Ana Castillo in Houston, Thursday, October 16th
Category: Writing and Poetry

Nuestra Palabra responds to Hurricane Ike by adding an extra day to Hispanic Heritage Month!!

September 23, 2008.  Houston, Texas.  Nuestra Palabra's 6^th Annual Edward James Olmos Houston Latino Book and Family Festival was postponed due to Hurricane Ike.  However, Nuestra Palabra did not want to let Hispanic Heritage pass without bringing an amazing Latina writer to Houston.

Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say presents Literary Icon Ana Castillo, Thursday, October 16, 2008, 7 PM - 8:30 Barnes and Noble 7626 Westheimer @ Voss.  Admission is free.  For more info: 713 867 8943, www.nuestrapalabra.org, www.anacastillo.com.

Ana Castillo is a celebrated poet, novelist, short story writer, and essayist.  Castillo was born and raised in Chicago.  Long considered one of the leading voices to emerge from the Chicana experience, Castillo is a prolific author whose work has been critically acclaimed and widely anthologized in the United States and abroad.  Ilan Stavans writes "She is the most daring and experimental of Latino novelists." Castillo's books include the novel, The Mixquiahuala Letters (Bilingual Review Press, 1986; Doubleday, 1992), for which she received the Before Columbia Foundation's American Book Award in 1987.  Sapogonia (Bilingual Review Press, 1990), is a complex and engaging novel and a literary triumph, according to the renowned Chicano novelist Rudolfo Anaya who calls Castillo "one of our finest Chicana novelists."  Her latest book is  The Guardians published by Random House

Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by grants from the City of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance.  Nuestra Palabra is also funded in part by grants from the Texas Commission for the Arts.  Our media partners are Univisión Television, and KPFT 90.1 FM.

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College Admissions Letter

We received an email requesting help writing a college admissions letter and since I've run into a few people recently asking for similar help, I decided to post some basic advice that may be helpful.  If you can think of anything else, please add a comment!!!

Gracias!
Liana Lopez
Nuestra Palabra

***************************************************

Do a websearch for free example letters to get a basic idea of a standard format.

Stay focused on things that are related to making the decision to getting more education.

If you're trying to get into a specific college, tell them why it's important to you to go to that college.

If you already have a plan for what you are going to do with your education, mention that.

Visit your advisor and have them critique your letter. Also, get someone to check the grammar - preferably a teacher or go to a tutor at the college or your high school.

Visit a college admissions office and ask for help. A lot of times, they've given me A LOT more advice and sources for all kinds of help - it just takes TIME to see them.

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THANK YOU for Supporting NP!!!
Category: Writing and Poetry

WE ARE HAPPY TO REPORT WE MADE OUR "GOAL" ON THE RADIO SHOW!!!

Thank you so much Jennifer, Julia, Lady Binx, Pam, Sarah and Susie!!!!

Summer Sizzle Fund Drive

Nuestra Palabra needs your support.  If you listen to the radio show, if you come to our showcases, if you enjoy the free books and all that Nuestra Palabra does then please take this opportunity to show your support and make a donation to KPFT.

Do your part to make sure thoughtful, entertaining, non-commercial programming continues to have a place on your listener supported radio station.  Your contribution does make a difference.  Generous individuals like you give us the financial and moral sustenance we need to carry on.

We will be on air taking your generous donations Tuesday, August 12, from 7:30 to 8:30PM.  You can call in your pledge tonight at (713) 526-5738.  You can also make a donation online at www.kpft.org.

Thank you again for your support and keep listening every Tuesday for your chance to win free books and be a part of the Latino Literary Renaissance.

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Podcast on iTunes!!!
Category: Podcast

Hola!

Just so y'all know, the Nuestra Palabra radio show now is Podcast on iTunes!  woo-hoo!!!  So now, you can subscribe to the show via iTunes and listen to us when you're ready - even on your ipod!  We put the radio show together with lots of love and are making it easier to "tune in" for those of you outside the Houston area and those that can't catch us at our normal 7:30pm Tuesday night showtime on the FM airwaves.  90.1 FM or www.KPFT.org

:-)
The NP Crew!!!

