On Hiatus

I'll be on hiatus from the blogosphere because I'll be finalizing my dissertation prospectus.

It's also Spring Break so I'm trying to get some rest (Is there such a thing?).

In May, I'll be attending the Rhetoric Society of America Conference in Seattle so I will also be busy preparing for my presentation. So this hiatus might be extended even further!

Despite the hiatus, I might be tempted to jump back into this blog and post some notes or comments here or there about what I am reading.

One never knows what will happen.

Hasta pronto,

"Memerehetor"

Currently reading:

Patrick H. Hutton, "History as an Art of Memory"

Photo of "Coatlicue" above courtesy of:

Dr. Edna Molina-Jackson, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, California State University

Memory/Memoria and Music(a)

Corridos in Migrant Memory

by

Martha I Chew Sanchez

Press Release about Corridos in Migrant Memory

Book Review by Maria Herrera-Sobek

New Books About Memory/Memoria

Brewer, Joseph E., Manzur Gill, eds. Nonvolatile Memory Technologies with Emphasis on Flash : A Comprehensive Guide to Understanding and Using Flash Memory Devices. New York: 2008.

Howes, Mary B. Human Memory: Structures and Images. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 2007.

Kliegel, Matthias, Mark A. McDaniel, Gilles O. Einstein, eds. Prospective Memory: Cognitive, Neuroscience, Developmental, and Applied Perspectives. New York : Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2008.

Strong-Wilson, Teresa. Bringing Memory Forward: Storied Remembrance in Social Justice Education with Teachers. New York: Peter Lang, 2008.

New in Books

Scholar and novelist Anita August has published her debut novel titled "Gut Bucket Blues" (Stanley Publishing), which presents the story of a young boy's journey through the labrynth that is New Orleans.





You can order the book from bookmasters.com, amazon.com, and stanleypublishing.com. Get it now!

A reading will be held on April 9, 2008 at 6 p.m. at the UTEP Union Cinema. Mark your calendar!

Congratulations, Anita! Way to go! Yay!

NMAAHC Virtual Memory Book

During my recent visit to "WRT: Writer Response Theory," a blog and podcast about (hyper)texts, I learned that The Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture is currently featuring "A Virtual Memory Book" which invites all individuals to share memories of places, people, and things that are important to them, specifically stories and (oral) histories related to the NMAAHC exhibits or to other memories posted in the virtual book, which truly makes this project a socially collaborative project. Ah, can you imagine the multiplicity of narratives! Ah!

They state the following in the call for online memories:

"You may associate your Memory with a geographical location, as well as the year of the memory to offer a historical timeframe. Postal/zip code information would be useful for future use in a dynamic timeline display associating stories, traditions and histories. By offering this information, you may be assisting others in their recollection of times past, as well as spurring them on to contribute to the Memory Book."

Interesante! Please visit their website!

(Photo Above Courtesy of Shomberg Center of the New York Library)

Anzaldua List of Publications

For a long time, I have been wanting to post a strong list of publications by and about Gloria E. Anzaldua. Now, as my final selection, I have decided to post the list featured in "Voices from the Gaps". Check it out:

Books

Interviews/Entrevistas with AnaLouise Keating, ed. (2000)
La Prieta (1997)
Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza (1987)

CHILDREN'S BOOKS

Prietita and the Ghost Woman / Prietita y La Llorona (1996)
Friends from the Other Side / Amigos del otra lado (1993)
Prietita Has a Friend / Prietita tiene un Amigo (1991)

• Anthologies
  • Lloronas, Women Who Howl: Autohistorias-Torias and the Production of Writing, Knowledge, and Identity. 1996.
  • with Moraga, Cherrie, eds. This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. Massachussets: Persephone Press, 1981.
  • Making Face, Making Soul/Hacieno Caras: Creative and Critical Perspectives by Women of Color. San Francisco: Aunt Lute, 1990.
  • Cassell's Encyclopedia of Queer Myth, Symbol and Spirit: Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Lore. London, Herdon, VA :Cassell Academic, 1998.

