Podcast appearances and mentions of helena maria viramontes

Notes and Links to Marcela Fuentes' Work      For Episode 240, Pete welcomes Marcela Fuentes, and the two discuss, among other topics, her childhood in borderland Texas, her experiences with bilingualism, formative and transformative reading, the greatness and timelessness of Selena, seeds for Malas in fairy tales and the title's multilayered meanings, working in flashback and flashforward to illuminate racism and Texas/borderland histories, and salient themes in her collection like toxic masculinity, the burdens and triumphs of motherhood, grief, trauma, addiction, and ideas of fractured and reworked families.      Marcela Fuentes is a Pushcart Prize-winning fiction writer and essayist. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and was the 2016-2017 James C. McCreight Fiction Fellow at the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in the Indiana Review, The Rumpus, Texas Highways Magazine, Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, and other journals. Her work has been anthologized in New Stories from the Southwest, Best of the Web, and Flash Fiction International. Her story, “The Observable World” appeared in the Pushcart Prizes XLVII : Best of the Small Presses 2023 Edition. She was born and raised in Del Rio, Texas.    Her debut novel MALAS is the Good Morning America Book Club pick for June 2024. Coming soon, the story collection MY HEART HAS MORE ROOMS THAN A WHOREHOUSE, from Viking Books. Buy Malas    Marcela's Website   Marcela's Appearance on Good Morning America   At about 2:00, Marcela describes her “surreal” experience being on Good Morning America At about 4:10, Marcela discusses her early relationship with the written word and Spanish and English-speaking  At about 10:10, Sandra Cisneros, Yo Soy Joaquin, and Helena Maria Viramontes, are cited as formative and transformative writing and writers At about 12:00, Pete recounts a surreal interaction with the wonderful Helena Maria Viramontes At about 13:00, Marcla shouts out Vanessa Chan and Rufi Thorpe as contemporaries who thrill and inspire At about 14:05, Marcela responds to Pete's questions about seeds for the book-shout out Edward Carey! At about 18:05, The two reflect on the book's opening and a resonant first line At about 20:55, Marcela gives background on Caimanes and the barrio where Pilar and José Alfredo, the first main characters, live, and why they like and hate it At about 23:00, Uh, oh-the curse is discussed, as well as Pilar's feelings at eight months pregnant   At about 24:35, Marcela talks about what she envisioned for Pilar, especially her backstory At about 28:20, Ideas of suspicions and insecurities involving José Alfredo on Pilar's part are discussed At about 30:10, Pete and Marcela discuss Anglo/Mexican-American relations and the ways in which racism affected the hospital visit where Pilar is to give birth At about 31:25, Marcela describes what it was like to write such a wrenching scene as the one in the hospital At about 33:45, Pilar's “dull anger” and the ways in which José Alfredo doesn't show up for her  At about 34:40, Lulu Munoz is characterized, as she is introduced in a flashforward scene, and Marcela expands upon her character and her relationship with her “boss man” father  At about 38:10, Pete points out page 60's use of “mala,” and Marcela expands on the word's attendant meanings, especially with regard to the book At about 40:00, Julio (Lulu's father) and his bad behavior is discussed At about 40:40, The two discuss some friends in Lulu's friend group and the “messiness” of the night where Lulu's beloved grandma dies and the chaos of the funeral At about 41:55, Pete wonders about Pilar's mindset and the ways in which Marcela envisioned her emotional state, as the book returned to 1951 At about 46:45, While discussing Lulu's band and music likes, Marcela fangirls about Selena and talks about her personal connections to the great one  At about 49:40, The chaotic quinceañera set for Lulu and its attendant drama is discussed  At about 50:50, Pete compliments the 1970s scenes and the ways in which Marcela writes about this “adjacent history” of civil rights fights in Texas; Marcela gives background on real-life parallels and