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Word Around Town 2008 Tour Info
Category: Writing and Poetry

Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say, Panhandler Publishing & Rebel Crew present:
The 3rd Annual Word Around Town (W.A.T.) Tour
July 20, 2008 – July 26, 2008

Closing Night:
End of Tour Party/Panhandler Publishing Release Party
Saturday, July 26th – Doors Open at 7:00pm
BOX13 Artspace – 6700 Harrisburg
Price: $8 at the door

For more information, please call 713.444.0269, or visit www.myspace.com/wordaroundtowntour

In order to spotlight and selfishly celebrate poetry and poets, The Word Around Town tour focuses its attention on a solid line-up of Houston's best and brightest poets. So for the third time, Houston's finest poets will congregate at several local venues throughout the city in order to spread the message, the image and the gift of word through poetry. Poets who are selected are individuals who may not be the most famous, but are the most talented. Standard poets, slam poets, spoken word artist and experimental poets all grace many of the poetic venues Houston has to offer.

Promoting the release of the Panhandler Quarterly summer issue, as well as the closing night celebration for the Word Around Town tour. Performing that night will be The Ton Tons, with special guest Desmond Zavala, DJ John Mullins and one other special guest DJ.

Participating artists include: Aria, BGK, Binx, Joe B, Kool B, MissMillieFiori, Stephen Gros, Marlon Lizama, Lupe Mendez, Marcell Murphy, Maria Palacios, Zelene Pineda, Jasminne Rosario, and Jerome Washington

Brief Bios for Poets:
Aria - Poet. School Teacher. Born to the World of Poetry in New Orleans. Originally from Austin, TX, Aria brings her voice and style from the Crescent City to the Bayou City.
BGK - BGK is a slow world traveler from Washington, D.C., suffering the world through poetics, grocery lists, and mad rants.
Binx – Lady Binx to be exact. Woman.Activist. Artist. Mother. Originally from Houston, TX, Lady Binx is a fierce voice for unrepresented women here in the United States and Mexico. Performing with her group, Almas Intocables Lady Binx packs houses, determined to put a face on the injustices of Latin America.
Joe B – Beat maker, remix artist, A & R, producer ("I don't sell tracks, I sell experiences"). Joe B, a founding member of Rebel Crew, influences underground breakbeats and bass.
Kool B - Kool B. established himself as a recognizable force in the literary world, when he received a Houston Sammy Award for performance poetry. Since that time, his work as a troubadour has continued to attract the attention of beatniks and bards alike.
MissMillieFiori – Former host of Taft Street Coffee's poetry open mic, she is an eclectic force in the poetry world. Her smooth delivery matches the intelligence and wit of her words.
Stephen Gros - Co-founder of Panhandler Publishing, poet, painter, lover, fool.
Marlon Lizama - World traveled BBoy (Havikoro) and poet, this 27 year old writes to social issues, love, and injustice; all while juggling the jobs of a social worker. Marlon strives to prove a positive message of action through dance and word.
Lupe Mendez – Originally from Galveston, TX, this man/poet/teacher delves into writing from two contrasting perspectives: the ideals of poetic imagery and the real world issues dealing with children, cultural identity and poverty.
Marcell Murphy – Raised in Houston Texas, Marcell Murphy has been reciting poetry for 10 years and mixes the condensed energy of his performances with surreal written images. He is co-founder of the Houston Poetry Slam Team, promoting poetry slam as an art form in which poets compete against each other for the love of the audience
Maria Palacios - Maria R. Palacios is an empowered Latina, inspirational speaker, feminist poet, author, spoken word performer, polio survivor, activist, disability educator, workshop facilitator, professional presenter. She is the Goddess on Wheels.
Zelene Pineda – one of the original think-tankers to the Word Around Town tour, this ambitious nineteen year old poet currently attends the Univ. of Texas at El Paso. She makes waves wherever she goes. Then writes about them.
Jasminne Rosario - Born from immigrant parents of the Dominican Republic, Jasminne was blessed to learn both English and Spanish at a very early age. She has used these skills to her advantage throughout her life by performing, reading and writing poetry and plays in both languages.
Jerome Washington – Jerome has became a voice for the speechless, hope to the hopeless and proved to be one of the most progressive entities in the Poetry game today. It's not just what he says, but how he says it. Emerging from Houston's Fifth Ward, artist and visionary Jerome Darwin Washington is on the front line helping to define the emerging urban culture in the Bayou City.

