Podcasts about librotraficante

Relive the community event celebrating Mario Castillo making history as the first Latino Chancellor for Lone Star College! La gente celebrated Tuesday, March 20th, 2024, at Spanish Flowers to congratulate Chancellor Mario K. Castillo. We had so many folks join us, including: Lone Star College Partners Art Murillo, Lone Star College Board of Trustee The Latino Cultural Experts Committee LSC LASO Houston North Puente LSC - HN Thank you to our Community Partners: Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say The American Leadership Forum ALMAAHH - Advocates of a Latino Museum of Cultural and Visual Arts & Archive Complex in Houston, Harris County Que Onda Magazine LULAC Tony Diaz Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston's first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston's Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation. When Arizona officials banned Mexican American Studies, Diaz and four veteran members of NP organized the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books from the banned curriculum back into Arizona. He is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing. Tony hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. * This is part of a Nuestra Palabra Multiplatform broadcast. * Video airs on www.Fox26Houston.com. * Audio airs on 90.1 FM Houston, KPFT, Houston's Community Station, where our show began. * Live events. Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer Radame Ortiez, SEO Director Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer Leti Lopez, Music Director Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus Lupe Mendez, co-host, and producer emeritus www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund. Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records baydenrecords.beatstars.com

The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center's Latino Bookstore, as part of the Texas Author Series, welcomes Dr. Carmen Tafolla as she presents and reads from her latest book WARRIOR GIRL! Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante and Literary Curator for the GCAC's Latino Bookstore, hosts the Texas Author Series every second Friday of the month. Carmen talks about the book, it's representation, and how this novel is defying the books bans occurring now and reads several poems from the book. Her book, published through Penguin Random House, is available through various online stores but also at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center's Latino Bookstore and makes an excellent addition to your family library, public library, and underground library. Carmen Tafolla is the 2015 State Poet Laureate of Texas and the former president of the Texas Institute of Letters. An award-winning poet and children's author, storyteller, perfor­mance artist, motivational speaker, scholar, and university professor, she is the author of more than forty books and a profes­sor emeritus of Transformative Children's Literature at @UTSA. Her numerous awards and distinctions include the pres­tigious Américas Award, the designation of first city Poet Laureate of San Antonio, six International Latino Book Awards, two Tomás Rivera Book Awards, two ALA Notable Books, the Art of Peace Award, and the Charlotte Zolotow Award. WARRIOR GIRL (@penguinrandomhouse, 2023) chronicles Celina and her family who are bilingual and follow both Mexican and American traditions. Celina revels in her Mexican heritage, but once she starts school it feels like the world wants her to erase that part of her identity. Fortunately, she's got an army of family and three fabulous new friends behind her to fight the ignorance. But it's her Gramma who's her biggest inspiration, encouraging Celina to build a shield of joy around herself . Because when you're celebrating, when you find a reason to sing or dance or paint or play or laugh or write, they haven't taken everything away from you. Of course, it's not possible to stay in celebration mode when things get dire--like when her dad's deported and a pandemic hits--but if there is anything Celina's sure of, it's that she'll always live up to her last Guerrera--woman warrior--and that she will use her voice and writing talents to show the world it's a more beautiful place because people like her are in it. Tony Diaz Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston's first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston's Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation. When Arizona officials banned Mexican American Studies, Diaz and four veteran members of NP organized the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books from the banned curriculum back into Arizona. He is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing. Tony hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. * This is part of a Nuestra Palabra Multiplatform broadcast. * Video airs on www.Fox26Houston.com. * Audio airs on 90.1 FM Houston, KPFT, Houston's Community Station, where our show began. Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund. Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante & Literary Curator for the Latino Bookstore at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center (GCAC) in San Antonio Texas, welcomes professor Dr. Jesús Jesse Esparza, Associate Professor in the Department of History, Geography, and General Studies at Texas Southern University, to discuss his book RAZA SCHOOLS (University of Oklahoma Press, 2023) ahead of his Texas Author Series appearance on November 10th, 2023 at the GCAC's Latino Bookstore. Join us on NP LIve on October 16th, 2023 at 6:30 PM CDT as part of Nuestra Palabra's multi-stream platform broadcast on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. In 1929, a Latino community in the borderlands city of Del Rio, Texas, established the first and perhaps only autonomous Mexican American school district in Texas history. How it did so—against a background of institutional racism, poverty, and segregation—is the story Jesús Jesse Esparza tells in RAZA SCHOOLS, a history of the rise and fall of the San Felipe Independent School District from the end of World War I through the post–civil rights era. Telling the complex story of how territorial pride, race and racism, politics, economic pressures, local control, and the federal government collided in Del Rio, Raza Schools recovers a lost chapter in the history of educational civil rights—and in doing so, offers a more nuanced understanding of race relations, educational politics, and school activism in the US-Mexico borderlands. Dr. Jesús Jesse Esparza is an Associate Professor of History in the College of Liberal Arts and Behavioral Sciences at Texas Southern University, where he has taught since 2009. His area of expertise is on the history of Latinos in the United States, emphasizing civil rights activism. Dr. Esparza's manuscript, Raza Schools: The Fight for Latino Educational Autonomy in a West Texas Borderlands Town, is scheduled for release in September 2023. The University of Oklahoma Press will publish it as part of the New Directions in Tejano History series. Dr. Esparza teaches Mexican American, Texas, and Civil Rights history. He received his B.A. and a master's degree in History from Southwest Texas State University and a Ph.D. in History in 2008 from the University of Houston. Tony Diaz Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston's first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston's Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation. When Arizona officials banned Mexican American Studies, Diaz and four veteran members of NP organized the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books from the banned curriculum back into Arizona. He is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing. Tony hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. * This is part of a Nuestra Palabra Multiplatform broadcast. * Video airs on www.Fox26Houston.com. * Audio airs on 90.1 FM Houston, KPFT, Houston's Community Station, where our show began. * Live events. Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer Radame Ortiez, SEO Director Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer Leti Lopez, Music Director Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus Lupe Mendez, co-host, and producer emeritus www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund. Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante & Literary Curator for the Latino Bookstore at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in San Antonio Texas, welcomes award winning author John Olivares Espinoza to the show to discuss his book THE DATE FRUIT ELEGIES (Bilingual Review Press, 2008) ahead of his Texas Author Series appearance on October 13th 2023 at the Guadalupe. John shares with us his work, reads some of his poems (including unreleased portions of his upcoming book), the inspiration behind his work, as well as his current as editor / poetry coach to several well known literary figures, including Chicana icon Sandra Cisneros. John Olivares Espinoza is a recipient of a 2023 City of San Antonio Project Grants for Individual Artists. Born and raised in Indio, California, and the son of immigrants from Mexico, he received degrees in creative writing from the University of California, Riverside and Arizona State University. He is the author of the poetry collection, The Date Fruit Elegies (Bilingual Review Press, 2008), as well as two chapbooks, Aluminum Times (Swan Scythe Press, 2002) and Gardeners of Eden (Chicano Chapbook Series, 2000). His poetry has appeared in journals and anthologies domestically and internationally such as Alta Journal, American Poetry Review, Berkeley Poetry Review, New Letters, Poetry International, Quarterly West, Rattle, ZYZZYVA and In Xóchitl in Cuícatl: Floricanto: Cien años de poesía chicanx/latinx (1920-2020) (Editorial Polibea: Madrid, 2021). His honors include a writing grant from The Elizabeth George Foundation, a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, and a residency at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. Espinoza has been a member of the Macondo Writers Workshop since 2004 and lives in San Antonio with his family. John attempts to create a family mythology around their experiences and identities as immigrants, laborers, and New Americans. Meanwhile, other speakers in his poems grapple with their identities as first generation Americans. Poet Christopher Buckley introduces Espinoza's poetry by saying, “…[I]t was the lives of his family, of the people who did not stay at resorts [and the homes of the rich], that became [John's] theme, and his poems risked clarity at every turn to do them justice. John's poems are witness to this life, and with poignancy and inventiveness they reveal the essential dignity and compassion of the people he knows.” Tony Diaz Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston's first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston's Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation. When Arizona officials banned Mexican American Studies, Diaz and four veteran members of NP organized the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books from the banned curriculum back into Arizona. He is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing. Tony hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. * This is part of a Nuestra Palabra Multiplatform broadcast. * Video airs on www.Fox26Houston.com. * Audio airs on 90.1 FM Houston, KPFT, Houston's Community Station, where our show began. Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund. Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante & Literary Curator for the Latino Bookstore at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center welcomes award winning author and distinguished professor Dr. Norma Cantu to the show to discuss her latest book CHICANA PORTRAITS: CRITICAL BIOGRAPHIES OF TWELVE CHICANA WRITERS (University of Arizona Press 2023) ahead of her Texas Author Series appearance on October 13th 2023 at the Guadalupe. Join us for a lively discussion over this amazing anthology that spotlights 12 literary figures from 12 authors who themselves are making a name for themselves. Norma describes the process and reads from the book and shares some of her thoughts on the current state of book bans and censorship culture. Dr. Norma E. Cantú is a scholar-activist who currently serves as the Norine R. and T. Frank Murchison Professor of the Humanities at Trinity University. She is founder and director of the Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa. She has published fiction, poetry, and personal essays in a number of venues. Her latest book CHICANA PORTRAITS is an innovative collection that pairs portraits with critical biographies of twelve key Chicana writers, offering an engaging look at their work, contributions to the field, and major achievements. Artist Raquel Valle-Sentíes's portraits bring visual dimension, while essays delve deeply into the authors' lives for details that inform their literary, artistic, feminist, and political trajectories and sensibilities. The collection brilliantly intersects artistic visual and literary cultural productions, allowing complex themes to emerge, such as the fragility of life, sexism and misogyny, Chicana agency and forging one's own path, the struggles of becoming a writer and battling self-doubt, economic instability, and political engagement and activism. Biographies included in this work include Raquel Valle-Sentíes, Angela de Hoyos, Montserrat Fontes, Gloria E. Anzaldúa, Norma E. Cantú, Denise Elia Chávez, Carmen Tafolla, Cherríe Moraga, Ana Castillo, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Sandra Cisneros, and Demetria Martínez. Tony Diaz Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston's first reading series for Latino authors. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing. Tony hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund. Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Tony Diaz welcomes key members of Main Street Theater's current production of CARMELA, FULL OF WISHES, playing Sept. 24 – Oct. 21 at MST's Midtown location at 3400 Main Street, 77002 at the MATCH. Adapted by Nuestra Palabra's very own Alvaro Saar Rios from the best selling book by Matt de la Peña, Tony speaks with Alvaro, Laura Moreno, the play's director, and Jacqueline Vasquez, the actor playing Carmela, about this wonderful play and it's importance in telling our stories. On our show, we have: Laura Moreno (Director) Main Street Theater: (Director) Last Stop on Market Street (Costume Design) Miss Nelson Is Missing! The Musical!, Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, Dragons Love Tacos; Alley Theatre: (Assistant Director): A Midsummer Night's Dream, What-a-Christmas!; Mildred's Umbrella: Ladies' Night: Beckett Shorts; Lamar University: The Revolutionists; Jewish Community Center: Photograph 51; Horse Head Theatre Company: Church, Judgement of Fools; Gravity Players: The Last Days of Judas Iscariot; Duchesne Academy: Little Women, The Importance of Being Earnest. Education: M.F.A, University of Houston, Directing; M.A, University of Houston, Arts Leadership; B.F.A., University of Houston School of Theatre and Dance, Acting. Jacqueline Vasquez plays Carmela in our current production, and she'll be back right after Carmela Full of Wishes for Disney's Beauty & the Beast at Main Street Theater! Other credits include: James and the Giant Peach (swing), Miss Nelson is Missing! The Musical; Haven Arts: She Kills Monsters. Education: Texas Christian University. Alvaro Saar Rios is a Texican playwright living in Chicago. His plays have been seen in New York City, Mexico City, Hawaii, Chicago, St. Louis, Milwaukee and all over Texas. His award-winning plays include Luchadora!, On the Wings of a Mariposa and Carmela Full of Wishes. Mr. Rios is Playwright-In-Residence at Milwaukee's First Stage and a proud veteran of the US Army (he used to drive tanks). Originally from Houston, Alvaro teaches playwriting at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. About CARMELA FULL OF WISHES Feliz Cumpleaños! It's Carmela's birthday, and she's finally old enough to tag along with her big brother as he runs the family errands. Passing by the bodega and the lavanderia, Carmela picks a dandelion and makes a very important wish… Carmela Full of Wishes illuminates the beauty of working class neighborhoods and the power of community and family. Told through the lens of a heartfelt sibling story, this endearing play explores what hope looks like in a migrant community steeped in Mexican culture. CARMELA FULL OF WISHES Adapted by Alvaro Saar Rios From the book by Matt de la Peña Illustrated by Christian Robinson Tony Diaz Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston's first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston's Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation. When Arizona officials banned Mexican American Studies, Diaz and four veteran members of NP organized the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books from the banned curriculum back into Arizona. He is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing. Tony hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund. Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Tony Diaz, el Librotraficante spotlights Dr. Carmen Tafolla's latest book WARRIOR GIRL! Carmen talks about the book, it's representation, and how this novel is defying the books bans occurring now and reads several poems from the book. Her book published through Penguin Random House is available through various online stores but also at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center's Latino Bookstore and makes an excellent addition to your family library, public library, and underground library. Carmen Tafolla is the 2015 State Poet Laureate of Texas and the former president of the Texas Institute of Letters. An award-winning poet and children's author, storyteller, perfor­mance artist, motivational speaker, scholar, and university professor, she is the author of more than forty books and a profes­sor emeritus of Transformative Children's Literature at @UTSA. Her numerous awards and distinctions include the pres­tigious Américas Award, the designation of first city Poet Laureate of San Antonio, six International Latino Book Awards, two Tomás Rivera Book Awards, two ALA Notable Books, the Art of Peace Award, and the Charlotte Zolotow Award. WARRIOR GIRL (@penguinrandomhouse, 2023) chronicles Celina and her family who are bilingual and follow both Mexican and American traditions. Celina revels in her Mexican heritage, but once she starts school it feels like the world wants her to erase that part of her identity. Fortunately, she's got an army of family and three fabulous new friends behind her to fight the ignorance. But it's her Gramma who's her biggest inspiration, encouraging Celina to build a shield of joy around herself . Because when you're celebrating, when you find a reason to sing or dance or paint or play or laugh or write, they haven't taken everything away from you. Of course, it's not possible to stay in celebration mode when things get dire--like when her dad's deported and a pandemic hits--but if there is anything Celina's sure of, it's that she'll always live up to her last Guerrera--woman warrior--and that she will use her voice and writing talents to show the world it's a more beautiful place because people like her are in it. Tony Diaz Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston's first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston's Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation. When Arizona officials banned Mexican American Studies, Diaz and four veteran members of NP organized the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books from the banned curriculum back into Arizona. He is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing. Tony hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. * This is part of a Nuestra Palabra Multiplatform broadcast. * Video airs on www.Fox26Houston.com. * Audio airs on 90.1 FM Houston, KPFT, Houston's Community Station, where our show began. * Live events. Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer Radame Ortiez, SEO Director Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer Leti Lopez, Music Director Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus Lupe Mendez, co-host, and producer emeritus www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund. Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Nuestra Palabra features the book "The Alton Bus Crash" on our latest podcast episode which you can stream on your favorite platform. Tony Diaz speaks with Juan P Carmona about his book on the tragic Alton Bus Crash, which claimed the lives of f 21 junior and senior high school students after a bottling truck collided with the school bus, causing the bus to enter a caliche pit filled with water. This terrible incident led to many changes in several industries but also served as a precursor to other catastrophes that have befallen marginalized communities and the government response. Juan P. Carmona is a Social Studies teacher at Donna High School and a dual enrollment History instructor through South Texas College. He graduated with honors from the American Military University with a master's degree in American History and he was the Recipient of the 2018 James F. Veninga Outstanding Teaching Humanities Award by Humanities Texas. He is a member of the NACCS Tejas Foco Committee for Mexican American Studies K-12, and the Social Studies Coordinator for the Rio Grande Valley Coalition for Mexican American Studies. He is the co-author of a 1-year curriculum for a high school class in Mexican American Studies. He has been teaching Mexican American History for dual enrollment for the past 10 years at Donna High School. He is also a member of the award-winning Refusing to Forget Project. His primary field of research is the history of the South Texas borderlands. He is the author of the book The Alton Bus Crash, co-host of the podcast “Mi Valle MI Vida” and produced a podcast with his Mexican American History students called “The Alamo Train Crash of 1940”, which he is now developing into a book project. Tony Diaz Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston's first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston's Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation. When Arizona officials banned Mexican American Studies, Diaz and four veteran members of NP organized the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books from the banned curriculum back into Arizona. He is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing. Tony hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. * This is part of a Nuestra Palabra Multiplatform broadcast. * Video airs on www.Fox26Houston.com. * Audio airs on 90.1 FM Houston, KPFT, Houston's Community Station, where our show began. * Live events. Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer Radame Ortiez, SEO Director Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer Leti Lopez, Music Director Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus Lupe Mendez, co-host, and producer emeritus www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund. Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante & Literary Curator for the Guadalupe Culturalarts Center's Latino Bookstore, spotlights Dr. Mehnaaz Momen's LISTENING TO LAREDO: A BORDER CITY IN A GLOBALIZED AGE. in a lively discussion on place, identity, and the changing conditions of an American border city. Dr. Mehnaaz Momen is an associate professor in the Department of Social Sciences at Texas A&M International University and the author of THE PARADOX OF CITIZENSHIP IN AMERICAN POLITICS AND POLITICAL SATIRE, POSTMODERN REALITY, AND THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY (Arizone Press) Her new book, LISTENING TO LAREDO: A BORDER CITY IN A GLOBALIZED AGE, gives an in depth look at the burgeoning Texas town that has grown. Nestled between Texas and Tamaulipas, @officialcityoflaredo was once a quaint border town, nurturing cultural ties across the border, attracting occasional tourists, and serving as the home of people living there for generations. In a span of mere decades, Laredo has become the largest inland port in the United States and a major hub of global trade. Listening to Laredo is an exploration of how the dizzying forces of change have defined this locale, how they continue to be inscribed and celebrated, and how their effects on the physical landscape have shaped the identity of the city and its people. Bringing together issues of growth, globalization, and identity, Mehnaaz Momen traces Laredo's trajectory through the voices of its people. In contrast to the many studies of border cities defined by the outside—and seldom by the people who live at the border—this volume collects oral histories from seventy-five in-depth interviews that collectively illuminate the evolution of the city's cultural and economic infrastructure, its interdependence with its sister city across the national boundary, and, above all, the strength of its community as it adapts to and even challenges the national narrative regarding the border. The resonant and lively voices of Laredo's people convey proud ownership of an archetypal border city that has time and again resurrected itself. Tony Diaz Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston's first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston's Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation. When Arizona officials banned Mexican American Studies, Diaz and four veteran members of NP organized the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books from the banned curriculum back into Arizona. He is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing. Tony hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. * This is part of a Nuestra Palabra Multiplatform broadcast. * Video airs on www.Fox26Houston.com. * Audio airs on 90.1 FM Houston, KPFT, Houston's Community Station, where our show began. * Live events. Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer Radame Ortiez, SEO Director Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer Leti Lopez, Music Director Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus Lupe Mendez, co-host, and producer emeritus www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund. Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Nuestra Palabra's Tony Diaz El Librotraficante, Literary Curator for the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center's Latino Bookstore, welcomes Dr. Ito Romo, who will be one of our our featured authors for the Texas Author Series' September reading at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center on September 8th at 6:00PM. Tony will speak with Dr. Romo re: his book THE BORDER IS BURNING being released on paperback, his next projects, and even have a reading in advance to Dr. Romo's appearance in San Antonio Westside! Dr. Ito Romo was born and raised on the border in Laredo, Texas. His recent work, dubbed “Chicano Gothic” and “Chicano Noir,” shows the dark and gritty life along Interstate 35 through South Texas, where his family has lived for nine generations since 1750. He lives in San Antonio and is Professor of English Language and Literature at St. Mary's University. Romo received his PhD from Texas Tech University's Creative Writing Program and was recently inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters. He is the author of The Border is Burning (2013) and El Puente / The Bridge (2001), both published by University of New Mexico Press. Tony Diaz Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston's first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston's Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation. When Arizona officials banned Mexican American Studies, Diaz and four veteran members of NP organized the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books from the banned curriculum back into Arizona. He is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing. Tony hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. * This is part of a Nuestra Palabra Multiplatform broadcast. * Video airs on www.Fox26Houston.com. * Audio airs on 90.1 FM Houston, KPFT, Houston's Community Station, where our show began. * Live events. Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer Radame Ortiez, SEO Director Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer Leti Lopez, Music Director Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus Lupe Mendez, co-host, and producer emeritus www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund. Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Tony Diaz, the Literary Curator for the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center's Latino Bookstore, welcomes The Borderlands Shakespeare Colectiva @borderlandsshax (BSC)! Dr. Kathryn Vomero Santos (Trinity University), Dr. Katherine Gillen (Texas A&M University–San Antonio), and Dr. Adrianna M. Santos (Texas A&M University–San Antonio), who will be our featured authors for the Texas Author Series' September reading at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center on September 8th, at 6:00PM. Dr. Brenda Sarmiento Quezada (Purdue University) joins Tony & the BCS to discuss writing curriculum and how important these works are as educational tools for not just traditionally marginalized folks but for all. These curriculums and coursework is all part of a $102,250 grant for the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center's Latino Bookstore Education Outreach and Literacy Program. Join us on our show on KPFT 90.1 FM in Houston at 7:00 CDT PM or online via www.kpft.org. If not, you can always catch the podcast on our streaming platforms! The Borderlands Shakespeare Colectiva (BSC) seeks to amplify the work of Chicanx and Indigenous artists who adapt Shakespeare to reflect the histories and lived realities of the U.S.–Mexico Borderlands. They aim not only to change the way Shakespeare is taught and performed but also to promote the socially just futures envisioned en el arte de La Frontera. The Borderlands Shakespeare Colectiva are editing a three-volume anthology titled The Bard in the Borderlands. Their work has been supported by funding from the Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Folger Shakespeare Library. Dr. Brenda Sarmiento Quezada is an assistant professor of Literacy and Language Education with emphasis on emergent bilinguals at Purdue University. Born in Mexico City, she taught as a Dual Language teacher at a Title 1 school in San Antonio, Texas. Her research area focuses on language practices and identity performances of linguistically and culturally diverse students. Her research and interests also encompass teacher education and preparation programs, literacy integration across content areas, bilingual community engagement, digital spaces and multimodalities, and language policy and practices. Tony Diaz Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston's first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston's Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation. When Arizona officials banned Mexican American Studies, Diaz and four veteran members of NP organized the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books from the banned curriculum back into Arizona. He is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing. Tony hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. * This is part of a Nuestra Palabra Multiplatform broadcast. * Video airs on www.Fox26Houston.com. * Audio airs on 90.1 FM Houston, KPFT, Houston's Community Station, where our show began. * Live events. Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer Radame Ortiez, SEO Director Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer Leti Lopez, Music Director Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus Lupe Mendez, co-host, and producer emeritus www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund. Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Nuestra Palabra's Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, welcomes author of the acclaimed books ZARZAMORA and WHERE THE RECKLESS ONES COME TO DIE Vincent Cooper, who joins us to talk about his latest book from Mouthfeel Press, INFIDELIS. Tony speaks with Vincent Tuesday on KPFT Houston 90.1 FM on Tuesday August 22nd at 7:00 PM CDT as we discuss Vincent's powerful new book. You can hear it live via KPFT.org if you're not in the Houston area; otherwise you can catch the podcast afterwards! Vincent Cooper's INFIDELIS is a powerful collection of poetry that delves into the life of a Chicano outcast, drawing from the author's personal experiences as a United States Marine. Through lyric and Blues poetry, Cooper paints a vivid picture of the 9/11 era, capturing the raw and authentic emotions that accompanied his journey. Vincent Cooper is a poet living in San Antonio, Texas. He is a former United States Marine and has published in Ban This! The BSP Anthology of Xicano Literature, Big Bridge Magazine: Refreshing San Antonio, and La Voz de Esperanza Tony Diaz Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston's first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston's Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation. When Arizona officials banned Mexican American Studies, Diaz and four veteran members of NP organized the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books from the banned curriculum back into Arizona. He is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing. * This is part of a Nuestra Palabra Multiplatform broadcast. * Video airs on www.Fox26Houston.com. * Audio airs on 90.1 FM Houston, KPFT, Houston's Community Station, where our show began. * Live events. Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer Radame Ortiez, SEO Director Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer Leti Lopez, Music Director Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund. Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

