An exhibit, Encounters and Discoveries in Literature: Celebrating Arte Público Press and Twentieth Century Latina/o Literature, is a retrospective look at the press and its place in the larger context of Latina/o literature in the 20th century. Founded in 1979, Arte Público paved the way for numerous celebrated authors, including Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Sandra Cisneros, Rolando Hinojosa, Graciela Limón, Américo Paredes, and Tomás Rivera, while also recovering early unpublished works by Latinos and leading the way for inclusive children’s literature. Materials in the exhibit will include books, archival documents, photographs, and works of art produced or recovered by Arte Público Press, its imprint, Piñata Books, and its program, Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project. Beyond a mere presentation of objects and literary works, the contents of the exhibit explore the Latina/o experience and the societal conditions documented in the press’ publications. For more information, contact Lisa Cruces at ccruces@uh.edu or 713-743-9903.
Author on the Airwaves: Jesús Salvador Treviño
Treviño chosen as November 2015’s “Author of the Month” on Houston Public Media Houston Public Media radio host Eric Ladau interviewed Treviño for its website’s “Arte Público Press Author of the Month” feature, and along with the transcript, their conversation is available to listeners on the station’s interactive site through on-demand audio streaming here. Click here to see all Arte Público authors featured on Houston Public Media. About the Author: JESÚS SALVADOR TREVIÑO is an award-winning filmmaker, known for his pioneering documentaries and feature films about the Chicano experience. He is the author of The Fabulous Sinkhole and Other Stories (Arte Público Press, 1995), The Skyscraper that Flew (Arte Público Press, 2005) and a critically acclaimed memoir, Eyewitness: A Filmmaker’s Memoir of the Chicano Movement (Arte Público Press, 2001). About his latest book, Return to Arroyo Grande In the opening piece, “Where Lost Things Reside,” rumor has it that Old Man Baldemar has died. Stories about …
Two pillars of Latino lit are re-released!
Arte Público has published updated versions of two classic books in Latino literature! Tomás Rivera’s award-winning novel … y no se lo tragó la tierra / … And the Earth Did Not Devour Him was re-issued September 30, 2015, in a new edition with an updated cover and improved English translation. And, 23 years after the original publication in a hardcover version, Arte Público has released Victor Villaseñor’s acclaimed family memoir, Rain of Gold, in a new paperback format March 31, 2015. “I tell you, God could care less about the poor. Tell me, why must we live here like this? What have we done to deserve this? You’re so good and yet you suffer so much,” a young boy tells his mother in Tomás Rivera’s classic novel about the migrant worker experience. Outside the chicken coop that is their home, his father wails in pain from the unbearable cramps brought on by sunstroke after working in …
Our fall children’s books are here!
Ready for our latest selection of bilingual picture books? From a pair of brothers with different tastes in birthday parties to a loving home and neighborhood to an origin myth about how the Day of the Dead came to be, our fall titles have a little something for everyone! A Bean and Cheese Taco Birthday / Un cumpleaños con tacos de frijoles con queso Seven-year-old Dario is excited about his brother’s upcoming fifth birthday. He can’t wait for the party, and imagines one similar to his own with lots of friends and presents. So he’s surprised when Ariel requests a simple celebration at the park eating bean and cheese tacos and blowing bubbles. “But, Ariel,” he asks, “don’t you want to go somewhere special on your birthday?” It doesn’t seem like a party to Dario without video games and pizza! On Ariel’s birthday, the boys are happy to go to the park rather than …
Spooky Stories for October
Are you looking for some chilling tales to read before bedtime this October? We’ve gathered up a collection of creepy cuentos that will give you goosebumps and send shivers down your spine (Arte Público is not responsible for any scary dreams)! Brujas, lechuzas y espantos / Witches, Owls and Spooks In this bilingual collection of five stories, Don Cecilio tells the neighborhood children stories that make their hair stand on end. “In my barrio they told the story…” and so his cuento would begin. In “The Owl and the Bundle,” young Tomás disappears without a trace. Distraught, his parents and siblings look for him everywhere with no luck. Upon returning home, his father sees something curious, an owl flying above the house carrying a bundle with its talons. “Is it possible,” he wonders, “that the bundle is Little Tomás?” Could the owl have taken their precious son? Based on oral tradition, these stories …
Texas Author’s Teen Collection Wins Award!
