LatinoLit

#DignidadLiteraria sees clear effort, urges for concrete measurable results.

TUCSON, Arizona (AP) — When Oprah Winfrey chose the novel “American Dirt” for her book club, she imagined engaging in an impassioned television dialog about the narrative, which follows a Mexican mother and her son fleeing to the United States.

Is it the reproduction of inequality
The fueling of wealth disparity
Fulfilling capitalists’ interests

Following nationwide call to action in the wake of AMERICAN DIRT, published by Macmillan/Flatiron, activists denounce the “Big Five” for publishing only 300 Latino books out of 300,000 published each year.

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Oprah Winfrey’s soon-to-be televised discussion about the controversial novel American Dirt is drawing scrutiny for not inviting some of the book’s harshest Latino critics.

We are writing you in the context of your book club’s widely-promoted “all sides” discussion on American Dirt in Tucson being recorded on Thursday, February 13th.

Latino Rebels Radio: February 9, 2020.

As someone who studies the publishing business, I see this ordeal as a symptom of an industry that relies far too heavily on a handful of predetermined “big books,” and whose gatekeepers remain predominantly white.

Once again, portraying us as the bad guys.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Celebrated Mexican American author Sandra Cisneros is refusing to back down from her support for the novel, “American Dirt,” despite outcry from other Latino writers amid charges of stereotypes, and is telling critics they should just calm down and write “poetry.”

Pressuring Oprah and others to review what went wrong with American Dirt is not enough.

Maria Hinojosa speaks to four people at the heart of the current controversy.

NEW YORK (AP) — The publisher of Jeanine Cummins’ controversial novel American Dirt has canceled the remainder of her promotional tour, citing concerns for her safety.

“We are asking only that you remove the influential imprimatur of Oprah’s Book Club,” the letter said.

#DignidadLiteraria also encouraged Winfrey to invite them to the event.

The novel has become a flashpoint in debates over who gets published, how reputations are formed, and who can tell which stories in an industry —from publishers and editors to booksellers and agents— that is predominantly white.

Latino Rebels Radio: January 26, 2020.

Even when entities present themselves as coming in peace, there’s always a caveat, or worse, a double-edged sword that we hastily and clumsily forged ourselves.

I don’t exactly remember how it came to be, but Dennis was my barber for several years, until he unexpectedly passed away at the much-too-young age of 38. 

“I come from poverty, from El Caserío Padre Rivera… It was a world of men, of violence, a place too often not safe for women and girls,” Jaquira Díaz writes in the introduction of her new book.

Latino Rebels Radio: November 3, 2019