Every Day is Magic: Ada Limón
In her 2015 collection, Bright Dead Things, a National Book Award finalist for poetry, Ada Limón writes of moving to Kentucky: “Confession: I did not want to live here.” It’s perhaps not a surprising sentiment coming from a coastally oriented person who was raised in Northern California, attended college in Seattle, and then spent over a decade in New York City.
But Limón and her husband, Lucas, have been in Lexington for seven years now and the effects of settling into this place are noticeable in her new book, The Carrying (Milkweed, Aug.). It’s a phenomenally lively and attentive collection replete with the trappings of living a little closer to nature. While Bright Dead Things is marked by a preponderance of light, such as images of fireflies and neon signs, The Carrying features numerous appearances by various trees, birds, and beetles. Limón also demonstrates a greater willingness to be explicit in naming colors, particularly green. “It’s crazy green, the whole book,” she says. “Lexington is the greenest place I’ve ever lived.” Similarly, where in Bright Dead Things, Limón tells a lot of stories and anecdotes, in The Carrying she is very present in her thoughts and experiences.
As it turns out, these shifts in focus have another, altogether unexpected source. While putting Bright Dead Things together, Limón was diagnosed with chronic vestibular neuronitis, which can cause bouts of vertigo. “If I’m really having vertigo, it’s pretty intense and I really have to focus,”
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7 Latino Playwrights Bringing Our Stories to the Stage
In the last three years, Lin-Manuel Miranda has taken the theater world by storm with his multi-Tony Award-winning musical about Alexander Hamilton and the founding fathers. As Broadway’s hottest ticket – you literally could not buy tickets for months after it made its debut – Hamilton became as inescapable as the Kardashians, permeating pop culture in ways other shows could only dream of. The musical helped him become a household name and propelled his Hollywood career forward. (Lin-Miranda wrote the music for Disney’s Moana, and landed a role in the upcoming Mary Poppins movie.) While Miranda deserves all the success that has come his way, he’s hardly the only Latino making strides in the theater world.Behind the scenes, there are many more Latino playwrights, composers, and lyricists making the theater world richer and giving our stories a platform. They may not be as big as Lin-Manuel Miranda (yet), but you’ll want to keep an eye on them…
The Jewish-American Writer Who Transformed U.S.-Mexico Relations
The Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles is currently highlighting the life and writing of Anita Brenner, a Mexican-born, American Jewish writer. Brenner was born in 1905 in Aguascalientes, and spent the majority of her life writing about the art and culture of Mexico, trying to bridge the gap between the U.S. and Mexico…
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This Is What It’s Like to Be a Latina Writer on NBC’s Workplace Comedy ‘Superstore’
By Carlos Aguilar | 4 days ago
Following a sneak screening of a hilarious episode from the upcoming third season of Superstore, NALIP’s Latino Media Fest hosted a conversation with the two Latina writers on the show, Sierra Ornelas and Vanessa Ramos. Although both of them have extensive resumes working in television – Ramos on multiple Comedy Central Roasts and Bordertown and Sierra on shows like Happy Endings – this is the first show where they have had the opportunity to work alongside another woman of color, or any other person of color for that matter…
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When it comes to the Emmys, where are the Latino nominees?
It has been two years since a joyful Rita Moreno took the stage to accept her SAG Achievement Award, where a star-studded crowd celebrated her impactful contribution to film and television. As an ex-actor and writer (but more importantly as a Latino) I witnessed with so much pride and admiration because it was a moment where Hollywood was rightfully acknowledging a Puerto Rican powerhouse, the first and only Latina to have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony award. The historical importance of her career – or those of Desi Arnaz, Cantinflas or the Mexican spitfire, Lupe Velez (I recommend 1933’s Hot Pepper) – cannot be taken for granted because it opened the door of diversity and acceptance…
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From Music to Movies to TV, Latinos Are Widely Underrepresented – And I’m Done With It
Following the ‘Despacito’ VMA snub, actor John Leguizamo pens a powerful essay on Latinos’ absence from film, TV and media in general.