HOUSTON, TX October 2015— Diane Gonzales Bertrand’s bilingual collection of short stories for teens, There’s a Name for This Feeling: Stories / Hay un nombre para lo que siento: Cuentos, has been named the Middle Grade/Young Adult Discovery Prize Winner in the 2014 Writers’ League of Texas Book Awards. Established in 1991, the awards recognize the year’s outstanding books published by Texas authors. Bertrand’s short and accessible contemporary stories are alternately amusing and poignant as they explore issues relevant to today’s youth. In the title story, Lucinda hatches a clever plan to get her boyfriend back and is crushed when she ultimately realizes that it’s impossible to force a guy to love you. Like all young people, she ignores the advice of her mom and learns that lesson—and many more—the hard way. In these short stories for young people, kids deal with both serious and humorous consequences after they ignore their …
Author on the Airwaves: Xavier Garza
Garza chosen as August 2015’s “Author of the Month” on Houston Public Media Houston Public Media radio host Eric Ladau interviewed Garza for its website’s “Arte Público Press Author of the Month” feature, and along with the transcript, their conversation is available to listeners on the station’s interactive site through on-demand audio streaming here. Click here to see all Arte Público authors featured on Houston Public Media. About the Author: XAVIER GARZA is a prolific author, artist, and storyteller whose work focuses primarily on his experiences growing up in the small border town of Rio Grande City. His work includes Maximilian & the Mystery of the Guardian Angel (Cinco Puntos Press, 2011), a Pura Belpré Honor Book; Kid Cyclone Fights the Devil and Other Stories / Kid Ciclón se enfrenta a El Diablo y otras historias (Piñata Books, 2010); Zulema and the Witch Owl / Zulema y la Bruja Lechuza (Piñata Books, 2009); Juan and …
Author on the Airwaves: Raquel Ortiz
Ortiz chosen as June 2015’s “Author of the Month” on Houston Public Media Houston Public Media radio host Eric Ladau interviewed Ortiz for its website’s “Arte Público Press Author of the Month” feature, and along with the transcript, their conversation is available to listeners on the station’s interactive site through on-demand audio streaming here. Click here to see all Arte Público authors featured on Houston Public Media. About the Author: RAQUEL M. ORTIZ was born and raised in Lorain, Ohio, and has been making art and telling stories ever since she was a little girl. She holds a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from the University of Salamanca and has worked at The Brooklyn Museum, the Allen Memorial Art Museum and El Museo del Barrio. Raquel is the author of El arte de la identidad (La Galera, 2011), the documentary Memories of the Wall: Education and Enrichment through Community Murals and textbooks and educational materials for children in Puerto Rico and …
Author on the Airwaves: Gwendolyn Zepeda
Zepeda chosen as May 2015’s “Author of the Month” on Houston Public Media Houston Public Media radio host Eric Ladau interviewed Zepeda for its website’s “Arte Público Press Author of the Month” feature, and along with the transcript, their conversation is available to listeners on the station’s interactive site through on-demand audio streaming here. Click here to see all Arte Público authors featured on Houston Public Media. About the Author: GWENDOLYN ZEPEDA, Houston’s first poet laureate, is the author of several books for adults and children. She is the author of two poetry collections, Monsters, Zombies and Addicts (Arte Público Press, 2015) and Falling in Love with Fellow Prisoners (Arte Público Press, 2013); a short story collection, To the Last Man I Slept with and All the Jerks Just Like Him (Arte Público Press, 2004); three novels, Better with You Here (Grand Central Publishing, 2012), Lone Star Legend (Grand Central Publishing, 2010) and Houston, …
Author on the Airwaves: Gwendolyn Zepeda
Zepeda chosen as March 2015’s “Author of the Month” on Houston Public Media Houston Public Media radio host Eric Ladau interviewed Zepeda for its website’s “Arte Público Press Author of the Month” feature, and along with the transcript, their conversation is available to listeners on the station’s interactive site through on-demand audio streaming here. Click here to see all Arte Público authors featured on Houston Public Media. If you ask Houston author Gwendolyn Zepeda about her proudest experience as Houston’s first poet laureate, she’ll probably tell you about the time she cried. In a good way. “We did a four-week workshop here at the downtown central library and at the end of it, one person told me that she had taken a lot of poetry classes in her life and that mine was the first one where she actually felt that she had learned something and she felt that she could go forward and …
