Mario y Uruguay

It's been a interesting time to be Uruguayan this year; Eduardo Galeano made his way into the world's spotlight—and the #1 spot on best sellers lists— after Hugo Chávez handed a copy of his Open Veins of Latin America to President Obama. Uruguayan-American Carolina de Robertis' debut novel The Invisible Mountain, is said to be positioned as a lead title when Knopf releases it in 8/09. And it's only May. Uruguayans are just not used to this much attention.

Being born in a country wedged between two Latin American giants, with a total population of just over 3 million,  generally makes you feel like a drop in the bucket. Uruguayans often resign themselves to a certain degree of anonymity, especially abroad. Not much is known about us; there aren't many "Uruguayan" stereotypes to pull out of a hat to enable others to jump to conclusions, and many people can't locate us on a world map. There's always our famous beef, but that is something that we share with Argentina, so it doesn't do much toward identifying us as a singular people. To be fair, we have ourselves struggled with our national identity, but that is a different matter. The fact is, Uruguayans are a quiet bunch in many ways. 

But we could always count on Benedetti to speak for us. Mario Benedetti was probably Uruguay's best-known writer. More than the pivotal Onetti, more than the fiery and controversial Galeano, despite the latter's resurgence. Because Benedetti's readers truly love him. They cherish the nostalgic quality of his prose, and yearn for his evocative poetry. The magic of Benedetti has always been the simplicity and universality of his message. In a way, Benedetti personified what it is to be Uruguayan on a world scale, which is probably why I always brought him up in conversations with non-Uruguayans. And it never failed; those who knew him, always loved him.  

Benedetti had been ill for over a year, and on May 17th, his body finally gave out and he passed away at the age of 88. I encourage you to take a look at the video below, and to celebrate the life of a simple man who, with the help of words, his only tools, carried out a very important duty: He reminded us how to be human.

 Chau Mario, gracias por salvarnos. 

ADDENDUM: To hear my interview with Mario Hinojosa of Latino USA on the life of this iconic Latin American author, and see more video of Benedetti reading, go to: http://latinousa.kut.org/842/

New Translation Guide Released

Some of you have requested coverage on the topic of translation, and, as a translator myself, I am happy to oblige: I just received word that the University of Illinois’ Dalkey Archive Press, in partnership with the Society of Authors, the British Council, Arts Council England, and the British Centre for Literary Translation, announced the publication of Translation in Practice: A Symposium, edited by Gill Paul.

Based on a conference held at the British Council in London in February 2008, Translation in Practice is part debate and part handbook, an attempt to establish best practices for writers, editors, translators, and anyone else involved in the business of literary translation. With a preface by Amanda Hopkinson, Director of the British Centre for Literary Translation, this volume brings together the experiences, opinions, and ideas of top editors and translators from both the U.S. and UK. Participants include:

Ros Schwartz, translator, chair of the European Council of Literary Translators’ Associations Euan Cameron, translator, former publisher and editor Hanan Al Shaykh, author Rebecca Carter, editor, Random House UK Christina Thomas, freelance editor Martin Riker, associate director, Dalkey Archive Press.


Translation in Practice is the first of a series of books Dalkey Archive Press will publish on the art of translation. It will be followed by a new edition of Suzanne Jill Levine’s The Subversive Scribe, forthcoming in October 2009. Suzanne Jill Levine has translated a number of Latin American greats into English, including Jorge Luis Borges, Adolfo Bioy Casares, Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Julio Cortazar, Jose Donoso, Carlos Fuentes, Silvina Ocampo, Alejandra Pizarnik, Julian Rios and Severo Sarduy. I plan on getting a copy Translation in Practice to evaluate its usefulness for myself and to read about the ideas it exposes on the subject. I highly recommend Levine’s book to all translators and those interested in translation. It will make you think about the art of translating in an entirely new way. If you have read either of these books, I invite you to comment and share your thoughts on them.

To enter my Latino Book Month giveaway, click here

Latino Book Month Giveaway!

Hachette Book Group has generously provided copies of 5 of their new books by Latino authors to give away to readers of VOCES in honor of Latino Books Month.

Five winners will received the whole set of five books! 