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Oscar De La Hoya - Father’s Day, June 15th!
Category: Writing and Poetry

The Ultimate Father's Day Gift:  A Pair of Boxing Gloves Signed by Oscar De La Hoya.

Join Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say for a book signing with Oscar De La Hoya, Sunday, June 15, 2008, 7 pm, at Barnes and Noble, 7626 Westheimer @ Voss.  Admission is free.  This is part of Nuestra Palabra's tenth anniversary season.

Oscar de La Hoya will be signing copies of his life story titled American Son.  Everyone who purchases a copy of the book will also be entered into a raffle for a pair of boxing gloves signed by Oscar De La Hoya.  A portion of book sales will be donated to Nuestra Palabra.

De La Hoya is part owner of the Houston Dynamos who will be on hand for the event.  Dynamo paraphernalia will also be raffled.

This event is made possible through grants from the Texas Commission for the Arts, Houston Arts Alliance and our media partners Univisión Television, Univisión Radio, and KPFT 90.1 FM.

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The Art of Political Murder: Who Killed the Bishop?

NUESTRA PALABRA: Latino Writers Having Their Say

is proud to present FRANCISCO GOLDMAN with his new book--

The Art of Political Murder: Who Killed the Bishop?

TONIGHT!!!!

Monday, November 5

Barnes and Noble 7626 Westheimer @ Voss

Admission is free.

For more information cal 713 867 8943
www.nuestrapalabra.org

Many influences will come together this evening to illustrate the depth of Franicso Goldman's vision. Two student writers will represent each half of Goldman's heart, one from the Jewish Community, one from the Guatamalan community, both from Houston.

Franicisco brings the soul of the community to the highest level of writing for a book that is a page-turner, an eye-opener, and a chronicle of history.

"Goldman spools out clues to the murder like a crime writer, uncovering a terrifying conspiracy that implicates powerful figures in the military, the government, and the media."
-The New Yorker

Novelist Goldman (The Divine Husband, etc.) pursues in his first nonfiction book the infamous murder of Bishop Juan Gerardi, the Guatemalan human rights leader murdered after the release of his multivolume report on the genocidal terror campaign led by the army in the 1980s and '90s, in which 200,000 people disappeared or were killed. - Publisher's Weekly

FRANCISCO GOLDMAN is the author of three novels: The Long Night of White Chickens, The Ordinary Seaman, and The Divine Husband. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and has been a Fellow at the New York Public Library Center for Scholars and Writers. His fiction and journalism have appeared in, among other publications, The New Yorker, Harper's, The New York Review of Books, and The New York Times Magazine.

Brought to you by the Houston Arts Allian, the Texas Commission for the Arts, and KPFT 90.1 FM, Houston, Texas.

http://archive.kpft.org/mp3/071031_180001dn.MP3

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All that Francisco Goldman cares about

All that Francisco Goldman cares about
While coping with a deeply personal loss, the author also defiantly girds for battle over his chronicle of a Guatemalan bishop's murder.
By Reed Johnson
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

September 23, 2007

MEXICO CITY -- He's fearless now, Francisco Goldman says. He's "putting on war paint" and preparing for battle with ax-grinding critics, hostile pundits and those he calls the "deeply murderous clowns" who wield power in Guatemala, his ancestral homeland.

