Ana Castillo

2009-07-03T18:42:00.003-05:00

LAST DAY AT VONA-WRITERS' OF COLOR RESIDENCE.
FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO COULDN'T BE WITH US--
AND WOULD LIKE TO GET IN ON THE WRITING PRACTICE
EXERCISES YOU MAY:

FREE WRITE (HOWEVER IT COMES TO YOU GO W/ THE FLOW)
STARTING WITH:

1. My mother lied to me when...
( you may also use 'father')
2. When I saw you...
3. You think you know me. You don't know me. If you knew me...

Or, coming up 'round the bend, heads up, first announcement of a Holy Jodido memoir writing workshop coming up Sat., September 26th... ¿Dónde? San Anto, mano. Where else?

ana%27s%20workshop.doc

2009-06-25T10:59:00.003-05:00

ANA CASTILLO READING JULY 22 WEDNESDAY AT 20:00 HOURS IN BIELEFELD, GERMANY
CENTER FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH. GERMAN FRIEND, HEADS UP BREMEN, BAMBERG, ETC. IF YOU CAN WOULD LOVE TO SEE YOU!

2009-06-24T14:16:00.003-05:00

Celebrating w/ 2 Talented Women on Their 1st Anniversary!!! (Check out their books and art: Alicia Gaspar and Alma López de Alba!

2009-06-23T18:29:00.002-05:00

This morning's desert sunrise for those who
haven't checked off this recessionista green
goddess item.

And speaking of goddesses,
once again, I return to
LAST GODDESS STANDING
as the title for the new novel in progress.

What's this obsession w/ goddesses,
the Guadalupe, Virgenes, etc.?
Could it be simply that our diet of patriarchal
destructive, oppressive quasi-religious powers reigning fear and havoc throughout the world beg for the feminine face of God?

2009-06-20T18:48:00.001-05:00

100%20Ways%20to%20have%20a%20Fabulosa%20Recessionista%20Green%20Goddess%20Summer.doc

2009-06-17T16:48:00.000-05:00

Returning to Germany Soon...Stay Tuned!

Preliminary%20program.pdf

2009-06-16T10:57:00.002-05:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY GIRL!

FEELING STRONG
SHE'S BACK

AND NOT IN THE MOOD TO BE
MESSED WITH.
DON'T MISTAKE THE FAMOUS
SOFT VOICE,
THE GOOD UPBRINGING THAT TAUGHT ME MANNERS AND
GRACIOUSNESS
OR THE GENERAL PRINCIPLE TO BE COMPASSIONATE FIRST
FOR VULNERABILITY, WEAKNESS OR BEING A PUSH-OVER. LA DOñA ANA LA AMAZONA'S BACK, WORKING ON THE NEW NOVEL: THE LAST GODDESS STANDING OR THE CURSE OF THE SADDLE VIRGIN OR WAITING FOR GORDO--WHICHEVER TITLE ENDS UP STICKING IT'LL BE DONE IN 2009 AND ON TO OTHER WONDROUS THINGS...SUCH AS A WRITING BOOK, ESSAYS, CHILDREN'S BOOKS, AND WHATEVER ELSE SE ME ANTOJA. THANK YOU TO THOSE WHO HAVE SENT EMAILS OF SUPPORT, BIRTHDAY WISHES, PRAYERS AND LOL. NEXT STOP OUT IN THE SAN FRANCISCO. MEANWHILE, IF THINGS ARE QUIET ON THIS END, IT'S ALL GOOD. WRITER AT WORK SIGN ON THE SHINGLE.
(ALL PHOTOS ON THIS PAGE CREDIT: ROBERT A. MOLINA 2009, REPRINT BY PERMISSION ONLY)

2009-06-06T14:24:00.002-05:00

Sent by an Ana Castillo Bloguerista--pass it on!

2009-06-05T12:58:00.002-05:00

This week's wrap up. In case readers haven't picked up on it, I write these entries off the cuff. Lots goes through my head and while it doesn't go on the blog entirely unfiltered, the rant or reflection isn't edited.

Four topics stand out this week, starting out with the cold blooded, cowardly murder by an antiabortion psycho of a doctor when he was in church.
Yep, that's telling the immoral, unethical pro-choice advocates.

One more Planned Parenthood is closing down, no doubt, due to lack of state and private funding. It is the one where I happened go last year for a referral to get a mammo. I do not have a ppo. I have been supportive of PP for many years. I believe they are there for women, especially women without insurance and often without family support. Changing the law will not stop women from getting abortions. It will only stop them from having safe abortions.

If I did not go for that mammo (which I paid for out of pocket because there is no state funded program, at least around these parts--at least not for anyone who has had an irregular mammo result ever for whatever reason) needless to say I would not be writing this today.

It brings me to the big global run led by the Susan G. Komen people in Washington D.C. this weekend. It goes without saying that I'm not (yet!) up for marathon runs but whether people feel that breast cancer is not pink, breast cancer awareness whatever color has saved lives. I not only have gladly worn my pink t-shirt from my run a few years back but it means a lot to me when I see those in my life wearing their pink ribbons pins or otherwise promoting awareness. Awareness has brought the survival from breast cancer up to 98% from twenty years ago when you couldn't so much as print the words breast cancer in the news.

