T. C. BOYLE: A Piece of FICTION
by BUREAU Editor Joshua TRILIEGI for BUREAU of ARTS and CULTURE Magazine
There are fewer more solitary career paths than that of the painter, the musical composer or the fictional writer. Seldom do we see a collaborative experience in these particular practices and even rarer, a career of such bold variation and experimentation. The journey is singular, the pitfalls are many, the rewards are difficult to list or fathom and suddenly decades pass and the world suddenly knows your work, discusses your choices, often misunderstands your creativity or the entire goal of such a career path and yet, you go on, steadily, marching toward the next project, with bravado, with discipline and with a steadfast curiosity for what will happen on the next page, canvas or sonata. In the case of T. C. Boyle, the rewards have been numerous, a professor emeritus position at The University of Southern California, film adaptions, awards that include the Pen/Faulkner & Henry David Thoreau and an international readership that have included invitational festivals such as, One City One Book wherein an entire city such as Vienna is publicly given 100,000 copies of, in this case, his novel, The Tortilla Curtain, distributed freely citywide. T. C. Boyle's work is broadly fearless in its choices of subject matter, though, at the same time, it is racked with details of the psychological variety that take us directly into the experience of his characters. His stream of consciousness includes the type of minutiae that assumes for the reader and emulates in direct communication a mind at work attempting to deal with those very bold choices he has conjured for our entertainment. T. C. Boyle is of the school of artists that understand clearly that ART is entertainment and if indeed we are entertained, scared, troubled, thrilled, embarrassed, shamed, turned on, turned off, nervous, and some where in all of that — educated, by what we read, see, hear: than it is good art and it will last forever, or at least, a very long time.
"The journey is singular, the pitfalls are many, the rewards are difficult to list or fathom and suddenly decades pass and the world suddenly knows your work, discusses your choices, often misunderstands your creativity or the entire goal of such a career path and yet, you go on, steadily, marching toward the next project, with bravado, with discipline and with a steadfast curiosity for what will happen on the next page, canvas or sonata."
Because Mr. Boyle was once a musician, there is a rock and roll aspect to his show, one can easily picture him getting out of the shower singing the lyrics to a Rolling Stones song and making it his own with, " I know, its only Fiction Writing, but I like IT… " There is something very pugnacious about the man that immediately strikes me as likable. He has, what I call, the big fuck you, built into much of his work and definitely in his readings and performances which he professes to enjoy entirely and I believe him. Thats another thing I enjoy about T. C. Boyle, he knows his job is to write, present, tour and then repeat entirely. I must confess, he has written countless novels that I have yet to read and I indeed look forward to doing so, as I suggest for my readers to do the same. Discovering a novelist is a once in a lifetime experience, reading that writer is an ongoing engagement of a very special variety. Once a reader has gone on a journey and enjoyed it, there is always a chance that there will be a new book or an earlier work to read. Mr. Boyle has a method and practice that goes like this, write a novel, promote it, write short stories, promote them, teach, get an award, make a speech, drive home, read the paper, write a novel, promote it: repeat. One can imagine that there is some sex and food and booze and reflection as well. He is unabashedly honest about the process of writing and his philosophy is entirely in tune with ours at the magazine, which is to lift the veil of creativity. He is a teacher and yet professes that, "No one can teach you how to be an artist." When it comes to rules, he throws them out, "There are no rules, whatsoever. Any textbook, you throw it right out. The way you learn how to do it is reading stories and finding a mentor." T. C. Boyle's own influences include Vonnegut, Cheever, Flannery O’Connor, F. Scott Fitzgerald and especially John Updike. He is currently on tour with is 25th book: The Harder They Come.
Joshua TRILIEGI: You have written fictional novels with a wide variety of characters and scenarios. Tell us about your own personal process of research and developement.
T.C. BOYLE: Some novels (and stories) are pure inventions, while others rely on factual/historical material. With regard to The Women, for instance, I read a number of Frank Lloyd Wright bios and visited many of the houses he designed (I’m visiting one of them right now, since I live in it), as well as his own house at Talisien. Then I jammed up a story. At the other end of the spectrum is a book like 2000’s A Friend of the Earth, about global warming and its consequences, which just flew on its own. A more recent example would be the story, “The Relive Box,” which appeared in The New Yorker earlier this year. It’s a lovely, lively fantasy about gaming, which just came to me while I was tinkering with my many mechanical and electronic inventions in my basement lab.
Joshua TRILIEGI: One gets the feeling that if someone showed up at a party and something occured: a conversation, a scene, an argument, that it could end up in one of your short stories.
T.C. BOYLE: Absolutely. Never make friends with a novelist, as your life will be dissected, pinned up and laid out for the delectation of the public. Dirty, embarrassing secrets especially.
Joshua TRILIEGI: You rely on music while writing, describe your music collection and any other anecdotes that relate to this relationship.
T.C. BOYLE: My love is rock and roll, but I can’t listen to it while composing (though I’m listening now to a mix created by my new best friend, Party Shuffle). Classical and jazz are what ballast me while writing—and that extends to opera, as long as it’s not in English.
Joshua TRILIEGI: " The Tortilla Curtain " was chosen as part of Vienna, Austria's 'One City One Novel' Literature project, wherein a 100,000 copies are freely distributed throughout the city for all to read. Tell us about this experience and your travel schedule in general.
T.C. BOYLE: Best part of it? Going into a bar or cafe and seeing a pile of free copies sitting on the counter and surreptitiously watching people come by and take one, then think better of it and take several. This is Part III of the Writer’s Dream.
Joshua TRILIEGI: Besides creating interesting stories, a writer in todays world must understand and adhere to the basic rythms of the career, write the work, read the work, sell the work, repeat process.Share with our readers how this will work for you an visa versa, say over several years.
T.C. BOYLE: I would have had six books in the last six years, but we decided to hold back The Harder They Come till March of 2015 to give everybody a break. I seem to write in a rhythm: longer historical novel, shorter contemporary novel, book of stories. Bing, bing and bang. That’s just the way it is. Last year was T.C. Boyle Stories II. Right now I’m 45 pp. into the next novel, The Terranauts, and have not yet seen the place where the book is set. I’ll make a trip there shortly. In fact, as soon as I say goodbye to you, I will be booking airfare.
Joshua TRILIEGI: You published "Budding Prospects" way back in 1984, these days it could be read as a sort of manual for how to grow medical marijuana and avoid the basic pitfalls along the way. Does it ever surprise you when a work like this or more future leaning works like "Farenheit 451" or Orwells "1984" speak to a certain time and a place.
T.C. BOYLE: I suppose it’s the job of a novelist to be something of a seer. By the way, The Harder They Come returns to the scene of the crime with regard to Budding Prospects. The latter was set in Willits, CA, and the former has a number of scenes set there, as well as a sly reference to the lineage of one of the earlier novel’s characters. THTC examines American anti-authoritarianism and gun violence. It’s just burning hot.
Joshua TRILIEGI: You famously have not watched TV since the early seventies. Do you watch films?
T.C. BOYLE: I love movies and watch a whole lot of them, not only current but classic. And TV has changed radically, given the freedom cable allows filmmakers. I have avoided the usual network lineup, as my tolerance for idiocy is very, very low.
Joshua TRILIEGI: Because the world is full of so many different types of people, each with a different way of speaking, each living by their own rules, each with a different code of ethics, being a fictional writer with any sense of truth in the work means being brutally honest and allowing each character to speak its mind without filtering what is politically, socially or morally acceptable. Describe or discuss how that fact has ever caused the public, reviewers or detractors to criticize you as a writer, as opposed to the character in the book.
T.C. BOYLE: I try to avoid reviews, except for the good ones. And yes, many shallow types (I won’t name them here) seem to confuse my public persona with the personae of my books. I will dance on their graves, then let the hyenas loose.
Joshua TRILIEGI: You have taught at USC for decades and still go it alone in many ways, avoiding panel discussions, retaining your singular voice.
T.C. BOYLE: Aw, shucks, I’m only doing what comes natural. That is, because I am a semi-sane egomaniac control freak despiser of authority, I work alone. And I don’t really give a shit (or even half a shit) about what anybody might think about that.
Joshua TRILIEGI: Share with us a list of writers both new and old whom have influenced, entertained and educated you.
T.C. BOYLE: Since I’ve got to get to work, let me name just a few: Dana Spiotta’s Stone Arabia, Denis Johnson’s Fiskadoro, Kent Haruf’s Plainsong, Ian McEwan’s On Chesil Beach. If people want a fuller picture, go to the video interview I did with Tom Lutz at the L.A. Times Book Fair back in April of this year. T.C. Boyle LARB interview ought to bring it up for you. Till then, adios, amigos.
JACK KEROUAC & The Waiting Game
By Joshua A. TRILIEGI / BUREAU of ARTS and CULTURE MAGAZINE LITERARY EDITION
In The Spring of 1951, Jack Kerouac began the final scroll version of On The Road with the now famous opener, "I first met Neal not long after my father died …" It would be another six years before the public would even read that line & while waiting for his big break, he almost went insane. When it finally did happen in 1957, the book transformed writing style forever and for twelve years straight : Jack never stopped. Jack's frustrations started early on and strained many of his relationships with his life long pals and gals. On many occasions, the angst was actually justified. Kerouac knew he had pierced the veil with the new style used in On The Road. He saw it happening all around him, the Arts in America were changing and a whole new WAY of seeing and expressing was happening everywhere. Marlon Brando was screaming from the stages of New York City and Jackson Pollock was on the cover of LIFE. But it would still be too early for the likes of the public to catch up with trailblazers that included both mid - century and mid - decade breakthroughs such as James Dean, Elvis Presley and Jack Kerouac, who would all have major public notoriety by the mid to late 1950s. James Dean with three films back to back: Rebel Without a Cause, East of Eden and Giant. Elvis Presley with a groundbreaking performance on the Ed Sullivan Show, that did indeed eventually lead to an entire sexual revolution. And of course, Mr. Jack Kerouac with the eventual publishing of On The Road and a lifelong respect and notoriety to originality and love of life.
