Macondo Writers Workshop

The Macondo Writers Workshop is an annual master's level summer writers workshop held in San Antonio, Texas.[1] The workshop encourages, educates, and promotes new and published socially engaged authors and has been called "a gem of the local and national Latino literary scene."[2] Macondo is a program of the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center and has been closely associated with its founder Sandra Cisneros.[3]

History

Macondo Writers Workshop was founded in 1995 by Sandra Cisneros. A MacArthur fellow, Cisneros wanted a workshop for writers whose work was socially engaged and who addressed the needs of underrepresented communities via their writing.[4][5] The workshop, named after the sleepy town in Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, began in Cisneros's dining room and was later held at Trinity University and Esperanza Peace and Justice Center.[6] In 2011, Cisneros held a Macondo workshop in Oaxaca City, Mexico.[7]

Mission

Cisneros has described Macondo’s mission as supporting and uniting writers “who view their work and talents as part of a larger task of community-building and non-violent social change.”[8] The anthropologist and writer Ruth Behar has described participants as "Americans of the other America, moving between cultures, languages, classes, homelands, translating our experience for ourselves and others."[9]

For years, the workshop was made possible by the philanthropic support of Cisneros and the Alfredo Cisneros de Moral Foundation, though currently the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in San Antonio, Texas, administers and hosts the annual workshop.[10] From 2004 to 2008, ire'ne lara silva was the Executive Coordinator for the workshop.[11] The current director is Texas Poet Laureate Laurie Ann Guerrero.[12]

Writing Faculty

Noted past faculty members have included Ai, Dorothy Allison, Julia Alvarez, Andrei Codrescu, Joy Harjo, [13] Manuel Muñoz, Elena Poniatowska,[14] Luis J. Rodriguez and Helena María Viramontes.

Macondistas

The term "Macondistas" refers to authors and members of the writing community who are alumni of the Macondo Writers' Workshop.[15] Writers and poets who have attended include: Pat Alderete, Francisco Aragon, Richard Blanco,[16] Sarah A. Chavez, Wendy Call,[17] Denise Chavez, Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Carmen Giménez Smith, Jose B. Gonzalez, Reyna Grande, Laurie Ann Guerrero, Joe Jimenez, Amelia M.L. Montes, Kristin Naca, Lourdes Portillo, Renato Rosaldo, Raul Salinas, Gary Soto, Ito Romo, William Sanchez,[18] Carmen Tafolla, Carla Trujillo, and Baldemar Velasquez.

See also

External links

References

  1. Border Crossings and Beyond: The Life and Works of Sandra Cisneros by Carmen Haydée Rivera, Macmillan, 2009, page 90
  2. http://labloga.blogspot.com/2015/07/macondo-workshop-2015.html Jerry Ruiz on Macondo
  3. http://www.sandracisneros.com/bio.php
  4. "The Macondo Workshop: Latino Writers Come Home to San Antonio," by Vicente Lozano Poets & Writers March/April 2007
  5. http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/news_columnists/article/Losing-Sandra-Cisneros-Say-it-ain-t-so-2251554.php
  6. Border Crossings and Beyond: The Life and Works of Sandra Cisneros by Carmen Haydée Rivera, Macmillan, 2009, page 91
  7. http://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2012/january/poetry-liberty-macondo-writers-workshop-mexico
  8. https://www.texasobserver.org/sandra-cisneros-macando-workshop-goes-binational/
  9. Border Crossings and Beyond: The Life and Works of Sandra Cisneros by Carmen Haydée Rivera, Macmillan, 2009, page 90
  10. http://letraslatinasblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/natalia-trevino-on-re-birth-of-macondo.html
  11. "i come from women illiterate and rough-skinned" by Irene Lara Silva, Kweli Journal, December 2, 2009, http://www.kwelijournal.org/poetry/2014/6/1/i-come-from-women-illiterate-and-rough-skinned-by-irene-lara-silva
  12. http://www.pechakucha.org/users/laurie-ann-guerrero
  13. http://www.mystatesman.com/news/news/local/macondo-writers-workshop-nurtures-talent-looks-int/nm95S/
  14. https://www.texasobserver.org/sandra-cisneros-macando-workshop-goes-binational/
  15. http://www.guadalupeculturalarts.org/program-description/
  16. http://blog.mysanantonio.com/latinlife/2015/07/inaugural-poet-blanco-will-help-celebrate-macondo-workshops-20th/
  17. https://www.texasobserver.org/sandra-cisneros-macando-workshop-goes-binational/
  18. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bChnIaOKHfU Youtube interview with William Sanchez about Macondo
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