Tag Archives: Latino

GuerrillaReads No. 66: Santino J. Rivera

Posted on September 14, 2012 | Leave a comment

¡Ban this! Santino J. Rivera double dog dares you.

Rivera reads his poem “Librarian’s Creed,” which appears in his new book, ¡Ban This! The BSP Anthology of Xican@ Literature.

I must read better than my enemy
Who is trying to ban my books
I must read, write and educate minds everywhere
Before he succeeds.

He did this guerrilla reading at LA’s own Cypress Park Library, just before An Evening of Mass Education. More than twenty contributors to the anthology read from their work, live at the library. More about the event and the book at the Broken Sword Publications website.

As Rivera says, “You can ban our books but you can’t ban our minds.”

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GuerrillaReads No. 45: René Colato Laínez

Posted on October 1, 2011 | Leave a comment

René Colato Laínez is a writer and teacher. In this guerrilla reading he reads from his most recent work, the award-winning bilingual children’s book, From North to South / Del norte al sur. Among the honors it has received are the 2011 International Latino Book Award for Best Bilingual Children’s Picture Book and 2011 California Book Award Finalist.

Illustrations in North to South are by another guerrilla reader, Joe Cepeda.

In an interview with Paper Tigers, Colato talked about the challenge of becoming a professional writer and the importance of persistence and hard work:

It was definitely rocky and challenging, but all the rejection letters that I received did help me to craft my stories and make them better. I did not give up: I went to Vermont College and got a masters in “Writing for Children and Young Adults.” I might not have had any of my books published if it weren’t for those letters, in a way.

To see more of his books and learn more about the author, visit his website.

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GuerrillaReads No. 43: Susan Orosco

Posted on September 28, 2011 | Leave a comment

Susan Orosco is a Certified Master Hypnotist who specializes in Latino Mind Reprogramming. As she explains,

I know it is frustrating to have big dreams and not know how to begin to accomplish them. You are taught since childhood to pursue traditional methods of success; like hard work, save, and invest. This is good advice but how do you get that kind of opportunity? How do you get money left over at the end of the month to save or invest? It seems all you can do is work hard! You find yourself in an endless cycle. You spin your wheels; dream some more and watch as everybody else is getting ahead.

In her book, Latino Power, Orosco offers seven ways Latinos can build a new mindset to help achieve your goals.

As Orosco says, “To find your purpose, you will always need your passion; and your passion will always need your persistence.”

More about Orosco on her website.

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GuerrillaReads No. 38: Reyna Grande

Posted on August 2, 2011 | Leave a comment

Today’s guerrilla reader, Reyna Grande, reads from her award-winning novel, Across a Hundred Mountains. This book won the 2010 Latino Books Into Movies Award, a 2007 American Book Award, and the 2006 El Premio Aztlan Literary Award. It was chosen by Eastern Connecticut as its 2007 “One Book/One Region” selection and in 2010 the city of Watsonville, CA selected it for its “On the Same Page” community reads program.

In an interview with ¡LatinoLA!, Grande said this about her work:

I write about things that I care about, that matter to me. The immigrant experience is one of them. Right now I am working on a memoir in which I write about my childhood in Mexico, living in poverty, being raised by my grandmother because my parents were here in the U.S. working. I write about what it was like to come here as an illegal immigrant, and the difficulties of trying to close the gap created by eight years of separation between me and my father. So to answer the question, yes, I do plan to continue writing about immigration and families, among other things. I am always looking for new ideas and topics. One has to grow as a writer, and one way to do that is to take chances and try new things.

Find more on Grande’s website, Facebook and Twitter.

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