious story that authentically and naturally uses conversation to introduce children to English and Spanish. The fun friendship story engages children, while simple words, short sentences, and a glossary reinforce learning.

 

Nomar Perez, Pura Belpré Honor winning illustrator of best-selling children’s books as well as greeting cards, has a bright, bold, colorful, kid-pleasing style that invites readers to befriend the characters in this book.

 

René was raised in El Salvador and Nomar in Puerto Rico.

 

You will also like Let’s Be Friends, Seamos Amigos and We Play Soccer / Jugamos al fútbol by René Colato Laínez and illustrated by Nomar Perez.

 

 

 

Book 1

Let's Be Friends / Seamos Amigos


 


Hi! ¡Hola! A friendship story in English and Spanish! ¡Un cuento de amistad en inglés y español!

 

Hi. Hola.

My name is Joe. Mi nombre es José.

Let's paint. Pintemos.

 

Two boys, an English speaker and a Spanish speaker, meet at school. They paint together and learn about colors. In the end, they declare, "Let's be friends. / Seamos amigos.”




Book 2

We Play Soccer / Jugamos al fútbol 

 

 


Joe speaks English. He loves soccer. José habla español. A José le gusta el fútbol. This story is in English and Spanish!

 

Hola, Joe. Hi, José.

I have my uniform. Tengo mi uniforme.

I am ready. Estoy listo.

 

Two boys, an English speaker and a Spanish speaker, are on the same soccer team. They have their uniforms and their cleats. They can both juggle the ball. At first, the boys must wait on the bench. But when the coach lets them in the game, both Joe and José score goals. “We win,” says Joe. “Ganamos,” says José.



 

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo's Incantation: Love Poems for Battle Sites

La Bloga-Tuesday welcomes Michael Sedano's Guest Reviewer, Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera, PhD, especially with today's review of Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo's latest collection. La Bloga and Michael Sedano celebrated Bermejo's first collection, Posada, Offerings of Witness and Refuge, in a living room floricanto (link). It's a double pleasure welcoming this review of Bermejo's newest offering and welcoming Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera, whose own YA book is due for a review here at La Bloga.  


Guest Reviewer, Incantation: Love Poems for Battle Sites by Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo

By Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera, PhD

Anyone who knows me knows that love poems aren’t my thing. When I taught high school English, I selected obscure love poems that didn’t exactly jive with teenage notions of love. Even now when I include the theme of love in my creative writing classes, I tend to select poems that capture this notion of love from an unexpected viewpoint, in forms like letter and list that my students have not seen before.

Incantation: Love Poems for Battle Sites changed my perception of love and the way various poetic forms can be used to express love to the people around us. Bermejo’s poems offer a complex juxtaposition of various kinds of love and the trauma of different types of battles. With these incantations, she summons the wisdom of the ancestors and using their guidance, offers consejos of her own for the next generation. 

With three distinct parts, the collection revels in love: maternal and romantic, love of friends and kids, love of nature and music, and perhaps most importantly, love of self. Bermejo provides different perspectives on the joys and pains of love during times of battle.

In Part One, many of the poems center youthful innocence. The nature imagery in “Dancing to the Tree of Their Own Mum” and “Beach Evening Primrose” reveals the joy of children and mothers; it offers hope. There are also several concrete poems throughout the collection. My favorite is “The High Dive,” which captures both joy and defiance. Several other poems resonate with Tía love and caution. Through “Even in War,” Bermejo reveals a closeness not all extended kinfolk know. This poem about a tragic topic also echoes joy. 

Bermejo includes found family in her love, penning poems for friends in 2020; she supports teacher efforts in the strike and momma memories of more relaxing days. She also dedicates other poems to people who have experienced tremendous struggle. 

In poems like “Birthday Candle for Breonna Taylor” the speaker addresses key moments in our history and reminds readers how they are relevant to our present day. With these words, Bermejo offers respite from the pain. She also pays homage to place. I’ve heard a previous version of “For the Love of Home” and shared it with students to inspire their own writing about their homes. The expanded version has surprising new details and an altered rhythmic structure that increases the impact of each moment.

In Part Two, Bermejo plunges readers into the battle, confronts the ghosts of war and the monuments to our tragic US history. Yet it is only one version, she realizes, and fills in the gaps with images, rhythms, and movements of words that dance across the page. They carry us to the other side with love. 

Embedded within the Gettysburg National Monument poems are testimonies of confronting racism along the creative journey. Bermejo exposes how she engages white people in difficult conversations with “Comfort Food for White Spaces.” The speaker in “Self-Portrait of Expectation” embraces the haunting in order to empower herself, in order to overcome the loneliness society has convinced her she should feel. With her strength, she changes the narrative. “Counting the Dead” chronicles the death, grief, and loss that originated at the battle site, but there is far too much death and grief and loss to be contained there. The poem summons memories of loved ones lost and the pain of that lost love; the tragedies beyond the battles, loss that should not be. The poems in Part Two also offer an alternative to a redacted history or, rather, a neglected one. Bermejo reinserts brown people in places where they’ve been overlooked or erased.

