El Sol Que Tu Eres

October 1 is opening night for El Sol Que Tu Eres, the much-anticipated new play from Anthony Garcia and Daniel Valdez. Garcia is the writer and director of the play and also one of the founders and current head of Denver's Su Teatro theater company. Valdez wrote the music for the play. He, of course, has his roots in El Teatro Campesino and is all over the Rolas de Aztlán CD (several selections from El Teatro Campesino as well as his América de los indios), which I plugged in my previous post on this blog. You can find out more about the venue, tickets, and the play at El Centro Su Teatro's website. There also is a good story in the current Westword. According to the Westword story, the title of the play comes from a duet that Valdez did with Linda Ronstadt on the 1987 album, Canciones de Mi Padre. The play reworks Marcel Camus's 1959 film Black Orpheus, which was an adaptation of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Garcia notes that even though the plot follows the story line of the ancient myth, it is a "very contemporary story. ... It's the story of the role of art and the ability to transcend all the restrictions of the mortal world. ... It's asking, 'Can progress, love and compassion triumph in a world with the encroachment of fascism? Can these ideas last?'" Híjole.

Rolas de Aztlán: Songs of the Chicano Movement

Songs of struggle, hope, and vision fueled the Chicano Movement's quest for civil rights, economic justice, and cultural respect. Rolas de Aztlán (songs from the Chicano ancestral homeland) spotlights 19 milestone recordings made between 1966 and 1999 by key Chicano artist/activists--Daniel Valdez, Los Lobos del Este de Los Angeles (later Los Lobos), Agustín Lira and Teatro Campesino, Los Alacranes Mojados, Conjunto Aztlan, and many more. Forty page booklet with extensive liner notes and photos, 19 tracks, and 67 minutes of music.

The CD’s release date was September 13 and it should be available at all major music outlets as well as on the Folkways website at http://www.folkways.si.edu/. For more information about Hispanic Heritage Month and the many events throughout the Smithsonian Institution, go to www.SmithsonianEducation.org/Heritage_Month .

Nothing New

I won't be posting anything new on this blog until at least after September 20. In the meantime, check out La Bloga - the folks over there try to keep up to date with reviews, announcements, author spotlights, short fiction. It's cool.

Manuel

Katrina Relief Resources

Click on this page for links to both general relief resources as well as legal resources and information on nonprofit legal services providers in states affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Also, recognizing that many of the victims of Hurricane Katrina have lost documents establishing their identity and employment authorization, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced that it will not sanction employers for hiring victims of Hurricane Katrina who are otherwise eligible for employment but are unable to provide the necessary documentation. Employers still need to complete the Employment Eligibility Verification Form (I-9) to the extent possible, but should note at this time that the documentation normally required is not available due to the events involving Hurricane Katrina. This policy will be in place for 45 days. At the end of 45 days, DHS will review the policy and make further recommendations. DHS has issued a press release.

Poets in Town - Updated Website

From the Tattered Cover website:

Sheryl Luna reads from Pity The Drowned Horses, winner of the Andres Montoya Poetry Prize, on Monday, September 12, 7:30 PM, at the LoDo Tattered Cover. This collection is about "place and family and home, and many of the poems in it are set in the desert southwest border town of El Paso, Texas." Scroll down this page on La Bloga for a review of Luna's collection.

Lucia Blinn also will read from her first collection of poems and stories, Lucia, Passing For Normal. Blinn's poems are described as "wry, truth-telling, hilarious and, occasionally, rueful, and her stories are a rich stew of characters and images that stir the reader's own reminiscences."

I've updated my website a bit - some news, a couple of events, and a new photo. Find it here.

Katrina Relief

Do what you can.

Red Cross – 1-800-HELP NOW or online at RedCross.org
Salvation Army – 1-800-Sal-Army or online at SalvationArmy.org
Bonfils – 303-363-2300 or online at bonfils.org
Other Organizations:
America’s Second Harvest – 800-771-2303
AmeriCares – 800-486-4357
Catholic Charities USA – 303-742-0828
Feed the Children – 800-627-4556
Humane Society of the United States – 202-452-1100 or 303-781-4418
United Jewish Communities – 303-322-8328
United Methodist Committee on Relief – 800-554-8583

New Titles For The Fall

Almost time for the new books for fall - it's good news when the new books start rolling from the presses. Here are a few, many more to come:

Ana Castillo has two new works, both published by small presses. Here’s what the Wings Press website says about the play, Psst...I Have Something to Tell You, Mi Amor:
"Sister Dianna Ortiz traveled as a missionary in the early 1980s to the highlands of Guatemala, where she taught Mayan children to read and write. On November 2, 1989, Sister Dianna was sitting in the garden of her convent when she heard a man behind her say, in Spanish, Hello, my love. We have some things to discuss. She was abducted by this man, who together with others transported her to a jail where she was brutally tortured. One of her torturers ––their boss, in fact –– was a North American, probably associated with the US government in some capacity. Miraculously, Sister Dianna escaped by leaping from a car in which she was being transported.
...
Ana Castillo, moved beyond grief and anger, wrote these plays to document Sister Dianna's story."

Her second book comes from Curbstone Press. The book is a verse novel, Watercolor Women, Opaque Men. The press blurb for this book says, "With a remarkable combination of tenderness, lyricism, wicked humor, and biting satire, Ana Castillo dramatizes her heroine’s struggle through poverty. Urged on by the gods of the ancients, the heroine, known only as Ella or She, narrates stories that illustrate what it means to be a marginalized brown woman or man at the threshold of the 21st Century."

Wings Press also is publishing a book of new poetry (after fourteen years) from Lorna Dee Cervantes, Drive: The First Quartet. The book is set for shipping in October, 2005.

Martin Limón returns after several years’ with a new book about his Chicano military cops in Korea, George Sueno and Ernie Bascom, entitled The Door to Bitterness. Limon has created a unique and exciting series (this is the fourth book about George and Ernie.) So it’s real encouraging to hear about this new one. "What lingers longest in George and Ernie’s odyssey is the grinding poverty, pride and moral compromise they find in1974 Korea ... [and] acrid insights on the dehumanizing force of the lasting American presence in Korea." (Kirkus)