To win your copies, do the following:

1. Become a follower of VOCES by clicking on the appropriate box on the side bar. 
   
2. Once you have become a VOCES follower, send me an email to adrianasblog@gmail.com confirming that you have done so, and include the following information: 

• Your name and shipping address, so that we can know where to send the books. 
• An idea for a future post for VOCES, a feature that you'd like to see added to the blog, or feedback on what you like and may not have liked so much about my posts so far. As I stated in my first post, I want this to be a place for dialogue among those interested in Latino lit, so this information will benefit all! 
  

*Those who are already followers of the blog also qualify for the giveaway. If you are a follower, please let me know in your email message, and include the rest of the information requested. 

Five winners will be chosen randomly on the last day of Latino Book Month, May 31st. Winners will be announced on the site on JUNE 1ST, 2009. Good luck! 

To find out more about the books, click on their titles below:

1.       B as in Beauty By Alberto Ferreras ISBN: 0446697893

2.       Into the Beautiful North By Luis Urrea ISBN: 0316025275

3.       Hungry Woman in Paris By Josefina Lopez ISBN: 0446699411

4.       The Disappearance of Irene Dos Santos By Margaret Mascarenhas ISBN: 0446541109

5.       Houston, We Have a Problema By Gwendolyn Zepeda ISBN: 0446698520

**Books will be delivered by publisher, so contest is open only to residents of the U.S. and Canada. Books will not be delivered to P.O. boxes.

Celebrate El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Children’s Day/Book Day) on April 30th, and Every Other Day of the Year!

By now, most of us know that 1 out of every 2 children born in the US is of Latino heritage, and that by 2050 nearly 30% of this country’s population will be Latino. What some of you may not know, is that studies have revealed that children who are read to from an early age (preferably before they begin school), do better once they get to school. And a child who does better in school is more likely to stay in it, and go on to college, and become a contributing member of society. So if we want to ensure a bright future for our Latino children as their numbers continue to grow, we should make an effort to read to them as much as we can, and to make that a priority in our lives. El día de los niños/El día de los libros provides us with a perfect opportunity to celebrate children, books, and the act of reading!

Founded in 1996 by author Pat Mora, “Día” as it is commonly called, is “a daily commitment to link all children to books, languages and cultures.” Día is housed at the American Library Association, and there are Día celebrations held at libraries all across the country on or near April 30th. To learn more about Día and its celebrations, get a brochure of recommended books, and much more, visit Día’s official website.

This is particularly exciting year for Día, because its founder, Pat Mora, has released her first ever Día themed bilingual picture book, entitled Book Fiesta!, illustrated by the amazing Rafael López. LibreríaLectorum.com recently interviewed the author about Día and her new book. Click here to read that interview. To learn more about Pat Mora, Día, and the book, visit the author’s website.

I have listed some Día events in my calendar. That, along with the information and resources found in the websites mentioned above, should provide you with many options for celebrating Día today, this week, this month, and this year. So tell your friends and family to celebrate, read to their kids, and buy books by Latino authors! That is the best investment we can all make in our future!

The titles below belong to a list of Día recommended titles put together by The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) - a division of the American Library Association (ALA), REFORMA - the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-speaking, and the Association of American Publishers’ Publishing Latino Voices for America (PLVA) Task Force. It includes books in English and Spanish, as well as in the popular bilingual format. I think that it provides a nice variety of titles to help you begin to build your library. Enjoy!

¡Feliz día de los niños y los libros!

Tell Your Story to NPR!

Hello everyone! I know that I've been a little MIA lately (busy, busy!), but I have been updating the calendar of events, so I hope that you are taking a look every so often, since it is updated very, very often. Check it out, or you may miss out on a writing workshop by Liliana Valenzuela, or a memoir workshop by Ana Castillo, to name only a couple! I get announcements about events from many sources, and I am making every effort to let you in on those through the calendar, as part of this blog's promise to provide you with "an insider's perspective" on the Latino market, so take advantage of it, and support Latino literature by attending the events whenever possible.

