Conversations about Haiti with Laurent Dubois and Marvin Chochotte

University of Michigan Professor Larry La Fountain in conversation with Haiti experts Laurent Dubois, Historian and Haiti specialist from Duke University, and U-M Haitian-American graduate student Marvin Chochotte.

(U-M Portal en español, LACS and Latino/a Studies production)



UM professeur Rebecca Scott dans une conversation avec Laurent Dubois, historien, Duke University et l'étudiant diplômé UM-haïtien-américain Marvin Chochotte.

(U-M Portal en español, LACS and Latino/a Studies production)

Charlie Vázquez on Queer Ricans

(click on image to see larger view)

Muchas gracias a Charlie Vázquez, who recently published this review of Queer Ricans in the third issue of the fabulous Latino gay magazine Zona Rosa (February/March 2010)! Thanks Charlie!

Stay posted for upcoming presentations in Puerto Rico:

Thursday, February 11, 2010: Presentación de Queer Ricans auspiciada por el Colectivo Literario Homoerótica, con presentación por Rubén Ríos Avila e intervenciones artísticas por el bailarín Norberto Gabriel y el artista y performero Freddie Mercado Velázquez, Nuyorican Café, Calle San Francisco #312 (entrando por el callejón), Viejo San Juan, 7:30 pm.

Friday, February 12, 2010: Conversatorio con Larry La Fountain-Stokes acerca de su libro Queer Ricans. Con: Carmen Luisa González, Agnes Lugo Ortiz y Catherine Marsh, Seminario Federico de Onís de la Facultad de Humanidades, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, 10:00 am.

Eliana Moya-Raggio, pionera/pioneer

Las vidas de las latinas en los Estados Unidos y de las mujeres latinoamericanas se entrelazan de maneras fascinantes.

The lives of Latina women in the U.S. and of Latin American women come together in fascinating ways.

Eliana Moya-Raggio es una pionera de la enseñanza sobre las mujeres latinas en la Universidad de Michigan, Ann Arbor y por 26 años fue lectora en el Residential College de U-M. También se especializó en promover y estudiar el movimiento artesanal feminista de las arpilleras chilenas, que se oponía a la dictadura de Pinochet. Su hija Jimena Loveluck es Directora Ejecutiva de HARC, una agencia de sida en Míchigan. Conocí a Eliana en 2009; aquí comparto esta entrevista que le hizo Vivianne Schnitzer.

Entrevista con Eliana Moya-Raggio from Universidad de Michigan on Vimeo.

Eliana Moya-Raggio is a pioneer in the teaching of Latina studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and is lecturer emerita at U-M's Residential College, where she taught for 26 years. She is also a renown promoter and scholar of the Chilean feminist arpillera artisanal movement of resistance against the Pinochet dictatorship. Her daughter Jimena Loveluck is the Executive Director of HARC, a Michigan HIV/AIDS resouce center. I met Eliana in 2009; here I share an interview by Vivianne Schnitzer.

Interview with Eliana Moya-Raggio from Universidad de Michigan on Vimeo.

Lady Gaga, Lord Kermit, und Lady Lola von Miramar?

Fräulein Lola von Miramar has been practically hallucinating on thin air since her fabulous and oh-so-kind neighbor, the composer and guitarrist Carl Michel sent this photo of Lady Gaga and Kermit the Frog her way. You might not know this, but Lola von Miramar has always harbored a little, itty bitty crush on the suave green felt amphibian. I mean, he's soft, cuddly, lovable, and gainfully employed at a fascinating office job where he keeps immaculate track of Lola von Miramar's every Internet post:



(Photo of Kermit enjoying Lola von Miramar's blog.)

As Lola is not the jealous type, she is delighted that he has made a new friend, that glam-rock of feathers, metal and blood, the young starlet known as Lady Gaga, who even wore a red leather outfit to meet the queer of England! Of course, Lola is much closer to Gaga's lost sister, Sherry Vine, which is why poor Lola almost lost her marbles (not to mention her mostly-digested dinner) after seeing Sherry's hi-LARRY-ous video rendition of her hit "Bad Romance" parody! Ho ho ho!


