2014 High-Spanics (Super Chicanos y Mas) by the Numbers

Identity Crisis: An Arrested Development

By Rodolfo F. Acuña

24 October 2013

Click photo of Rudy to enlarge. Photo is copyright 2013 Jesús Manuel Mena Garza. All rights reserved.

The debate as to what to name Chicana/o Studies will have future repercussions. The proposals are not new; they are not innovative; and they are symptomatic of the historical struggle of Mexican origin people in the United States to identify themselves. 

The problem is that the group has grown so large and the stakes so high that the consequences will hurt everyone. Unfortunately, the level of the discourse lacks logic, and it prolongs a resolution to the identity crisis of Mexican Americans.

Admittedly, Latinos have a lot in common, but we also have a lot of differences, e.g., in social class, population size, where we live, and our history to name a few dissimilarities. These differences strew the landscape with landmines especially for those who already believe that all Latinas/os look alike. It makes it easier for them to lump us into one generic brand.

The constant name changes are wrongheaded and ahistorical. Identity takes a long time to form, e.g., it took Mexico over two hundred years to get over their regional differences and become Mexicans. If you would have asked my mother what she was, she would have answered, “Sonorense,” my father would have said “tapatio.”  

Today, the children of immigrants usually identify with their parents’ country of origin. Some, depending on where they live, will say Hispanic or Latino, despite the fact that there is no such thing as a Hispanic or Latino nationality.

The result is an arrested development that carries over into the popular media where it is not uncommon to see an Argentinian playing a Mexican on the screen with an Argentinian accent.  To movie directors, all Latinos look and sound alike.

Chicana/o Studies is supposed to be staffed by intellectuals, and you would think that they would bring about a resolution. However, I have been disappointed by the inconsistencies in their epistemological stances. 

Instead, they follow the latest fad or what is convenient for them. The result is that they confuse students and the public, thus creating an identity crisis that arrests the development of the disparate Latino sub-groups.

Some self-described sages, a minority I hope, even want to change the names of the few Chicana/o Studies departments that have survived the wars in academe to Chicana/o-Latino or vice versa. The pretexts are: it is a progressive move; it promotes unity; and it is strategically the right move -- it makes us Number 1.

Even on my own campus where Chicana/o Studies offers over 172 sections per semester, a minority of Chicana/faculty members want to change the department’s name. They believe this change will enable them to teach courses on Latin America and thus increase their individual prestige.

Having worked in academe for nearly fifty years, this is naïve! In the past, we tried to establish an interdisciplinary program but we were torpedoed by the Spanish Department. In academe, you don’t just wish changes. They are the result of political confrontation and negotiation. 

It is beyond me how some Chicana/o Studies faculty members can be so naïve. Do they think that the history, political science or Spanish departments will roll over and concede CHS the right to teach classes that they think belong to them? Do they think that these departments are so stupid that they will stand by and let us to take student enrollment away from them?

What is to be gained by creating a pseudo identity?

You would think that Chicana/o professors would have developed a sense of what a discipline is. Chicana/o studies were developed as pedagogy; their mission is to motivate and teach students’ skills. CHS were not created to give employment opportunities for Chicana/o professors or to create a safe haven for them to be tenured. 

The reality is that most Latino programs are clustered east of Chicago whereas most programs west of the Windy City are called Chicana/o Studies. As of late, however, there has been a breakdown, and CHS programs out west have begun to change their names to a hybrid Latino-Chicana/o studies model. 

Tellingly, although the Mexican origin population is rapidly spreading east of Chicago, there is no reciprocal trend to change the names of programs to include Chicana/o or Mexican American.

What is the message for Mexican Americans? 

As a kid, many of my acquaintances preferred calling themselves Latin American. Unlike hot jalapeños Latino did not offend the sensitive taste buds of gringos.

What it boils down to is opportunism and an arrested development. These frequent changes have led to a collective identity crisis as well as short circuiting the community’s historical memory.   

