Contributors List
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Aide Escalante is a freelance photographer from Brownsville,
Texas. She says, “with a camera in my hands I am seeing and
finding in people’s lives the bright light of hope reflected in their eyes.”
She adds, “Photography has given me greater insight to people, their cultures and their beliefs. It fuels my thirst to learn more about the world and what lies beyond the camera lens.”
Amalia Ortiz, Tejana poet and playwright, appeared on three
seasons of Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry on HBO. She was awarded the Alfredo Cisneros Del Moral Foundation Grant from Sandra Cisneros and a writing residency at the National Hispanic Cultural Center. She is a CantoMundo Fellow, a Hedgebrook writer-in-residence alumna, and an MFA student in creative writing at The University of Texas Pan American. Wings Press will publish her first collection of poetry in 2015.
Brenda Nettles Riojas is a CantoMundo Fellow. She is the host of Corazón Bilingüe, a weekly radio program that addresses the dynamics of language and culture. She is also the editor of The Valley Catholic newspaper. Brenda earned her M.F.A. from the University of New Orleans. Her first collection of Spanish poems – “La Primera Voz Que Oí”. She co-edited "Writing to Be Heard /
Escúchame: Voices from the Chicho" with Alan Oak.
Celeste De Luna: “My work is sometimes disturbing. The
confluence of American and Xicano culture clash and sometimes harmonize in my work. My seemingly morbid interests go well with the death and despair of the border experience. Common themes in my work include migrant/border experiences of women, children, and families, the social effects of documentation status, and the spiritual struggle of conflicting identities, including “survivor’s guilt”.
De Luna is a painter/printmaker from Harlingen, Texas. She has exhibited her work in various cities in the Rio Grande Valley, San Antonio, San Diego, and Chicago. You can reach her
at [email protected] and see more of her work at
www.celestedeluna.com.
César De León has called El Valle home for the past 30plus years.
His poetry has been published in various anthologies including
Juventud: Growing Up on the Border and Along the River 2, as
well as in various journals.
Cesar Riojas, Jr. has been taking photos for more than 30 years.
When he’s not helping companies implement process optimization and operational excellence systems, he is behind the camera. The camera and his travels around the world have focused his lens on people, places and the stories they tell. He freelances regularly for The Valley Catholic newspaper, and he has received awards for this
work from the Catholic Press Association.
Christopher Carmona is a Chican@ Beat poet from the Rio
Grande Valley of South Texas. The Texas Observer recognized
him as being one of the top five writers in 2014. He has two books of poetry, beat and I Have Always Been Here. He edited The Beatest State In The Union: An Anthology of Beat Texas Writings with Chuck Taylor and Rob Johnson and is working on a book called Nuev@s Voces Poeticas: A Dialogue about New Chican@ Poetics with Isaac Chavarria, Gabriel Sanchez, & Rossy Lima Padilla to be published by Slough Press in 2015.
Currently he is the organizer of the Annual Beat Poetry and Arts Festival and the Artistic Director of the Coalition of New Chican@ Artists.
Jenny Campos Galvan is a visual artist from New Orleans,
Louisiana. She is a first generation American, born of Ecuadorian mother and Guatemalan father. Her piece "Children left to wander" speaks to the unanswerable question only these children really understand and are left to fully face. Original is watercolor and ink on 10.5" × 14.5" watercolor paper.
Edward Vidaurre is the author of four books. I Took My Barrio On A Road Trip, (Slough Press 2013), Insomnia (El Zarape Press 2014), Beautiful Scars: Elegiac Beat Poems (El Zarape Press 2015), and his latest collection Chicano Blood Transfusion (FlowerSong Books) was published this year. Vidaurre is the founder of Pasta, Poetry, and Vino--a monthly open mic gathering of artists, poets, and musicians. He resides in McAllen, TX with his wife and daughter.
Fernando Esteban Flores: I am a native Texan residing in San
Antonio, graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Arts in English and have taught writing at various San Antonio secondary schools.
Isis Hinojosa: Escritora y pintora autodidacta, PINTORA
ARTISTICA, y Creadora en Arte Visual at ISIS ARTE Y PINTURA (Facebook page).