histories At about 54:40, Marcela talks about exciting future projects, including her story collection  At about 56:50, Marcela highlights places to buy her book and gives out contact information and tour information     You can now subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, and leave me a five-star review. You can also ask for the podcast by name using Alexa, and find the pod on Stitcher, Spotify, and on Amazon Music. Follow me on IG, where I'm @chillsatwillpodcast, or on Twitter, where I'm @chillsatwillpo1. You can watch this and other episodes on YouTube-watch and subscribe to The Chills at Will Podcast Channel. Please subscribe to both my YouTube Channel and my podcast while you're checking out this episode.    I am very excited about having one or two podcast episodes per month featured on the website of Chicago Review of Books. The audio will be posted, along with a written interview culled from the audio. A big thanks to Rachel León and Michael Welch at Chicago Review-I'm looking forward to the partnership!     Sign up now for The Chills at Will Podcast Patreon: it can be found at patreon.com/chillsatwillpodcastpeterriehl     Check out the page that describes the benefits of a Patreon membership, including cool swag and bonus episodes. Thanks in advance for supporting my one-man show, my DIY podcast and my extensive reading, research, editing, and promoting to keep this independent podcast pumping out high-quality content!       This is a passion project of mine, a DIY operation, and I'd love for your help in promoting what I'm convinced is a unique and spirited look at an often-ignored art form.    The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and the other song played on this episode was “Hoops” (Instrumental)” by Matt Weidauer, and both songs are used through ArchesAudio.com.     Please tune in for Episode 241 with Antonio Lopez, who is a poetician working at the intersections of poetry and politics to fight for social change. His 2021 collection, Gentefication, was named one of the "Ten Notable Latino Books of 2021” by NBC. Antonio is a former Marshall Scholar and current Mayor of East Palo Alto. CA.    The episode will go live on July 2.     Lastly, please go to ceasefiretoday.com, which features 10+ actions to help bring about Ceasefire in Gaza.

In the sixth of the CLAA Series for the Fresh from the Hill Podcast, CLAA board members interview the 2023 MacArthur ‘genius grant' recipient, Manuel Muñoz, MFA ‘98. In his writing, Muñoz draws on his roots growing up in a Mexican-American family of farmworkers in California's Central Valley to explore the impacts of racial politics and limited economic opportunities in this region. He tells the stories of a wide spectrum of people, including mothers and sons, U.S.-born citizens and immigrants, young gay men and teenage parents. Manuel details how his academic work at Harvard lead to him teaching young minds in Boston and how that experience led him to pursue a Master of Fine Arts at Cornell. Manuel details how mentors like Helena Maria Viramontes shaped his love for writing and his appetite for short stories. Muñoz, who is professor of English at the University of Arizona, has published three story collections, “Zigzagger” (2003), “The Faith Healer of Olive Avenue” (2007), and “The Consequences” (2022), as well as the novel “What You See in the Dark” (2011). He received his bachelor's degree from Harvard University in 1994. Plug into this episode as our hosts connect the landscape of topics with one of the luminaries in the novelist world! Read the ⁠episode transcript⁠. Hosted by Freddy Terrazas Escamilla MHA '19. Fresh from the Hill was created by Amanda Massa. The CLAA episodes were edited and recorded by Joseph De Los Santos, Freddy Terrazas Escamilla, and Kety Esquivel. Intro music, which that incorporates the sound of the coqui, a frog indigenous to Puerto Rico, by Leonard Washington & Joseph De Los Santos. Closing music by Kia Albertson-Rogers '13, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠koa3@cornell.edu⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Artwork by Chris Kelly. *The views expressed by Fresh from the Hill hosts and guests do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of Cornell University.

