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Massacre of the Dreamers 20th anniversary edition August 23, 2020 – Posted in: Blog

Includes new introduction by Clarissa Pinkola-Estes and an Addendum essay by Ana Castillo, “The Real and True Meaning of the Virgin of Guadalupe,” recipient of the ASA’s Gloria Anzaldúa Award for independent scholarship. Castillo revisits her reflections on Chicana activism, spiritual practices, sexual attitudes, artistic ideology, labor struggles, and education-related battles. Her book remains a compelling document, enhanced here with a new afterword that reexamines the significance of Our Lady of Guadalupe.”  BUY NOW “Castillo…

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La Tolteca 2.0 #4 Aug.21, 2020 August 21, 2020 – Posted in: Blog, recent

Issue #4, August 21, 2020 Welcome to our fourth issue.  Featured here are Chi-Town creatives!  So much is happening in Chicago this summer.  We send our love & hope for continued strength to that American of American cities. Included in this issue we introduce Creative Guadalupe Chairez. Also included poets Marcelo Castillo, Mary K. Hawley and Mike Puican, Academic and Curandera Laura de los Santos, and Writer Sandra Jackson-Opoku   We are celebrating life in…

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Tomorrow Issue #4 of the new La Tolteca 2.0 August 20, 2020 – Posted in: Blog

We’ve reprised La Tolteca Zine (2011-2016) and sped up the turn around–every two weeks readers may come here to take a gander at a new issue.  We feature new and unpracticed creatives, emerging artists, poets & the established, los/as maestro/as.   Tomorrow Issue #4 introduces Chicago creative Guadalupe Chairez, poets & writers & a testimonio on curanderismo.  If you’d like to share your story, selfies, send to ana@anacastillo.net for consideration. Issue #5 coming up September…

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MY BOOK OF THE DEAD: Selected, Published Poems (by Ana Castillo) August 16, 2020 – Posted in: Blog, recent

Poems from MY BOOK OF THE DEAD (unpublished collection by Ana Castillo, 2020). This group of poems has been previously published in various books & literary journals. (Some alignments may be off due to  cut & pasting.  (No comments on edits or grammar, please.  This is being done.). I’m happy to share & thank you for reading.  Positive vibe comments here are always welcome. All the line drawings are mine.  (Please don’t reproduce w/out my…

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These Times August 13, 2020 – Posted in: Blog

I share here a poem written for the ceremony welcoming an African-American woman president at my B.A. alma-mater, NEIU, Chicago, 2018.  It was also published in Fifth Wednesday Journal. These Times             In these times, you and I share, amidst the air you and I breathe, inspiration we take from day to day thriving, opposition we meet, the sacred conch shell calls us, drums beat, prayers sent up, aromatic smoke…

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A Storm Upon Us, poem by Ana Castillo, 2015. August 10, 2020 – Posted in: Blog

And when the storm is upon you,

when it has destroyed your homes,

and your children are not fine

and your dreams of golden roses and bright days are nowhere

but in the pages of a storybook,

we will be content in our heavens eating peeled

grapes, sipping fine wines from our vineyards of abundance,

sitting on our thrones,

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La Tolteca 2.0 Issue #3. Aug. 7, 2020 August 7, 2020 – Posted in: Blog

ISSUE #3, August 7, 2020 VERY EXCITED TO DELIVER THIS THIRD ISSUE OF LA TOLTECA 2.0.  Poets, artists and teachers featured here live now in Jamaica, Mexico and California.  Through community involvement, art, poems and a desire to record reflections is their shared empathy for humanity and the planet that is all our home.  Contributors in this issue:  Opal Palmer Adisa, John Kaine, Ed J. McCaughan and Joey Villareal. Here we go, amigos, amigas, dam-x…

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Nuevo poema: A Francisco X. July 30, 2020 – Posted in: Blog, recent

Thank you to Nueva York Poetry Review for including my poem in their recent issue. Thanks also to Julieta Corpus who assisted in translation to English. This poem, written on the death of the Chicano poet, Francisco X. Alarcón is included in my new unpublished. collection, MY BOOK OF THE DEAD. Following is the first part of the poem. Francisco X., q.e.p.d. https://www.nuevayorkpoetryreview.com/Nueva-york-Poetry-Review-2616-1-poesia-chicana-ana-castillo   A FRANCISCO X   I Algo presentía ese raro día. Esperando,…

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Two Men and Me July 26, 2020 – Posted in: Blog

We quaffed a few whiskies.  They knew.  I knew.

I wasn’t that kind of girl.  Instead, we set out to do

a three-way poem.  Tu primero–said Bolaño.

“What?” Bukowski said. “No comprendo.”

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