Posts

About Octavio Paz

In this post, I will be researching the life of Paz, and in a later post, I will discuss a literary work of his in more detail. Childhood/Early Life: Octavio Paz was born in Mexico City on March 31, 1914, into a family that was involved in politics and literature. His grandfather, Ireneo Paz, had been a successful writer and journalist, exposing him to books, history, and intellectual debates from an early age. Much of Paz's childhood and later literary works were shaped by the unrest and uncertainty that followed the Mexican Revolution. His father had been a lawyer for the movement led by Emiliano Zapata. This left young Octavio and his mother to live with his grandfather for many years. Education: Paz's formal education began in Mexico City, where he showed an early interest in reading and writing. He then attended the National University of Mexico, where he studied law and literature. However, he was far more fascinated with books and poetry than with pursuing a career as a ...
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Yes! We are Latinos! -a children's book by Alma Flor Ada

Continuing on from my most recent post, I decided to read "Yes! We are Latinos" by Alma Flor Ada to get a sense of the types of books and themes she most often uses. Last week, I decided to sit and read the book, enjoying the nostalgia it evoked. In this post, I will examine the themes, messages, and literary details that Ada seeks to convey to her young readers. First, the young protagonist, being Cuban while living in Florida, is a strategic move by Ada. Miami, especially, is a city filled with Cuban immigrants due to its proximity to Cuba. This helps young students gain some awareness of the geography between Latin America and the U.S. (there is even a map on the first page and a sentence about José Miguel's ethnicity). The story's premise is that José Miguel is bullied at school for his name. The saying "no way José" is something other students find humorous, and a taco shop recently opened down the road called "Miguel's tacos." Students ar...
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Alma Flor Ada

 My childhood was filled with children's books written in Spanish. My dad would read books over and over again to both help me learn Spanish and also help me fall asleep at night.  Today, these memories re-entered my mind and filled me with nostalgia, so I though I would research an author known for her children's books.  Alma Flor Ada is a Cuban-American author known for her poetry, novels, and stories made for the eyes of younger children. She was born in 1938 in Camagüey, Cuba, and grew up exposed to stories and poetry that developed her passion for writing and teaching.  She was educated in Spain and Peru, earned a Ph.D., and completed postdoctoral studies at Harvard University before becoming a professor of education at the University of San Francisco. Ada devoted her life to bringing education, pride, and empowerment to Latino/Hispanic children through ensuring that their voices and lives are reflected in the books they read.  She has written numerous awar...
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Daniel Arcón: Strong Dead Man in the collection War By Candlelight

 Note: I did not read this collection, I simply gathered research from multiple databases including Columbia University, WordPress, JSTOR, etc.  After my recent post looking at the life and general literary success of Daniel Arcón, I will now explore one of his literary works in more depth.  To begin, War By Candlelight is a collection of many short-stories that form an overall literary piece. Strong Dead Man is one of these pieces within this collection, and is what I will be exploring today.  Summary: The story's protagonist is  Victor , a Dominican teenager living in New York. He experiences hardship after the sudden death of his father. Victor is left to process not only his grief but also the complicated legacy of this significant person in his life.  His father was strong and proud -a man who represented both resilience and stubbornness. In death, he lingers in Victor’s mind. Victor wrestles with memories of his father’s expectations, discipline, and...
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The Life of Daniel Alarcón

      To begin, Daniel Alarcón is a Peruvian-American novelist, journalist and radio producer. I felt like I hadn't prevously focused on many Peruvian authors, which is why I chose to research about Alarcón. Early life:      He was born on March 5th, 1977 in Lima, the capital of Peru. As a young boy, his family moved to Birmingham, Alabama where they worked at the local college. According to the Smithsonian Magazine, he called himself a "norteamerincaico" --a blend of North American and Incan identity. He grew up navigating his different culture backgrounds: Peru and the Southern U.S.  He attended Indian Springs School and challenged his intellectual interests through attending the Telluride Association Summer Program.  Education:  He earned a BA in Anthropology at Columbia University and spend a summer at Ghana during his studies. He earned his MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Iowa after the NewYorker published his first gra...
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The Poems of Gabriela Mistral: Dame La Mano

