Read the complete article in The New York Times. (Click on the word "article.")
Gonzalez, David. "Tato Laviera, Poet With Voice in Two Worlds, Has Home in Neither." The New York Times. February 12, 2010.
Most of us working with U.S. Latino Literature are familiar with Jesús Abraham "Tato" Laviera and his nuyorican sentiment in his poems in AmeRícan and La Carretera Made a U-Turn. This article, which appeared in The New York Times last month, is being circulated to us by our colleague Elena Machado Saéz from Florida Atlantic University. It is a heart-breaking story of a poet revered by many, now facing homelessness, caused by his health issues.
If you want to help Tato Laviera Arte Público Press' February 2010 E-News suggests the followings:
1. If you live in the New York area join the Tribute to Tato Laviera being organized by the Nuoyrican Poets Cafe on March 9 at 7pm.
2. Send donations to:
Mr. Tato Laviera
C/o Sánchez-Ramos
225 E. 93rd St. Apt. 8H
New York, NY 10128
If you are a Facebook member you may join his Facebook Group.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Monday, January 11, 2010
Discussion # 1
Read Machado Saéz's complete article in Latino Studies.
Machado Saéz, Elena. "Reconquista: Ilan Stavans and multiculturalist Latino/a discourse."Latino Studies. 7 (2009): 410–434.
Abstract
Ilan Stavans constructs a multiculturalist framework for understanding the US Latino/a experience. By reading The Hispanic Condition (1995) alongside Stavans’ discussions of the Latino/a literary canon in the introductions to his anthologies, New World (1997) and Lengua Fresca (Augenbraum and Stavans, 2006), and his articles in the Chronicle of Higher Education, I argue that this multiculturalist approach is based on an equation of culture with language. Through this linguistic formulation of Latinidad with the Spanish language as its defining facet, Stavans privileges a colonialist rendering of Latino/a history, tracing the ancestral lineage of Latino/as in terms of solely Western European culture. By valorizing Spanish colonization, Stavans glosses over sites of violence in order to highlight a linguistic inheritance and formulates
US Latino/a identity in opposition to American indigenous cultures. Uncovering the way in which Ilan Stavans positions the indigenous as Other in his multiculturalist approach to Latinidad is essential to understanding the colonialist and conservative underpinnings of how Stavans structures the Latino/a literary canon. I will consequently address how Latino/a Studies critics have wrestled with Stavans’ influence on the field and the ways in which Stavans’ vision of US Latino/a Studies resembles or reflects its institutional orientation and disciplinary locations.
About the Author
Elena Machado Saéz is Associate Professor in the Department of English at Florida Atlantic University. She is the coauthor of The Latino/a Canon and the Emergence of Post-Sixties Literature (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007). Machado Saéz has also published articles on Caribbean and US Latino/a literatures in journals such as Anthurium, MELUS, Phoebe, Sargasso and Small Axe. Her current book project focuses on contemporary historical fiction by Caribbean diasporic writers, including Julia Alvarez, Junot Dıáz, Cristina Garcia and Ana Menéndez.
To start the discussion please click on the link below COMMENTS. Type in the box and simply click POST COMMENT.
Machado Saéz, Elena. "Reconquista: Ilan Stavans and multiculturalist Latino/a discourse."Latino Studies. 7 (2009): 410–434.
Abstract
Ilan Stavans constructs a multiculturalist framework for understanding the US Latino/a experience. By reading The Hispanic Condition (1995) alongside Stavans’ discussions of the Latino/a literary canon in the introductions to his anthologies, New World (1997) and Lengua Fresca (Augenbraum and Stavans, 2006), and his articles in the Chronicle of Higher Education, I argue that this multiculturalist approach is based on an equation of culture with language. Through this linguistic formulation of Latinidad with the Spanish language as its defining facet, Stavans privileges a colonialist rendering of Latino/a history, tracing the ancestral lineage of Latino/as in terms of solely Western European culture. By valorizing Spanish colonization, Stavans glosses over sites of violence in order to highlight a linguistic inheritance and formulates
US Latino/a identity in opposition to American indigenous cultures. Uncovering the way in which Ilan Stavans positions the indigenous as Other in his multiculturalist approach to Latinidad is essential to understanding the colonialist and conservative underpinnings of how Stavans structures the Latino/a literary canon. I will consequently address how Latino/a Studies critics have wrestled with Stavans’ influence on the field and the ways in which Stavans’ vision of US Latino/a Studies resembles or reflects its institutional orientation and disciplinary locations.
About the Author
Elena Machado Saéz is Associate Professor in the Department of English at Florida Atlantic University. She is the coauthor of The Latino/a Canon and the Emergence of Post-Sixties Literature (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007). Machado Saéz has also published articles on Caribbean and US Latino/a literatures in journals such as Anthurium, MELUS, Phoebe, Sargasso and Small Axe. Her current book project focuses on contemporary historical fiction by Caribbean diasporic writers, including Julia Alvarez, Junot Dıáz, Cristina Garcia and Ana Menéndez.
To start the discussion please click on the link below COMMENTS. Type in the box and simply click POST COMMENT.
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