Meet Isabel Ibañez, The Voice of a New Generation of Latinx Authors
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Our Latinx community is full of talent. From musicians to writers, and everything in between, Latinx are creative minds that continue thriving in their spaces while opening paths to their audiences to do the same.

It is a fruitful cycle that will only continue to ignite our upcoming talents — and in this case, we see it exemplified through the experience of Florida-born and Bolivian author Isabel Ibañez.

Ibañez made her debut in the publishing world last year, with her book Woven in Moonlight, which TIME categorized 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time, praising “every detail is rich with meaning and nuance.”

The wave of praise she received for her second book, Written in Starlight, which just came out this month, is much more than anticipated. As a result, we had

(Photo courtesy of Isabel Ibañez)

to dig into Ibañez’s mind to see what and how this author embraces in her Latinx roots, what inspirations she gives to upcoming authors, and of course, how she is staying creative during this pandemic.

Here’s what she had to say!

Tell us about yourself and how your Bolivian roots inspired you both as a writer and in your newest work, Written in Starlight.

Both my books draw from my personal experience of growing up in Bolivia, where most of my family lives. To me, Bolivia is a vibrant and colorful place, with delicious food and incredible art, deeply rooted in artisanal crafting and weaving. Writing about a place I love so much felt natural to me — because my upbringing really shaped me to embrace all aspects of my heritage.

This story is particularly special to me, as it’s primarily inspired by my father and where he was born and raised — the Bolivian Amazon. This book is filled with the foods he ate, what his home looked like, even the bamboo stalks he slept on. It has the river that runs like veins through his pueblo, and where he traveled by canoe.

Written In Starlight also features a lost city — Paititi — that was once thought to be in Bolivia. I’ve always been fascinated by this legend, and I think the last known explorer to go searching for it went into the Bolivian Amazon in 1997, and he never came back out. I don’t know if this city will ever be found and where, but it felt like the perfect home for the Illari, who were largely inspired by Andean peoples in the Bolivian region who were conquered and displaced by the Incas.

Read the full article at Be Latina.

‘We Are Not The Footnote’: In Photos, Reynaldo Rivera Evokes L.A.’s Queer Latino Bohemia
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Reynaldo Rivera didn’t pick up a camera with the intention of making art. The Yashica he retrieved from a pile of his father’s things was a way of bringing order to a peripatetic life that had him bouncing between the care of his mother, his grandmother and his father, between Mexicali and Los Angeles, between Stockton and San Diego de la Unión, a small, agricultural outpost in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato.

“I did it out of this need to have something stable in my life,” he says. “Photography makes time stand still. And for someone who has had a crazy life, hectic and moving (I left home when I was very young), it gave me some kind of normalcy. … It allowed me to freeze time in moments that were special to me, and I was able to relive them over and over.”

Those frozen moments are the slivers of Los Angeles of the 1980s and ‘90s, pieces of city that no longer exist or have been rendered unrecognizable.

For Rivera’s L.A. was a city of $300 apartments and low-budget art happenings. It was a singer roaring into a mic at a house party. It was a turbaned performer swaddled in feathers, staring imperiously at the camera.

These intersecting worlds all materialize in the artist’s beguiling new photographic monograph, “Reynaldo Rivera: Provisional Notes for a Disappeared City,” published by Semiotext(e) last month. Its images also make an appearance in the Hammer Museum’s biennial, “Made in L.A. 2020: a version,” which has yet to open due to the pandemic. (Rivera’s photos, along with a video piece, are featured in the biennial’s parallel shows installed at the Hammer and at the Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens.)

The book gathers 190 images from Rivera’s early career, a time when he was avidly recording his milieu for no purpose other than his own. Rivera photographed artists, writers and curators hamming it up at apartment parties, post-punk bands rocking club stages and Latino drag queens and trans performers in shining gowns putting on resplendent floor shows in old-school Silver Lake bars. It’s a milieu that, like Los Angeles, is largely Latino — straddling both sides of a border along with its in-between states.

Rivera, whose career has been as peripatetic as his life, has shown his work infrequently. But as L.A. has evolved and the neighborhoods he once frequented have been gentrified — and the Latino presence in those neighborhoods has been overwritten — he says he felt an urgency to publish a record of the city as it once was.

“To find things about Latinos, you have to read other people’s footnotes,” he says. “I wanted a book about us in L.A. where we are not the footnote.”

