"‘member? YOU ‘member!" by Alice Canestaro-Garcia
by Tony Diaz on 08/13/14
‘member? YOU ‘member!
The year was 1999. Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say! (NP) for me was about the monthly showcases, being on the video crew, keeping and logging the archives . . . But I’m getting ahead of the story.
A colleague at work said I had to go check out the performances at Talento Bilingue de Houston. "What was it?" I asked. "Writers," she said, "Take your daughter."
I couldn’t figure out why she was so excited about a bunch of writers sitting around reading their stuff. But she persuaded me to go, and, yes, I took my eldest, Tonantzin, a young writer brimming with creativity.
That night changed us, changed the whole family. It was living writing! Alive! With lights! Cameras! Action! And ALL KINDS of writers, published professionals on book tours, middle school kids, elders.
Ali & Daniel brought their classmates from the Vanguard High School (at that time, located at Jones) to NP monthly showcases. Daniel, then I, got involved with working backstage. (I liked operating the pulleys to open & close the curtains.) And Tonzi performed.
And the people we met! Raul Salinas! Tish Hinojosa! Luis Alfaro! Dagoberto Gilb! And the charismatic Tony Diaz-Tony, who invented the whole thing. He’d inspire us with concepts: The Latino Literary Renaissance, more presence of our culture on television, in movies, and not just as the bad guys, the drug runners, the nannies & gardeners, but as ALL of who we are: sure, the dedicated custodians, and the steady-footed construction workers walking high-rise rascacielos I-beams but the singer/songwriters, the chefs, the artists, the scientists, too.
Tonzi & I made lasting friendships with some: indy film maker Stephanie Saint Sanchez; executive director of Southwest Alternate Media Project (aka SWAMP), Mary Lampe; visual artist/poet Stalina Villarreal; poet / book publisher Abel Salas, to name some real keepers.
And for better or worse, others such as the mad genius, Carlos Calbillo, was part of our lives for years and years, teaching video techniques, lighting, film theory, composition, logging, editing, inventive storytelling,Texas history, hyperbole, cussing, grandstanding, setting up for a shoot, site visits, never telling the same story the same way twice, and magic non-realism, to name some of his skills --- as I see them --- with which he delighted in blighting and enlightening others. O. And about what it means to be a man, a real man, but more so. And about TRUTH: that it’s a hard thing to come by.
Being part of Nuestra Palabra’s volunteer crew in Houston from 1999 until about 2003 was a stellar time in my life. From running curtain to running camera, logging the archives, to producing with Carlos Calbillo the Nuestra Palabra public access television program, Executive Producer/Tony Diaz. It was a wonderful bumpy ride.
I was recently deputized by Tony Diaz to carry on the mission in my new life is San Antonio. I was present at Southwest Workers Union (SWU) when the Librotraficantes came through with The Underground Library on their way to Tucson, Arizona, fighting the good fight so that our culture will thrive.
The forces of light --- that’s us, that’s Nuestra Palabra, that’s the librotraficantes, and that’s who we Nuestra Librotraficantes de Palabra are going to BECOME: the profesores inspiring others of us, the doctoras giving knowledge about food/nutrition/health, the curanderos limpiandonos, the stand-up comedians healing us, the visionary television and film writers --- writers of all sexes & orientation --- telling true truths & truer lies about what it means to live with heart, our feet rooted in nuestra tierra and our brilliant brains dando luz to one another throughout The Universe / Multiverse.
And, doing so, living the dream, having a blast!
August 12, 2014
