Springtime in New Orleans and the New Normal 2021

Melinda Palacio 

Springtime in the second year of Covid and things are starting to look up. Although the world remains on edge what with anti-vaxxers, new strains of the Corona virus, and general selfishness of people who refuse to help curb the global pandemic. In the corner of the world where I live, things are thankfully better and in Santa Barbara and most of California, vaccines are readily available to anyone who wants one, a big difference from a few months ago when people were standing in long lines hoping to score a vaccine appointment. I’m happy that both places that I spend time in, Santa Barbara and New Orleans, are leading in the number of people vaccinated, a good sign for returning to life that isn’t so isolated. 

Another sign that we are inching back to real life was our drive back to New Orleans. The introvert in me has had enough solitude, even though I cherish my alone time. It also helps that President Biden gave the okay to gather outdoors with fellow vaccinated loved ones. He even gave the ok to walk outdoors without a mask, although there is still a mask mandate to be mindful of in New Orleans. I was pleasantly surprised by all the people walking around the city with masks on. You can still enjoy the scent of sweet olive and jasmine through a mask. The spring breeze and wind on your skin is something everyone tries to savor. It sure feels good to view life from outside a zoom screen. 

Earlier this week, I participated in my first in person yoga class in over a year. I’ve kept up my practice through online classes, but nothing can beat communing in person and sharing the discipline of yoga. Oddly enough, since the class took place in New Orleans, it was outdoors at a brewery. I was skeptical when I heard the classes were at the Port Orleans Brewery, but it was a private, outdoor, area. Now, I’m convinced all yoga classes should take place outdoors, especially when the weather is so nice. 

Yesterday, I ran into a friend at Starbucks and I’ve stopped counting the series of first post pandemic events; there have been so many in past two weeks: the first time sitting inside a coffee shop, the first time seeing a friend’s face, the first time eating inside a restaurant, the first time having a face-to-face conversation with a friend. I can get used to this real life business real fast. 

I spent poetry month missing all the in person events. After all, this is year two of virtual poetry month. Next month, I will take part in UC Irvine’s Radiante. The Inspiration and Travels of Transformative Latinx Dance and Poetry. May 20th. This is an event that I wish were in person because I love dance as an art form. However, I’m honored to share the virtual stage with Joel Valenti-Martinez. Join us at this special zoom event. 

Review: Chicano / Latino Literary Prize Anthology

Michael Sedano

The Chicano/ Latino Literary Prize. An Anthology of Prize-Winning Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Stefanie Fetta, Ed. Houston: Arte Publico, 2008.
ISBN: 1558855114

I have this vision of massed poets, short fiction writers, novelists, dramatists relentlessly circling University of California Irvine, brandishing signs like "UCI Gives So Much Too Little!" or "¡Escasez Vale Madre!" or "Does UCI Love Trees More Than It Hates Writers?"

OK, so it's a wild fantasy, but it is borne of frustration that so superb a collection must limit its pages to the paucity of 288. That's the page count divided among the 48 winners between 1974 to 1999 included in editor Stephanie Fetta's coverage of UCI's important literary award.

How daunting a task Fetta has undertaken. Impossibly daunting, in fact. Since inaugurating the prize, UCI has entertained the artistry of hundreds of writers, recognizing some as first, second, third, or honorable mention achievement.

How then to select a representative lot for presentation in such a collection?

To her immense credit, Stephanie Fetta doesn't choose an "easy" way to resolve the problem--choose only the Firsts. Indeed, the reader presents the range of prize winners, such as Luis J. Rodriguez' Second Place short story, "Sometimes You Dance With a Watermelon," and Alfred Arteaga's Honorable Mention poetry, "Cantos". Some years are represented by a single winner, other years Fetta presents a range of prizes. All in all, a highly rewarding endeavor, both in the collecting and the reading.

Frustration is built into such an endeavor, but reward at the same time. Excerpts of longer work raises expectations for characters and plots, only to be suspended in mid-act. Worse, many of these writers have not been independently published, so what you see is what you get and that's all you get. Reward comes from having at one's fingertips such a far-ranging history of Chicana Chicano Latina Latino writing. The synoptic perspective has frustrations of its own, along the lines of "whatever became of..." But there are rewards again, in recognizing names from the 70s or 80s who have a presence today in our literary landscape. For example Juan Felipe Herrera wins a Second in poetry in 1978-79, then a Second again in 1984-85 for Short Story, is recognized as one of the 100 notables by the NYTimes in 2008. 

Reading this collection provides a wonderful adventure in "yesterday, today, tomorrow" rumination. Marvel at the progress of writers like Herrera from the 70s, and look at the writers winning more recently--the collection stops at 1999--and wonder, where will these writers (and literatura chicana) be in 2010? 2020? 

The Chicano/ Latino Literary Prize. An Anthology of Prize-Winning Fiction, Poetry, and Drama makes an excellent companion collection to The floating borderlands : twenty-five years of U.S. Hispanic literature, editor Laura Flores' stellar collection of work published in Revista Chicana-Riqueña and its various identities, and Romano and Rios' El Espejo: The Mirror, plus Romano's El Espejo. In these anthologies lies the "I know it when I see it" answer to that most controversial of questions, "What is Chicana Chicano Literature?"

Celebrating Carlos Fuentes

La Bloga friend Gregg Barrios passes some good words about the 80-year-old Mexican writer, Carlos Fuentes. Gregg writes in The San Antonio Express-News:

Carlos Fuentes, the most prominent living Mexican writer, recently returned to his native Mexico as a conquering literary hero.

The festive occasion was part of a national celebration honoring Fuentes on his 80th birthday and the 50th anniversary of his groundbreaking first novel “Where the Air is Clear.”

Today, Fuentes is the author of more than 20 novels, including “The Old Gringo” (his only best-seller in the United States), “My Years with Laura Diaz” and “The Death of Artemio Cruz” (my personal favorite).

Mexican President Felipe Calderón inaugurated the monthlong series of events on the author's birth date (Nov. 11), declaring a National Read Carlos Fuentes Day. “The best way to celebrate Fuentes is by reading his work,” Calderón said.

Becoming an octogenarian can be daunting, but for Don Carlos, life apparently begins at 80.

Read the entire piece here.

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