The Nuestra Palabra Familia is honored to get to call Dr. Cintli a friend. His work has shaped a people. His writings are testament to our greatness. On behalf of Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say, Librotraficante, and The Latino Bookstore at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, we extend our condolences to his familia and all the lives, the generations that he touched and will continue to touch. We are honored that he joined us when NP still took place in the party hall of Chapultepec Restaurant, in Montrose, in Houston, Tejas. The Librotraficantes smuggled his works back into Arizona when the AZ right wing legislators banned Mexican American Studies, and the Latino Bookstore in San Antonio, Tejas is honored to have hosted the launch of his most recent book Writing 50 Years (más o menos) Amongst the Gringos. We will strive to honor him by continuing to demand, as he said, that our gente be heard. #Unidos Join us as we speak with folks who were touched, influenced, or impacted by the work Dr. Cintli carried out. Matt Sedillo, Juan Tejeda, and Dr. Lupe Carrasco Cardona who join Tony in celebrating the work of Dr. Cintli. Dr. Rodríguez died from heart failure in Mexico, on 31 July 2023, at the age of 69. In the three years before his death, he lived near Teotihuacan. He was survived by Gonzales and five brothers. On the show, we have Juan Tejeda has taught Bicultural Studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio and currently is a tenured full-time faculty member at Palo Alto College. For 18 years, Juan was the Xicano Music Program Director for the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, where he created the internationally renowned Tejano Conjunto Festival en San Antonio. Juan has written and lectured extensively on the history and socio-cultural significance and importance of Tejano and Conjunto music. He holds a bachelor's degree in Chicano Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and a master's in Bicultural Studies from the University of Texas at San Antonio . Juan and his wife, Anisa Onofre, are co-publishers/editors of Aztlan Libre Press, an independent publishing house dedicated to Xican@ Literature and Art. Matt Sedillo has been described as the "best political poet in America" as well as "the poet laureate of the struggle". His work has drawn comparisons in print to Bertolt Brecht, Roque Dalton, Amiri Baraka, Alan Ginsberg and various other legends of the past. Sedillo was the recipient of the first ever Dante's Laurel presented in Ravenna Italy, the 2017 Joe Hill Labor Poetry award, a panelist at the 2020 Texas book festival, and a participant in the 2012 San Francisco International Poetry Festival, the 2022 Elba Poetry Festival. Sedillo has appeared on CSPAN and has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, Axios, the Associated Press among other publications. He is also cofounder of the newly established El Martilo Press. Dr. Guadalupe Carrasco Cardona has been an Ethnic Studies, English, Social Studies and Journalism educator for 23 years and has taught in three states; California, Arizona and Texas. Her current position is Ethnic Studies Teacher at Roybal Learning Center in downtown Los Angeles. She is also an adjunct lecturer in Chicanx/Latinx/Ethnic Studies at California State University at Long Beach. She is dedicated to developing critical curriculum and facilitating a student-centered classroom environment based on mutual respect, critical thinking, and collaboration. She accomplishes this by fusing her classroom instruction with community cultural knowledge and a focus on auto-biographical counter narrative. Tony Diaz is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing. Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund. Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Nelson Delgado Jr. is the Founder & Creative Director of the The Eclectic Arts Movement (T.E.A.M.) which was created in 2010 along with the BEGIN MY MOVEMENT Project. T.E.A.M. is a group of artists uniting for a great and noble cause through projects Nelson envisions. The Event and Exhibition was ART. Keeping the World Moving! A fundraiser for children who needed prosthetics. In less than one year, T.E.A.M. united 200 Artists from all over the United States, to donate a single work of Art and raise funds for the No Boundaries Prosthetic Foundation at the Wynwood Walls Miami; this uniting of artists and volunteers successfully sold 187 paintings that night! The Multi-ZEN-sery Exhibition features 30 artists who together will create a multi-sensory and interactive experience The ALTA Arts, located at 5412 Ashbrook Dr, Houston TX 77081, from July 21 and on through August 05, 2023. July 22 is the Grand Opening and is free to the public. By presenting an exhibition made for every individual but especially being inclusive for the blind, deaf and people/persons with disabilities, Nelson and T.E.A.M. truly hope to bring the arts to everyone. Tony Diaz Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston's first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston's Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation. When Arizona officials banned Mexican American Studies, Diaz and four veteran members of NP organized the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books from the banned curriculum back into Arizona. He is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing. * This is part of a Nuestra Palabra Multiplatform broadcast. * Video airs on www.Fox26Houston.com. * Audio airs on 90.1 FM Houston, KPFT, Houston's Community Station, where our show began. * Live events. Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer Radame Ortiez, SEO Director Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer Leti Lopez, Music Director Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund. Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Nuestra Palabra spotlights acclaimed Nicaraguan-American comedian Cat Alvarado as she talks about her debut comedy album Off-White, available now on Spotify and Apple Music! Cat Alvarado is a Nicaraguan-American comedian who turned her journey as a Latina misfit into an award-winning one-woman show and a comedy special, Off-White. She's performed at the Laughing Skull Lounge Festival and The Big Pine Comedy Festival. She premiered her hour at the 2022 Hollywood Fringe Festival to rave reviews, winning a Producer's Encore Award. She was also a featured comedian at the 2022 Great American Comedy Festival. She made her TV stand-up debut on PBS's First Nations Comedy Experience in 2018. She is also the creator and host of the Villains of History podcast, a cohost on the Unofficial Official Story podcast, and a frequent guest co-host on YouTube's Reel Rejects. Her debut comedy album, Off-White, was released on May 26th on @BlondeMedicine and everywhere comedy albums are streamed or sold. Cat discussed the creation of her debut album as well as some of the themes in her material, including identity and Latinidad, as well as the current climate in the comedy world. Tony Diaz Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston's first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston's Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation. When Arizona officials banned Mexican American Studies, Diaz and four veteran members of NP organized the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books from the banned curriculum back into Arizona. He is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing. * This is part of a Nuestra Palabra Multiplatform broadcast. * Video airs on www.Fox26Houston.com. * Audio airs on 90.1 FM Houston, KPFT, Houston's Community Station, where our show began. * Live events. Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer Radame Ortiez, SEO Director Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer Leti Lopez, Music Director Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund. Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

El Martillo Press publishes writers whose pens strike the page with clear intent; words with purpose to pry apart assumed norms and to hammer away at injustice. El Martillo Press proactively publishes writers looking to pound the pavement to promote their work and the work of their fellow pressmates. There is strength in El Martillo. Founded in Los Angeles in 2023 by Matt Sedillo and David A. Romero, and launched with a diverse group of celebrated and hardworking writers who embody our working-class intellectual spirit, El Martillo Press maintains an editorial board that makes its selections for publishing. Matt Sedillo has been described as the "best political poet in America" as well as "the poet laureate of the struggle." His work has drawn comparisons in print to Bertolt Brecht, Roque Dalton, Amiri Baraka, Alan Ginsberg, Carl Sandburg and various other legends of the past. David A. Romero is a Mexican-American spoken word artist from Diamond Bar, CA. Romero is the author of My Name Is Romero (FlowerSong Press), a book reviewed by Gustavo Arellano (¡Ask a Mexican!), Curtis Marez (University Babylon), and founding member of Ozomatli, Ulises Bella. Paul S. Flores is a San Francisco artist of Mexican and Cuban-American heritage that has built a national reputation for interview-based theater and bilingual spoken word. He integrates Latino and indigenous healing practices to tell the stories of real people impacted by immigration and systemic inequalities. Flores appeared on Season 4 of HBO's Def Poetry. His first full-length book of poetry, WE STILL BE: Poems and Performances was published by El Martillo Press in June 2023. Ceasar K. Avelar is the current Poet Laureate of Pomona. He is the writer in residence of Cafe con Libros Press, and the founder of Obsidian Tongues open mic. Avelar writes through the sociological lens of a blue-collar worker. He is the author of God of the Air Hose and Other Blue-Collar Poems (El Martillo Press, 2023). Avelar will graduate this summer from Cal Poly Pomona with a bachelor's degree in Sociology. Donato Martinez was born in the small pueblo, Garcia de la Cadena, Zacatecas, Mexico and immigrated into the USA at six years old. He teaches English composition, Literature, and Creative Writing at Santa Ana College. He has also taught classes in Chicano Studies. He has a self-published collection with three other Inland Empire poets, Tacos de Lengua. His full collection of poetry, Touch the Sky, was published by El Martillo Press in June 2023. Margaret Elysia Garcia is the author of the short story collection Graft, the chapbook Burn Scars, and the daughterland (El Martillo Press, 2023). She's the co-editor of the anthology Red Flag Warning: Northern Californians Living with Fire out on HeyDay Books in 2024. She writes about family, culture and surviving climate change disasters. Tony Diaz Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston's first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston's Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation. When Arizona officials banned Mexican American Studies, Diaz and four veteran members of NP organized the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books from the banned curriculum back into Arizona. He is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund. Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

