Ilan StavansReseñas

It's hard to read creation myths without understanding the cultural references, but you'd need so many footnotes it would probably look like pages of Talmud. There were a few references I caught that weren't fully explained in the text (e.g. the creation of humans from maize involves Paxil, brokenness, and Cayala, bitter water, to create human blood --- nixtamalization!), but that just proved to me how much was going over my head. Getting a sense of the shape of the mythology (descending and sometimes rising from the underworld, repeated apocalypses) and some common themes (twins) was still worthwhile and interesting.

Sadly not a comic (I would read the hell out of that) but nice, if intermittent, illustrations. But again, with so much visual symbolism that I know I must have been missing....!

Pronunciation guide thanks to my excellent linguistics nerd friend Cass: "x" = "sh", "j" = "h" (like in Spanish). I assume ' is for a glottal stop, but don't quote me on that. This seems like the kind of thing that should have been in the book....

I have mixed feelings about Stavans. He's undeniably sharp - I love his notion that the US should consider Spanish a native language, for example, or his refusal to reduce Latines to "brown" - but he often slides towards self indulgence (Ilan, we don't want to hear about your dreams! In. every. damn. book!) and self regard. In short, worth reading but expect to be annoyed.½

Some interesting ideas amid a lot of academic self-indulgence.

Features literary critic Ilan Stavans in the role of academic-become-investigator as he tries to seek the truth about Rolando and the secret documents that reveal the mysterious sect of crypto-Jews - whose lineage is traced back to the Inquisition, and who still live today, partially concealed, in the American Southwest.

As other reviewers have noted, this is an anthology of materials, not a history. As such, it's a mixed bag: some of it is great, some is so-so, some of it is more directly connected to Yiddish than other pieces. It's a bit of an odd selection. I did enjoy a lot of it, though, even if it's uneven.

In cartoon format, we get a pretty good and comprehensive history of Latino history in the U.S. with great coverage of groups and movements. This book should be required reading.

Such an anthology! The preface is standalone enlightenment. The stories, poems, play excerpts, recipes, cartoons, critiques, and commentary provide hours of engaging content focusing on the "low German" language of Jewish refugees, so pungent and wise. Yiddish is the bedrock of our grandparents and the diary of their struggles for survival and success in the goldene medina. This guide, covering 150 years, also includes a valuable chapter on Yiddish culture outside Europe and the US.

Quotes: I.B. Singer "What astounds me more than anything else is seeing a Jew who is not baffled by his own existence."

Is it possible to conceive of the American diet without bagels? Or Star Trek without Mr. Spock? Are the creatures in Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are based on Holocaust survivors? And how has Yiddish, a language without a country, influenced Hollywood? These and other questions are explored in this stunning and rich anthology of the interplay of Yiddish and American culture, edited by award-winning authors and scholars Ilan Stavans and Josh Lambert.

The New World Haggadah won the Best Religious Book of the Year in 2016, and Hadassah Magazine said that it is a "must have" haggadah and "one of the four best of the year". Guggenheim Fellow and National Jewish Book Award winner Ilan Stavans has incorporated contemporary texts about migration and social justice from both Ashkenazi and Sephardi worlds alongside the traditional Hebrew texts. Award-winning artist, Gloria Abella Ballen, who won Best Book of the Year Award for The Power of the Hebrew Alphabet, has made every page a work of art. It is the most beautiful Haggadah with moving texts about migration, freedom, and Jewish life today with special attention to the Americas.

Resurrecting Hebrew is an attempt to combine a history of Hebrew's return to use as an eveyday language, a biography of Eliezer ben-Yehuda and a travel diary which does all of that in a rather mediocre fashion. Stavans's account often digresses into discussions of the diaspora which, while enlightening, often annoyingly divert the flow of the prose.

[Chronicle of the Narvaez Expedition: Norton critical Edition] by Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca
An extraordinary first hand account of Spanish Conquistadores blown off course and making landfall in the uncharted land of the Florida panhandle in 1528. Cabeza de Vaca was the treasurer in Panfilo de Narvaez’s expedition which was intent on land grabbing, treasure hunting and slaving in Northern Mexico, but storms and hurricanes pitched them on an inhospitable coastal region that soon turned into a battle for survival, for which they were iill equipped. A fleet of five ships and 400 men were reduced to just four survivors who became slaves themselves before battling through Texas to the Pacific Ocean over six years later.

