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Mexican American Poets

Read in honor of Diez y Seis:

The Day of Mexican Independence

Watch renowned Mexican American poets, Xánath Caraza, Carlos Cumpián, Brenda Cárdenas and Raúl Sanchez read from their work in celebration of September 16th, the day of Mexican Independence, as they each represent Chicanos' presence across the nation--outside our traditional bounds of the southwest. 

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Our line up:

Xánath Caraza is a traveler, educator, poet, short story writer, and translator. She writes for La Bloga, and Revista Literaria Monolito. In 2020 Balamkú received second place for the Juan Felipe Herrera Best Book of Poetry Award. In 2019 for the International Latino Book Awards she received Second Place for Hudson for “Best Book of Poetry in Spanish” and Second Place for Metztli for Best Short Story Collection. In 2018 for the International Latino Book Awards she received First Place for Lágrima roja for “Best Book of Poetry in Spanish by One Author” and First Place for Sin preámbulos / Without Preamble for “Best Book of Bilingual Poetry”. Her book of poetry Syllables of Wind / Sílabas de viento received the 2015 International Book Award for Poetry. She was Writer-in-Residence at Westchester Community College, NY, 2016-2019. Caraza was the recipient of the 2014 Beca Nebrija para Creadores, Universidad de Alcalá de Henares in Spain. She was named number one of the 2013 Top Ten Latino Authors by LatinoStories.com. Her books of verse Where the Light is Violet, Black Ink, Ocelocíhuatl, Conjuro and her book of short fiction What the Tide Brings have won national and international recognition. Her other books of poetry are Perchada estás/Perching, Ejercicio en la oscuridad / An Exercise in the Darkness, Corta la piel / It Pierces the Skin, Balamkú, Le sillabe del vento, Noche de colibríes, and Corazón pintado. Caraza has been translated into English, Italian, Romanian, and Greek; and partially translated into Nahuatl, Portuguese, Hindi, and Turkish.

Carlos Cumpián is the author of four poetry collections: Coyote Sun (March Abrazo Press), Latino Rainbow (Children’s Press/Scholastic Books) Armadillo Charm (Tia Chucha Press), and 14 Abriles: Poems. His new manuscript is entitled Human Cicada. Cumpián has been included in more than thirty poetry anthologies, readings and workshops in the Midwest and Southwest USA. He worked public relations for the Chicago Public Library and an editor of small press journals and books from 1982 -2012 with March Abrazo Press. Cumpián has taught creative writing and poetry through community arts organizations including the National Museum of Mexican Art, and at Columbia College Chicago, University of Illinois-Chicago. Cumpián taught English and ESL for 23 years in the Chicago Public School and Charter school system. His most recent essay, “Learned to Read at My Momma’s Knee,” appears in With a Book in Their Hands: Chicano/a Readers and Readerships Across the Centuries (University of New Mexico Press, 2014). Cumpian is originally from San Antonio, Texas.

Brenda Cárdenas is the author of Boomerang (Bilingual Press) and the chapbooks Bread of the Earth / The Last Colors with Roberto Harrison; Achiote Seeds/Semillas de Achiote with Cristina García, Emmy Pérez, and Gabriela Erandi Rico; and From the Tongues of Brick and Stone and is currently finishing a new collection titled Trace. She also co-edited Resist Much/Obey Little: Inaugural Poems to the Resistance (Spuyten Duyvil Press) and Between the Heart and the Land: Latina Poets in the Midwest (MARCH/Abrazo Press). Cárdenas’ poems and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in Latino Poetics: The Art of Poetry; Kinship: Belonging in a World of Relations; Grabbed: Poets and Writers on Sexual Assault, Empowerment, and Healing; POETRY; Court Green; Through This Door: Wisconsin in Poems; Ghost Fishing: An Eco-Justice Anthology; The Golden Shovel Anthology; The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry, and the Library of Congress’ Spotlight on U.S. Hispanic Writers, among others. Cárdenas served as the 2010-2012 Milwaukee Poet Laureate, co-designed and taught the inaugural (2014) master workshop for Pintura:Palabra: A Project in Ekphrasis sponsored by the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Letras Latinas, and served as faculty for the 2021 annual writers’ retreat of CantoMundo, a national poetry organization that cultivates community for Latinx poets. She currently teaches Creative Writing and U.S. Latinx Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

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Raúl Sanchez is the current City of Redmond Poet Laureate. He teaches poetry in Spanish through the Seattle Arts and Lectures (WITS) program, also through the Jack Straw Educational Project. In the last three years he volunteered for PONGO Teen Writing at the Juvenile Detention Center. Recently, he translated Ellen Ziegler's book for the Museum of Antique Mexican Toys located in Mexico City. His forthcoming second collection "When There Were No Borders" released by Flower Song Books, McAllen Texas.

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