Each year, literature fans, writers and scholars from across the state and the country descend upon the San Francisco Bay Area to attend the aptly named Litquake literary festival, which takes place in venues throughout the Bay Area over a week-long period in October. Joining those spaces that host events as part of this unique literary gathering, the historic San Francisco Elks Lodge will welcome some of the strongest voices in Latino literature today, with a not-to-be-missed evening program titled  “No Burritos: a Night with HUIZACHE Magazine.” The program and reading will be held on October 14th from 6:30 pm. to 9:00 pm. HUIZACHE —which has been called “the Paris Review of Latino Literature”—seeks to explode ethnic, gender and social stereotypes with world-caliber fiction, poetry, essays and prose. On October 14th, LitQuake proudly presents the celebration of HUIZACHE ’s fifth issue with readings by San Francisco’s Poet Laureate Alejandro Murguía, former Poet Laureate devor...

by Richard Vásquez   Is there an alternative to gentrification?  As gentrification sweeps through the Eastside, look at the power held by people acting with agency as individuals and in concert with one another to move the markers that signal where their interests end and redevelopment responding to a growing demand for proximity to the downtown core begins.  It is a constantly moving target and a source of great consternation to members of communities with historically little hope of fighting back, much less defeating, gentrification.  So what is the alternative?   Two words:  social capital.  The Kennedy School of Government approaches it this way: “Social capital may be defined as those resources inherent in social relations and networks which facilitate collective action.”  Defined another way, it is the collective voice of a million souls and the pulse of a psychic force beating within a people whose determination is to build commun...

by George B. Sánchez-Tello The sound is unmistakable: the crush of sand, soil, clay and pebbles under heel, the wheezing rub of pant material caught between thighs and the short gasp of air in the struggle to breathe. Greg is hiking. His pace echoes through the canyon, sending creatures fleeing. Slow from the end of another survived night of foraging – they crawl between cracks, scurry over boulders, huddle in mounds and race across the wide open path. Between the breathe and the exhale, a thought enters his mind. “Breathe deep, the summit is upon us.” Greg knows not where the thought comes from. He is preoccupied with his lungs, opening and collapsing like an accordion chamber. Akin to a whisper in a crowded party, the thought barely registers. But Greg heeds the advice. He stops, straightens his back and follows the words his, yet not his own. Greg walks with purpose though the end is unclear. He follows the trail instinctively. Rather, the trail guides him. The path began years...

Interview by Pancho Lipschitz In a society that doesn’t value art, it’s very difficult to be a professional artist. Even when you are in group shows and solo shows and museum shows, you can still be left with a lack of funds and a pile of student loans. I sat down with the photographer Isabel Avila. Since she was featured in the Vincent Price Museum’s Hoy Space back in 2012 she’s been trying to balance work as a professional photographer with making time to make personal work and looking for new opportunities to show her work. Ultimately, she opted to go back to school for an M.F.A. . Pancho Lipschitz: I read that you went to the high school for the arts. How was that? Isabel Avila: It was great. I went to Alhambra High my first two years and I hated it. I felt really miserable there. I felt like cattle. PL: I went to Alhambra High School so I know what you mean. It’s kind of a prison industrial complex. IA: I got accepted to LACHSA and that was a huge difference. It was real...

Part One by Abraham Torres Mom: You want me to go where?  No.  No.  No. I am very happy here, and I don’t know why YOU want to go. WE have a good life here. YOU have a good life here! Are you crazy? He’s only two years old! We can’t travel, much less live in another country. We have no good reason to go.  Maybe when he gets a little older, but not now, it’s a not a good time.    Mom: (Several weeks later) I said, No!   Look at you, you’ve been there a week and been caught three times.  You think I’m going to share your experience with a two-year-old in my arms?  I don’t care if you’ve been  “told” it’s great over there and worth the effort.  I know you think we’ll have a better life, a better life than you had growing up after your father was killed in a gunfight, a better life for our son, a better life for me. I know you think I’ll like it there, and we can be more secure because we’ll be making much more money than wh...