Jose G. Cano is a painter, song-writer, and well-rounded artista
from the Mexico-U.S.
frontera/border región in Texas.
Joseph Ross is a writer hailing from Washington, D.C. His first
book of poetry MEETING BONE MAN is available from Main
Street Rag Publishing. You can order it for a discount at
http://mainstreetrag.com/bookstore/product-tag/joseph-ross/
His second book of poetry, GOSPEL OF DUST is available from Main Street Rag Publishing at
http://mainstreetrag.com/bookstore/product-tag/joseph-ross/ It was released June 18, 2013.
Sister Juliana García, a native of Toledo, Spain, was founder of
the Missionaries of Jesus, a religious community dedicated to serving the people of the Rio Grande Valley and Matamoros. She died Nov. 17, 2014 at the age of 81. She was the director of Casa Oscar Romero in the 1980s, a shelter that housed thousands of Central American refugees seeking political asylum in the United States. She also initiated the jail ministry in detention centers across the Rio Grande Valley.
Norma Pimentel is a sister with the Missionaries of Jesus and
executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, the charitable arm of the Diocese of Brownsville, providing oversight of different ministries and programs in the areas of emergency assistance. She leads efforts in the community that respond to emergency relief in times of disaster and crisis in the Rio Grande Valley. In the summer of 2014, she launched the
humanitarian outreach for refugees from Central America.
Octavio Quintanilla’s work has appeared in Salamander, RHINO, Alaska Quarterly Review, Southwestern American Literature, The Texas Observer, Texas Books in Review, and elsewhere. He is a CantoMundo
Fellow and holds a PhD from the University of North Texas.
Currently, he teaches Literature and Creative Writing in the
MA/MFA program at Our Lady of the Lake University. He is a
regular interviews contributor to Voices de La Luna: A Quarterly
Poetry and Arts Magazine and author of the poetry collection, If I Go Missing (Slough Press, 2014).
Phyllis Wax writes in Milwaukee on a bluff overlooking Lake
Michigan. Her poetry has appeared in Ars Medica, Verse Wisconsin, Your Daily Poem, The New Verse News, Naugatuck River Review, Wisconsin Poets' Calendar as well as other journals and anthologies,
both print and online. Social issues inspire much of her work.
PW Covington has been a fixture in the spoken word and Indie
Lit community of Texas for nearly 20 years. As an 18 year old Air Transportation troop in the USAF, he deployed to Mogadishu, Somalia to deliver aid to and protect those victimized by that region's violent refugee crisis and famine. He has remained active
in disaster relief and recovery work ever since. He has lived for
periods of time in the Copper Canyon region of Mexico, and
believes that bridges are better than fences.
Covington's newly released novel is titled "Dear Elsa,"
Raquel López Suárez. Originaria de la ciudad de Río Bravo, Tam. Méx. Titulada en Pedagogía a nivel primaria y medio superior (UPN, 2002-2006). Trabajó como docente por 7 años en una escuela primaria de la ciudad de origen. Actualmente es residente de los Estados Unidos de América. Graduada de Project Ignite (PLP, TX 2009-2011) donde adquirió conocimientos en diversas áreas, tales como; escritura creativa, poesía, teatro, business management, toastmasters, promotora de salud, aerobc’s, etc. En el 2011 se inició en los estudios de teología y psicoterapia (The Ecumenical Center for Religion and Health, Campus McAllen, TX). Así como tomó varios seminarios con enfoque al desarrollo humano y a la salud holística, impartidos por profesionales internacionales.
Autora del libro de pensamientos, reflexiones y poesía, “Lluvias Acarameladas” (Palibrio, 2013).
Fundadora/directora del foro de expresión literario-artístico “Enero Rojo Lunar” (RGV, 2014-2016) incluyendo talentos de USA y de México. Ha participado con sus textos en diversos programas literarios, festivales, instituciones sociales y comunitarias de algunas ciudades del sur del Valle de Texas y del norte de Tamaulipas, MX. (2010-2016).
Donors on Go Fund Me in order of appearance:
P.W. Covington
Maria Gutierrez
Aliver Alanis
Mark Galvez
Michael Gerleman
Leslie Jensen
Diana Aguilar
Judith Tienda
Lupe Mendez
Andres Pacheco
---------------------------------------------
Aide Escalante is a freelance photographer from Brownsville,
Texas. She says, “with a camera in my hands I am seeing and
finding in people’s lives the bright light of hope reflected in their eyes.”