Read the original article at Los Angeles Times.
Guillaume Kientz Named Director at Hispanic Society
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The former curator at the Louvre in Paris will take on the task of reinvigorating the struggling museum, which has been closed for renovations since 2017.

Guillaume Kientz, a Velázquez and El Greco expert and former curator at the Louvre in Paris, has been named director and chief executive of the Hispanic Society Museum & Library in New York, which boasts one of the world’s greatest collections of Spanish art and literature but has faced financial struggles and has been closed

(Image credit – Robert LaPrelle/The New York Times)

since 2017 for renovations.

“The Hispanic Society Museum & Library is on the cusp of transformation physically and intellectually,” Mr. Kientz said in an interview on Wednesday. “And now is the perfect time to rethink and rebuild the museum.”

Mr. Kientz succeeds Mitchell Codding, who retired on Sept. 30 after directing the organization for 25 years. Margaret Connors McQuade, the society’s assistant director and curator of decorative arts, had been serving as acting director.

The museum and reference library, which was founded in 1904 by the philanthropist Archer M. Huntington, has long struggled to raise its profile and better connect with its mainly Latino neighborhood in Washington Heights. Though the collection of roughly 750,000 paintings, manuscripts and other objects primarily celebrates art from Spain and Portugal and includes work by El Greco, Velázquez and Goya, the name suggests a connection to Latin America.

Read the full article at The New York Times.

The Best Gifts From Latinx-Owned Brands To Give This Holiday Season
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Are you still supporting diverse businesses this holiday season? Here are some gift ideas from Latinx-owned brands.

You might be hoping 2020 and all of its problems will disappear come the new year, and you wouldn’t be alone. While some things are starting to look up (we see you, coronavirus vaccine), we still have a lot of work to do for a more equitable society.

Supporting marginalized communities and voices of color shouldn’t be a one-time thing. It’s important to continue educating ourselves and others through reading books about anti-racism and activism, donating to organizations that support BIPOC, women and queer folks, and by supporting Latinx-owned businesses.

This holiday season, continue supporting Latinx-owned businesses and brands while checking off a few gifts from your holiday shopping list. After all, where you choose to

(Image credit – society6)

spend your money can make a powerful statement, and perhaps you’ll inspire the person who gets your gift to do the same.

For inspo, there are plenty of Latinx-owned jewelry brands on Etsy if you’re looking to give the gift of glamour. We’ve also found prints and paintings by Latinx artists and books by Latinx authors that are perfect for the creatives in your life.

Visit HuffPost to see the 15 best gift ideas from Latinx-Owned Brands.
The Man Behind America’s New Spacesuit: Jose Fernandez
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Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken giving a thumbs up in Fernandez' new space suits before boarding

Recently, and for a while now, new dad of the entertainingly-named little boy, X Æ A-12 Musk, and footloose Twitter aficionado Elon Musk is having one of what he hopes will be a long future of space moments.

It’s no small accomplishment to get the nod from NASA bigs that you can carry the most precious asset, their astronauts, up to the big game on the International Space Station, and kudos to Daddy Musk, and to NASA, for that.

But, talk about a cool flight suit: Musk and his deeply pedigreed Hollywood costume designer Jose Fernandez took a couple of years to design the new NASA super-skinny pressure suits. The spacesuits certainly look snazzy, with their close-to-the-body cut, their elegant dark silver (fireproof!) piping over the white Teflon fabric, their highly articulate gloves and neck, and the black knee-high boots that seem to quote the Duke of Wellington’s own below-the-knee cavalry boots, albeit ready for the wear and tear of outer space rather than that of Napoleon’s cannon at Waterloo.

Mr. Fernandez is no stranger to durable, tight-fitting clothes for heroes, having worked on costumes for Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, Tron, Ironman 2, The Amazing Spiderman, and Captain America: Civil War, to name just a few of his impressive credits. He was first approached by SpaceX in 2016 to participate in a design competition and freely recounts that he didn’t, at first, understand that it was for a real space effort, not a movie production about a space effort, to which he would be submitting his work. “I didn’t know what SpaceX was, and I thought it was a film,” the modest Fernandez says.

