Mis queridos Latinopians! Hay what a week I’ve had! My car broke down! I was stranded on the freeway for almost an hour before the tow truck guy finally showed up. And then, of course, he turns out to be one of these  muy suave lover boys,“Mi corazon, what’s a chula like you doing on a freeway like this?” Suddenly he is more interested in jump starting my battery than the one in my car! Hay estos hombres!

Anyway, on to this fabulous week and the exciting stuff we have in store for you. We are showing off two new Latinopia features:  the Latinopia Book Review and the Latinopia Book trailer. So follow your Tia Tenopia here. You seen countless movie trailers advertising a new up-and-coming movie. We asked ourselves, why not a trailer for a new and up-and-coming libro? So here it is, our premiere book trailer on the new novel by Texas native Sergio Troncoso, From This Wicked Patch of Dust.  This is an awesome book and I am sure you will get a sense of it when you view our trailer. And all you escritores out there, pay attention–is this a way to promote you new book?

And on another literary front, my Tio Braulio’s old friend, New Mexico author Rudy Anaya, has just published a new novel Randy Lopez Goes Home.   Some people think this may be the best thing he has ever written–and this is the genius who came up with arguably the most widely read and influential Chicano coming-of-age novel in history, Bless Me Ultima, way back in 1970. Well, whether it is his best work or simply a tour de force, book reviewer Luis Torres seems to think pretty highly of it. Check out our new feature on Latinopa: The Latinopia Book Review!

And from the world of art, we visit a photo exhibit by celebrated Chicano photo-journalist Oscar Castillo. Last year Oscar had a great photo exhibit at the Latino Museum of Los Angeles–and now you can see it all here on Latinopia. This year, he has a new photo exhibit at the Fowler Museum at UCLA in Los Angeles which begins on October 16 and runs through February 24th of 2012.  And he has a book coming with all his photos: The Oscar Castillo Papers and Photography Collection.” You can purchase advance copies of it at Amazon.

And those of you who are into photography should not miss our previous video on photographer George Rodriguez (link) and his impressive body of work on César Chávez and the farm workers movement. Just go to our Art page and look for George Rodriguez.

Well, got to get back to my broken jalopy–my Tio Braulio is a whiz at car repairs and volunteered to fix it. “Mi Corazon…humph!”

Besos! Tia Tenopia