Ah, what humor! But anyway, back to my story. If Lady Gaga is dating Kermit the Frog, does that make him a Lord? I think it should! Lord Kermit! And if they are going to be part of the British royalty, well then Lola thinks that she should be Lady Lola von Miramar aussi! Opinions? Don't bother responding if you don't agree!

Love and kisses,

Lola von Miramar

Lola Loba

La verdad es que Lola está gozando de lo lindo. Aquí estaba yo, es decir, Lola, montando unas canciones en la computadora, preparándome para acostarme en mi camita, y por supuesto, pasó lo que tenía que pasar. . . Lola oye Shakira, ¿y ahora quién puede dormir? Lola se ha puesto a bailar en su silla y a sonar los dedos. ¡No hay quien resista a la Shakira! Pero la verdad es que más que "Loba" la canción que está volviendo a Lola von Miramar loquita ahora mismo es "Lo Hecho Está Hecho" (claro que Lola le hubiera puesto "Lo Hecho Hecho Está" pero eso es porque Lola es alemano-caribeña, bien sur. . .).



¡Buenas noches, conejitos!

Siempre los adora,

Lola von Miramar

A beleza da Elis Regina

Lola is literally speechless! Lola von Miramar has known the music of the incomparable Elis Regina, well, since Lola was a little Mädchen running in the streets of São Paulo in the late 1980s! (Lola was but a tiny girl back then...) But who knew that in addition to a most divine voice and style, Elis was also a most beautiful woman? Elis, we miss you so much! You were a Göttin on earth (that means goddess in German)! Mein dear Kinder, listen and watch and enjoy the wonders of one of Brazil's biggest gifts to the world!

Love,

Lola von Miramar

Transgender Children

I just heard a very moving segment on the Chicago Public Radio program This American Life on transgender children (Expisode 374, "Somewhere Out There," originally aired 02.13.2009, rebroadcast 01.15.2010). It was very moving and extremely informative:

Act Two. Tom Girls.

Lilly and Thomasina have a lot in common. They’re both 8 years old. And they were both born boys, although it became clear pretty early on that they'd prefer to be girls. There aren’t all that many kids in the world like them, but recently, at a conference in Seattle on transgender parenting, they met. And they immediately hit it off. They could talk about things with each other that they'd never been able to share with other friends back home. And that’s comforting, even if they never see each other after the conference ends. Producer Mary Beth Kirchner tells the story, with production help from Rebecca Weiker. (17 minutes)

I highly recommend it!

Blue Fingernails reviewed in Multicultural Review

Himilce Novas recently published this kind review of my book Uñas pintadas de azul/Blue Fingernails (Tempe, Ariz.: Bilingual Review Press, 2009. 344 pp.) in the Winter 2009 issue of Multicultural Review (Vol 18, #4, p. 55) (currently not available online). Her review reads as follows (thanks, Himilce!):

The bilingual cuentos, or short stories, woven together represent a poetic journey, a deep submersion into the cosmology of gay and lesbian Puerto Rican identity; and, as in all true literature, they sing a universal song that reaches readers of all climes, cultures, and sexual identities across the hemispheres. On the whole, the collection is charming, enlightening, humorous, touching, uplifting. The stories are as good in English as in Spanish, with the vernacular in each version so that nothing suffers in translation.

The word diversity applies to the stories not just because of the bilingual publication and the multicultural characters represented in each but also because of the various literary genres presented in this collection. Take your pick: Science fiction, detectives, fantasy, and urban sound and fury all meet under the cover of this book in one grand harmonious convergence. To that, you may add generally sensitive thematics, such as sadomasochism, transvestism, intersexuality, prostitution, and pornography. And still, on the whole, each story maintains a true-blue (azul) literary balance, where shameless bad taste or cheap prurience is overcome by poetry, insight, honesty, and the grander, long-shot view of the lives of the very human and often suffering personages sojourning across the pages.

Himilce Novas
http://supernovas.org