There's no holding back, Goldman believes. After death took the love of his life last summer, after the cosmos came crashing down on his head one seemingly innocuous July day at the beach, why should he be afraid of anything anymore?

"I don't give a. . . . I lost everything that mattered," he says. "I dare them: Come after me."

By "them," the 53-year-old Guatemalan American novelist means the military-political establishment that has held sway over Guatemala for decades and, specifically, the part of Guatemalan society that is led by former army Gen. Otto Pérez Molina in this fall's presidential election in that beleaguered Central American nation.

That confederacy of powerful interests is the target of Goldman's just-published first book of nonfiction, "The Art of Political Murder: Who Killed the Bishop?" A harrowing and at times bizarrely funny tale that reads as colorfully as one of his novels, Goldman's book relates in exhaustive detail the story of the April 1998 assassination of Bishop Juan Gerardi Conedera, one of Guatemala's leading human rights advocates, and the legal machinations that followed his death by bludgeoning in the garage of his home, the San Sebastián Parish House in Guatemala City, not far from the National Palace.

Three army officers and a priest ultimately were convicted of the crime, which set off global repercussions in political and human rights circles. Goldman regards the convictions as "a miracle" that resulted from "a perfect storm of politcally decent and courageous people coming together." Yet the book raises questions about whether more powerful political actors, including Pérez Molina, may have actually orchestrated the murder. Pérez Molina has denied all such allegations, asserting that he was out of the country at the time, and has denounced Goldman's book.

But Goldman's "bring it on" defiance seems aimed not only at the Guatemalan power elite but at an indifferent universe, a malignant fate, which this summer snatched away his 30-year-old Mexican wife, the writer Aura Estrada, in a freak accident while they were bodysurfing on the Oaxacan coast. One minute Estrada was laughing and catching waves, her husband says. The next she had snapped her neck and Goldman was administering mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and desperately searching for some means to get her to a Mexico City hospital, hours away on the other side of the Sierre Madres.

Strangely, just the previous year, at the very same beach, when a friend was caught up in the current and being swept out to sea, Estrada had scampered across rocks, dived into the water and single-handedly saved his life. "She was like Superwoman," Goldman recalls. "She used to make fun of how much a better swimmer she was than me; it was like a big joke among us."

The Massachusetts-raised son of a Jewish American father and a Guatemalan mother, Goldman knows his way around the hemisphere's literary and linguistic highways and byroads. His three novels, "The Long Night of White Chickens," "The Ordinary Seaman" and "The Divine Husband," have been acclaimed for their moral ardor, polyglot Anglo-Latino sensibility and rich historical imagination. ("A sort of anti-imperialist, post-colonial, democratic, culturally multifarious novel of the sea," was Rick Moody's take on "The Ordinary Seaman" for the Los Angeles Times Book Review.)

But talking about his late wife, Goldman struggles to find the words to convey the depth of the trauma.

"This is the kind of blow that can make you hate life. Like how could the person that gives you all your happiness and is the heart of your life, and the person you adore with all your heart, is just taken from you like that, the year you're gonna have a baby. It's too much."

Over lunch at a neighborhood seafood restaurant off the Plaza Madrid, Goldman vents. He chastises himself for not having somehow prevented Estrada's death. "There's a million what-ifs in this, and the what-ifs will drive you crazy." He weeps.

But he laughs too, in loud guffaws shot through with pain, at the brutal absurdities of Mesoamerican politics. He eats and drinks like a man who knows that a good meal can be balm for the soul as well as the stomach. ("This is the best soft-shell crab," he announces as the waiter sets down another plate.)

"He has an immense capacity for laughter," as did his wife, says the Irish writer Colm Tóibín, a close friend who used to accompany the bachelor-era Goldman on epic bouts of New York pub-crawling. "If you met them for a drink they'd always be so cheerful and up."