The best data on Mexican Americans and Latinos comes from the Pew Research Center. It informs us that 71 percent of all Latinos live in 100 counties. Half (52 percent) of these counties are in three states—California, Texas and Florida. Along with Arizona, New Mexico, New York, New Jersey and Illinois they house three-quarters of the nation’s Latino population.

Los Angeles County alone has 4.9 million Latinos or 9 percent of the Latino population nationally. In LA-Long Beach Mexican Americans make up 78 percent of the Latino population followed by Salvadorans who are 8 percent. In NY-Northeastern NJ Mexicans are only 12 percent, the rest are Latin Americans. Understandably, in NY-New Jersey there is no movement to change to Latino-Mexican American studies whereas in LA many programs have changed the name of Chicana/o Studies.

The Mexican share of the Latino population in California is 83 percent; Texas 88 percent; Illinois 80 percent; Arizona 91 percent; Colorado 78 percent; Georgia 61 percent; and in racially confused New Mexico, Mexicans are 63 percent of Latinos.

In metropolitan areas like Los Angeles Mexicans are 78 percent of Latinos; Houston 78 percent; Riverside 88 percent; Chicago 79 percent; Dallas 85 percent; Phoenix 91 percent; San Francisco 70 percent; San Antonio 90 percent. Eight of the ten largest Latino cities are overwhelmingly of Mexican origin. 

For me, it does not take an advanced degree in mathematics to figure out what the name of the programs should be in the eight states. Still there are Chicana/o geniuses that want to change the name of the programs.

At California State Northridge the solution appeared simple in the 1990s. It made sense to support Central American students and create a Central American program. They make up 12/14 percent of LA’s Latino population, and changing the name to Chicana/o –Latino would not have solved anything.

What purpose would it have served if 98 percent of the courses and faculty remained Mexican? Central Americans wanted ownership of a new program catering specifically to their needs and their identity.

This schizophrenic behavior of the name changers has worsened the existing identity crisis; it has resulted in an erasure of history. You can bet that there will political fallout in the future.  Words and history have meanings.

For example, Steve Montenegro, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio did not just happen.

Arizona state representative Steve Montenegro is from a reactionary Salvadoran family. Since his election in 2008, he has supported the racist SB 1070. Montenegro, supported by the Tea Party, is not vetted by the Mexican community that comprises over 90 percent of Phoenix’s Latino population.

In Texas Cuban-American Senator Ted Cruz got enough Mexican American votes to be elected to the U.S. Senate. Both Montenegro and Cruz are anti-immigrant. They see immigration as a Mexican issue.

Cuban-American Marco Rubio also advertises that he is a “Hispanic”. He has been active on immigration, but he is pushing a reactionary bill and like his other musketeers is a Tea Party darling.

Ernesto Galarza used to say that a people without a historical memory are easier manipulated, and they lose the ability to defend their communities. The only power poor people have to check the universities and elected officials is the power of numbers.

“History gives order and purpose to our lives.” Identity whether it is working class or communal clarifies that purpose. Inchoate changes in identity are infantile and are not helping rather they are arresting our development.

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Why Redistricting Is Important to the Chicano Community in Fort Worth

By Fernando Florez

*Edited and modified by Jesús Manuel Mena Garza for Chicano y Que?

Special to Nuestra Voz de Tarrant County

  

        Shortly after the end of World War II one of my friend's father returned home to Fort Worth after his military service. A few days later he and a friend went to a restaurant downtown. They sat down at a table to order and soon a waiter came over and told them: "We don't serve Mexicans." With his great sense of humor, my friend's father replied to the waiter: "We weren't going to order one" and left the restaurant. Being discriminated against and disrespected in other ways was not uncommon for Chicanos in this and other parts of Texas and the Southwest. But in part because of the military contributions of Chicanos and Tejanos to the United States going as far back as the American Revolutionary War, which have not ever been fully recognized to this day, injustices such as this one were catching the public's eye and the winds of change were already blowing.

