Latino Cultural Center on Saturday, May 3rd: HECHO EN TEJAS will bring da house up!!

7:30pm - Latino Cultural Center - 2600 Live Oak St., just east of downtown Dallas - sponsored by Writer's Garret, Latino Writers Having Their Say, and Las Comadres, among other groups.

This will be a feast of Chicano/Tejano/a words and music. Also, Cesar Hernandez (of Cara Mia Theatre Company will be providing excerpted footage of an El Paso performance by raulrsalinas (qepd) for the ofrenda (tribute altar) that I will be erecting in the lobby at the Latino Cultural Center. raul, after all, is with us in spirit and, as one of the contributors to the HECHO EN TEJAS anthology, deserves to be remembered and included in our public performance events.

My set list for the night: "Mexicano Antonio" and "On Language" (both from the HECHO EN TEJAS anthology) and a very new piece never-before performed: "Work Out in a Huipil".





Blurb from the press release:

"The Dallas performance will feature master accordion player Santiago Jimenez Jr. with his conjunto and critically acclaimed alternative musician David Garza with Joel Garza, as well as award-winning authors, such as Dagoberto Gilb and Rolando Hinojosa-Smith. Gilb and Hinojosa-Smith, who were honored for their contributions to Texas Literature at the Texas Book Festival in 2007, will read their prose and share meaningful stories about Tejano history and map a view of the future for Mexican Americans in Texas. Authors on stage will be: Tony Díaz, Tammy Gomez, Christine Granados, Macarena Hernández and Diana López..

Hecho en Tejas contributors have already traveled statewide, promoting the book to the general public and to teachers and students in San Marcos, Houston, Ft. Worth, San Antonio, El Paso and the Rio Grande Valley.  Writers in the anthology will descend upon Dallas to read from the book and celebrate its historical success with the public.

Tickets for the show are $15, $10 and $8 and can be purchased at the Latino Cultural Center. (NOTE: THE SHOW IS EXPECTED TO SELL-OUT.)

The Latino Cultural Center is a division of the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs.  The mission of the Latino Cultural Center is to serve as a catalyst for the preservation, development and promotion of Latino and Hispanic arts and culture in Dallas.  The Center is located at 2600 Live Oak, Dallas, Texas 75204 and is open Tuesday – Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For additional information please call 214-671-0045 or visit THE LCC web site at, www.dallasculture.org/latinocc."

Book review of HECHO EN TEJAS

Wow, this anthology, HECHO EN TEJAS, was released over a year ago, yet the reviews keep a-coming. This latest assessment appeared in the Sunday magazine of the Santa Fe New Mexican this week.

I am a recipient of a Puffin Foundation 2007 grant award for She: Bike/Spoke/Love !!

hella busy this month and the last.

just got another grant, yesterday, from the Puffin Foundation, in support of my upcoming spoken word bicycle theater play SHE: BIKE/SPOKE/LOVE. (that's my big focus for the next 6 to 12 months.)

i'm incredibly surprised that i'm typing this at 7:35 a.m. damn phone rang, and woke me. gonna mess w/ my schedule and biorhythms today, it is.

tomorrow i fly out to Kingsville (TX A&M) for a 3-day artist/writer residency at the university. will be lecturing, performing, and leading 2 workshops with high school students in the nearby community.

over the weekend, i'll roadtrip to McAllen for my first ever visit to the Valley. such a mythical, legendary place, it seems. will be there to promote and celebrate HECHO EN TEJAS with a reading at a Barnes & Noble and a workshop for high school teachers in La Joya ISD--to give 'em ideas for how to use our book in their classrooms. of course, bbq and other social events are pegged for all the visiting writers (Dagoberto Gilb, Macarena Hernandez, David Garza, Erasmo Guerra, Christine Granados, Roberto Ontiveros, and several others).

HECHO EN TEJAS: Palabras del Barrio - TONIGHT!

HECHO EN TEJAS (UNM Press: Albuquerque, 2007) is the first major anthology of Mexican-American literature from Texas. Our event, in Fort Worth, is scheduled for Friday, April 13th, at the Rose Marine Theater, 1440 N. Main St., from 7:30pm-9:30pm.

I became involved with this publication because Dagoberto Gilb--renowned author and creative writing instructor at Texas State University--invited me to submit some of my own poems for his consideration. He chose 2 of my poems, which are now including in the anthology. Many of us Mexican-American writers in Texas are part of an active network. We stay in touch w/ one another, offering support & collaborating in literary projects. Dago is someone I've known for many years. We've actually been to the White House together, and that's another--very interesting!--story.