And here is an exciting opportunity for those of you who want to share your stories:

To any and all book lovers who have a good story to tell about how a book or librarian infused a child's life with joy or purpose. NPR's Latino USA is planning a feature to air before El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Children's Day/ Book Day) in April that will share some of these stories about the power of books. Do you have a story or can you help us find one? We are in search of all voices: young, old, in Spanish, Somali or any language. Write to us and tell us the story, and we may call you up for an interview. Others will be included on our web site. We are especially interested in stories about Latino and immigrant children. Or the kids themselves if they'd like! Please send them to Katie Davis: KDavisDC@aol.com. Good luck!

New Calendar Feature, and More

Hello everyone! I am dropping you this quick note to let you know that in an effort to make this blog as helpful and informative as possible for all readers, including book publishing professionals, authors and book lovers, I have added a calendar of upcoming events to the left side of the page. A quick look at the new calendar will reveal that I intend to include industry-wide events such as Book Expo America and librarians' conferences, as well as those that are more specialized, such as the National Latino Writers Conference in New Mexico, where I will be a participant, and a fabulous writing workshop by famed translator Liliana Valenzuela coming up in July. I'd like to encourage you all to send me your events to add to the new calendar. These can include readings, and all types of workshops, book celebrations or presentations. The only requirement for events is that their main focus be books and nothing else. The readers of this blog comes from all parts of the country and so too should our events. Let's work together to make this the most exhaustive calendar of events related to the Latino book industry out there! 

Another couple of additions you may find helpful, are the "share this" and "subscribe" buttons on the left side of the page. Blogs are still relatively new to some, and it is with those folks in mind that I am attempting to make sharing and subscribing to content a little bit easier. I hope you find the new buttons helpful as well. More to come very soon! 

Being Bilingual and Bicultural

Although NBC’s series on the Hispanic-American experience called “We the People” aired nearly two weeks ago, I strongly believe that the clip below is worth a second look because it deals with some of the issues that we have all faced as producers and/or supporters of Latino literature.

Regardless of whether you are a publisher, author, translator, marketer, publicist, or reader of Latino literature, you have undoubtedly come across questions about being bilingual and/or bicultural. These questions acquire a particularly high degree of importance when they relate to children and their exposure to two languages from an early age. For instance, some believe that having access to two languages and cultures is beneficial to children because it expands their view and experience of the world, while others worry that acquiring two languages at once will lead to linguistic confusion and slow down learning. This particular question is of special interest to parents and educators, and it deserves an answer.

The clip below does a wonderful job of discussing studies related to some of the most common linguistic and cultural issues facing Latinos in the U.S., which is why I think that all of us interested in Latino literature should take a couple of minutes to watch and comment on it. In addition to language acquisition, the clip also deals with “acculturation,” “interculturation,” and other equally important topics related to being bilingual and bicultural. I would love to know what you think about some of the topics it touches on, about your own experiences, and what you have learned. Latino literature is by definition bilingual and/or bicultural, so this concerns us all. Please post your comments on this very important topic. I look forward to reading them.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

NBC Joins the Conversation

Two-thirds of the Latino population voted for Obama, effectively helping him to get into office by winning him states that had previously gone to the Republicans, such as Florida, New Mexico, and Colorado.

This fact has not gone unnoticed by the mainstream media.

Last night, NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams launched a week-long series called WE THE PEOPLE, highlighting the "Hispanic Experience" in the U.S., which in fact calls attention to many issues that have hereto gone virtually unnoticed by said media, such as the staggering rate of growth of the U.S. Latino population (1 out of 2 babies born in the U.S. is now of Latino heritage). Expect to see more reports like this one, and watch them whenever you can. It is important for the media to know that there is a great deal of interest on the topic on the part of viewers.

Below is last night's first segment, which, I was glad to find, also highlighted Latino CHILDREN. Latino children are, after all, the ones responsible for this great demographic leap. Let's hope that publishers see the new face of America shown at the end of the video, and produce more books for THEM. Enjoy!

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Sanity Makes a Comeback

I want to begin by stating that I echo your comments on the last post, and that I too know that Latino publishing is not going anywhere. It can't. A recession will not change the fact that we are the largest minority group in this country, or that our numbers are growing—exponentially. We all know this, but lately, with all of the bad news coming out of the publishing world, and from Latino publishing in particular, it may have become a little tough to remind ourselves of this very significant fact.