• Secondary Sources

• Alarcín, Norma. "Anzaldías Frontera: Inscribing Gynetics." Chicana Feminisms: A Critical Reader. Ed. Gabriela F. Arredondo, Aida Hurado, Norma Klahn, Olba Nijera-Ramirez, and Patricia Zavella. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 2003.
• Aldama, Arturo J. Disrupting Savagism: Intersecting Chicana/o, Mexican Immigrant, and Native American Struggles for Self-Representation. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 2001.
• Barnard, Ian. "Gloria Anzaldua's Queer Mestisaje." MELUS: The Journal of the Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States 22 (1997): 35-53.
• Blom, Gerdien. "Divine Individuals, Cultural Identities: Post-Identitarian Representations and Two Chicana/o Texts." Thamyris: Mythmaking from Past to Present 4 (1997): 295-324.
• Branche, Jerome. "Anzaldua: El ser y la nacion." Entorno 34 (1995): 39-44.
• Concannon, Kevin. "The Contemporary Space of the Border: Gloria Anzaldua's Borderlands and William Gibson's Neuromancer." Textual Practice 12 (1998): 429-42.
• Dizon, Terrell. "Forum on Literatures of the Environment." PMLA 114 (1999): 1903-4.
• Fowlkes, Diane. "Moving from Feminist Identity Politics to Coalition Politics through a Feminist Materialist Standpoint of Intersubjectivity in Gloria Anzaldua's Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza." Hypatia 12 (1997): 105-24.
• Gagnier, Regenia. "Review Essay: Feminist Autobiography in the 1980's." Feminist Studies 17 (1991): 135-139.
• Hall, Lynda. "Writing Selves Home at the Crossroads: Anzaldua and Chrystos (re) Configure Lesbian Bodies." Ariel 30 (1999): 99-117.
• Hedley, Jane. "Nepantilist Poetics: Narrative and Cultural Identity in the Mixed-Language Writings of Irena Klepfisz and Gloria Anzaldua." Narrative 4 (1996): 36-54.
• Ikas, Karin Rosa. Chicana Ways: Conversations with Ten Chicana Writers. Reno, NV: U of Nevada P, 2002.
• Kaup, Monika. "Constituting Hybridity as Hybrid: Métis Canadian and Mexican American Formations." Mixing Race, Mixing Culture: Inter-American Literary Dialogues. Ed. Monika Kaup and Debra J. Rosenthal. Austin, TX: U of Texas P, 2002.
• Keating, AnaLouise. "Myth Smashers, Myth Makers: (Re) Visionary Techniques in the Works of Paula Gunn Allen, Gloria Anzaldua, and Audre Lorde." Critical Essays: Gay and Lesbian Writers of Color. Ed. Emmanuel S. Nelson. New York: Haworth, 1993. 73-95.
• ---. "Writing Politics, and las Lesberadas: Platicando con Gloria Anzaldua." Frontiers 14 (1993): 105-129.
• ---. Women Reading Women Writing: Self-Invention in Paula Gunn Allen, Gloria Anzaldua and Audre Lorde. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1996.
• ---, ed. Gloria E. Anzaldua: Interviews/Entrevistas. New York, NY: Routledge, 2000.
• Lomeli, Francisco and Carl Shirley, eds. Dictionary of Literary Biography, Chicano Writers. Detroit: Gale Research, 1992.
• Lopez, Iraida H. "Autobiographical Narratives in Latino America: A Hemispheric Context." Ciberletras 7 (2002).
• Lugones, Maria. "On Borderlands/La Frontera: An Interpretive Essay." Hypatia 7 (1992): 31-37.
• Murphy, Patrick. "Grandmother Borderland: Placing Identity and Ethnicity." Isle: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 1 (1993): 35-41.
• Oliver Rotger, Ma Antonia. 'Sangre Fértil'/Fertile Blood: Migratory Crossings, War and Healing in Gloria Anzaldua's Borderlands/La Frontera." Dressing Up for War: Transformations of Gender and Genre in the Discourse and Literature of War. Ed. Aranzazu Usandizaga and Andrew Monnickendam. Rodopi Perspectives on Modern Literature 24. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Rodopi, 2001.
• Perles Rochel, Juan Antonio. "Revisiting the Borderlands: A Critical Reading of Gloria Anzaldua's Borderlands/La Frontera: Towards a New Mextiza." Evolving Origins, Transplanting Cultures: Literary Legacies of the New Americas. Ed. Laura P. Alonso Gallo and Antonia Dominguez Miguela. Hulva, Spain: Universidad de Huelva, 2002.
• Ramos, Juanita. "Gloria E. Anzaldua." Contemporary Lesbian Writers of the United States: a bio-bibliographical sourcebook. Eds. Sandra Pollack and Denise D. Knight. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993. 19-25.
• Steele, Cassie Premo. We Heal from Witness: Sexton, Lourde, Anzaldua, and the Poetry of Witness. New York: Palgrave, 2000.
• Torres, Lourdes and Inmaculada Pertusa, eds. Tortilleras: Hispanic and U.S. Latina Lesbian Expression. Philadelphia, PA: Temple UP, 2003.
• Wright, Melissa. "Maquiladora Mestizas and a Feminist Border Politics: Revisiting Anzaldua." Hypatia 13 (1998): 114-131.
• Yarbro-Bejarano, Yvonne. "Gloria Anzaldua's Borderlands/La Frontera: Cultural Studies, 'Difference,' and the Non-Unitary Subject." Cultural Critique. 28 (1994): 5-28.

Also, visit the following sites/articles/web pages which need to be part of your Gloria Anzaldua bookmarks!

Classicdykes.com features a tribute to Gloria E. Anzaldua (1942-2004)

Rest in Peace Gloria

Voices from the Gaps: Gloria E. Anzaldua

San Francisco Chronicle Article about Gloria E. Anzaldua

Gloria Anzaldua article on "Queering Diabetes"

Quote of the Day

“Why am I compelled to write?... Because the world I create in the writing compensates for what the real world does not give me. By writing I put order in the world, give it a handle so I can grasp it. I write because life does not appease my appetites and anger... To become more intimate with myself and you. To discover myself, to preserve myself, to make myself, to achieve self-autonomy. To dispell the myths that I am a mad prophet or a poor suffering soul. To convince myself that I am worthy and that what I have to say is not a pile of shit... Finally I write because I'm scared of writing, but I'm more scared of not writing.”