On today's program, Nuestra Palabra features the One Houston One Book program from the Houston Public Library! Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, will speak with Federico Salas-Isnardi, Director of the Mayor's Office for Adult Literacy (MOAL) in Houston about the goals of the OHOB Program. Nuestra Palabra airs on 90.1 KPFT @KPFTHoustonTX Tuesdays at 7:00 PM CDT. Catch us on the radio dial or tune in anywhere via the web at KPFT.org and livestream us. One Houston, One Book, promotes literacy, diversity, and community conversations by encouraging Houstonians to come together, read, and discuss books with a common theme. The program features three book selections: one for children, one for teens and one for adults. Programs and events include Author Talks, Read-ins, Book Clubs, Story & Craft Times, Critical Conversations, Camps, Block Parties, Open Houses, and a special Grande Finale event! Federico is a linguist, educator, diversity trainer, and writer who has worked in adult education in Houston for over 30 years. Federico has presented or facilitated hundreds of professional development workshops and seminars and is a regular speaker at professional conferences on topics ranging from second language acquisition to anti-bullying education and from literacy and employability skills in the 21st century to identity and privilege in a culture of respect. He is a published author of ESL textbooks, and a certified Diversity Trainer. He has been active in professional, arts, and community organizations for more than 25 years. Tony Diaz Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston's first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston's Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation. When Arizona officials banned Mexican American Studies, Diaz and four veteran members of NP organized the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books from the banned curriculum back into Arizona. He is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing. * This is part of a Nuestra Palabra Multiplatform broadcast. * Video airs on www.Fox26Houston.com. * Audio airs on 90.1 FM Houston, KPFT, Houston's Community Station, where our show began. * Live events. Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer Radame Ortiez, SEO Director Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer Leti Lopez, Music Director Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund. Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Juneteenth is coming up and we have two community superstars who want to make sure literacy is part of the celebration by making sure our people have a choice in both the books they read and where and who they purchase from. Guest host Rodrigo Bravo Jr. welcomes two book barons who are changing lives one page at a time. At a moment in time where our books are being marginalized, discouraged, even banned, it's crucial we support these book traffickers to ensure we continue our self determination in our education, just as Tony Díaz @librotraficante says, “our terms on our terms”. CLASS Bookstore is a Black-owned and family operated online/ mobile/ brick-and-mortar retailer based in Houston, TX. Founded by co-owners and married couple, David & Dara Landry in November 2020, they began their business as an online bookstore, operating out of their apartment. January 2021- December 2022 were the years of participating in pop-up markets throughout the cities of Houston and Austin, TX. On December 3, 2022, they opened the brick-and-mortar shop, called "The Residency" at 3803 Sampson St., 77004 (just outside of the campus of Texas Southern University). Jesus A. Cosme is a book seller & owner of King Abel's King Abel's. Prior to selling books, Cosme sold handmade jewelry, accessories & apparel under the name of "Jes Co's Designs". He designed "King Abel" circa 2018 and it was then, that he decided to change the direction he was going business wise & started selling books. Since then he's been advocating for literacy & history, primarily Latin & African American history. The majority of the books he sells revolve around that, culture & history. He sells books for all ages & anyone curious/interested enough to learn history outside of what's taught in school. The books he sells are for a minimum of $5 donation. The goal is not to get rich from selling books, although profit IS nice, but to strive primarily to promote literacy & educate as many people as possible. Tony Diaz Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston's first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston's Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation. When Arizona officials banned Mexican American Studies, Diaz and four veteran members of NP organized the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books from the banned curriculum back into Arizona. He is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing. * This is part of a Nuestra Palabra Multiplatform broadcast. * Video airs on www.Fox26Houston.com. * Audio airs on 90.1 FM Houston, KPFT, Houston's Community Station, where our show began. * Live events. Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer Radame Ortiez, SEO Director Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer Leti Lopez, Music Director Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund. Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Nuestra Palabra Presents "Latina Leadership Lessons", the new book featuring many Latina Leaders as written by the Honorable Delia Garcia who is joined by two contributors, Dolores Huerta and Maria Gabriela Pacheco. Listen to this amazing platica in advance to Delia Garcia's speaking engagement at the Latino Bookstore at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center on June 9th, 2023 at 6:00 PM. Honorable Delia Garcia is an executive servant leader for over 25 years. She currently serves at the U.S. Department of Labor Women's Bureau as Regional Administrator. Delia Garcia is a trailblazer where she was elected the first Latina & youngest female to the Kansas State Legislature in 2004 where she served six years in the House of Representatives; and in 2019, she was appointed as Cabinet Secretary of Labor for the State of Kansas. She has over 25 years of public service at the national and state level, including non-profit executive leadership service in advocating for economic security for all. She is an author on national women leadership, and recently wrote her first book titled Latina Leadership Lessons. Dolores Huerta is a civil rights & labor rights feminist icon in the world, with schools & streets named after her across our U.S. Dolores is the Founder & President of the Dolores Huerta Foundation and Co-Founder of the National United Farm Workers with Cesar Chavez. Dolores is the Recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient, the highest civilian award in the United States; as well as the Ohtli Award, the highest award from the Mexican Government. At age 93, she continues to develop leaders & advocate for working women & families thru grassroots organizing. Dolores serves as Delia's mentor, & together they encourage & train Latinas to run for public office across the U.S. Dolores wrote the Foreword to the Latina Leadership Lessons book. Maria Gabriela (“Gaby”) Pacheco is a nationally recognized immigrant rights leader. Since the early 2000s, she has advocated for tuition equity laws and the DREAM Act. In 2006, after Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) raided her home and detained her family, she began to fight for comprehensive immigration reform. On January 1, 2010, along three friends, they led the Trail of Dreams, a four-month walk from Miami to Washington, DC, to call attention to the plight of immigrant families under the threat of deportation. In 2012, as political director for United We Dream, she spearheaded the efforts and strategy that led to the announcement of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Tony Diaz Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston's first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston's Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation. When Arizona officials banned Mexican American Studies, Diaz and four veteran members of NP organized the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books from the banned curriculum back into Arizona. He is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing. Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund. Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

The Sin Muros Festival at @stageshouston has been celebrating and lifting up Latinx artists for six years. Listen on 90.1 FM @kpfthoustontx Tuesday, May 23rd at 7:00 PM CST as we feature organizers and participants of the festival! More than 300 Latinx artists have benefited—both financially and creatively—from participating in the festival. This year, a committee of some of the most influential Latinx voices in Houston has selected four plays by Latinx playwrights and nominated three individuals who serve the Latinx art community to be celebrated in a weekend-long festival May 25-28. The 6th annual Sin Muros Festival, a weekend of play readings and workshops, is a celebration of Latinx voices and stories throughout Texas. Tony Diaz @librotraficante speaks with several of the artists who are a part of the festival as well the organizers. @JasminneMendez, co-founder of Tintero Projects, has been involved in the Sin Muros Festival for years. @thepoetmendez, co founder of Tintero Projects and Current Texas Poet Laureaute, will also join us as well. Additionally, we will also speak with David Davila @davidodavila Josie Nericcio @jotolkin Ricardo Dávila Jesús I. Valles @thejesucia who's plays have been selected for the readings! In addition to the readings, the festival will present the Premio Puente. The honorees are: Ashley Dehoyos @ashleydelara Deniz Lopez @deecolonize Gonzo247 @gonzo247 Tony Diaz Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston's first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston's Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation. When Arizona officials banned Mexican American Studies, Diaz and four veteran members of NP organized the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books from the banned curriculum back into Arizona. He is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing. * This is part of a Nuestra Palabra Multiplatform broadcast. * Video airs on www.Fox26Houston.com. * Audio airs on 90.1 FM Houston, KPFT, Houston's Community Station, where our show began. * Live events. Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer Radame Ortiez, SEO Director Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer Leti Lopez, Music Director Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund. Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

As book bans become fashionable and favorable vs just outright discrimination, one of our own Librotraficantes has been deemed too controversial for K-12. Lupe Mendez, 2022 Texas Poet laureate and award winning author, has had his book "Why I Am Like Tequila?" banned at a Texas Panhandle school along with other BIPOC and LGBTQi+ books. Tony Diaz speaks with our hermano about why this happened, what this means, and what the next move is in the Librotraficante movement. Originally from Galveston, TX, Lupe Mendez (Writer // Educator // Activist) is the author WHY I AM LIKE TEQUILA (Willow Books, 2019), winner of the 2019 John A. Robertson Award for Best First Book of Poetry from the Texas Institute of Letters. He is the founder of Tintero Projects which works with emerging Latinx writers and other writers of color within the Texas Gulf Coast Region, with Houston as its hub. Lupe earned his Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Texas @ El Paso. Mendez's work can been seen in print and online formats including the Kenyon Review, Gulf Coast Journal, the Texas Review, the L.A. Review of Books, Split This Rock, Poetry Magazine and Poem-A-Day from the Academy of American Poets. Mendez is the 2022 Texas Poet Laureate. Follow Lupe on Twitter, at @thepoetmendez and on Instagram, at @ellupis. Tony Diaz Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston's first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston's Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation. When Arizona officials banned Mexican American Studies, Diaz and four veteran members of NP organized the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books from the banned curriculum back into Arizona. He is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing. * This is part of a Nuestra Palabra Multiplatform broadcast. * Video airs on www.Fox26Houston.com. * Audio airs on 90.1 FM Houston, KPFT, Houston's Community Station, where our show began. * Live events. Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer Radame Ortiez, SEO Director Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer Leti Lopez, Music Director Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund. Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