        I came to work at General Dynamics here in Fort Worth as an electronics technician/ technical writer after my Army discharge in 1968. There has been some change here since that time, but what is still prevalent is the same attitude that those with the political power in the Rio Grande Valley had when I was growing up: Maintain the status quo by keeping the same people or those of their ilk, who opposed sharing political power with Chicanos, in control. I never thought that was right then nor that it's right now--no matter how it's spinned, it's simply wrong to keep Chicanos or any other group from having their voice heard-- and it's the reason I am involved in redistricting.  

        Redistricting involves drawing electoral districts' boundaries. Because of a long history of discrimination, especially in the South, Texas and the Southwest, and to comply with the Voting Rights Act, boundaries must be drawn in a manner that will protect the voting rights of minorities. Here in Texas, there is redistricting of U. S. Congressional districts and of state Senate and House of Representative districts, by the legislature. (Briefly, in the North Texas area, the legislature has drawn districts that minimize the chances for Chicanos to be elected to office, by diluting the impact of their votes, and some lawsuits are pending.)

        There is other information associated with redistricting that is significant: A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling has gutted part of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) and as a result the Texas Voter I.D. law that was passed in the last session of the legislature (when there is no evidence that it was needed) will be implemented. The latter, an anti-minority voter suppression scheme, is being challenged in court by several Chicano groups and the U.S. Justice Department.

        I am focusing my discussion on Fort Worth redistricting, which is what I've been involved in for nearly twenty-five years. I am briefly reviewing what we've done in regards to both Fort Worth City Council and Fort Worth Independent School District (FWISD) redistricting the last couple of years and what it looks like for the future as the battles continues.

        Fort Worth City Council redistricting: Fort Worth adopted an 8-1 single-member city council-mayor electoral system in 1977. Prior to that, in a typical election, the top nine votegetters--all of them usually lived in two of the most affluent areas of the city--were elected. They in turn selected the mayor. At that time the population of Fort Worth was approximately half of what it was in the 2010 census count. The Chicano population of Fort Worth was not very high then, but in the 2010 census the total population of the city was 742,765, with 34% of it Chicano; the Anglo-White population was 42, African-American 18% and other 6%. Between the last two census cycles, the only group that showed a percentage increase in population was Chicanos.

        Because Fort Worth prides itself as being a diverse city, we have been trying to convince the city council to change its electoral system to be more inclusive by drawing more than one district in which a Chicano has a chance of being elected.  

        Sure, we know that the Chicano population is somewhat scattered, and that it includes non-citizens in it, but if district lines are drawn properly it can be done. Two strong majority Chicano functional districts can easily be created by converting to a 10-1 electoral system and that was the focus of our redistricting effort early on, right after the 2010 census data came out. But it was an uphill battle from the start because the majority of city council members' main focus was to protect their self-interest, their turf, and the best way to do that was by keeping the same system in place. Any change to the electoral system would have to be first approved by the city council itself, or forced on them by collecting enough signatures on a petition, before it would go to the voters to decide the issue and amend the city's charter. Our petition drive campaign's rallying cry to force the city council to call an election was "Let the People Decide," but we couldn't muster enough public support. Very few people seem to care whether Chicanos have fair representation--except Chicanos.

        After that, we redrew new maps for an 8-1 electoral plan, focusing on creating a second strong functional majority Chicano district, in the city's south side (district 9). After some negotiation, some slight changes were made to the city's map, but not enough. Still left in the district were five precincts west of 8th Avenue; those precincts are 90% plus Anglo-White, Republican, (except Mistletoe Heights, Precinct 1076, which is more liberal and the vote is usually split between Democrats and Republicans in major elections), much more affluent, with a higher educational level and household income (at the middle to upper middle class level), and with higher property values. By contrast those precincts east of 8th Avenue, such as South Hemphill Heights, Worth Heights, and Rosemont, are majority Chicano in population; people there have a much lower educational level and household income and they vote for Democrats in major elections; the two areas have no "Communities of Interest." In other words, these two areas have nothing in common and should not be in the same council district. More affluent people, with more education and higher income, vote at higher rates, and in Fort Worth as a bloc for White-Anglo candidates, overwhelming minority candidates from the rest of the district. The precincts west of 8th Avenue have won every competitive election in District 9 since Fort Worth went to single-member districts in 1977. This is not conjecture, but based on the research we've done. We fought hard for our plans (three of them were submitted for consideration), but, unfortunately, lost that battle. Over our objection, the city adopted their plan on July 24, 2012 and submitted it to the U.S. Department of Justice for pre-clearance under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