She adds, “Photography has given me greater insight to people, their cultures and their beliefs. It fuels my thirst to learn more about the world and what lies beyond the camera lens.”
Amalia Ortiz, Tejana poet and playwright, appeared on three
seasons of Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry on HBO. She was awarded the Alfredo Cisneros Del Moral Foundation Grant from Sandra Cisneros and a writing residency at the National Hispanic Cultural Center. She is a CantoMundo Fellow, a Hedgebrook writer-in-residence alumna, and an MFA student in creative writing at The University of Texas Pan American. Wings Press will publish her first collection of poetry in 2015.
Brenda Nettles Riojas is a CantoMundo Fellow. She is the host of Corazón Bilingüe, a weekly radio program that addresses the dynamics of language and culture. She is also the editor of The Valley Catholic newspaper. Brenda earned her M.F.A. from the University of New Orleans. Her first collection of Spanish poems – “La Primera Voz Que Oí”. She co-edited "Writing to Be Heard /
Escúchame: Voices from the Chicho" with Alan Oak.
Celeste De Luna: “My work is sometimes disturbing. The
confluence of American and Xicano culture clash and sometimes harmonize in my work. My seemingly morbid interests go well with the death and despair of the border experience. Common themes in my work include migrant/border experiences of women, children, and families, the social effects of documentation status, and the spiritual struggle of conflicting identities, including “survivor’s guilt”.
De Luna is a painter/printmaker from Harlingen, Texas. She has exhibited her work in various cities in the Rio Grande Valley, San Antonio, San Diego, and Chicago. You can reach her
at [email protected] and see more of her work at
www.celestedeluna.com.
César De León has called El Valle home for the past 30plus years.
His poetry has been published in various anthologies including
Juventud: Growing Up on the Border and Along the River 2, as
well as in various journals.
Cesar Riojas, Jr. has been taking photos for more than 30 years.
When he’s not helping companies implement process optimization and operational excellence systems, he is behind the camera. The camera and his travels around the world have focused his lens on people, places and the stories they tell. He freelances regularly for The Valley Catholic newspaper, and he has received awards for this
work from the Catholic Press Association.
Christopher Carmona is a Chican@ Beat poet from the Rio
Grande Valley of South Texas. The Texas Observer recognized
him as being one of the top five writers in 2014. He has two books of poetry, beat and I Have Always Been Here. He edited The Beatest State In The Union: An Anthology of Beat Texas Writings with Chuck Taylor and Rob Johnson and is working on a book called Nuev@s Voces Poeticas: A Dialogue about New Chican@ Poetics with Isaac Chavarria, Gabriel Sanchez, & Rossy Lima Padilla to be published by Slough Press in 2015.
Currently he is the organizer of the Annual Beat Poetry and Arts Festival and the Artistic Director of the Coalition of New Chican@ Artists.
Jenny Campos Galvan is a visual artist from New Orleans,
Louisiana. She is a first generation American, born of Ecuadorian mother and Guatemalan father. Her piece "Children left to wander" speaks to the unanswerable question only these children really understand and are left to fully face. Original is watercolor and ink on 10.5" × 14.5" watercolor paper.
Edward Vidaurre is the author of four books. I Took My Barrio On A Road Trip, (Slough Press 2013), Insomnia (El Zarape Press 2014), Beautiful Scars: Elegiac Beat Poems (El Zarape Press 2015), and his latest collection Chicano Blood Transfusion (FlowerSong Books) was published this year. Vidaurre is the founder of Pasta, Poetry, and Vino--a monthly open mic gathering of artists, poets, and musicians. He resides in McAllen, TX with his wife and daughter.
Fernando Esteban Flores: I am a native Texan residing in San
Antonio, graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Arts in English and have taught writing at various San Antonio secondary schools.
Isis Hinojosa: Escritora y pintora autodidacta, PINTORA
ARTISTICA, y Creadora en Arte Visual at ISIS ARTE Y PINTURA (Facebook page).