It was OK in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s because we’d tell ourselves, “They don’t know better,” as a justification to ease our alienation. It wasn’t fair, but it was status quo. Not knowing better is a symptom of ignorance, not evil. We assumed people over time just needed to become educated, and in turn would empower Latino equality in the arts. We were wrong… I was wrong…
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Tony Ortega paints the Chicano experience in Denver
HIGHLAND — “My purpose is to preserve Mexican-Americans’ cultural identity, while walking alongside the dominant culture,” says Tony Ortega, a Northwest Denver artist and associate professor at Regis University.
In La Marcha de Ernesto Che Lincoln, the face of Che Guevara is superimposed over the Lincoln memorial. Ortega pulls images from both cultures to make social statements.
Ortega’s art juxtaposes the two cultures in sometimes humorous ways. “I mix American pop culture with Mexican pop culture, like putting Chicano leaders on Mt. Rushmore and Our Lady of Guadalupe as the Statue of Liberty. My Mickey Mouse is a Day of the Dead character and Captain America is Capitano Americano, who fights for dreamers. The images are pulled from both cultures, overlapped and juxtaposed. They are silly but they are also social statements.”…
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Beyond the Spitfire: Re-visioning Latinas in Sylvia Morales’ A Crushing Love 2009
From Dolores del Río to Salma Hayek and from Lupe Vélez to Eva Longoria, the portrayal of
Latinas in the United States has provoked debate, criticism and controversy. Since the era of
silent movies, Hollywood’s depiction of the Latina has been rigidly prescribed and reductive…
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In Her L.A. Neighborhood, Playwright Josefina Lopez Creates a ‘Casa’ for the Performing Arts
LOS ANGELES — Josefina Lopez has an amazing story: she grew up in a modest neighborhood in the heart of the city’s east side and went on to co-write a hit movie that made America Ferrera a star. Since then, she has harnessed her success to give Latino youth a space to explore – and succeed – in the performing arts.
Recently at her Casa 0101 Theater, a group of actors were rehearsing for a special 30th anniversary production of her acclaimed play, Simply Maria, or the American Dream…
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Anthony Bourdain’s ‘Parts Unknown’ Takes a Deep Look at Los Angeles’ Mexican Food Scene
Anthony Bourdain took his love of food, culture, and conversation back to Los Angeles for season nine of CNN’s Parts Unknown. Over the course of several shows, Bourdain has done more than a few episodes in the City of Angels, but this time he focuses his lens on Latinos.
“What if we look at LA from the point of view of the largely unphotographed – the 47 percent of Angelenos who don’t show up so much on idiot sitcoms and superhero films?” Bourdain asked in voiceover. The former chef/current TV host gorged on Tacos Indiana 2 Taco Stand‘s pastor and lengua offerings, mole at Gish Bac Restaurant, camarones borrachos at Mariscos Chente, and Cielito Lindo‘s famous taquitos…
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14 Latino Art Shows Not to Miss in 2017
2017 is proving to be a banner year for major Latino art shows, with many of America’s top museums hosting important and innovative exhibitions. Spanning a broad spectrum of styles, mediums, eras and regions — from 18th century Mexican painting to 21st century Chilean sculpture — these 14 shows taking place throughout the year highlight the constant evolution and incredibly rich diversity of Latino art…
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RANKING: Top 10 Video Platforms Preferred by US Hispanics
Which video platforms do US Hispanic users prefer? What types of content do they provide? Does gender play a role in audiovisual content preference? Read on for the answers to these questions, drawn from comScore’s February 2016 ranking…
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Finding Harmony: Meet the Latina Conductor Breaking Barriers With Music
Paula Nava Madrigal started conducting almost by chance. She was a cellist in the Guadalajara University orchestra in Mexico. When their regular conductor became sick, she and her classmates took turns conducting.
“Someone [had] to do it,” she says. “And when I did it, I loved it!”
Not long after, Madrigal went to Mexico City to take her first conducting workshop.
