Tato Laviera's new book

review (excerpt)of Tato Laveria's book by Rigoberto González, The El Paso Times:

"Language is not the only way politics manifests in 'Mixturao.' So is the call to action to the Puerto Rican community that enriches this country, linguistically and otherwise.

'Carpetas in Your Dossier' issues a warning about the gentrification 'targeting our cultural centers,' and 'Consignas in Brutality' invites everyone to speak up about abuses against the people: 'no justice, no peace, el silencio nos mata aquí.' Particularly touching is Laviera's 'Southwest Border Trucos,' in which he acknowledges the growing Mexican population of New York:

When you see mexicanos ilegales

Selling fruits and flowers in all kinds of weather

Bow your head

To a formidable free nation

To a great Latino people

To a great Hispano nation

La voz de Aztlán speaking in deed!"

Poetry: A Moment in History
by Nancy Lorenza Green



The tall
Black man
steps
into
the light
...



Nancy Lorenza Green, M.Ed. is an Afro-Chicana performance and recording artist from El Paso and Cd. Juarez who uses poetry, percussion instruments and flute music as mediums of communication and cultural expression. Nancy has recorded three cds: Music From the Heart, Life Is Sacred, and a Tumblewords poetry compilation. Her poetry has been published in Border Senses, Chrysalis, Newspaper Tree, and Mujeres de Maíz Zine 5& 6. Nancy is the recipient of the 2006 Art & Entertainment Hispanos Triunfadores award and the 1999 Que Bonita Familia Homenaje a la Mujer award.

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Las oraciones son los hilos y el tejido es la aparicion de la luz.


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Prayers are threads and weaving is the birth of light.


* * *

by José Lezama Lima




quoted in Cecilia Vicuña's Unravelling Words & the Weaving of Water

obama visiting us here in deep south tejas~borderlands, feb. 2008. texas might be a red state, but our borderlands are blue.