Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Have Their Say w/ Tony Diaz Tony Diaz Tells It Like It Is

On this Nuestra Palabra Rewind from October 2020, join us as we listen to an early interview Tony Diaz had with Mario Castillo, who at that time made history as the first Latino President for the Lone Star College System being named Interim President at the Kingwood campus for the 2020 to 2021 academic year. It's been a few years since Mario shared his story and demonstrated the power of leaders leading with Latino values, interests, and needs in mind.

Ahead of the Celebrating Latino Art & Culture con el Chancellor Mario K. Castillo event on Thursday, April 25th, 2024, relisten to the interview that helped Houston get to know the future leader and now Chancellor, Mario K. Castillo. Join us on Thursday, April 25th, 2024, at Lone Star College - University Park at the Visual & Performing Arts Building at 930 University Park Campus Dr, Houston Texas, 77070 at 12 PM Noon with a special recognition for the Chancellor, followed by the eagerly anticipated 7th Annual Juried Student Art Show.

Thank you to the following:

Lone Star College Partners
Lone Star College Board of Trustees
The Latino Cultural Experts Committee
LSC LASO Houston North
Puente LSC - HN

Thank you to our Community Partners:

Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say
The American Leadership Forum
ALMAAHH - Advocates of a Latino Museum of Cultural and Visual Arts
& Archive Complex in Houston, Harris County
Que Onda Magazine
LULAC

Mario K. Castillo J.D.

was named the fifth Chancellor of Lone Star College System in August 2023. Prior to that, Castillo served the College as Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel. His responsibilities have progressed through the years; starting as the College’s General Counsel in 2015, he was promoted to Vice Chancellor and General Counsel in 2016 and again promoted to Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel in 2017. Additionally, he served as Interim President at the Kingwood campus for the 2020 to 2021 academic year.

Castillo’s focus is the College’s students. He has reshaped processes and procedures to be student centric and student informed. He understands you cannot be what you cannot see, and therefore ensures he meets students where they are at. Castillo provides numerous student scholarship and internship opportunities and regularly meets with students to offer career advice. He prioritizes student speaking engagements and student outreach.

Castillo received his Juris Doctorate from the Maurer School of Law at Indiana University in Bloomington and received his Bachelor of Arts in Government from The University of Texas at Austin. Castillo is a first-generation high school (on his mother’s side), college, and law school student as well as a first-generation American. He enjoys overly ambitious home improvement projects, recently completed Ironman Texas, and is an avid reader.


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.

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

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

Relive the community event celebrating Mario Castillo making history as the first Latino Chancellor for Lone Star College! La gente celebrated Tuesday, March 20th, 2024, at Spanish Flowers to congratulate Chancellor Mario K. Castillo.

We had so many folks join us, including:

Lone Star College Partners
Art Murillo, Lone Star College Board of Trustee
The Latino Cultural Experts Committee
LSC LASO Houston North
Puente LSC - HN

Thank you to our Community Partners:

Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say
The American Leadership Forum
ALMAAHH - Advocates of a Latino Museum of Cultural and Visual Arts & Archive Complex in Houston, Harris County
Que Onda Magazine
LULAC

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. Tony 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.

* 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, co-host, and producer emeritus

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 baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, speaks w/ the featured artists for the celebration of poetry, prose, and visual expression w/ a special event: Nuestra Palabra & Tintero Projects Present: Poetry at Torre Latina! The night will feature a Q&A w/ our poets & artists, book signing, visual art exhibits, and a preview of the new Nuestra Palabra offices at Torre Latina are included and the best part is that admission is free.

Tuesday, March 5th, 2024

Nuestra Palabra & Tintero Projects Present:

POETRY AT TORRE LATINA

@ Torre Latina Professional Building
150 W Parker Rd., 5th Floor
(I-45N @ Parker Rd)
Houston, TX 77076

FREE ADMISSION

Our featured guests:

ire’ne lara silva

The 2023 Texas State Poet Laureate and the author of five poetry collections, furia, Blood Sugar Canto, CUICACALLI/House of Song, FirstPoems, and the eaters of flowers, two chapbooks, Enduring Azucares and Hibiscus Tacos, and a short story collection, flesh to bone, which won the Premio Aztlán. ire’ne is the recipient of a 2021 Tasajillo Writers Grant, a 2017 NALAC Fund for the Arts Grant, the final Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Award, and was the Fiction Finalist for AROHO’s 2013 Gift of Freedom Award. Most recently, ire’ne was awarded the 2021 Texas Institute of Letters Shrake Award for Best Short Nonfiction. ire’ne is currently a Writer at Large for Texas Highways Magazine and is working on a second collection of short stories titled, the light of your body. Her first comic book, VENDAVAL, will be released by the Chispa Imprint of Scout Comics in April 2024.