A staggering 47 million U.S. citizens do not have health insurance. Preventive medicine is the best approach to bringing down the equally staggering statistics we have with such incurable diseases like cancer.

President Obama's speech at the University of Cairo--unprecedented and stunningly respectful of all arond the world who want to realistically hear what positions he has decided to take with this 'mess,' that he inherited. Respectful, in my opinion, because among other reasons, he talked like an adult to the world. Consequently, that 'ssssssss' sound coming from the shadows that you heard throughout his speech was the air going out of Bin Laden's fear mongering leadership and whether any member of the past administration wants to admit it, it was also the hot air going out of their claims that it was ludicrous to use a diplomatic tactic in foreign relations with potential enemies and go there to talk.

And finally this: Summer begins. Some still have jobs, many do not. (Staggering--the word of the day-- more than 9% unemployment.) Some are in decent health. Many are not. Gas will be going up again. Airlines are getting more absurd as far as costs and services so that flying for lots of people will be reduced to absolute necessity. Lack of finances, airlines and gas costs, the swine flu scare, drug cartel violence in Mexico, from Cancun to Pto. Vallarta and whatall are sure to keep most folks at home instead of loading up their camcorders, grabbing the scuba gear and packing the kids to fly off for fun in the sun.

But if your summer looks like its gonna be about blowing up the kiddy pool out back and grilling garden burgers--whatever it is you do to relax, do it. Stress is also an invisible killer, a rampant incurable disease when you don't keep it in check. So, on the spiritual front: the lesson that cancer taught me w/out qualification and which I plan to heed more than ever: don't sweat the small stuff. And it's all small stuff.

2009-06-04T17:18:00.002-05:00

For scholars:

The organizers of the annual ZORA have just announced that the call for academic papers has been extended to June 30th. Scholars are invited to submit papers for the 2010 Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities (January 23-31). The festival them is 'Reflection on the Life and Legacy of Zora Neale Hurston 50 Years After Her Death." For more information please visit:

www.zorafestival.com

Check it out.

2009-06-04T16:58:00.003-05:00

Literary flights hosted by Calaca Press.
If you live in the San Diego area and want to do some writing this summer check it out:

Please%20Forward%20to%20Interested%20Writers.doc

2009-06-01T12:41:00.003-05:00

Government auto bail out.
Unlike 'normal' stockholders we don't get monthly statements.
Our hard earned, much needed in our own household tax-dollars were used to rescue an industry that had given little damn about consumers, the environment or the country for a long time. Gas guzzling SUVs and Iraq-Invasion design Hummers had no business on our city streets, in our youth's hands (what more gross thing can you imagine than a Hummer limo for prom night?), and as individuals for single and two home dwellings, much less in driveways where backing up those monstrousities killed so many children (and pets) as to coin the phrase "SUV syndrome"? Did we ever need them?

But I have an idea, a perversely, self-serving one perhaps, but survival of the world, a country's economy and one's own cherished 'American Dream lifestyle,'' propel it. Since we as a people without anyone asking for our vote baliled out the uncaring, gross American auto industry to an extent and we won't get shares, which is only fair and just according to the law and we won't get paid back (don't hold your breath)...and many of us can't afford our vehicles or any vehicle, gas will climb back up this summer, insurance companies still rule, I think every single tax-paying household in this country should get a voucher for a new car.

Sound outrageous, silly, too much?

Why not, people? Why do we continue to sit around like lame ducks, like ignorant victims, like a people without a vote, a constitution, the rule of law and justice to protect us against 'them,' the few in Washington?

2009-06-01T09:29:00.002-05:00

One Book at a Time. From a new reader:

After meeting you in Victoria, Texas, and obtaining a copy of your book, I
just had to tell you how deeply moved I was at the story played out within
the 211 pages. I was not at all prepared for how the story ended, which
provoked in me a deep sadness for the plight of real people everywhere who
endure indignity and injustice as a way of life almost. Thank you so much
for telling this important story. It truly impacted my life and way of
thinking. I shall never again take for granted the liberties and freedoms
bestowed on me for having simply been born a white female in the USA.
Sincerely,
M. D.
Luling, Texas

