THIS WEEK ON LATINOPIA: SAL BALDENEGRO ON TEACHING EMPATHY, LITTLE JOE HERNÁNDEZ ON JAZZ AND LITTLE JOE HERNÁNDEZ ON THE SPANISH LANGUAGE ALBUM WITH WILLIE NELSON THAT WAS RECORDED BUT THEN LOST, LUIS TORRES REVIEWS THE NEW WEST SIDE STORY AND LIZ GONZALEZ READING FROM DANCING IN THE SANTA ANA WINDS.
Sal Baldenegro returns with his Political Salsa y Mas blog. This week he identifes Covid-19 as an evil that our national state and local governments should take on. He points to how government in the past has confronted slavery, children going hungry and the elderly dying due to lack of medical care. In all of these instances government has recognized the evil and responded to fight it. Sal suggests we look at Covid -19 as an evil we must confront.
Your Tia Tenopia is so excited! this week we at Latinopia start a series of interviews with legendary Tejano singer, musician and social activist Little Joe Hernandez. You know him from Little Joe and La Familia. In the first two of these interviews Little Joe talks about the influence of Jazz on his musical sound. He also tells us about an incredible album he produced featuring himself and Texas icon Willie Nelson singing together in Spanish. The album was recorded but the IRA intervened, going after Willie, and confiscated the album then promptly lost it. Little tells us all about this artistic and musical tragedy. We’ll have more of Little Joe in the coming weeks.
And lastly, we visit with poet and fiction writer Liz Gonzalez. her poetry collection Beneath Bones (Manifest Press) was published in 2000. Here she reads two poems from her most recent poetry collection, Dancing in the Santa Ana Winds: Poems y Cuentos New and Selected (Los Nietos Press, 2018).
Enjoy your week on Latinopia.
Tia Tenopia