        (In the city's plan, the total population in City Council District 9 was 91,140, with 57.72% of it Chicano. The total Chicano population percentage looks good on paper, but a clearer picture of City Council District 9 emerges after looking at the map more closely: The total estimated citizen population for the district using American Community Survey (ACS) data was 69,060; the estimated citizen population for non-Chicanos was 36,775. The total estimated Citizen Voting Age Population (CVAP) for the district was 46,540; the estimated non-Chicano CVAP was 31,360 and the estimated Chicano CVAP was 15,180. From this data, it can be seen that the Chicano population is young and some of it is non-citizen. Approximately two thirds of its voting age population is non-Chicano. Throw in the polarized, bloc voting west of 8th Avenue in the mix and it's no wonder that every contested election in the district has been won by an Anglo.)

        We objected to the city's plan with the Federal Justice Department, but without going into too much detail here, we knew our chances of prevailing were slim. On October 1, 2012, we and the city's attorney were notified that their plan was pre-cleared.

        So was putting up the fight we did worth it? Without a doubt, absolutely. First, Section 5 of the VRA is mainly about retrogression--not about a population that is increasing, such as Chicanos--and the maps we submitted show that if the city council had adopted one of them we would have created a second Chicano district in the south side. That leads us to Section 2 of the VRA, which places much stricter standards for the city to meet, but the burden of proof is ours. (Again, I couldn't possibly cover all of that in this short space.) As I write this, let’s just say that a lawsuit against the city is a strong possibility. Stay tuned.       

        Fort Worth Independent School District (FWISD) redistricting: With respect to FWISD redistricting, we have also been fighting a tough and contentious battle for the same reason as city council redistricting: fair representation, commensurate to the Chicano population. With an approximately 62% Chicano student population in the district (the African-Americans student population was 23.28%, and Anglo-Whites nearly 12% out of approximately 82,000 students in the district during the last school year), we sought a third seat out of nine when the position of school board president elected-at-large was eliminated last year and an additional single-member district was created. Looking at the treatment of minority students historically here in Fort Worth, in other parts of the Texas, in the Deep South and in the Southwest and with the vast majority of school children in the district being Chicano, what was so unreasonable about drawing an additional Chicano majority district? We simply must have a stronger voice on the school board where policy affecting the future of our children is made. We are not racists as some of us have been called, but instead, we tried to right a wrong--having an unequal voice on the school board. After months of battling, a third Chicano leaning district was created and a Chicano was appointed to it; but neither District 8 nor District 9, the two Chicanos leaning districts which were newly redrawn were as strong as they should have been.

        The establishment fought us hard and helping them was our major daily newspaper, which unfairly took their side; we were badmouthed for "seeking more political power," as if that wasn't justified. With the increased xenophobia being directed against Chicanos everywhere we are seeing a higher level of polarized voting. That, and the nitpicking by one of the newspaper's writers and the editorial board over a period of time, and the money pumped into the race by the special interests against him, Juan Rangel, the incumbent, lost the runoff election by 23 votes on June 15, 2013. In my opinion, in District 8 the threat of having to raise large sums of money to mount viable campaigns dissuaded two genuine Chicano candidates from staying in the race for that seat. 

        The establishment is fighting us hard to keep Chicanos off the school board. Today, we have essentially one Chicano on the FWISD Board of Education. But the last chapter in this saga has not been written yet. Again, stay tuned.