Cabeza de Vaca wrote his first version of his extraordinary adventures in 1537 for the King of Spain and his aim was to secure a post as Governor of the River Plate. It is therefore very much De Vaca’s view of events and he is very critical of Panfilo de Narvaez, but it is also a description of flora, fauna and native peoples encountered for the first time by Europeans, who find themselves in a hostile environment. It is a story of failure and one which costa most of them their lives. De Vaca’s account is matter of fact, but there is enough there to read between the lines, remembering that he is lost, bewildered, but very much a survivor, who becomes dependent on the natives (indians in the text). He is able to describe in some detail the customs and culture of the groups/tribes to whom he manages to attach himself. Here is an example:

“On the island I have described they (the indians) wanted to turn us into physicians without giving us any examinations or asking us for any diplomas, because they heal diseases by blowing on the patient, and with that puff of breath and their hands they drive illness out of him. And they ordered us to do the same so that we would at least be of some use to them. We laughed at this, saying it was ridiculous and that we did not know how to heal, so they took away our food until we did what they told us to. And seeing our obstinate refusal, an Indian told me that I did not know what I was saying when I said what he knew was useless, because the stones and other things that grow in the countryside have virtue……. “

The irony is that the conquistadores who came to conquer the land are soon reduced to a position of slavery. Their ships are wrecked, their horses prove useless in negotiating the swamp lands, their armour proves to be not very effective against well aimed arrows employed by skilful bowman, but worst of all is that they cannot find enough to eat and drink. They are in a world of hunter gatherers where the hunting and the gathering are slim pickings. They die from disease, starvation, hurricanes at sea and from hostile natives on land. They make poor decisions, being unable to negotiate successfully with the more friendly Indians and initially when they were at reasonable strength lured inland in a search for gold and slaves in a Country which was totally unknown to them.

Cabeza de Vaca is very much a man of his times. As a Christian he believes that through all the vicissitudes of war, he is following orders from his king who has a direct link with God and so he is already confessed and leaves his testament done and his soul secured. However de Vaca’s experiences lead him to take a more humane view of the treatment of the Indians, than is customary from their brutal treatment by their Spanish conquerors. He says:

“In order to entice all theses people into being Christians and into obedience to his Imperial Majesty, they must be attracted with good treatment, and that this way is the surest, and the other is not”

De Vaca and three companions; one of whom is an African, escape from their slavery and journey toward the hill country they have seen. Their years among the Indians have taught them how to survive. They eventually find themselves in Northern Texas an area that has come under partial control of the Spaniards. The Indians are frightened of them, but using their skills as physicians they attract a following who become a sort of rag-tag army not above looting and plundering as they go looking for civilisation and a means of getting back home.

The Norton Critical Edition contains a translation of Cabeza de Vaca’s 1542 published text, which is just over 90 pages in length and very readable. There are some other contemporaneous texts about the expedition and some sequels and finally some pages of criticism. I found the criticism extremely helpful in putting the account in perspective, especially from a geographical point of view. I think this is a unique document, a real telescope back to the 16th century, with a description of a part of the American Continent before colonisation. Five stars.

A compilation of poems, short stories, and essays reflecting the Hispanic American experience. Some poems have English and Spanish translations included. Includes the great Spanglish version of “Twas the Night Before Christmas,” “Twas the Night” by María Eugenia Morales.

This book follows the story of Hebrew becoming an everyday spoken language over the last 150 years. Very much of this is the story of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda. Ben-Yehuda was born in Lithuania in 1858. By this time there were some non-theological books being published in Hebrew. But it was never seen as preliminary to being the language of a new nation. The story of the Hebrew revival is recounted in an engaging manner by Ilan Stavans, In the process we get a small look at Stavans life also.½

I have been familiar with Ilan Stavan's work for several years. Essays and stories often about the Latin American Jewish experience is his life's work and there are few others who till this soil.

This book would be a joy for anyone who is interested in this subject. He writes in detail about IB Singer and the yiddish language and how it also informed his own upbringing in Mexico City. There, he belonged to a small insular community of 35,000 Mexian Jews. Most of his family still lives there. His father is a famous soap opera actor who had a significant role in My Mexican Shivah, a film based on a story by his son, Ilan Stavans.

Yet at an early age Stavans was attracted to the Jewish community in the United States; he writes of how this world is where the jews of the diaspora have reached full potential, free of religious persecution, able to flourish culturally, educationally and in all areas of secular life.

Stavans, now Director of Latin American Studies at Amhearst University, is a rich resource who writes easily as an essayist and fiction writer.

See what you wanna see

Thirteen Ways of Looking at Latino Art by Ilan Stavans and Jorge J.E. Gracia (Duke University Press, $22.95).

