¡Vivan los libros!
Houston has become a hub for Latino literature
There has never been a lack of literary talent in Houston; however, unless you are deeply tapped into the pulse of the community, you might not know where to look for it.
I felt the same way when I came to Houston in the ’90s to study at the University of Houston’s creative writing program.
As the first Chicano to earn a master’s degree in creative writing at UH, I have been blessed to play a role in the evolution of Houston’s Latino literary life. My novel, “The Aztec Love God,” was published in 1998, the same year I founded the nonprofit organization Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say. Nuestra Palabra promotes Latino literature and literacy, has organized some of the largest book events in Houston and has cultivated even more Latino MFAs and writers than those who have enrolled in the UH creative writing program.
In recent years, Houston has become a leading hub for Latino literature in the nation. Here’s a look at the writers and organizations that have helped make that happen. Arte Público Press, the largest nonprofit publisher of literature in the United States, is based in Houston. The press has published hundreds of books by and about Latinos, and founder and director Nicolás Kanellos has invested his expertise and time in the community. Arte Público has a national and international audience, but it publishes Houston writers, too, including the poet Evangelina “Vangie” Vigil-Piñón, who paved the way for Chicana writers, and Houston’s first poet laureate, Gwendolyn Zepeda. The press also published the late writer Lionel Garcia and border-agent-turned-novelist Hipolito Acosta. The Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Houston has contributed to the city’s literary life through its Visiting Scholar Program, a yearlong fellowship for scholars and writers. This has brought to Houston Chicana icon Denise Chavez, author of “Loving Pedro Infante”; José Angel Gutiérrez, a pioneer of the Chicano civil rights movement; and poet Sarah Cortez, author of “How to Undress a Cop.” I used my own fellowship year to create Nuestra Palabra.
Writer Dagoberto Gilb, author of the short-story collection “Before the End, After the Beginning,” has helped define and showcase Latino literature.
His anthology, “Hecho en Tejas: An Anthology of Texas Mexican Literature,” further solidified Houston’s place on the literary map by including Houstonians as diverse as Vigil-Piñón, performance poet Tonantzin Canestaro-Gar- cia, Houston rapper Chingo Bling and myself. The book has become a staple of Mexican-American literature courses. Gilb, the executive director of the CentroVictoria Center for Mexican American Literature and Culture at the University of HoustonVictoria, also edits Huizache, the leading Latino literary journal in the nation, where he has featured Houstonians such as the poet Lupe Mendez and photographers Chuy Benitez and Liana Lopez.
Latino arts groups must attend not only to the demands of a traditional arts nonprofit but also to social and civil rights issues. That’s why Houston is headquarters for the Librotraficantes. In 2012, Tucson, Ariz., outlawed its school system’s MexicanAmerican studies program and banned several books by Latino writers from its classrooms. With four other Nuestra Palabra veterans — Lopez, Bryan Parras, Laura Acosta and Mendez — I organized the Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle the banned titles back into Arizona. We became part of a national movement to stop the spread of that un-American law, which is still being argued in court.
The Librotraficantes continue to fight for freedom of speech, intellectual freedom and the implementation of ethnic studies courses, especially in Texas. Other Latino arts organizations who unite
for the written word include Multicultural Education and Counseling through the Arts (MECA), Casa Ramirez Folkart Gallery, Literal magazine
and the Tintero Projects reading and workshop series, just to name a few.
If you want to keep up with the ever-growing Latino literary scene, tune into “Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having
Their Say,” 6 p.m. Tuesdays on 90.1 FM KPFT. We also have livestream and podcasts at KPFT. org. We’ve been broadcasting at 100,000 watts since 2001.
And during Hispanic Heritage Month — which starts Sept. 15 — we will open Nuestra Palabra
Books and Art, which will be inside the Talento Bilingüe de Houston cultural and education center (333 S. Jensen; tbhcenter. org). We are happy to partner with community leader Richard Reyes and his Pancho Claus foundation to make this happen. You will get to see and hear nationally renowned Latino authors alongside up-and-coming voices. You will be able to get their books signed and maybe even read your work alongside them on stage, Nuestra Palabra style.
If you didn’t know it before, now you can tell your friends, with confidence, that Houston is the Latino literary capital of the nation. ¡ Vivan los libros!
Writer, activist, and professor Tony Diaz is the founder of Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say and director of intercultural initiatives at Lone Star College-North Harris.