2009-05-31T20:02:00.004-05:00

Everywhere in the world they see the United States as a young
country. Indeed it is but worse, for those who
by the education system here k-12 is the ahistorical indoctrination
we receive.
And while I prefer to ignore the post 9/11 media circus bombarding
the public desirous of truth and knowledge with about 3 political
stories per week, spinning them into toxic cotton candy I must make
this comment to make about one of the various Republican attacks
on the President's Supreme Court Justice nominee--a Puerto Rican woman, therefore, not an immigrant and therefore her story is not the classic immigrant story of poor parents who came to this country, etc., but people of a colonized territory who took a plane to NY. That's not the comment. In the U.S. we are told, only in passing to be sure, if you nod out in the 5th grade during the mention of it you won't know about the territories in the U.S. that were appropriated by this country from Mexico and referred to as the Mexican-American War. In Mexico it is taught as 'the U.S. Invasion," as indeed it was. No, that's not the comment either. This one comes after the Conquest and the invasion of Europeans that results in a wide spectrum of ethnic mixtures. A Mexican philosopher, conservative and Catholic, attempting to make his own positive spin on Mexico's legacy of racism as a result of colonization, Vasconcelos in what might be thought of as a pep talk, referred to this new Mexican populations as la raza cosmica--the people of the future. Prior to that, miscegenation being what it was, was keeping most of the population, either mixed with indio blood or indios as 2nd, 3rd and none existent citizens.
In the 70s, when the Latino Movement took the lead of the Black led Civil Rights Movement and in the spirit of the NAACP (Colored People also no longer being the PC label of choice for themselves but still managing respectability and addressed by presidential candidates. Labels come and they go as the times see their need to have society understand the needs of groups of people. What's so gay about being gay but it's a label that gets its point across even if not yet in California) started organizations to lift the spirits and mobilize Latin@s, Mexican and Mexican-Americans consisting of the largest part of this population, note, see invasion mentioned above, not migrants, not immigrants but already there, here, giving my litle photo (copyright Ana Castillo 2009 N.M. nuevo mejico, once nueva españa and before that...Apache territory) to fight for equal justice named one of their organization the Council on La Raza. Sure, Colored People is not going to get you any points with African American civil rights groups and the scores of recent immigrants from various Spanish speaking countries and among those, indios who didn't mix might not identify, might not want a thing to do with such privileged American citizens, Ivy League education, like Ms. Sotomayor who was never an immigrant to begin with, pero que se yo, I'm only doing a speed wrap up to get to my point. The point is we live in a country where a felon, from upper crust, the white collar white male, why not say it here it comes, from the Days of Watergate referred to Judge Sotomayor is unqualified, a racist==yes, because we know how long, how many years, how many centuries Puerto Rican women have been oppressing white men, but his proof is who membership to the civil rights organization, La Raza--which he equated, with nothing in front of him but some note cards a flunky intern, assistant, someone who nodded out in class that moment in the 5th grade and missed all that stuff about Texas, California, Colorado==egads, Aspen...etc., etc., Gordon Liddy, no less, a felon, a criminal at one time from the highest ranks in this country, calling a qualified, moderate Judge--because she was Latina, a woman and because, get this, she might have to make decisions while going through PMS, then they would be 'bad,' yes, he said bad, but she is a racist, a reverse racist is the preferred term let loose on very desperate private citizens which who Liddy and Limbaugh are, and you know what La Raza means, he asks whoever is out there listening...he knows because the squirrel of an assistant has told him but he doesn't know what language Latinos speak, because they aren't a people, but a nuisance, worse, a scourge on this country's economy--do you know what it means in 'illegal alien' he asks. Yes, that's what he called it.

And here I thought this little gas station in a sleepy village in New Mexico, U.S. of A. was a friendly family joint. Little did I know. Hide your boys, white ladies. Hide your girls, too. Load up your guns, men. These illegal aliens are reversed racists, no better than David Duke, yes, his name came up in the media circus to compare this organization with, The National Council of La Raza, no different than the KKK they said, except without the white sheets and nooses. Well, thank God for that.

2009-05-26T12:10:00.005-05:00

Sonia Sotomayor: First Latin@ nominated to serve on the Supreme Court.
She and I are about the same age and both read Nancy Drew books
when we were girls. (I suspect hers came from the library or perhaps
as mine did, from the Salvation Army.)

That's one big point para las NERDS today.

As has happened w/ African Americans in the past and now, we are
happy to see a face that announces we are no longer invisible Americans.
But we can't expect that she represent all our points of view or more
specifically, get where she is going to get by wearing a red star. Judge Sotomayor is a moderate. And what else could you be when you reach this level of government decision making even at this stage in history? She would be seen as a radical (and to racist, misogynist Republicans, hello Rush Limbaugh, she is) if she were pro-choice and pro-same-sex marriage (as would be constitutional but remains, like with the issue of abortion, a messy, moralistic one rather than decided by a secular democratic government).
Sotomayor.doc

Democracy--even while this planet is perhaps seeing the light (that's the sun actually) at the end of the tunnel signaling the ever-growing reality that at some point it will become a soaring meteor-like unidentified object soaring across galaxies--is still requiring baby-steps, many, many baby-steps. Today, a Latin@. Maybe tomorrow a judge who remembers at all times that our government is secular and that because we live in a supposed democracy and people can adhere to archaic religious views they should not rule American lives.

2009-05-25T14:01:00.002-05:00

Ecological intelligence is not just about what you buy but accepting that the planet's resources are limited.

Would you buy a green cotton t-shirt reading Save the Planet or Go Green if you know that evenorganic cotton requires more than 2,640 gals of water to grow enough fiber for one t-shirt?
And that the green dye may be a harsh chemical which can pollute local ground water?