The writer describes in a letter, dated Oct 8, 1952, scribed to his life long friend, contemporary and sometimes foe, Allen Ginsberg, " This is to notify you and the rest of the whole lot what I think of you. Can you tell me even for an instance … with all this talk about pocket book styles and the new trend in writing about drugs and sex, why my On The Road written in 1951 wasn't ever published ?" He goes on to describe his basic frustrations at more inferior books that were published and admonishes many of his friends and associates for being jealous: Which was most likely true. In fact, even Ginsberg himself was learning from the new Kerouac style. On the one hand, Ginsberg had helped to liberate Kerouac's formalities with his free form poetry. Later Kerouac was also informed by the letters of his inspiration for On The Road : Neal Cassady. On the other hand, each were dearly close to Neal and an unofficial contest began between the two writers. It was not only about who could lay down the best descriptions and who could out do the other in words, Ginsberg stepped up the competition with physical acts that Kerouac could never compete with, nor did he care to. But when Jack sat down to write the scrolled version of On The Road in the Spring of 1951, all the lessons were over and he became the leader of the so called Beat Writers and Movement. Kerouac had yet to be crowned publicly, but everyone in his circle knew he had ascended gracefully. Versions of the novel were being read all over the publishing world, it became a sensation and a point of derogatory conversation among the academics. One such comment, by a writer nobody even remembers anymore was, "That's not writing, that's typing." Kerouac had outdone them all and none could admit it. He was & still is the king of the beat writers. If he were alive today, he might simply ask, had you read his work ? What did you think ? Kerouac believed that Writing was Everything .
Not long after scribing one of his darkest letters to Allen Ginsberg, Kerouac visited William Burroughs at his Rooftop Studio in Mexico City. Burroughs was going through a particularly rough patch himself. The thing to remember and indeed to learn from the Letters of Kerouac, Ginsberg and Burroughs, all of which are now available to the public, is that life as an artist is messy, troublesome, challenged. We often like to picture our celebrities, our icons, our hero's in some state of forever coolness. Well, the fact of the matter is that everybody has the ups & the downs. Life On The Road had its excitement, its entertainment and it's education, but there was always the other side of that coin. The letters provide a very real glimpse into the challenging aspects, the in-fighting, the quarrels and the very difficulty of actually writing, living, publishing and retaining and or losing friends in the battle. In a letter dated Jan 10 1953, Kerouac writes to Neal Cassady and his wife Caroline from William Burrough's flat. "Bill just finally left Mexico, last night, how sad. They were asking for more bond money… I feel like … I will never see him again … And I'm completely alone on the roof. Now or never with a great new novel long anticipated from me in N.Y. - day & night lonesome toil. "
In another letter, written the same week, addressed to John Clellon Holmes, author of the first novel to be published by the beat writers entitled, "GO", Jack describes further Burrough's dilemma. " Burroughs is gone at last - 3 years in Mexico - lost everything, his wife, his children, his patrimony - I saw him pack in his moldy room … Sad moldy leather cases … medicines, drugs - the last of Joan's spices … all lost, dust, & thin tragic Bill hurries off into the night solitaire - Ah Soul - throwing in his bag, at last, picture of Lucien [ Carr ] & Allen [ Ginsberg ] - Smiled, & left. " Burroughs who had shot his wife, in a game of 'William Tell ' had been dealing with legal issues and a court case that went sour when his own lawyer actually shot someone and had to flee the scene. All of this is represented best in David Cronenberg's film entitled, "Naked Lunch." Possibly the best film to capture the nightmarish qualities that dogged William Burroughs and his life.
By this time, Kerouac had already patched up friendship with Ginsberg after the recent afore mentioned letter and was now moving ahead with another project. He sometimes worked on several works at any one time. In the same letter to Neal Cassady, Jack mentions a piece he wrote over a 5 day period, in french, that describes a fictional meeting in 1935 between him, Neal and Burroughs in Chinatown: "… And some sexy blondes in a bedroom with a French Canadian rake and an old Model T. You'll read it in print someday and laugh. It's the solution to the "On The Road" plots, all of 'em and I will hand it in soon as I finish the translating and typing." This story written in French over a 5 day period in January of 1953 is most likely the work that is currently in the news. Apparently a canadian publishing house has bought the rights to publish, so the world will finally get a chance to posthumously read yet another 'new' work by Mr. Jack Kerouac.
Jack Kerouac did make several breakthroughs prior to publishing On The Road , and then he knew it was just a matter of time. Finally the cultural malaise that had clogged mainstream America with conservative values of the early Fifties were dissipating. By 1956, in a letter to his agent, Sterling Lord, dated Sept. 17, 1956, Jack describes being photographed by a high profile magazine with Poets Gregory Corso and Allen Ginsberg. " The other night Mademoiselle magazine took our pictures … for a spread … title : Flaming Cool Youth of San Francisco Poetry. Life magazine also wants to take my picture in a few weeks at Corso's reading … Two of my pieces are to be published in Black Mountain Review … I think I'll finally make some money for you finally, so that makes me feel better, all the time and faith you put into me. As the years go by I realize how nice you've been Sterling, and I welcome it with a feeling of warmth, coming as it does from the 'brrr' world of New York Publishing."
A year earlier Kerouac had stayed in the Berkeley Cottage of Allen Ginsberg after hitchhiking from Santa Barbara to San Francisco, living on California red wine and commiserating with the poets who would eventually open the floodgates at the now famous, SIX Gallery Poetry Readings in the Bay Area. The poets included : Michael McClure, Philip Whalen, Gary Snyder, Philip Lamentia & Kenneth Rexroth. Jack would have varying degrees of friendship with this group of poets and plenty of personal opinions and misunderstandings as well. His friendship with both Lawrence Ferlnghetti and Gary Snyder would lead to the writing of The Dharma Bums and Big Sur. The latter also the subject of a recent film of the same name produced by Bureau of Arts and Culture friend and associate, Mr. Orion Williams. In a letter written to Philip Whalen dated Nov 22, 1955 Kerouac describes his stay in Berkeley, " Dear Phil, Thank You for the needed hospitality - Now I know that the hidden reason for my coming to California again when I really didn't want to, was to meet you & Gary - The two best men I ever met - I'll drop you a card from where I'll be next week - Yours forever in the Dharma, Jack "
Kerouac writes to Gary Snyder in a letter dated Jan 15 1956, thanking him for suggesting to apply as a look out in The Washington State Cascade Mountains. "Just finished [writing] a long novel … Visions of Gerard, my best. most serious, sad & true book yet … If I should ever make big money with my books, count on seeing me in Japan for sure… Me, my letters are like this, long and confused, because that's my mind, long and confused, I'm writing a dozen things and typing all the time and all fucked up & enthusiastic and shooting baskets in the yard and running in the woods with kids & dogs and so this letter has distraught look." A year away from publishing On The Road and at an all time low, Kerouac writes to Malcolm Cowley in May of 1956, " I'm in a real straits now, my jeans are all torn, I'm living in a shack with a woodstove, rent free, have no money whatever, don't care (much), and am waiting day after day for word from you concerning … On The Road … it breaks my heart to be neglected so." But within weeks Kerouac headed up to Washington State and renewed his work & attitude.
Although, the relationship between Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac was a contentious one, it was also a very true friendship. In the spring of 1957, Allen loaned Jack enough money to travel abroad to visit Bill Burroughs in Tangier. Burroughs had recently taken the cure in England and was bent on gathering his various writings and creating a novel with the help of his friends. Kerouac writes to Edie Parker on Jan 28, 1957 from New York, just before the trip abroad, describing Burroughs, "He is a great gentlemen and as you may know has become a great writer, in fact all the big wigs are afraid of him (W.H. Auden. etc…) Allen never loses track of me even when I try to hide. He does me many favors publicizing my name. Well, we're old friends anyway. But I can't keep up with the hectic fame life he wants and so, I won't stay with them long in Tangier."
While in Tangiers Kerouac received edited versions of recent works and was aghast at the hack job. Rather than have his work butchered by the publishers, Kerouac holds firm to his belief in his work and writes to Sterling Lord on March 4, 1957, " I'd rather die than betray my faith in my work which is inseparable from my life, without this faith any kind of money is mockery…" Still in Tangier with Burroughs, he follows this up on March 25 1957 with another letter to Mr. Lord, " I feel like I definitely did the right thing… that it will definitely bear fruit in the end. Hemingway went through the same trouble in early 1920s and had he succumbed to the ideas of the editors, there would have been no 'Hemingway Style' at all and nothing great about The Lost Generation. Ditto Faulkner in 30s." Meanwhile, Jack made a living typing up Burroughs' manuscripts in trade for meals and took long hikes around Tangiers, absorbing the culture & the scenery.
Two things happened in early April of 1957 that changed the face of literature. The first was notification from Kerouac's agent that On The Road had been sold & the second was that Allen Ginsberg's epic poem entitled, "Howl," had been banned and deemed unfit for children to read. Finally, exactly what the two authors had been working on all their lives, for Jack, it was acceptance, for Allen, it was a defiant chance to challenge the establishment. Both had succeeded in their goals.
To this day, both works are taught, studied and read just about everywhere with fine film adaptions of each. In a letter to his agent, dated April 3, 1957, Kerouac describes his appreciation and plans for the future. " It's wonderful, Sterling, the way you have been making things hum. I am going to take advantage of this apparently prosperous year and come right home and set up my abode proper. I have an idea for a wonderful follow up for On The Road … Meanwhile I have been digging Morocco… last night Ramadan, the annual Mohammedan fast, started here, with a blast of cannon shot in the bay and then, like smoke over rooftops at 2AM came the lonely sweet flutes … the saddest sound in the world." Within a month Kerouac had returned to America, had gathered all his belongings and moved to Berkeley California. Within a week, Lawrence Ferlinghetti of City Lights Books was arrested for selling HOWL. One of the most celebrated court cases in history followed. Is it Art or Is it Obscene ? Eventually Allen Ginsberg triumphed and it became a victory for intellectuals, artists & writers who push the envelope.
Jack Keruoac had finally gone public. Neal Cassady, Jacks inspiration for the novel, On The Road, had become a character in another man's work of art. He had been a drifter for years, a wayward and wandering soul. Neal would go on to be an influential part of the American subculture with writers such as Ken Kesey, who penned, "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest'. One of the few novels that Jack Kerouac, not only appreciated, but deservedly so, wrote an introductory blurb. Neal himself would be dogged by bad luck from the law, eventually doing time in prison for an entrapment drug deal with a substance that is now used by doctors throughout the world: marijuana. Neal Cassday's letters of this period are available in the book untitled, "Grace Beats Karma: Letters from Prison.' Even to this day, he is the target of lesser than human beings, who have no idea what living is even about. In the final lines of the newly published Original Scroll version of On The Road, Jack Kerouac writes, "I know by now the evening - star must be drooping and shedding her sparkler dims on the prairie, which is just before the coming of complete night that blesses the earth, darkens all rivers, cups the peaks in the west and folds the last and final shore in, and nobody, just nobody knows what's going to happen to anybody besides the forlorn rags of growing old, I think of Neal Cassady, I even think of the Old Neal Cassady the father we never found, I think of Neal Cassady, I think of Neal Cassady. " The End.
All Items on This Page Are only a Portion of The Magazine
JACK KEROUAC : The Novels + Other Selected Works
The Town and the City 1950
On the Road 1957
The Subterraneans 1958
The Dharma Bums 1958
Dr. Sax 1959
Maggie Cassidy 1959
Mexico City Blues: 242 Choruses 1959
Book of Dreams 1960
Tristessa 1960
Visions of Cody 1960
The Scripture of the Golden Eternity 1960
Lonesome Traveler 1960
Pull My Daisy 1961
Big Sur 1962
Visions of Gerard 1963
Desolation Angels 1965
Satori in Paris 1966
Vanity of Duluoz 1968
Pic 1971
Scattered Poems 1971
Old Angel Midnight 1973
Trip Trap: Haiku on the Road (with Albert Saijo & Lew Welch) 1973
Heaven and Other Poems 1977
San Francisco Blues 1991
Pomes All Sizes 1992
Good Blonde and Others 1993
Book of Blues 1995
Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters, Vol. 1, 1940-1956 1996
Some of the Dharma 1997
Atop an Underwood: Early Stories and Other Writings 1999
Kerouac: Selected Letters: Volume 2: 1957-1969 2000
Orpheus Emerged 2000
Book of Dreams 2001
Book of Haikus 2003
On the Road: The Original Scroll 2008
And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks 2010
Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg: The Letters 2011
The Sea Is My Brother 2012
The Haunted Life 2014
O Rich and Unbelievable Life : Uncollected Prose 2016
THE AMERICAN ICON: ARTHUR MILLER
By Joshua A. TRILIEGI for BUREAU of Arts and Culture / LITERARY Edition SPRING 2015
Arthur Miller is turning 100 years of age this year and as it turns out: his works are more important than ever. Miller went toe to toe with mainstream ideology, with the dilemma's of war, with group thinking and paranoia, with religion, with celebrity machinery and even with the government of the United States of America during one of the worst chapters in our history: The McCarthy years. For those of you too young to remember or too old to want to remember. Senator Joe McCarthy led a witch hunt that was focused on left leaning individuals of all sorts, but specifically, those in the field of entertainment. Directors, writers, actors and producers were demanded to testify against their friends and associates publicly, privately, overtly or with discretion. Arthur Miller did no such thing, he refused to name names. He was found in contempt of court and later exonerated of all charges. Miller is a soul searching playwright who introduces ideas in the great American sagas such as, "Death of a Salesman," "All My Sons," "The Crucible," and spreads them out like a deck of cards for all to see and eventually to play with. Theater, unlike film, has a forever and ongoing growing relationship with interpretation, with the populist, with the times and with the future. Millers plays are produced all over the world, "Death of a Japanese Salesman," was extremely popular overseas. The Arthur Miller literary works are and have been interpreted and produced in dozens of languages and remain extremely relevant. Ever since the attacks of 9/11, here in America, a very similar situation surfaced, creatively and culturally speaking, we have not quite recovered. The freedom to speak out against abuses of power, against political policy or those in power is almost entirely absent.
Major news organizations have fallen to the wayside, when it comes to investigative journalism and most others march in step with the current politically correct aspects of today's society. Entertainers are afraid to speak out for fear of losing a role or a job or alienating either their audience or the advertisers. Miller's plays delve into these subject matters deeply, dramatically and with a great deal of consequence to relationships. "Salesman." deals with family deceit, the changing of American values and memory. "All my Sons," is a scorching and scathing look at the war machine, that has direct ties to rather recent political family histories here in America. "The Crucible," is a direct metaphor for the McCarthy era as well as an intensively researched project that brings to life the disturbing, but entirely factual witch hunts that happened in America and abroad : 100s of women were murdered for hysteria and paranoia. Millers plays are not overtly political, they are much more about relationship, family and community at every level. Ultimately, they are about mankind. The popularity of his catalogue has only grown through the years and deservedly so. On a personal level, Mr Miller's life had some extreme ups and downs and through it all he remained calm, elusive, focused and intelligent. Miller has always been very forthright about his works, his views and his ideas of life. To my mind, he is a true patriot, unafraid to ask the difficult questions that arise when involved in an experiment as beautiful as America. He served as the president of the PEN Organization in the mid 1960s. Miller also has the special quality that says to anyone at anytime: "Fuck You," as you can see he expresses in the image related to this article during a press conference. In the back pages of this edition you will find an extensive list with links to over fifty up and coming Miller plays around the world. And so, today we salute the man, the mind, the icon, the artist, the writer and the great and beautiful defiance of this Original American of Letters: Mr. Arthur Miller.
BUREAU LITERARY : MUSIC
THE ROLLING STONES : LITERARY BARDS ?
What is Art ? What is a Classic ? What is Literature ? When is something all of the above ? Why is Rock & Roll Music so damn powerful to us ? It could be that great music tells a narrative just as convincingly as a short story, poem or novel. Sometimes it can even tell that story better. Case in point, Mick Jagger & Keith Richards Classic 1968 song entitled, "Sympathy for the Devil." Today, we look at the song, asking the question: Can Music Be Literature ? And If so, Why ?
The title of the song is, "Sympathy for The Devil." It sounds like a Novel from World War One by Somerset Maugham or a historical piece explaining the rise of fascism in Europe during the 1930s or even a poem by T. S. Elliot. The narrator of the story is a Faustian Mephisto or as he is known in Christo-Judeo belief: The Devil. Our story opens, following a fabulous drum solo, with a grand and eloquent self-introduction, "Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste." He continues, "I've been around for a long, long year, stole many a man's soul to waste," explaining further, "I was around when Jesus Christ had his moment of doubt and pain." It is a devastating first meeting. The very prince of darkness himself is addressing the reader or in this case the listener. Lets put this into context. In 1968, the year this song was released, the world was in turmoil: Political Assassinations, Vietnam, Uprisings in France, Czechoslovakia, The Anti War Movement in America and a rising youth culture had recognized that evil could be anywhere and clearly, these were definitely historical times.
"Jagger and Richards tapped into the moment with aclear and present evils, but instead, reminds the listener that it was here before, it is here now, it will be here after."
Jagger and Richards tapped into the moment with a diabolical diatribe that does not turn away from the clear and present evils, but instead, reminds the listener that it was here before, it is here now, it will be here after. The story continues with a historical look backward, "Stuck around St. Petersburg when I saw it was a time for a change," referring to the Russian Revolution, "I killed the Czar and his ministers, Anastasia screamed in vain." The narration swiftly moves through time to World War II, "I rode a tank, held a general's rank, when the blitzkrieg raged and the bodies stank." Then after a chorus or two, entirely demolishes a hundred years of monarchy with the single line, "I watched with glee, while your kings and queens, fought for ten decades, for the gods they made." And then it peaks with the most devastating idea of the entire work, "I shouted out, "Who killed the Kennedy's ?" When after all, it was you and me." A shattering description that accuses the listener of committing murder: Astonishing. The devise of having a narrator speaking directly to his or her audience goes back as far as The Greek Tragedies and Shakespeare.
The same literary device was used a few years earlier in John Burgess', "A Clockwork Orange" which was later turned into the classic piece of cinema by director Stanley Kubrik. But here, Jagger and Richards put us face to face with the devil himself, presenting him as a man of power, a man of manners, a man of the world and simply a man who is very proud of his many accomplishments, however destructive they may be. The song lyrics take a slightly poetic turn, even in their maniacal aspects with the following phrase,"Just as every cop is a criminal and all the sinners saints. As heads is tails, just call me Lucifer, 'cause I'm in need of some restraint." Then after several chorus' including the echoing line, "Please to meet you, hope you guessed my name," a foreboding warning statement is pressed onto the listener with the final phrase, "So if you meet me, have some courtesy, have some sympathy, and some taste. Use all your well-learned politics or I'll lay your soul to waste." The listener is literally warned to not only respect the narrator, but to have some sympathy. Demanding respect for the dark side of our very nature. The song is a time capsule , a declaration of madness and a warning of future conflicts. It is a fine example of the use of language in creating effective storytelling. It's also simply a great song. But is it Literature with a capital "L" ? If so why ?
"The song is a time capsule, a declaration of madness and a warning of future conflicts. It is a fine example of the use of language in creating effective storytelling. It's also simply : a great song."
For one, it speaks to more than one generation, the story has lasted, at least so far, as an important tragedy of not only it's time, but the song is still currently played on radios stations around the world. In other words, the book is still in print. The play is still on broadway. The public is still interested. Two, the song literally helped to define the actual times with which it was written: The 1960s. It is one of the actual anthems of the period. It may be the most important of the brave literary works to be a part of The Rock & Roll song book ever. Three, it actually speaks to a larger historical context with it's many references to world events and it's ongoing and foreboding demands of a future disaster. The song and narrator lives on in it's very description of itself. Why does this make it Literature ? Well, it doesn't. What does make it Literature ? In my estimation, it is the employment of ideas, the minimum use of narrative, the poetic turns of lyricism, the audacious accusations of the storyteller and the ability to open the imagination to world events that existed prior to the songs invention. Good literature, good fiction, good poetry, good writing, do this for the reader. Good literature will utilize history, experience, tragedy. Good literature will challenge power, normalcy, self-righteousness. Good literature will demand, entertain and sometimes even accuse the reader of the very experiences that mankind has allowed to happen. The Holocaust, Slavery, Genocide, War, Murder and Acts of Cruelty: Who would think to offer these subjects in a Song ? Sympathy For The Devil is very heavy material. Jagger and Richards use their platform to discuss important issues of modernity and history in a way that indeed transports, elevates and activates the same devices used by great writers around the world and that is why this song is ultimately a great piece of fine Literature.
JOSHUA A. TRILIEGI THE LITERARY INTERVIEWS:
MICHELLE ARBEAU . DENNIS WILLS . LUIS VALDEZ
T. C. BOYLE: A Piece of FICTION
by BUREAU Editor Joshua TRILIEGI for BUREAU of ARTS and CULTURE Magazine
There are fewer more solitary career paths than that of the painter, the musical composer or the fictional writer. Seldom do we see a collaborative experience in these particular practices and even rarer, a career of such bold variation and experimentation. The journey is singular, the pitfalls are many, the rewards are difficult to list or fathom and suddenly decades pass and the world suddenly knows your work, discusses your choices, often misunderstands your creativity or the entire goal of such a career path and yet, you go on, steadily, marching toward the next project, with bravado, with discipline and with a steadfast curiosity for what will happen on the next page, canvas or sonata. In the case of T. C. Boyle, the rewards have been numerous, a professor emeritus position at The University of Southern California, film adaptions, awards that include the Pen/Faulkner & Henry David Thoreau and an international readership that have included invitational festivals such as, One City One Book wherein an entire city such as Vienna is publicly given 100,000 copies of, in this case, his novel, The Tortilla Curtain, distributed freely citywide. T. C. Boyle's work is broadly fearless in its choices of subject matter, though, at the same time, it is racked with details of the psychological variety that take us directly into the experience of his characters. His stream of consciousness includes the type of minutiae that assumes for the reader and emulates in direct communication a mind at work attempting to deal with those very bold choices he has conjured for our entertainment. T. C. Boyle is of the school of artists that understand clearly that ART is entertainment and if indeed we are entertained, scared, troubled, thrilled, embarrassed, shamed, turned on, turned off, nervous, and some where in all of that — educated, by what we read, see, hear: than it is good art and it will last forever, or at least, a very long time.
"The journey is singular, the pitfalls are many, the rewards are difficult to list or fathom and suddenly decades pass and the world suddenly knows your work, discusses your choices, often misunderstands your creativity or the entire goal of such a career path and yet, you go on, steadily, marching toward the next project, with bravado, with discipline and with a steadfast curiosity for what will happen on the next page, canvas or sonata."
Because Mr. Boyle was once a musician, there is a rock and roll aspect to his show, one can easily picture him getting out of the shower singing the lyrics to a Rolling Stones song and making it his own with, " I know, its only Fiction Writing, but I like IT… " There is something very pugnacious about the man that immediately strikes me as likable. He has, what I call, the big fuck you, built into much of his work and definitely in his readings and performances which he professes to enjoy entirely and I believe him. Thats another thing I enjoy about T. C. Boyle, he knows his job is to write, present, tour and then repeat entirely. I must confess, he has written countless novels that I have yet to read and I indeed look forward to doing so, as I suggest for my readers to do the same. Discovering a novelist is a once in a lifetime experience, reading that writer is an ongoing engagement of a very special variety. Once a reader has gone on a journey and enjoyed it, there is always a chance that there will be a new book or an earlier work to read. Mr. Boyle has a method and practice that goes like this, write a novel, promote it, write short stories, promote them, teach, get an award, make a speech, drive home, read the paper, write a novel, promote it: repeat. One can imagine that there is some sex and food and booze and reflection as well. He is unabashedly honest about the process of writing and his philosophy is entirely in tune with ours at the magazine, which is to lift the veil of creativity. He is a teacher and yet professes that, "No one can teach you how to be an artist." When it comes to rules, he throws them out, "There are no rules, whatsoever. Any textbook, you throw it right out. The way you learn how to do it is reading stories and finding a mentor." T. C. Boyle's own influences include Vonnegut, Cheever, Flannery O’Connor, F. Scott Fitzgerald and especially John Updike. He is currently on tour with is 25th book: The Harder They Come.
Joshua TRILIEGI: You have written fictional novels with a wide variety of characters and scenarios. Tell us about your own personal process of research and developement.
T.C. BOYLE: Some novels (and stories) are pure inventions, while others rely on factual/historical material. With regard to The Women, for instance, I read a number of Frank Lloyd Wright bios and visited many of the houses he designed (I’m visiting one of them right now, since I live in it), as well as his own house at Talisien. Then I jammed up a story. At the other end of the spectrum is a book like 2000’s A Friend of the Earth, about global warming and its consequences, which just flew on its own. A more recent example would be the story, “The Relive Box,” which appeared in The New Yorker earlier this year. It’s a lovely, lively fantasy about gaming, which just came to me while I was tinkering with my many mechanical and electronic inventions in my basement lab.
Joshua TRILIEGI: One gets the feeling that if someone showed up at a party and something occured: a conversation, a scene, an argument, that it could end up in one of your short stories.
T.C. BOYLE: Absolutely. Never make friends with a novelist, as your life will be dissected, pinned up and laid out for the delectation of the public. Dirty, embarrassing secrets especially.
Joshua TRILIEGI: You rely on music while writing, describe your music collection and any other anecdotes that relate to this relationship.
T.C. BOYLE: My love is rock and roll, but I can’t listen to it while composing (though I’m listening now to a mix created by my new best friend, Party Shuffle). Classical and jazz are what ballast me while writing—and that extends to opera, as long as it’s not in English.
Joshua TRILIEGI: " The Tortilla Curtain " was chosen as part of Vienna, Austria's 'One City One Novel' Literature project, wherein a 100,000 copies are freely distributed throughout the city for all to read. Tell us about this experience and your travel schedule in general.
T.C. BOYLE: Best part of it? Going into a bar or cafe and seeing a pile of free copies sitting on the counter and surreptitiously watching people come by and take one, then think better of it and take several. This is Part III of the Writer’s Dream.
Joshua TRILIEGI: Besides creating interesting stories, a writer in todays world must understand and adhere to the basic rythms of the career, write the work, read the work, sell the work, repeat process.Share with our readers how this will work for you an visa versa, say over several years.
T.C. BOYLE: I would have had six books in the last six years, but we decided to hold back The Harder They Come till March of 2015 to give everybody a break. I seem to write in a rhythm: longer historical novel, shorter contemporary novel, book of stories. Bing, bing and bang. That’s just the way it is. Last year was T.C. Boyle Stories II. Right now I’m 45 pp. into the next novel, The Terranauts, and have not yet seen the place where the book is set. I’ll make a trip there shortly. In fact, as soon as I say goodbye to you, I will be booking airfare.
Joshua TRILIEGI: You published "Budding Prospects" way back in 1984, these days it could be read as a sort of manual for how to grow medical marijuana and avoid the basic pitfalls along the way. Does it ever surprise you when a work like this or more future leaning works like "Farenheit 451" or Orwells "1984" speak to a certain time and a place.
T.C. BOYLE: I suppose it’s the job of a novelist to be something of a seer. By the way, The Harder They Come returns to the scene of the crime with regard to Budding Prospects. The latter was set in Willits, CA, and the former has a number of scenes set there, as well as a sly reference to the lineage of one of the earlier novel’s characters. THTC examines American anti-authoritarianism and gun violence. It’s just burning hot.
Joshua TRILIEGI: You famously have not watched TV since the early seventies. Do you watch films?
T.C. BOYLE: I love movies and watch a whole lot of them, not only current but classic. And TV has changed radically, given the freedom cable allows filmmakers. I have avoided the usual network lineup, as my tolerance for idiocy is very, very low.
Joshua TRILIEGI: Because the world is full of so many different types of people, each with a different way of speaking, each living by their own rules, each with a different code of ethics, being a fictional writer with any sense of truth in the work means being brutally honest and allowing each character to speak its mind without filtering what is politically, socially or morally acceptable. Describe or discuss how that fact has ever caused the public, reviewers or detractors to criticize you as a writer, as opposed to the character in the book.
T.C. BOYLE: I try to avoid reviews, except for the good ones. And yes, many shallow types (I won’t name them here) seem to confuse my public persona with the personae of my books. I will dance on their graves, then let the hyenas loose.
Joshua TRILIEGI: You have taught at USC for decades and still go it alone in many ways, avoiding panel discussions, retaining your singular voice.
T.C. BOYLE: Aw, shucks, I’m only doing what comes natural. That is, because I am a semi-sane egomaniac control freak despiser of authority, I work alone. And I don’t really give a shit (or even half a shit) about what anybody might think about that.
Joshua TRILIEGI: Share with us a list of writers both new and old whom have influenced, entertained and educated you.
T.C. BOYLE: Since I’ve got to get to work, let me name just a few: Dana Spiotta’s Stone Arabia, Denis Johnson’s Fiskadoro, Kent Haruf’s Plainsong, Ian McEwan’s On Chesil Beach. If people want a fuller picture, go to the video interview I did with Tom Lutz at the L.A. Times Book Fair back in April of this year. T.C. Boyle LARB interview ought to bring it up for you. Till then, adios, amigos.
JACK KEROUAC & The Waiting Game
By Joshua A. TRILIEGI / BUREAU of ARTS and CULTURE MAGAZINE LITERARY EDITION
In The Spring of 1951, Jack Kerouac began the final scroll version of On The Road with the now famous opener, "I first met Neal not long after my father died …" It would be another six years before the public would even read that line & while waiting for his big break, he almost went insane. When it finally did happen in 1957, the book transformed writing style forever and for twelve years straight : Jack never stopped. Jack's frustrations started early on and strained many of his relationships with his life long pals and gals. On many occasions, the angst was actually justified. Kerouac knew he had pierced the veil with the new style used in On The Road. He saw it happening all around him, the Arts in America were changing and a whole new WAY of seeing and expressing was happening everywhere. Marlon Brando was screaming from the stages of New York City and Jackson Pollock was on the cover of LIFE. But it would still be too early for the likes of the public to catch up with trailblazers that included both mid - century and mid - decade breakthroughs such as James Dean, Elvis Presley and Jack Kerouac, who would all have major public notoriety by the mid to late 1950s. James Dean with three films back to back: Rebel Without a Cause, East of Eden and Giant. Elvis Presley with a groundbreaking performance on the Ed Sullivan Show, that did indeed eventually lead to an entire sexual revolution. And of course, Mr. Jack Kerouac with the eventual publishing of On The Road and a lifelong respect and notoriety to originality and love of life.
The writer describes in a letter, dated Oct 8, 1952, scribed to his life long friend, contemporary and sometimes foe, Allen Ginsberg, " This is to notify you and the rest of the whole lot what I think of you. Can you tell me even for an instance … with all this talk about pocket book styles and the new trend in writing about drugs and sex, why my On The Road written in 1951 wasn't ever published ?" He goes on to describe his basic frustrations at more inferior books that were published and admonishes many of his friends and associates for being jealous: Which was most likely true. In fact, even Ginsberg himself was learning from the new Kerouac style. On the one hand, Ginsberg had helped to liberate Kerouac's formalities with his free form poetry. Later Kerouac was also informed by the letters of his inspiration for On The Road : Neal Cassady. On the other hand, each were dearly close to Neal and an unofficial contest began between the two writers. It was not only about who could lay down the best descriptions and who could out do the other in words, Ginsberg stepped up the competition with physical acts that Kerouac could never compete with, nor did he care to. But when Jack sat down to write the scrolled version of On The Road in the Spring of 1951, all the lessons were over and he became the leader of the so called Beat Writers and Movement. Kerouac had yet to be crowned publicly, but everyone in his circle knew he had ascended gracefully. Versions of the novel were being read all over the publishing world, it became a sensation and a point of derogatory conversation among the academics. One such comment, by a writer nobody even remembers anymore was, "That's not writing, that's typing." Kerouac had outdone them all and none could admit it. He was & still is the king of the beat writers. If he were alive today, he might simply ask, had you read his work ? What did you think ? Kerouac believed that Writing was Everything .
Not long after scribing one of his darkest letters to Allen Ginsberg, Kerouac visited William Burroughs at his Rooftop Studio in Mexico City. Burroughs was going through a particularly rough patch himself. The thing to remember and indeed to learn from the Letters of Kerouac, Ginsberg and Burroughs, all of which are now available to the public, is that life as an artist is messy, troublesome, challenged. We often like to picture our celebrities, our icons, our hero's in some state of forever coolness. Well, the fact of the matter is that everybody has the ups & the downs. Life On The Road had its excitement, its entertainment and it's education, but there was always the other side of that coin. The letters provide a very real glimpse into the challenging aspects, the in-fighting, the quarrels and the very difficulty of actually writing, living, publishing and retaining and or losing friends in the battle. In a letter dated Jan 10 1953, Kerouac writes to Neal Cassady and his wife Caroline from William Burrough's flat. "Bill just finally left Mexico, last night, how sad. They were asking for more bond money… I feel like … I will never see him again … And I'm completely alone on the roof. Now or never with a great new novel long anticipated from me in N.Y. - day & night lonesome toil. "
In another letter, written the same week, addressed to John Clellon Holmes, author of the first novel to be published by the beat writers entitled, "GO", Jack describes further Burrough's dilemma. " Burroughs is gone at last - 3 years in Mexico - lost everything, his wife, his children, his patrimony - I saw him pack in his moldy room … Sad moldy leather cases … medicines, drugs - the last of Joan's spices … all lost, dust, & thin tragic Bill hurries off into the night solitaire - Ah Soul - throwing in his bag, at last, picture of Lucien [ Carr ] & Allen [ Ginsberg ] - Smiled, & left. " Burroughs who had shot his wife, in a game of 'William Tell ' had been dealing with legal issues and a court case that went sour when his own lawyer actually shot someone and had to flee the scene. All of this is represented best in David Cronenberg's film entitled, "Naked Lunch." Possibly the best film to capture the nightmarish qualities that dogged William Burroughs and his life.
By this time, Kerouac had already patched up friendship with Ginsberg after the recent afore mentioned letter and was now moving ahead with another project. He sometimes worked on several works at any one time. In the same letter to Neal Cassady, Jack mentions a piece he wrote over a 5 day period, in french, that describes a fictional meeting in 1935 between him, Neal and Burroughs in Chinatown: "… And some sexy blondes in a bedroom with a French Canadian rake and an old Model T. You'll read it in print someday and laugh. It's the solution to the "On The Road" plots, all of 'em and I will hand it in soon as I finish the translating and typing." This story written in French over a 5 day period in January of 1953 is most likely the work that is currently in the news. Apparently a canadian publishing house has bought the rights to publish, so the world will finally get a chance to posthumously read yet another 'new' work by Mr. Jack Kerouac.
Jack Kerouac did make several breakthroughs prior to publishing On The Road , and then he knew it was just a matter of time. Finally the cultural malaise that had clogged mainstream America with conservative values of the early Fifties were dissipating. By 1956, in a letter to his agent, Sterling Lord, dated Sept. 17, 1956, Jack describes being photographed by a high profile magazine with Poets Gregory Corso and Allen Ginsberg. " The other night Mademoiselle magazine took our pictures … for a spread … title : Flaming Cool Youth of San Francisco Poetry. Life magazine also wants to take my picture in a few weeks at Corso's reading … Two of my pieces are to be published in Black Mountain Review … I think I'll finally make some money for you finally, so that makes me feel better, all the time and faith you put into me. As the years go by I realize how nice you've been Sterling, and I welcome it with a feeling of warmth, coming as it does from the 'brrr' world of New York Publishing."
A year earlier Kerouac had stayed in the Berkeley Cottage of Allen Ginsberg after hitchhiking from Santa Barbara to San Francisco, living on California red wine and commiserating with the poets who would eventually open the floodgates at the now famous, SIX Gallery Poetry Readings in the Bay Area. The poets included : Michael McClure, Philip Whalen, Gary Snyder, Philip Lamentia & Kenneth Rexroth. Jack would have varying degrees of friendship with this group of poets and plenty of personal opinions and misunderstandings as well. His friendship with both Lawrence Ferlnghetti and Gary Snyder would lead to the writing of The Dharma Bums and Big Sur. The latter also the subject of a recent film of the same name produced by Bureau of Arts and Culture friend and associate, Mr. Orion Williams. In a letter written to Philip Whalen dated Nov 22, 1955 Kerouac describes his stay in Berkeley, " Dear Phil, Thank You for the needed hospitality - Now I know that the hidden reason for my coming to California again when I really didn't want to, was to meet you & Gary - The two best men I ever met - I'll drop you a card from where I'll be next week - Yours forever in the Dharma, Jack "
Kerouac writes to Gary Snyder in a letter dated Jan 15 1956, thanking him for suggesting to apply as a look out in The Washington State Cascade Mountains. "Just finished [writing] a long novel … Visions of Gerard, my best. most serious, sad & true book yet … If I should ever make big money with my books, count on seeing me in Japan for sure… Me, my letters are like this, long and confused, because that's my mind, long and confused, I'm writing a dozen things and typing all the time and all fucked up & enthusiastic and shooting baskets in the yard and running in the woods with kids & dogs and so this letter has distraught look." A year away from publishing On The Road and at an all time low, Kerouac writes to Malcolm Cowley in May of 1956, " I'm in a real straits now, my jeans are all torn, I'm living in a shack with a woodstove, rent free, have no money whatever, don't care (much), and am waiting day after day for word from you concerning … On The Road … it breaks my heart to be neglected so." But within weeks Kerouac headed up to Washington State and renewed his work & attitude.
Although, the relationship between Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac was a contentious one, it was also a very true friendship. In the spring of 1957, Allen loaned Jack enough money to travel abroad to visit Bill Burroughs in Tangier. Burroughs had recently taken the cure in England and was bent on gathering his various writings and creating a novel with the help of his friends. Kerouac writes to Edie Parker on Jan 28, 1957 from New York, just before the trip abroad, describing Burroughs, "He is a great gentlemen and as you may know has become a great writer, in fact all the big wigs are afraid of him (W.H. Auden. etc…) Allen never loses track of me even when I try to hide. He does me many favors publicizing my name. Well, we're old friends anyway. But I can't keep up with the hectic fame life he wants and so, I won't stay with them long in Tangier."
While in Tangiers Kerouac received edited versions of recent works and was aghast at the hack job. Rather than have his work butchered by the publishers, Kerouac holds firm to his belief in his work and writes to Sterling Lord on March 4, 1957, " I'd rather die than betray my faith in my work which is inseparable from my life, without this faith any kind of money is mockery…" Still in Tangier with Burroughs, he follows this up on March 25 1957 with another letter to Mr. Lord, " I feel like I definitely did the right thing… that it will definitely bear fruit in the end. Hemingway went through the same trouble in early 1920s and had he succumbed to the ideas of the editors, there would have been no 'Hemingway Style' at all and nothing great about The Lost Generation. Ditto Faulkner in 30s." Meanwhile, Jack made a living typing up Burroughs' manuscripts in trade for meals and took long hikes around Tangiers, absorbing the culture & the scenery.
Two things happened in early April of 1957 that changed the face of literature. The first was notification from Kerouac's agent that On The Road had been sold & the second was that Allen Ginsberg's epic poem entitled, "Howl," had been banned and deemed unfit for children to read. Finally, exactly what the two authors had been working on all their lives, for Jack, it was acceptance, for Allen, it was a defiant chance to challenge the establishment. Both had succeeded in their goals.
To this day, both works are taught, studied and read just about everywhere with fine film adaptions of each. In a letter to his agent, dated April 3, 1957, Kerouac describes his appreciation and plans for the future. " It's wonderful, Sterling, the way you have been making things hum. I am going to take advantage of this apparently prosperous year and come right home and set up my abode proper. I have an idea for a wonderful follow up for On The Road … Meanwhile I have been digging Morocco… last night Ramadan, the annual Mohammedan fast, started here, with a blast of cannon shot in the bay and then, like smoke over rooftops at 2AM came the lonely sweet flutes … the saddest sound in the world." Within a month Kerouac had returned to America, had gathered all his belongings and moved to Berkeley California. Within a week, Lawrence Ferlinghetti of City Lights Books was arrested for selling HOWL. One of the most celebrated court cases in history followed. Is it Art or Is it Obscene ? Eventually Allen Ginsberg triumphed and it became a victory for intellectuals, artists & writers who push the envelope.
Jack Keruoac had finally gone public. Neal Cassady, Jacks inspiration for the novel, On The Road, had become a character in another man's work of art. He had been a drifter for years, a wayward and wandering soul. Neal would go on to be an influential part of the American subculture with writers such as Ken Kesey, who penned, "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest'. One of the few novels that Jack Kerouac, not only appreciated, but deservedly so, wrote an introductory blurb. Neal himself would be dogged by bad luck from the law, eventually doing time in prison for an entrapment drug deal with a substance that is now used by doctors throughout the world: marijuana. Neal Cassday's letters of this period are available in the book untitled, "Grace Beats Karma: Letters from Prison.' Even to this day, he is the target of lesser than human beings, who have no idea what living is even about. In the final lines of the newly published Original Scroll version of On The Road, Jack Kerouac writes, "I know by now the evening - star must be drooping and shedding her sparkler dims on the prairie, which is just before the coming of complete night that blesses the earth, darkens all rivers, cups the peaks in the west and folds the last and final shore in, and nobody, just nobody knows what's going to happen to anybody besides the forlorn rags of growing old, I think of Neal Cassady, I even think of the Old Neal Cassady the father we never found, I think of Neal Cassady, I think of Neal Cassady. " The End.
All Items on This Page Are only a Portion of The Magazine
JACK KEROUAC : The Novels + Other Selected Works
The Town and the City 1950
On the Road 1957
The Subterraneans 1958
The Dharma Bums 1958
Dr. Sax 1959
Maggie Cassidy 1959
Mexico City Blues: 242 Choruses 1959
Book of Dreams 1960
Tristessa 1960
Visions of Cody 1960
The Scripture of the Golden Eternity 1960
Lonesome Traveler 1960
Pull My Daisy 1961
Big Sur 1962
Visions of Gerard 1963
Desolation Angels 1965
Satori in Paris 1966
Vanity of Duluoz 1968
Pic 1971
Scattered Poems 1971
Old Angel Midnight 1973
Trip Trap: Haiku on the Road (with Albert Saijo & Lew Welch) 1973
Heaven and Other Poems 1977
San Francisco Blues 1991
Pomes All Sizes 1992
Good Blonde and Others 1993
Book of Blues 1995
Jack Kerouac: Selected Letters, Vol. 1, 1940-1956 1996
Some of the Dharma 1997
Atop an Underwood: Early Stories and Other Writings 1999
Kerouac: Selected Letters: Volume 2: 1957-1969 2000
Orpheus Emerged 2000
Book of Dreams 2001
Book of Haikus 2003
On the Road: The Original Scroll 2008
And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks 2010
Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg: The Letters 2011
The Sea Is My Brother 2012
The Haunted Life 2014
O Rich and Unbelievable Life : Uncollected Prose 2016
THE AMERICAN ICON: ARTHUR MILLER
By Joshua A. TRILIEGI for BUREAU of Arts and Culture / LITERARY Edition SPRING 2015
Arthur Miller is turning 100 years of age this year and as it turns out: his works are more important than ever. Miller went toe to toe with mainstream ideology, with the dilemma's of war, with group thinking and paranoia, with religion, with celebrity machinery and even with the government of the United States of America during one of the worst chapters in our history: The McCarthy years. For those of you too young to remember or too old to want to remember. Senator Joe McCarthy led a witch hunt that was focused on left leaning individuals of all sorts, but specifically, those in the field of entertainment. Directors, writers, actors and producers were demanded to testify against their friends and associates publicly, privately, overtly or with discretion. Arthur Miller did no such thing, he refused to name names. He was found in contempt of court and later exonerated of all charges. Miller is a soul searching playwright who introduces ideas in the great American sagas such as, "Death of a Salesman," "All My Sons," "The Crucible," and spreads them out like a deck of cards for all to see and eventually to play with. Theater, unlike film, has a forever and ongoing growing relationship with interpretation, with the populist, with the times and with the future. Millers plays are produced all over the world, "Death of a Japanese Salesman," was extremely popular overseas. The Arthur Miller literary works are and have been interpreted and produced in dozens of languages and remain extremely relevant. Ever since the attacks of 9/11, here in America, a very similar situation surfaced, creatively and culturally speaking, we have not quite recovered. The freedom to speak out against abuses of power, against political policy or those in power is almost entirely absent.
Major news organizations have fallen to the wayside, when it comes to investigative journalism and most others march in step with the current politically correct aspects of today's society. Entertainers are afraid to speak out for fear of losing a role or a job or alienating either their audience or the advertisers. Miller's plays delve into these subject matters deeply, dramatically and with a great deal of consequence to relationships. "Salesman." deals with family deceit, the changing of American values and memory. "All my Sons," is a scorching and scathing look at the war machine, that has direct ties to rather recent political family histories here in America. "The Crucible," is a direct metaphor for the McCarthy era as well as an intensively researched project that brings to life the disturbing, but entirely factual witch hunts that happened in America and abroad : 100s of women were murdered for hysteria and paranoia. Millers plays are not overtly political, they are much more about relationship, family and community at every level. Ultimately, they are about mankind. The popularity of his catalogue has only grown through the years and deservedly so. On a personal level, Mr Miller's life had some extreme ups and downs and through it all he remained calm, elusive, focused and intelligent. Miller has always been very forthright about his works, his views and his ideas of life. To my mind, he is a true patriot, unafraid to ask the difficult questions that arise when involved in an experiment as beautiful as America. He served as the president of the PEN Organization in the mid 1960s. Miller also has the special quality that says to anyone at anytime: "Fuck You," as you can see he expresses in the image related to this article during a press conference. In the back pages of this edition you will find an extensive list with links to over fifty up and coming Miller plays around the world. And so, today we salute the man, the mind, the icon, the artist, the writer and the great and beautiful defiance of this Original American of Letters: Mr. Arthur Miller.
BUREAU LITERARY : MUSIC
THE ROLLING STONES : LITERARY BARDS ?
What is Art ? What is a Classic ? What is Literature ? When is something all of the above ? Why is Rock & Roll Music so damn powerful to us ? It could be that great music tells a narrative just as convincingly as a short story, poem or novel. Sometimes it can even tell that story better. Case in point, Mick Jagger & Keith Richards Classic 1968 song entitled, "Sympathy for the Devil." Today, we look at the song, asking the question: Can Music Be Literature ? And If so, Why ?
The title of the song is, "Sympathy for The Devil." It sounds like a Novel from World War One by Somerset Maugham or a historical piece explaining the rise of fascism in Europe during the 1930s or even a poem by T. S. Elliot. The narrator of the story is a Faustian Mephisto or as he is known in Christo-Judeo belief: The Devil. Our story opens, following a fabulous drum solo, with a grand and eloquent self-introduction, "Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste." He continues, "I've been around for a long, long year, stole many a man's soul to waste," explaining further, "I was around when Jesus Christ had his moment of doubt and pain." It is a devastating first meeting. The very prince of darkness himself is addressing the reader or in this case the listener. Lets put this into context. In 1968, the year this song was released, the world was in turmoil: Political Assassinations, Vietnam, Uprisings in France, Czechoslovakia, The Anti War Movement in America and a rising youth culture had recognized that evil could be anywhere and clearly, these were definitely historical times.
"Jagger and Richards tapped into the moment with aclear and present evils, but instead, reminds the listener that it was here before, it is here now, it will be here after."
Jagger and Richards tapped into the moment with a diabolical diatribe that does not turn away from the clear and present evils, but instead, reminds the listener that it was here before, it is here now, it will be here after. The story continues with a historical look backward, "Stuck around St. Petersburg when I saw it was a time for a change," referring to the Russian Revolution, "I killed the Czar and his ministers, Anastasia screamed in vain." The narration swiftly moves through time to World War II, "I rode a tank, held a general's rank, when the blitzkrieg raged and the bodies stank." Then after a chorus or two, entirely demolishes a hundred years of monarchy with the single line, "I watched with glee, while your kings and queens, fought for ten decades, for the gods they made." And then it peaks with the most devastating idea of the entire work, "I shouted out, "Who killed the Kennedy's ?" When after all, it was you and me." A shattering description that accuses the listener of committing murder: Astonishing. The devise of having a narrator speaking directly to his or her audience goes back as far as The Greek Tragedies and Shakespeare.
The same literary device was used a few years earlier in John Burgess', "A Clockwork Orange" which was later turned into the classic piece of cinema by director Stanley Kubrik. But here, Jagger and Richards put us face to face with the devil himself, presenting him as a man of power, a man of manners, a man of the world and simply a man who is very proud of his many accomplishments, however destructive they may be. The song lyrics take a slightly poetic turn, even in their maniacal aspects with the following phrase,"Just as every cop is a criminal and all the sinners saints. As heads is tails, just call me Lucifer, 'cause I'm in need of some restraint." Then after several chorus' including the echoing line, "Please to meet you, hope you guessed my name," a foreboding warning statement is pressed onto the listener with the final phrase, "So if you meet me, have some courtesy, have some sympathy, and some taste. Use all your well-learned politics or I'll lay your soul to waste." The listener is literally warned to not only respect the narrator, but to have some sympathy. Demanding respect for the dark side of our very nature. The song is a time capsule , a declaration of madness and a warning of future conflicts. It is a fine example of the use of language in creating effective storytelling. It's also simply a great song. But is it Literature with a capital "L" ? If so why ?
"The song is a time capsule, a declaration of madness and a warning of future conflicts. It is a fine example of the use of language in creating effective storytelling. It's also simply : a great song."
For one, it speaks to more than one generation, the story has lasted, at least so far, as an important tragedy of not only it's time, but the song is still currently played on radios stations around the world. In other words, the book is still in print. The play is still on broadway. The public is still interested. Two, the song literally helped to define the actual times with which it was written: The 1960s. It is one of the actual anthems of the period. It may be the most important of the brave literary works to be a part of The Rock & Roll song book ever. Three, it actually speaks to a larger historical context with it's many references to world events and it's ongoing and foreboding demands of a future disaster. The song and narrator lives on in it's very description of itself. Why does this make it Literature ? Well, it doesn't. What does make it Literature ? In my estimation, it is the employment of ideas, the minimum use of narrative, the poetic turns of lyricism, the audacious accusations of the storyteller and the ability to open the imagination to world events that existed prior to the songs invention. Good literature, good fiction, good poetry, good writing, do this for the reader. Good literature will utilize history, experience, tragedy. Good literature will challenge power, normalcy, self-righteousness. Good literature will demand, entertain and sometimes even accuse the reader of the very experiences that mankind has allowed to happen. The Holocaust, Slavery, Genocide, War, Murder and Acts of Cruelty: Who would think to offer these subjects in a Song ? Sympathy For The Devil is very heavy material. Jagger and Richards use their platform to discuss important issues of modernity and history in a way that indeed transports, elevates and activates the same devices used by great writers around the world and that is why this song is ultimately a great piece of fine Literature.
INTERVIEW : AUTHOR MICHELLE ARBEAU
NUMEROLOGY is a rather ancient and esoteric art, but anybody who has spent time with a good Numerologist and had a reading would be hard pressed to deny the accuracy. Would you explain the history of this particular science and explain what attracted you to it ?
Numerology is the language of the universe. Everything in existence can be counted, sorted or measured using numbers. It was originally discovered by the Greek Mathematician and philosopher, Pythagoras who of course is famous for the Pythagorean Theorem. Unlike other esoteric arts like tarot and astrology, numerology is highly accurate because it's more quantum physics than metaphysics. Numbers are patterns and the world is made up of patterns. It's black and white, right or wrong. I fell in love with numbers and numerology about 12 years ago when I began dreaming in numbers out of the blue. I was a typical corporate stiff at the time, working unhappily in the field of banking for a major bank in Canada doing HR work (interviews/hiring). These dreams totally caught me off guard but in hindsight I realized numerology was my calling because I always had a photographic memory for numbers. My dreams would have numbers show up on things like doors, license plates and street signs – everywhere and on everything. The dreams lasted for about 3 weeks until I began to research the number codes and stumbled upon numerology. They number meanings were exact answers to the challenges I was facing in my life at the time. I was astounded and was immediately hooked on the ancient system. To this day (knock on wood) I have not had anyone not resonate with their numerical code. I often refer to our date of birth as spiritual DNA.
Many people see numbers and numerals as un-living entities with no significance, though others understand that everything has a vibe, a rhythm, a pulse and tone. I think musicians that compose
understand that significance, would you help our readers comprehend the concept of numerology.
Numbers are absolutely entities to me. I'm a very practical person who likes a great deal of fact with my faith but I can tell you without a doubt that numerology is a way to see the unseen world of energy. Quantum physics has really given a lot of validity to numerology over the past several years with the new string theory concept. The essence behind this theory is that at the base of an atom, which was once thought to be solid matter is actually frozen light particles (aka energy). Numerology is a tool to see the unseen, recognize the patterns that make up all things. Math is either right or wrong, there is no grey area. They are the mathematical framework of creation. Numbers appear even in biblical scriptures and in the Mayan history. Each number is building block and can be likened to a musical note within a song. Each note makes a piece of the entire melody. To know someone' s numerical makeup is to have a looking glass into what makes them tick – who they are and how to relate to them. As a numerologist, I'm always curious to find out the numbers of the people I meet because it allows me to adjust how I communicate and interact with them. I can be found scribbling numbers on a napkin at a restaurant. I know immediately what that person is all about and we have a deeper, strong connection because of it. Life boils down to the relationships we have with others and if we have a tool like numerology that can help us connect better, that's a win-win to me.
BUREAU: I was recently moving and had to pick and choose which books I would leave behind and which to keep, one of the books was a rare early numerology handbook form decades past: I kept it. Walk us through a small numerology exercise as an example. Utilize my birthday if you like.
It sounds like you're a numbers person if you felt drawn to keep the numerology book. I find that certain kinds of people are drawn more to the numbers than others. The mind plane dominate folks are usually the ones that are keen on the numbers while the more soul-centered people don't jive as much. Life is about perception. I find that it depends on whether you're predominately a thinker, feeler or doer. Spirit will speak to us and get the message across in the way we'll most pay attention and for me it's numerical patterns. Your date of birth is an interesting one because your base energy (sum of your date of birth) is a physical-based number (4) but your chart energy is very top heavy in the emotional and mental realms. Essentially you're the practical doer but you're lacking grounding energy which means you spend a good deal of your time in lost in thought or sorting through the emotional realm. If you could envision our energy as being this huge head/heart with a little, tiny stick body – that would be your energetic body. You have the Arrow of Emotional Balance which makes you the natural counselor for others but not necessarily great at navigating through your own emotional waters. You express yourself much better in writing than you do verbally because you have a single 1 (verbal self-expression number). This isn't to say you can't kick butt public speaking but when it comes to sharing of your more intimate self, that's where the disconnect happens. You are much more open and present on paper (don't close up). You also have the gift of the communication number so anything you do will center around communication and getting the message across. If you add your month and day it shows you what your gift is. It's a 10 for you, the earth guide who leads through casual conversation. This is a big year for you, a year of opportunities falling into your lap. It's starting a high change cycle for the next 3 years. You're also in an outer, longer cycle centered around career/career shifting (Peak cycle of 5). I left the corporate world to do what I do now under a double whammy 5 energy (personal year of 5, peak cycle of 5). 5 is always related to seeing more clearly our path and purpose.
BUREAU: Could you give us an example of how numerology could transform or improve a particular situation ?
Numerology has been such an incredible tool for me to understand the difficult relationships in my life. Often relationship challenges are a result of miscommunication or misunderstanding. Think of the classic nagging wife and tuned out husband who says “Yes, dear.” They are simply a case of being misunderstood. If you were to examine their situation, you would discover that the wife is simply a predominately mental or intellectual based person who tends to over-think or over-analyze. The husband on the other hand is a physical based person who doesn't put much thought into what he does, he just does it. Each thinks the other doesn't understand them or is directly trying to hurt them in some way. The truth is, it's just a matter of not speaking each others' language. Once the husband knows the wife gets caught up in her own thoughts, he can offer to go for a walk with her to help her get out of her head. Likewise, the wife, knowing the husband isn't ignoring her, he just tunes out when she gets into over-thinking mode can appreciate he feels overwhelmed by her chaotic thinking. Each has much more patience and understanding for each other once they know their inner workings by examining their spiritual DNA.
BUREAU: There have been some stigmas attached to certain ancient arts, sometimes because they have been misused, other times simply out of fear or misunderstanding the purpose of these arts. Could you talk a bit about how you see the self empowerment aspect of this ancient art ?
The best thing I ever did for my platform to take the science of numerology mainstream in the media is to keep it practical and in the realm of science. I was able to get onto national Canadian media such as CTV Morning Live and Breakfast Television which are huge conservative media outlets. They typically wouldn't even consider having someone like me on air but I was able to bridge the gap between science and spirituality. I call it practical spirituality. We live real lives and don't have time to meditate on a mountaintop. Numerology is a quick and easy way to see the unseen. I always approach numerology from the practical, scientific and logical point of view. I think I'm giving a new voice to this ancient art because people aren't afraid of how I present the numbers. I had a near death experience when I was 4 and although I'm a really practical person, I've seen both sides of life and I know without a doubt there is an energetic component to our existence. I use this knowledge and apply it to how I share the art of numerology. Most people automatically know what astrology is but when you say numerology, not everyone knows what that is. Numbers have become a hot item these days with so many people seeing random repeating number sequences. It's a phenomenon and I'm so excited to be the one to share the ancient art of numerology with the world. To be able to show them how incredibly accurate and truth-revealing it can be is very rewarding. My job is to give ah-ha moments. I'm a truth-revealer at my core. A natural scientist. The timing couldn't be more perfect for me to embrace my calling.
Illustration by Jules ENGEL Tap here: Image is Available / Provided by Tobey C. MOSS Gallery L.A. CA USA
BOOKS : DENNIS WILLS
Dennis Wills runs D.G.Wills Books in La Jolla CA USA which is having it's 35th Anniversary this year. Guest readers through the years include: Norman Mailer, Russel Means, Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Ted Joans, Mary Woronov, Michael McClure, Mort Sahl, Ralph Nader, Lawrence Ferlinghetti & Gore Vidal. Bureau spoke to Dennis about his storied history and this local literary landmark.
Bureau: Your bookstore has a story straight out of literature history. Tell our readers a bit about the store.
DW: I opened the original D. G. Wills Books at 7527 La Jolla Blvd. in late 1979, on an outdoor wooden deck between two buildings, with a tiny adjacent office. While I eventually installed a fiberglass roof over this wooden deck, our first few poetry readings were under the open sky. Artist Francoise Gilot asked us to convert a space adjacent to the bookshop into her artist studio in the late 1980s, as the bookshop reminded her of Paris. But in l991 we moved the bookshop to 7461 Girard Avenue, where my carpenter friends and I remodeled the building and installed the redwood cathedral ceiling and spruce floor.
Bureau: In today's world, the rarity of a place like yours is on par with Shakespeare and Company in Paris and City Lights in San Francisco. How do you keep it going ?
DW: Thanks for the kind words. We were lucky that George Whitman of Shakespeare and Company spoke at the old shop on La Jolla Blvd. years ago. Then Lawrence Ferlinghetti of City Lights read poetry at the new shop on Girard Avenue. We have kept it going by working seven days a week, not minding being in constant debt, and enjoying the company of our many friends within the confines of the bookshop.
Bureau: You have had some very serious guests and events of a completely top notch variety, tell us a few stories about those experiences: Norman Mailer for instance.
DW: When poet Gary Snyder read poetry here in l992, he had such a good time that he gave us Allen Ginsberg's telephone and told us to call him. Then Allen appeared here in 1994 and drew our largest crowd, 100 people crammed inside and over 400 outside. Later Michael McClure was mystical; Lawrence Ferlinghetti was funny and wise; former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins absolutely charming and hilarious; and playwright Edward Albee brilliantly engaging with the audience. Four different TV station satellite trucks, and a police car, showed up for Oliver Stone. We set up a bar in the back with four different kinds of whiskey for Norman Mailer, who then talked about his book on Lee Harvey Oswald. For Christopher Hitchens we happily provided Canadian Rothman Blue cigarettes and especially a fifth of his beloved Johnny Walker Black whiskey, which a group of us somehow finished. Gore Vidal, brilliant and witty, brought down the house with his wickedly funny impersonation of Truman Capote. Nobel Laureate Francis Crick was eloquently patrician discussing the wonders of science. Francoise Gilot most eloquently shared her first-hand recollections of Picasso and Matisse. Pulitzer Prize journalist Maureen Dowd and Jill Abramson, Executive Editor of the "New York Times," appeared together and shared their insider perspective on Washington politics.
