THIS WEEK ON LATINOPIA: JOSÉ ANGEL GUTIÉRREZ REMEMBERS TIJERINA, TOMÁS YBARRA FRAUSTO ON THE LATINA VOICE,SARA INÉS CALDERÓN ON AUSTIN’S GENTLEMAN’S AGREEMENT, EL ZOCOTROCO REVIEWS BOLIVAR THE MOVIE, AND NEW PHOTOS FROM ANGELA ORTÍZ AND JULIO MEDINA.
Hola Latinopians! Your Tia Tenopia is always happy to see Latina writers, such as our blogger Sara Inés Calderón, and so many others express themselves. Just think what would our literature be like without writers like Sandra Cisneros, Pat Mora, Denise Chavez, Ana Castillo and so many others. But, believe it our not, Latina authors and poets were not always so present. Back in the 1970s when the Latina Voice was first emerging it took the combined effort of women AND men to get to where we are today. Tomás Ybarra Frausto, along with his co-editors Antonia Casteñeda and Joseph Sommers, published one of the first anthologies to showcase Latina writers. In this week’s original video, Tomás recalls how that Latina Voice emerged.
Last week, legendary land grants activist Reies López Tijerina passed away. In the early days of the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, Tijerina, along with César Chávez, Corky Gonzales and José Angel Gutiérrez, was one of the most prominent Chicano leaders. The four were thought of as “The Four Horsemen” of the Chicano Movement. Latinopia asked José Angel Gutiérrez to write a remembrance of Tijerina. And if you want to know more about Tijerina’s Courthouse raid at Tierra Amarilla, be sure to see the accompanying video. Check it out!
El Zocotroco returns with his blog Burundanga Boricua. This week our Puerto Rican blogger from San Juan reviews the new independent motion picture Liberador, the story of Simon Bolivar and the war to liberate Venezuela and Columbia from Spanish rule.
More close to home, Sara Inés Calderón comments on the strange “Gentlemen’s Agreement” in the Austin city council that allows for only one Latino and one African American to serve on the eight member council. Sound weird? Check out Sara’s take on it.
And this week we have two photos, Julio Medina’s Serendipity “Tactfully,” and Angela Ortiz’s “Downtown Los Angeles at Dusk.”
Enjoy this week on Latinopia!
Tia Tenopia