Check out Good Guide web site to help you make some wise lifestye choices. (Photo copyright Ana Castillo U.S.A./do not use without permission)
Tips of the day from your favorita Green Grandma here :-): Stop purchasing water in plastic bottles. Buy a biker's cannisters and refill. Not only may the bottle be toxic but very likely the water is no more purified than what you will get from the tap. As recessionistas I think that many of us will or perhaps should rethink were and how we spend our paltry pesos. During these hot months ahead, pass on he Arizona Tea and Noni drinks and make a pitcher of yerba buena tea from your garden or pot or another favorite, and refill your canniser when you go for a hike, walk or out and about. Let the days of everyone going around sucking on plastic water bottles like adult infants and when you think you'll need water take your own drink along.
Keep a nylon bag in your purse or pocket, the kind that ball up and don't take much space. You can skip plastic bags whenever you make a purchase.
If you don buy any clothes this summer, eco-correct or not, think of the items as replacements for other things in your closet that you haven't worn for a while and recycle them asap. Don't think about it. Just pass them along--to recycling bins, Salvation Army or a needy person.

2009-05-21T11:33:00.011-05:00

Other Lofty and Very Likely Touchy Subjects I must survey for the sake of maintaining my reputation as an 'angry,-Xicana-feminista'-although-I-have-always-advocated-against-clinging-on-to-labels-but-to-see-them-when-you-have-given them-to-yourself, that is--as point of departure-not a permanent definition--unless you don't see yourself as an ever-evolving-human-being--I must, as I say, 'go there,' if for no other reason, (although it is clear that when I am home taking pictures of bunnies drinking out of the dogs' plastic turtle pool or going out to feed my yeguas in the a.m. and someone is around who thinks it's cute that I am doing it wearing a dress so there must be some joy in my life but how many folks out there get disappointed when I don't show up to speak wearing feathers and mocassins and railing on the white man or white devil or whites overall so I must be a vendida and if I am in the company of a man I sold out to lesbians or if that man is gay I sold out to heterosexuals or it isn't a man at all but a woman they are disappointed that I am 'not available' not that I'm available in any event when I travel alone since I see
all my business travel as just that business travel the same way other people see themselves going off to work on any given day not as a potential 'how stella got her groove' back adventure and others are just surprised that I am not taller but usually those are people who are shorter than my already disappointing-to-them-stature than-to-show-that I am speaking up for what I believe is what I do, have always done and have no intentions to ever stop doing.
Now, there are people who think that because a long time ago I had a public relationship with a public woman and since then don't feel obliged to make my private life public and respect the privacy of those in my private life-- that I have gone against them, the very core of who I am or quite simply, sold out to the gay and lesbian movement. Let me correct that. Gay men have no interest in who I sleep with. The lesbian movement.

By the same same bus token, there are straight people who have always felt uncomfortable with any kind of same-sex talk but those would also be the same group of readers who are upset because in The Guardians Regina is against eating chorizo. No pun intended. The point is cultural fiedades or what gente believe should be cultural loyalties. How can a Mexican woman be cut her greñas, become vegetarian and not be subscribe to compulsive heterosexuality? It's 'un-Mexican' for God's sake. Uh. No. If you are Mexican you can eat what you want, sleep w/ whom you want, have zero maternal instinct, be skinny, be loud, prefer to dance merengue or swing over Duranguense, defy all stereotypes, shave your head for your first Holy Communion and nothing can take away you being a Mexican woman through and through. You can even give up flour tortillas. Believe me. I have. And while that bit of info may be used as further argument against my mexicanidad credentials, like having been born in Chicago, you only have to read this month's MORE magazine to see that I had enough tortillas in my life before the age of 18 to keep the Mexican Army fed for a month.

Getting back to the point--
Another currently unpopular growing movement, atheism, no threat to the Pope, Christian Right or any of those who voted Chris Allen in last night on American Idol for at least 200 years to which I believe some heed is worth giving.

What? You say? Ana Castillo who has a chapel devoted to La Virgen de Guadalupe? You iconoclast of the Xican@ deliberately disenfranchised who controverisally challenges the Church on its sexist, achronistic mandates but still goes to mass--although once a year? Complex lady. Woman. Person. Ze is not without a sense of humor along with ze's contradictions.

I do not believe the creationists will get far, no further from backing out of their driveway, in fact, nowhere near where they themselves believe God has ordained them to get, before the planet blows up from internal combustion if they are allowed to rule.

I believe anyone who believes in any Virgen anywhere in 2009 and doesn't see her as an icon of female spirituality and not as a woman of flesh and bones still traveling up to the heavens as we speak because of the Church's decision as few decades back that if Mary was going to be worthy of giving birth to a demigod she could not have fornicated to do so, and if she did not fornicate she was therefore eligible to not be corrupt, her body wouldn't corrupt ever and instead, like Jesus shot bodily up to the heavens like a rocket. But to get to God's heaven where he, and Peter and Jesus await daily arrivals, will take a lot longer than rockets or shuttles, so she has to still be traveling.