Episode 153 Notes and Links to Luivette Resto's Work       On Episode 153 of The Chills at Will Podcast, Pete welcomes Luivette Resto, and the two discuss, among other topics, her childhood in Puerto Rico and the Bronx, her pride in her Puerto Ricanidad, Spanglish, formative reading and writing, mentors and inspirations like Helena Maria Viramontes, ideas of home and identity and inheritance that populate her poetry, and how form and family dynamics inform her work.       Luivette Resto, a mother, teacher, poet, and Wonder Woman fanatic, was born in Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico but proudly raised in the Bronx. She is a CantoMundo and Macondo Fellow, and a Pushcart Prize nominee. She is on the Board of Directors for Women Who Submit, a non profit organization in Los Angeles focused on women and nonbinary writers. Some of her latest work can be read on Spillway, North American Review, and the latest anthology, Gathering. Her latest collection Living On Islands Not Found On Maps is  published by FlowerSong Press.  Her first two books of poetry Unfinished Portrait and Ascension have been published by Tía Chucha Press. Some of her latest work can be found in the anthology titled What Saves Us: Poems of Empathy and Outrage in the Age of Trump edited by Martín Espada and on the University of Arizona's Poetry Center website. She lives in the San Gabriel Valley with her three children aka her revolutionaries. Buy Living on Islands Not Found on Maps   Luivette Resto's Website   “Becoming Guazabara: A Interview with Luivette Resto” by Ivelisse Rodríguez   Luivette Resto's Poetry Foundation Page     At about 7:50, Luivette gives background on her early and lasting connections to her birthplace of Puerto Rico and to the Bronx   At about 12:40, Luivette describes her growing understanding of hyphenated identities and being part of the “Nuyorican culture”   At about 16:45, Luivette lists some of the countless books she read as a kid   At about 19:10, Luivette looks back on the dearth of writers of color to whom she was exposed as a kid and high schooler    At about 20:15, Luivette describes Mrs. Quigley jostl[ing] some things” as Luivette    At about 21:00, Luivette describes the wonderful and creative leadership and mentorship provided by Helena Maria Viramontes    At about 22:40, Luivette cites Viramontes' leading Luivette to great Puerto Rican writers like Martin Espada and Judith Ortiz Cofer (Latin Deli)   At about 24:30, Luivette references a few words that are particular to Puerto Rico that Martin Espada uses in his work that thrilled her     At about 26:50, Pete tells the story about a banal and thrilling experience with Helena Maria Viramontes    At about 28:00, Luivette responds to Pete's questions about transformational moments along the way to becoming a writer-she cites Helena Maria Viramontes' influence    At about 31:50, Luivette shouts out Martin Espada (read Floaters!) and Pedro Pietri and as two of the many writers who inspire her   At about 35:00, Pete and Luivette talk about precision with words and discuss Luivette's philosophy on poetry and how she is a poet on a daily basis   At about 38:30, Luivette gives the seeds and background for her collection, which was “seven years in the making”   At about 41:15, The two discuss the continuity of the collection    At about 42:20, Luivette summarizes themes of Parts I and II in the collection and gives background on the process of splitting up the collection    At about 45:25, The two discuss the collection's opening poem and ideas of the poet as speaker and connections to the ocean and the protectoress, as well as the forms of pantoum and her “Didactic” poems    At about 50:40, Pete cites the masculine and feminine natures of the sea, as posed by Hemingway's Santiago   At about 51:45, Inheritance is explored through some early poems in the collection and real-life connections to Luivette's mother and grandmother   At about 57:55, Ideas of home and personality that come up in a few poems are referenced and discussed    At about 59:40, Pete compliments the “fresh spin” that Luivette puts on ideas of sexism and misogyny   At about 1:00:50, Luivette reads her poem “MILF”   At about 1:02:00, Luivette connects ideas of home and father-daughter relationships with some of her work   At about 1:04:00, Ideas of potential and hope and a lifesaving experience dramatized in Luivette's work are discussed    At about 1:05:35, Home and identity and languages as themes are discussed    At about 1:06:45, Luivette provides background on the writing of the title poem with help from Diana Marie Delgado   At about 1:10:00, Pete cites some standout lines from the collection's second part, especially those revolving around intimacy and love and loss   At about 1:12:20, Highlighting misogyny and ideas of the power of women as depicted in the poetry, Pete asks Luivette about the cool double-meaning of “coqueta”   At about 1:13:50, Luivette reads the title poem    You can now subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, and leave me a five-star review. You can also ask for the podcast by name using Alexa, and find the pod on Stitcher, Spotify, and on Amazon Music. Follow me on IG, where I'm @chillsatwillpodcast, or on Twitter, where I'm @chillsatwillpo1. You can watch other episodes on YouTube-watch and subscribe to The Chills at Will Podcast Channel. Please subscribe to both my YouTube Channel and my podcast while you're checking out this episode.     Sign up now for The Chills at Will Podcast Patreon: it can be found at patreon.com/chillsatwillpodcastpeterriehl     Check out the page that describes the benefits of a Patreon membership, including cool swag and bonus episodes. Thanks in advance for supporting my one-man show, my DIY podcast and my extensive reading, research, editing, and promoting to keep this independent podcast pumping out high-quality content!    This is a passion project of mine, a DIY operation, and I'd love for your help in promoting what I'm convinced is a unique and spirited look at an often-ignored art form.    The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and the other song played on this episode was “Hoops” (Instrumental)” by Matt Weidauer, and both songs are used through ArchesAudio.com.   Please tune in for Episode 154 with Ian MacAllen, the author of Red Sauce: How Italian Food Became American. He is a writer, editor, and graphic designer living in Brooklyn. Pete can't wait to talk sauce and gravy and sugo.    The episode will air on November 29.