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*What changes did Jesús Garza make? He shortened the article by removing several paragraphs detailing segregation and disenfranchisement of the Chicano and Black community. Garza also replaced the word Hispanic or Spanish with Chicano. There was also a map of Fort Worth that was deleted.

Hannity Smears “Chicano” Author As Anti-White By Taking Quote Out Of Context

I saw this crazy stuff on TV this week. If you have time check out the insanity... FOX insanity that is. Click this link to view the video and text: FOX NOOZ?

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Chicano Photographer Video

Download 2010 César Chávez Calendar. It's Free!

[Click on image to download printable JPG. A higher-quality PDF version is available for download at my website jmmgarza.com. Viva César Chávez.]

Download 2010 César Estrada Chávez calendar. Be the first in your neighborhood, barrio or gated community to download a FREE/GRATIS Super Chicana/o calendar. You don't have to be a Super Chican@ to own this fantastic calendar. Hispanics and others are also welcome to share in the glory.

Downloading Is Easy

All you have to do is "click" on the thumbnail image of the calendar to download. Save your downloaded 11x17 inch JPG and print two copies (a laser or inkjet printer works fine). By the way, you can easily downsize the JPG to make a letter size (8.5 x 11) print. Generously give one poster to your Chicana/o Studies (Hispanic Studies may not count!) or photography professor. They will be absolutely impressed by your excellent taste.

If you have any questions or comments please feel free to phone me at (909) 557-7151 or send me an email.

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Interview with author & poet Daniel Olivas

Mayra Calvani, examiner.com

It's an honor to have here today accomplished poet, novelist, short story writer and editor Daniel Olivas. As if this isn't enough, he also is an attorney with the California Department of Justice and a regular contributor to La Bloga, a very popular Chicano/Latino literature blog. Olivas was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule to answer my questions.

BIO: Born and raised near downtown Los Angeles, Daniel Olivas is the middle of five children and the grandson of Mexican immigrants. Olivas received his BA in English literature from Stanford University and law degree from the University of California at Los Angeles. By day, he is an attorney with the California Department of Justice where he has worked in the Public Rights Division since 1990. He is married to his law school sweetheart, Susan Formaker, and they have a 19-year-old son, Benjamin. They make their home in the San Fernando Valley.

Olivas is also the author of five books of fiction including the forthcoming Anywhere but L.A.: Stories (Bilingual Press, fall 2009), and a children’s book, Benjamin and the Word / Benjamin y la palabra (Arte Público Press, 2005). He edited the landmark Latinos in Lotusland: An Anthology of Contemporary Southern California Literature (Bilingual Press, 2008). Olivas has been widely anthologized including in Sudden Fiction Latino (W.W. Norton, forthcoming 2010), and Hate Crimes: Social Issues Firsthand (Greenhaven Press, 2007). His writing has appeared in many publications including the Los Angeles Times, La Bloga, The Jewish Journal, The MacGuffin, Exquisite Corpse, El Paso Times, PALABRA,California Lawyer, The Elegant Variation, and New Madrid. His first poetry collection,Crossing the Border, will be published next year by Ghost Road Press.

Olivas has just learned that the University of Arizona Press has accepted for publication his first full-length novel, tentatively titled The Book of Want, which will be published in 2011.

MAYRA CALVANI : Thanks for this interview. It's a pleasure having you here at the Examiner. Why don't you start by telling us a little about yourself and how you started writing.

DANIEL OLIVAS: When I was very, very young—in preschool—I was creating little books. I loved telling stories. My parents always read to us and our house was filled with books. But I never imagined that someone would actually want to publish my books let alone that my books would be studied in college.