       In my last post, I discussed the life and awards of the writer Gabriela Mistral. In today's post, I will be reading one of her most popular poems, analyzing themes in this poem, and relating it back to her personal life.      The poem I will be analyzing is titled "Dame La Mano" or in English, Give Me Your Hand. This poem pulls at the heart strings and is very minimalist and tender. It's themes include love, relationships, vulnerability, and human connection. Overall, the tone of the poem is very gentle and sincere. It has a good rhythm and musical quality. The language is very plain while the symbolism is deep and rich.      The first line of the poem says "Give me your hand and give me your love." T he 'hand' referred to in the poem is a motif for connection between two people. The word love here suggests emotional intimacy and solidarity.      The second line in the poem says "Give me your hand and dance with me....
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The Life of Gabriela Mistral

       To begin, Gabriela Mistral is a Chilean writer and diplomat. The reason I chose to focus on her today is because she is the first Chilean writer that I have researched about. She was born in Vicuña, Chile and was the first Spanish American author to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. Gabriela Mistral was her literary pseudonym, or pen name. Her real name was Lucila Godoy Alcayaga. You may be wondering why she decided to do this, and it is because she wanted to keep her life as an educator separate from her career as a writer. She wanted to avoid backlash. The reason she chose that particular pen name was because of her inspiration from the poets Gabriele DÁnnunzio and Frédéric Mistral.  Fun fact: Gabriela Mistral is of Indian, Basque, and Spanish decent.  Life: She was born April 7, 1889 and became a schoolteacher in her village at age 15. She made her way and eventually became a college level professor. She was not only an educator and poet, but...
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Elvira Navarro -About the author!

 Today, I will be researching about an author by the name of Elvira Navarro, a very young Spanish author. She is not as well known as other writers, but she did win the Community of Madrid's Young Writers Award in 2004. Her two most popular published books are titled La Ciudad en Invierno (the city in winter) and La Ciudad Feliz (the happy city).  La Ciudad en Invierno, published in 2007,    has a protagonist who is an unnamed woman. She moves from a town in the outskirts of Spain to Madrid, a huge popular city to attend university. The city is the motif in the novel: even though it appears to be welcoming and warm, it is really cold and unwelcoming. The protagonist is forced into a cycle of unstable living conditions and jobs. As she lives, she experiences more and meets more people who lives in the margins along with her.  The story is interesting because it is told in a very minimalist style and captures the overwhelmingness of being a youthful woman in such ...
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"You Seek Grace From a Distracted God" by Luis Alberto Urrea

       This is one of Urrea's most famous poems and I was wanting to read it because of the reference to God in its name. I am currently taking an Honors Philosophy of Religion course and wanted to see if there was any connection to that subject in any way.       For some context, this poem was his opening piece in his 2015 collection The Tijuana Book of the Dead which describes the challenges associated with the U.S border.  The poem paints a portrait of lives affected by transient work, fragmented family structures, and the pursuit of dignity in the midsts of systemic neglect.        The titular "distracted God" symbolizes the feelings of abandonment experienced by marginalized communities. Urrea weaves threads of resilience and hope, acknowledging the enduring human spirit that persists despite adversity . He confronts the idea of faith in a world full of poverty, neglect, and violence. He describes the feelings and in...
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Luis Alberto Urrea

 Luis Alberto Urrea was born in 1955 in Tijuana, Mexico. I chose to research about him because Tijuana is so close to San Diego, and I feel like I don't know enough about literature from Tijuana! First off, he received the Edgar Award for Best Short Story for his story "Amapola" in 2009. He was also a Pulitzer Prize finalist.  His life : Urrea's parents worked in San Diego and his parents eventually moved to Logan Heights because he had tuberculosis. He attended UCSD: The University of California, San Diego and went to graduate school at University of Colorado at Boulder. His mother encouraged him to write at a young age. He wrote an essay in 1977 about the grief in his life after his father was killed in his hometown where he was trying to get funds for his son's education. He was a relief worker in Tijuana and taught at San Diego's Mesa College, where he focused on Hispanic Studies.  He taught at many other colleges throughout the U.S and wrote his first nov...
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