Ilan Stavans, a professor of Latino studies at Amerherst College, and Jorge J.E. Garcia, a professor of philosophy and comparative literature at SUNY-Buffalo, brought the tools of their distinct disciplines—as well as their personal histories and aesthetics—to bear on thirteen contemporary works of art by Latinos.

These works are as varied as the famous “La Reconquista” triptych by Einar and Jamex de la Torre; the Latino graffiti of Bear TCK (“Chicano Grafitti”); the Latino-Afro-Caribbean intersection of Jean-Michel Basquiat (“Untitled (Skull)”); a photograph by Mariana Yampolsky (“Elva”); and Andres Serrano’s well-known “Piss Christ.”

Conducted as wide-ranging conversations about the way that Latino experience is expressed in contemporary artworks, the book as a whole is casual but intellectually solid, accessible by non-specialists, but not dumbed-down. It is refreshing and eye-opening, though it would benefit if more of the thirteen artists represented were women.

Interest/Reading Level: Grades 5 - 10

Synopsis:
This beautiful collection of poetry and short essays tells the stories of 29 Latino authors and living in America. The word Wáchale is Spanglish (Spanish-English) for look out, or be aware or watch out. The book is in English and Spanish with many items translated. The exception to this is a poem by Pat Mora, originally from El Paso, TX, called Corazon Del Corrido. Ms. Mora wrote the poem to pay homage to her father and his culture. A cute story by Alberto Alvaro Rios writes about his English mother and Mexican father building a new house in Nogales, AZ. His mother said she wanted to learn Spanish and in the process of working with the house builders, told them to paint the kitchen limón as yes had always loved yellow kitchens in Mexico. When she returned, the kitchen indeed was painted limón but the color was bright green, the color of limes. Other stories and poems include rites of passage (quinceańeras, posadas), family roots, and going back and forth between cultures. The book has a nice glossary and the editor decided to not define common cultural terms (amigo, enchilada). Also included are extensive notes on sources as well as an annotated list of suggested titles. Through the poems and story-telling, the reader gets a real wonderful feel through the voices of the authors.

Reflection:
I absolutely LOVED the short essays and stories. The poems were so heartfelt and beautifully written; I could feel the passion and emotion of the writer. The editor did a wonderful job compiling this collection and did an clever job of giving each author a concise biography before their entry. The entry by Nash Candelaria is especially poignant as he has crafted letters from a father to his daughter. She is the first in the family to go to college and has left New Mexico to go to a school in the eastern part of the United States. In the last letter, the father is sad that the daughter will not be home for summer, rather choosing to stay and work back East. Any parent who has sent a child away to college will feel empathy with the father. The stories and poetry could be from any country as the themes are common amongst immigrant families. As with most non-English languages, when a native speaker reads a poem or story aloud, it is magical to hear with facial expression and tonal quality. This book would be great in the classroom to use as a read-aloud to give students an idea of how to write their own stories. The cover of the book is colorful and inviting and the artwork is continued throughout the book.

Literature

anyone interested in literature and the Latin American experience will enjoy thumbing through this extensive book of essays. Stavans is an unusual talent who writes fiction, non fiction, culture, history from his personal perspective. His Jeawish-mexican experience is also quite interesting.½

Growing Up Latino is one of the original efforts within the literary realm to combine the works of various Spanish-decent cultures into a single volume. The introduction clearly states a desire to highlight the commonalities between Chicano, Caribbean, Central, and South American peoples and literary styles under one term: Latino. It contains works by all of the recent heavy-hitters selected to highlight magical realism, immigrant narratives, and descriptions of latino home life. Much of this is an enjoyable read, and while the introduction is dated, it does show the progression of literary criticism around these authors when compared with more recent writings. Enough of the short stories are entertaining outside of the scholarly intent of the collection that I'd suggest this to anyone into short fiction as pleasure reading.

Stories from the mid 1970s to the mid 1990s from many traditions and backgrounds

Biographer Reveals Source of Magic Behind Author's Success

After rumors of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s sensitive health issues began to circulate around the Internet several years ago, readers worldwide began to fear the great Nobel Laureate (1982) had written and published his final books. Videos posted on YouTube featured a “farewell note” reportedly written by him and many acknowledged their respect for the man and his accomplishments. That fear proved groundless with the recent publication of a collection of speeches by Garcia Marquez titled I Didn’t Come to Give a Speech, and announcement that he was putting the finishing touches on a brand new novel called We’ll Meet in August.