When I majored in English literature at Stanford, I purposely didn’t take any creative writing classes thinking that I wouldn’t be able to “do” anything with it. But I always remained creative in my non-academic activities. For example, I was a staff artist and then art director of Stanford’s humor magazine where I not only drew cartoons but also wrote a few pieces. In law school at UCLA, I was appointed editor-in-chief of the Chicano Law Review (it’s now called the Chicana/o-Latina/o Law Review) where I edited pieces and wrote a legal article on an important immigration court decision. As a lawyer, I’ve written many articles and essays for legal publications. Eventually, I started to write fiction. This was in 1998 when I started writing a novella. It was a way for me to deal with grief arising from my wife’s multiple miscarriages. I helped Sue and our son, Benjamin, with their emotions, but I wasn’t dealing with mine very well until I started writing. It proved to be quite cathartic.

After selling my novella to a small (and now defunct press), I couldn’t stop writing. Eventually, my short stories started being accepted by print and online literary journals. Then one of my poems was accepted by Lee & Low Books for a children’s anthology, Love to Mamá, edited by the great Pat Mora. I figured that as long as editors kept accepting my stories and poems, I’d keep writing.

CALVANI: You write in English with a little Spanish thrown in depending on the character. Can you tell a little about this “code switching” and why you utilize it in your writing?

OLIVAS: I admit that I’m a pocho. My Spanish is not very good. My parents were raising us bilingually but when I was three, I stopped speaking completely. This lasted a whole year. During that time, my parents panicked. They took me to be tested. At the end of the testing, the doctor told them that I was of normal intelligence but he strongly recommended that they cut all Spanish in the household. This was in the early 1960s so the bias against bilingual homes was fairly strong. In any event, my parents agreed to follow the doctor’s recommendation. So, I struggle with my Spanish but I try to have some of my characters switch between Spanish and English when it’s appropriate for that character. I want my fiction to ring true so I think it’s important that I do that.

CALVANI: Please tell us about your latest anthology, Latinos in Lotusland. It has garnered a lot of rave reviews. What inspired you to put this anthology together?

OLIVAS: I was sick and very tired of what allegedly well-read book critics called classic “Los Angeles fiction.” Whenever some critic said this, he or she typically referred to novels or short stories that involved movie moguls, starlets and Malibu scenery. Seldom did you see Chicanos or other non-white characters unless they fell into some ugly stereotype. I wanted to change this and bring together fiction by Chicanos and other Latinos about my hometown. The result was 34 amazing and powerful stories going back to 1947. We have authors who have written many books alongside writers who are at the very beginning of their careers. I am so delighted by the response we’ve had to the anthology. It has been and will be taught in universities such as Rutgers, UC Irvine, and Ohio State. And we’ve had Latinos in Lotusland readings from L.A. to Chicago to Denver to Santa Barbara and elsewhere. I’ve been so honored and enriched by the authors who are in the anthology.

CALVANI: Latinos in Lotusland is a great title. Why “Lotusland”?

OLIVAS: The original working title was Latino L.A. but Gary Keller, the director of Bilingual Press, wanted to explore other potential titles with me. So, he suggested that we use a nickname for Los Angeles. One nickname is “Lotusland” which harkens back to the mythological race of lotus (or “lotos”) eaters “represented by Homer as living on the fruit of the lotus and living in a state of dreamy forgetfulness and idleness” according to The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. Therefore, the term has entered the English language to mean “a place or state of idle pleasure and luxury, contentment and self-indulgence.” (Websters New Millennium Dictionary of English.) Some non-native Angelenos decided long ago to pin it on Los Angeles. As William Safire explained in a New York Times essay:

“La-La Land is a play on the initials L.A., perhaps influenced by Lotos-land in ‘The Lotos-Eaters,’ a poem by Tennyson: ‘In the hollow Lotos-land to live and lie reclined / On the hills like Gods together.’ In his 1941 novel, The Last Tycoon, F. Scott Fitzgerald had a character describe Hollywood as ‘a mining town in lotus land.’”

Of course, I use the name “Lotusland” ironically. As I explain in my introduction to the anthology: “[N]otwithstanding the fact that the characters who populate this anthology may have feasted on the City of Angel’s lotus flowers, they do not live in blissful oblivion and they certainly have not forgotten who they are.”