Oh, wait a minute a coulda had a V-8 moment . Wait a sec. No one's going up to heaven. It's like the Dallas Airport the day after the Swine Flu announced, virtually empty, up there in that Christian heaven or at leave the Pope's heaven. How can anyone be there? Remember, everybody? Remember? We don't go to heaven until Judgment Day. That's right! After the Nuclear Holocaust or whatever causes the end of the world and from all Christian accounts not too far off. And wait a moment. I'm not theologist, no philosopher, no priest, God knows I am penis-challenged on that count, no rabai either for that matter, not that they get into the New Testament, but didn't Christ say THIS place was God's kingdom to be? That THIS is heaven?

And furthermore, very important, it's been a century since I undertook Catetchism classes under the virtuous 2 X 4 stick of the Mexican nuns in Chicago but when we die... don't we have to wait for EVERYBODY to die, for the end of the world, for JUDGMENT DAY in fact--to get our day in court?

Oh yeah, silly us, and here we are, all Mexicanos and Catholic to the bone and stuff, praying at coffins, crying at funerals and taking flowers to the panteon taking comfort in the fact that our dead have flown up to heaven to be with God and Jesus, even beat Mary who is still working her way bodily up. And they are up there looking down and praying for us with the saints and sh** and here we all forgot, que conveniente, that they are just dead waiting us to die, for the world to end to get their say.

Oh yeah, and then thre are those of us who believe in the eternity of souls and God and Jesus and Spirits and Signs and all the gods and ancestors hovering over us to try to get us back on track when we inevitably fall off which seems to be the very nature of existence, hanging around us, just chillin' in the 6th dimension like after going through our miserable, floundering existence as Juan or Juana here we want to continue that identity in perpetuity for everlasting and just hang around earth entertaining, misleading the living (spirits are notoriously unreliable informants) and terrorrizing those left 'behind'...for now.

While this prudish and intellectually unsophisticated society was busy allowing itself to be distracted with Clinton's sexual faux pax, his nympho(centuar?) compulsions, more than they gave a hoot about him lying to the courts (which was what the Republicans claimed they had on him not for getting a blow job on the job) they missed all the signs and made the president too distracted with impending impeachment threats to pay attention, perhaps, to Bin Laden, trained by the CIA turned enemy of US, long ago--although he had given everyone clear and present warnings more than once. Like already bombing the Twin Towers. Likewise, now, if we continue to let ourselves get distracted by the media circus, left, right but mostly most in the center, led by media journalists making celebrity salaries (not all that long ago radio/TV journalists became personalities themselves. Whereas, their personal opinions, their lives were completely off limits and with good reason of no interest to the public, the clear line between commentator, talk show hosts and true journalists have been blurred, smashed, widened, greyed with mud and they are all putting on shows to serve egos and ratings but not the public). What else? No I'm not on speed, caffeine or hallucinogens, but all this has bugged me for a while...

OK, Ana Castillo is either babbling, ranting or doing what any other blogger permits zeself and that is to just let it rip. Stay w/ me, I'm back on track. The same thing may very well happen here. The Republicans are floundering without leadership in the muddy waters left by the Bush/Chaney administration, which they endorsed, protected and promoted for eight years.

They had done it with the first Bush/Chaney administration.

The unsophisticated American public in general really didn't and may not give a damn as to who runs this counry as long as they are comfortable, everyone in his and her ticky tocky little house and ticky-tocky Disney World time-share lives and dumb-ass kids get into some college even if its Phoenix University.

History gone unchecked and unexamined does and will repeat itself. That's how Bush, Jr. got in and lo! Revenge of the son on Iraq! We ask ourselves today as we should have done by the millions, not just the thousands, what the f*** are we doing in Iraq--if not to avenge Bush, Jr.'s father?

Bush Jr., himself called it a crusade. Indeed.

Instead we have a mess. And the right,especially the Christian Right--but any zealous Christians, hello Edwards, loved the Palin mess, so reflective of so many of their own hypocritical messy lives.

So Palin it may well be with--don't laugh, I feel a psychic wave coming on--with Jeb Bush as her running mate. But possibly, a Chaney politico daughter who right now is saying desperate, ludicrous and a la Bush Daze things like Obama wanting to question those responsible for Iraq as 'un-American.' Defending her father's actions. No nepotism or conflict of interest there. Her father who, when hunting quail, a quite, scurrying on the ground bird, who would as soon get plowed by a Mac Truck than lift its wings for flight to save itself, shot his best friend in the face instead and who, to absolve himself a la quasi Autumn of the Patriarch, made the shot up in the face friend give him a public apology for putting his face in the way of the barrel of his rifle. People, are we insane or just plain, stupid?

García Márquez couldn't make this sh** up.
He didn't. Magic realism. It was Latin America with U.S. intervention, salt & peppered with 16th century dichos a la Sancho Panza.

And getting back to the topic at hand, as there is a topic and that is lofty subjects that a poet can't resist but commenting on as Elizabeth Edwards goes on Oprah to shame her Mormon, handsome as the devil, adulerous as Jesse Jackson husband: Is it just me that sees that connection between repressed sexuality and hypocritical spiritual professions?