2023 ALMAAHH Visual Artist: Viri Ramos - Te Bajé La Luna Y Las Estrellas On today's bonus episode, Tony Diaz speaks with Viri Ramos in support for the ALMAAHH Silent Auction going on now. Viri Ramos was introduced to painting at an early age by her mother who was a classically trained oil painter. Growing up they would often work along side each other. Upon graduating college, she made the move from Monterrey, México to Houston, Texas. It was during her time living on her own that she discovered acrylics, which were better suited for her not so well ventilated studio apartment. She found in acrylics the best match for her laid back relaxed aesthetic and personality. Her paintings are filled with life and fun. They are happy and playful.. at times serious, but mostly not at all. She favors rough strokes and bold colors. Instagram: @viriviriramos Website: www.viriramos.com Tony Diaz Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston's first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston's Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation. When Arizona officials banned Mexican American Studies, Diaz and four veteran members of NP organized the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books from the banned curriculum back into Arizona. He is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing. * This is part of a Nuestra Palabra Multiplatform broadcast. * Video airs on www.Fox26Houston.com. * Audio airs on 90.1 FM Houston, KPFT, Houston's Community Station, where our show began. * Live events. Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer Radame Ortiez, SEO Director Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer Leti Lopez, Music Director Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund. Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Tony Diaz will feature some special talent for the upcoming event: The 34th Annual Accordion King & Queens (AKG) Join Texas Folklife for a night as big as the Lone Star State, showcasing the amazing musical diversity of Texas accordion styles. It will be on June 3rd, 2023, from 7PM - 10PM at the Miller Outdoor Theatre. Texas Folklife's Accordion Kings & Queens (AKQ) draws thousands annually to Houston's Miller Outdoor Theatre. The event celebrates the cultural diversity of Texas by bringing communities together for an evening of roots music, featuring a variety of Texas accordion music genres. Get your tickets here! https://texasfolklife.org/index.php/AKQ Charlie Lockwood has a decade of experience as a nonprofit arts administrator and public folklorist. A Native Texan, he holds an MA in Ethnomusicology from UC Santa Barbara, where he played the oud with the UCSB Middle East Ensemble and did research with the Mardi Gras Indians of New Orleans. As the Executive Director of Texas Folklife, Lockwood has overseen a variety of flagship public programs and initiatives, including an archival preservation project to organize, digitize and ultimately disseminate the organization's rich archival holdings dating from 1984. Over the last several years Lockwood has spearheaded programs focusing on the intersections of folk and traditional arts and health, including a military veterans folklore and storytelling initiative with support from NEA Creative Forces and Hechos, No Miedo (Facts, Not Fear), a covid-19 PSA Series in partnership with a variety of central Texas partners. In 2014 he co-produced Traditional Music of Texas Volume 1: Fiddle Recordings from the Texas Folklife Archives, and in 2015 was honored with a Community Sabbatical Research Award from the University of Texas at Austin Humanities Institute to research historic and contemporary Texas regional music recordings. Lockwood served as Vice President (2018-2019) and President of the Society for Ethnomusicology Southern Plains Chapter (2019-2020), Journal of Folklore in Education 2019 The Art of the Interview Advisory Committee, is a member of the American Folklore Society and Society for Ethnomusicology. In 2021-2022 Lockwood served on the UTSA Institute of Texan Cultures Task Force: Museum of the Future. He is a former board member of the Americans for the Arts Emerging Arts Leaders Austin chapter and has served on a variety of grant review panels and advisory committees for local and national institutions. Lupe Olivares is the Production Coordinator for 34th Annual Accordion Kings & Queens. He is also the Founder, Creator of Bohemeo's music, art, coffee, LLC. Fall of 2006. Located in Houston's Historic East End. Voted one of Houston's most diverse music venue, restaurant, art gallery and community center. Promoting healthy eating and opening minds to art and human compassion. Written and celebrated by NY Post, Houston Chronicle, Houston Press, Free Press, and Music News publications. Exposing East End Pride. Artistic Director, and Production Coordinator, for Houston International Festival since 1986 to present. Advancing all top level shows between IFest, artist agents and touring mng. Providing logistical support for artist: Transportation, equipment, PA, Lighting, hospitality, security. Stage mng. heading over 30 support personal on site to assure all shows start and end on time. Owner of G. O. Productions, consulting in all things Festivals, and artist/band development: Audio recording, Photography, Video, and distribution of product. Tony Diaz He is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund. Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say has guest host Rodrigo Bravo filling in for Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, author of the book "The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital." Even though Tony may not be here, ya sabes que le damos esquina al Librotraficante and continue talking about cultivating cultural community capital. Nuestra Palabra welcomes Jose Ralat and Gustavo Arellano to the show to discuss their work covering cultura y nuestra gente through food. On our show, we will specifically talk about Tex Mex food, it's evolution, and how that reflects on our Latinidad. Both of our guests will be appearing at the Irma & Emilio Nicolas Media Center in collaboration with the City of San Antonio World Heritage Office to talk in the "Great SA: Tex Mex Debate" to discuss Tex Mex food, how it happened, and why it's so controversial. This exciting panel will take place Thursday, April 20, 2023, doors at 6p, program at 7p, and discussion afterwards at 8p. Supported by: Arts & Culture, City of San Antonio City of San Antonio World Heritage Office Frost Bank, & Texas Public Radio José R. Ralat is Texas Monthly's Taco Editor, writing about tacos and Mexican food. He is the author of American Tacos: A History & Guide. In 2022, he won a James Beard Foundation Award for his Texas Monthly Tex-Mexplainer column. Gustavo Arellano is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, covering Southern California everything and a bunch of the West and beyond. He previously worked at OC Weekly, where he was an investigative reporter for 15 years and editor for six, wrote a column called ¡Ask a Mexican! and is the author of “Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America.” He's the child of two Mexican immigrants, one of whom came to this country in the trunk of a Chevy. Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston's first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston's Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation. When Arizona officials banned Mexican American Studies, Diaz and four veteran members of NP organized the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books from the banned curriculum back into Arizona. He is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing. * This is part of a Nuestra Palabra Multiplatform broadcast. * Video airs on www.Fox26Houston.com. * Audio airs on 90.1 FM Houston, KPFT, Houston's Community Station, where our show began. * Live events. Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer Radame Ortiez, SEO Director Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer Leti Lopez, Music Director Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund. Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Frida Festival Showcase! Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, interviews artist Lizbeth Ortiz, artist and founder of Houston's Frida Festival! Also joining us are two big contributors to the event! Our show airs Tueday's on 90.1 FM KPFT Houston on Houston's Community Radio 90.1 FM at 7:00 PM CST. We will share a podcast link as well after the show! Alan Gonzalez / Alantude is an Emmy award winning fashion and costume designer based out New York. Project Runway contestant and host of Project Runway Redemption, Alan runs his namesake brand Alantude, as well as working on private commission for TV, Film & Theatre and private events. Constance Vazzino is a mixed media artist and full time educator living in Houston TX. She graduated with a BFA with a focus in Studio Painting. Her art is all about the process that includes different mediums, colors, imagery, and materials within her pieces. Her inspiration comes from oceanic and biology related images. As for Lisbeth Ortiz, she was born in Mexico City, raised in Houston, and thrust into adulthood in New York City certainly have influenced her work. Lizbeth Ortiz graduated from HSPVA/Houston and attended Pratt Institute/NYC.In 2005 along with a community of inspired artists, Lizbeth Ortiz organized the first Frida Festival in Houston. Join us and we'll see you there at the Frida Festival, a month long celebration! Viva Frida! Art Exhibition MECA East End April 8, 6-9 pm Frida en Primavera Dinner + Fashion Show | The Ballroom at Bayou Place April 19, 6-10 pm Frida Festival | MECA April 29, 11 am – 7 pm More info at https://www.fridafestival.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tony Diaz Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston's first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston's Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation. When Arizona officials banned Mexican American Studies, Diaz and four veteran members of NP organized the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books from the banned curriculum back into Arizona. He is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing. * This is part of a Nuestra Palabra Multiplatform broadcast. * Video airs on www.Fox26Houston.com. * Audio airs on 90.1 FM Houston, KPFT, Houston's Community Station, where our show began. * Live events. Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer Radame Ortiez, SEO Director Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer Leti Lopez, Music Director Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund. Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante & Literary Curator for the Latino Bookstore at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center hosted Ms. Silviana Wood and her debut book "La Quinta Soledad" from Aztlan Libre Press recently to a packed house. Our show highlights the event and features a phenomenal reading by Florinda Flores-Brown. We also had a special performance by Juan Tejeda and Armando Tejeda which is why you have to come by the GCAC live every 2nd Friday of the month! A native of Tucson, Arizona, Silviana Wood received her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona and has been involved in the local theater community since the 1970s. She is known for her bilingual comedies and dramas as well as for being a professional storyteller, actor, director, and teacher of literature and Chicano Theater. Silviana has twice won the Chicano/Latino Literary Prize from the University of California, Irvine: once for Short Story, and once for Drama. In 2016, Barrio Dreams/ Selected Plays by Silviana Wood was published by the University of Arizona Press. FMI: https://aztlanlibrepress.com/silviana-wood/ Tony Diaz Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston's first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston's Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation. When Arizona officials banned Mexican American Studies, Diaz and four veteran members of NP organized the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books from the banned curriculum back into Arizona. He is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing. * This is part of a Nuestra Palabra Multiplatform broadcast. * Video airs on www.Fox26Houston.com. * Audio airs on 90.1 FM Houston, KPFT, Houston's Community Station, where our show began. * Live events. Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer Radame Ortiez, SEO Director Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer Leti Lopez, Music Director Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund. Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Nuestra Palabra Presents: An interview with Dr. Richard A. Tapia and his featured book "Losing the Precious Few: How America Fails to Educate its Minorities in Science and Engineering" Richard Tapia is the Maxfield-Oshman Chair in Engineering, a professor in computational and applied mathematics and director of the Tapia Center for Excellence and Equity, all at Rice University. He is the recipient of the National Medal of Science, the US government's highest honor bestowed on scientists, and the National Science Board's Vannevar Bush Award. He served on the National Science Board from 1996-2002, and two professional conferences have been named in his honor: the Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing Conference and the Blackwell-Tapia Mathematics Conference. He lives in Houston, Texas. In his eye-opening book, Losing the Precious Few: How America Fails to Educate its Minorities in Science and Engineering, nationally acclaimed scholar Richard Tapia examines the issues that keep domestic minority students out of STEM education and careers. A professor for almost 50 years in Rice University's Department of Computational and Applied Mathematics, Tapia is struck by the number of foreign students in the hallways and wonders how the United States can remain globally competitive. Tony Diaz Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston's first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston's Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation. When Arizona officials banned Mexican American Studies, Diaz and four veteran members of NP organized the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books from the banned curriculum back into Arizona. He is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing. * This is part of a Nuestra Palabra Multiplatform broadcast. * Video airs on www.Fox26Houston.com. * Audio airs on 90.1 FM Houston, KPFT, Houston's Community Station, where our show began. * Live events. Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer Radame Ortiez, SEO Director Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer Leti Lopez, Music Director Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund. Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say's Tony Diaz the Librotraficante welcomes Award Winning Author and one of the OG Librotraficante Caravan members Diana Lopez to the show to discuss her latest book, the first in a series, "Felice and the Wailing Woman". Diana speaks with Tony about her inspiration behind the book and her literary journey and her current partnerhsip with the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center Latino Book Store's Texas Author Series to create curriculum and lesson plans from authors, all through a grant spearheaded by Joaquin Castro. To highlight this partnership, Tony also has on the show San Antonio ISD Teacher Celi Manriquez; the Bonham Middle School STEM Academy instructor is developing the lesson plans for Ms. Lopez's book so that students can read stories about them, that they can relate to, and can inspire them. We have a live event on April 14th at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center as well as at Bonham Academy; check our next post for more details! Diana López is the author of the adult novella, Sofia's Saints, and numerous middle grade novels, including Confetti Girl, Nothing Up My Sleeve, and Lucky Luna. Her debut picture book is now available and is called Sing With Me: The Story of Selena Quintanilla. She also wrote the novel adaptation for the Disney/Pixar film, Coco. Diana retired after a 28-year career in education at both the middle grade and college levels. Her "second act" day job is helping her husband in his physical therapy clinic, FYZICAL Therapy & Balance Center, located in her hometown of Corpus Christi, Texas, but she still enjoys meeting with students when she visits schools to chat about books and writing. Araceli Manriquez is a middle school dual-language teacher in San Antonio ISD. She currently teaches eighth-grade DL social studies and started the first Mexican American Studies (MAS) course for middle school students in the district. She received her double-major bachelor's degree in Interdisciplinary Studies Bilingual EC-6 and Mexican American Studies from the University of Texas at San Antonio and also has her master's degree in Bilingual-Bicultural Studies. Manriquez has been at the forefront of advocacy and organizing for Mexican American Studies to be offered as a course for credit throughout the state of Texas. She also helped create a MAS Summer Camp on her campus for San Antonio ISD middle and high school students and writes MAS curriculum for the district. As an educator, she ensures that her students have a rich, deep understanding of the culture and contributions of the Latinx/e community and are taught a true history of Texas. Manriquez is an active member of her local union, the San Antonio Alliance, and a founding member of its social justice caucus, PODER. She leads professional development in social studies, Mexican-American studies and culturally relevant/sustaining pedagogy for educators throughout San Antonio. Tony Diaz Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston's first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston's Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation. When Arizona officials banned Mexican American Studies, Diaz and four veteran members of NP organized the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books from the banned curriculum back into Arizona. He is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund. Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Nuestra Palabra Presents: José F. Aranda, Jr. interviews Tony Diaz LIVE! on Nuestra Palabra! In this twist of an interview, it will be José F. Aranda, Jr. interviewing Tony Diaz and asking questions about his book, "The Tip of the Pyramid, Cultivating Community Cultural Capital" José F. Aranda, Jr. is Professor of Chicanx and American Literatures at Rice University. He is the author of When We Arrive: A New Literary History of Mexican America (Arizona, 2003). He has written articles on 19 th century Mexican American literature and the Recovery Project, the future of Chicano/a Studies, and most recently undertaken an investigation of the relationship between modernity and Mexican American writings, entitled The Places of Modernity in Early Mexican American Literature, 1848-1948, University of Nebraska Press, 2022. Tony Diaz Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston's first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston's Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation. When Arizona officials banned Mexican American Studies, Diaz and four veteran members of NP organized the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books from the banned curriculum back into Arizona. He is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing. * This is part of a Nuestra Palabra Multiplatform broadcast. * Video airs on www.Fox26Houston.com. * Audio airs on 90.1 FM Houston, KPFT, Houston's Community Station, where our show began. * Live events. Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer Radame Ortiez, SEO Director Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer Leti Lopez, Music Director Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund. Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Texas State Representative Christina Morales led a press conference on March 8th at the Texas State Capitol to advocate for House Bill 45. House Bill 45 would add Mexican American and African American studies and other ethnic studies courses students can take to satisfy their social studies requirement. This will offer students a more robust view of Texas history and studies show it can lead to academic success. State Rep. Christina Morales authored HB 45. She is re-filing it this year, after an identical bill passed in the House in 2021 but died in the Senate. On Wednesday at the Capitol, Morales was joined by Rep. Gene Wu, Rep. Alma Allen, Rep. Ron Reynolds, Rep Victoria Neave Criado, Rep. Jarvis Johnson, & Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, as well as members from the Mexican American Legislative Caucus and Texas Legislative Black Caucus, as well as Tony Diaz, educator and one of the chief advocates for the bill outside of the legislative body. Morales pushed that courses such as ethnic social studies lead to higher graduation rates and a higher likelihood of students enrolling into college. She said that was especially important in the "post-pandemic world" we are living in. She also touted that bipartisan support efforts like hers have received in the past. "Mexican American studies and African American studies were unanimously approved by the Republican and Democratic members in the state board of education," Morales said. "So this is bipartisan." Co-authoring this bill, among others, is Rep. Alma Allen. She said she would support HB 45 as many times as it takes to pass. "Texas history is American history," Allen said. "American history is all of our history." Educators joined lawmakers for the lawmakers' press conference in support of ethnic social studies courses. Tony Diaz, an educator in Houston, said these types of courses were first taught in Houston Independent School District. "Texas was the first state to unanimously support Mexican American history and African American history," Diaz said. "It lets students know why this history is important." Reynolds said HB 45 is a chance to take steps forward instead of backward. "This bill will certainly be a great reflection of the true diversity of this state, which is our strength and certainly help with healing," Reynolds said. * This is part of a Nuestra Palabra Multiplatform broadcast. * Video airs on www.Fox26Houston.com. * Audio airs on 90.1 FM Houston, KPFT, Houston's Community Station, where our show began. * Live events. Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer Radame Ortiez, SEO Director Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer Leti Lopez, Music Director Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund. Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Nuestra Palabra Presents: Preview of “Images & Words: Media's Influence on the Struggle for Civil Rights” Tony Diaz discusses with the Rothko Chapel team about the MLK tribute on Jan 15th and their work supporting this effort. Kelly Johnson (she/they) is an arts and culture organizer, curator, and writer. She is the Director of Public Programs at the Rothko Chapel, a sacred art space dedicated to community engagement through contemplation and action at the intersections of art, spirituality, and social justice. Kelly has organized programming at the Chapel for 6 years, including concerts and performances, lectures, conversations, meditations, and conferences, covering issues such as racial equity, climate justice, civil rights, and more. They earned an MFA in Curatorial Practice from Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD, and a BA in Art History from Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX. Kelly is a board member of Houston's Center for the Healing of Racism and completed a New Leaders Council (NLC) Houston Fellowship in 2022. Devin Allen, Baltimore native is a self-taught artist who gained national attention when his photograph of the Baltimore Uprising was published on the cover of Time magazine in May 2015, making him only the third amateur photographer to have his work featured in the publication. Following the untimely deaths of George Floyd, Tony McDade, and Breonna Taylor, his photograph from a Black Trans Lives Matter protest was published on the cover of Time magazine in June 2020. In 2017, he was named the first fellow of the Gordon Parks Foundation Fellowship and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award as a debut author for his book, A Beautiful Ghetto (Haymarket Books, September 2017). In 2020, he was named an ambassador for Leica Camera AG—an international, premium manufacturer of cameras and sports optics. His photographs have been published in New York Magazine, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Aperture; and are also in the permanent collections of the National Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington, D.C., the Reginald F. Lewis Museum, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and The Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art. He is the founder of Through Their Eyes, a youth photography educational program, and recipient of an award from The Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture for dynamic leadership in the Arts and Activism. His new book, No Justice, No Peace: From the Civil Rights Movement to Black Lives Matter, was released in October under the Legacy Lit imprint of Hachette Book Group. Lisa Volpe, Associate Curator of Photography, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Lisa Volpe is the Associate Curator, Photography at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Before arriving in Houston, she was the Curator of the Wichita Art Museum where she oversaw all areas of the museum's collection. Additionally, she held various curatorial roles at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA), and fellowships at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and the Cleveland Museum of Art. Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Instrumental Music Produced courtesy of Bayden Records Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