Married two years ago in the postcard-perfect Mexican colonial town of San Miguel de Allende, Goldman and Estrada met in a Brooklyn bar where she was reciting from memory "The Collar," a lyrical rant against worldly tribulations by the 17th century Welsh poet-priest George Herbert. Estrada, an aspiring novelist who was studying at Columbia University and Hunter College in New York, and Goldman, an established pro, quickly became lovers and partners in a writing life they split between homes in Brooklyn and the Mexican capital.

"They mutually influenced each other," says poet Mónica de la Torre, a close friend, in an e-mail. "Aura learned a lot from both Frank's writing . . . as well as his experience as a writer of journalism and fiction. Frank, to me, seems to have cherished to look at things anew through Aura's younger and fresher outlook."

Goldman and others believe that the pan-Latin American literary world lost a rising star when his wife died. Estrada was just starting to publish essays and criticism in publications such as the Boston Review. She also wrote fiction, including some short stories based on growing up in Mexico City's precarious housing projects. (A selection of her work can be read at the Hunter College memorial website, www.hunter.cuny.edu/creativewriting/memoriam/index.html.)

"I used to say, 'Aura, I have, like, three years left of being Francisco Goldman, because after four years I become Mr. Aura Estrada, and that's fine with me,' " Goldman says.

Author Junot Diaz, a friend who had published some of Estrada's work, describes her as "that rarest of all young people, equally at home with the critical and the creative. She had neither the Latin American intellectual's Euro-obsessed arrogance . . . nor the U.S. artist's anti-intellectualism, which is so predictable and infantile." Diaz says he thought she would eventually "do much to breach the enormous gap that separates Latin American writers from Latino writers."

Cover-ups and mudslingingGOLDMAN says he used to worry about Estrada getting trapped on the subway during a terrorist attack or being caught up in the political blowback he's expecting from his new book.

Originally conceived as a long New Yorker piece, "The Art of Political Murder" weaves together a wide variety of material, including court transcripts, declassified documents and original reporting to produce a multilayered narrative reminiscent of Gabriel García Márquez's examination of Colombia's shadowy, narcotics-abetted epidemic of hostage-taking, "News of a Kidnapping."

Goldman also draws indelible portraits of a cross-section of Guatemalan society: a taxi driver, a cook, a priest, a forensic anthropologist, even a German shepherd named Baloo who at one low point in the official murder investigation was fingered as a possible accomplice. Among the few heroes to have emerged from the mountain of cover-ups and mudslinging, in Goldman's view, were a group of young men from the church's human rights office who, jokingly calling themselves the Untouchables, launched their own investigation. But the book took a toll, both on him and to a more extreme degree on some of the investigators who came under attack in Guatemala. "There were just so many times when the violence of that case would invade your life," he says. "Sometimes it would be hard at home, because I'd just get so angry. And that's when like Aura would chill me out."

North American reviewers have been divided on the book's merits. Publishers Weekly described it as a "meticulously researched book" that's "an impressive organizational achievement, as well as a vital moral accounting." But Ilan Stavans, reviewing for The Times, found it to be "excruciatingly detailed" and "sometimes frustrating."

And to Goldman's great consternation, Mario Vargas Llosa, the Peruvian novelist and onetime conservative presidential candidate, in a column in the Spanish newspaper El País came out in favor of the theory that those found guilty of the bishop's murder were just scapegoats for the actual killers.

"You've got to laugh. It's so absurd. And they're such clowns," Goldman says, speaking of those he believes are behind Guatemala's decades-long violence, which human rights investigators believe includes the genocidal slaughter of some 200,000 Mayan Indians. "That they got somebody as respectable as Mario Vargas Llosa under their spell is what makes it extra tragic."

Now, Goldman says, he is motivated through his writing to dig into more of Guatemala's scandals and mass tragedies. He's looking forward to his upcoming book tour, which will include L.A. engagements -- Oct. 23 at the Skirball Cultural Center and Oct. 24 at Cal State Northridge -- as a welcome distraction from his sorrows.

