Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Have Their Say w/ Tony Diaz

Nuestra Palabra Presents: An interview with Dr. Richard A. Tapia and his featured book "Losing the Precious Few: How America Fails to Educate its Minorities in Science and Engineering"

Richard Tapia is the Maxfield-Oshman Chair in Engineering, a professor in computational and applied mathematics and director of the Tapia Center for Excellence and Equity, all at Rice University. He is the recipient of the National Medal of Science, the US government’s highest honor bestowed on scientists, and the National Science Board’s Vannevar Bush Award. He served on the National Science Board from 1996-2002, and two professional conferences have been named in his honor: the Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing Conference and the Blackwell-Tapia Mathematics Conference. He lives in Houston, Texas.

In his eye-opening book, Losing the Precious Few: How America Fails to Educate its Minorities in Science and Engineering, nationally acclaimed scholar Richard Tapia examines the issues that keep domestic minority students out of STEM education and careers. A professor for almost 50 years in Rice University’s Department of Computational and Applied Mathematics, Tapia is struck by the number of foreign students in the hallways and wonders how the United States can remain globally competitive.

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.

* This is part of a Nuestra Palabra Multiplatform broadcast.

* Video airs on www.Fox26Houston.com.

* Audio airs on 90.1 FM Houston, KPFT, Houston's Community Station, where our show began.

* Live events.

Thanks to

Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer

Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer

Radame Ortiez, SEO Director

Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer

Leti Lopez, Music Director

Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus

Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus

Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus

Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston’s Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What’s Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital.

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

Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante & Literary Curator for the Latino Bookstore at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center hosted Ms. Silviana Wood and her debut book "La Quinta Soledad" from Aztlan Libre Press recently to a packed house.

Our show highlights the event and features a phenomenal reading by Florinda Flores-Brown. We also had a special performance by Juan Tejeda and Armando Tejeda which is why you have to come by the GCAC live every 2nd Friday of the month!

A native of Tucson, Arizona, Silviana Wood received her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona and has been involved in the local theater community since the 1970s. She is known for her bilingual comedies and dramas as well as for being a professional storyteller, actor, director, and teacher of literature and Chicano Theater. Silviana has twice won the Chicano/Latino Literary Prize from the University of California, Irvine: once for Short Story, and once for Drama. In 2016, Barrio Dreams/ Selected Plays by Silviana Wood was published by the University of Arizona Press.

FMI: https://aztlanlibrepress.com/silviana-wood/

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.

* This is part of a Nuestra Palabra Multiplatform broadcast.

* Video airs on www.Fox26Houston.com.

* Audio airs on 90.1 FM Houston, KPFT, Houston's Community Station, where our show began.

* Live events.

Thanks to

Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer

Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer

Radame Ortiez, SEO Director

Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer

Leti Lopez, Music Director

Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus

Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus

Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus

Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston’s Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What’s Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital.

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

Texas State Representative Christina Morales led a press conference on March 8th at the Texas State Capitol to advocate for House Bill 45.

House Bill 45 would add Mexican American and African American studies and other ethnic studies courses students can take to satisfy their social studies requirement. This will offer students a more robust view of Texas history and studies show it can lead to academic success.

State Rep. Christina Morales authored HB 45. She is re-filing it this year, after an identical bill passed in the House in 2021 but died in the Senate.

On Wednesday at the Capitol, Morales was joined by Rep. Gene Wu, Rep. Alma Allen, Rep. Ron Reynolds, Rep Victoria Neave Criado, Rep. Jarvis Johnson, & Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, as well as members from the Mexican American Legislative Caucus and Texas Legislative Black Caucus, as well as Tony Diaz, educator and one of the chief advocates for the bill outside of the legislative body.

Morales pushed that courses such as ethnic social studies lead to higher graduation rates and a higher likelihood of students enrolling into college. She said that was especially important in the "post-pandemic world" we are living in.

She also touted that bipartisan support efforts like hers have received in the past.

"Mexican American studies and African American studies were unanimously approved by the Republican and Democratic members in the state board of education," Morales said. "So this is bipartisan."