A more in-depth walk-through of the application in Spanish with Tony Diaz facilitating the conversation with artists Gabriela Magana and Arielle Masson from the Latina American Women's Artists of Houston, a collective of Latin American Women Artists working in the greater Houston Area since 2017. This Spanish info session will include background and guiding questions from our panel. Video and audio includes responses to posted Q&A from live session. For more FAQs - check out https://support.houstonbanf.org for updated answers to questions posed in prior sessions. Gabriela Magana is a Houston based artist born in Mexico. Her work has evolved hand in hand with the exploration of her place as a woman and as a Latina in this age and time. Therefore, she has come to use mixed media in her paintings, as well as thick paint as an exploration of materials and storytelling. She uses the physicality of her works as a symbol to the subject matter, making the viewer feel closer to the work, and giving clues about the story behind it. Arielle Masson, being born from a Mexican mother and a French father, being bilingual from birth, and now trilingual, and, after having grown up in Europe and traveled extensively in Africa, in India, and in Latin America, and having elected to live in Houston for the past 30 years, has given up trying to define, fit and belong to any specific cultural idiosyncrasy. Her hybrid position makes her acutely aware that most people identify seamlessly with their native culture without questioning it. It is only in the movement of migration, immigration that the problem of identity arises. In turn, she understand the contemporary discourse of multiculturalism, pluralism, and today's globalism, being generated mostly by relentless human technological advancements. BIPOC Arts Network and Fund, or BANF, was created to provide resources and networks that support the vibrant Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian American, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern and other communities of color of Greater Houston in fully displaying their power, values and traditions. Its goals are achieved through grant funding, advocacy, and community-building networking initiatives that revolutionize the local funding landscape, break down silos within the arts ecosystem, and welcome everyone to support and learn from BIPOC arts communities. BANF is an independent initiative funded by the generous contributions of national and local foundations, including Houston Endowment, the Ford Foundation, The Brown Foundation, Inc., The Cullen Foundation, Kinder Foundation and The Powell Foundation. Nuestra Palabra fully supports and appreciates the work of these folks and entities as we empower marginalized communities. Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Instrumental Music Produced courtesy of Bayden Records Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Nuestra Palabra Presents: An Interview with José F. Aranda, Jr. Tony Diaz interviews José F. Aranda, Jr. who is a Professor of Chicanx and American Literatures and will talk about his book "The Places of Modernity in Early Mexican American Literature, 1848-1948" José F. Aranda, Jr. is Professor of Chicanx and American Literatures at Rice University. He is the author of When We Arrive: A New Literary History of Mexican America (Arizona, 2003). He has written articles on 19 th century Mexican American literature and the Recovery Project, the future of Chicano/a Studies, and most recently undertaken an investigation of the relationship between modernity and Mexican American writings, entitled The Places of Modernity in Early Mexican American Literature, 1848-1948, University of Nebraska Press, 2022. Dr. Aranda has a dual appointment in the departments of English and Modern and Classical Literature & Culture. He is a board member of Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project. Co-founder with Priscilla Ybarra of Avanzamos: El Taller Chicana/o, an annual workshop focused on advanced scholarship in Chicanx Studies, sponsored by Rice University and the University of North Texas. In July 2020, he joined the Board of Trustees of Cristo Rey Jesuit College Preparatory of Houston. In 2022, along with Carmen Lamas, Yolanda Padilla, and John Alba Cutler, co-founding editor of the journal, Pasados: Recovering History, Imagining Latinidad, University of Pennsylvania Press. Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer Radame Ortiez, SEO Director Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer Leti Lopez, Music Director Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Instrumental Music Produced courtesy of Bayden Records Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

HOUSTON, Texas – Representative Morales will be hosting a press conference to discuss the reintroduction of her Ethnic Studies bill that passed the House during the 87th Legislative Session. She will host local leaders to discuss the importance of Ethnic Studies as well as the renewed efforts to pass this bill in the upcoming 88th Legislative Session. Representative Morales will be joined by Senator Carol Alvarado, Representative Gene Wu, Tony Diaz, and other local leaders. The bill passed with unanimous support out of the House Public Education Committee last session, and in a historic vote on May 11th, 2021, passed on third reading in the Texas House of Representatives. Texas State Representative Morales said, “Throughout my life, I have been empowered by knowing my family and community's history. This bill would ensure that all Texans, regardless of their background, have the opportunity to learn their history. Tomorrow we will come together to once again bring renewed effort to making these courses available statewide.” Community organizer Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, added, “It is an honor to unite to support courses that are proven to increase graduation rates, academic achievement, and inspire students to profoundly examine the role of our communities in forming this state and this nation.” Afterwards, Dr. Valerie A. Martinez & Dr. Angela Valenzuela discuss the importance of SB 45 and why it is important to have these type of courses in our high schools. Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer Radame Ortiez, SEO Director Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer Leti Lopez, Music Director Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Instrumental Music Produced courtesy of Bayden Records Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Tony Diaz, speaks with Xavier Garza about his upcoming projects in addition to Xavier Garza reading a few pieces of his work!! Xavier Garza was born in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. He is an enthusiastic author, artist, teacher and storyteller whose work is a lively documentation of life, dreams, superstitions, and heroes in the bigger-than-life world of South Texas. Garza has exhibited his art and performed his stories in venues throughout Texas, Arizona and the state of Washington. He has received such recognitions as the Pura Belpre Honor book and the Libro de las Americas Honor book awards. He lives with his wife and son in San Antonio, Texas, and is the author of numerous books. Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer Radame Ortiez, SEO Director Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer Leti Lopez, Music Director Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records Website | http://baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Nuestra Palabra Presents our latest supercut of some of the amazing readings, poetry, prose, y musica from the last few months! Included in this edition: Guadalupe Garcia McCall, Xavier Garcia, Veronique Medrano, David Romero, Marisol Cortez, Matt Sedillo, Leticia Urieta, David Vidaurre, and more! Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer Radame Ortiez, SEO Director Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer Leti Lopez, Music Director Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Instrumental Music Produced courtesy of Bayden Records Website | http://baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Tony Diaz, literary curator of the Latino Bookstore at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, hosts Xavier Garza, to discuss his journey and read from his work as part of the Texas Author Series. Xavier Garza was born in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. He is an enthusiastic author, artist, teacher and storyteller whose work is a lively documentation of life, dreams, superstitions, and heroes in the bigger-than-life world of South Texas. Garza has exhibited his art and performed his stories in venues throughout Texas, Arizona and the state of Washington. He has received such recognitions as the Pura Belpre Honor book and the Libro de las Americas Honor book awards. He lives with his wife and son in San Antonio, Texas, and is the author of numerous books. Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer Radame Ortiez, SEO Director Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer Leti Lopez, Music Director Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Instrumental Music Produced courtesy of Bayden Records Website | http://baydenrecords.beatstars.com

