Read The Chicano/Latino Literary Prize Online
Authors: Stephanie Fetta
The Chicano/Latino Literary Prize
An Anthology of Prize-Winning Fiction, Poetry, and Drama
E
DITED, WITH AN
I
NTRODUCTION
,
BY
S
TEPHANIE
F
ETTA
The Chicano/Latino Literary Prize. An Anthology of Prize-Winning Fiction, Poetry, and Drama
is made possible in part from grants from the city of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance, the University of California at Irvine Chicano/Latino Literary Prize, and by the Exemplar Program, a program of Americans for the Arts in Collaboration with the LarsonAllen Public Services Group, funded by the Ford Foundation.
Recovering the past, creating the future
Arte Público Press
University of Houston
452 Cullen Performance Hall
Houston, Texas 77204-2004
Cover art by Alfredo ArreguÃn, “Los muertitos, 2004”
Cover design by Exact Type
The Chicano/Latino Literary Prize: An Anthology of Prize-Winning Fiction, Poetry, and Drama / Edited, with an introduction, by Stephanie Fetta.
   p.   cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index
ISBN: 978-155885-511-3 (alk. paper)
    1. American literatureâHispanic American authors. 2. American literatureâMexican American authors. 3. American literatureâ20th century. 4. Hispanic AmericansâLiterary collections. 5. Mexican AmericansâLiterary collections. I. Fetta, Stephanie.
PS508.H57C47 2008
810.8â²0868âdc22
2007047389
CIPÂ Â Â
The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Information SciencesâPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
© 2008 Arte Público Press
Printed in the United States of America
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This book is dedicated to Juan Villegas,
founder and consistent supporter of the Chicano/Latino Literary Prize.
Introduction: From a Poetics of Contestation to an Aesthetic of Agency
Rosaura Sánchez
Transparencias
Juan Felipe Herrera
Antiteatro y Poemas
Helena MarÃa Viramontes
Birthday
David Nava Monreal
A Pastoral Tale
Rubén Medina
Báilame este viento, Marián
Juan Manuel Bernal
Confesiones de un seudopoeta â¦
Jesús Rosales
Parte del proceso
Mary Helen Ponce
Recuerdo: When Rito Died
Wilfredo Q. Castaño
Bone Games
Jack López
The Boy Who Swam With Dolphins
Luis J. RodrÃguez,
Sometimes You Dance With a Watermelon
Lucha Corpi
Shadows On Ebbing Water
Gary D. Keller, El Huitlacoche
The Raza Who Scored Big in Anáhuac
Deborah Fernández Badillo
Poems
Juan Felipe Herrera
Memoir: Checker-Piece
Margarita Luna Robles
Urbano: Letters of the Horseshoe Murder
Silviana Wood
And Where Was Pancho Villa â¦
Silviana Wood
Una vez, en un barrio de sueños â¦
Josefina López
Simply MarÃa or America's Dream
Alberto Ledesma
Poetry for Homeboys on the Foul Line
Liliana Valenzuela
Zurcidos invisibles
BenjamÃn Alire Saénz
Alligator Park
Rubén BenjamÃn MartÃnez
Plaza Mayor
Carlos Nicolás Flores
Cantina del Gusanito
Graciela Limón
Concha's Husband
Manuel Ramos
The Ballad of Rocky RuÃz
Graciela Limón
A Voice in Ramah
Andrés Montoya
The Iceworker Sings
Angelo Parra
Song of the CoquÃ
Patricia Santana
Motorcycle Ride On the Sea of Tranquility
Chronological Index of Prize-Winners
The problem with being given a project like this one is no one is quite sure what to expect really. It took me a while to figure out how I was going to edit an anthology with an incomplete set of winning entries. And how to navigate without access to full texts. Or that I'd play sleuth to hunt down texts and authors, some of whom were never to be found, and others who sadly decided not to include their important works in the anthology after all. Then the technical challenges emerged. There was the scanning mess, yellowed texts filled with difficult-to-identify computer language garble that had to be standardized, letter by letter, space by space. By necessity, this project taught me a bit about the work of literary historians, and gave me a new level of appreciation for the tedious technical work of producing a book. The anthology turned into an enterprise, but was well worth the effort.
