Scenes from La Cuenca De Los Angeles Y Otros Natural Disasters

by Chavez-Silverman, Susana

• ISBN13: 9780299235246
• ISBN10: 0299235246
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-04-27
• Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Pr

Summary

This is a rarity in contemporary writing, a truly bilingual enterprise, as in Susana Chaacute;vez-Silvermanrs"s previous memoir,Killer Croacute;nicas. Chaacute;vez-Silverman switches between English and Spanish, creating alinguistic mestizajethat is still a surprise encounter in the world of letters today, and the author forms one of a small but growing band of writers to embrace bilingualism as a literary force. Also likeKiller Croacute;nicas, each chapter inScenes from la Cuenca de Los Angelesis a "croacute;nica," a vignette that began with intimate diary entries and e-mails and letters to lovers, friends, and ghosts from the past. These episodic chapters follow the Chavez-Silvermanrs"s personal history, from California to South Africa and Australia and back, from unfathomable loss to deeply felt joy. Readers drawn into this witty book will confront their own conceptions of boundaries, borders, languages, memories, and spaces.

Author Biography

Susana Chßvez-Silverman is professor of romance languages and literatures at Pomona College in California. She is coeditor of Tropicalizations: Transcultural Representations of Latinidad and Reading and Writing the Ambiente: Queer Sexualities in Latino, Latin American, and Spanish Culture and author of Killer Cr=nicas.

Susana Chßvez-Silverman is professor of romance languages and literatures at Pomona College in California. She is coeditor of Tropicalizations: Transcultural Representations of Latinidad and Reading and Writing the Ambiente: Queer Sexualities in Latino, Latin American, and Spanish Culture and author of Killer Cr=nicas.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Introduction: Cartografía Humana/Star Maps Crónica	p. 3
Diary Inside/ Color Local Crónica	p. 10
Montalvo Diary	p. 17
On Going Back Crónica	p. 36
San Francisco Transcript/Diary	p. 42
In My Country Crónica	p. 53
San Francisco Days Crónica	p. 58
Un Pico (De)presión Diptych
Trincheras Crónica	p. 65
Hawk Call Crónica	p. 69
Oda a la Ambigüedad Crónica	p. 72
Mountainess/Montañ(os)a Crónica	p. 76
South Coast Plaza Crónica	p. 83
I Want the Wrapper Crónica	p. 88
Mini Geography Lesson Crónica	p. 91
Arañita Cobriza Crónica	p. 94
Westside Desilusión Crónica	p. 97
There Was Blood Diptych
Unos Cuantos Piquetitos Crónica	p. 103
Momentos Hemorrágicos Crónica	p. 108
Currawong Crónica	p. 117
Por Montalvo Crónica	p. 124
Alchemy Armisteadiana Crónica	p. 130
Tuberose Frenesí Crónica	p. 135
Solstice/Shamanic Magia Crónica	p. 140
(Almost) Milagros Crónica	p. 146
Todavía Wild (at Heart) Crónica	p. 151
Afterword: Linguistic Perspectives on Code-Switching	p. 155
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

Por su white, insouciant, papery look, por su semejanza a la amapola (scentless, a fin de cuentas, no obstante esa famosa escena de la Wicked Witch of the West, purring evilly, “Poppies,poppieswill put them to sleep. Sleeeep, sleep . . .”), when I leaned in to sniff, I hadn’t been expecting any scent at all. Y por eso, el cool, familiar mounds of damp masa harina, Mercado Libertad en verano scent, es—por lo utterly inesperado—lo más disturbingly, comfortingly hechizante que tienen las paper flowers.
    Stay with me a while. Busquemos, together, más strange familiars.
—excerpt from chapter 1, “Diary Inside/Color Local Crónica”

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