I hope you can join us for the Friday, Apriil 13th event in FW. It is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC. No reservations are needed. This will DEFINITELY be a great PHOTO OPPORTUNITY as well. Copies of HECHO EN TEJAS will be for sale---30 bucks each.

Mil gracias!
Tammy
_________________________________________________________

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Tammy Gomez
Sound Culture
sound_culture@hotmail.com
817.924.9188

“Hecho en Tejas: Palabras del Barrio” to celebrate the release of new anthology of Texas Mexican literature with author readings & reception

What: Reading/performance/booksigning/reception
When: Friday, April 13th, 7:30pm - 9pm
Where: Rose Marine Theater, 1440 N. Main Street, 817.624.8333
Cost: Free admission/open to the public

HECHO EN TEJAS (UNM Press, 2007) is a groundbreaking collection of literature by Mexican-Americans in Texas which was released on February 10th of this year. Since that date, many events throughout Texas have been scheduled to celebrate and promote the book--particularly in Hispanic communities and educational institutions.

A Fort Worth literary event to celebrate HECHO EN TEJAS, is scheduled for Friday, April 13th, from 7:30-9pm, at the Rose Marine Theater.

The event, titled "HECHO EN TEJAS: Palabras del Barrio", will feature readings and performances by six authors from the anthology--including editor Dagoberto Gilb.

A video-poem by poet Tonantzin Canestaro-Garcia will be screened, and a performance by Austin musician David Garza (whose lyrics are included in the anthology), will also be offered.

Copies of HECHO EN TEJAS will be available for purchase during the reception and booksigning in the gallery.

AUTHOR/ARTIST BIOS:

There will be six authors and performers, representing HECHO EN TEJAS, in attendance at the Rose Marine Theater event:

Dagoberto Gilb (Austin) is the editor of Hecho en Tejas: An Anthology of Texas Mexican Literature. He is also the author of four books of fiction and nonfiction, including the 1994 PEN/Hemingway Award-winning The Magic of Blood, as well as The Last Known Residence of Mickey Acuña, Woodcuts of Women, and Gritos. He currently is on the faculty of the Creative Writing MFA Program at Texas State University, in San Marcos, Texas.

Macarena Hernández (Dallas) is an editorial columnist for The Dallas Morning News. She has co-produced a PBS/Frontline World documentary for PBS and written for publications such as The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times. She is a graduate of Baylor University and earned a master’s degree in journalism from the University of California at Berkeley.

Christine Granados (El Paso) is the author of the short story collection Brides and Sinners in El Chuco(2006). She works as a freelance journalist and is a recipient of the 2006 Alfredo Cisneros del Moral
Award. She earned an M.F.A. from Texas State University in San Marcos.

Tammy Gomez (Fort Worth) is a small-press publisher (Tejana Tongue Press), activist, and arts educator. A 2007 Texas Medal of Arts award nominee, she graduated from Goucher College (Maryland) in 1985. Her literary performance works include the award-winning “Maya Matematica” and “Malinchuca”.

Davíd Garza (Austin ) is a critically-acclaimed musician with a mastery of many styles and has released numerous CDs including: “This Euphoria,” “Overdub,” “The Four Track Manifesto” and “A Strange Mess of Flowers.”

José Angel Gutiérrez (Arlington), professor of Political Science at UTA, is the author of several nonfiction books, including “The Making of a Civil Rights Leader”, which is included on the New York Public Library’s list of “Books for the Teen Age 2007.”

For more information:

Dallas Morning News book review by Tom Dodge:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/books/stories/
DN-bk_hecho_0318gl.ART.State.Bulldog.43f3b7b.html

Houston Chronicle book review:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/books/reviews/4576286.html

Texas House of Representatives Declare “Hecho en Tejas” Day:
http://talbot.mrp.txstate.edu/currents/fullstory.jsp?sid=998

Texas State University - San Marcos article:
http://star.txstate.edu/content/view/2711/

Texas Observer article by HECHO EN TEJAS editor Dagoberto Gilb:
http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2374

Newspaper Tree (El Paso) book review:
http://www.newspapertree.com/culture/1159-a-storm-made-in-tejas-
review-of-hecho-en-tejas-an-anthology-of-texas-mexican-literature

San Antonio Express-News article:
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA021107.14B.hecho.19dfc22.html

Tom Dodge review of HECHO EN TEJAS for the DMN

A COMMON HISTORY, UNCOMMON STORIES

ANTHOLOGY: Mexican writers give a fresh take on Texas

12:00 AM CDT on Sunday, March 18, 2007

By TOM DODGE / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News

For literary insights into Mexican life and culture, students of prior generations had Ernest Hemingway's The Pearl and assorted stories and books by John Steinbeck. While these were sympathetic insights, they portrayed Mexicans as cunning idlers, natural artists or lovable thieves. If they worked at all they were fishermen, bus drivers, soldiers, farmworkers and the like, all worthy occupations but hardly indicative of an entire culture.

