In the book, Fidel develops three central ideas: one, the characterization and development of the deceased FARC chief, the evolution of the guerrilla movement and his role in the complex Colombian political framework; secondly, the incidence of the oligarchic power, its instruments of exploitation and repression and its alliance with U.S. imperialism in the genesis of and constant exercise of violence; and thirdly, the real nature of Cuba's links with the Latin American revolutionary movements and its long and sustained contribution to the search for a just, realistic and humanitarian solution to the armed conflict that is bleeding Colombia.

Saturday, October 11, 2008 - 7:00pm
Bluestockings Books
172 Allen Street
New York, NY
www.bluestockings.com

Just Like A Girl is a rough-and-tumble, sassy, kick-ass travelogue through the bumpy, powerful, action-packed world of GIRL. A world where girls and women know how to pick themselves up and brush themselves off. These are the clever girls. The funny girls. The girls who know there is no sin in being born one.

Vega Yunqué moved to New York from Puerto Rico in the mid 1940s. He was the stepfather of singer Suzanne Vega. He was divorced and was not very close to his relatives, said Colchie [his agent].

The feisty writer, who was the director of the Clemente Soto Velez from 1993 to 2000, managed to alienate a lot of people throughout the years though lately he had been patching things up.

“He was a brilliant, conflictive man,” said media activist Marta García.

His last novel was a comic false memoir about a Jewish woman who meets a Puerto Rican Romeo and falls in love. It had been tentatively titled “Rebecca Horowitz, Puerto Rican Sex Freak" but publication was cancelled by the publisher recently, said Colchie, who’d been trying to find another publisher.

Edited to add: Caro over at Soundtaste has an interesting post up about her last conversation with Vega. I had no idea he was considered machista. I've been to Clemente Soto Velez a few times (I dance with Junot Diaz there YEARS ago at a fundraiser) but I am sad to say I've never read a book by Ed Vega. Time to start I guess.
Via / NY Daily News

This book is especially timely given the high profile of the Latino community as a key voting bloc in the upcoming presidential election in the United States.

The wondrous event kicks off at 7 pm (enter Central Park at 72nd and Fifth Ave) but get there early to get a good spot.

This Bronx boy weaves some fantastic tales that reveal the influence the punk subculture of the 80's had on him. The two novellas and three short stories (written in New York City, California, Baja Mexico and Oregon), reveal underground queer Latino cultures that function parallel to what is known as mainstream and what happens when they intersect. The stories in the book draw you into these worlds and when you're done, you're left with a sort of hangover, with flashes of what you've just read coming back at you.

Charlie Vazquez's Business as Usual can be purchased through his website, or if you're in NYC, you can pick it up at St. Mark's Books, which is an amazing bookstore. Support independent Latino artists!!

The stories and novel excerpts sandwiched in between “Kid Zopilote” and the excerpt from Chicano bring us to modern-day Latino denizens of Los Angeles and the city’s surrounding communities. And what a complex and diverse group of people we observe: young and old, gay and straight, rich and poor, the newly arrived and the well established. There’s a Cuban American screenwriter trying to pitch the “real” story behind the Bay of Pigs fiasco. We see a Mexican woman struggling with barrio life who believes she’s seen a miracle. There are youths trying to avoid gang life and others embracing it. And we’re introduced to aggressive journalists, cement pourers, disaffected lovers, drunken folklórico dancers, successful curanderos, teenage slackers, aging artists, wrestling saints, aimless druggies, people made of paper, college students, and even a private detective hot on the heels of a presumed-dead gonzo writer.

I haven't read the book but I plan on it, it sounds like a great and interesting contribution to the Latino lit community. It features writers such as Salvador Plascencia, John Rechy, Sandra Ramos O'Briant, Luis J. Rodríguez.

Celebrating Latinos in Lotusland: Reception and Book Signing! WHERE: Patricia Correia Gallery, 2525 Michigan Ave., E-2, Santa Monica, CA 90404 WHEN: Sat., May 31, 5-8:00 p.m. CONTACT: Gabriela M. Corchado, Gallery Manager TELEPHONE: 310.264.1760 WEBSITE: http://www.correiagallery.com/index.html

Via / LA Observed

What makes this collection unique is that while the three poets are linked, their voices are all so different.

Full disclosure : I am friends with the authors of the book and the book was dedicated to my younger daughter, but as a poet, I know good poetry when I see it and this new wave of poetry should be read, embraced, and allowed to fly as astronauts do.

If you would like to purchase the book contact Diego Vargas at llgante77@yahoo.com.

Isabel Allende answers this question be connecting generations through stories and history.

As I mentioned earlier this week, I first read this book the summer before I moved to Chile, in 1996. And the book still makes me cry today.

Purchase Isabel Allende's Paula here.

"This Instant and This Triumph" an introductory essay that puts the current women of color publishing movement into historical context by Alexis Pauline Gumbs

INCITE: Women of Color Against Violence's crucial The Revolution Will Not Be Funded reviewed by the strategically fly organizer PAULINA HERNANDEZ!

Girlchild Press's new anthology Just Like A Girl: A Manifesta reviewed by the most talented and necessary fiction writer of our generation DANIELLE EVANS! (I should note- La Mala is in here too!)

Hermana Resist's collaborative 'zine The MAIZ Chronicles reviewed by BROWNFEMIPOWER!

Check it out, buy it, and support.

Via / Kitchen Table : Women of Color Pressed for Knowledge

Linguistic Terrorism
Deslenguadas. Somos los del espanol deficiente. We are your linguistic nightmare, your linguistic aberration, your linguistic mestisaje, the subject of your burla. Because we speak with tongues of fire we are culturally crucified. Racially, culturally, and linguistically somos herfanos-we speak an orphan tongue.

Just a beautiful book.

Buy it here

You can purchase Faces and Masks here.