Diana Lopez ("Los Monstruos: Felice and the Wailing Women") & teacher Araceli Marinquenz joins the show!

Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Have Their Say

Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say's Tony Diaz the Librotraficante welcomes Award Winning Author and one of the OG Librotraficante Caravan members Diana Lopez to the show to discuss her latest book, the first in a series, "Felice and the Wailing Woman". Diana speaks with Tony about her inspiration behind the book and her literary journey and her current partnerhsip with the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center Latino Book Store's Texas Author Series to create curriculum and lesson plans from authors, all through a grant spearheaded by Joaquin Castro.
To highlight this partnership, Tony also has on the show San Antonio ISD Teacher Celi Manriquez; the Bonham Middle School STEM Academy instructor is developing the lesson plans for Ms. Lopez's book so that students can read stories about them, that they can relate to, and can inspire them.

We have a live event on April 14th at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center as well as at Bonham Academy; check our next post for more details!

Diana López is the author of the adult novella, Sofia's Saints, and numerous middle grade novels, including Confetti Girl, Nothing Up My Sleeve, and Lucky Luna. Her debut picture book is now available and is called Sing With Me: The Story of Selena Quintanilla. She also wrote the novel adaptation for the Disney/Pixar film, Coco. Diana retired after a 28-year career in education at both the middle grade and college levels. Her "second act" day job is helping her husband in his physical therapy clinic, FYZICAL Therapy & Balance Center, located in her hometown of Corpus Christi, Texas, but she still enjoys meeting with students when she visits schools to chat about books and writing.

Araceli Manriquez is a middle school dual-language teacher in San Antonio ISD. She currently teaches eighth-grade DL social studies and started the first Mexican American Studies (MAS) course for middle school students in the district. She received her double-major bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies Bilingual EC-6 and Mexican American Studies from the University of Texas at San Antonio and also has her master’s degree in Bilingual-Bicultural Studies. Manriquez has been at the forefront of advocacy and organizing for Mexican American Studies to be offered as a course for credit throughout the state of Texas.

She also helped create a MAS Summer Camp on her campus for San Antonio ISD middle and high school students and writes MAS curriculum for the district. As an educator, she ensures that her students have a rich, deep understanding of the culture and contributions of the Latinx/e community and are taught a true history of Texas.

Manriquez is an active member of her local union, the San Antonio Alliance, and a founding member of its social justice caucus, PODER. She leads professional development in social studies, Mexican-American studies and culturally relevant/sustaining pedagogy for educators throughout San Antonio.

Tony Diaz

Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program.
In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston’s first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston’s Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation.
When Arizona officials banned Mexican American Studies, Diaz and four veteran members of NP organized the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books from the banned curriculum back into Arizona.

He is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing.

www.Librotraficante.com
www.NuestraPalabra.org
www.TonyDiaz.net

Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund.

Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records
Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com