salmonrojo
¡Poesía está en la calle!
Resistencia Bookstore
casa de Red Salmon Arts
1801-A South First St.
Austin, Texas
(512) 416-8885
revolu@swbell.net
May 25th, 2011 @ 5:41 pm
Chicano writer Richard Yañez @ Resistencia this Saturday!
5pm Saturday May 28, 2011
Red Salmon Arts presents a book signing & reading of
Crossing Over Water: A Novel with Chicano author
Richard Yañez (El Paso, Tejaztlán)
Cross Over Water is a novel that illuminates the world of the Border in El Paso, Texas. Through a deeply-felt story, readers witness a Mexican-American boy, Raul Luis “Ruly” Cruz, negotiate a series of drowning moments. From a childhood incident at the neighborhood pool to discovering the geography of girls as a teen to arriving at an elevated state of awareness as a young adult, Ruly is on personal quest. Uprooted from the only home he has ever known at a pivotal age, he has to learn how to adapt to a new house/neighborhood, as well as survive the challenges of a bi-cultural landscape.
Upon leaving Lomaland, the Cruz Family’s ancestral home-space, Ruly immediately faces the trials of adolescence while straddling hyphenated cultures. Cross Over Water does not center on a traditional narrative one might expect from a second-generation Mexican-American author. Instead, the novel explores the margins of growing up in the hybrid terrain of the Borderlands. The code-switching of languages (English/Spanish/Caló/ Pochismos), the intermixing of traditions (80’s pop songs & Tejano music), and the shaping of personal identity (Chicano) are always as fluid as the Rio Grande/Río Bravo that separates the U.S. and Mexico.
Richard Yañez was born and raised on the U.S.-México Border. He is the author of Cross Over Water: A Novel and El Paso del Norte: Stories on the Border, both by the University of Nevada Press. Taught in several college and university courses, the critically-praised book of stories was a finalist for the Steven Turner First Book Award from the Texas Institute of Letters. His work has been widely anthologized in the following: Literary El Paso, Hecho en Tejas: An Anthology of Texas Mexican Literature, U.S. Latino Literature Today, When I Was a Loser: True Stories of (Barely) Surviving High School, Our Working Lives: Stories of People and Work, and Mirrors Beneath The Earth: Short Fiction by Chicano Writers.
His community advocacy is seen in his work with the Border Book Festival, based in Mesilla, New Mexico, Letras Latinas/Momotombo Press, BorderSenses , and RIPPLES, a Salute to the Arts program at El Paso Community College. He is a founding Advisory Circle Member of Con Tinta, a collective of Chicano/Latino activist writers. A frequent visitor to public schools, he enthusiastically shares his experiences as a writer-educator with middle and high school students.
A professor for over ten years, he has taught courses in Chicana/o Literature, Creative Writing, Expository Writing, Introduction to the Short Story, and Special Topics in Contemporary Literature at Antioch College (OH), Colorado College, Saint Mary’s College (IN), and New Mexico State University. Presently, he is a tenured Associate Professor of English at El Paso Community College.
