Food connects us to culture and the people who know best how to prepare it are the older generations. The pandemic has disrupted these notions on the Mexican/US border in regard to tamales and how they are prepared and consumed during the holidays. Here NPR gives us a slice of border life:
In Catalunya excavations have found what are believed to be 61 graves from the Spanish Civil War, some of them containing the remains of multiple people. They appear to be related to a Republican hospital that was used during the Batalla del Ebro in 1938. Here is the story.
The controversy surrounding Jeanine Cummins’s novel American Dirt is something that I tried to describe a year ago. Vulture recently updated the story with a lot of insider information from the publishing house that promoted the book. Lila Shapiro’s article does a great job detailing their missteps before the controversy and as it was unfolding. Will publishing houses become more open to Latino authors in the wake of this controversy? The article provides reasons for hope, but also shows the entrenched systems and market forces that are resistant to change. Extra note: Supposedly even bad press is good for sales and the fact that America Dirt sold so well seems to invite conversation around the subject. How many of those readers who purchased the book were aware of the controversy?
The controversy surrounding Jeanine Cummins’s novel American Dirt is something that I tried to describe a year ago. Vulture recently updated the story with a lot of insider information from the publishing house that promoted the book. Lila Shapiro’s article does a great job detailing their missteps before the controversy and as it was unfolding. Will publishing houses become more open to Latino authors in the wake of this controversy? The article provides reasons for hope, but also shows the entrenched systems and market forces that are resistant to change. Extra note: Supposedly even bad press is good for sales and the fact that America Dirt sold so well seems to invite conversation around the subject. How many of those readers who purchased the book were aware of the controversy?