Gloria E. Anzaldua (1942-2004)

Gloria Anzaldua on MySpace

Gloria E. Anzaldua has gone beyond the confines of academe and has been immortalized in cyberspace through a special tribute titled "Gloria Anzaldua Legacy Project," a MySpace web page that features photos of the late Chicana lesbiana author, poeta, theorist and activist. Also, the page features several of her publications as well as tributes held in her honor. Please take a moment to visit the page and provide comments or check out the beautiful photographs of a recent tribute to Anzaldua featuring Anzaldua's familia and a reading by Chicana poeta and activista Emmy Perez, whose blog--Ysleta Poeta--features some of the most beautiful photographs that inspire and motivate you to continue appreciating the gift of flowers, earth, sun, moon and air. I miss you Emmy.

New in Music

I cannot think, breathe, write nor work without music. I'm currently studying, reading and writing to Erikah Badu's new release "New Amerikah, Part One (4th World War)", whose album cover seems to be giving props to Angela Davis and old school Pam Grier.

The songs are smooth as ever, especially the track "Me," which is sublime. Badu is certainly working her talent and magic in this exquisite new collection of songs.

Forget Amy Winehouse, listen to this now.

Remembering Sin Fronteras/Without Borders

Frederick Douglass and Gloria E. Anzaldua are two rhetors whose rhetorical works will receive much attention in my dissertation on memory.

To date, Andrea Lunsford has provided scholars within our field an illuminating interview with Anzaldua wheareas Patricia Bizzell has written articles about the works of Frederick Douglass, as well as writing an introduction to the rhetorical works by Douglass and Anzaldua in The Rhetorical Tradition with Bruce Herzberg.

In talking about and remembering Gloria Anzaldua, I'm always searching for the ways in which scholars, activists, and writers remember her presence in their lives and the impression her work made on up and coming scholars in various fields/disciplines.

Shortly after the death of Anzaldua, Chicana historian Yolanda Chavez Leyva wrote a memorial tribute to Anzaldua as a way to remember someone who inspired Chavez Leyva to become an activist. Here, "activist" refers to the commitment to giving back to one's community instead of only thinking of the self in isolation.

There can be no doubt that this article further reinforced the argument that Anzaldua remains a critical figure in the Mexicana/Chicana rhetorical tradition, which has been eloquently advocated by rhetoric scholar Jessica Enoch in her article "Para La Mujer: Defining a Chicana Feminist Rhetoric at the Turn of the Century".

In remembering Anzaldua, Chavez Leyva writes:

"She loved words. She loved learning. She loved teaching. She became an avid reader as a child and a prolific writer as an adult. She worked with migrant farm worker children in the 1960s and university students from then on." (21)

There can be no doubt that Anzaldua gave back and, to date, continues to exemplify the term "activist" for the rest of us engaged in writing/escritura.

The aspects of Anzaldua's writing that I wish to explore at this point is how she used new age concepts and brought them to the act of writing. I am also interested in learning how she fused the spiritual with the act of using words in writing. I'm also drawn to the way that Anzaldua blended the spiritual and the political. All of these interests are driving my research and is the basis of a new collection of essays I am collecting on the impression that her work has had on my thinking as a citizen of El Mundo Zurdo.

(article above courtesy of "The Progressive")

Memorias de los Braceros/Bracero Memories

On Saturday, I hope to visit "Memorias de los Braceros/Bracero Memories," an exhibit that is currently being sponsored by The Centennial Museum and The Institute of Oral History at UTEP. I want to investigate as to whether this exhibit might be made into a book. The photo caption in the above flyer features a a group of proud and brave braceros from Chihuahua City, Chihuahua, Mexico to El Paso, Texas. This exhibit is so important for our communidad given that much of the history of Mexican and Mexican American laborers in the U.S. is not given enough attention it deserves.

The exhibit runs between January 24 and April 12, 2008.

Museum hours are 10 a.m. -- 4:30 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday

Digital History/Historia

When I was an M.A. student studying Borderlands History, specifically the history of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, I often searched for a good resource that I could supplement several primary and secondary sources to teach a course on either the U.S-Mexico War or the history of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands.

Digital History is a great online textbook that includes some appealing excerpts that could be used in the history classroom. The section on Mexican-Americans features excerpts from works ranging from the Spanish Borderlands to Selena. Digital History is the most organized and concise website that I would recommend to give students a sufficient introduction to the history/historia of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, Texas/Tejas history, the U.S-Mexico War and the presence of Mexican-Americans/Chicanos/Latinos in pop cultura.

Quote of the Day -- "Oppositional Consciounsess"

"...what I am proposing would be considered a 'science of oppositional ideology.' This study identifies five principal categories by which 'oppositional consciousness is organized, and which are politically effective means for changing the dominant order of power. I characterize them as 'equal rights,' 'revolutionary,' 'supremacist,' 'separatist,' and 'differential' ideology forms. All these forms of consciousness are kaleidoscoped into view when the fifth form is utilized as a theoretical model which retroactively clarifies and gives new meaning to the others. Differential consciousness represents the strategy of another form of oppositional ideology that functions on an altogether different register. Its power can be thought of as mobile-not nomadic but rather cinematographic: a kinetic motion that maneuvers, poetically transfigures, and orchestrates while demanding alienation, perversion, and reformation in both spectators and practitioners. Differential consciousness is the expression of the new subject position called for by Althusser-it permits functioning within yet beyond the demands of dominant ideology. This differential form of oppositional consciousness has been enacted in the practice of U.S. third world feminism since the 1960s."