'The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital' (University of New Orleans Press, 2022) by writer and activist Tony Diaz, known as El Librotraficante, was published ten years after Arizona officials enforced a ban on Mexican American Studies. Diaz drove throughout the Southwest on his way to Arizona—with a caravan of Houston activists that included poet Lupe Mendez, Liana Lopez, Bryan Parras, and Laura Razo—after the state banned high school Mexican American studies programs, thus outlawing curriculums that consisted of books like The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros; The Months and Other Stories by Helena Maria Viramontes; Luis Urrea's The Hummingbird's Daughter and The Devil's Highway, among others. Diaz's The Tip of the Pyramid addresses the power and importance of cultural and community capital as a source of “self empowerment of our gente.” In this episode of OP Talks, he discusses the new book with Dr. Angela Valenzuela, director of the University of Texas Center for Education Policy, and doctoral student and longtime educator Patricia Núñez. They also discuss his activism work with the nonprofit he founded, Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say, and the mobilization of librotraficantes to fight bans on Latino authors and ethnic studies. Diaz notes that, with the national politicalization of school boards and book bans still taking place today, the need to work on behalf of the Latino community remains urgent. He shares a story about visiting the Mayan archaeological complex Teotihuacán in Mexico: While to some it is a tourist trap, for Diaz it proved to be a spiritual experience that made him feel both thrilled and angry. He remembers sitting on the steps of this ancient city, “having all these revelations in my mind” and thinking, “Wow, we have [been] brainwashed. I am standing on the proof of our gente's power, beauty, intelligence, and this has been kept from me, and the fact that this structure here exists is testament to all that.” The media, Diaz laments, constantly fails to accurately represent the Latino experience: “The forms that exist, especially from corporate media and corporate publishing, do not fully convey our experiences and, in some cases, they just erase us.”

In episode #57 of Rewrite Radio, Helena María Viramontes shares her thoughts on prayer, compassion, and love to form a deeper connection with others. Theme music is Modern Attempt by TrackTribe and June 11 by Andrew Starr.

Episode 99 Notes and Links to Sara Borjas' Work        On Episode 99 of The Chills at Will Podcast, Pete welcomes Sara Borjas, and the two talk about, among other topics, Sara's relationship with language, bilingualism and identity, pochismo, formative and transformative writers and teachers, and themes and ideas from Sara's standout collection, Heart Like a Window, Mouth Like a Cliff.        SARA BORJAS is a Xicanx pocha, is from the Americas before it was stolen and its people were colonized, and is a Fresno poet. George Floyd. Delaina Ashley Yaun Gonzalez. Lorenzo Perez. Xiaojie Tan. Say their names. Joyce Echaquan. Her debut collection of poetry, Heart Like a Window, Mouth Like a Cliff was published by Noemi Press in 2019 and won a 2020 American Book Award. Juanito Falcon. Breonna Taylor. Daoyou Feng. Elcias Hernandez-Ortiz. Sara was named one of Poets & Writers 2019 Debut Poets, is a 2017 CantoMundo Fellow, and the recipient of the 2014 Blue Mesa Poetry Prize. Hyun Jung Grant. Ahmaud Arbery. Suncha Kim. Her work can be found in Ploughshares, The Rumpus, Poem-a-Day by The Academy of American Poets, Alta and The Offing, amongst others. Sandra Bland. Soon Chung Park. Yong Ae Yue. She teaches innovative undergraduates at UC Riverside, believes that all Black lives matter and will resist white supremacy until Black liberation is realized, lives in Los Angeles, and stays rooted in Fresno. Say their names. Justice for George Floyd and the countless others. She digs oldiez, outer space, aromatics, and tiny prints, is about decentering whiteness in literature, creative writing, and daily life.    