Book launch of HECHO EN TEJAS -- party down in San Marcos!!

A wonderful new anthology of Tejano literature (essays, stories, poems, and song lyrics) is out now, thanks to a wonderful collaborative effort by the UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO PRESS and the SOUTHWESTERN WRITERS COLLECTION (of Texas State University in San Marcos).

My poems “On Language” and “Mexicano Antonio” (inspired by a night of dancing at the cantina formerly known as "Recuerdos de Kansas" on Hemphill Street) are included in this historic collection.

Award-winning (PEN/Hemingway and Guggenheim Fellowship) writer and raconteur, Dagoberto Gilb, took on the role of editor in this project that began in early 2006.

You can read Dago's introduction to the book, published in its entirety in a recent issue of the TEXAS OBSERVER, here.

And--you can join us at a major book launch event on Saturday, February 10th, on the TX State U. campus in San Marcos. Sandra Cisneros, raulrsalinas, Macarena Hernandez, and a slew of other Tejano lit famosos y famosas will be there for a schedule of readings, panel discussions, keynotes, and, of course, FOOD & BEER. Plus, the incredible and legendary CONJUNTO AZTLAN (they've been together since the days of the Movimiento, no lie!) will be performing for us.

For more info on the book, visit the UNM Press website.

Comments from editor Dagoberto Gilb [written in Chicano, so read on, compas!]:

A couple of years ago, I was asked by the Southwestern Writers Collection, in San Marcos, if I would be willing to edit an anthology, with its support, of Texas Mexican Literature.

HECHO EN TEJAS will be an historic publication which will include every important Mexican American writer and poet [who has lived or worked in Texas]--around 65 in total--from as far back as...well, I include Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca as the first. You will certainly recognize the rest as well, but what I am most pleased with is that even to those unfamiliar with our literary estate, and especially those outside the community itself, HECHO can be read as a story. Without having to know who any particular writer is, what will emerge is the largeness of the community as it is puzzles together--through each small piece, the land and its history, the people's sorrows and joys--what has been assimilated and what cannot be.

HECHO is a fine read. Its publication will insist on being noticed and will finally overwhelm the ignorance--and by that I would emphasize the Ignore as much as the dumb or mean or nasty connotation of the word--about raza here in Texas, the people who settled and were settled and still remain in Texas, who will soon be the largest population group in the state and region. The book will also include a page each of a singer-songwriter--from Chelo to Freddy Fender, Flaco, Santiago, Selena. HECHO EN TEJAS will be an event that will have to be covered by every newspaper and magazine in the state. My hope is that even in bookstores, etc, where the Alamo and its immigrants have been the only Texas history, this book will reclaim territory.

I am very excited about this book, and I hope you will be too. HECHO will be a book that reaches every school in Texas and almost certainly beyond. I sincerely believe this book will put an end to the passive apartheid of our literary accomplishment. The book will insist on being used by professors teaching Texas or Southwestern Literature: No longer will there be any excuse for those in power to behave unaware of the intellectual and literary power and wealth that is our community.

Mil gracias, Dagoberto Gilb