Literary comrades, like his best friend and fellow New Yorker writer, Jon Lee Anderson, have rallied around him. Joan Didion sent him a copy of her bestselling memoir "The Year of Magical Thinking," about the sudden death of her writer husband, John Gregory Dunne.

One particular bit of advice in Didion's book caught Goldman's attention: Read lots of poetry. He says he's been carrying around volumes of César Abraham Vallejo Mendoza, Czeslaw Milosz and Luis Cernuda.

Friends are relieved that Goldman is soldiering on but concerned, as De la Torre puts it, that he "might be putting himself in a position of danger, and that he might be doing it on purpose."

"You have to be a warrior, and a warrior is not a target," she told him. Goldman liked that, she said, and now repeats it to himself.

Goldman, meanwhile, is preparing to write what may be his most emotionally challenging book of all, about Estrada.

"I realized yesterday -- five weeks after Aura died, six weeks almost -- loss, violence, death, absurdity, romance, all those stories that are just human rights stories are all stories about broken hearts, are all stories about people who loved somebody so much."

reed.johnson@latimes.com

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Upcoming Volunteer Orientation/Mixers

Volunteer Orientation/Mixers
Thursday, September 13th and Wednesday, September 19th
6 PM to 8:00 PM
Bohemeos
708 Telephone Rd.
Houston, TX 77023
713 923-4277
http://www.Bohemeos.com

We want to thank all of you that made it out to the Volunteer Mixer at Arcodoro's and signed up to help out at the upcoming EJO Latino Book & Family Festival (LBFF) September 29th and 30th at the George R. Brown Convention Center.

We will be hosting 2 volunteer orientation/mixers on September 13th and 19th to go over the details of specific assignments.

Come meet the Nuestra Palabra team and sign up for this year's book festival! It's a great way to make new friends, support & volunteer for your community, and get free munchies!

Thank you for your support!!
The Nuestra Palabra Team

Ask the Nuestra Palabra team about the active volunteer positions available throughout the year.

www.nuestrapalabra.org
Edward James Olmos Latino Book and Family Festival

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Volunteer for the Houston Latino Book & Family Festival

If you weren't able to attend Nuestra Palabra's volunteer mixer last night but you're still interested in volunteering for the 5th Annual Edward James Olmos Houston Latino Book & Family Festival, please email
Pam Nugent for a volunteer form at:
 pamela.j.nugent@uth.tmc.edu  .
 
Be a part of the largest Latino book festival in the nation! Over 30,000 attendees!
 
The next meetings will be announced via email and on the Nuestra Palabra website & MySpace account.  We're looking for volunteers to help distribute flyers, as well.  That meeting will be held in September.

The book festival is a great way to make new friends, support & volunteer for your community, and get free munchies!
 
Volunteer positions available:
 
Security
Nuestra Palabra Booth
Information Booth for the national LBFF office
Time Keepers & Assistant Stage Managers
Technical (video & audio)
"Madrinas & Padrinos" (facilitators of rooms for author readings)
Distributing flyers
and more!
 
The 5th Annual Edward James Olmos Houston Latino Book & Family Festival will be held:

Friday & Saturday, September 29th & 30th, 2007
George R. Brown Convention Center
Hall A-3
1001 Avenida de las Americas
Houston, TX 77010
10 am - 6 pm
Admission is FREE
(parking is not free)
 
For more info, please contact the Nuestra Palabra team!
 
Nuestra Palabra team for the LBFF:
Guadalupe Mendez -Volunteer Coordinator:  mendezg76@yahoo.com
Pam Nugent - Volunteer Manager:   pamela.j.nugent@uth.tmc.edu 
Liana Lopez - Facilitator/Stage Coordinator:  npliana@gmail.com
Bryan Parras - Tech & Logistics Coordinator:  lucas77@gmail.com
Tony Diaz - NP Director:  aztecmuse@aol.com

Ask the Nuestra Palabra team about the active volunteer positions available throughout the year.
 
www.nuestrapalabra.org
www.myspace.com/nuestrapalabra
www.lbff.us

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