• Home
    • Get the Podcasts
    • About
      • Contact Latinopia.com
      • Copyright Credits
      • Production Credits
      • Research Credits
      • Terms of Use
      • Teachers Guides
  • Art
    • LATINOPIA ART
    • INTERVIEWS
  • Film/TV
    • LATINOPIA CINEMA
    • LATINOPIA SHOWCASE
    • INTERVIEWS
    • FEATURES
  • Food
    • LATINOPIA FOOD
    • COOKING
    • RESTAURANTS
  • History
    • LATINOPIA EVENT
    • LATINOPIA HERO
    • TIMELINES
    • BIOGRAPHY
    • EVENT PROFILE
    • MOMENT IN TIME
    • DOCUMENTS
    • TEACHERS GUIDES
  • Lit
    • LATINOPIA WORD
    • LATINOPIA PLÁTICA
    • LATINOPIA BOOK REVIEW
    • PIONEER AMERICAN LATINA AUTHORS
    • INTERVIEWS
    • FEATURES
  • Music
    • LATINOPIA MUSIC
    • INTERVIEWS
    • FEATURES
  • Theater
    • LATINOPIA TEATRO
    • INTERVIEWS
  • Blogs
    • Angela’s Photo of the Week
    • Arnie & Porfi
    • Bravo Road with Don Felípe
    • Burundanga Boricua
    • Chicano Music Chronicles
    • Fierce Politics by Dr. Alvaro Huerta
    • Mirándolo Bien with Eduado Díaz
    • Political Salsa y Más
    • Mis Pensamientos
    • Latinopia Guest Blogs
    • Tales of Torres
    • Word Vision Harry Gamboa Jr.
    • Julio Medina Serendipity
    • ROMO DE TEJAS
    • Sara Ines Calderon
    • Ricky Luv Video
    • Zombie Mex Diaries
    • Tia Tenopia
  • Podcasts
    • Louie Perez’s Good Morning Aztlán
    • Mark Guerrero’s ELA Music Stories
    • Mark Guerrero’s Chicano Music Chronicles
      • Yoga Talk with Julie Carmen

latinopia.com

Latino arts, history and culture

  • Home
    • Get the Podcasts
    • About
      • Contact Latinopia.com
      • Copyright Credits
      • Production Credits
      • Research Credits
      • Terms of Use
      • Teachers Guides
  • Art
    • LATINOPIA ART
    • INTERVIEWS
  • Film/TV
    • LATINOPIA CINEMA
    • LATINOPIA SHOWCASE
    • INTERVIEWS
    • FEATURES
  • Food
    • LATINOPIA FOOD
    • COOKING
    • RESTAURANTS
  • History
    • LATINOPIA EVENT
    • LATINOPIA HERO
    • TIMELINES
    • BIOGRAPHY
    • EVENT PROFILE
    • MOMENT IN TIME
    • DOCUMENTS
    • TEACHERS GUIDES
  • Lit
    • LATINOPIA WORD
    • LATINOPIA PLÁTICA
    • LATINOPIA BOOK REVIEW
    • PIONEER AMERICAN LATINA AUTHORS
    • INTERVIEWS
    • FEATURES
  • Music
    • LATINOPIA MUSIC
    • INTERVIEWS
    • FEATURES
  • Theater
    • LATINOPIA TEATRO
    • INTERVIEWS
  • Blogs
    • Angela’s Photo of the Week
    • Arnie & Porfi
    • Bravo Road with Don Felípe
    • Burundanga Boricua
    • Chicano Music Chronicles
    • Fierce Politics by Dr. Alvaro Huerta
    • Mirándolo Bien with Eduado Díaz
    • Political Salsa y Más
    • Mis Pensamientos
    • Latinopia Guest Blogs
    • Tales of Torres
    • Word Vision Harry Gamboa Jr.
    • Julio Medina Serendipity
    • ROMO DE TEJAS
    • Sara Ines Calderon
    • Ricky Luv Video
    • Zombie Mex Diaries
    • Tia Tenopia
  • Podcasts
    • Louie Perez’s Good Morning Aztlán
    • Mark Guerrero’s ELA Music Stories
    • Mark Guerrero’s Chicano Music Chronicles
      • Yoga Talk with Julie Carmen
You are here: Home / Blogs / THINKING LATINA with SARA INÉS CALDERON 7.16.12

THINKING LATINA with SARA INÉS CALDERON 7.16.12

July 16, 2012 by

WHY I WRITE.

Recently I was talking to a friend of mine who asked me why, with a full time job that’s not writing, do I continue writing and freelancing in my spare time? The answer I gave her was a bit complex, but I think it’s important to examine in a larger context. I am a woman, I am a Mexican American, I am a Latina and, as a writer,  all of these things impact the reason why I write.