In Part Three, Bermejo juxtaposes the end of love with the trauma when love does not come. Only then is the speaker empowered to revel in the erotic, to subvert the expectations of sadness and shame. Bermejo embraces the body and celebrates its power. She invokes the wisdom of  Frida Kahlo and Audre Lorde as she illustrates how self-love can empower women through the darkest times. Appropriately, the collection ends with “Ritual of Wholeness,” which brings together the pieces of what has been torn apart by the battles.

This is a collection of poems in a variety of forms that can alter readers’ perspectives on love. When I create my next syllabus, I will expand my love unit to include Bermejo’s poems. Follow @xochitljulisa on Instagram so you can join her on her book tour.

ISBN: 978-1-957840-21-5
Publication Date: October 2023
Format: Paperback
Pages: 97
Publisher: Mouthfeel Press

La Bloga welcomes Guest Reviewer, Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera, PhD.

Chicana Feminist and former Rodeo Queen, Tisha Marie Reichle-Aguilera (she/her) writes so the desert landscape of her childhood can be heard as loudly as the urban chaos of her adulthood. She is a Macondista and works for literary equity through Women Who Submit. 

A former high school teacher, she earned an MFA at Antioch University and a PhD at USC. Her short stories have been anthologized and nominated for awards. Her play Blind Thrust Fault was featured in Center Theater Group Writers’ Workshop Festival. 

Reichle-Aguilera's YA novel, Breaking Pattern, is available from Inlandia Books. 



About Breaking Pattern

Adriana Elizabeth Herrera Bowen, a Latina living in Riverside California, is an eleventh grader who loves horses more than people. 

School is hard. 

She wants to win the All-Around Cowgirl saddle more than anything, but her parents make choices that disrupt her plans and force her to make drastic decisions.


Monday, March 11, 2024

Poesía y Música en el Día Internacional de la Mujer por Xánath Caraza

Poesía y Música en el Día Internacional de la Mujer por Xánath Caraza
El pasado viernes 8 de marzo nos dimos cita de manera virtual, a las 7 p.m. hora del Centro, para conmemorar el Día Internacional de la Mujer de 2024. Esta ocasión recordó a Lisa Lopez-Galvan quien fue asesinada en la Ciudad de Kansas el pasado 14 de febrero durante el rally de celebración de la victoria del esquipo de los Chiefs de Kansas City.
Hatice Guneri, Presidenta de la Asociación Estudiantil de Diálogo Intercultural de la Universidad de Missouri en Kansas City abrió la noche con unas palabras dedicadas a Lisa Lopez-Galvan. Hatice fue la maestra de ceremonias este 2024 y también agradeció a los copatrocinadores del evento. Dichos patrocinadores fueron la Asociación Estudiantil de Diálogo Intercultural de UMKC, el Centro de las Mujeres de UMKC, el Programa de Estudios de la Mujer, del Género y de la Sexualidad de UMKC y el Dialogue Institute de la Ciudad de Kansas. Las presentadoras que formaron parte de la velada fueron Flor Lizbeth Cruz Longoria, DaMaris B. Hill y la que escribe. Flor Lizbeth Cruz Longoria es una flautista que radica en la Ciudad de Kansas y DaMaris B. Hill es ensayista, poeta y narradora radicada en Kentucky. Para los que no me conocen, soy poeta, narradora y traductora.
A continuación, unas fotografías de este evento. Las imágenes son de Steve Holland.
Tuve la fortuna de empezar con una lectura de poesía de mi más reciente poemario, Tejerás el destino, You Will Weave Destiny, que fue publicado por FlowerSong Press recientemente. Este poemario celebra la vida de Macuilxochitzin.
Flor Lizbeth Cruz nos deleitó con su voz y la interpretación de un par de canciones.
Cerramos con la Doctora DaMaris Hill y su excelente poesía. Para terminar, tuvimos una sesión de preguntas y respuestas donde el foco fue el proceso creativo. También nos entregaron certificados de participación a cada una de las presentadoras. A todos los que asistieron e hicieron que en esta noche hubiera casa llena, muchas gracias. Hasta la próxima.

Friday, March 08, 2024

The Spirit of 76














AI generated images. Tech magic. Welcome to the future? Harbingers of the apocalypse?



A bit of self-reflection on the occasion of an anniversary.

had a birthday this week, my 76th.  I celebrated with a French toast doughnut with breakfast. It seemed appropriate. 

I tell myself that I will finish a Gus Corral novel this year.  Other goals in the Spirit of 76 include getting back to model cars, traveling to someplace I haven't been to yet, and maintaining a high level of exercise (physical and mental) and social activity.

There are reasons why I may not reach these goals.  The number one obstacle, in my view, is the speed of progression of my Parkinson's Disease.  The exercise goal is my major response to Parkinson's symptoms.  I attend several exercise classes each week that are designed to help combat PD.  My days include sessions on an exercise bike, repetitive routines that help balance, stamina, and cognition, yoga poses to stretch and relax stiff and ungainly muscles, and aerobics. That strategy appears to be working, in terms of slowing down PD.  Can't say it's done much for writing, traveling, or modeling. 

Like the song says, I'm not the world's most physical guy, and there are days when it all feels like too much.  And then there are days when it all falls into place.  As another song says, that's life.  No?

Later.

____________________

Manuel Ramos writes crime fiction. Read his latest story, Northside Nocturne, in the award-winning anthology Denver Noir, edited by Cynthia Swanson, published by Akashic Books.