MEMORIAL DAY, WATER FOR IMMIGRANTS AND LATINOS AT THE OSCARS!

Hola mis muy queridos señores y señoras, frijoles y frijolas, companeros y companeras, estudiantes, profesores, intelectuales, payasos, trabajadores, artistas, musicos, , pues, en fin, everyone who is smart enough to visit one of the most awesome websites ever. You’re Tia Tenopia here, doing a little bragging, y porque no?

This week, in honor of Memorial Day, we are paying homage to the brave men and women who defend our country. While many of us, your Tia included, wish we didn’t have our young Latino men and women  out in Iraq and Afghanistan, we feel the special need to give them a very heartfelt “Gracias!”  To that end we are reposting filmmaker Liz Colunga’s impassioned documentary, “They are Still There.”

We are also showcasing this week, winners of the Annual Voces Oral History Editing Contest out of the University of Texas at Austin, Journalism Department. In case you don’t know, since 1999 Dr. Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez has been interviewing Latino veterans (on video) from World War II, Korea and Viet Nam. Every year she sponsors an editing contest where students from UT Austin can edit a five-minute documentary based on one of the veterans she has interviewed. You’ll find some of these prize winning videos below.

In new videos this week we showcase the poetry of Xochitl Julisa Bermejo. We’re particulary happy about this video because it is the first of High Definition videos–from now all the videos  on Latinopia will be producing original high def videos! . Xochitl read her poem “Ou Lady of the Water Gallons,” at Michael Sedano’s Mental Cocido (Mental Stew) , a gathering of authors in Pasadena, California. Xochitl spent several weeks in the Arizona desert with the group No More Deaths, they leave bottles of water for immigrants who might otherwise die of exposure in the arid Arizona desert. Watch this ‘pesao poem.

This week we welcome yet another new blogger to Latinopia family. Multi-talented Ricardo Acuña has written three books of poetry and narrative fiction and recently published a graphic novel, “The Realm.” Ricardo will be blogging monthly on Latinopia with his Ricky Luv Videos. Check out his first one, the hilarious “My First Oscars.”

And speaking of bloggers, Sergio Hernández returns with a new Arnie and Porfi cartoon and we get another adventure of Zombie Mex Diaries

Enjoy the week on Latinopia!

Tia Tenopia