Buy Sara Borjas' Heart Like a Window, Mouth Like a Cliff   From The Rumpus:"A CLEANSING TORNADO: HEART LIKE A WINDOW, MOUTH LIKE A CLIFF BY SARA BORJAS" The Georgia Review Review of Heart Like a Window, Mouth Like a Cliff   “Pocha and Proud: An Interview with Sara Borjas” from Los Angeles Review of Books At about 2:30, Sara talks about her relationship with language growing up, particularly her relationship with Spanish and bilingualism    At about 6:00, Sara explains the “pocho lecture” and how speaking Spanish was punished in her parents' lives   At about 9:10, Pete asks Sara what she was reading as a kid, and if she “saw herself” in what she read   At about 11:10, Sara talks about her first exposure to writers of color, guided by Professors Alex Espinoza and Sameeta Najmee, and reading greats like Helena Maria Viramontes and Marisela Norte   At about 12:15, Pete and Sara talk about their shared admiration for Marisela Norte and Sara's work connecting to that of Moffat Takadiwa   At about 13:00, Sara talks about Tomás Rivera and his background and connections to UIC Riverside where she teaches   At about 14:00, Sara muses on the void that existed in her reading that “aligned with whiteness” and how it affected her    At about 15:50, Pete and Sara discuss “pocho” and its implications; Sara talks about reclaiming its meaning   At about 20:00, Sara describes the ways in which people of color, her parents included, have been innovative in escaping prejudice and oversimplified narratives   At about 20:45, Pete asks Sara about “pocho” in work that has come in recent years, including by innovators like Alan Chazaro, Episode 92 guest   At about 23:20, Sara shouts out writers who have and continue to have an effect on her through their chill-inducing work, including Marwa Helal, Aria Aber, Layli Long Soldier, Anthony Cody, Tongo Eisen-Martin, Roque Dalton, Bob Kaufman, Alejandra Pizarnik, and some standout students of hers   At about 26:25, Pete asks Sara how she explains to her students about “language to assert power,” including how Marwa Helal flips the script   At about 28:30, Pete wonders about Sara's thoughts on “decoding” her poetry, and poetry “having one answers”   At about 31:30, Pete asks Sara about the idea of reciting poetry from memory, and she talks about the “power” that comes from memorizing, including how she talked to Tongo Eisen-Martin about memorization   At about 33:20, Sara describes how she grew into becoming a poet, including some incredible mentorship and encouragement from Juan Luis Guzmán, and transitions into ways in which she and other women have been made to feel like they need to be quiet   At about 37:30, Sara meditates on her evolving attitude towards her missions and work over the years   At about 39:10, Pete wonders how Sara seeks out and pumps up students who are like she was when she was in school   At about 41:50, Pete and Sara have a discussion about Sara's ideas of prose and other formas, as done in Heart Like a Window, Mouth Like a Cliff; she also describes some probing and helpful questions from Carmen Gimenez Smith that led to writing ideas   At about 46:35, Sara details the inspiration she received from Anish Kapoor's installation, and how it served as a muse for Sara's poem “We are Too Big for This House”   At about 49:35, Pete asks Sara about poem titles and their connection to the poems themselves    At about 50:55, Sara gives her thoughts on translation in her poems   At about 52:20, Sara answers Pete's question regarding if Sara is the narrator/protagonist of her poems   At about 53:50, Sara talks about the importance of creative expression and the power and beauty of poems, as exemplified by Michael Torres and The Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop   At about 55:20, Pete asks Sara about her collection using powerful words from Audre Lorde and Cherie Moraga as epigraphs   At about 59:00, Sara describes identity as seen in her work, including Aztlan's significance in the collection's first poem and in society as a whole; she describes it as a “marker” and a “tool for