Undo the repression and perhaps the spiritual professions will be humanly possible.

See, there is more than rant here, although far be it from me to tell you where it starts and where it finished where you can find what I really want my readers to take from this--but creenme, aqui está.

anacastillo copyright 2009

2009-05-19T19:32:00.006-05:00

DS
Subliminal messages and not so subliminal. Reprise: (I have a wee bit more energy this a.m. so I decided to go back into my pro-legalization of marijuana diatribe. Check it out if you'd like.)

Living near the US/Mexico border it would be deliberate ignorance on my part not to be aware of the tons of marijuana found in busts. U.S. is the plant's biggest customers.
We ignore futility of fighting this criminalized activity and the fact that narcos are making billions of dolares. We are far from the days where it was believed that smoking marijuana naturally led to heroin addiction.
We've gone from baby boomer leaders admittance to 'trying it.' (Clinton tried it but didn't inhale. Gore inhaled but in Gore style followed his conscience and apologized for it. Obama said he smoked and inhaled frequently...which is "the point of smoking pot.")

Drugs wars not just in Latin America but will become more obvious in the US to the usually oblivious 'American' public are spreading down to Argentina.

Thousands have been killed in Juárez alone due to the drug cartels wars, with each other, police and Army. NORML is a pro-legalization group that encourages regulating and taxing marijuana in this country. Just as importantly to this issue is that marijuana grown in Mexico is sprayed w/ pesticides. Marijuana grown here ''legally' could be a business for organic farmers.

Obama has reversed Bush's policy of prosecuting medical use of marijuana, which is legal in 13 states.
People who have gone through chemo have used it unapologetically to deal w/ nausea and there have been no cases reported of any former cancer patient who became a heroin addict later.
Just as laws did not stop the production, sale and desire for alcohol during prohibition they aren't stopping people who smoke weed now. But they are responible for the violence related to drug activities.
It would reduce the horrific violence related to and profits made by drug cartels and all the way down to your roommate selling a little on the side to subsidize his pizza delivery income to legalize marijuana.
Taxation would help the economy.

Do I smoke? No. I don't smoke because I never liked it, not the feeling or smell. But smoking anything that's been sprayed can cause cancer. And no, thanks. I've had my fill.
Do I mind if others smoke marijuana? No more than I should mind that others drink alcohol or take excessive pharmeceuticals to get through life. As long as they don't do it and get behind a wheel, it don't bother me none.
But again, an argument could be made that even casual drug use today, marijuana specifically for those of us who understand the vast difference between smoking an occasional joint the way some guys come home on Friday night with a six pack or single gals bring home a jumble bottle of chardonnay--
and taking meth: a nasty, senseless, addictive, mentally distorting and destructive dangerous drug and 'nasty' bears repeating or obtaining some pot to deal with chronic, bed-riddening pain--is in effect, COLLAOBRATING, helping the drug-relating violence that permeates the world illegal drug industry. From Russians to Mexicans, from los Chinos to los Columbianos, there is no drug use not related to violence, the deaths of thousands--many times, innocent, children, etc., not some degenerate drug peddler 'that deserved what he got,' as we'd like to imagine how it all goes down. So, even if I did smoke pot I'd give it up w/ no problem, just not to have that blood on my hands for the sake of a little buzz.

Other topics we are debating in 2009 whether to legalize or make illegal and like the ingestion of stimulant plantsin pre-date written history? Prostitution and the termination of unwanted pregnancy.
Prostitution isn't just about some bad, lazy girls who ain't got religion (or had too much of it) going out to sell their bodies to bad, nasty men.
Prostituiton is part of the biggest, fastest growing more profitable and despicable criminal activity in the world--body trafficking. Perhaps just next door or down the street to any of us in this country there very likely are slaves of all ages and nationalities who are being kept exclusively for that purpose. Legalizing prostitution, like legalizing marijuana won't end all abuses but it would diminish them to some degree. Even one girl's life saved who has been kidnapped and prostituted or even one kid on the street who's not killed in the midst of a drug related drive by, let's say, would be worth legalizing both. The girl and that boy could be your own children, your sister, your best friend. But we're not talking about one kid, kids in one barrio school or Columbine or one town--but people all over the world and about criminal activities that make billions of dollars--maybe to one drug family a month. Who knows for sure how much but beyond anything we can imagine.
From poppies underwriting Afganistan's economy to cocoa leaves in Peru or marijuana grown by indios in Mexico under the Ak-47 watch of drug lords--there's the question: How long would drug cartels be in business if government's made some drugs legal?
Here's another question:
Is outlawing the use of marijuana, prostitution of adults, termination of unwanted pregnancies immoral or is ignoring the extent of lives lost because two are illegal (and whenever abortion is illegal) the measure of a society's tolerance for true immorality?

2009-05-19T12:17:00.003-05:00

Reduce your carbon imprint this summer 2009:

If being eco-friendly is an entirely new idea to you and the thought of being personally responsible for the planet's future demise no longer sounds like the paranoid obsessions of broke old hippies or disgruntled Goreite baby boomers is motivating you enough to consider to stop being a total energy source vampire...

