PEPE SERNA ON HOW TO AUDITION!

Hola Mis queridos Latinopianos! Before we jump into this week’s videos your Tia wants to give a big applause and congratulate the first ever graduates with doctorate degrees in Chicana and Chicano Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Aida Hurtado, Chair of the Chicana and Chicano Studies department at UCSB tells us that José G. Anguiano, Thomas Avila Carrasco and Jessie Turner graduated this June! Latinopia congratulates these three doctorates and congratulates the department which was founded in the Spring of 1969. Adelante, my peeps!

Okay, this week we got Cinema and Literature videos. Pepe Serna is a veteran Latino actor with more than 100 feature films and countless television appearances to his name. Among his credits are the film Day of the Locust, Ballad of Gregorio Cortez, Raices de Sangre, American Me. He is probably best remembered for his portrayal of Angel in the motion picture Scarface. Pepe is not just an actor, he also paints, and is a community activist often conducting workshops to Latino youth. Latinopia wondered about the audition process and how Pepe manages it. Check out Pepe’s cool insights about auditioning.

In literature, we visit with Cuban born author Soñia Rivrea-Valdes. In 1997 she won the prestigious Casa de la Américas literary prize. She reads here from her latest collection of short stories “Stories of Little Women and Grown-up Girls.”

Arnie and Porfi are back! Check out the latest in the adventures of Porfi and Arnie as they do battle in Arizona liberating banned books.

Also Sara Inés Calderon returns with another insightful Thinking Latina blog, this time about “me’ versus “us.” Sara reminds us that no person is an island–love the corazón in this awesome hermana!

And, speaking of corazón, what do you suppose it’s like being a zombie without a heartbeat? Check out the latest Zombie Mex Diaries to find out. Bueno, dale gas, as my Tio Braulio often says.

OOXX Tia Tenopia