As a reader, I’m often frustrated that the offerings of Latina writers in the mass media are very limited. It’s easier to find “ethnically appropriate” content, about food or music or fashion or loud relatives, but what about politics and fiction? Why can’t I find Latina authors on the pages of national newspapers? Where are the Latinas on the best seller’s list? That’s the kind of stuff I want to read, the stuff I never get to.

What’s more, as a woman, I experience the same thing when I browse the names of authors. My favorite writers are men, most of the books and articles I read are written by men. And it’s not that I dislike men in general, but the experiences and nuances and particulars of the world look somewhat different when described by women.

So, in a sense, I write what I would like to read. I’m writing to myself because, if I don’t do it, there are very few others that will.

I’ve been a journalist for about a decade now. During that time, I’ve more often than not been the only woman, or the only person of color, in the pack of reporters in any given place. Pushing aside the sad sociological implications of these facts, tangibly it means that no one has been writing the things I want to read for a very long time. If I don’t write it, who will?

While I don’t think I’m the best writer in the world — by any means — but I feel like I owe it to myself and all of the other Latina writers out there, aspiring and otherwise, to contribute to the solution to what I perceive to be a problem. Instead of just complaining about what’s not out there, I figure, I can contribute to a solution.

And while I always perceive my writing as a work-in-progress, at least it’s progressing somewhere. Perhaps, also, as other Latina writers stumble across it, they might be emboldened to write themselves. In that case, we’ll have two Latinas working to ameliorate the Latina writing shortage — instead of just one.

Filed Under: Blogs, Sara Ines Calderon

RICARDO ROMO’S TEJANO REPORT 12.09.23

December 9, 2023 By wpengine

The Virgin de Guadalupe and the Origins of Mexican National Consciousness The apparition of the Virgin de Guadalupe on December 12, 1531 on the hills of Tepeyac, Mexico signaled the beginning of a new spiritual era in the Americas. With the visitation of the Virgin, natives who had resisted Catholicism turned to the Brown Madonna […]

RICARDO ROMO’S TEJANO REPORT 12.02.23

December 2, 2023 By wpengine

Andres de Tapia Wrote An Eyewitness Account of the Conquest in Mexico in 1519 Bernal Diaz del Castillo, a soldier of fortune who served under Hernan Cortes in the conquest of Mexico, provided a brilliant eyewitness account of the conquest of the Aztec Empire. Published in 1568 as The True History of the Conquest of […]

MIS PENSAMIENTOS with ALFREDO SANTOS 12.09.23

December 9, 2023 By wpengine

Bienvenidos al ultimo ejemplar de La Voz para el año 2023. Parece que no, pero este año pasó medio rapido para mi. El el caso mio, me pusieron un pacemaker en enero porque me andaba cayendo. Como decia un doctor, “the top part of your heart was not talking to the bottom part of your […]

TALES OF TORRES TRUMP 11.24.23 TAKE TRUMP AT HIS WORD

November 25, 2023 By wpengine

Trump is a Dangerous Menace and He is Showing What He Is: Take Him at His Word by Luis Torres In the current media landscape we usually hear or read bits and pieces of the human pendejada that is Donald J. Trump. He seems to be in hiding, to a degree. Mercifully, we can tune […]

More Posts from this Category

New On Latinopia

LATINOPIA WORD JOSÉ MONTOYA “PACHUCO PORTFOLIO”

By Tia Tenopia on June 12, 2011

José Montoya is a renowned poet, artist and activist who has been in the forefront of the Chicano art movement. One of his most celebrated poems is titled “Pachuco Portfolio” which pays homage to the iconic and enduring character of El Pachuco, the 1940s  Mexican American youth who dressed in the stylish Zoot Suit.

Category: LATINOPIA WORD, Literature

LATINOPIA EVENT 1966 UFW PEREGRINACIÓN (PILGRIMAGE) MARCH

By Tia Tenopia on March 19, 2013

The effort to organize farm workers under a union contract has been a long and difficult struggle. In 1965, César Chávez and Dolores Huerta created what would become the United Farm Workers Union. From the onset they  faced many obstacles, not the least of which was how to get dozens of California grape growers to […]

Category: History, LATINOPIA EVENT

LATINOPIA ART SONIA ROMERO 2

By Tia Tenopia on October 20, 2013

Sonia Romero is a graphic artist,muralist and print maker. In this second profile on Sonia and her work, Latinopia explores Sonia’s public murals, in particular the “Urban Oasis” mural at the MacArthur Park Metro Station in Los Angeles, California.

Category: Art, LATINOPIA ART

© 2023 latinopia.com · Pin It - Genesis - WordPress · Admin