Chela Sandoval, Methodology of the Oppressed

Mind Maps/Cognitive Mapping

After reading Frederic Jameson’s discussion about the “aesthetic of cognitive mapping” in “Postmodernism or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism,” I have been prompted to research the relationship between memory and space which, in a sense, has made me re-visit the historical use of mnemonics—which were the topics of my early posts on this blog when I discussed Frances Yates' The Art of Memory.

In addition, to researching cognitive maps, I found the following list of benefits of mnemonic mind maps featured in Tony and Barry Bazan’s The Mind Map Book.

"The benefits of mnemonic mind maps:

1. They utilize all the cortical skills, thereby enormously enhancing the probability of recall.

2. They activate the brain on all levels, making it more alert and skillful at remembering.

3. Their attractiveness makes the brain want to return to them, and again encourages the probability of spontaneous recall.

4. They are intrinsically designed to aid memory.

5. The use of the memory Mind Maps activates the brain to become mnemonically alert and thus with each usage increases the base memory skill level.

6. They reflect the creative thinking process, thereby simultaneously enhancing creative thinking skills.

7. They maintain a high level of recall through a learning or listening period.

8. They utilize all the individuals associative capabilities, enhancing the brain’s physical imprinting and network-making capabilities, and therefore increasing the probability of recall.

9. They provide a “sure fire” method of remembering, thus increasing the individual’s confidence, motivation and general mental functioning." (150, 152)

The strategic use of words is quite scientific here: “utilize,” “cortical,” “skills,” “enhancing,” “recall,” “skillful,” “alert,” “level,” “associative,” “imprinting,” and “functioning”.

What appeals to me here is the emphasis on the relationship between mind maps and creativity. I find it quite intellectual useful to think about the relationship between memory and creativity, which then makes me puzzle over the role of imagination within the context of remembering. Does imagination complicate memory by decentering its supposed “stability” or “objectivity” by what is imagined in the act of remembering? Also, I’ve been thinking about how memory interacts with creativity within the context of space in creating mind maps. All of these ideas and questions take me back to an examination of mnemonics.

Do mind maps help you remember?

Mind maps featured here are featured in Tony and Barry Bazan's The Mind Map Book (Penguin Books, 1994)

Memory & History

On March 1, Texas A&M University Press will publish historian, ethnographer and photographer Marie Theresa Hernández’s “Cemeteries of Ambivalent Desire: Unearthing Deep South Narratives from a Texas Graveyard,” an intricate history of the San Isidro Cemetery, which Hernández discovered was the site of a slave owning plantation before it was a burial site for Mexican/Mexican-American workers at the Imperial Sugar Company in Sugar Land, TX (which is located 20 miles southwest of Houston, Texas). According to the book description, Hernández used interviews, newspaper stories and other sources to construct a history that brings together Southern history and Mexican-American history. No doubt that Hernández’s monograph merits much attention in the field of memory/memory studies, as well as Chicana/o studies.

R.I.P. -- Raul Salinas (1935-2008)

After devoting all of his life to writing and fighting for human rights, activist and "Pinto Poet" Raul Salinas entered the spiritual world at age 73. In addition to writing "East of the Freeway: Reflections de Mi Pueblo" and "Un Trip Through the Mind Jail y Otras Excusions," he fought with all his corazon and mind in the American Indian Movement and the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee. Moreover, he founded La Resistencia Bookstore.

Please read literary historian Louis Mendoza's article about Salinas titled "The Re-education of a Xicanindio: Raul Salinas and the Poetics of Pinto Transformation," which appeared in MELUS in 2003.

You can read more about Salinas' significant works in the following articles:

"Teacher, poet activist Raul Salinas Dies" by Michael Lithgow in Art Threat

"Poetry as Activism" by Phil West in The Austin Chronicle

"Out of the Ashes, the Pínto Poet Arises" by Raymond R. Beltran

Our Thoughts and Hearts Are With You

Much love and support goes out to the students, faculty, and families at Northern Illinois University.

Has The Art of Persuasion Been Sold (Out)?

Jay Heinrichs' recently published "Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion" is perhaps making some cringe, some laugh and some simply dismiss the joy that Amazon customers have expressed via rave reviews of Heinrich's (off the cliff) notes about Aristotle and Cicero.

Heinrich is sure to be enjoying the positive reviews from a general audience that are able to understand the art of persuasion by watching "The Simpsons" or listening to Eminem via a "practical breakdown" of Aristotle and Cicero, but at what cost to academics?

"The Columbian Orator"

The Columbian Orator is a collection of speeches, dialogues, sermons, and poems published in 1797 and edited by Caleb Bingham. It was used as a textbook in American classrooms during the nineteenth century and--most importantly--profoundly influenced Frederick Douglass. According to historian Gregory P. Lampe's Frederick Douglass: Freedom's Voice, 1818-1845, The Columbian Orator gave the abolitionist orator the rhetorical skills that he needed to argue against the insitution of slavery. The website "E Pluribus Unum Project" contains some highlights as to the text's influence, especially on Douglass.

(Photo Courtesy of and featured in the digital library titled Nineteenth Century Schoolbooks)

Vive L'Resistance!

Noted scholars Paul Rainbow, Donna Haraway, James Clifford, and Hayden White (among others) will reunite to examine and discuss the work of Michel Foucault at a conference that is free to the public on March 1-2, 2008 @ UC Santa Cruz. Don't miss it!

Check out the description to the conference below or click here:

"Foucault Across the Disciplines will be a national conference providing a forum for assessing and reassessing the tremendous impact of Michel Foucault’s thought across the disciplines over the past half century. This conference will convene an interdisciplinary group of scholars of world and national renown to explore the many ways in which Foucault’s work is being deployed across the disciplines. These cross-disciplinary deployments assume at least two forms: they are challenges to the disciplines that define our academic research formations, and they are critiques of specific disciplinary apparatuses. We hope to establish lines of engagement that will extend innovative research paths beyond the current limits of inquiry."

Check out the blog for the conference: Click here

"Third Gender: Subverting the Conventional in Queer Discourse"

"Third Gender: Subverting the Conventional in Queer Discourse"

Venue:

2008 National Communication Association’s Convention

San Diego, California (Nov. 21 – Nov. 24, 2008)

"The constructs of “queer” and queer theory have enriched popular and scholarly discourse specifically because they signify a refusal to restrict sex, gender, and sexual identity to the terminologies that reify dominant epistemologies. However, the English-speaking public, its popular media, and many in the academy still insist on maintaining, limiting and reducing these constructs to articulate the lived gender identity expressions of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender identified experience. Despite a prolific generation of gender-bending and gender-challenging activism and scholarship, and despite increasingly documented life experiences that cannot be captured by or implicated in upholding “male/female” and “man/woman” dichotomies, the language used to describe and depict sex, sexuality, and gender in English language cultures still fails to reflect the rethinking, revision, and reform that “queerness” and queer theory suggest.

Responding to an apparent stagnation in developing deconstructive language that challenges the continued naturalization of dichotomous identities, panel organizers seek presenters whose research centers on third gender (gender variant) identification, and the challenges, relevance and significance of developing terminology for unrecognized populations that remain unnamed in English language cultures."

"Discussing History and Representation: Rememembering and Reconstructing the Experiences of Slavery and the Slave Trade"

The Harriet Tubman Institute for Research on the Global Migrations of African Peoples

"Discussing History and Representation: Remembering and Reconstructing the Experiences of Slavery and the Slave Trade"

to be held at the 123rd American Historical Association Annual Meeting
New York City, 2 – 5, January 2009

Organizers:

Paul E. Lovejoy (Director, Tubman Institute, York University)

Ana Lucia Araujo (Post-Doctoral Fellow, Tubman Institute, York University)

"In the last twenty years, the experiences of capture, enslavement, deportation, and life under slavery have been the focus of novels, films and works of art. The historical understanding of the forced global migrations of African peoples as depicted in these genres requires comparison in different historical contexts, including: a) the ways in which trans-Atlantic slavery from the 16th-19th centuries has been interpreted; b) the depiction of slavery in the Islamic world of North Africa and the Middle East; and c) the views of slavery in the Indian Ocean global world system.Admittedly, the experiences of people in these different contexts varied, and not all of those who were enslaved in these different settings were Africans – in the Americas, the enslavement of Amerindians has also been subjected to various forms of representation, while in the Islamic world and the broader Indian Ocean region, many other peoples were enslaved besides Africans. The extent of enslavement of native peoples in the Americas as well as in parts of Europe and Asia requires a reconsideration of the ways in which Africans and people of African descent have been represented in various artistic, cultural and intellectual genres. The centrality of slavery in all parts of these regions, not just in the Americas, requires comparison. The purpose of this workshop is to consider how the various historical actors have been represented, whether slaves, ship captains, market officials, merchants, plantation managers, concubines in harems, or members of royalty. This workshop aims to explore the forms of representation as a means of focusing on the multiple experiences of slavery. Participants are asked to review the strengths and weaknesses of using archival documentation, as well as travel accounts, films, images, art, music, novels, monuments and artifacts, in the reconstruction of our understanding of the experiences of slavery. Can an examination of the different voices that emerge from such representations help in exposing the experiences of the multiple actors involved in slavery and the slave trade?It is our hypothesis that notions of history and memory can be better understand through a dialogue over the interpretations of archival data, «fictionalized » works of art and literature, and stereotypes of public discourse that have emerged with renewed interest in slavery issues."

Bracero Memories/Memorias

The Centennial Museum & Chihuahua Desert Gardens Natural and Cultural History is currently featuring its newest exhibit titled "Bracero Memories -- Voices and Images of the Bracero Experience" at UTEP between January 24 and April 12.

The following is their description of the exhibit:

"Bracero Memories - Voices and Images of the Bracero Experience"

"This exhibit offers a unique view of the 1942 to 1964 government sponsored bracero program which brought Mexican workers to the United States. Their words and photographs clearly reveal that in their memories lives a far more complex history that must be told. By listening to the voices of the braceros, this exhibit seeks to recognize the historical significance of the bracero program and to acknowledge the importance of these workers in the United States, who unfortunately continue to remain invisible."

Noteworthy Sources on Memory from CompPile

I recently found the following sources through CompPile which I think are noteworthy:

Hayes, John R., N. Ann Chenoweth. “Working Memory in an Editing Task” Written Communication 24.4 (2007): 283-294.

Kellogg, Ronald T., Thierry Olive, Annie Piolat. "Verbal and Visual Working Memory in Written Sentence Production" in Writing and Cognition: Research and Applications. Mark Torrance, Luuk van Waes, David Galbraith (Eds.). Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2007. 97-108.

Minchin, Elizabeth. Homeric Voices: Discourse, Memory, Gender. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Gonzalez, Catalina. "Vico's Institutiones Oratoriae: Acumen, Memory, and the Imaginative Universals" in Rhetorical Agendas: Political, Ethical, Spiritual (Proceedings of the 11th biennial conference of the Rhetoric Society of America, May 28-31, 2004, Austin Texas), Patricia Bizzell, ed. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. 77-85.

Black History Month in El Paso

Dr. Maceo Crenshaw Dailey Jr., Director of African American Studies, University of Texas El Paso

(photo courtesy of Dr. Dailey's website)

Listed below are events that will be held in El Paso/UTEP to celebrate Black History Month.

Feb. 5: Max Sherman, "The Political Life and Career of Barbara Jordan," 1: 30 p.m. at Liberal Arts Building, Room 210, UTEP.

Feb. 6: Film: "Lackawanna Blues," 6:45 p.m. at Union East, UTEP Union Cinema.

Feb. 11: Alvin Johnson, "Family Entrepreneurship: MACA /METI," 6:45 p.m. at Blumberg Reading Room, UTEP Library.More events, 2D

Feb. 11: "Jazz Night: A Taste of the Motherland," 7 p.m. at EPCC Transmountain Campus, Forum Theater.

Feb. 13: Film Showing: "Crash," 6:45 p.m. at UTEP Union East, Union Cinema.

Feb. 16: "Colors of Harmony: Fashion, Food and Fun," noon at EPCC Transmountain Campus, foyer.

Feb. 16: Maceo C. Dailey Jr., director of UTEP African-American Studies Program, "El Paso's Enduring African-American Community and its Place in African-American History," 1:30 p.m. at the El Paso Museum of History.

Feb. 16: Miss Black El Paso Pageant, 7 p.m., Chamizal National Memorial Theater.

Feb. 18: "Who's Who Among African American High-School Students," 7 p.m. at EPCC Administrative Services Center, 9050 Viscount.

Feb. 21: Gary Kieffner, "A History of Black Borderlands Motorcyclists" 6:30 p.m. at UTEP Union East, University Suite.

Feb. 23: Citywide Black History Month Parade and Celebration; begins at 10 a.m. at Pershing and Montana, and continues with festivities at 11 a.m. in Mary Webb Park.

Feb. 24: Sonia Sanchez, American poet and internationally acclaimed writer, "A Night of Poetry," 6:30 p.m. at Natural Gas Conference Center at UTEP.

Feb. 25: "Choir Night: A Message in Song," 7 p.m. at EPCC Transmountain Campus.

Feb. 27: Film: "The Great Debaters," (pending) 6:30 p.m. at Union Cinema at UTEP.

Feb. 28: Sandra Braham and Jonna Perillo, "Two Case Studies in African-American Education: El Paso and New York," 6:30 p.m. at Tomas Rivera Conference Room, UTEP Union East.

Getting Ready To Write

This week I will gather all that I have read and begin composing the literature review for my prospectus. It's amazing how I can start writing and immediately get picky with each sentence I write and each paragraph that I design. In some way or other, I am an architect when I write. I am laying out the landscape. I have to be very strategic with the flow of ideas. My ultimate aim is to present a strong claim and counter any arguments that oppose my claim. During the last semester or so, I have written and re-written so I have pages and pages of fragments that I need to pull together and write...and re-write...and write some more. This is quite a recursive process.

In my previous post, I announced that I am in the stages of creating a new blog in order to feature bits and pieces of my research so that I can concentrate on my research about the works of Douglass and Anzaldua within the context of rhetoric and history during the nineteenth century and twentieth century. Also, I am currently researching all information about Caleb Bingham's "The Columbian Orator," which was profoundly influential in Douglass' life as an orator.

I'm also reading and researching articles about the history of the U.S.-Mexico War, reading up on the life of Jose Vasconcelos, re-visiting my notes on Anzaldua's "Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza"--all to prepare for my presentation at this annual's Rhetoric Society of America Conference. I'll post parts of that research in the new blog very soon.

While I'm on the subject of conferences, my good friend and compatriota, Gary L. Kieffner, a doctoral student in History, e-mailed and shared some great news. He is presenting his paper titled "The Bending of Gender Role Constructs in Riding Communities of the Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century U.S.-Mexican Borderlands" at this annual's conference hosted by the Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association (PCA/ACA).

Congratulations, Gary! It was great hearing from you buddy! Thanks for sharing the great news!

Okay, back to reading and oward with writing.....

Black History Month on iTunes

"Black History Month is a chance to study Black History in long terms...In this quest for dignity and freedom, let no lies under you, no grave yard contain you and through it all, keep hope alive."

Rev. Jesse Jackson

***

iTunes is currently featuring books, albums, audiobooks, TV specials and movies by and about African Americans for Black History Month. Included in the collection are audiobooks on Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and Rosa Parks. Also, the collection features the music of Miles Davis, Aretha Franklin, Jimi Hendrix, Marvin Gaye, Mary J. Blige, and Common (among others). Especially noteworthy is Cornel West's "Sketches of My Culture" and a collection of Malcolm X's greatest speeches.