Co-authoring this bill, among others, is Rep. Alma Allen. She said she would support HB 45 as many times as it takes to pass.

"Texas history is American history," Allen said. "American history is all of our history."

Educators joined lawmakers for the lawmakers' press conference in support of ethnic social studies courses.

Tony Diaz, an educator in Houston, said these types of courses were first taught in Houston Independent School District.

"Texas was the first state to unanimously support Mexican American history and African American history," Diaz said. "It lets students know why this history is important."

Reynolds said HB 45 is a chance to take steps forward instead of backward.

"This bill will certainly be a great reflection of the true diversity of this state, which is our strength and certainly help with healing," Reynolds said.

* This is part of a Nuestra Palabra Multiplatform broadcast.

* Video airs on www.Fox26Houston.com.

* Audio airs on 90.1 FM Houston, KPFT, Houston's Community Station, where our show began.

* Live events.

Thanks to

Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer

Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer

Radame Ortiez, SEO Director

Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer

Leti Lopez, Music Director

Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus

Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus

Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus

Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston’s Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What’s Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital.

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

Nuestra Palabra Presents: José F. Aranda, Jr. interviews Tony Diaz

LIVE! on Nuestra Palabra!

In this twist of an interview, it will be José F. Aranda, Jr. interviewing Tony Diaz and asking questions about his book, "The Tip of the Pyramid, Cultivating Community Cultural Capital"

José F. Aranda, Jr. is Professor of Chicanx and American Literatures at Rice University. He is the author of When We Arrive: A New Literary History of Mexican America (Arizona, 2003). He has written articles on 19 th century Mexican American literature and the Recovery Project, the future of Chicano/a Studies, and most recently undertaken an investigation of the relationship between modernity and Mexican American writings, entitled The Places of Modernity in Early Mexican American Literature, 1848-1948, University of Nebraska Press, 2022.

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.

* This is part of a Nuestra Palabra Multiplatform broadcast.

* Video airs on www.Fox26Houston.com.

* Audio airs on 90.1 FM Houston, KPFT, Houston's Community Station, where our show began.

* Live events.

Thanks to

Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer

Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer

Radame Ortiez, SEO Director

Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer

Leti Lopez, Music Director

Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus

Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus

Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus

Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston’s Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What’s Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital.

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

Nuestra Palabra Presents: Preview of “Images & Words: Media’s Influence on the Struggle for Civil Rights”

Tony Diaz discusses with the Rothko Chapel team about the MLK tribute on Jan 15th and their work supporting this effort.

Kelly Johnson (she/they) is an arts and culture organizer, curator, and writer. She is the Director of Public Programs at the Rothko Chapel, a sacred art space dedicated to community engagement through contemplation and action at the intersections of art, spirituality, and social justice. Kelly has organized programming at the Chapel for 6 years, including concerts and performances, lectures, conversations, meditations, and conferences, covering issues such as racial equity, climate justice, civil rights, and more. They earned an MFA in Curatorial Practice from Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD, and a BA in Art History from Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX. Kelly is a board member of Houston’s Center for the Healing of Racism and completed a New Leaders Council (NLC) Houston Fellowship in 2022.

Devin Allen, Baltimore native is a self-taught artist who gained national attention when his photograph of the Baltimore Uprising was published on the cover of Time magazine in May 2015, making him only the third amateur photographer to have his work featured in the publication. Following the untimely deaths of George Floyd, Tony McDade, and Breonna Taylor, his photograph from a Black Trans Lives Matter protest was published on the cover of Time magazine in June 2020. In 2017, he was named the first fellow of the Gordon Parks Foundation Fellowship and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award as a debut author for his book, A Beautiful Ghetto (Haymarket Books, September 2017). In 2020, he was named an ambassador for Leica Camera AG—an international, premium manufacturer of cameras and sports optics. His photographs have been published in New York Magazine, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Aperture; and are also in the permanent collections of the National Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington, D.C., the Reginald F. Lewis Museum, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and The Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art.