The experience as a literary critic was different than I had imagined. Once I amassed the texts that I was to evaluate, initially some of the texts seemed somewhat dated to me. At times I found it challenging to work through my own biases in order to identify and appreciate the cultural work done by each piece in this book. Later, I realized I had underestimated the complexity of these works, and many times became inspired by them. I began to understand my field much more deeply and I grew humbled. For this too, I am grateful. During this period, I bore two children in addition to the wonderful son I already had. My family grew. What a long road. The events of my life gave me time to think the texts through, and to make more thoughtful decisions. It became important to me to rethink standard editing criteria. As a result, I chose selections that would showcase the author's talent, or I selected the passage from which I gained insight into the real work of the piece, rather than follow convention. What I realized in the process is that each text of the anthology contributed to the bigger project of founding of an ethnic literatureâa fascinating process to discern. Through all the twists and turns, I really appreciate how the project unfolded.
I would like to thank all those authors who were kind enough to allow their work to be reprinted here without economic compensation. In funding
this project, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese of the University of California, Irvine, continues to demonstrate its commitment to the Chicana/o Latina/o community and I thank the department for this commitment and for entrusting me with this project. Likewise, the commitment of Nicolás Kane-llos and Arte Público Press to these literatures goes without saying. Arte Público Press is a critical arm of dissemination of Chicana/o and Latina/o letters, but their work also gives our cultures a very rich and beautiful national face. I thank Arte Público's Marina Tristán for her vision of the anthology, and Gabriela Baeza Ventura for her work to make this into a book. My friends and colleagues have also been generous with their time and attention to this project. I received the extensive assistance of Fabio Chee who helped locate, copy, and scan most of the documents included. Saúl Jiménez who was originally appointed co-editor was really helpful in selecting many of the early entries. I appreciate the help of Ignacio López Calvo, José Guillermo Pastrano, Michelle Conboy, Lisa Pizula, and Xóchitl Morales, all of whom proofread parts of the manuscript. I thank all of them for their friendship and collegiality. I thank Fortunato Strumbo for his efforts, time, and spirit on this project which has redefined my definition of friendship. I thank the Chicano/Latino Literary Prize's founder Juan Villegas for commenting on the manuscript, and Jacobo Sefamà and MarÃa Herrera Sobek, for their support and long-standing belief in me. Alejandro Morales is the person to whom I am most grateful for recognizing what I have to offer and accepting my self-styled career. My love goes out to my three elf-size sages, my children, Max Emiliano, Leonardo, and Helena Rose, and to Farrokh, for loving me no matter what.
F
ROM A
P
OETICS OF
C
ONTESTATION TO AN
A
ESTHETIC OF
A
GENCY
The early Chicano Movement produced literary texts that tended to respond to issues of social and political oppression, of the reality of poverty, and of the desire to assert the paradigm of Chicano as a modality of social rehabilitation. Over the twenty-five years included in the anthology, we read of these concerns that have come to characterize what is thought of as Chicana/o and Latina/o (hereafter C/L) literatures, but we will also read something more. The texts anthologized here will show the reader that the scope of C/L literatures has always been broader, deeper, richer than what is often thought. The politicism of early works becomes more nuanced over time evolving from a “poetics of contestation” to an “aesthetic of agency.” Nuanced, but not necessarily more subtle or effaced. The expression of contestation was often emphatically critical in tone and a declarative style fueled by outrage molded a poetics that characterized this type of writing. The move from a poetics to an aesthetic becomes evident when contrasting poetry like 1974-75 winner Rita Mendoza's “Ahà venimos”
1
with Alma Luz Villanueva's poetry of 1976-77, where political concerns move from the declarative form of indictment to an aesthetic that explores the political through the interior state of the Chicana subject. Mendoza's poem expresses clear political concerns of the movement era that become a call to action: