It's the 1994 La Joya Coyotes senior prom and I'm 18 years old. I got my fancy suit on, looking all GQ. On my arm, I got a pretty woman clinging to me like she's walking a tight rope. Perhaps it's the heels that can't come easy when you are wearing a tight, form-fitting dress and looking all glam yourself. 

               We bust through the quadruple doors of the entrance to my high school. Everybody is looking at me like, "Is that Gabriel walking in with that angel? Who is she?" They were all confused of course because my date was not one of them. She was an outsider. In fact, she was a bit older than me, so she wasn't even in high school at that point. So it's quite an impression I made coming in with what looked like my girl, since I was never seen promenading around with a girl in the hallways throughout my high school career.  I never even had an "official," public girlfriend back then. I was never known for being a Casanova, in spite of the fact that most girls thought I was a player for some reason. I guess it was my quiet demeanor. My sleepy, love-me-tender eyelids. The fact that girls always found it easy to connect with me. That always raised suspicions. 

"Tiene la musica por dentro," is the local saying. In other words, he's got a well-hidden bad boy side.

                       As we join the crowd in the cafeteria now converted into a dance hall, we see the band on stage. An unbelievable manifestation, like seeing ghosts. How was it possible that we had gotten this band of all bands to play at OUR PROM?!

  And the band was?
                     None other than
                                   LOS PALOMINOS.
                                                       Whooooaaa...

                  Los Palominos were just one of many tent poles in the Tejano Music genre that swept the nation's Spanish-speaking communities throughout the 1980's and '90's. To me, they were my favorite band. It's hard to describe just what their music sounds like if you have never heard it, but it's a mix of Mexican cumbia and norteno music with a tinge of U.S. rock & roll oldies...at least in spirit. 

              Aside from them, those bands that seemed to be the ambassadors of a vibrant, unique, and proud (though very much humble in style and presentation) music tradition were powerhouses like el Grupo Mazz, La Mafia, Emilio Navaira, and the mega star, Selena Quintanilla. Of all of these, the three most influential in the Rio Grande Valley, as well as nationally and internationally were Mazz, Emilio, and Selena. 

                 Let me get right down to the conspiracy theory here. In 2008, Emilio Navaira was in a terrifying bus crash that nearly took his life and survived only to be killed off by a massive heart attack eight years later. Joe Lopez, lead singer for Grupo Mazz was tried and convicted of raping his niece in 2007. He was given a 32 year sentence of which he served 10 and was released a mere ghost of his former self. And of course, Selena Quintanilla was murdered in cold blood by Yolanda Saldivar in 1995. Only a year after my prom.

           Really, after the death of Selena, the Tejano Music industry took a dive. It was the beginning of the end. It is peculiar that all these (and others) Tejano singers met such negative fates. Their destinies are rivaled only by hard-core gangsta' rappers who occasionally get gunned down or o.d. Which begs the question, what's behind this very rapid death of an entire music genre? What are the forces behind it that brought about these results?

                  In the case of Joe Lopez of Grupo Mazz, there are still alternate versions of the rape accusation. It seems that certain evidence that could have proved his innocence was not admitted in his court case, and so he was convicted.

                  When it comes to Emilio, I'm always suspicious when someone of a young age, comparatively speaking, just up and croaks one regular day. He was only 53 years old! Did someone slip some poison in his Chivas Regal? He was at his home, for cryin' out loud. One of my uncles died the same way. He was found alone in his home, dead of an apparent massive heart attack. But questions remained of people that had access to him, and who might have had a motive to kill him. Did Emilio face such a danger as well? There had already been one brush with death. The media chalked it up to him driving his tour bus without a license and under the influence of alcohol. But you know what Trump says about the media, right? Hmmmm...

               Selena Quintanilla, the queen of Mexican Americans, was not only at the top of her game in 1995. She was so far above all others in the genre, that she couldn't help but break the music industry into pieces, unwilling to conform to only one musical tradition. She was a true star in every way. The inspiration and hope she gave to all the millions across the U.S. and the world was really something noteworthy. Especially if it is your business to keep populations in check. After all, music has the undeniable power to move people, to create social awareness that bring about movements that lead to structural change. Someone had to do something about these bad hombres and nasty women of the Southern border. 