He is the founder of Through Their Eyes, a youth photography educational program, and recipient of an award from The Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture for dynamic leadership in the Arts and Activism. His new book, No Justice, No Peace: From the Civil Rights Movement to Black Lives Matter, was released in October under the Legacy Lit imprint of Hachette Book Group.

Lisa Volpe, Associate Curator of Photography, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Lisa Volpe is the Associate Curator, Photography at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Before arriving in Houston, she was the Curator of the Wichita Art Museum where she oversaw all areas of the museum’s collection. Additionally, she held various curatorial roles at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA), and fellowships at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston’s Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What’s Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital.

www.Librotraficante.com

www.NuestraPalabra.org

www.TonyDiaz.net

Instrumental Music Produced courtesy of Bayden Records

Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

A more in-depth walk-through of the application in Spanish with Tony Diaz facilitating the conversation with artists Gabriela Magana and Arielle Masson from the Latina American Women's Artists of Houston, a collective of Latin American Women Artists working in the greater Houston Area since 2017. This Spanish info session will include background and guiding questions from our panel. Video and audio includes responses to posted Q&A from live session.

For more FAQs - check out https://support.houstonbanf.org for updated answers to questions posed in prior sessions.

Gabriela Magana is a Houston based artist born in Mexico. Her work has evolved hand in hand with the exploration of her place as a woman and as a Latina in this age and time. Therefore, she has come to use mixed media in her paintings, as well as thick paint as an exploration of materials and storytelling. She uses the physicality of her works as a symbol to the subject matter, making the viewer feel closer to the work, and giving clues about the story behind it.

Arielle Masson, being born from a Mexican mother and a French father, being bilingual from birth, and now trilingual, and, after having grown up in Europe and traveled extensively in Africa, in India, and in Latin America, and having elected to live in Houston for the past 30 years, has given up trying to define, fit and belong to any specific cultural idiosyncrasy. Her hybrid position makes her acutely aware that most people identify seamlessly with their native culture without questioning it. It is only in the movement of migration, immigration that the problem of identity arises. In turn, she understand the contemporary discourse of multiculturalism, pluralism, and today's globalism, being generated mostly by relentless human technological advancements.

BIPOC Arts Network and Fund, or BANF, was created to provide resources and networks that support the vibrant Black, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian American, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern and other communities of color of Greater Houston in fully displaying their power, values and traditions. Its goals are achieved through grant funding, advocacy, and community-building networking initiatives that revolutionize the local funding landscape, break down silos within the arts ecosystem, and welcome everyone to support and learn from BIPOC arts communities.

BANF is an independent initiative funded by the generous contributions of national and local foundations, including Houston Endowment, the Ford Foundation, The Brown Foundation, Inc., The Cullen Foundation, Kinder Foundation and The Powell Foundation.

Nuestra Palabra fully supports and appreciates the work of these folks and entities as we empower marginalized communities.

Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston’s Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What’s Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital.

www.Librotraficante.com

www.NuestraPalabra.org

www.TonyDiaz.net

Instrumental Music Produced courtesy of Bayden Records

Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Nuestra Palabra Presents: An Interview with José F. Aranda, Jr.

Tony Diaz interviews José F. Aranda, Jr. who is a Professor of Chicanx and American Literatures and will talk about his book "The Places of Modernity in Early Mexican American Literature, 1848-1948"

José F. Aranda, Jr. is Professor of Chicanx and American Literatures at Rice University. He is the author of When We Arrive: A New Literary History of Mexican America (Arizona, 2003). He has written articles on 19 th century Mexican American literature and the Recovery Project, the future of Chicano/a Studies, and most recently undertaken an investigation of the relationship between modernity and Mexican American writings, entitled The Places of Modernity in Early Mexican American Literature, 1848-1948, University of Nebraska Press, 2022.