Not so the light, ovoid, and very open-to-the-cosmos Fernandez helmet. Fernandez has not simply given his astronauts a better, less obstructed field of vision. The helmet tops a flexible and, for a spacesuit, very extended and articulate neck piece, best seen above on astronaut Doug Hurley, left, as he boards the Tesla on May 27 en route to the spacecraft before the first launch was scrubbed. In fact, some of the old NASA helmets would wholly prevent the astronaut from even contemplating getting his head low enough to get into a car as astronaut Hurley is doing. We’ll get to see Hurley and his partner Bob Behnken do it again on Saturday, and again with the excellent product placement of the Musk-enterprise-friendly Tesla as the new and very cushy official NASA launch-tender ride.

With the visor up, the Fernandez helmet resembles that of a Parisian pompeur , a fireman’s helmet, jaunty and protective at once. Visor down, the sleek ovoid quotes some of Kier Dullea’s very, very cool space headgear that Stanley Kubrick had commissioned for his masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey. In addition, close viewers of the Grammys and all fans of disco/electronic/dance/trance will notice a strong connection in the NASA helmet to the helmets sported by the ultra-shy French pop duo Daft Punk.

This is no accident: It should be noted that Daft Punk has in fact commissioned the brilliant Fernandez for several pieces of their trademark weird-oh disco-robot headgear. But as a deeply schooled “extreme couture” tailor to all sorts of cinematic superheros and heroines embroiled in narratives whose origins stretch back to the early 20th century, Mr. Fernandez would be well aware of Kubrick’s earlier camera-friendly helmet innovations.

Continue on to Forbes to read the complete article

Photo: Getty Images

Latinas on the Rise
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From the arts to activism, here are five Latina Woman that are making strides, breaking boundaries and that you should be paying attention to.

Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez

Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez is an American labor organizer and author. On August 12, 2019, Ramirez announced her intention to challenge incumbent United States Senator John Cornyn in the 2020 United States Senate election in Texas. Tzintzún began organizing with Latino immigrant workers in 2000 in Columbus, Ohio, and then moved to Texas. At graduating from University of Texas, Austin, she helped establish the Workers Defense Project (WDP), serving as its executive director from 2006 to 2016. Following the 2016 election, Ramirez launched Jolt, an organization that works to increase Latino voter turnout. Her bid for the Senate has been endorsed by New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Texas representative Joaquin Castro, and actor Alec Baldwin.

Mariah

A rising star in the male-dominated world of urbano (Ozuna, J Balvin, Bad Bunny), Mariah Angeliq, who goes simply by her first name, is here to prove that the girls can be bosses, too. On debut single “Blah,” the Miami-born and raised singer of Puerto Rican and Cuban descent lets the men know that their money (and their bragging) don’t impress her much, while her latest track “Perreito” is dripping with swag as she boasts about stealing the show with her flow as the one that shoots and never fails.

Lineisy Montero Feliz

Lineisy Montero Feliz is Dominican model known for her work with Prada. She is also known for her natural Afro hair. She currently ranks as one of the “Top 50” models in the fashion industry by models.com, including Balenciaga, Marc Jacobs, Oscar de la Renta, Roberto Cavalli, Versace and Céline.

Rico Nasty

Rico Nasty is one of the leading voices in the current style of hip-hop that adopts elements from hardcore and punk rock. Rico released a new song in January titled “IDGAF;” it’s built around softly echoing electric piano sounds and finds the DMV rapper in melodious sing-song mode.

Selena Gomez

The singer announced the summer launch of her cosmetics company, Rare Beauty, via Instagram on Feb. 4. The cosmetics company shares a title with her most recent album of the same name.

“Guys, I’ve been working on this special project for two years and can officially say Rare Beauty is launching in @sephora stores in North America this summer,” she captioned in the Instagram video.

“I think Rare Beauty can be more than a beauty brand,” the singer says in the video. “I want us all to stop comparing ourselves to each other and start embracing our own uniqueness. You’re not defined by a photo, a like, or a comment. Rare Beauty isn’t about how other people see you. It’s about how you see yourself.”

Selena Gomez Photo: TIBRINA HOBSON/GETTY IMAGES

Adelfa Callejo sculpture, Dallas’ first of a Latina, expected to land downtown in Main Street Garden park
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bronze statue of Adelfa Callejo

The bronze statue of Adelfa Callejo, a staunch civil rights advocate believed to be the first practicing Latina lawyer in Dallas, will soon land in a downtown park — right next to the University of North Texas Dallas College of Law and the municipal court building.

A Dallas City Council committee on Tuesday accepted the $100,000 sculpture as a donation with plans to place it in Main Street Garden. It would be Dallas’ first sculpture of a Latina, according to city staffers.

Dallas city officials and the Botello-Callejo Foundation Board agreed to the new location after Mayor Pro Tem Adam Medrano quietly delayed the plan to place it in the lobby of the Dallas Love Field Airport, which is in his district. Medrano didn’t respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

The Dallas City Council is expected to approve the donation at its Feb. 12 meeting. The board wanted to tie the sculpture’s public unveiling to the six-year anniversary of Callejo’s death, which was in January 2014, after a battle with brain cancer.

The foundation’s board commissioned the roughly 1,000-pound piece by Mexican artist Germán Michel shortly after she died. It is currently being stored in a Dallas warehouse.

Callejo’s nephew J.D. Gonzales said he was thrilled the sculpture will be downtown near the university, where it’ll be visible to students and attest to her trailblazing in education and law.

“I hope that what Adelfa stood for, and what she did and what she accomplished lives on forever,” Gonzales said.

Monica Lira Bravo, chairwoman of the Botello-Callejo Foundation Board, said she met with Medrano and Council member Omar Narvaez last month to discuss where to place the sculpture.

Lira Bravo said she suggested Main Street Garden Park as an alternative after the two council members expressed concerns over the Dallas Love Field Airport option.

Continue on to the Dallas Morning News to read the complete article.

Calling Native American Student Artists! American Indian College Fund, Pendleton Host Design Contest
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Pendleton Design Contest Promo Poster

Pendleton Woolen Mills, the acclaimed lifestyle brand headquartered in Portland, Oregon, creates dazzling blankets as part of Pendleton’s American Indian College Fund collection, of which a portion of the proceeds provides scholarships for Native American students.

To give voice to rising Native artists while honoring the richness of Native arts and cultures, the American Indian College Fund and Pendleton are announcing the Tribal College Blanket Design Contest. Open to tribal college students, the contest challenges students to express their culture and identity through original artistic designs to be incorporated into the next tribal college student designed blanket to be featured and sold in the blanket collection to give back to the Native community by helping to support American Indian College Fund scholarships.

Contest participants must be currently enrolled in one of the 35 American Indian Higher Education Consortium tribal colleges and universities (TCUs). Textile design experience is not necessary to enter. Only current TCU students are eligible to participate. Students cannot submit more than two designs. All submissions must be received by 11:59pm MST on February 15, 2020.

A committee comprised of Native American artists and College Fund and Pendleton staff will select the winning blanket designs. Prizes include the following:

  • Grand Prize winners: $2,000 cash, a $5,000 scholarship, and six of the winning blankets.
  • Second Place winners: $500 cash and a $2,500 scholarship.
  • Third Place winners: $250 cash and a $1,500 scholarship.

For submission guidelines and applications, please visit the American Indian College Fund’s web site at https://collegefund.org/pendletoncontest.

About the American Indian College Fund—Founded in 1989, the American Indian College Fund has been the nation’s largest charity supporting Native higher education for 30 years. The College Fund believes “Education is the answer” and provided $7.72 million in scholarships to 3,900 American Indian students in 2018-19, with nearly 137,000 scholarships and community support totaling over $208 million since its inception. The College Fund also supports a variety of academic and support programs at the nation’s 35 accredited tribal colleges and universities, which are located on or near Indian reservations, ensuring students have the tools to graduate and succeed in their careers. The College Fund consistently receives top ratings from independent charity evaluators and is one of the nation’s top 100 charities named to the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance. For more information about the American Indian College Fund, please visit collegefund.org.

Enter the San Diego Latino Film Festival International Poster Competition today!
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San Diego Latino Film Festival Poster Design Contest

The San Diego Latino Film Festival (SDLFF) invites *design professionals, artists, and students* from all over the world to produce a commemorative poster design that will represent the history and legacy of the SDLFF.

SDLFF was born out of a desire to take a stand against the status-quo of cinema, to challenge the reigning and ever-present stereotypes about the Latino experience in movies, and to give Latino filmmakers the power of telling and sharing their stories, first-hand, about what it means to be Latino.

We invite you and all other visionary designers to be a part of our history by submitting your project to consideration. The commemorative poster design shall celebrate our core values and our passion for the Latino culture.

Your design will receive national and international exposure, including but not limited to: the cover of the Official SDLFF 2020 Program book, print ads, TV commercials, social media posts, ads, and web banners. Better yet, the winning artwork will receive a prize of $1,000.00 dollars!

Continue here for the submission details and guidelines.

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