               For starters, you shoot to kill the biggest, most influential among them, because that's the way it's always done. Look at MLK, Bobby Kennedy, JFK, Lincoln. There's no other sure way but a bullet to cut down the towering figure. This was Selena's fate. Was Yolanda Saldivar a Manchurian candidate set upon the queen of Tejano to end her life? What might have been Yolanda's trigger? "Bidi bidi, bang bang?" like Howard Stern so succinctly, if disgustingly, phrased it?

            And as happened to people around these powerful historical figures, those secondary influential people got dealt with in various ways. Poison, for instance, is very efficient. Some times undetectable (according to my research watching many episodes of Forensic Files, and when done correctly by professionals). It's the perfect way to quietly remove someone of prominence from the scene. Perhaps this might explain Emilio Navaira's fate?

                But you can't rely on poison alone to dismantle the tent poles that keep a movement standing. That's where allegations come into play. Is Joe Lopez truly a child rapist? We know that a conviction isn't always definitive proof of guilt. Just ask the many people who have been exonerated and released from prison years or decades after being wrongfully convicted. It happens. I don't know all the facts about the Joe Lopez case, but if there are factors that were not analyzed, I think it is only fair to do due diligence because, after all, this is a person's life we are talking about. 

             So the question remains: who was behind the conspiracy to kill Tejano music? The US govt? The Hispanic U.S. media groups seeking to replace a strong Mexican American identity-driven music movement with a more neutral, and less potent music genre that is based on simplistic, repetitive beats that never change no matter the song, or the artist, or the passage of time? 

                    Yes, I'm talking about you, Reggaeton. If there is such a thing as playing Mozart and Beethoven to your baby while in the womb to help her or him be born a genius, then playing Reggaeton at any stage in life has got to produce the polar opposite. (Some songs are aiight, tho ;p). 

                 But to what end? What would those Hispanic media groups gain by killing Tejano Music? Well, it's no secret that Mexican Americans comprise the strongest (numerically speaking) category of Latinos in the U.S. Other Central and South Americans who come here represent a tiny fragment of the Latino populace, yet it may be in their interest to shape the body politic of Latinos in the U.S. by diminishing the Mexican influence and replacing it with a more universal Hispanic identity not rooted in any one Latin American nation. And the ultimate goal of such an effort, you ask? That is the million dollar question.

                  I tell you, this is a mystery just begging to be explored. And as the chief editor at The Raving Press, I will make a pledge to you here. If anyone out there is able to take this topic on and produce a manuscript of at least 18,000 words be it a fictional novella or non-fiction text, we will publish, promote it, and share the royalties 50/50 with you. So let's see what you got.

Gabriel H. Sanchez, 
Chief Editor 
The Raving Press 

P.S. I love Reggaetoneros. Where are my Reggaetoneros? 

Get the Bad Hombres & Nasty Women anthology by The Raving Press for FREE for a very limited time. This is a collection of poetry, art, and short stories for the times we are living in. An important collection to own on Kindle or Paperback. 

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Are you a published author with a book to sell, or an artist, photographer, musician, actor, or artisan who has items to sell? The Raving Press Events is hosting its 3rd annual book festival at the Speer Memorial Library in Mission, Texas on February 16, 2019 from 10 am to 4 pm. We are offering a FREE BOOTH primarily to authors, but also to artists and others. Limited booths available. 

Last night we had an event at the Dustin Michael Sekula Memorial Library in Edinburg, Texas. (thanks to the staff there) where we had a signup sheet for the free booth at our next event. But since the book presentations were moved to another spot at the library, many people never found us. That is why we are extending this invitation to everyone who came looking for us and anyone else who might be interested in joining us in February. 

Download the Bad Hombres & Nasty Women: Anthology. This is a book of poetry, short stories, photography, and art responding to our current president's most outlandish rhetoric from the start. 

For the greatest effect, SHARE THIS LINK with friends and fellow creatives. 

Limited time offer ends 11/29/2018.

Get Lost: Children of the River for FREE for a limited time from November 19, 2018 to November 23, 2018.

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​Please do consider providing even a single-word review or feedback on Amazon.

This is not required for you to get the book entirely FREE, but it would help us greatly in alerting others about our publications and our press. 

THANK YOU SO MUCH. ENJOY!