How does a contemporary author reach that point where reading audiences throughout the global village wait with eager anticipation for whatever work he or she produces next? Unlike J.K. Rowling or Stephen King, Garcia Marquez has not had the benefit of seeing one novel after another transformed into a self-perpetuating movie franchise.

Nevertheless, his place in twentieth and twenty-first century literature is one that is now assured by the aforementioned Nobel Prize, the existence of more than 1,400 works published in some 53 languages, and representation via more than 158,000 library holdings. He has also enjoyed the distinction of seeing two of his books featured as a selection of Oprah Winfrey’s Book Club: One Hundred Years of Solitude in 2004 and Love in the Time of Cholera in 2007. The latter was, like works by Rowling and King, granted the honor of being made into a movie.

In Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The Early Years, author Ilan Stavans provides an illuminating portrait of the cultural and historical conditions that gave birth to one of the most popular authors on the world literary stage. The book is not so much a painstakingly detailed biography of Garcia Marquez but more like a highly entertaining survey of the places, people, and moments that combined to nourish and evolve the author’s considerable talent.

Or, as Stavans himself put it, “My interest is at once in Garcia Marquez's personal travels and in the historical backdrop against which that traveling unfolded."

The Life Lived and the Tale Told

On the morning of March 6, 1927, Garcia Marquez was born in Aracataca, a small town on the Caribbean coast of Colombia. The date is important because it marks a time of tremendous change for the town and its citizens as advances in travel and agriculture made Aracataca more subject to exchanges with the rest of the modernized world. There’s not much along these line Stavans can tell us which has not already been well documented. Garcia Marquez himself did, after all, share a great deal in his own autobiography, Living to Tell the Tale, the first of a projected three volumes.

What Stavans does provide is a brilliant perspective that places the author in a succession of contexts framed by definitive moments. In regard to Aracataca specifically, he widens the angle (so to speak) in such a way that we see both how the town gave birth to the writer and how the writer in turn helped bring new economic life to the town. He also takes us inside the “wide constellation of females” that watched over Garcia Marquez in his childhood and later inspired the creation of some of his most memorable characters.

Stavans allows us to witness Garcia Marquez’s intense love affair with reading, the romantic-comedy courtship that led to a celebrated marriage, the author’s adulthood apprenticeship as a journalist and script writer, and the progression of events that led to the composition of his most championed masterwork: One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Please Click for: Part 2 Evolution of a modern literary classic http://www.examiner.com/african-american-art-in-national/biographer-reveals-sour...

by Aberjhani

I read this a while ago, before I was on Library Thing, but since no one has reviewed this book, I will. It is a translator's showcase of South American fiction that was originally published as a fundraiser for PEN American Center. If you know about PEN, I'm sure you can guess that this collection is quite literary. I read it in Spanish, which I am not fluent in. I checked the translations when I was having trouble. Training wheels! The translations were not slavish. They rephrased the stories and substituted images to make the stories more palatable for an English speaking audience.

I have difficulty finding collections of Spanish language books with the necessary "training wheels." This is not easy Spanish, and it was intended to be. These are works chosen by the translators because they are from authors that are really good, but seldom translated. They are pet projects in a way.

I write fantasy, and therefore read a lot of science fiction and fantasy. This collection has no sf or f in it, but it included several stories about the effects of politics on individuals. Several Latin American countries have suffered from dictatorships that made dissenters "disappear," and many of the stories address this reality. These stories have a bleak, surreal feel that reminded me of Orwell. Then I had my aha moment. Orwell's ideas and even his writing style was heavily influenced by his influence during the Spanish Civil War. He wrote about the same themes as "science fiction" and several writers have been influenced by him. It makes me think that someone's science fiction or fantasy is sometimes too close to someone else's horrifying reality.

That said, my main criticism of the book is that it isn't a balanced portrayal of South American fiction. Argentina is represented much more heavily than other countries. I suppose this is to be expected. My knowledge of South American culture is more limited than I would like, but there are far more movies available in the US that are Argentinian. I'd say there are even more Argentinian films than there are Spanish national films, and Spain has Almodovar. I'm willing to guess that means the Argentinians put more emphasis on writing and entertainment than other countries. They also are a big country. Therefore, there's probably more Argentinian short stories available.

Ironically, my favorite story in the collection is Los camalotes, The Water-Hyacinths by Jose Carmona Blanco, a Spanish national who lives in Uruguay, but the story is about the fallout of Argentina's brutal practices in the '70s. This story alone is worth the cost of the book. On the whole, a very thought-provoking collection.