Texas history books of that era never revealed the fact that Texas Mexicans defended the Alamo and fought with the Texans at San Jacinto. Certainly we never heard that Mexican soldiers in these battles believed they were fighting for their country. Neither did schoolchildren learn that the Texas Rangers, in addition to the good they did, gave rise to the Mustang Grays, a Ranger company notorious for murdering innocent Mexicans in cold blood.

There were no writings in the classrooms of Américo Paredes, a Texas-Mexican historian. His life of Gregorio Cortez, With His Pistol in His Hand, refutes the inaccuracies and stereotypes perpetuated by Texas historians such as Walter Prescott Webb.

It is one of 131 selections included in this extraordinary book of Texas-Mexican writings compiled by Texas author Dagoberto Gilb. His introduction is a paean to a heritage in which joy is found in:

"... An avocado green bedroom and baby blue dining room. Respect wrapped in a black shawl, patience scratched into a wooden toy trinket, love in a piñata or paper flower, work in polished boots and huge buckles, saddles or beaded car-seat covers, hats of hard plastic or straw. Strength in simple mashed frijoles seasoned with oregano, ajo y cebolla, in a hot flour tortilla puffing upon a cast iron comal. In the pico of fresh serrano chile spooned into a taco and gordita, from a shiver of sweet from a leche quemada candy, in the sigh that comes from the first sip of horchata or agua de jamaica."

The selections begin with the journals of Cabeza de Vaca and end with the works of young Texas writers such as Cecilia Ballí, Macarena Hernández (who writes for The Dallas Morning News) and Oscar Casares. They represent not only the work of some of Texas' finest poets and fiction and nonfiction writers, they also include lyrics by Tejano musicians, 20 pages of photographs by Gregorio Barrios Sr., and 20 plates by painters including Luis Jimenez, Manuel Acosta and Gaspar Enriquez.

A place of birth and brief biography of the artist accompany each selection. They matriculated at the best universities, though their parents often spoke only or mostly Spanish and were members of the working class. In other words, they dreamed the American Dream and made it a reality. Their work is a tribute to the traditional values of family and hard work that some members of the American middle class declare are missing from their lives.

There is an absence in these pages of the pretentious experimentation for its own sake that controls much of American poetry and fiction today. These artists had no time or inclination for posture. They were, and are, struggling, striving and under siege, evidenced by John Rechy's "El Paso del Norte" in 1958:

"The hatred in much of Texas for Mexicans. It's fierce. (They used to yell, Mexicangreaser, Mexicangreaser when I went to Lamar Grammar School ... ) Many of them really hate us pathologically, like they hate the Negroes, say, in Arkansas. Here it's the bragging, blustering bony-framed Texan rangers/farmers/ranchers with the Cadillacs and with the attitude of Me-and-God on My ranch. ... They don't really dislike Mexicans in Texas if they're maids and laborers."

By 1992 the attitude has softened, but the elegant simplicity of diction and theme remains throughout the stories. In Tomás Rivera's "The Night Before Christmas," an agoraphobic mother desperate to get her children Christmas gifts is falsely arrested for shoplifting during a panic attack. Such is the fear shared by strangers in a strange land. And Tony Díaz, in his 1998 story, "Casa Sánchez," shows the Mexican family adopting American behavior by staying indoors and mingling its own harmonious cacophony with the random images and sounds of the television.

As the selections move into the 1990s and 2000s, the dialogue turns rawer, and family life further imitates America's alienated ways. In "I&M Plumbing" by Richard Yañez, nursing homes enter into Mexican life. In "Places Left Unfinished at the Time of Creation," by John Phillip Santos, a character states: "When we were on the other side, in Mexico, they taught us to respect the older ones. This is gone now. No one respects the old people."

Well, some still do, and many still respect art. But probably not enough to prevent this book from being banned somewhere. That will be its highest recommendation.

NPR commentator Tom Dodge, www.tomdodgebooks .com, lives in Midlothian.


Hecho en Tejas
An Anthology of Mexican Literature
Edited by Dagoberto Gilb
(The University of New Mexico Press, $29.95)

Several authors will take part in "Un Dia de Cultura – Hecho en Tejas" at the University of Texas at Arlington on April 12. Watch the "Author Tours" listings for details, or call the Center for Mexican American Studies, 817-272-2933.

Fort Worth's Rose Marine Theater, 1440 N. Main St., will sponsor a separate event, "Hecho en Fort Worth, Palabras del Barrio" at 7:30 p.m. April 13; visit www.rosemarinetheater.com or call 817-924-9188.