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A podcast to remember

Ever wonder what's the story behind The Raving Press?
      Listen to the REMEMBER THE SHOW Podcast Below to catch some of the chat I had with Enclave Magazine's Hector Luis Alamo on topics ranging from life in Reynosa, Mexico, the Rio Grande Valley, publishing in Texas, the origins of The Raving Press, and the question of being (identity matters). It was a great time talking to Hector. I hope we can do it again sometime. I promise to work on my time-fillers. :)
      BTW, if you are thinking of getting our latest anthology, follow this LINK HERE to purchase a copy of Poets Facing The Wall at a 10% discount. ​

​It's been a journey from the moment the idea for this anthology was born to its completion. In that span of time, so much has happened to inspire or necessitate the publication of different anthologies addressing such things as family separation, child detention centers, #metoo, and so on. But quality requires time and thoroughness.  The good thing is that this upcoming anthology, Poets Facing The Wall, does cover some peripheral territory related to what the wall represents. And, for that reason, you will see poetry that might seem to divert from the central topic.

Ultimately, it does not, for it is an anthology for, about, and by the unwanted "other," the disenfranchised voices of America, and the enlightened citizen refusing to allow this to be done in her or his name. We dedicate this publication to them and to posterity. For the American dream cannot and will not die. It will overrun oppressive forces and topple the barriers to freedom. Here the American people make a stand, joined by their fellow citizens of the world in recognition of the universal truth that might does not make right, and human rights and dignity trump political expediency.

Poets Facing The Wall will be officially released on November 6, 2018, a.k.a. VOTING DAY! Go fulfill your American duty as a citizen and vote regardless of your political leaning. Then head on to Amazon (linked on the picture below) and get your copy of the anthology as a gift to yourself for being such a great patriot!

And now, the official cover reveal...

Drum roll, please.

The submission deadline for the upcoming "Poets Facing the Wall" anthology (The Raving Press, 2018) has come and gone. We have received an abundance of amazing poetry. We were astounded at the level of sophistication of most of the submission material we received. This anthology will be our first to include three different languages, and contributions by writers from as far as New Delhi, India, making this not just an international publication, but a global one.

Many of the works you will see in this anthology come from prize-winning authors, as well as from writers relatively new to the publishing process, but who exhibited a lot of heart and passion. And that is why we went to the poets primarily for this project.

It is the poets who speak from the heart. It is the poets who are historically willing to risk liberty, life, and limb to stand up for justice, for humanity in an inhumane phase of history, and for beauty in an otherwise savage world. Poetry may not bring riches. Poetry may not win wars. Poetry may not even sway the masses when the track that's been laid before them leads the train down a dark and irreversible path to their own destruction. But poets (as opposed to historians, politicians, media talking heads, and Monday-morning quarterbacks) call the plays as they should be in real time regardless of the fury and fire they may spark in those whose interest is to keep the people blind to the truth. 

We hope that this project and future ones (here's wishing the First Amendment a very long life still) will inspire and fill with hope everyone who comes across it. That they may sample the brilliance of the minds that contributed the sacred fruit of their ponderings to this publication and feel elevated. That they may repurpose the walls that ignorance and hate erect to divide people and use them as bridges on which all can walk in each other's shoes and see a common humanity. 

Thank you, poets, friends, authors, editors, reviewers, our introduction writer (soon to be revealed), collaborators, teachers, family, and compatriots. We will be announcing the publishing date in early Fall. 

Until then, keep writing and reading books. If you are ever in need of reading material please consider getting yourselves a copy of one of our latest titles  like "Lost:Children of the River" ​

or "Bad Hombres & Nasty Women". ​

The deadline to the "Poets Facing the Wall" poetry anthology is approaching fast! We have received submissions from around the country from writers with an impressive array of past publications. We are also receiving submissions from poets who are relatively new to the publication game. This makes for an interesting time sorting through the submissions, since neither of those two backgrounds is a true determinant of the quality of individuals' works. But the result will be the selection of only  the top material for this very important publication. 

We want to encourage individuals who are still considering submitting to do so asap. Don't let the deadline pass you by. Once we go past the deadline we will be moving on the selection process "like a bitch" (LOL) to determine the shape of the book and its flow. Get in on this now. The surprising thing about it is that, although it is a publication about a topic affecting primarily people of the borderlands of Mexico/U.S., most of the submissions are from outside of this area. Strange because the border is filled with poetas who have things to say. This is your chance to join a diverse crowd of wordsmiths from around the country. 

No notices have been sent out to authors who have submitted material. So if you are one of those authors, please know that we won't send out any notices until AFTER the July 1 deadline. Thank you for your patience and for taking part in this project. It's going to be a great book. You will be proud of the final product when it is published. 

​Remember, only 6 days left. Go HERE for submission guidelines!