JOSÉ, JOSÉ, JOSÉ PRESENTE, SIEMPRE PRESENTE.

Hay mis queridos, your Tia Tenopia is very saddened by the passing of our friend and colleague, José Montoya. We send out our love and pensamientos to his familia, many of whom have contributed to Latinopia since we launched. We at Latinopia think of José as the CONCIENCIA of the Chicano movement. He was always there using his art and poetry o n behalf of the poor and disenfranchised, speaking out and demanding justice. This week’s Latinopia is devoted to José and his legacy.

We begin with a new video of José Montoya. In 2006 when he spoke to Jesús Treviño and Armando Acevedo about how the famous Chicano Royal Air Force came into being. This is a not to be missed interview clip. We’ll also keep the other Latyinopia videos on José front and center.

Also this week, we have remembrances of José from his many friends, colegas and estudiantes. This is a feature we will be updating regularly. So if you would like to send in a comment, please do so but also leave an email where we can contact you.

We also have three heartfelt poetry homages to José by Chicano poets Juan Felipe Herrera, Nephtalí De León and Francisco X. Alarcón.

In addition to his remembrance, Sergio Hernández’s cartoon this week is in memory of the Maestro José.

This week another two of the Latino Americans documentaries were broadcast nationally. Latinopia interviewed John Valadez., the producer and director of two of the six-hour episodes.  In the episode “War and Peace,” John’s task was to tell the story of Latinos in World War Two. We asked him how he set about to tackle such a complex story. Check out what he said.

Folks, check out all the homages to José and you will see that he is indeed PRESENTE.

Con tristeza,

Tia Tenopia