So let's leave it to Random House to do it for us: Today, the publishing giant announced that Vintage Español is expanding its Spanish language publishing program from 15 to 45 titles per year as a result of a new co-publishing agreement with its Spanish counterpart, Random House Mondadori. In addition to its usual 15 front list titles, Vintage will take advantage of RH Mondadori’s world-class backlist to publish titles by classics of Spanish literature such as Pablo Neruda, and Spanish translations of English language best sellers, such as John Grisham. To launch the new program, Vintage Español will reissue 50 of RH Mondadori's best selling titles this fall.

According to PW Daily: “Messitte said under the agreement, Vintage Español will put RH Mondadori titles through the same publishing process as all Vintage titles, taking advantage of the infrastructure to devote more attention to marketing, publicity and production functions. Milena Alberti will continue to oversee the day-to-day operations as director of Spanish-language publishing for Vintage Español.”

And here’s something else:
“Messitte said Random still believes there is opportunity for growth in the Spanish-language field. Vintage Español has had steady growth since it was started in the mid 1990s and has slowly expanded its focus beyond its core line of literary titles into such areas as self-help and cooking. ‘We’ve been very pleased with the growth,’ Messitte said.”

Nice to know that, in the midst of all the panic that has plagued the industry lately, there are still some intelligent, forward-looking people in publishing who are actually paying attention, isn’t it? Now, I wonder who will be next?

The Other Shoe Drops

Upon my return to the U.S. and a mere two days after watching President Obama’s declaration that we are in the midst of “a full blown crisis,” I have the unfortunate task of having to report on not one, but TWO major ways in which this crisis has dealt direct blows to the Latino publishing industry.

Many of you probably know about the first: CRÍTICAS, the magazine published by Library Journal that for the past eight years had been THE source for news on the Spanish language publishing industry in the U.S., and the biggest provider of reviews of Spanish language titles available in this market, was shut down by its parent company, Reed Business Information. On a letter to online subscribers, former Editor Aída Bardales cites “decreased ad support” as the reason behind the decision made by the company, and states that “plans are underway to continue coverage of the U.S. Spanish-language book market through sister publications Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal.” It is not yet clear what form that coverage will take, but I will of course keep you posted. (To read Bardales’ complete letter, click here.) Adriana López, the magazine’s founder turned guest blogger, posted a nostalgic entry entitled “The Names and Faces Behind Críticas” that gives credit to those who have contributed their talents to the magazine over the years, and made me, for one, long for the days when the Latino industry felt like a budding enterprise full of promise, rather than another helpless victim of the current economic climate.

Which brings me to my second bit of news, as this one too, makes me long for better days, specifically, a time eight years ago, when HarperCollins Publishers’ former CEO Jane Friedman saw the potential of the budding Latino market and launched a new imprint called RAYO. Since then, Rayo’s titles have consistently ranked among the top-selling Spanish language titles sold in the U.S., and won numerous awards. But achievements no longer guarantee employment, and so, on Tuesday, February 10th, I read this article stating that Rene Alegria, Rayo’s Publisher has been let go, along with his fabulous editor, Cecilia Molinari, part of a wave of layoffs by HarperCollins that resulted in the complete dissolution of Collins, their non-fiction imprint, among other disasters. A note at the bottom of the article seems to suggest that Harper plans to continue publishing Rayo titles, although it does not explain exactly how that will be accomplished. Again, I will keep you posted.

A quick look at my bio will make it clear that both of these events weigh heavily on me personally, as I am friends with everyone formerly employed by these two businesses. And it is both in the spirit of friendship, and of “giving credit where credit is due,” that I remind readers that the folks affected by these news are trailblazers whose tremendous dedication and hard work have contributed to making this portion of the business the essential part of the general book market it has become, and that it should continue to be. It is with great sadness that I report on these developments, and that I appeal to you, readers, and ask that you support this industry in any way you can: by subscribing and supporting this blog, by purchasing books by Latino authors, attending Latino authors’ readings, writing letters to decision makers, and any other way you can think of. The sense of urgency I felt when I launched this blog has now reached unforeseen proportions. We should all be stunned, saddened, and outraged by these news, but most of all, we should take action. Do you part, whatever that is. And hold on to your hats, we’re in for a bumpy ride…