Octavio Quintanilla

Author of the poetry collection, If I Go Missing (Slough Press, 2014) and served as the 2018-2020 Poet Laureate of San Antonio, TX. His poetry, fiction, translations, and photography have appeared, or are forthcoming, in journals such as Salamander, RHINO, Alaska Quarterly Review, and elsewhere. His Frontextos (visual poems) have been published in Poetry Northwest, Gold Wake Live, Newfound, Chachalaca Review, & The Langdon Review of the Arts in Texas. Octavio’s visual work has been exhibited at the Southwest School of Art, Presa House Gallery, Equinox Gallery, UTRGV-Brownsville, the Weslaco Museum, and in the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center / Black Box Theater in Austin, TX. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of North Texas and is the regional editor for Texas Books in Review and poetry editor for The Journal of Latina Critical Feminism & for Voices de la Luna: A Quarterly Literature & Arts Magazine. Octavio teaches Literature and Creative Writing in the M.A./M.F.A. program at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas.

Angelina Sáenz

An award-winning educator and poet. She is a UCLA Writing Project fellow, an alumna of the VONA/Voices Workshop for Writers of Color and a Macondo Writer's Workshop Fellow. Her poetry has appeared in venues such as Diálogo, Split this Rock, Out of Anonymity, Angels Flight Literary West, Every Other, Cockpit Revue Paris and The Acentos Review. Her debut book of poetry Edgecliff was released in December of 2021 w/ FlowerSongPress. Maestra, is her second collection of poetry.

Marie Elena Cortés

Marie graduated from Houston Baptist University in 1996 and has teaching experience in Elementary and Middle School. Since, Cortes created her writing club in 2005, Kids Write to Know, she has presented to over 200,000 students, parents and educators at schools, libraries, churches, festivals, and conferences in over 45 cities in the USA, Mexico and Puerto Rico. Marie Elena’s powerful multimedia presentations include storytelling, poetry, art, mini-writing workshops, and readings of her books: “My Annoying Little Brother”, “My First Classroom” and NEGLECTED BY TWO COUNTRIES-winner of the International Latino Book Awards (2014) and Books into Movies Award (2015).

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

Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records baydenrecords.be

The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center's Latino Bookstore, as part of the Texas Author Series, welcomes Dr. Carmen Tafolla as she presents and reads from her latest book WARRIOR GIRL! Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante and Literary Curator for the GCAC's Latino Bookstore, hosts the Texas Author Series every second Friday of the month.

Carmen talks about the book, it’s representation, and how this novel is defying the books bans occurring now and reads several poems from the book. Her book, published through Penguin Random House, is available through various online stores but also at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center's Latino Bookstore and makes an excellent addition to your family library, public library, and underground library.

Carmen Tafolla is the 2015 State Poet Laureate of Texas and the former president of the Texas Institute of Letters. An award-winning poet and children’s author, storyteller, perfor­mance artist, motivational speaker, scholar, and university professor, she is the author of more than forty books and a profes­sor emeritus of Transformative Children’s Literature at @UTSA. Her numerous awards and distinctions include the pres­tigious Américas Award, the designation of first city Poet Laureate of San Antonio, six International Latino Book Awards, two Tomás Rivera Book Awards, two ALA Notable Books, the Art of Peace Award, and the Charlotte Zolotow Award.

WARRIOR GIRL (@penguinrandomhouse, 2023) chronicles Celina and her family who are bilingual and follow both Mexican and American traditions. Celina revels in her Mexican heritage, but once she starts school it feels like the world wants her to erase that part of her identity. Fortunately, she’s got an army of family and three fabulous new friends behind her to fight the ignorance. But it’s her Gramma who’s her biggest inspiration, encouraging Celina to build a shield of joy around herself . Because when you’re celebrating, when you find a reason to sing or dance or paint or play or laugh or write, they haven’t taken everything away from you. Of course, it’s not possible to stay in celebration mode when things get dire--like when her dad’s deported and a pandemic hits--but if there is anything Celina’s sure of, it’s that she’ll always live up to her last Guerrera--woman warrior--and that she will use her voice and writing talents to show the world it’s a more beautiful place because people like her are in it.

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. Tony 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.

* 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.

Thanks to
Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer
Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer

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 baydenrecords.beatstars.com

Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say and the Harris County Public Library invite you to join us for a book giveaway and discussion of Nuestra Palabra's 2024 Big Read selection, INFINITE COUNTRY by Patricia Engel. The first 50 attendees to register will receive a free copy of the book, courtesy of Nuestra Palabra through the Big Read grant.

