Label Me Latina/o Fall 2014 Volume 4

September 30, 2014 edited by Label Me Latina/o
Filed under: Fall 

Essays

Mexicanized Melodrama: Sandra Cisneros’ Literary Translation of the Telenovela in Caramelo

By Amara Graf

 Dr. Amara Graf is an Assistant Professor of English at SUNY College at Old Westbury. She teaches Multi-Ethnic Literature and her research focuses on the areas of Latina/o Literature, Gender Studies, and Popular Culture. Her most recent article “A Queer Telenovela: Transformative Representations of the Maricón and the Macho in Ugly Betty” is forthcoming in The Journal of Popular Culture. 

Nostalgic Jíbaro: A Structure of Loss in U.S. Puerto Rican Literature

By Edrik López

Edrik López was born in Caguas, Puerto Rico and raised in Daytona Beach, Florida. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in 2008 and is an Assistant Professor of English at Fairfield University in Connecticut where he is also affiliated with the American Studies Program and is co-Director of the Latin American Studies and Caribbean Studies Program. He teaches course on American Poetry, Literary Theory, Ethnic Literature, and Cultural Studies. His most recent articles include, “Sycorax and Son,” and “Epiphanies of Mobility: Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu’s Transnational Migration of Knowledge.”

Creative Nonfiction

Obligation Emancipation: An Hocicona Proclamation

By Rosanna Alvarez

Rosanna Alvarez is a writer, blogger, life coach, designer and maker. She is a creative renaissance woman who spends her days writing and creating, constantly challenging herself and others to tap into their personal power while thriving in self-defined beauty. Her written work emphasizes self-recovery, voice, and liberation. She is the Co-Founder of the Andariega Collective, a non-profit grassroots women-led movement that supports women and youth in a gender-responsive, culturally informed space that cultivates resiliency through advocacy, cultural values, and identity development. Rosanna’s creative and intellectual adventures can be found online at www.citlalirose.com, a site that embraces personal power through creative inspiration, while highlighting culture, creativity, and well-being. She also pours her heart into www.perfectlittleme.com, a personal blog dedicated to her daughter and to mothers who have navigated the challenges and joys of raising an anomalous child. Rosanna holds a Master’s Degree in Mexican American Studies and teaches Chicana/o Culture at DeAnza College.

 From Dirt to Discourse

By Michael Moreno

 Michael A. Moreno is a native Texan. He teaches writing at American University and at the University of Maryland University College, both in the Washington, D.C., area. His poems have appeared in the Arkansas Review, the Tidal Basin Review, REAL: Regarding Arts & Letters, and Bay Leaves. His short stories have appeared in PALABRA and have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. His creative nonfiction is forthcoming in the journal riverSedge.

Short Story

Mundos paralelos

By Antonio Tovar

Antonio Tovar was born in Texas in 1964, and was raised en Mexico City where he lived until he was eighteen years old. He then lived for a long time in Los Angeles, California. Since then, he has lived in different cities in the United States and Europe, principally dedicating his time to artistic creation.

Beside a Mango Tree

By Adriana Gonzalez

Adriana Gonzalez is an MFA candidate in Nonfiction at Columbia College Chicago where she is also a Follet Fellow and a Graduate Student Instructor. Lover of hiking, photography, and gardening, Adriana describes herself as a woman of the earth—one who insists on vibes and intuition to guide her writing. Adriana hails from Corona, California.

The Tregua

By Daniel Acosta

Daniel Acosta’s fiction has appeared in Nuestro and Lowrider magazines, and in Homenaje a la Ciudad de Los Angeles, an anthology of Latino writing celebrating the bicentennial of the city of Los Angeles. His The Taming of the Shrew, A Barrio Adaptation of the Shakespeare Comedywas performed at the Los Angeles Inner City Cultural Center. An alumnus of the L.A. Latino Writers’ Workshop, he recently complete another play, The Doctor of Women’s Hearts and his first novel, Iron River. Daniel earned his BA in English and his MA in education from California State University, Los Angeles. Daniel retired after 37 years teaching English at Mark Keppel High School in Alhambra, California. Daniel resides with his wife, Linda, in Rosemead.

Poetry

Papi Forgets His Passport

By Sylvia Riojas Vaughn

Sylvia Riojas Vaughn’s work appears in the 2014 Lost Tower Publications anthology “Bridge of Fates,” and is pending in Dialogo, a publication of DePaul University. Her work appears in Red River Review, HOUSEBOAT, and Texas Poetry Calendar. She has been nominated for a Pushcart and a Best of the Net. Her play, “La Tamalada,” was produced in Fort Worth.

Summer in the Heights

By Angel Eduardo

Angel Eduardo is a writer, musician, and photographer, born in Manhattan, raised equally in the Dominican neighborhood of Washington Heights and the quiet suburb Fort Lee, NJ. Angel writes poetry, fiction, and non-fiction, and is currently enrolled in the MFA program for Memoir at Hunter College. His work can be found on his official website, angeleduardo.net.

 I Ask My Younger Sister

By Cristina Rose Smith:

Cristina Rose Smith, born in LA, earned her PhD in Women’s Studies in May 2014. She has taught English and organized women’s empowerment circles at CSU, Long Beach. She also worked on organic-sustainable farms in Oxnard and engaged with Latina and Filipina-indigenous rooted communities throughout California and the Southwest. Currently, she is celebrating the completion of her dissertation on mestizaindigenous auto-ethnographic creative texts. Cristina seeks her mothers’ voices while engaging with womanist-multicultural literature and art: in her writing, Cristina explores the conversational nuances on queer mestiza indigeneity. As a multi-ethnic, locational, and cultural woman, she dives into memories of being racially identified as “other” or, alternatively, read as if she has no cultural heritage at all. Her work has been nurtured by established queer Latinas, including Cherríe Moraga and Ana Castillo.

Unfinished Revolutions

By Jennifer Celestin

Jennifer Celestin is a Haitian-American (trilingual) writer, performer, and facilitator. She has performed at numerous venues in New York City, including the Bowery Poetry Club, La Mama Experimental Theatre, and El Museo del Barrio. A 2013 EMERGENYC fellow and presently completing an M.F.A. in Fiction at CUNY: Queens College, Jennifer writes for her sanity.

Trilogy of Grief

By Juliet de Jesús Alejandre

Born and raised on Chicago’s Latino Northwest Side, Juliet de Jesús Alejandre is the daughter of an Ecuadorian mother and a Puerto Rican father. She married a Mexicano and they are raising three beautiful boys who are their greatest teachers. She has been shaped by her abuelita’s stories and the pain she felt around her on the streets of Chicago, her family’s trials, and the hope for healing. She works as a youth organizer with the Logan Square Neighborhood Association, a community agency that builds people power for education justice, immigration reform, affordable housing, youth empowerment, safety strategies that restore and wellness alongside Latino youth and families. She writes in order to heal her wounds so she can help shape a more just world for her children and the young people of her community and city.

Theater

The Mosquito Net

By Kimberly del Busto Ramírez

 Kimberly del Busto Ramírez is Associate Professor of English at LaGuardia Community College at the City of New York where she teaches writing, drama, and Latin@ Literature. She holds a Ph.D. in Theatre from CUNY Graduate Center and an M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing from the University of Georgia. An interdisciplinary scholar and artist, Dr. Ramírez has a background in theatre, performance, Latin@ studies, film, communications, creative writing, visual arts, and women’s studies. She is currently completing a manuscript examining performance and the Cuban-American Operation Pedro Pan exodus.

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