Table of Contents
Camino del Sol Lighting a Path for Chicano/Latino Literature in the New Millennium 1
Poetry
From the Other Side of Night/Del otro lado de la noche Francisco X. Alarcón
Del otro lado de la noche/From the Other Side of Night 19
Plegaria de amor/Love Plea 20
¡Tlazoltéotl! 21
Tlazolteotl! 22
Oración del desierto/Desert Prayer 23
Home Movies of Narcissus Rane Arroyo
Amateur Filmmaker 24
People of the Piñata 26
That Flag 27
Directions to the Beach of the Dead Richard Blanco
When I Was a Little Cuban Boy 28
Translation for Mamá 29
In the City of Smoking Mirrors Albino Carrillo
H. Writes to His Brother to Assure Him of Continuous Comfort in the Afterlife 31
Animal Time 32
El Espejo Fumeroso 33
In an Angry Season Lisa D. Chávez
The Conjuror of the New Century 34
The Tattoo Artist 36
The Bad Wife 38
A Rush of Hands Juan Delgado
Shrine 40
Backyard 41
Nido 43
Work Done Right David Domínguez
Chilalengua 44
Club Las Palmas 45
Pig 46
The Tovar Bull 47
A Question of Gravity and Light Blas Falconer
To Know You Better 49
This 50
Letter from the Cumberland 50
Epilogue 51
The Keepsake Storm Gina Franco
Darkling 51
The Walk Like Old Habits 53
Where the Bodies, Half-Dressed, in Pieces 54
When Living Was a Labor Camp Diana Garcia
When living was a labor camp called Montgomery 56
Softball and Tomato Fields 57
Operation Wetback, 1953 58
POEMA Maurice Kilwein Guevara
Lyric 59
At the Podium 60
What Baby Gertrude Heard 61
border-crosser with a lamborghini dream Juan Felipe Herrera
blood night café 63
selena in corpus christi lacquer red 64
Giraffe on Fire
Ofelia in Manhattan, Circa 1943 65
Notebooks of a Chile Verde Smuggler
Immigrant Fortune Teller Machine 69
Fuzzy Equations 74
Letanía para José Antonio Burciaga 75
Marlene Dietrich, Rita Hayworth, & My Mother Rita Maria Magdaleno
Salzbergwerk: The Salt Mines Tour 78
Cue Lazarus Carl Marcum
Light Show 80
A Prayer for My Brother 81
Breathing Between the Lines Demetria Martínez
Discovering America 82
The Devil's Workshop
Remedios 85
Class Action 86
World to World Valerie Martínez
Heritage 87
World to World 88
Bowl 88
Wish 89
How Long She'll Last in This World María Meléndez
Backcountry, Emigrant Gap 91
In Biruté's Camp 91
Why Can't We All Just Get Along? 92
Adobe Odes Pat Mora
Ode to Readers 96
Ode to a Book 97
Ode to El Paso 98
Ode to Women 101
Blood Mysteries Dixie Salazar
Piñión Nuts 103
Why I'm Not Someone Else 105
Elegy for Desire Luis Omar Salinas
The Luxury of Darkness 107
The Disappearance of My Wife 108
Elegy for Desire 108
Palm Crows Virgil Suárez
Animalia 111
El exilio 115
Margo Tamez
Naked Wanting
First Choice 117
For Keeps 118
What i'm on Luis Humberto Valadez
dear reader: this is what i thought on easter day 120
Section 7 121
radio 122
esau past love 123
on Tuesday, when the homeless disappeared Marcos McPeek Villatoro
The Deer 124
El Salvador, 1932-1981 128
Fiction
excerpt from The Region of Lost Names Fred Arroyo 135
excerpt from Samba Dreamers Kathleen de Azevedo 146
excerpt from If I Die in Juarez Stella Pope Duarte 159
Brides and Sinners in El Chuco Christine Granados
A Scenic Night 178
Small Time 186
Inner View 193
Snapping Lines Jack Lopez
La Luz 201
Lost 213
El Milagro and Other Stories Patricia Preciado Martin
La Tortillera/The Tortilla Maker 219
Amor Eterno: Eleven Lessons in Love
Amor Desesperado/Desperate Love 223
The Truth about Alicia and Other Stories Ana Consuelo Matiella
The Ring 228
El Bebé del Vaquerón 233
excerpt from The Peruvian Notebooks Braulio Muñoz 235
The Last Tortilla and Other Stories Sergio Troncoso
The Snake 244
Punching Chickens 255
Nonfiction
Of Earth and Sea: A Chilean Memoir Marjorie Agosín
Words 269
Violeta Parra 270
November 1, The Day of the Dead 271
Nights of Exile 272
And Finally, Returning 273
The Illusion of a Firefly 273
The Desert Remembers My Name: On Family and Writing Kathleen J. Alcalá
My Week as a Mexican 274
Found in Translation 278
The Woman Who Loved Water 283
The Underground Heart: A Return to a Hidden Landscape Ray Gonzalez
The Border Is Open 295
Renaming the Earth: Personal Essays
excerpts from A Different Border 305
nobody's son: notes from an american life Luis Alberto Urrea
Nobody's Son 321
Source Credits 335
About the Editor 337
About the Contributors 339
Bibliography 347
Index of Authors 351