transformation”   At about 1:02:00, Pete recounts some brilliant and profound lines about identity from poems in the collection, including ones about women's liberation     At about 1:04:45, Pete cites “Los de Abajo” and asks Sara about her ideas of rasquachismo and its importance in her work; she shouts out creative art as seen at Tío's Tacos in Riverside   At about 1:06:55, Sara and Pete discuss the “mother and daughter' relationships” as an overriding theme in her collection; Sara shouts out Rachel McKibbens as another inspiration   At about 1:10:20, Sara and Pete converse about intergenerational trauma and machismo in Sara's work   At about 1:12:45, Pete wonders about Narcissus and the multiple appearances in Sara's work; she mentions inspiration coming from a class taken with Reza Aslan   At about 1:16:10, Sara talks about conceptions of gender as seen in her work   At about 1:18:00, Sara gives background on “Mexican Bingo” and reads the poem   At about 1:22:30, Pete asks about Sara's future projects, including her penchant for writing skits and music   At about 1:24:00, Sara gives out contact info and encourages people to buy her book from Noemi Press or on Bookshop You can now subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, and leave me a five-star review. You can also ask for the podcast by name using Alexa, and find the pod on Stitcher, Spotify, and on Amazon Music. Follow me on IG, where I'm @chillsatwillpodcast, or on Twitter, where I'm @chillsatwillpo1. You can watch other episodes on YouTube-watch and subscribe to The Chills at Will Podcast Channel. Please subscribe to both my YouTube Channel and my podcast while you're checking out this episode.  This is a passion project of mine, a DIY operation, and I'd love for your help in promoting what I'm convinced is a unique and spirited look at an often-ignored art form. The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and the other song played on this episode was “Hoops” (Instrumental)” by Matt Weidauer, and both songs are used through ArchesAudio.com. You can now subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, and leave me a five-star review. You can also ask for the podcast by name using Alexa, and find the pod on Stitcher, Spotify, and on Amazon Music. Follow me on IG, where I'm @chillsatwillpodcast, or on Twitter, where I'm @chillsatwillpo1. You can watch other episodes on YouTube-watch and subscribe to The Chills at Will Podcast Channel. Please subscribe to both my YouTube Channel and my podcast while you're checking out this episode.  This is a passion project of mine, a DIY operation, and I'd love for your help in promoting what I'm convinced is a unique and spirited look at an often-ignored art form. The intro song for The Chills at Will Podcast is “Wind Down” (Instrumental Version), and the other song played on this episode was “Hoops” (Instrumental)” by Matt Weidauer, and both songs are used through ArchesAudio.com. I'm looking forward to sharing Episode 100 (WHOA) with Susan Muaddi Darraj, teacher, writer of the groundbreaking Farrah Rocks middle-grade series, and winner of the AWP Grace Paley Prize for Short Fiction. The episode airs on January 17.    

Cheryl Hartup, Curator of Academic Programs and Latin American and Caribbean Art at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art; and Danielle Knapp, the McCosh Curator at the Jordan Schnitzer of Art, discuss the museum's Common Seeing collaboration with the UO's Common Reading program. This year the exhibit responds to Helena Maria Viramontes's novel, Under the Feet of Jesus. The curators describe the works of art on view. "Resistance as Power: A Curatorial Response to Under the Feet of Jesus" is on view through February 23rd, 2020.

Helena María Viramontes, the Goldwin Smith Professor of English at Cornell University, is the author of numerous short stories and two novels, Their Dogs Came with Them and Under the Feet of Jesus. She discusses her writing and Under the Feet of Jesus which is the University of Oregon's 2019-20 Common Reading selection. Viramontes also reads a passage from the book.