We will have a Christmas Special focusing on Moody Gardens and The Alley Theatre who are reaching out to the Latino community by hiring Latinos for key posts. Sharing these amazing opportunities are Marie Elena Cortés, Public Relations Coordinator, Moody Gardens & Baldemar Rodriguez, Community Manager of Partnerships, Alley Theatre. Marie Elena Cortés is a proud Latina who taught for 26 in Houston schools with her energetic and powerful dedication. Marie has experience as a photographer, published author, artists, actress, model, teacher, podcast host, and educational consultant. She is also an entrepreneur under Cortes Educational Services and inspires parents and teachers through her story telling, art projects and writing workshops. Cortes and her son share a podcast; Shine with Marie & Mark, where they highlight citizens and community leaders who are doing what they love. This summer, Marie Elena moved to Galveston Island and joined Moody Gardens as a Public Relations Coordinator. Her passion continues to glow as she promotes a non-profit educational destination that utilizes nature in the advancements of rehabilitation, conservation, recreation, and research. “Never stop shining your light, because it will show you the way!”-Marie Elena Cortes Baldemar Rodriguez (@myfilmdirector), the Manager of Community Partnerships at the @alleytheatre, will be co hosting our event at the Alley Theatre! Join us at the Nuestra Palabra 2022 & The Zocalo Committee's “Houstonians Who Shape The Nation” event at the @alleytheatre on Monday October 3rd. Get your tickets today by clicking the bio on our link! Baldemar Rodriguez was studied acting at the University of Houston's School of Theater where he transitioned into writing, directing, and producing. His resume includes In Search of the American Dream (2012), FlasNovelas (2015) and Grey Focus (2008). Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer Radame Ortiez, SEO Director Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer Leti Lopez, Music Director Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records Website | http://baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Tony Diaz speaks to featured guests Izzy Gomez and Martha Martinez Gomez about their wonderful anticipated Christmas Program dedicated to children in need in the Houston area. Navidad en el Barrio is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization dedicated to the application of tax-deductible private donations to events designed to improve the life of the less fortunate in our communities. Navidad en el Barrio has been providing these events since 1987 in the greater Houston area. The premier event, our Christmas Program, provides entertainment, lunch, and gifts to disadvantaged school children selected from throughout Houston Independent School District (HISD). Navidad en el Barrio began at the Ripley House Community Center in 1987 with a $5,000 contribution from Rainbo Baking Company. Since then, Navidad en el Barrio has grown to encompass Christmas Programs in three major cities, Snow Day in Texas and special events for our "older kids". Our hard work and dedication would have produced much less were it not for the tireless efforts of thousands of volunteers and our treasured corporate sponsors. Reach them below! - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NavidadEnElBarrio - Twitter: Navidad en el Barrio (@NeebHouston) / Twitter - Instagram: Navidad En El Barrio Houston (@navidadenelbarrio) • Instagram photos and videos - Website: www.navidadenelbarrio.org Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer Radame Ortiez, SEO Director Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer Leti Lopez, Music Director Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records Website | http://baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Nuestra Palabra: Flower Song Press Fest: Platicas y Poesia de Califa a Tejas! In a preview of our upcoming Latino Author Series at the Latino Bookstore at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, Tony Diaz welcomes our feature guests, all part of the FlowerSong Press Familia! David Romero Marisol Cortez Matt Sedillo Leticia Urieta David A. Romero is a Mexican-American spoken word artist from Diamond Bar, CA. Romero is the author of My Name Is Romero (FlowerSong Press). Romero has received honorariums from over seventy-five colleges and universities in thirty-three different states in the USA. Rooted in San Antonio, Marisol Cortez writes across genre about place and power for all the other border walking weirdos out there. She is the author of the award-winning South Texas cli-fi novel Luz at Midnight as well as I Call on the Earth, a chapbook of documentary poetry about the forced removal of Mission Trails Mobile Home Community. She writes to remember the land and resist all domination. For updates on projects and publications, visit mcortez.net. Matt Sedillo has been described as the "best political poet in America" as well as "the poet laureate of the struggle". His work has drawn comparisons in print to Bertolt Brecht, Roque Dalton, Amiri Baraka, Alan Ginsberg and various other legends of the past. Sedillo was the recipient of the first ever Dante's Laurel presented in Ravenna Italy, the 2017 Joe Hill Labor Poetry award, a panelist at the 2020 Texas book festival, and a participant in the 2012 San Francisco International Poetry Festival, the 2022 Elba Poetry Festival. Sedillo has appeared on CSPAN and has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, Axios, the Associated Press among other publications. Leticia Urieta (she/her/hers) is a Tejana writer from Austin, TX. She is a teaching artist in the greater Austin community and the Program Director of Austin Bat Cave, a literary community serving students in the Austin area, as well as the co-director of Barrio Writers Austin and Pflugerville, a free creative writing program for youth. Leticia is also a freelance writer. She is a graduate of Agnes Scott College and holds an MFA in Fiction writing from Texas State University. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Chicon Street Poets, Lumina, The Offing, Kweli Journal, Medium, Electric Lit and others. Her chapbook, The Monster was published in 2018 from LibroMobile Press. Her hybrid collection, Las Criaturas, was a finalist for the Sergio Troncoso Award for Best First Book of Fiction 2022 from the Texas Institute of Letters, and is out now from FlowerSong Press. Edward Vidaurre is an award-winning poet and author of eight collections of poetry. He is the 2018-2019 City of McAllen, Texas Poet Laureate, 2022 inductee to the Texas Institute of Letters, and publisher of FlowerSong Press. His writings have appeared in The New York Times, The Texas Observer, Los Angeles Review of Books, as well as other journals and anthologies. He has edited over 50 books and anthologies. Vidaurre resides in McAllen, Texas with his wife and daughter. Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer Radame Ortiez, SEO Director Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer Leti Lopez, Music Director Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records Website | http://baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Tony speaks with Author Guadalupe Garcia McCall in advanced of her reading at the Latino Bookstore at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center as well as the new manager of the Latino Bookstore: Alma Pina. Born in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico and raised in Eagle Pass, Texas, Guadalupe García McCall is the award-winning author of several young adult novels, some short stories for adults, and many children's poems. Guadalupe has received the Prestigious Pura Belpre Award, a Westchester Young Adult Fiction Award, the Tomás Rivera Mexican-American Children's Book Award, and was a finalist for the William C. Morris Award and the Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy, among many other accolades. Fluent in both English and Spanish, Guadalupe is a compelling speaker who has visited many middle schools, high schools, universities, festivals, conferences, and organizations all over the country. In 2016, she was invited to give a writing workshop and a keynote address at the Sirens Women In Fantasy Conference. In the spring of 2017, Guadalupe was selected as the Inaugural Artist in Residence by the Arne Nixon Center where she visited local high schools and taught courses at California State University Fresno. Also in 2017, Guadalupe gave the keynote for the National Latino Children's Literature Conference in San Antonio, Texas. In 2018, she gave the keynote at the Texas Council of Teachers of English Language Arts Conference in Galveston, Texas. In 2021, Guadalupe had the honor of moderating the panel, Hispanic Heritage Month Authors Series, Celebrating Latino Experience, History, People, & Cultures, US Department of Education's Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA with the White House Initiative on Advancing Education, Equity, Excellence and Economic Opportunity (WHIAEEEE), Washington DC. However, her greatest distinction came when her alma mater, Sul Ross State University (SRSU), selected to feature her image and biography on their Living the Dream II – Cultural Pride on Campus mural outside of the Gallego Center. Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer Radame Ortiez, SEO Director Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer Leti Lopez, Music Director Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records Website | http://baydenrecords.beatstars.com

On Monday, October 3, 2022, Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say highlighted grassroots Latino art and culture that has changed the way we are perceived and treated across the nation. This powerful showcase of talent took place in the state of the art facilities of Houston's Alley Theatre, a leading force for art in the U.S., through a partnership with its El Zócalo Advisory Committee headed by Baldemar Rodriguez, Manager of Community Partnership. This event will featured the Houston release of the new book The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital by Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante. Diaz is a writer and activist originally from Chicago who moved to Houston to become the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Houston. In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say, Houston's first reading series for Latino Writers, which sparked a movement for art, culture, and civil rights. NP formed the foundation for the Librotraficante Caravan, organized to defy and defeat Arizona officials banning of Mexican American Studies. His book chronicles that history. Russell Contreras is an alum of Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say, a graduate of Eisenhower High School and The University of Houston. He earned a Master of Fine Arts from Columbia University. He is the national Race and Justice Reporter for Axios News. Alvaro Saar Rios is a Texican playwright living in Chicago. He is an alum of Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say, a graduate of Lamar High School and The University of Houston. His plays have been performed in New York City, Mexico City, Hawaii, Chicago, St. Louis, Milwaukee and all over Texas. He has received playwriting commissions from various organizations, including Kennedy Center, Chicago Children's Theatre, and Houston Grand Opera. His award-winning play Luchadora! is published by Dramatic Publishing Inc. Other plays include On The Wings of a Mariposa, Unmuted, and Carmela Full of Wishes. Alvaro holds an MFA in Writing for the Stage and Screen from Northwestern University. He is Playwright-In-Residence at Milwaukee's First Stage. Alvaro is a proud veteran of the US Army and an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Monica Villarreal is an interdisciplinary artist native to Houston. She is the founder of Creative Women Unite, a Houston feminist arts collaborative, and she is a traditional Aztec dancer with Danza Azteca Taxcayolot, a local group that practices indigenous traditions through spirituality and community-engaging performances throughout the nation and internationally. They will open the evenings events. We will re-live the power, majesty of the Mexica through its art, culture, knowledge recapitulated over the centuries and across the continent and all over the world, and presented as Danza Azteca this evening with: Danza Chikawa Conroe Texas & Danza Azteca Taxcayolot Poet Lupe Mendez is a veteran alum of Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say where he made his literary debut. He went on to become one of the co-founders of the Librotraficante Caravan, Tintero Projects, author of the poetry collection "Why I Am Like Tequila," and he is now Texas Poet Laureate. You will hear a special announcement from Sixto Wagon about opportunities for Latino Artists through the BIPOC Arts Network Fund and Geraldina Wise, Chair of ALMAAHH- Advocates of a Latino Museum of Cultural and Visual Arts & Archive Complex in Houston, Harris County. Mariachi performances by: The duet of Jose Luis Rodriguez & Rigo Tapia, and solos by Keira Dalila Martinez, and Eduardo Treviño. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records Website | http://baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Tony Diaz, literary curator of the Latino Bookstore, and the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, hold a monthly speaking engagement as part of the Texas Author Series. Flower Song Press' Edward Vidaurre presented Texas Authors Leticia Urieta & Marisol Cortez and special guests David A. Romero & Matt Cedillo for a showcase! David A. Romero is a Mexican-American spoken word artist from Diamond Bar, CA. Romero is the author of My Name Is Romero (FlowerSong Press). Romero has received honorariums from over seventy-five colleges and universities in thirty-three different states in the USA. Rooted in San Antonio, Marisol Cortez writes across genre about place and power for all the other border walking weirdos out there. She is the author of the award-winning South Texas cli-fi novel Luz at Midnight as well as I Call on the Earth, a chapbook of documentary poetry about the forced removal of Mission Trails Mobile Home Community. She writes to remember the land and resist all domination. For updates on projects and publications, visit mcortez.net. Matt Sedillo has been described as the "best political poet in America" as well as "the poet laureate of the struggle". His work has drawn comparisons in print to Bertolt Brecht, Roque Dalton, Amiri Baraka, Alan Ginsberg and various other legends of the past. Sedillo was the recipient of the first ever Dante's Laurel presented in Ravenna Italy, the 2017 Joe Hill Labor Poetry award, a panelist at the 2020 Texas book festival, and a participant in the 2012 San Francisco International Poetry Festival, the 2022 Elba Poetry Festival. Sedillo has appeared on CSPAN and has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, Axios, the Associated Press among other publications. Leticia Urieta (she/her/hers) is a Tejana writer from Austin, TX. She is a teaching artist in the greater Austin community and the Program Director of Austin Bat Cave, a literary community serving students in the Austin area, as well as the co-director of Barrio Writers Austin and Pflugerville, a free creative writing program for youth. Leticia is also a freelance writer. She is a graduate of Agnes Scott College and holds an MFA in Fiction writing from Texas State University. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Chicon Street Poets, Lumina, The Offing, Kweli Journal, Medium, Electric Lit and others. Her chapbook, The Monster was published in 2018 from LibroMobile Press. Her hybrid collection, Las Criaturas, was a finalist for the Sergio Troncoso Award for Best First Book of Fiction 2022 from the Texas Institute of Letters, and is out now from FlowerSong Press. Edward Vidaurre is an award-winning poet and author of eight collections of poetry. He is the 2018-2019 City of McAllen, Texas Poet Laureate, 2022 inductee to the Texas Institute of Letters, and publisher of FlowerSong Press. His writings have appeared in The New York Times, The Texas Observer, Los Angeles Review of Books, as well as other journals and anthologies. He has edited over 50 books and anthologies. Vidaurre resides in McAllen, Texas with his wife and daughter. Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer Radame Ortiez, SEO Director Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer Leti Lopez, Music Director Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records Website | http://baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Nuestra Palabra: Two Houstonians SHaping The Nation! Tony Diaz speaks with Baldemar Rodriguez, the Manager of Community Partnerships at the Alley Theatre, will be co hosting our event; also there will be UH Grad Russell Contreras who returns to the Space City to Help Launch Axios Houston Baldemar Rodriguez (@myfilmdirector), the Manager of Community Partnerships at the @alleytheatre, will be co hosting our event at the Alley Theatre! Join us at the Nuestra Palabra 2022 & The Zocalo Committee's “Houstonians Who Shape The Nation” event at the @alleytheatre on Monday October 3rd. Get your tickets today by clicking the bio on our link! Baldemar Rodriguez was studied acting at the University of Houston's School of Theater where he transitioned into writing, directing, and producing. His resume includes In Search of the American Dream (2012), FlasNovelas (2015) and Grey Focus (2008). Russell Contreras, Race and Justice Reporter for Axios, returns to Houston, Sept. 20, to help launch Axios Houston. Why it matters: Russell is a graduate of the University of Houston and Columbia University who began his career in journalism in Houston before moving to New York and working at The Associated Press, the Boston Globe, and now Axios. He lives in New Mexico. Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer Radame Ortiez, SEO Director Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer Leti Lopez, Music Director Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records Website | http://baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Nuestra Palabra Showcases Nuestra Música #HHM Nuestra Palabra Showcases Nuestra Música #HHM Your Host, Tony Diaz showcases Baldemar Rodriguez, Manager of Community Partnerships, Alley Theatre and the young musical talent he brings in to deliver an amazing performance. Eduardo Trevino is an inspired 10-year-old singer and musician. He's had a natural rhythm and ear for music since the age of two. His first inspiration came from Christian Mariachi music. During the Covid pandemic of 2020, he used that downtime to teach himself to play guitar through YouTube videos. His first Talent Show was for “Lake Houston's Got Talent” in 2021 and won first place. A year later in May 2022 he won first place in “Festival OTI Kids 2022.” He is also actively involved in his church choir. He hopes to one day be a famous Mariachi singer and continue the beautiful Mariachi music tradition of his Mexican culture. Keira Dalila Martinez is 12 years old. She studied at Project Chrysalis Middle School. Keira loved singing since she was a child. At school she had mariachi classes for a short time and has been taking online singing classes for several months. Although she does not consider herself a professional, Keira continues to follow her passion for music, developing as a young singer and learning newsongs. One of her favorite songs to sing is “La Llorona.” Jose Luis Rodriguez is 16 years old. He attends Eisenhower High School. He learned to play the accordion by watching YouTube tutorials. Part of his musical repertoire, he plays a huapango called Coconitos and a polka called Tampico Hermoso. Rigo Tapia, his best friend and accomplice in music, accompanies him playing the bass sixth. Alan Aguilar is a 7th grader from Patrick Henry Middle School in Houston, TX, whohas demonstrated his talent in Mariachi music since the age of six. He is the1 st place winner of the most renowned mariachi singing competition worldwide, Mariachi Vargas National Vocal Contest 2021 in San Antonio. He has received a special recognition from congresswoman Sylvia Garcia for his incredible talent as a mariachi performer and now, with the support of his parents and his music teacher Jose Longoria, he takes music classes at the University of Houston and plays three instruments, guitar, violin and vihuela. Alans favorite songs to perform include “Pelea de Gallos”, “Canta, Canta, Canta”, y “Mi Reina y Mi Tesoro.” Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer Radame Ortiez, SEO Director Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer Leti Lopez, Music Director Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records Website | http://baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Nuestra Palabra: To Live, Love, Heal & Experience Violence as a Black Person w/ Jasminne Mendez Jasminne Mendez talks to Tony Diaz about her book, "City Without Altar" and how her book helped her redefine her identity as a Black woman and better understand what it means to be Black. Jasminne Mendez is a Dominican-American poet, playwright, translator and award winning author of several books for children and adults. She is the author of two hybrid memoirs, Island of Dreams (Floricanto Press) and Night-Blooming Jasmin(n)e: Personal Essays and Poetry (Arte Público Press). Her second YA memoir, Islands Apart: Becoming Dominican American (Arte Público Press) is forthcoming in May 2022 and her debut poetry collection, City Without Altar, was a finalist for the Noemi Press Book Award for Poetry and will be released in August 2022. Her debut middle grade book Anina del Mar Jumps In (Dial) is a novel in verse about a young girl diagnosed with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis and is set to release in 2023. Her debut picture book Josefina's Habichuelas (Arte Público Press), was released last year. Mendez has had poetry and essays published by or forthcoming in numerous journals and anthologies including The Kenyon Review, New England Review, the YA Latinx Anthology Wild Tongues Can't be Tamed edited by Saraciea Fennell (Flatiron/Macmillan), and in The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNext (Haymarket Books). She has translated and written poetry and a libretto for the Houston Grand Opera and she translated Amanda Gorman's best-selling Change Sings into the Spanish edition La canción del cambio. The dramatized version of her play in verse City Without Altar received its world premiere at Milagro theatre in Portland, Oregon this spring. She is an MFA graduate of the creative writing program at the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University, a University of Houston alumni, and a Canto Mundo Fellow. Based in Houston, she is the Co-Founder and Program Director of the Houston based Latinx literary arts organization Tintero Projects and a co-host to the poetry and writing podcast series InkWell, a collaboration between Tintero Projects and Inprint Houston. She is a Canto Mundo Fellow, a Kenyon Review Writer's Workshop Peter Taylor Fellow and a Macondo and VONA alumni. When she's not writing or napping in her hammock she enjoys playing with sand on the beach with her daughter, swimming in the ocean or a pool, practicing yoga, baking cupcakes and laughing with her partner in poetry and in life Lupe Mendez - the Texas State Poet Laureate. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jmendezmemoirs/ Twitter: @jasminnemendez Instagram: @jasminnemendez Website: https://www.jasminnemendez.com/ * This is part of a Nuestra Palabra Multiplatform broadcast. * Video airs on www.Fox26Houston.com. * Audio airs on 90.1 FM Houston, KPFT, Houston's Community Station, where our show began. * Live events. Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer Radame Ortiez, SEO Director Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer Leti Lopez, Music Director Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund.