Dr. Aranda has a dual appointment in the departments of English and Modern and Classical Literature & Culture. He is a board member of Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project. Co-founder with Priscilla Ybarra of Avanzamos: El Taller Chicana/o, an annual workshop focused on advanced scholarship in Chicanx Studies, sponsored by Rice University and the University of North Texas. In July 2020, he joined the Board of Trustees of Cristo Rey Jesuit College Preparatory of Houston. In 2022, along with Carmen Lamas, Yolanda Padilla, and John Alba Cutler, co-founding editor of the journal, Pasados: Recovering History, Imagining

Latinidad, University of Pennsylvania Press.

Thanks to

Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer

Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer

Radame Ortiez, SEO Director

Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer

Leti Lopez, Music Director

Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus

Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus

Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus

Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston’s Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What’s Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital.

www.Librotraficante.com

www.NuestraPalabra.org

www.TonyDiaz.net

Instrumental Music Produced courtesy of Bayden Records

Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

HOUSTON, Texas – Representative Morales will be hosting a press conference to discuss the reintroduction of her Ethnic Studies bill that passed the House during the 87th Legislative Session. She will host local leaders to discuss the importance of Ethnic Studies as well as the renewed efforts to pass this bill in the upcoming 88th Legislative Session.

Representative Morales will be joined by Senator Carol Alvarado, Representative Gene Wu, Tony Diaz, and other local leaders.

The bill passed with unanimous support out of the House Public Education Committee last session, and in a historic vote on May 11th, 2021, passed on third reading in the Texas House of Representatives. Texas State Representative Morales said, “Throughout my life, I have been empowered by knowing my family and community’s history. This bill would ensure that all Texans, regardless of their background, have the opportunity to learn their history. Tomorrow we will come together to once again bring renewed effort to making these courses available statewide.”

Community organizer Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, added, “It is an honor to unite to support courses that are proven to increase graduation rates, academic achievement, and inspire students to profoundly examine the role of our communities in forming this state and this nation.”

Afterwards, Dr. Valerie A. Martinez & Dr. Angela Valenzuela discuss the importance of SB 45 and why it is important to have these type of courses in our high schools.

Thanks to

Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer

Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer

Radame Ortiez, SEO Director

Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer

Leti Lopez, Music Director

Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus

Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus

Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus

Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston’s Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What’s Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital.

www.Librotraficante.com

www.NuestraPalabra.org

www.TonyDiaz.net

Instrumental Music Produced courtesy of Bayden Records

Website | baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Nuestra Palabra Presents our latest supercut of some of the amazing readings, poetry, prose, y musica from the last few months!

Included in this edition:

Guadalupe Garcia McCall, Xavier Garcia, Veronique Medrano, David Romero, Marisol Cortez, Matt Sedillo, Leticia Urieta, David Vidaurre, and more!

Thanks to

Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer

Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer

Radame Ortiez, SEO Director

Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer

Leti Lopez, Music Director

Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus

Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus

Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus

Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston’s Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What’s Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital.

www.Librotraficante.com

www.NuestraPalabra.org

www.TonyDiaz.net

Instrumental Music Produced courtesy of Bayden Records

Website | http://baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Tony Diaz, literary curator of the Latino Bookstore at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, hosts Xavier Garza, to discuss his journey and read from his work as part of the Texas Author Series.

Xavier Garza was born in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. He is an enthusiastic author, artist, teacher and storyteller whose work is a lively documentation of life, dreams, superstitions, and heroes in the bigger-than-life world of South Texas. Garza has exhibited his art and performed his stories in venues throughout Texas, Arizona and the state of Washington. He has received such recognitions as the Pura Belpre Honor book and the Libro de las Americas Honor book awards. He lives with his wife and son in San Antonio, Texas, and is the author of numerous books.

Thanks to

Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer

Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer

Radame Ortiez, SEO Director

Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer

Leti Lopez, Music Director

Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus

Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus

Lupe Mendez, Texas Poet Laureate, co-host, and producer emeritus

Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston’s Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What’s Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston. He is the author of the forthcoming book: The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital.

www.Librotraficante.com

www.NuestraPalabra.org

www.TonyDiaz.net

Instrumental Music Produced courtesy of Bayden Records

Website | http://baydenrecords.beatstars.com