Jose G. Cano is a painter, song-writer, and well-rounded artista
from the Mexico-U.S.
frontera/border región in Texas.
Joseph Ross is a writer hailing from Washington, D.C. His first
book of poetry MEETING BONE MAN is available from Main
Street Rag Publishing. You can order it for a discount at
http://mainstreetrag.com/bookstore/product-tag/joseph-ross/
His second book of poetry, GOSPEL OF DUST is available from Main Street Rag Publishing at
http://mainstreetrag.com/bookstore/product-tag/joseph-ross/ It was released June 18, 2013.
Sister Juliana García, a native of Toledo, Spain, was founder of
the Missionaries of Jesus, a religious community dedicated to serving the people of the Rio Grande Valley and Matamoros. She died Nov. 17, 2014 at the age of 81. She was the director of Casa Oscar Romero in the 1980s, a shelter that housed thousands of Central American refugees seeking political asylum in the United States. She also initiated the jail ministry in detention centers across the Rio Grande Valley.
Norma Pimentel is a sister with the Missionaries of Jesus and
executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, the charitable arm of the Diocese of Brownsville, providing oversight of different ministries and programs in the areas of emergency assistance. She leads efforts in the community that respond to emergency relief in times of disaster and crisis in the Rio Grande Valley. In the summer of 2014, she launched the
humanitarian outreach for refugees from Central America.
Octavio Quintanilla’s work has appeared in Salamander, RHINO, Alaska Quarterly Review, Southwestern American Literature, The Texas Observer, Texas Books in Review, and elsewhere. He is a CantoMundo
Fellow and holds a PhD from the University of North Texas.
Currently, he teaches Literature and Creative Writing in the
MA/MFA program at Our Lady of the Lake University. He is a
regular interviews contributor to Voices de La Luna: A Quarterly
Poetry and Arts Magazine and author of the poetry collection, If I Go Missing (Slough Press, 2014).
Phyllis Wax writes in Milwaukee on a bluff overlooking Lake
Michigan. Her poetry has appeared in Ars Medica, Verse Wisconsin, Your Daily Poem, The New Verse News, Naugatuck River Review, Wisconsin Poets' Calendar as well as other journals and anthologies,
both print and online. Social issues inspire much of her work.
PW Covington has been a fixture in the spoken word and Indie
Lit community of Texas for nearly 20 years. As an 18 year old Air Transportation troop in the USAF, he deployed to Mogadishu, Somalia to deliver aid to and protect those victimized by that region's violent refugee crisis and famine. He has remained active
in disaster relief and recovery work ever since. He has lived for
periods of time in the Copper Canyon region of Mexico, and
believes that bridges are better than fences.
Covington's newly released novel is titled "Dear Elsa,"
Raquel López Suárez. Originaria de la ciudad de Río Bravo, Tam. Méx. Titulada en Pedagogía a nivel primaria y medio superior (UPN, 2002-2006). Trabajó como docente por 7 años en una escuela primaria de la ciudad de origen. Actualmente es residente de los Estados Unidos de América. Graduada de Project Ignite (PLP, TX 2009-2011) donde adquirió conocimientos en diversas áreas, tales como; escritura creativa, poesía, teatro, business management, toastmasters, promotora de salud, aerobc’s, etc. En el 2011 se inició en los estudios de teología y psicoterapia (The Ecumenical Center for Religion and Health, Campus McAllen, TX). Así como tomó varios seminarios con enfoque al desarrollo humano y a la salud holística, impartidos por profesionales internacionales.
Autora del libro de pensamientos, reflexiones y poesía, “Lluvias Acarameladas” (Palibrio, 2013).
Fundadora/directora del foro de expresión literario-artístico “Enero Rojo Lunar” (RGV, 2014-2016) incluyendo talentos de USA y de México. Ha participado con sus textos en diversos programas literarios, festivales, instituciones sociales y comunitarias de algunas ciudades del sur del Valle de Texas y del norte de Tamaulipas, MX. (2010-2016).
Donors on Go Fund Me in order of appearance:
P.W. Covington
Maria Gutierrez
Aliver Alanis
Mark Galvez
Michael Gerleman
Leslie Jensen
Diana Aguilar
Judith Tienda
Lupe Mendez
Andres Pacheco