Titles and Authors

Waiting To Happen by Alejandro Morales

Alejandro Morales has once again broken new ground with another tour de force, consequently expanding the Chicano novelistic space. Blending various narrative modalities (part detective novel, part prophesy and future shock, part historical chronicle, part fictional biography, part reportage, part myth, and part novel of metempsychosis), he offers a double view of Mexico and the U.S. from their past and their future. He shows how these two cultures merge, clash, and reconcile, or at least learn to deal with their differences. In the process a persistent past reappears through a modern "ilusa," J. I. Cruz, protected by the cyclops Endriago, who we gradually and surprisingly come to realize possesses qualities and traits of the famous poetic muse of the seventeenth century, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. At this point the novel takes on new layers of meaning and intertextuality.

This is a complex work of plotlines characterized by oscillations and changes in opposite directions. Reading this provocative work is at times equivalent to crossing a two-way street where seductive characters and dangerous situations criss-cross in unexpected ways. Waiting to Happen intimates a perplexing, apocalyptic future while shuffling characters of historical resonance with fictional and mythic elements, which adds to the virtuosity of the narrator's views of a new world order.

Soft Cover, 247 pages, ISBN 1-891823-00-0, Price $15.95

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alejandro Morales was born in Monte Bello, California. He received an AA degree from East Los Angeles College, a BA degree from California State University, Los Angeles, and an MA and doctoral degree in Spanish from Rutgers University. He is now a professor in the Chicano/Latino Studies Program in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of California, Irvine. The author resides in Santa Ana, California, and is currently writing his next book.

Cantos by Alfred Arteaga

Cantos works as a kaleidoscope, in which reflections of the past mirror the changing patterns of the present and the future, forming a time capsule that explodes in the vivid images. The poet speaks in tongues and is moved by a telluric voice that keeps naming and reclaiming this continent, its people, and its collective memory. The history of the Americas is invoked, conjured, and ultimately exorcised by the poet, who like Diego Rivera, paints through words a poetic mural of his world. Arteaga kicks up a new scene with ocean memory music and dream-colored hands.

Soft Cover, 51 pages, ISBN: 0-9624536-2-5 price $7.95

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alfred was born in East Los Angeles, raised in Whittier, California. He worked as an editor for the "La Raza," the Partido Raza Unida's journal from Los Angeles, and for the "Quarry West," Raymond Carver's literary journal from Santa Curz, California. He earned a Master of Fine Arts from Columbia University and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Currently he is a professor in the Ethnic Studies Department at the University of California, Berkeley.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Art Rodriguez currently lives in San José, California.

Soldados: Chicanos in Viet Nam by Charley Trujillo

Soldados is a collection of 19 narratives by veterans from Trujillo's hometown of Corcoran, California. Unlike many books of war, Soldados not only covers the heroism and terror of war, but the underside of war; soldier strikes, assassination of officers, and, as José Montoya explains so well in his poem El Louie, "Heroism and The Stockade." Veterans and non-veterans alike will be moved by the honest and poignant accounts of what it was like to be young and Chicano in Viet Nam.

Soft Cover, 186 pages, ISBN 1-9624536-0-9, Price $14.95

Soldados: Chicanos in Viet Nam the Documentary
by Charley Trujillo and Sonya Rhee

Soldados: Chicanos in Viet Nam, the documentary is based upon the award winning book (American Book Award, 1991) of the same name. It explores the experiences of 5 Chicano soldiers in the Vietnam War. Transported from the cotton fields of Corcoran, California to the rice paddies of Viet Nam, veterans faced the most dangerous situation of their lives. For most of them, it was their first trip outside of their hometown and the first time without their families. Soldados will tell the tale of this journey: of young men leaving their families to experience the most horrifying aspects of war to their return home with the equally horrifying realization of how profoundly different the journey has made them. Soldados contains interviews with the principals as well as family members including parents, wives, brothers, sisters, and children.