“The role of the conductor is really to make sure that the composer’s written score comes to life,” explains tenor José Iñiguez, whose concerts Madrigal has been conducting. “From the rhythm to knowing when instruments crescendo, diminuendo, to [knowing] the depth of a score.”…
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Photographer Captures The Breathtaking Beauty Of Mexico’s Indigenous Communities
“Oaxaca was something that had to happen, it was something that I didn’t look for. It simply occurred.”
That’s how photographer Diego Huerta describes his work in the southern Mexican state, where he has diligently traveled to for the past four years to document its indigenous communities with breathtaking portraits.
The 30-year-old Mexican photographer began working on this project, titled “Inside Oaxaca,” after traveling to Oaxaca and inadvertently witnessing the Guelaguetza, its biggest annual celebration and parade that features traditional dances and customs from the States’ eight regions…
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America Ferrera talks about her Latino-American identity crisis growing up, says she felt ‘very alone’
But now that’s she’s a full-fledged Hollywood star, Ferrera is finally able to do something about it. In 2015, she launched her own production company, Take Fountain Productions, which is currently developing “Gente-fied,” a show about seven Latin characters living in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Boyle Heights.
“As an actor, what I love about the process is talking to the directors and writers and discovering it,” she said. “It felt natural to parlay that into producing stories I really thought should be told. I feel driven, as a woman of color who has access, to use that to create opportunity for certain stories that other people may not be paying attention to. There isn’t a majority of people out there searching to tell the kinds of stories I’d love to see”…
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University of Texas at El Paso grad founds orchestra in Europe
For Claudio Ordaz, music is something to be pursued, courted like a potential lover, even if it means following it around the world to have it.
For that love, Ordaz first crossed one border as a teenager, then as an adult crossed an ocean. All along, he says, music was calling to him.
“Since I remember, music has been some type of light inside, a voice guiding and explaining, telling me where to go.” Ordaz said during a phone interview from his home in Savonlinna, Finland, where he conducts the Savonlinna Camerata, an orchestra that he founded. “Italians say, ‘Listen to your heart,’ and my heart was speaking music.”…
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The Oscars are less white, but where are Latinos?
When black performers were excluded from all acting categories at the Academy Awards for a second year in a row in 2016, the shutout sparked a second year of an impassioned social-media movement: #OscarsSoWhite. You could say the campaign was a success. A week later, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences pledged to phase out senior members and enlist new, diverse voters who would, if all recruiting goals were met, double minority membership by 2020. This morning, for the first time, three black actors were nominated in the same category, best supporting actress: Viola Davis for “Fences,” Naomie Harris for “Moonlight,” and Octavia Spencer for “Hidden Figures.” Denzel Washington was also nominated in the lead actor category for his performance in “Fences,” and Mahershala Ali in the supporting actor category for “Moonlight.”
But Hollywood’s diversity problem isn’t solved. By many measures, it’s still as bad as ever. And the studios’ biggest minority deficit by far involves the very people living and working outside their walls in virtually every direction — Latinos…
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Alt.Latino Explores Afro-Latin Music For Black History Month
“I think there is this reclaiming of Afro-Latinidad through culture and through music. And one of the examples I think of is “Africana” by Los Rakas. Los Rakas is an Afro-Panamanian group based out of the Bay Area. They have this fusion called Panabay where they mix Caribbean sounds with hip-hop. And “Africana” is an ode to black women and their beauty…”
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This Upcoming Exhibition Highlights the Work of 116 Radical Latina & Latin American Artists
Because the system’s so biased and so restrictive, so much wonderful art has [gone] completely unnoticed.” With these words, Cecilia Fajardo-Hill succinctly described the impetus for an upcoming exhibition – Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960-1985 – at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. The last few decades has seen progress for female artists, but the art world hasn’t reached parity, with men still basking in the limelight far more often than women…
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Picturing Childhood: Youth In Transnational Comics
Mexican Director Ernesto Contreras Wins Audience Award at Sundance
LOS ANGELES – Mexican director Ernesto Contreras won the Audience Award: World Cinema Dramatic for “Sueño en otro idioma” (I Dream in Another Language) at the Sundance Film Festival.
The film tells the story of the arrival of a linguist in a community that is home to the last two speakers of a millennia-old language who have not spoken in 50 years…
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