A Revision Update, and Revisiting Obsessions of Old XIV

A Revision Update:

I honestly thought I'd be finished with The Saint of Santa Fe by now. But as the start of the next school year quickly approaches (I have to report back to Balboa Academy in a week), I've been obliged to spend time preparing for the students' arrival.

The good news is, though, that by this weekend the novel will be done, it's only a matter of a few more hours of work.

The Saint of Santa Fe will be locked away safely--to distance myself a little before I read it one last and then send it off in search of a publisher. In the meantime, I will address the changes Arte Público Press wants me to make in the manuscript of Meet Me Under the Ceiba. In essence, the publisher's concern is that the narrative employs too many Spanish phrases, and they want these translated into English. This is not a problem, and I trust the judgment of the folks at Arte Público Press. After all, they are the largest publisher of Latino and Latina authors in the US. They know the market better than anyone.

The year 2009 will be exciting for me as there is the strong possibility that two of my novels will make it into print. Also, the revision updates and the recycling of previously published articles will come to an end as I'll be able to turn my attention, once again, to producing new pieces for this weblog.

An Invitation to Revisit an Obsession of Old:

On March 25, 2006, over one million Latinos and Latinas marched through the streets of major US cities in protest of an unjust immigration bill that was coming before Congress. The world took notice. In Latin America, the event made the top headlines.

The success of the march brought back sentiments that had been with me since childhood. I wrote this piece and after it appeared in The Panama News, I received a couple of angry letters stating that the Latino presence in the United States is harming the cohesiveness of "American Values." Sometimes, people miss the point a writer has to make. Latinos have been active contributors to these "values," but their efforts have gone unrecognized.

I invite you to read, or reread, "The Cloak Removed."