Label Me Latina/o Spring 2021 Volume 11
Filed under: Spring
Scholarly Essay
The Impact on Queer Identity and Futurity in Ibis Gómez-Vega’s Send My Roots Rain
By Anthony Salazar
Anthony Salazar is a PhD candidate at Northern Illinois University studying recent American literature with an emphasis on queer and ethnic literature/theory. His previous work, featured in journals such as Journal of English Literature and Cultural Studies, grapples with queering gay literature. Salazar’s dissertation focuses on the ethnic shift taking place in gay American literature that addresses intersectional identity.
By Betsy Dahms
Betsy Dahms obtained a B.A. in Spanish from Centre College and a M.A. and Ph.D in Hispanic Studies with a certificate in Gender and Women’s Studies from the University of Kentucky. Dahms teaches Latin American and U.S. Latinx Literatures in addition to Spanish language courses at the University of West Georgia.
Interviews
Embracing the Margins: An Interview with Josefina Báez
with Sobeira Latorre
Sobeira Latorre, PhD, is Associate Professor of Spanish and Director of the Interdisciplinary Studies Program at Southern Connecticut State University. Her teaching and research focus on the interconnections between literature from the Spanish-speaking Caribbean and the Caribbean diaspora in the United States. Her essays, interviews, and book reviews appear in Life Writing, Journal of Caribbean Literatures, Sargasso: A Journal of Caribbean Literature and Culture, Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism, Latino Studies, The Latin Americanist, and Anthurium: A Caribbean Studies Journal.
Creative Non-fiction
Margarita con Aroma a Clavo y Canela
By Mónica Reyna Saavedra
Mónica Reyna Saavedra was born and raised in Lima, Peru and has a passion for acting and storytelling. She started performing at an early age in theater and school plays through her teenage years. After moving to the U.S. in 1992 and being away from acting for several years, she returned to the stage with Theatre Charlotte in the staged reading of The House of Bernarda Alba. In 2013, she was recognized by Art Sí for her support to Latino arts in the community. In most recent years, she has performed and directed community theater projects in collaboration with Queens University of Charlotte, UNCC Department of Theater, The Mint Museum, Artist Studio Project and other local organizations. Some of her performances and projects include The Vagina Monologues, Mama Goose, Los Zapaticos de Rosa, Meñique, and Coser y cantar, among others. Mónica recently started writing, inspired by memories of her childhood and her hometown. Her short stories San Martín de mis Amores and Corazón con Huellas de Sol, Arena y Mar were published in the Spring 2019 and Spring 2020 issues of Label Me Latina/o.
By Michael Vázquez
Michael Vázquez (He, Him, His, Él) is the proud son of formerly undocumented migrants from Mexico. A former teacher and current PhD student in Education at Harvard University, he one day hopes to become an Ethnic Studies professor and support future public school teachers. Currently, his research examines identity development among LGBTQ+ migrant youth.
Short Story
By Guillermo Reyes
Guillermo Reyes has produced and published a variety of plays including the comedies, Men on the Verge of a His-Panic Breakdown and Mother Lolita as off-Broadway productions with Urban Stages, Chilean Holiday and Saints at the Rave at the Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville, the historical drama, Madison, at Premiere Stages, winner of the New Play Award 2008, among other plays. In 2010, he published a memoir with the University of Wisconsin Press, entitled Madre and I: A Memoir of our Immigrant Lives, chronicling his immigration from Chile and growing up in the D.C. area and in Hollywood, CA. His most recent play, That Day in Tucson, was published by Dramatic Publishing Company. Some of his stories have appeared at Chiricu, Puerto del Sol, the Americas Review, New Mexico Humanities Review, anthologies such as Besame Mucho and From Macho to Mariposa, as well as Label Me Latina/o Online Journal. He’s a professor at Arizona State University in the School of Music, Dance and Theater.
Poetry
By Stephanie Orozco
Stephanie Orozco is a Mexican American Chicana originally from Nevada who enjoys reminiscing about her nostalgic Latinx heritage through literature, poetry, and art. She is also an Assistant Professor of Spanish at the University of South Carolina-Aiken. Her research interests include post-dictatorship Argentine literature, Memory Studies, and Childhood studies.
By Tammy Melody Gomez
Tammy Melody Gomez is a writer, interdisciplinary performance artist, and collaborative arts producer. Her poems, essays, and micro-fiction are published in numerous collections, including Yellow Medicine Review, Women in Nature: An Anthology, and Bikequity. Tammy is profiled in Las Tejanas: 300 Years of History (UT Press), and is featured in “Voices from Texas”, a PBS documentary film about Latino poets in the Lone Star state. Her interdisciplinary works include: “She: Bike/Spoke/Love”—a theater play that spotlights urban bicycle culture, and DRESS CODES—an installation of women’s poetry printed on Victorian-style dresses. She is a member of the Macondo Writers Workshop, a national organization of writers working at the intersection of social justice and literary art.
Batman Rides Shotgun with Barbie
By David A. Romero
David A. Romero is a Mexican-American spoken word artist from Diamond Bar, CA. Romero is the author of My Name Is Romero (FlowerSong Press 2020), a book reviewed by Gustavo Arellano (¡Ask a Mexican!), Curtis Marez (University Babylon), and founding member of Ozomatli, Ulises Bella. Romero has appeared at over seventy-five colleges and universities in over thirty different states in the USA. Romero was the second poet to be featured on All Def Digital. Romero has opened for Latin Grammy winning bands Ozomatli and La Santa Cecilia. Romero’s work has been published alongside poets laureate Luis J. Rodriguez, Jack Hirschman, Alejandro Murguia, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Romero has won the Uptown Slam at the historic Green Mill in Chicago; the birthplace of slam poetry. Romero has appeared in-studio numerous times on multiple programs on KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles. Romero’s poetry deals with family, identity, social justice issues, and Latinx culture.
By María Guadalupe Vielma
Born and raised in San José, California, María Vielma is a Chicana and senior at the University of New Mexico who will graduate in the Spring of 2021 with majors in Criminology and Spanish and minors in Chicana/o Studies and Interdisciplinary Studies. “I am María” reimagines the Rodolfo ‘Corky’ Gonzalez’s original work “I am Joaquin,” which illustrates the Chicano specific struggles that have been historically faced, but thorugh a Chicana feminist lens. Using the accumulation of knowledge acquired through her CCS courses and the history of the Southwest, María Vielma sheds light on the triple oppression of racism, classism, and sexism faced by Chicanas. The erasure of significant female figures and their accomplishments throughout historically male-centered events, and the ignorance toward the pain and suffering endured at the hands of the toxicity of machismo within the Chicana/o community, and the embracement of a woman’s abused, manipulated, and disregarded sexuality are a few of the many truths brought to light in this Chicana feminist adaptation, “I am María.”
By Ramon Jimenez
Ramon Jimenez, is writer and educator who resides in Seattle, WA. He teaches language arts and runs a summer youth poetry program at a High school. Along with that, he teaches political science at Pierce College. He writes poetry that focuses on immigration, culture and travel. Ramon is interested in exploring locations and how they connect to memories. Ramon’s poems are published in Rigorous Magazine and the Anti-Languorous Project.