Soldados will serve as an important educational tool in the same vein as the book. Nationally, 38 colleges and universities have used Soldados as a textbook. The book has also been successful in the popular literature market.

DVD, 28 minutes, color, ISBN 0-935047-47-6, Price $15.95 (Institution $174.95)
VHS, 28 minutes, color, ISBN 1-891823-07-8, Price $14.95 (Institution $174.95)
Poster, color, 22"x28", Price $10.00
CD, Soundtrack, Price $10.00

Soldados: Chicanos in Viet Nam the Soundtrack

Soldados: Chicanos in Viet Nam sound track. This collection of original music was created especially for the documentary of the same name. The music varies from a traditional Norteno Corrido to Rhythm and Blues, Vietnamese folk music, and a folk ballad. Jerry Sauceda wrote and arranged the music.

The Soldados documentary first premiered on a national broadcast on PBS as part of the acclaimed POV documentary series directed and produced by Sonya Rhee and Charley Trujillo.

CD, Soundtrack, Price $10.00

Dogs From Illusion by Charley Trujillo

Dogs From illusion is the raw and savage first novel by Charley Trujillo. Dogs traces the nightmare trek of three Chicano soldiers in Viet Nam with a humor and gritty realism found and no other Vietnamese war story. It contains Trujillo's personal mixture of "English and Spanish." Not since Mariano Azuela's Los De Abajo has the Mexican/Chicano war experience been so vividly recounted.

Soft Cover, 199 pages, ISBN 1-8918236-0-X, Price $11.95

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Charley Trujillo is a native of Corcoran, a small agricultural community of the San Joaquin Valley of California. He served in Viet Nam as an infantry sergeant and was awarded the Purple Heart and a Bronze Star Medal. After his discharge he continued his education and received a BA from UC Berkeley and an MA from San José State University. He is the award-winning author of Soldados: Chicanos in Viet Nam and Dogs From Illusion.

Charley is also an authority on the Viet Nam War and former college instructor in Ethnic Studies, Chicano Studies and the Viet Nam War. He currently lives in San José, California

Peacetime: Spirit of the Eagle by Elena Rodriguez

Peacetime: Spirit of the Eagle is the first novel by Elena Rodriguez. Peacetime, a rite of passage book, focuses on Eliza Medrano, who joins the army because it is her way out of the working class and her sheltered life. Along the path to inner peace, she encounters a cast of confused characters in basic training. With sergeants yelling, together they go through PT (physical training), M-16 rifle training classes, the tear gas chamber, and other grueling experiences. At the end of their training they all have a better understanding of each other and their individual personas.

Soft Cover, 231 pages, ISBN: 0-9624536-9-2, Price $12.95

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Elena Rodriquez was born in Las Puentas, Chihuahua, and was raised in Sunland, New Mexico. Just out of high school, Elena joined the U.S. Army at the age of eighteen. When discharged, she continued her education at the University of Texas at El Paso, where she was the first in her family to graduate from college. She received a BA in Journalism and an MA in Theater. Elena currently makes her home in San Antonio, Texas.

Superwoman Chicana by Gloria L Velásquez

Superwoman Chicana includes poetry and music. Gloria work deals with questions of gender, sexuality, traditional family roles, and social justice for both Chicanos and Chicanas. Her music includes both original Gloria L Velasquez is the author of I Used to be a Superwoman, and the Roosevelt High series which to date, includes five novels, popular ballads, and she has an upcoming book of poetry Xicana on the Run to be published by Chusma House Publications.

