Letras Latinas Interviews: 2009 - 2014

Letras Latinas Blog, in the coming months, will be carrying out certain gestures as a way to pause and reflect on our first ten years. That’s right: 2014 marks our ten year anniversary. I joined the ILS in the summer of 2003, but Letras Latinas didn’t begin to take shape until 2004. The first of these gestures is below: a listing of the single-author interviews we have commissioned and posted. The author interview has become, I think, our forte. What we want to do in this area, moving forward, is involve more Notre Dame students. So stay tuned as Letras Latinas Blog strives to provide, increasingly, more opportunities for our students to test out and hone their skills in literary journalism.     —FA

Letras Latinas Interviews: 2009-2014

Interviews conducted by ND MFA alum Lynda Letona (‘14):

Carlos Parada Ayala, 

interviewed by Lynda Letona

http://letraslatinasblog.blogspot.com/2013/08/interview-with-carlos-parada-ayala.html

Felecia Catón García, 

interviewed by Lynda Letona

http://letraslatinasblog.blogspot.com/2013/08/interview-with-felecia-caton-garcia.html

Carmen Giménez Smith, 

interviewed by Lynda Letona 

http://letraslatinasblog.blogspot.com/2013/11/interview-questions-for-carmen-gimenez.html

Celeste Gúzman Mendoza, 

interviewed by Lynda Letona

http://letraslatinasblog.blogspot.com/2013/11/interview-questions-for-celeste-g.html

Raina J. León, 

interviewed by Lynda Letona

http://letraslatinasblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/interview-questions-for-raina-leon.html

Sheryl Luna, 

interviewed by Lynda Letona

http://letraslatinasblog.blogspot.com/2013/07/interview-questions-for-sheryl-lunas.html

 Interviews conducted by ND MFA alum Lauro Vázquez (‘13):

Carmen Calatayud, 

interviewed by Lauro Vázquez

http://letraslatinasblog.blogspot.com/2012/12/an-interview-with-carmen-calatayud.html

Xánath Caraza, 

interviewed by Lauro Vázquez

http://letraslatinasblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/xanath-caraza-book-review-interview.html 

Rigoberto González (poetry), 

interviewed by Lauro Vázquez

http://letraslatinasblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/interview-with-rigoberto-gonzalez.html

Javier O. Huerta, 

interviewed by Lauro Vázquez

http://letraslatinasblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/interview-with-javier-o-huerta-author.html

John Murillo, 

interviewed by Lauro Vázquez

http://letraslatinasblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/an-interview-with-john-murillo_11.html

Ruben Quesada, 

interviewed by Lauro Vázquez

http://letraslatinasblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/interview-with-ruben-quesada-author-of.html

José Antonio Rodríguez, 

interviewed by Lauro Vázquez

http://letraslatinasblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/interview-with-jose-antonio-rodriguez.html

ire’ne lara silva (poetry), 

interviewed by Lauro Vázquez

http://letraslatinasblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/interview-with-irene-lara-silva-author.html

Nefelibata: interviews with Latina writers

curated and conducted by ire’ne lara silva

elena minor, 

interviewed by ire’ne lara silva

http://letraslatinasblog.blogspot.com/2014/05/akrilicas-titulada-interview-with-elena.html

Natalia Treviño, 

interviewed by ire’ne lara silva

http://letraslatinasblog.blogspot.com/2014/08/introducing-new-series-nefelibata.html

Interviews conducted by guest contributors

Rosa Alcalá, 

interviewed by Carmen Giménez Smith

http://letraslatinasblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/rosa-alcala-interview-review.html

Juliana Aragón Fatula, 

interviewed by Adela Najarro

http://letraslatinasblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/adela-interviews-juliana-llb-exclusive.html 

Blas Falconer, 

interviewed by Sebastian H. Páramo

http://letraslatinasblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/an-interview-with-blas-falconer.html

Lucrecia Guerrero, 

interviewed by Dini Karasik

http://letraslatinasblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/an-interview-with-lucrecia-guerrero.html

Rachel McKibbens, 

interviewed by Oscar Bermeo

http://letraslatinasblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/interview-with-rachel-mckibbens.html

Michael Luis Medrano, 

interviewed by Ashley McCaffrey

http://letraslatinasblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/interview-with-michael-luis-medrano.html

Melinda Palacio, 

interviewed by Adela Najarro

http://letraslatinasblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/interview-with-melinda-palacio-july-4.html

Emily Pérez, 

interviewed by Emma Trelles

http://letraslatinasblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/emma-trelles-interviews-emily-perez.html

ire’ne lara silva (prose), 

interviewed by Juan Luis Guzmán

http://letraslatinasblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/juan-luis-guzman-interviews-irene-lara.html

Interviews conducted by ND undergraduate Roberto Cruz (‘17)

Rigoberto González (prose), 

interviewed by Roberto Cruz

http://letraslatinasblog.blogspot.com/2014/04/autobiography-of-my-hungers-rigoberto.html

Maceo Montoya, 

interviewed by Roberto Cruz

http://letraslatinasblog.blogspot.com/2014/06/an-interview-with-maceo-montoya.html

Ito Romo, 

interviewed by Roberto Cruz

http://letraslatinasblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/latinoa-prose-writers-new-interview.html

Louis Villalba, 

interviewed by Roberto Cruz

http://letraslatinasblog.blogspot.com/2014/06/publishing-as-community-building.html

FEASTING ON FETISH: Installment number 4

In this our fourth and final installment of “Feasting on Fetish: A Chorus,”—a collective response to Orlando Ricardo Menes’ collection Fetish (University of Nebraska Press)—

we have two creative responses to two of the book’s poems, respectively.

In the first, Lynda Letona responds to Menes' poem “Maracas of Rain” with an original piece titled “Apocryphal Psalm I” followed by its Spanish companion “Salmo Apócrifo I”—poems that pay homage to/mirror the rhythm and syntax of the original that inspired it.

In the second, Lauren Espinoza, taking her cue from Menes’ poem, “Television, A Patient Teacher,” keeps the title and creates an original work rooted in a tenderly told family story of her own, with a subtly subversive twist.

Apocryphal Psalm I

Grace is your tender

touch

by the cool waters

of our Eden.

To love in secret is

to dissolve

in Purgatory’s Sea,

drift sweetly

upon our back,

sunset sinking.

 

Penance is your absence,

the wait I endure

before your gaze cuts 

my frame. Aroused,

in furrows,

the valley in your back

my red stigmata;

no need to flagellate.

Your bed sheets,

twisted waves

I brave

your hair, dark veil

eyes obsidian.

I lose and find myself.

Warm is your breath,

searing your tongue

(lengua rara, ligera,

me excita)

I bless with my palm.

Our hearts plead

for mercy, synchronous

seraph song.

Salmo apócrifo I

Gracia es tu tierno

roce

sobre las aguas frescas

de nuestro Edén.

Amar en secreto es

disolverse

en purgatorio mar,

nadar dulcemente

de espalda,

sol sumergiéndose.

Penitencia es tu ausencia,

la espera que tolero

antes que tu mirada corte

mi figura. Excitado,

en surcos,

el valle de tu espalda

mi estigma roja;

ni necesidad de flagelarse.

Tus sábanas,

olas retorcidas

enfrento

tu pelo, oscuro velo

ojos de obsidiana.

Me pierdo y encuentro.

Cálido tu aliento,

quemando tu lengua

(strange tongue, agile,

excites me)

bendigo con mi palma.

Nuestros corazones ruegan

misericordia, canto

síncrono de serafín.

Lynda Letona is an MFA student, editor for Notre Dame Review, and collaborator for Letras Latinas at University of Notre Dame. She received her MA in Creative Writing from the University of South Dakota. Her poetry and nonfiction has appeared in Ostrich Review, Liternational, and Hotmetalpress. She is currently working on a collection of poetry titled, House of Dark Writings, exploring the Spanish conquest of the Mayas. Lynda was raised in Guatemala and California. Her special interests include film, theatre, and multicultural literature.

*

Television, a Patient Teacher

           

after Orlando Ricardo Menes

 Television was the sibling I never had, the extra person at the dinner table. 

Murphy Brown complaining on Monday nights and Wings never leaving the hangar

on Thursdays.  I remember sitting on the couch with my great-grandmother,

Sabado Gigante blaring at us, waiting for the Chacal to come out and blow his horn

while the contestants tried to sing their way to stardom or (more importantly) win

the car. Sabado Gigante was in Spanish, and although I laughed along with the laugh

track during the appropriate moments, I never understood the jokes. 

Holding my hand, she delighted in seeing me laugh as we sat together

those many hours on a Saturday. 

Sundays in the afternoons, my dad would play back the VHS recording

of Star Trek: Voyager, him fast forwarding through the commercials,

as we joked that he would be a Klingon if we lived during a Starfleet era. 

Captain Janeway and Seven of Nine haunted my imagination, as you could see

everything through their Starfleet uniforms.  I didn’t remember paying attention

to this, only being embarrassed for noticing it afterwards. Voyager helped me

understand that even in the future the most pertinent threat is assimilation.

Not a fanciful device that whisked me away to a fantasy world, television is family;

taught me what it means to laugh, to not be ashamed of love, and how to use my words:

instead of the language of escape coerced out when watching

favorite characters every week, what I learned was how to remember. 

Lauren Espinoza’s poetry has appeared in Time You Let Me In: 25 Poets Under 25, New Border Voices: An Anthology, The Mas Tequila Review, The Acentos Review, and Souvenir.  She has poems forthcoming in Raspa, Sinister Wisdom, and Pilgrimage.  She is an inaugural member of the Letras Latinas Poets Initiative, the Workshop Assistant for CantoMundo, a Teaching Artist with Badgerdog, and currently a graduate student in the M.F.A. Program in Poetry at Arizona State University.