Nobody Grooms Like La Senora

EPSON MFP image

We’re Talking Old World Craftsmanship Here.

EPSON MFP image

I Want To Believe

It has been three weeks since my brother-in-law, Roy Guerrero, passed away. I thought I had stowed away all my grief and emotion and moved on. But today I was looking at some comments by Roy’s friends and family on Linda Mathiesen’s (Roy’s wife who lives in Copenhagen) beautiful tribute page on facebook, “Roy’s Adventures”. As I read Linda’s comment to my daughter, Rhiannon Smith-Guerrero, about the time they had spent together and how my granddaughter had told him “I love you Uncle Roy” about a hundred times as they were riding in the car, the flood gates opened up again. I decided to finish off a sketch I’d started a week or so ago when Linda made a request that I draw a picture of Roy as she and her girlfriend’s child, Dorte, had fantasized him. Evidently Roy was an aficianado of all things cosmic, including UFOs and extraterrestrial life, so they thought of him whirling through the galaxies and finding the planet where God lived. This is the best I could do. Hope you like it Linda.

The Truth Is Out There.

The Lost Aldo Drawings

No kidding, I just found them buried with a bone out in the back yard next to the mango tree.

…and beyond

Get your hit of The Outer Limits (2 disc, 17 episodes), Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Best of the TV Detectives (12 discs, 150 episodes), and lots more DVDs at “Tesoro Escondido” kitty corner from Bodega Lizzaraga, Militar, Todos Santos, BCS.

Go West, Old Dude.

Identify the plants below and win Gail’s undying gratitude.

(Whatthehellicus nutticus)

(Nonameicus leafus)

Those Amazing Humans, #9 SS, Tomas Rivera

Tomas Rivera, whose birthday was yesterday, is a Mexican-American author, poet (won’t hold that against him) and a Mex-Am Children’s Book Award was named after him (gotta love that). Other than that I know absolutely nada. So once again, heeeeere’s Wiki.

Tomás Rivera (December 22, 1935 – May 16, 1984) was a Chicano author, poet, and educator. He was born in Texas to migrant farm workers, and worked in the fields as a young boy. However, he achieved social mobility through education—earning a degree at Southwest Texas State University (now known as Texas State University), and later a Doctor of Philosophy degree (PhD) at the University of Oklahoma—and came to believe strongly in the virtues of education for Mexican-Americans.

As an author, Rivera is best remembered for his 1971 Faulknerian stream-of-consciousness novella …y no se lo tragó la tierra, translated into English variously as This Migrant Earth and as …and the Earth Did Not Devour Him. This book won the first Premio Quinto Sol award.

Rivera taught in high schools throughout the Southwest USA, and later at Sam Houston State University and the University of Texas at El Paso. From 1979 until his death in 1984, he was the chancellor of the University of California, Riverside, the first Mexican-American to hold such a position at the University of California.

Dec.22, 1935-May 16, 1984

Rivera died May 16, 1984 ^[17] in his Fontana home. He is remembered as a gifted teacher, consummate administrator and acclaimed poet by many. After his death, many plazas, schools and certifications were named in his honor: a University of Texas at Austin professorship, the primary University of California, Riverside library and a plaza (as mentioned above), a Riverside Unified School District elementary school, a Denton, Texas elementary school, a Val Verde Unified School District middle school, a Crystal City (his hometown) elementary school, a Mexican-American children’s book, an honorary doctorate from Santa Clara University and was named a distinguished alumnus by Texas State University-San Marcos. His work is studied in courses of American and Chicano literature, and the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute bearing his name continues to publish studies on educational, immigration, economic, and other issues important to Hispanic-Americans.

At the University of Texas at San Antonio, a tutoring center is named in his honor. At Texas State University-San Marcos Student Center Drive was renamed Tomas Rivera Drive in his honor.^{[citation needed]} In 1995, the College of Education at Texas State established the Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award “to honor authors and illustrators who create literature that depicts the Mexican American experience”; winners have included such notable authors as Rudolfo Anaya, Pat Mora, and Gary Soto.

In the year following his death, the General Library at UC Riverside was renamed the Tomás Rivera Library. His wife, Concepción Rivera donated all of her late husbands papers to be put on loan at this library. The archive now contains all of Rivera’s work, more than 85,000 items. The contents of this archive is indicative of his hardworking, selfless and motivated nature. Not only did Rivera leave this world with buildings, plazas and learning centers in his name, he left an imprint on future generations of chicanos. Above all, Rivera had a vision for the world: that generations of migrant workers following his own would have equitable access to post-secondary education and opportunities to succeed

 

Aldo’s Day, Plus Those Amazing Humans, Second Series, #7, Kenneth Patchen

Someday I will do a list of Aldo’s Top Ten Poets.

Kenneth Patchen (December 13, 1911 – January 8, 1972) was an American poet and novelist.

Patchen first began to develop his interest in literature and poetry while he was in high school, and the New York Times published his first poem while he was still in college. He attended Alexander Meiklejohn‘s Experimental College (which was part of the University of Wisconsin), in Madison, Wisconsin, for one year, starting in 1929. Patchen had a football scholarship there but had to drop out when he injured his back. After leaving school, Patchen travelled across the country, taking itinerant jobs in such places as Arkansas, Louisiana and Georgia.

Throughout his life-time Patchen was a fervent pacifist, as he made clear in much of his work. He was strongly opposed to U.S. involvement in World War II. In his own words: “I speak for a generation born in one war and doomed to die in another.” This controversial view, coupled with his immobilization, prevented wider recognition or success beyond what was considered a “cult” following.

Later, in the 1950s, Patchen became a major influence on the younger Beat poets including Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Miriam Patchen recalled some of these young poets, including Philip Lamantia, Gary Snyder, and Michael McClure, making special visits to the Patchens’ home in San Francisco to pay their respects. However, once the Beats’ popularity grew, Patchen disliked being associated with them and was highly critical of their glorification of drug use and what he perceived to be a strong desire for media attention and fame. Patchen referred to “Ginsberg and Co.” and the media hype surrounding them as a “freak show.”

-Above biographical  material from Wikipedia

“Come now, my child, if we were planning to harm you, do you think we’d be lurking here beside the path in the very darkest part of the forest?”-Kenneth Patchen

.“There are so many little dyings that it doesn’t matter which of them is death. ”
― Kenneth Patchen

Unseasonably Warm For December 10th

No Whine Before It’s Time, AKA Old Folks Blues