Let me encourage you to start your first baby steps toward giving a damn by offering up some ideas. Let this Memorial Weekend commence the fun and games. Tell yourself it's only through Labor Day when the summer gets to feeling like Lenten time and you have been wandering in the desert for thirty nine years . There are dozens of little things you can do to help the rest of us and all the living things on this planet as well as consider the next seven generations, if you can't think that far, think of your younger siblings, sobrin@s, your hijit@s, anyone you hope will outlive you. It's all about it not being all about you.
Here's a menu off the top of my head. I challenge you to pick any three and if you already do three of these add another three.

50 Things one can do this summer to not be a jerk to other living things, including oneself:

1. Shut off unused lights.
2. Shut off computer.
3. Stop eating meat
4. Stop eating chicken
5. Take public transportation
6. Walk instead of riding
7. Use a bike
8. Car pool
9. Get ride of lawn/zero landscape
10. Don't flush unless you have to.
11. If you are painting this summer, try milk based paint
12. dig out a compost
13. recycle much as can be taken to recycling, plastics, tin, clean carton and paper
14. use bath/catch shower water to water plants
15. stop buying water in plastic bottles
16. don't use a clothes dryer/hang out clothes on a line
17. don't use a dish washer/better yet get rid of it altogether
18 use eco-friendly detergent
19. solar water heater
20 tankless water heater
21. solar house
22. energy saving bulbs
23. open windows at night instead of using air conditioning
24. use tote bags/say no to plastic bags
25. stop buying (as much as possible) packaged goods
26. air dry hair
27. cut back (as much as possible) chemical based products. (Declare war on non-eco-friendly shampoos--for dogs, rugs and you.)
28. always recycle paper at home
29. walk instead of using tread mill
30. one thing you should never recycle is your cooking oil
31. quit smoking (end external and internal pollution)
32. discover household uses for baking soda
33. discover household used for cidar vinegar
34. quit video games play board games
35. quit TV hours read the newspaper. Recycle the newspaper. (News paper is recycled paper.)
36. Lower your voice in public when you must be on a cell phone
37. Don't be on a cell phone when you are driving
38. Don't put cell phones to children's heads.
39. Don't put a cell phone to your head.
40. Use micro waves at a minmum. Don't use plastic in microwaves.
41. Don't waste food
42. Don't buy sh...crap you don't need.
43. Cultivate your music taste, especially those that don't use up electrical power. i.e., play piano, guitar, go to the park or church to hear a string quartet.
44. Don't dye your hair or anyone else's hair (unless it is the way you earn your living.)
45. Cut back on using kitchen appliances, use a whisk or molcajete instead of a Cuisanart.
46. Read (Not necessarily instead of TV. Anything that expands the imagination in postive directions should be encouarged.)
47. Eat fresh foods this summer, save on gas and electricity.
48. make bread not war
47. make your own baby food (uh, if you have a baby...or maybe even if you dont?)
48. swim in natural waters (whenever possible) rather than pools.
49. make water your preferred beverage
50. try natural based cosmetics (that's if you use them to begin with)

2009-05-18T19:17:00.002-05:00

How can I not take objection to white male protesters of Obama at Notre Dame University carrying the banner of La Virgen de Guadalupe because he recognizes that this is a democracy and not a theocracy?

Once, when there was a brujaja over Alma López' montage exhibited in what was once a very Catholic Santa Fe, NM but with so much NY/LA/New Age/Neo-Liberal dissencion of the Wealthy and Self-Righteous who can say what will be left of that city's history?--I told a reporter that La Virgen de Guadalupe belonged to anyone who loved Her.

Ok. Of course, we know we're not talking about a flesh and bones woman.
We know we aren't talking about a flesh and bones woman who never died (therefore justifing for the Church that fact that she was a virgin therefore unblemished therefore her uncorrupt body could soar up to heaven--had to, otherwise, she would be forever associated with the nasty, dirty association with sex and death.)

A gringo rebuttaled and said I was wrong. The Virgin of Guadalupe did not belong to anyone...WE belonged to her.
We belonged to an unblemished, read: virgin woman who could give birth without laying with, without allowing herself to be penetrated by, violated, if you will, eventually becoming impregnated, giving birth--between urine and fesces as St. Augustine called birthing.
Being pure means, I interpret it as a feminist, not being touched by a nasty penis? Not being inseminated?
Okay, as anti-evolutionary and misogynist as that all sounds, we fast forward to the present and how the Bible remains a fascinating example of literature about the life and times of old Jewish history and mytholgy, esp. related to slavery under Rome on which to base ultimate truths, ethics and democracy in a new country that insists that it is an example of modern civilization to the world. Modern? We permitted a president to be scrutinzed for possible impeachment for lying to the courts about having gotten a blow job in the Oval Office and we are all to happy to let fade the thousands of deaths the past administration is reponsbile for because of declaring a war on a country that did us no direct harm. Onward Christian soldiers...back toward Afganistan.

