Anaya Rudolfo - The Essays

The Essays

Rudolfo Anaya

I dedicate this collection to the writers, artists, teachers, students, community activists, politicians, and all who have worked purposefully and diligently to achieve social and political justice for the Mexican American community.

Our civil rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s included an outpouring of artistic work. We called our efforts el Movimiento Chicano, the Chicano Movement. We marched and demanded equality in all fields of endeavor from the mainstream society.

I presented many of these essays and lectures at state and national teachers conferences. I read them at community gatherings and in university settings. One of my objectives was achieving equal educational opportunities for Mexican Americans. Looking back, Chicanos and Chicanas involved in the Chicano Movement can say we did make a difference. In many positive ways we influenced this countrys relationship to our community. Old prejudices began to fall away as many heard our call and joined the struggle.

Some of my compatriots from those years are dead; some are still working and contributing. We fought for justice, not only for our community, but for all people. Now its up to new generations to work at making this a better world. Much remains to be done.

PRAISE OF THE WRITING OF RUDOLFO ANAYA

An extraordinary storyteller. Los Angeles Times Book Review

One of the nations foremost Chicano literary artists. The Denver Post

[Anayas work] is better called not the new multicultural writing, but the new American writing. Newsweek

One of the best writers in the country. El Paso Times

The godfather and guru of Chicano literature. Tony Hillerman, author of The Blessing Way

Poet of the barrio the most widely read Mexican-American. Newsweek

Alburquerque

Winner of PEN Center West Award for Fiction

Alburquerque is a rich and tempestuous book, full of love and compassion, the complex and exciting skullduggery of politics, and the age-old quest for roots, identity, family There is a marvelous tapestry of interwoven myth and magic that guides Anayas characters sensibilities, and is equally important in defining their feel of place. Above all, in this novel is a deep caring for land culture and for the spiritual well-being of people, environment, landscape. John Nichols, author of The Milagro Beanfield War: A Novel

Alburquerque portrays a quest for knowledge. [It] is a novel about many cultures intersecting at an urban, power- and politics-filled crossroads, represented by a powerful white businessman, whose mother just happens to be a Jew who has hidden her Jewishness and a boy from the barrio who fathers a child raised in the barrio but who eventually goes on to a triumphant assertion of his cross-cultural self. World Literature Today

Alburquerque fulfills two important functions: it restores the missing R to the name of the city, and it shows off Anayas powers as a novelist. National Public Radio

Anaya is at his visionary best in creating magical realist moments that connect people with one another and the earth. The Review of Contemporary Fiction

Anayas prowess shows through on every page. Thumbs up. ABQ Arts

Tortuga

Winner of the American Book Award

A compelling story of a young man who suffers and learns to make peace with who he is, Tortuga has that touch of magic, of fantastical characters, of dreams as real as sunlight, associated with the best of Chicano literature. Roundup Magazine

Tortuga is one those rare works that speaks to the human condition across time and space, and it well-deserves to find a new generation of readers. Southwest Book Views

A highly emotional tale of a young soul who turned from a turtle into a human all in the span of 200 pages. Reviewers of Young Adult Literature

My Land Sings

Winner of the Toms Rivera Mexican American Childrens Book Award

Rich in traditional Mexican and native American folklore. Every story spins its magic effectively. Booklist

Haunting. Compelling twists will keep the pages turning. Publishers Weekly

Anaya champions the reading of a good book or listening to a folktale as an opportunity to insert ones own experiences into the story and, hence, to nurture the imagination. This appealing volume will add diversity to folklore collections. Booklist

The wide variety of stories demonstrate a mature understanding of lifes trappings and dangers, but retain a healthy sense of humor about the human predicament. Kirkus Reviews

Serafinas Stories

[Serafinas] stories are simple but vivid. There is magic and mystery too. Los Angeles Times

Anayas prose offers purity. [Serafinas Stories] will restore to all but the most jaded reader a necessary sense of wonder. National Public Radio

Like Serafina, Anaya is a powerful storyteller whose cuentos and other writings are a balm for the soul. New Mexico Magazine

It is not hard to predict that Serafinas story will be hypnotic and entertain. With Serafinas Stories Anaya again reminds us of the importance of maintaining an oral tradition. San Antonio Express-News

Rudolfo Anaya is both a wise man and a gifted storyteller. Serafinas Stories [is] a series of engaging tales. Santa Fe New Mexican

Anayas new book is a spellbinding account of a Native American woman who spins tales to enlighten the Spanish governor into setting her people free. Clearly conceived, Serafinas Stories contains 12 folk tales that are as absorbing as the main plot. El Paso Times

Heart of Aztlan

In Heart of Aztlan, a prose writer with the soul of poet, and a dedication to his calling that only the greatest artists ever sustain, is on an important track, the right one, the only one. La Confluencia

[Heart of Aztlan gives] a vivid sense of Chicano life since World War II. World Literature Today

Mixed with the Native American legends and Hispanic traditions of this wonderful book are the basic human motivations that touch all cultures. It is a rip-roaring good read. Cibola Beacon

Jalamanta

A parable for out time We are in deep need of simple truths, of rediscovering our ancient teachings, and Jalamanta may provide that opportunity. The Washington Post Book World

Zia Summer

A compelling thriller Though satisfying purely as a mystery, the novel sacrifices none of Anayas trademark spiritualitya connectedness to the earth and a deep-seated respect for the traditions of a people and a culture. Read this multicultural novel for its rich language and full-bodied characters. Anaya is one of our greatest storytellers, and Zia Summer is muy caliente! Booklist

[Anaya] continues to shine brightest with his trademark alchemy: blending Spanish, Mexican, and Indian cultures to evoke the distinctively fecund spiritual terrain of his part of the Southwest. Publishers Weekly

Rio Grande Fall

This is a completely entertaining mystery novel, but Anaya offers two parallel lands of enchantment. One is temporal New Mexico; the other is Nuevo Mexicano, a land of santos, milagros, spirits, visions, and even brujas (witches). Booklist

Shaman Winter

Be aware that if you only skate on the surface, you will miss the depth of the story. You have to dive head-first, literally, into the waves of poetic prose to catch a glimpse of the forces that keep our universe together.