It was about time iTunes got smart and feature writings, music and films that matter!



Photo of Jesse Jackson courtesy of Wikipedia (click link above for more info.)

Gloria E. Anzaldua & Frederick Douglass -- New Blog Coming Soon...

I've decided to create another blog with another provider in order to center my attention on the relation between rhetoric, history and memory within and through the works of Frederick Douglass and Gloria E. Anzaldua--two rhetors whose work I'm examining in my dissertation.

So stay tuned!

Douglass Photograph Info:

Samuel J. Miller (American; ?– 1888).Frederick Douglass, 1847/52. Daguerreotype; 14 x 10.6 cm(5 1/2 x 4 1/8 in.). The Art Institute of Chicago, Major

Douglass Photo Courtesy of: "Museum Studies, The Art Institute's Journal"

Anzaldua Photo Courtesy of: GEA Poster

NEH Summer Seminar 2008

NEH Summer Seminar 2008

"Narrative Theory: Rhetoric and Ethics in Fiction and Nonfiction"

June 16--July 25, 2008

Director: Professor James Phelan

Ohio State University

Columbus, Ohio

Memory & Boricua/Chicana/Latina History

In 2007, Vicki L. Ruiz, chair of the department of history at the University of California, Irvine and John R. Chavez, professor of history at Southern Methodist University, published "Memories and Migrations: Mapping Boricua and Chicana Histories," which features articles by noted scholars such as Gabriela F. Arredondo, Marisela R. Chávez, and Yolanda Chávez Leyva.

Juarez Girl Missing

Please support Amigos de Las Mujeres de Juarez in helping to find 15-year old Adriana Sarmento Enriquez.

Quote of the Day

"I have come to believe over and over again, that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood."

Audre Lorde

Frederick Douglass on American Rhetoric.com

American Rhetoric.com currently features and hosts some of Douglass' most famous speeches, which merit continuing inquiry by scholars. Check 'em out.

What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?
Frederick Douglass, July 5, 1852

The Hypocrisy of American Slavery

Frederick Douglass, July 4, 1852

Recordings of Frederick Douglass Speeches, by Fred Morsell

Quote of the Day

"While a slave in Baltimore, Douglass read Caleb Binghams's Columbian Orator. Not only did this book offer him his first formal introduciton to public speaking, it also deepened his hatred of the peculiar institution, gave him the words to meet proslavery arguments, and inspired him to master the art of oratory."

Frederick Douglass: Freedom's Voice, 1818-1845, Gregory P. Lampe

Memory and the American Civil War

American historian and Harvard University president Drew Gilpin Faust's new book "This Republic of Sufferring: Death and the American Civil War" examines the magnitude of loss and memorialization caused by the massive deaths during and after the American Civil War. New York Times book reviewer Geoffrey C. Ward has presented an interesting preview of her book in his review in the NY Times. Also, you can read an excerpt in the New York Times. Gilpin Faust was interviewed by NPR recently, where she talked about nineteenth century views on death, the significance of burials during the causalties, and the challenges of identifying the bodies of soldiers in the bloodiest war in American history.

Memory Studies as an Academic Discipline

The first issue of Memory Studies (SAGE Publications) is currently available. Some noteworthy articles include:

Henry L. Roediger, III and James V. Wertsch, "Creating a New Discipline of Memory Studies"

Susannah Radstone, "Memory Studies: For and Against"

Paul Connerton, "Seven Types of Forgetting"

Ann Rigney, "Divided Pasts: A Premature Memorial and the Dynamics of Collective Remembrance"

R.I.P. -- Heath Ledger (1979 - 2008)

The Year of Frederick Douglass

2008 will be the year of Frederick Douglass, one of the most important nineteenth century rhetors in American history. Douglass is one of the rhetors at the center of my dissertation. I will be working on my prospectus this month and begin the actual dissertation project in the month of May. Therefore, I will thoroughly research any and all fragments of information about and related to Douglass. In honoring Douglass, I have decided to make this blog more of a “repository” of information about him in order to keep a memory of his work alive.

During the holidays, I visited the online Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress, which presents the full online text of Douglass’ first autobiography “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, which was published in 1845. African American scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. has written an excellent introduction to Douglass’ narrative in “The Classic Slave Narratives” in the Signet Classics series.



Some articles that I’m currently reading are:

Bizzell, Patricia. "The 4th of July and the 22nd of December: The Function of Cultural Archives in Persuasion, as Shown by Frederick Douglass and William Apess" CCC 48.1 (Feb. 1997): 44-60.

Brewton, Vince. "'Bold Defiance Took Its Place'--'Respect' and Self-Making in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave" Mississipi Quarterly.

Brignano, Russell C. "Autobiographical Books by Black Americans: A Bibliography of Works Written Since the Civil War." Negro American Literature Forum 7.4 (Winter, 1973): 148-156.

Chaney, Michael A. "Picturing the Mother, Claiming Egypt: My Bondage and My Freedom as
Auto(bio)ethnography." African American Review 35.3 (Autumn 2001): 391-408.

Matlack, James. "The Autobiographies of Frederick Douglass." Phylon (1960-) 40.1 (1st Qtr. 1979): 15-28.

Shelby, Gary S. "An Eloquent Life: The Rhetoric of Frederick Douglass in Biographical Perspective." The Review of Communication 1 (2001): 93-6.