The California farmlands have long served as a popular symbol of America’s natural abundance and endless opportunity. Yet, from John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath and Carlos Bulosan’s America is in the Heart to Helena Maria Viramontes’s Under the Feet of Jesus, many novels, plays, movies, and songs have dramatized the brutality and hardships of working in the California fields. Little scholarship has focused on what these cultural productions tell us about who belongs in America, and in what ways they are allowed to belong. In The Nature of California: Race, Citizenship, and Farming since the Dust Bowl (University of Washington Press, 2016), Sarah Wald analyzes this legacy and its consequences by examining the paradoxical representations of California farmers and farmworkers from the Dust Bowl migration to present-day movements for food justice and immigrant rights. Analyzing fiction, nonfiction, news coverage, activist literature, memoirs, and more, Wald gives us a new way of thinking through questions of national belonging by probing the relationships among race, labor, and landownership. Bringing together eco-criticism and critical race theory, she pays special attention to marginalized groups, examining how Japanese American journalists, Filipino workers, United Farm Workers members, and contemporary immigrants-rights activists, among others, pushed back against the standard narratives of landownership and citizenship. SARAH D. WALD is assistant professor of English and environmental studies at the University of Oregon. Lori A. Flores is an Assistant Professor of History at Stony Brook University (SUNY) and the author of Grounds for Dreaming: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the California Farmworker Movement (Yale, 2016). You can find her at http://www.loriaflores.com, lori.flores@stonybrook.edu, or hanging around Brooklyn. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The California farmlands have long served as a popular symbol of America’s natural abundance and endless opportunity. Yet, from John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath and Carlos Bulosan’s America is in the Heart to Helena Maria Viramontes’s Under the Feet of Jesus, many novels, plays, movies, and songs have dramatized the brutality and hardships of working in the California fields. Little scholarship has focused on what these cultural productions tell us about who belongs in America, and in what ways they are allowed to belong. In The Nature of California: Race, Citizenship, and Farming since the Dust Bowl (University of Washington Press, 2016), Sarah Wald analyzes this legacy and its consequences by examining the paradoxical representations of California farmers and farmworkers from the Dust Bowl migration to present-day movements for food justice and immigrant rights. Analyzing fiction, nonfiction, news coverage, activist literature, memoirs, and more, Wald gives us a new way of thinking through questions of national belonging by probing the relationships among race, labor, and landownership. Bringing together eco-criticism and critical race theory, she pays special attention to marginalized groups, examining how Japanese American journalists, Filipino workers, United Farm Workers members, and contemporary immigrants-rights activists, among others, pushed back against the standard narratives of landownership and citizenship. SARAH D. WALD is assistant professor of English and environmental studies at the University of Oregon. Lori A. Flores is an Assistant Professor of History at Stony Brook University (SUNY) and the author of Grounds for Dreaming: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the California Farmworker Movement (Yale, 2016). You can find her at http://www.loriaflores.com, lori.flores@stonybrook.edu, or hanging around Brooklyn. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The California farmlands have long served as a popular symbol of America’s natural abundance and endless opportunity. Yet, from John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath and Carlos Bulosan’s America is in the Heart to Helena Maria Viramontes’s Under the Feet of Jesus, many novels, plays, movies, and songs have dramatized the brutality and hardships of working in the California fields. Little scholarship has focused on what these cultural productions tell us about who belongs in America, and in what ways they are allowed to belong. In The Nature of California: Race, Citizenship, and Farming since the Dust Bowl (University of Washington Press, 2016), Sarah Wald analyzes this legacy and its consequences by examining the paradoxical representations of California farmers and farmworkers from the Dust Bowl migration to present-day movements for food justice and immigrant rights. Analyzing fiction, nonfiction, news coverage, activist literature, memoirs, and more, Wald gives us a new way of thinking through questions of national belonging by probing the relationships among race, labor, and landownership. Bringing together eco-criticism and critical race theory, she pays special attention to marginalized groups, examining how Japanese American journalists, Filipino workers, United Farm Workers members, and contemporary immigrants-rights activists, among others, pushed back against the standard narratives of landownership and citizenship. SARAH D. WALD is assistant professor of English and environmental studies at the University of Oregon. Lori A. Flores is an Assistant Professor of History at Stony Brook University (SUNY) and the author of Grounds for Dreaming: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the California Farmworker Movement (Yale, 2016). You can find her at http://www.loriaflores.com, lori.flores@stonybrook.edu, or hanging around Brooklyn. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The California farmlands have long served as a popular symbol of America’s natural abundance and endless opportunity. Yet, from John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath and Carlos Bulosan’s America is in the Heart to Helena Maria Viramontes’s Under the Feet of Jesus, many novels, plays, movies, and songs have dramatized the brutality and hardships of working in the California fields. Little scholarship has focused on what these cultural productions tell us about who belongs in America, and in what ways they are allowed to belong. In The Nature of California: Race, Citizenship, and Farming since the Dust Bowl (University of Washington Press, 2016), Sarah Wald analyzes this legacy and its consequences by examining the paradoxical representations of California farmers and farmworkers from the Dust Bowl migration to present-day movements for food justice and immigrant rights. Analyzing fiction, nonfiction, news coverage, activist literature, memoirs, and more, Wald gives us a new way of thinking through questions of national belonging by probing the relationships among race, labor, and landownership. Bringing together eco-criticism and critical race theory, she pays special attention to marginalized groups, examining how Japanese American journalists, Filipino workers, United Farm Workers members, and contemporary immigrants-rights activists, among others, pushed back against the standard narratives of landownership and citizenship. SARAH D. WALD is assistant professor of English and environmental studies at the University of Oregon. Lori A. Flores is an Assistant Professor of History at Stony Brook University (SUNY) and the author of Grounds for Dreaming: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the California Farmworker Movement (Yale, 2016). You can find her at http://www.loriaflores.com, lori.flores@stonybrook.edu, or hanging around Brooklyn. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The California farmlands have long served as a popular symbol of America’s natural abundance and endless opportunity. Yet, from John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath and Carlos Bulosan’s America is in the Heart to Helena Maria Viramontes’s Under the Feet of Jesus, many novels, plays, movies, and songs have dramatized the brutality and hardships of working in the California fields. Little scholarship has focused on what these cultural productions tell us about who belongs in America, and in what ways they are allowed to belong. In The Nature of California: Race, Citizenship, and Farming since the Dust Bowl (University of Washington Press, 2016), Sarah Wald analyzes this legacy and its consequences by examining the paradoxical representations of California farmers and farmworkers from the Dust Bowl migration to present-day movements for food justice and immigrant rights. Analyzing fiction, nonfiction, news coverage, activist literature, memoirs, and more, Wald gives us a new way of thinking through questions of national belonging by probing the relationships among race, labor, and landownership. Bringing together eco-criticism and critical race theory, she pays special attention to marginalized groups, examining how Japanese American journalists, Filipino workers, United Farm Workers members, and contemporary immigrants-rights activists, among others, pushed back against the standard narratives of landownership and citizenship. SARAH D. WALD is assistant professor of English and environmental studies at the University of Oregon. Lori A. Flores is an Assistant Professor of History at Stony Brook University (SUNY) and the author of Grounds for Dreaming: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the California Farmworker Movement (Yale, 2016). You can find her at http://www.loriaflores.com, lori.flores@stonybrook.edu, or hanging around Brooklyn. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The California farmlands have long served as a popular symbol of America’s natural abundance and endless opportunity. Yet, from John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath and Carlos Bulosan’s America is in the Heart to Helena Maria Viramontes’s Under the Feet of Jesus, many novels, plays, movies, and songs have dramatized the brutality and hardships of working in the California fields. Little scholarship has focused on what these cultural productions tell us about who belongs in America, and in what ways they are allowed to belong. In The Nature of California: Race, Citizenship, and Farming since the Dust Bowl (University of Washington Press, 2016), Sarah Wald analyzes this legacy and its consequences by examining the paradoxical representations of California farmers and farmworkers from the Dust Bowl migration to present-day movements for food justice and immigrant rights. Analyzing fiction, nonfiction, news coverage, activist literature, memoirs, and more, Wald gives us a new way of thinking through questions of national belonging by probing the relationships among race, labor, and landownership. Bringing together eco-criticism and critical race theory, she pays special attention to marginalized groups, examining how Japanese American journalists, Filipino workers, United Farm Workers members, and contemporary immigrants-rights activists, among others, pushed back against the standard narratives of landownership and citizenship. SARAH D. WALD is assistant professor of English and environmental studies at the University of Oregon. Lori A. Flores is an Assistant Professor of History at Stony Brook University (SUNY) and the author of Grounds for Dreaming: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the California Farmworker Movement (Yale, 2016). You can find her at http://www.loriaflores.com, lori.flores@stonybrook.edu, or hanging around Brooklyn. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Their Dogs Came with Them (Atria) Helena Maria Viramontes has written about L.A.-based Latino culture before -- but who could have expected this epic work about a neighborhood that is divided by a freeway, cut off and lost in Los Angeles. Viramontes explores the explosive insights that gave her the ability to grow as a novelist.

Under the Feet of Jesus Viramontes talks about the Latina writer's obligation to choose art and truth over political correctness.