CD, Price $11.95

Xicana on the Run (bilingual) by Gloria L. Velásquez

Considered an early pioneer of contemporary Xicana literature, Gloria Velásquez began writing and publishing her poetry during the Xicano civil rights struggle of the 1960s and 70s. Velásquez is the author of the widely acclaimed book of poetry, I Used to Be a Superwoman, and the popular Roosevelt High School Series. In Xicana on the Run, Velásquez reconstructs a Chicana consciousness that addresses issues of politics, love, war, solitude, poverty and feminism. Velásquez's poetry reveals a variety of political perspectives and themes that are both universal and personal. In paying homage to her humble barrio roots, Velasquez includes vintage photographs from her childhood, which illustrate her desire to further immortalize her parents, Juan and Francisca, and her only brother, Fini, who was killed in Vietnam. A foremost Chicana Chingona literary activist, Velásquez succeeds in empowering La Raza, young adults, women, and many other diverse ethnic groups in this powerful and compelling collection of poetry.

Soft Cover, 112 pages, ISBN 1-891823-09-4, Price $11.95

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gloria Velásquez is a Professor in the Modern Languages and Literatures Department at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California. Velásquez is currently touring throughout the United States performing songs and poetry from her Superwoman Chicana CD as well as mentoring youth with her Roosevelt High Series of young adult books.

Laura's Secret by Irma Garcia

Laura's Secret introduces a powerful and fascinating story. It will take you through the lives of teenagers and the modern-day problems they face. The life plans of the protagonist, Laura, are shattered when she finds out she is pregnant. The novel takes us through an emotional journey that many teenagers face and the complications that arise.

Soft Cover, 198 pages, ISBN: 0-9624536-8-4, Price $11.95

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Irma Garcia received her BA in Speech Pathology and an MA in Speech Communication from the University of Texas Pan American. She is currently an instructor at South Texas Community College. Her deep concern for teens motivated her creative interest in writing.

Undocumented Love/Amor Indocumentado by José Antonio Burciaga

This personal anthology of poetry dating back to 1974 is a collection of verses, poetic letters, emotions, and what some have called anti-poetry. This is a type of poetry that has more impact with the community than with the academics, with activist rather than art purist. This poetry collection no es una agua en un pajar, but a jewel cast in the most tastefully ironic, lingustic sarape. It is a profound adventure into the heart of the brotherhood of human spontaneity in acts of love.
Soft Cover, 174 pages, ISBN: 0-9624536-3-3, price $12.00

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
José Antonio was a true friend of Chusma House. His absence is deeply felt by all of us who loved and admired him. Here José Antonio speaks in his own voice. "The art that I produce is a reflection of the sentiments I capture from what floats in the winds of these times. The painting, the poem, the sculpture is nothing more than the product of a creative process-like making love to life. And that creation, that work of art, documents the cry, the laugh, the love, so that we can relive the process, the sentiment, that inspiration, that floated invisibly through the artist's mind." José Antonio was born in El Paso, Texas.

In Formation: Twenty Years of Joda by José Montoya

This collection of poems by the seminal poet José Montoya, one of the founders of the Chicano Renaissance of the late 1960's, is an historic chronicle of the poet's work from the beginning of his writing to the 1990's. Included is his classic contribution to the Chicano legacy, the poem "El Louie," the timeless narrative of Louie Rodriquez, the embodiment of the Pachuco, who rebelled against the social norms of the 1940's and 1950's. The images contained in his poems and artworks are remarkable. Montoya's In Formation displays his astonishing talent.

Soft Cover, 252 pages, ISBN 0-9624536-1-7, Price $24.95

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born by the Monzano Mountains in Escoboza, New Mexico, Montoya was raised there, in Albuquerque, and in California. He is a multi-disciplinary artist: poet, painter, writer, and musician. Montoya is a founding member of the Rebel Chicano Art Front, better known as the Royal Chicano Air Force, a group of artists and poets in Sacramento, California. A pioneer in Chicano literature and the use of caló, José is also a retired professor of art from California State University, Sacramento. He is currently working on his next book, How I Came to America, a collection of poetry, short stories, and memoirs to be published by Chusma House. José also performs with the musical group Casi Indio.

Powerful Whispers Breaking Barriers
by Peer Resource Group at McAteer High School

Information about this book will be available soon. Please check back.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Information about the authors of this book will be available soon. Please check back.

Soft Cover, 112 pages, ISBN 1-891823-06-X, Price $11.95

The Mud People: Testimonios, Chronicles and Remebrances
by Patrisia Gonzales

The Mud People serves as a book of consejos from Mexican elders of social change. Written in the literary journalism genre, the Mud People transmits a waking dream of the author's healing from violence and historical trauma.

Gonzales explores social and spiritual change through the eyes of Mexican organic leaders and popular and anonymous heroes who are the salt of the earth of Mexico's human rights movement. Their testimonies and chronicles are interwoven with the healing story and dreamscapes of Gonzales as an indigenous woman reclaiming her soul from violence. The series of essays evolve in a non-linear fashion as they chronicle and witness the history of eight social movements, from the 1930's to 1993, shortly prior the Zapatista uprising. The essays include the indigenous march of "the Ant" in 1991, survivors of the 1968 massacre at Tlatelolco, the mothers of the disappeared, the masked wrestler of social change Superbarrio and Benita Galeana and "the little grandmothers" of the urban land movement. The Mud People stirs the memory of social and spiritual change as the reader is transported across decades of struggle for land, the earth, dignity and a sense of self.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Patrisia Gonzales descends from sheep herders, miners, migrant workers, curanderos, parteras, yerberas, janitors, bookkeepers, and people who do good work with their hands. She is Kikapua-Comanche-Mexican Indian. She co-authors the nationally syndicated Column of the Americas with her husband, Roberto Rodriguez. She also co-authored the book Gonzales/Rodriguez: Uncut & Uncensored. She is a former Kellogg Fellow and recipient of the Albuquerque Human Rights Award and an inductee in El Paso's Writers of the Passe. She has taught journalism as a Freedom Forum Professional in Residence at the University of New Mexico and has been a visiting scholar/lecturer at the University of Utah, University of California, San Diego. It was through her fellowship at the Center for International Journalism, University of Southern California, that she first conceived of the Mud People.

Soft Cover, 309 pages, ISBN 1-891823-05-1, Price $19.95

How to Meet the Devil and Other Stories by Ramon Sanchez

Ramon Sanchez's short stories explore man's alienation and inner darkness as it paradoxically reveals the fraternity of mankind. The stories present the existential crisis of people struggling to become human. Battered and tossed about by forces, the characters do not fully understand or misunderstand. They find themselves pitted against a universe that seems insane, ludicrous, and uncanny.

Soft Cover, 126 pages, ISBN: 0-9624536-6-8, price $11.95

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ramon Sanchez grew up in the Second Ward of El Paso, Texas. He worked the onion fields, was a janitor, and was a draftsman. He studied at the University of Texas at El Paso, Bowling Green University, and the University of New Mexico. He is currently a professor at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California.

Provocaciones; Letters from the Prettiest Girl in Arvin
by Rafaela G. Castro

A collection of sensitive essays that depict the lives of a close knit Mexican family living first in Arvin, in the San Joaquin Valley, and later in the San Francisco Bay Area. These insightful, loving, guilt ridden, and at times very sad narratives, reveal the religious, moral, cultural, and ethical values of a young girl raised in the 1950s and 1960s in a Mexican Catholic working class home. We are told stories about a special Mexican mother-daughter relationship; about loving one’s family but needing to leave it; about living in another country and loving it; and about the role of the Peace Corps in the lives of young Americans of the 1960s. The essays cover the years from the late 1930s, when the author’s parents married and came to California from New Mexico, to the 1990s when their lives ended. In between those years their special marriage experienced intense love and intense tragedy.

Soft Cover, 162 pages, ISBN 1-891823-10-8, Price $13.95

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rafaela G. Castro was born in Bakersfield, California, but has lived most of her life in the San Francisco Bay Area. She spent two years in Brazil with the Peace Corps before receiving degrees in English Literature, Library Science, and Folklore from the University of California, Berkeley. She has lectured in Ethnic Bibliography and Chicano Studies at UC Berkeley, and recently retired from the Humanities/Social Sciences department of Shields Library at the University of California, Davis. She is the author of Dictionary of Chicano Folklore.

Little Sister Left Behind by Samantha Lê

In this, her first novel, Samantha Lê composes a stunning requiem of childhood, loss, and transformation with the aid of memory and heart. The novel transports us to Viet Nam in 1974 where a family’s strong bonds are weakened by radical social change. We follow our heroine's father, mother, and sisters as they overcome peeping-toms, near drownings, and marital infidelities. We are with them on their trip to Bangkok, San Francisco, and finally to San Jose, California, where old familial bonds give way to the frustrations written into our “American Dream”…frustrations with which all immigrants are familiar. The story culminates in the life-and-death struggle between Father’s unrealized aspirations and our heroine’s fated attempt to free herself from the bonds of tradition and circumstance.

Little Sister Left Behind is a tender, unapologetic look at the Vietnamese experience over the last thirty years—both in Vietnam and in America. The troubled relationship between our heroine and her family ultimately reveals the universal human tenderness and cruelty that places in high relief the ties that bond us with one another.

Soft Cover, 222 pages, ISBN 1-891823-11-6, Price $14.95

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born in Vietnam, Samantha Lê immigrated to the United States in 1983. She received her writing training and education from California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, and San Jose State University. The recipient of several James D. Phelan Literary Awards and the National League of American Pen Women Poetry Award, Lê is also the editor of Holding Up the Sky, a collection of non-fiction stories, and Powerful Whispers Breaking Barriers, a collection of poetry, fiction, and essays, as well as an owner of a successful design agency. Currently working on a collection of poetry, titled Meet Me Between the Lions in Luxembourg, Lê resides in San Jose, California.

Lê's publications include: “Good Intentions Are for Fools,” Paper Street Press; “A Moment to Remember,” Pen Pushers Publications; “Running Backwards,” JMW Publishings; My Solitude, a collection of spoken poetry and original music on CD, Chusma House Publications; Corridors, a collection of poetry and short stories, Chusma House Publications; and Little Sister Left Behind, Chusma House Publications.

Corridors by Samantha Lê

Corridors is a collection of visually refreshing and literary accomplished poems and short stories. Samantha Le, in her debut effort, exhibits a vibrant confidence, alluding to a poetic preoccupation of the first order. The poems are self-referential but compassionate, objective but personal. The prose reminiscent of Paz's "Agulia y Sol," Dario's "Azul," and Rimbaund's "Illuminations" as a tendency to expose the poetic and mystical side of inter-subjective human experiences. Le's poetry exhibits insight, wonder, and imagination. Le seldom appears; but when she does, she does so in a tender, poetic voice.

Soft Cover, 102 pages, ISBN: 1-897823-03-5, Price $11.95

My Solitude by Samantha Lê

My Solitude by Samantha Lê is a collection of poetry accompanied by jazz music. Her mellifluous voice is enhanced by the music that varies from sultry to melancholy to visceral contemplation. Samantha Lê is the author of a collection of poetry Corridors. She is currently working on a novel Damaged that will be published by Chusma House Publications.

CD, 10 tracks, poetry accompanied by jazz music, Price $10.00

Caring For a House by Victor Martinez

This collection of poems by Victor Martinez, many of which were previously printed in prestigious journals across the nation, are trenchant compendiums of the situations that affect everyone's life, thereby making us all the same, but invite disparate responses, which make every life unique.

The moments we spend in reading this collection are made meaningful by the insights we gain to the human condition, often from subject so ordinary it takes someone extraordinarily talented, like Martinez, to show how much a person can learn about life without ever leaving home. These poems are to be memorized, to become a part of one's being.

Soft Cover, 65 pages, ISBN: 0-9624536-4-1, Price $10.00

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Victor is a native of Fresno, California. He is a National Book Award winner for his novel A Parrot in the Oven. He currently lives in San Francisco, California.

new releases | about us | titles & authors | events | to order | links | contact us | documentary | contest