Tony Diaz talks to Rich Rodriguez, John Segovia, Rio Red Sky regarding the Raise the Vote Art Festival which is set for October 1st, 2022 in Houston's Second Ward at Segovia Art Studio. The Raise the Vote Art Festival combines the artistry of our young dynamic performers in Houston, such as Rio Red Sky, with the importance of voter awareness and encouraging young voter participation. To further illustrate the point of boosting our young artists, the Festival is holding an open commission (art contest) for any art on any medium that inspires folks to vote! Listen in for further details! Rich Rodriguez is an established dealmaker in Houston, TX. His expertise in Economic Development and the Arts has helped revitalize Southwest Houston. Mr. Rodriguez served as Executive Director of Harris County Improvement District # 5 and the Southwest Houston Redevelopment Authority (TIRZ 20). He is a 12-year veteran of the U.S. Air force where he worked in U.S. Space Command on the Minuteman III ICBM weapon system. Mr. Rodriguez is the former Principal Cellist for the Fort Bend Symphony and founded the 1st Chicano Art gallery with his cousin Jesse “Magnolia Grown” Rodriguez in Magnolia Park. He has had a diverse career over the years and has now homed in his experience and skills set in affordable housing to take the lead position as Housing Director for the Tejano Center for Community Concerns. Richard holds an undergraduate degree from New York University and an MBA from Touro College. John Segovia is an painter, designer, photographer, poet and portrait artist. Segovia's main creative influences stems from Abstract Expressionism to Mid-century Modern Art. Segovia's an old soul and as a young teen fell in love with Fauvism and Expressionism by the art master himself, Pablo Picasso. Then shortly after he was introduced to the surreal works of Salvador Dali which expanded the possibilities of paint on canvas. And finally, he was blown away with the commercial works of Andy Warhol. Born in Houston, Texas to a modest middle-class working family, from an early age he displayed a talent for drawing portraits and began entering local school competitions at the age of 16. With so much talent to give unfortunately, he put the pencil down at 18 and tried to find himself and pursue other aspirations. Rio Red Sky is a Musician/Influencer in Houston, TX who created her platform on being genuine, promoting self love, and inspiring others. Music is rooted from genres in R&B, Pop, and HipHop. She aspires to educate others through her mission of positivity and give people an outlet to vibe to her music. Featuring music from Rio Red Sky, J Saenz, IIRIIS, Veronique Medrano, & Doeman DYNA. Thanks to: Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer Radame Ortiez, SEO Director Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer Leti Lopez, Music Director Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund.

Tony Diaz interviews Andrea Muñoz. The Colombian-born bilingual beauty is set to co-star alongside a star-studded ensemble cast featuring Brad Pitt, Sandra Bullock, Bad Bunny, Zazie Beetz, Joey King, and Michael Shannon in the upcoming Sony Pictures action-thriller BULLET TRAIN set for a wide-release on August 5th. Muñoz will star as Bad Bunny's wife in a very juicy role. The actress is also fresh off-the-heels of her American television debut for the hit HULU limited series “Pam & Tommy”, currently streaming. Andrea discusses the film, her trajectory to become an actress, her journey from psychologist in Colombia to actress in Los Angeles. Lastly, she gives her insight as to how Latina representation in Hollywood is now and her experience so far. * This is part of a Nuestra Palabra Multiplatform broadcast. * Video airs on www.Fox26Houston.com. * Audio airs on 90.1 FM Houston, KPFT, Houston's Community Station, where our show began. * Live events. Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer Radame Ortiez, SEO Director Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer Leti Lopez, Music Director Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund.

The Latino Bookstore & Gift Shop is proud to anchor a Texas Tri-City Tour of Latino Literature following the trail blazed by The Librotraficante Caravan of Banned Books. Salvadoran American poet Claudia Castro Luna will visit each stop to present her collection of poetry Cipota Under the Moon. It's published by Tia Chucha Press from Los Angeles California founded by Los Angeles Poet Laureate, and gubernatorial candidate, Luis J. Rodriguez. Rodriguez's books formed part of the Mexican American Studies curriculum banned in Arizona. The Latino Bookstore will provide sales at each stop. Cristina Balli, Director of the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, which houses the bookstore, said, "The Latino Bookstore is not only a state-wide destination for Texas Latino authors, but it is also a fountain of support for Latino Literature in other cities. This is one way that we can support Latino authors, publishers, and communities. This is another way to address the book deserts that engulf Latino communities in other cities." Each evening will be hosted by Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, Literary Curator of the Latino Bookstore. He said, "Book bans will not silence our community. Book deserts will not snuff out our voices. Our movement will continue to defy attacks on intellectual freedom. We are building on the trail we have blazed with the Librotraficante Caravan of Banned Books. Now we are uniting three major Texas cities again, and we are uniting with our brothers and sisters from California. We will not rest until our community has full access to this Art, History, and Culture." Each stop will also feature writers, visual artists, and musicians from each city and the Central American community. Here are the 3 Cities: Houston: Home of The Librotraficantes. Wednesday, June 29, 2022, 6 pm. Free. The Alta Arts 5412 Ashbrook Dr, Houston, TX 77081 Austin: Thursday, June 30, 2022, 6 pm. Free. La Peña, Inc., site of the Librotraficante Under Ground Library in Austin. 227 Congress Ave. Austin, Tx 78701 512.477.6007 San Antonio: Friday, July 1, 2022, 6 pm. Free. The Latino Bookstore 1300 Guadalupe San Antonio, TX 78207 Part of the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center About: Claudia Castro Luna is an Academy of American Poets Poet Laureate fellow (2019), WA State Poet Laureate (2018 – 2021) and Seattle's inaugural Civic Poet (2015-2018). Castro Luna's newest collection of poetry is Cipota Under the Moon from Tia Chucha Press. She is also the author of One River, A Thousand Voices (Chin Music Press), the Pushcart nominated Killing Marías(Two Sylvias Press) also shortlisted for WA State 2018 Book Award in poetry, and the chapbook This City (Floating Bridge Press). Her most recent non-fiction is in There's a Revolution Outside, My Love: Letters from a Crisis (Vintage). Born in El Salvador she came to the United States in 1981. Living in English and Spanish, Claudia writes and teaches in Seattle on unceded Duwamish lands where she gardens and keeps chickens with her husband and their three children. The Latino Bookstore's Texas Author Series takes place every First Friday. Subsequent authors will represent the entire state of Texas. Their work also touches on many other aspects of Latino culture, Mexican American History, and the other art fields that the GCAC specializes in. Friday, Aug 5, 2022, 6 pm: The Latino Bookstore's Texas Author Series features the national launch. of the non-fiction book The Tip of The Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital by Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante. Houston Partners: Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say Tintero Projects The Central American Collective The Gulfton Super Neighborhood Council Houston Artists BIPOC Arts Network Fund MantecaHTX Nuestra Palabra City Council J The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center The Latino Bookstore Pan American Round Table of Houston The Center for Mexican American & Latino/a Studies See less www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net

Tony Diaz talks with filmmaker Efrain Gutierrez & Placido Salazar. Efrain talks about his film documentary, documenting the life of a civil rights pioneer Gus Garcia and his contributions to civil rights. Gustavo “Gus” Garcia, a civil rights pioneer, is best known for his role in winning the 1954 landmark case in the U.S. Supreme Court, showing juries were systematically excluding Mexican-Americans from jury service. Placido Salazar is a US Veteran, musician, and historian who provides context to many of Gus' actions and his importance to the Chicano and overall US Civil Rights Movement. * This is part of a Nuestra Palabra Multiplatform broadcast. * Video airs on www.Fox26Houston.com. * Audio airs on 90.1 FM Houston, KPFT, Houston's Community Station, where our show began. * Live events. Thanks to Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer Radame Ortiez, SEO Director Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer Leti Lopez, Music Director Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston's Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What's Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital. www.Librotraficante.com www.NuestraPalabra.org www.TonyDiaz.net Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund.