Mijos, the Holidays are on us! This week your Tia Tenopia has been busy trying to get her Christmas shopping done y hay que lata!   But speaking of Christmas shopping, here’s an idea from your Tia: why not give Latino culture as a Christmas gift? For readers, try Rudy Anaya’s latest novel Randy Lopez Goes Home, or Sergio Troncoso’s novel From this Wicked Patch of Dust or Dagoberto Gilb’s latest, Before the End, After The Beginning (reviewed this week by Luis R. Torres). For you cinema fans, check out Our Story, Jets & Sharks, Then and Now, remembrances by María Henley and other dancers and actors who participated in the classic movie Westside Story. For you teatro folks, check out Teatro Chicana, this collective memory by Laura Garcia, Sandra Gutierrez and Felicitas Nunez and other Chicanas who performed teatro under the banner of Teatro de las Chicanas is inspiring reading! If its art, crafts, jewelry your interested in there are at least two major art sales in the next two weeks, one at the Frank Romero Studios and one at Avenue 50 Gallery. Check the DECEMBER EVENTS page for details. The holidays–I love this time of year pero tambien I hate it! I love the fact that familias come together and we enjoy good eating. But I hate the shopping, the commercialization, and if I don’t hear “Winter Wonderland” for another ten years that’ll be just fine with me! Anyway, give cultura for Christmas–something to think about.

Andale con this week’s postings? Okeh, okeh, pues! This week, we’ve got cultura in the form of teatro, art and literature. In theater, we visit with Cesar Flores, director of the 1970s Chicano theater company Espiritu de Aztlan. This theater company was one of dozens inspired by the success of Luis Valdez’s El Teatro Campesino. Flores explains that for the at-risk students the theater experience was transformative (your Tia just loves that word, muy intelectual, que no?)  In Art, Latinopia asked a number of our leading artists why the concept of “Aztlan” was so important to them in the early years of the Chicano Art movement–check out what Gilbert Lujan, Ester Hernandez, Jose Montoya, Zarco Guerrero, Amalia Mesa-Bains have to say about this. And in Literature, we have another interview by Luis R. Torres, this one is on Dagoberto Gilb’s latest collection of short stories, Before the End, After the Beginning. The collection, written after the author overcame a debilitating stroke,  is creating quite a stir in literary circles. Hope you enjoy this week’s postings and be sure to sign up for the newsletter if you haven’t already!

OOXX  Tia Tenopia