Label Me Latina/o Fall 2019 Volume 9
Filed under: Fall
Essay
Identity and displacement in Jennine Capó Crucet’s Make Your Home Among Strangers
Make Your Home Among Strangers
By Lori Oxford
Lori Oxford specializes in contemporary Latin American cultural production with a concentration in contemporary Cuban narrative. Her research interests include cultural studies and gender studies in Latin America and Latinx communities in the USA. Her recent work has focused on heterotopian spaces in Special Period film and narrative and social awareness in Latinx popular music.
Interviews
Naida Saavedra with Jaime Antonio Rivera Flores
Dr. Jaime Antonio Rivera Flores was born and raised in Mexico. His undergraduate degree, from Universidad de Xalapa, is in Communications. He holds an M.Sc. in Recreation Administration from Georgia Southern University, and an M.A. in Spanish Literature and Linguistics from Florida State University, where he also completed his Ph.D. in Spanish Linguistics in 2011. Since 2013, he is an Assistant Professor of World Languages and Cultures at Georgian Court University, in Lakewood, NJ.
Creative Non-Fiction
He Imitated a Stiff-Legged Frankenstein
By Sharon McElhone
Sharon McElhone is a journalist, columnist, and author. The Bride’s Daughter, a first collection of short stories, was completed in 2005. Hunger in the Canyon (2006), a collection of poems, was a semi-finalist for the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award competition. “Ciara: Courtship” was a finalist for Atlanta Review’s International Poetry Competition in 2008. State–A Year in the Life of Pallas Villalobos, a novel, was completed in 2010. My Baby Talking Mouth, collection of poems (2011). Hide All Things That Make Her Human, collection of poems (2013). She co-founded Orchard Valley Review, a San Jose State University student run magazine, and co-edited Mary Andrade’s Dia De Los Muertos-A Passion for Life, which won “Best Documentary” at the Los Angeles International Latino Book Awards. Her articles have appeared in La Oferta, Orchard Valley Review, The Cupertino Courier, The Sunnyvale Sun, among other publications. Her column is called “Middle America-Our Engine,” and can be viewed online at La Oferta. Her fiction has appeared in The New Short Fiction Series 2012 in Los Angeles, Label Me Latina/o Spring 2015 and in the 2017 anthology Basta!.
By Sylvia Mendoza
Sylvia Mendoza is an award-winning journalist and author, editor and educator who absolutely believes in the power of the written word. Recognized as a subject matter expert in her blended fields of journalism, women’s issues and Latina voices, Sylvia has been featured by the National Women’s History Project on C-Span Book-TV, as a Thought Leader and one of “50 Voices of the Future in Journalism” at UC San Diego Extension, and as “1 of 25 Influential Latina Leaders” invited to a private forum with Ms. Mazal Renford, Israeli delegate to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. She is the author of The Book of Latina Women: 150 Vidas of Passion, Strength and Success and Sonia Sotomayor: A Biography (YA).
Screenplay
By Marco A. Rodríguez
Marco Antonio Rodriguez holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from Southern Methodist University and is currently working on a second masters from Stephens College. His acclaimed play, Ashes of Light, received extended by popular demand productions in theaters across the nation and internationally. Ashes of Light has been published in both Spanish and English editions by NoPassport Press and studied at universities nationwide and internationally. Marco Antonio has written guest commentary for national publications Latino Leaders Magazine and TCG (Theatre Communications Guild). He is the recipient of a Banff International Literary Translation Centre Writing Residency in Alberta, Canada and a CUNY Dominican Studies Institute Archives Library Fellowship. He was recently given the “Rising Star Award” by the New York Dominican Parade. His play, Barceló on the Rocks, was an O’Neill Theater Conference semi-finalist and won the national MetLife Nuestras Voces Playwriting competition. NoPassport Press has published Barceló on the Rocks in a dual English/Spanish edition available on Amazon.com. Marco Antonio was commissioned to adapt Julia Alvarez’ best-selling novel, In the Name of Salomé, into a stage play. It enjoyed a critically acclaimed and extended run at New York’s Spanish Repertory Theater. Marco also adapted and directed the world-premiere adaptation of Junot Diaz’ Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao at the Spanish Rep. It is currently enjoying an extended run. As an actor, Marco Antonio has been seen in numerous television, films and theater productions. Recently, Marco Antonio co-starred in the world premiere of Catherine Filloux’s Kidnap Road at La Mama Experimental Theater in New York and in the short film, TRUMPET, set for a winter release.
Short Story
By Hernan Dario Jourdan
Hernan Dario Jourdan was born in Buenos Aires and at an early age he moved to Tokyo with a scholarship from the Ministry of Education of Japan. Versed in both Japanese, English and Spanish as a result, he became interested in pluriculturalism as a way to understand himself and the world around him. Back in Argentina, he participated in the creation of films as a writer and a producer, and performed for several theater pieces. In 2010, he set out on foot to hitchhike across South America and explored the countries on the Pacific coast, which eventually took him to the United States. He now lives in Providence, Rhode Island, where he writes and directs interventions in theater, performance, installations and public events. Up to date, he has partnered with Panasonic LTD; the Providence Department of Art, Culture and Tourism; the Alliance of Artists Communities; the RISD Museum and more. He is a grantee of RISCA (2017 & 2018) and the A4A program by MassMoCa (2019). He was named “Rhode Island Cultural Anchor” (2019) and co-produces the Latinx podcast “Thank You For Listening.”
Poetry
By Oliver Velásquez Toledo
Oliver Velázquez Toledo (Istmo de Tehuantepec, 1980) ha publicado en Cantera Verde de la Biblioteca Pública Central del Estado de Oaxaca y en Latin American Encounters de la asociación Latin American Researchers of Ontario. Cursó letras en la UAM-Iztapalapa, actualmente estudia literatura e historia del libro en la Universidad de Toronto.
By Brittany Carmona
Brittany Carmona has taught high school Spanish for 7 years, including teaching Spanish for Native Speakers. She enjoys encouraging her students as well as herself to express themselves in both Spanish and English through poetry and creative writing. This poem was written for her husband not long after they were married. She enjoys traveling, painting, writing, dancing and learning about other cultures.