by William Alexander Yankes “Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and n---?” this court interpreter asked the Cuban witness, in Spanish, as he was about to testify. Before I could finish imparting the oath, he cut in vehemently. “Si me atrevo a mentir, que se desmorone la iglesia!” (If I dare to lie, may the church crumble down to pieces!), declared the Cuban stoutly. In December 2000, I attended an interpreters’ seminar in Cuba. Fidel Castro was still in power and George W. Bush was the U.S. President. We arrived in Havana as evening fell. The grim landscape appeared symbolic of a culture made dark by, according to some, Castro’s harsh policies as well as what many others would identify as the stifling choke-hold of the American embargo. As I disembarked in Havana, a semi-circle of armed soldiers stood before us. It would be my first indelible memory of Cuba. For some odd reason, I worried that someone would follow me and watch me. I wondered if agents would observe ...

by Abel M. Salas There is no way to write about Tia Chucha Centro Cultural, LA’s official Poet Laureate Luís Rodríguez or his wife Trini Rodríguez objectively or impartially. My life as a writer, a publisher, a journalist and a cultural worker has been, for decades, too closely tied to Rodriguez and his perennial work as a mentor, poet, novelist and humanitarian. The efforts he has undertaken as a gentle yet still indefatigable cultural engine on his own and his fortitude alongside an equally strong life partner at the helm of the famed San Fernando Valley bookstore, coffee house and cultural hub are too much a part of who I have become and who I still aspire to be for me to pretend neutrality. Central to this confession or--as they say--in the interest of full disclosure, I have to point to the fact that Luís and I share a history that began more than ten years before we actually met in person. It was during that meeting, which took place during the early 1990s at the San Anton...

by Ulisses Sánchez Often times, we struggle to find outlets for our creative energy. It happens when we fail to recognize that we actually have any creative energy within us. It happens when we find a way to overcome our mental blocks.  But we naturally feed off of the environment that we place ourselves in and from the people around us.  So when you find yourself in the right place with the right people, those outlets seem to naturally appear.   Late last month, playwright and filmmaker Richard Montoya, a member of the iconic Chicano comedy troupe Culture Clash, a hosted a meet up at Cities Restaurant in East LA of individuals from various sectors of life to create a dialogue around ideas and create synergy among those who who are attempting to use their creativity as an agency for change and empowerment within our community.  The event was sponsored by Red Bull, but aside from an acknowledgement that they received at the beginning of the dinner program, you w...

by Alicia Vargas Spoiler alert, Little Red now playing at Casa 0101 is the familiar story of the beloved children’s classic tale “The Little Red Riding Hood.” But it is also a refreshingly original musical that infuses this old tale with plot thickeners as deliciously complex as the love an overprotective single mother raising a rebellious teenage daughter. The story explores generational divides and bicultural differences that test traditions in our day and age. Of course, this is all explored through a musical score that combines punk, son jarocho, ballads and, yes, why not? Rancheras! Little Red has been playing to packed houses because of its very real appeal to young millennials and elders alike, as well as the musically inclined. The play’s score—written and performed by Grammy-award winning musician and East-LA bred Quetzal Flores—is a most welcome and refreshing dose of ingenuity with a DIY punk rock twist that gets rid of the cheesy cringe factor often found in so-calle...

By George B. Sánchez Tello The San Gabriel Mountains National Monument settles a question of inclusion. Not simply whether the San Gabriel Mountains should be included within the federal network of permanently protected public land. Rather, the issue that shadowed the 11-year process is the role of urban communities of color within the broader environmental movement. While people of color make up nearly 40 percent of America, a recent study, found people of color comprise less than 20 percent of government environmental agencies, environmental organizations and environment grant making foundations. Less than 12 percent of leadership positions are held by people of color in government environmental agencies, environmental organizations and environmental grant makers. These levels of engagement do not reflect the interest in the environment and public land among communities of color.   For many Angelenos—African-American, Asian-American, Indian and Raza—inclusion was just ...