If time allows, I will share some of my notes in my research on Douglass; however, given my commitments to teaching and taking two graduate courses, I may just feature the links to any and all information on Douglass.

So, in sum, I am making this blog more academic this year and I might create a new and separate blog that relates to personal matters but I haven’t decided yet. My current goal in this blog is to compile all sources on Douglass as I continue my research on memory. Therefore, in my research and writing, I am looking at the historical relationship between memory, autobiography, and rhetoric.

Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

R.I.P. Benazir Bhutto (1953-2007)

Activists around the world mourn the loss of former prime minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto, 57, who was assassinated in Rawalpindi on Thursday. Que en pas descanse.

(Photo courtesy of "Historische Portraits" at portrait.kaar.at)

R.I.P. --- Maria Isabel Aguilera (1922-2007)

On November 15, 2007, my grandmother entered the spiritual world after a painful struggle with cancer. My beautiful mother took wonderful care of her until her last day. My grandmother was a hard working woman who represented strength and persistence to me. Thank you for being part of my life, abuelita. I will never forget you.

We will miss you this Christmas.

Dissertation Prospectus & The Philosophy of Memory

I’m currently putting together my dissertation proposal and I’m being quite strategic with every component of it with regard to each word, every paragraph and the shifting of substantial evidence to support my argument. I’m thinking about its structure in an architectural sense where the literature review is the foundation for the minor parts that rise at different moments to signify the critical components of the proposal.

I’m putting a lot of faith in this project since I’ve had goosebumps just reading a vast amount of critical inquiry related to history, memory, rhetoric and autobiography during the preparation phase of this prospectus.

The works of John Frederick Reynolds, Sharon Crowley, and Frances Yates have been influential, of course. Connecting all of these ideas from all of these inquiries is truly the exciting aspect of composing this proposal!

Along the lines of research and compiling sources, John Sutton, a Philosophy scholar at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, features an interesting bibliography and index page titled “Memory,” with “Philosophy of Memory” as a list of key sources for extensive research in memory such as kinestethic and skill memory.

Also, check out “Writing and Remembering: Why We Remember What We Write,” an article that I found through John Walter's blog Machina Memorialis, who posted it from Clay Spinuzzi’s blog. Muy interesante!

I’ll give my thoughts on this article next time!

Hasta la proxima!


Currently Listening To:




PJ Harvey, "White Chalk"

Memory on TV: "Samantha Who?"

Tonight, ABC will premiere its new comedy "Samantha Who?" starring Christina Applegate as "Samantha Newly," a woman who loses her memory and attempts to find out if she was really "a good girl or bad girl." From the previews, it seems like its going to be a funny show.

Check out the previews:

Is Human Memory Going Extinct?

Check out the link to "Your Outboard Brain Knows All," a great article from Wired that my advisor, Dr. Beth Brunk-Chavez, e-mailed a few days ago. I told her that this article confirms my belief that blogs have become modern storage spaces for all our written ideas, which are strategically organized in chronological order ("online journals" sounds a bit "icky"). It also taps into Freud's theory about the unconscious being the storage space for memories. I was also thinking about Crowley's discussion about technology enhancing human memory--which is ideal.

Check it out!

"Your Outboard Brain Knows All" by Clive Thompson

(Illustration by Luke Hayman/Pentagram, with Darrow, courtesy of Wired)

"Oral Tradition" Now Online

"We are very pleased to notify you that all 22 years of our journal Oral Tradition are now available online and free of charge at http://journal.oraltradition.org/

This site now contains nearly 500 articles and 10,000 pages, with all of the contents downloadable as pdf files that you can read online or print out asyou wish. The entire electronic archive of Oral Tradition is also searchable by keyword or author name, with phrase-based and Boolean searches possible aswell.

In return, may we ask you to forward this e-mail announcement to at least five colleagues in your field? It would be especially helpful if you selectedcolleagues whom you feel might not be aware of Oral Tradition's migration to an internet-based, open-access format, or who might not already know that the entire run of the journal is now available gratis.

There are also several other ways to assist us with the process of notifying colleagues, and we would greatly appreciate your assistance: electroniclinks to the site in (1) personal blogs and (2) professional websites, as well as (3) announcements in journals and newsletters in your field. Any or all ofthese strategies would certainly help to get the news to colleagues on a broad scale.

Thank you for whatever you can do to help inform our community and share a resource that was created for the common good.

The Center for Studies in Oral Tradition at the University of Missouri (http://oraltradition.org/ )is gratified to be able to offer Oral Tradition to anyone worldwide with an internet connection and a browser. We hope that the online, open-access formatwill enlarge and diversify the journal's readership, and particularly that it will offer everyone interested in the world's oral traditions - regardless of their location and academic context - an equal opportunity to contribute actively to the discussion. Our shared field will prosper most readily if it operates as an academic democracy without financial or distributional barriers.As for future contents, the next issue of Oral Tradition (volume 22, number 2) will be a special collection devoted to Basque traditions, and will include descriptive and analytical articles, interviews with oral poets, and an eCompanion with photographic, audio, and video support. Beyond that issue we will be publishing articles on Albanian oral law, Native American storytelling, modern Greek oral poetry, Welsh saints' lives, modern Balinese epic, and many other topics across the international spectrum.

We welcome your comments and especially your submissions for publication."

John Foley

Editor, Oral Tradition