March Abrazo Press

Carlos Cortez Memory and Poetry August 13, 2010

admin — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 15:50:32 +0000

On August 13, 2010 at 6:30-9:30 there will be a public presentation of Cortez’s poetic work. You’re welcome to join us at 1538 W. Cullerton Street, (near St. Pius Catholic Church at Ashland Ave.) The venue is the Carlos & Dominguez Fine Arts Gallery where an exhibition of one of Mexico’s best printmaker Nicolas de Jesus, with his “Sabor de la Tierra” collection will also be on display. Speakers will include: Maria del Socorro Pesqueira, Raul Nino, Rito Martinez, Chris Drew, Len Dominguez and Carlos Cumpian. This event marks what would have been Carlos Cortez’s 87th birthday. He was an iconic figure and one of the Chicano Mexican community’s most well-known and respected cultural activists. No recordings or photos will be allowed during the presentation.

Richard Vargas American Jesus

admin — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 15:17:59 +0000

He was born and raised in Southern California where he graduated from California State University, Long Beach. He published and edited The Tequila Review from 1977-79. His first collection of poems, McLife, was published in 2005 by Main Street Rag Press. Extensively published in literary magazines, Vargas has been featured on Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac. He currently resides in New Mexico.

“American Jesus spoke to me with the rawness and the cool of colorful working-class poets Tom McGrath, Charles Bukowski and Jose Antonio Burciaga. Richard Vargas has a great love for America and its accomplishments. Vargas knows America’s excesses and offers his own tough love to her in each poem. “–Carlos Cumpian, author of Armadillo Charm

I am lucky to have met Richard when he was living in Illinois, we did a few readings together along with Carlos Cortez, Raul Nino and Brenda Cardenas. Richard keeps me posted on his new poems that he shares via the internet. Tia Chucha Press really did us a favor by publishing this great collection, get a copy soon (ISBN 978-1-882688-34-0) $13.95.

New poetry books from amigos

admin — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 14:45:41 +0000

Frank Varela’s Caleb’s Exile (ISBN 978-1-59608-634-0) Spanish translations by Angel Pagan and prologue by Egberto Almenas was published in 2009 in Puerto Rico by the ELF Creative Workshop. Copies are available by contacting us with a money order or check for $14.00, includes postage. Make the money order or check payable to: Franklyn P. Varela c/o March, Inc. Post Office Box 2890, Chicago, Illinois 60690. This book has 44 pages of page for page English and Spanish poetry. Varela published with March Abrazo Press, Serpent Underfoot (out-of-print) and Bitter Coffee (see info on books).

Omniscient liberty, this is Varela’s greatest assertion… in the “honest report” rendered by Caleb to his people. The faithful Caleb.. reclaiming the Promised Land seized by giants, spared himself the last forty years of his life wandering in the desert for his deed…

Lethal nation of smart bombs,/illiterate children/where ignorance spews out/in the noise of talk radio,/reality television/where Puerto Ricans linger/in the doorway of a 1950’s sweatshop,/…where Julia de Burgos free falls/naked from the sky, tumbling/head over heels, a Charlie Chaplin figure/without a laugh track—/Exile is just like drowning/

(from the poem Caleb’s Exile pp. 9)

Speak Apache to the Youth

admin — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 01:49:13 +0000

Our relatives spoke many languages on this vast continent before the English, French, Spanish, or others from across the waters came to settle in Turtle Island/Itzachilatlan the past 500 years. The message the speaker shares with us certainly applies to the Xicano and all Native poets and writers.

Our Spirits Don’t Speak English

admin — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 01:24:39 +0000

Xicanos growing up in pre-offical bilingual USA also experienced similar treatment depicted in this moving testimony. MARCH Abrazo Press encourages bilingual poets and writers to continue developing a body of written and performed work our future survival requires.