BLESS ME ULTIMA FILM RELEASE, POLITICAL SALSA, OLMECA, ALBERO RIOS AND MORE!

Hola mis Latinopians! Big news this week is the release nationwide of the film adaptation of Rudy Anaya’s classic coming-of-age story, Bless Me Ultima on February 22, 2013. This novel, published in 1972, has become perhaps the most read novel of the Chicano experience.

Latinopia featured Rudy Anaya’s acceptance speech when he won the Los Angeles Times Lifetime Achievement Award last year, so we are really proud that the novel has now become a movie. Starring acclaimed Puerto Rican actress Miriam Colon, as well as Luke Ganalon, Dolores Heredia, Benito Martinez, Castulo Guerra and Joaquin Cosio, the film’s screenplay was written and was directed by Carl Franklin. And what’s Bless Me Ultima all about? Check out Rudy Anaya himself talking about his novel as one of this week’s video postings, LATINOPIA WORD  RUDY ANAYA “BLESS ME ULTIMA.” No sean flojos! Go out and support this important movie!

The other great news this week is that we launch yet another of our monthly blogs keeping Latinopians aware and up to date as to what is happening in Aztlan and Beyond. This week, Sal Baldenegro, veteran newspaper columnist and community activist, launches his “Political Salsa y Más” blog. Sal will report once a month on happenings in Arizona, in  politics, culture y quien sabe que!

And while we’re talking about blogs, Sara Inés Calderón returns with a look at how on line voter registration may affect Latino political clout in the years to come. Count on our homegirl Sara to keep us in the know on the latest tech advances and how they may impact all of us! Sergio Hernández returns with Arnie and Porfi eye-boning the latest issue confronting all of us, violence in American society. Check out his witty but decidedly pointed observations. And of course more on the ongoing saga of the Zombie Mex Diaries–watchalo!

And we got so much more this week with videos. In music, we visit with Olmeca, a premiere songwriter and spoken word artist, as he jams with his friends at a local Eastside space in Los Angeles. Check out Olmeca and Friends 1, and yes there will be more in coming weeks.

Also this week, we visit with Arizona poet Alberto Álvaro Ríos, as he recalls the lasting impact of being punished for speaking Spanish in school. Check out this poignant but revealing charla,  Latinopia Word Alberto Ríos “Spanish.”

Lots ot enjoy this week on Latinopia, so hazlo, and I’m not talking Norway!

OOXX

Tia Tenopia