Tony speaks w/ several guests about the Big Read and the importance of literary events like these!

Tony speaks with HCPL's Assistant Manager for Youth Services Anjela Martinez, Colombian anthropologist Dr. Esteban Acuña, & Victory Early College Student Andreina Dos Santos about the impact the book and books like it have.

Although the event is free and open to the public, limited seating is available. Please use the link below to register:

https://hcpl.bibliocommons.com/events/65b003ecf664ce3300228bc5

In addition to receiving a free copy of the book, guests will enjoy refreshments and an interactive panel discussion about the book, hosted by Tony Diaz, Founder of El Librotraficante and Director of Nuestra Palabra. Audience members will have the opportunity to participate and ask questions but should not feel pressured to have read the book ahead of time.

Please register on this page to be eligible for book giveaway. Feel free to bring guests to the event, but each guest that would like to receive a book should register separately, as we will hold one book per registration for the first 50.

Note: Must attend event in person to receive free book.

In Infinite Country, award-winning author Patricia Engel tells the powerful tale of a family divided. Set in Colombia and the United States and told through the shifting perspectives of each family member, Engel examines the beauty and cruelty of life in the diaspora, crafting “a breathtaking story of the unimaginable prices paid for a better life” (Esquire). With “meticulously rendered descriptions of Andean landscapes and mythology” (New York Times Book Review), Infinite Country is “at once a sweeping love story and tragic drama” (Elle), “forcefully examining what unites a family beyond the divisions borders and policies forge” (Los Angeles Review of Books). Through the intimacies of one family’s story, Engel “challenges us to consider that the United States has always been a place of borders” (Harvard Review of Books). “Told by a chorus of voices and perspectives, this is as much an all-American story as it is a global one” (Booklist).

NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.

Learn more about Nuestra Palabra: https://www.nuestrapalabra.orgegister

Anjela Martinez is the Youth Services Assistant Manager for Harris County Public Library. Anjela has worked for Harris County Public Library for thirteen years. She's passionate about providing library resources and programs to help children become life-long readers, learners, and library users. Anjela contributes her love for reading to her mother who introduced a young Anjela to a boy wizard named Harry. Besides reading, Anjela enjoys spending time with her family and friends, baking, traveling, and going on adventures with her dog Lobo. Anjela is currently reading Infinite Country by Patricia Engel and The Door of No Return by Kwame Alexander.

Dr. Esteban Acuña is a Colombian anthropologist who specializes in ethnicity, mobility and migration. He is currently a visiting scholar at SUNY at Plattsburgh, and before recently moving to Houston he also taught at Freiburg University, in Germany, and Bard College, in New York. His latest ethnographic work has used life stories and mobile methods to study migratory movements in the Americas.

Victory Early College Student Andreina Dos Santos is a student at Lone Star Community College and an active scholar.

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

Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records baydenrecords.bea

Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante and Political Analyst on What's Your Point on Fox 26 News, welcomes Harris County Commissioner Lesley Briones. Commissioner Briones shares her work in improving Precinct 4, an important gun buyback program taking place this November 18th, and her literacy advocacy, with her recent appearance at NP's & NEA's Big Read event in September as well as the Harris County Proclamation given to Nuestra Palabra and Tony Diaz for 25 years of cultivating community cultural capital.

Join us on NP Live at a special time this Wednesday, November 8th, at 9:00 AM CST as part of our multi stream broadcast. You can check out the show on Youtube, Facebook, or Twitter!

Harris County Commissioner Lesley Briones is a native Texan and proud Latina who grew up on the U.S.-Mexico border. She is the daughter of teachers, who taught her the importance of education, hard work, and serving others—values that have defined her and which she now brings to the office of County Commissioner for Precinct 4.

Upon graduating with honors from Harvard University, she began her career as an 8th and 10th-grade teacher at two of the lowest-income public schools in the country. She then attended Yale Law School, where she led the Latino Law Students’ Association's public service initiatives and provided pro-bono assistance to survivors of domestic abuse and juvenile offenders.

Commissioner Briones returned to Texas to practice law at Vinson & Elkins LLP, then served as General Counsel and Chief Operating Officer of the Laura & John Arnold Foundation, a major national philanthropic nonprofit. She next became the Judge of Harris County Civil Court at Law No. 4. Judge Briones was the highest-rated Harris County Civil Court at Law Judge in the 2019 Houston Bar Association (HBA) Judicial Evaluation Poll and won the 2020 HBA Judicial Preference Poll. Briones co-founded the statewide nonprofit Texas Latinx Judges and serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Houston Law Center.

She and her husband, Adán, live in Houston with their three daughters and worship at St. Ambrose Catholic Church.