Momotombo Press

I followed Eduardo's links to recent Momotombo Press interviews. I love these interviews. I have all of the MP chapbooks, and each one is a wonderful work of art. I love using these beautiful books in my classes. Hats off to Francisco Aragón (w/ Letras Latinas at Notre Dame), María Meléndez, and Richard Yañez for this important work.


In addition to Eduardo's recent interviews, it's great to see that Carolina Monsivais conducted an interview with Michelle Otero about Michelle's essay-collection Malinche's Daughter. ¡Viva las mujeres! And I'm going to miss :( Carolina reading with María Meléndez this Friday (I think it's this Friday night) at New Mexico State University. If anyone's in the area--check out the reading... two Chicanas gonna rock da house.

Disturbing slides

Race, ethnicity, and class enter El Paso's downtown "revitalization" plan debate in a most disturbing way. Apparently, the city paid a marketing firm lots of $$$ (around $100,000) to find out what others think about El Paso's residents and community. These presentation slides suggest that a new marketing strategy should be employed to hide our faces and elders from visitors so they feel more comfortable visiting and spending money downtown. (Not only are some of these slides offensive, this so-called "research" will contribute to the displacement of hundreds of Segundo Barrio residents and destroying, forever, a historically signficant portion of the barrio for big box stores and trendy shopping):

Newspaper Tree article

"Offical Insult..." by We the People

whole presentation

Paso del Sur updates

Blog Nepantla

blog nepantla #1:

As a child I loved the movie Grease. In my mind it's at least 20 times I saw it at the dollar movie theater, though it was probably four times (playing the songs and staring at all the little photos inside the double album cover is another story entirely). This was an early indication of obsessive behavior.

Obsession as worship
Time to move on

Blog as electronic bracelet, as monitor

I’ll go thru moments of summer lovin', longing, Betrayal, Who’s the real me, Until we meet up again.

Slave to the email.

Enjoying hard peaches as genetic trait.

Why do I care to explore that? No one wants to know except me.

Everything is labeled so private these days, and I admit I enjoy my privacy and the few rights we have in this area. I’m also aware that we live under the illusion of privacy as U.S. citizens. Snazzy grocery stores like albertson’s: I don't like shopping there cuz of high prices but also the record keeping, all my purchases in da big machine. If anyone wants the so-called “discounts” gotta swipe your membership card. If you want discounts, gotta be a marketing statistic.

Blog as electronic anklet.

Birds in the grass hopping, pecking, chirping.

Could I learn to love that white brick?

This air conditioned, manmade cave.

Where do flowers live?

I saw a man in a wheelchair selling watermelons and pineapples on the corner.

I miss the oncoming traffic of bridge pedestrians. I miss that continuous line like an artery connecting us. The river an organ that runs dry and tattooed by graffiti artists of all ages.

The 'criminal' mind. Charming.

I mean it.

Back to privacy. The family’s business was to remain private. The students you work with, their business is to remain private. What little time is left in the day? Bloglandia.

I’m hungry but don’t want to eat. That is unlike me. It is because I’m somewhere unfamiliar and don’t want to consume just yet.

Many of us want food made lovingly for us by strangers. The erotic nature of food getting. I want some food. I don’t want to make it cause it don’t taste as good. I love the way food tastes when it’s made lovingly, even between strangers who never meet or who never meat. Hah, hah, gotta ruin the mood like that.

My dream... The lion on a leash... fun and happy... me too... then the leash slipped free from my hand... worry filled me, the danger unleashed to others, including the lion. The lion was happier than ever... plans filled its eyes.

Before that--flooding...

Tarahumara chief
Significant other
House
Etc.

It's Pouring

it's pouring boys...

Bus

Thanks for info on the poetry bus tour, Eduardo. I haven’t paid much attention... maybe because I knew that under representation was likely. In other words, I’m not shocked. Perhaps it strikes a chord in some people because it is indicative of larger issues in our communities and country, such as school curriculums, the power structure, and many, many more issues beyond the poetry world.

“Emerging poets” is the key here. If few emerging poets of color are included, perhaps this strikes another chord that maybe things haven’t changed as much as many would like to believe, not just with this tour, but with other issues that affect people of color in our communities as well.

I propose to anyone who wishes more poets of color were included in the tour: on the day(s) the poetry bus stops in your state, ride the public bus and pass out poems by poets of color, read work in a public library or a shelter or a school... teach someone in the neighborhood who has never written a poem to write one.

And then let's keep it going beyond that date.