2009-05-15T17:39:00.003-05:00

"Then I decided that I could indeed do something: I
could refuse to forget."
--Departing at Dawn: A novel of Argentina's Dirty War
by Gloria Lisé

Brave memoiristas--writing their own stories
(I swear I am not dressed in one
of Lucille Ball's old dresses, although this should
end any ideas out there of a definite Ana Castillo
'look.' )

And... addressing brave immigrants and some just as brave
who were born here...but who can tell us apart?
That's the beauty of it.
We look much more formidable and beautiful as one.

What am I saying here? Something like this: Yes, we must demand better education for our bilingual children but the job of teaching our
children starts at home. If you can't afford a book you can't afford a TV. If you can't afford a book, you can't afford a Game Boy. If you can't sit with your children to read, your own books or theirs to them, then you don't have time to follow a telenovela.
I knew I was preaching to the converted. They had all read one or another of my books... But it was good for them to hear it from me directly so they can go out and spread the word. READ, GENTE! AND DON'T BE AFRAID TO WRITE YOUR STORIES...
2 final memoir workshops: 7/21 Las Cruces and 8/15 L.A.: anacastilloworkshops@gmail.com
VONA in S.F.
And aside from that...no more, folks. La Doña has to get back to her own writing full-time.

2009-05-04T13:34:00.002-05:00

First Place Winner Goes to a Gelding from SUNLAND PARK--my polluted backyard.

The long shot: 50-1.

Moreover:

"You've got to do what's best for the horse and the horse has got to come first."

No one expected it. But here you go:

Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird is headed to the Preakness.

The trainer of the gelding that won the Derby at 50-1 odds said his horse will run in the May 16 Preakness, the second leg of the Triple Crown, Pimlico spokesman Mike Gathagan said Monday.

Mine That Bird, ridden by Calvin Borel, won the Derby by 6 3/4 lengths over Pioneerof the Nile - the largest margin of victory since Assault in 1946.

Gathagan said Monday that trainer Bennie Woolley Jr. called from Louisville, Ky., to say Mine That Bird is a go for the 1 3-16-mile Preakness. He said he was told plans call for the 3-year-old to be shipped to Baltimore from Churchill Downs on May 11 or 12.

Video: Sunland Park cheers Kentucky Derby winner

On Sunday, a day after the upset, Woolley said there's "no obligation" to go to the Preakness and added: "You've got to do what's best for the horse and the horse has got to come first."

That's me, baby. Stay tuned.

BALTIMORE.doc

2009-05-03T12:27:00.002-05:00

Homeland Security

There we were out in el desierto
minding our business riding out
in the desert of our ancestors
my Mexican mare
who was found by the Border Patrol abandoned
most likely by trafficker coyotes,
me, her and the pony she was then pregnant w/
happy-happy survivors are we singing no tengo dinero pero tengo tu amor no tengo diamantes pero tengo tu calor era mira estoy acustomabrada de las cosas de la vida ya tanto tiempo que no viajo en limosina antes hacia viajes cuatro veces pa' Italia era princesa pero no era feliz de esa manera Gucci Prada Versace no son nada me lo paso sin ropa en tu cama mis amigas se mueren de envidia tengo una vida llena de amor ahora soy tu reina...
when out of the blue we heard the O' So Familiar loud
hum

de ¿quién más? But military helicopters--iron monsters w/ propellers carrying jeeps, something big in any case, on their way to nearby military zones. Unlike other Sunday mornings, they weren't out looking for people wandering the desert heating up before noon.

2009-05-02T15:06:00.001-05:00

Américo Paredes Literature and Letters Award
Ana Castillo, Ph.D.

Am%E9rico%20Paredes%20Literature%20and%20Letters%20Award.doc

May 5, 2009
5:00 PM-7:00 PM

AT and T Executive Education and Conference Center, Amphitheatre (Room 204) Each year, the Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS) at The University of Texas at Austin holds a lecture or symposia in honor of the late Dr. Américo Paredes, whose service to the center, university, and academy spanned more than forty years.

A recipient of the Charles Frankel Prize from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Orden del Águila Azteca—Mexico’s highest award given to the citizens of other countries, Professor Paredes is perhaps best known for his groundbreaking work on border ballads and folklore. In recent years, however, his novel George Washington Gomez in addition to his numerous short stories have found an audience across disciplines and along side the works of other celebrated authors, such as yourself.

May 5, 2009 will mark the ten-year anniversary of Professor Paredes’ passing. To honor his memory, CMAS will present its first ever Américo Paredes Literature and Letters Award. The prize will be awarded, approximately every four years, to an individual whose creative and scholarly contributions have had a significant impact in the field of Mexican American studies.

The first recipient of the Américo Paredes Literature and Letters Award is the poet, novelist, short story writer, and essayist, Ana Castillo. Long considered one of the leading voices to emerge from the life experiences of Chicanas, Ana Castillo is a prolific author whose work has been critically acclaimed and widely anthologized in the United States and abroad.

A reception will follow the program.

2009-05-02T11:20:00.002-05:00

POETRY FOUNDATION

Click Ana Castillo on their website to hear audio of Daddy with the Chesterfields...

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=99048