CALVANI: You have written many short story collections. Have you written novels as well?

OLIVAS: My first book, The Courtship of María Rivera Peña (Silver Lake Publishing, 2000), was a novella but I do love the short story form. Every word has to count. I’ve even dipped into the very, very short story form such as flash, sudden and hint fiction (hint fiction is a story of 25 words or fewer). One of my very short pieces will be featured in W. W. Norton’s forthcoming Sudden Fiction Latino (2010), edited by Ray Gonzalez and Robert Shapard. However, I have written a full-length novel that is made up of linked stories, many of which have been published in literary journals already. It’s called The Book of Want (as of right now) and has just been accepted for publication by the University of Arizona Press for its Camino del Sol series. I am so excited by this. I have enjoyed many of the press’s titles over the years so I know they publish wonderful books. Their author list is a who’s who of Chicano and Latino literature including such names as José Antonio Burciaga, Stella Pope Duarte, Luis Alberto Urrea, Kathleen Alcalá, Ray Gonzalez, Pat Mora, Sergio Troncoso, and Juan Felipe Herrera, to name but a few. We have a tentative publication date of 2011.

CALVANI: Do you outline your stories beforehand or do your ideas develop as you write?

OLIVAS: I never outline. That would take the fun out of writing! I let my characters take me where they want to go.

CALVANI: Let's talk about short fiction writing. What would you say are the three most important elements of a great short story?

OLIVAS: I can’t speak for other writers or readers, but I think that interesting characters play the primary role for me. If I don’t have characters I care about, my story goes nowhere. The second most important element (for me) is conflict. Without conflict, a story is boring, to put it simply. The conflict could be big such as two robbers arguing over whether they should kill for money, or small such as which tie a widower should wear on the first date since his wife’s death. Conflict and how the characters deal with it is at the center of all great short stories. The third most important element revolves around language. This, for me, is the toughest element because it truly involves what we call “art.” There are a million ways to convey one idea, but not all paths lead to the creation of literature.

CALVANI: You're a regular contributor to La Bloga, a very popular Chicano/Latino literature blog. What do you blog about?

OLIVAS: We’re pretty freewheeling over at La Bloga but, obviously, our primary focus is on literature. My blog day is Monday. I do author profiles, interviews, book reviews, notices of literary events, listings of writing opportunities, things like that. I try to write my post on the weekend before it goes live. I also like to cover Chicano and Latino artists, community activists, store owners. In other words, I focus on what we call “culture.” We don’t get paid for what we do so we do as we please. La Bloga was founded in 2004 and I was invited to join as a contributor a couple of years ago after the founders read some of my work on another literary blog, The Elegant Variation, which was created by the novelist, Mark Sarvas. Right now at La Bloga, we have eight authors working on the blog. It’s a great virtual home and I’m in the company of dedicated, interesting writers. All kinds of gente read us: students, educators, judges, lawyers, editors, book publishers, etc. I find that La Bloga keeps me in touch with so many readers and writers in a way that was not possible 15 years ago.

CALVANI: What's in the horizon?

OLIVAS: Well, I’m working with Bilingual Press to put the final touches on my new collection, Anywhere but L.A., which comes out this fall. I then must turn to promoting that book which takes a lot of time and energy particularly because I’m a fulltime attorney, father and husband, not necessarily in that order. I have to squeeze whatever little time I can out of an already hectic schedule. Then I will turn to my poetry collection, Crossing the Border, which will be published in 2010 by Ghost Road Press. I’m writing short stories, book reviews, and essays, here and there, that I am submitting to various publications. I’m participating in book events, too. I’ve started a new novel but I’m having a little trouble making time for it. And I’m reading, reading, reading all kinds of wonderful books and print and online literary journals.

CALVANI: Is there anything else you'd like to tell our readers?

OLIVAS: Number one: Support Chicano and Latino literature! Number two: Read a book! Number three: Get involved in your community!

CALVANI: Thanks for the great interview!

For more information go to : www.danielolivas.com

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