Bureau: What are you currently reading ?
DW: I continue to research material pertaining to Somerset Maugham's work as a British Red Cross ambulance driver attached to the French Second Army in late 1914 during World War I, in Northern France along the Picardy Front, then later in Ypres, Belgium.
Bureau: Tell us a bit about your community and the organizations that support the store.
DW: We are most fortunate in the San Diego area to be surrounded by such universities as UCSD, SDSU and USD as well as a number of biomedical research facilities such as the Salk Institute. Thus students and faculty have enjoyed our academic and scholarly books here for thirty-five years.
Bureau: When I look at images of the store through the years, I feel like i am looking at a friends family album and parties I attended. Tells us about your family.
DW: My beloved mother and father passed away years ago. But it could indeed be argued that the bookshop, the books within and all of our beloved customers and friends have always served as my family.
Bureau: Literature, like any art form, gains popularity, wanes and then gains popularity again, where are we now in that ebb & flow ?
DW: Difficult to say; iconic works of literature which have passed the test of time continued to be studied, while new talent continues to emerge. Some new works enjoy a hot spell, then fade; others endure which only the passage of time may determine.
Bureau: Who else has read at the store and what will be your upcoming events ?
USD Literature Professor Halina Duraj will read from her new short story collection "The Family Cannon" on Saturday at 7 P.M., 10 May. Otherwise we have nothing yet scheduled thereafter. Other events will probably pop up for the Fall.
Bureau: Are you a writer, if so, tell us about that process. if not tell us something about the ART of Reading .
DW: I tend to write letters to authors, especially if we seek their appearance here. Otherwise I continue to work on a project involving ambulance drivers in World War I.
Bureau: Its been a pleasure to talk with you. Would you provide a list of suggested reading for this season that people can purchase at the store ?
DW: We buy a lot of single copies of this and that. Though at this point in time I would suggest:
1)The Torrey Pines Gliderport, Gary Fogel, Arcadia
2)Selected Essays of Erich Auerbach, Ed. by James I. Porter, Princeton
3)My Sister Rosalind Franklin, Jenifer Glynn, Oxford
4)Essays and Reviews, Bernard Williams, Princeton
5)In Paradise, Peter Matthiessen, Riverhead
6)The Withering Storm, Sandor Marai, Alma Classics
7)The Letters of William Gaddis, Ed. by Steven Moore, Dalkey Archive
8)A Broken Heritage: Rock and Roll, Redemption, and the Life of Leonard Cohen, Liel Leibovitz
9)Patrick Leigh Fermor, Artemis Cooper, New York Review of Books Press
10) The Circle, Dave Eggers, McSweeney's Books
7461 Girard Avenue, La Jolla, Ca. 92037 (858)456-1800
HOURS: Monday-Saturday 10am-7pm; Sunday 11am-5pm
The LITERATURE INTERVIEW
LUIS VALDEZ: WRITER
By Joshua TRILIEGI
Luis VALDEZ changed The Entire Literature Landscape with his Fierce Hit Play, "ZOOT SUIT". Here in Southern California, The Play is much more than words. It is a personal and positive Idea that gave many people the inspiration to do something with the things they saw, not only in their homes and neighborhoods , but to reclaim what was happening in the media, to own the stories that they were being told and to simply reclaim what was rightfully theirs to begin with: Their Own Family Stories. In This Interview Bureau Editor Joshua TRILIEGI and Luis VALDEZ discuss his career, his working process and the development of a powerful force that continues to inspire millions of Indigenous People around the World and teaches everybody else.
Mr Valdez went on to create The Film "LA BAMBA", which told the very important story of Latin Musician & Songwriter, Ritchie Valens. Fueled by the proliferation of 1950's Retro Nostalgic Films such as American Graffiti and its follow up Happy Days, as well as The Musical Biographical genre's popularity of projects like The Buddy Holly Story, Elvis and the like: LA BAMBA was the perfect project that entirely launched the energy and force of ZOOT SUIT into the stratosphere of popular media and culture, finally a story that rightfully claimed, explained and honored The Latino Experience, or as Luis Valdez might put it, "The Chicano Experience" in popular music history. The film itself touches on the family paradigm in both mythical and real
circumstances. A beautiful & entertaining film that holds up today just as it originally did upon its creation. In the same way that Zoot Suit gave us the career of Edward James Olmos, 'The Chicano Bogart', La Bamba gave us a multitude of talent in front of and behind the scenes: Lou Diamond Phillips, Esai Morales, Los Lobos & Others. Since then, Mr Valdez has continued his influence as The Worlds Leading Latino and Chicano Playwright traveling everywhere, all the time, sharing his great wealth of knowledge and experience with a world thirsty for truth, experience & entertainment.
We are proud to bring you Luis VALDEZ, unexpurgated, uninhibited and unbeaten.
Joshua TRILIEGI: First of all, It is a pleasure to share your experience with our readers. We attended the Los Angeles Anniversary screening of Zoot Suit and later bought and re read the play. There is so much in it: reality, folklore and a fierce power as well as a genuinely hip musical element, could you share with us how that piece originally formed in your mind and how you developed it into the groundbreaking Broadway play ?
Luis VALDEZ: In the Fall of 1977, I was commissioned by Gordon Davidson, artistic director of the Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum in LA, to write a play based on an infamous chapter of Los Angeles history, specifically the Sleepy Lagoon Case of 1942 and the subsequent Zoot Suit Riots of 1943. Although hardly forgotten in the Chicano barrios, the Pachuco Era had been buried in the dust bins of oblivion by Anglo officialdom which preferred not to commemorate painful past embarrassments. An entire new generation born after World War II hardly knew anything about the pachucos, though inevitably, in the mid 60s, young Mexican Americans began to call themselves Chicanos, as the legacy of their zoot-suited barrio forbearers kicked in, inheriting their racial pride, urban slang and cultural defiance.
The generational difference was that many of these Chicano(a)s were now speaking their patois in colleges or universities. But the painful sting of the Zoot Suit Riots and the Sleepy Lagoon Case still persisted in the barrios, like an old suppurating wound that was taking decades to heal. My play thus inadvertently became a way to deal directly with the psychic damage inflicted on the East LA barrios by the Zoot Suit Riots by opening up the old racist wound and airing it in the public arena of the theater. The truth of this became evident when the play sold out at the Mark Taper even before it opened, and when the public followed the play to the Aquarius Theater in Hollywood. It ran there for eleven months, and in the end, more than 400,000 people came to see it. Half of them were Chicanos, most of whom had never seen a play before. This then motivated the move to the Winter Garden Theatre in New York City in 1979, where Zoot Suit became the first Chicano play to make it to Broadway.
The roots of the play, however, lie far from the Great White Way. I was born in a farm labor camp in Delano, California in 1940. In those days Delano was a hot spot in the San Joaquin Valley, and we had our own pachucos in the “Chinatown” barrio on the westside. One of them was my cousin Billy; another was his running partner C.C.. Billy spoke a fluid pachuco patois, so he taught me to call myself “Chicano” even thought I was only six. I learned a lot about the pachucos, including their slang and style of being, in this most intimate and familial way. Tragically, Billy died a violent death in Phoenix, eighteen knife wounds to the chest. But his running partner C.C. survived, joined the Navy and came home one day to marry and settle down. In 1965, when I told my mother in San Jose that I was returning to Delano to form a farm workers theater with the grape strikers, my Mom said: “Oh, you’re going to work with C.C.?” “C.C.?” I said, “Is that vato still around?” “Mijo,” my mother responded, “Don’t you know who C.C. is? He’s Cesar Chavez.”
In 1970, El Teatro Campesino, the Farm Workers Theater born on the picket lines of the Great Delano Grape Strike, produced my first full length play since college. It was called “Bernabe,” with a character called “La Luna” appearing in a bit part as a mythical Pachuco in a suit of lights. The character was so intriguing, I knew right away that he deserved a play of his own. Seven years later, when Gordon Davidson asked me to write about the Sleepy Lagoon, I chose to make El Pachuco the mythical central figure, both as master of ceremonies and alter ego of Henry “Hank” Reyna, the protagonist and leader of the 38 Street Gang. Above all, El Pachuco became the guide, the storyteller, so that the history of the Sleepy Lagoon Case and the Zoot Suit Riots could be told through a Chicano POV. The rest, as the saying goes, is American theater history.
Joshua TRILIEGI: Something about your work is so very true, genuine and original, at the same time, you speak for a good many individuals in the community. Would you talk a bit about staying true to one's vision and at the same time tapping into a larger truth, for not only our own communities, but for the world.
Luis VALDEZ: I wrote my first plays at San Jose State, graduating in ’64 with a BA in English with an emphasis in playwriting. It was not the most practical choice for a son of migrant farm workers, much less a Chicano, but I was determined to follow my heart. I had gotten hooked on theatre in the first grade in 1946, when I was cast in the Christmas school play. I was to play a monkey wearing a mask my teacher made, turning my brown taco bag into paper maché. I was exhilarated. Then the week of my great debut, my migrant family was evicted from the labor camp where we had overstayed our welcome. I was never in the play. A great hole of despair opened up in my chest. It could have destroyed me. But I learned early on that negatives can always be turned into positives. I took with me two things: one, the secret of paper maché, which allowed to make my own masks and puppets; and two, a deep, residual anger for my family’s eviction from the labor camp. Twenty years later, I went to Cesar Chavez and pitched him my idea for a theater of, by and for farm workers. And so the hole in my chest became the hungry mouth of my creativity, into which I have been pouring plays, poems, essays, screenplays, books, etc. for almost 70 years.
Joshua TRILIEGI: The Los Angeles and California scene has changed, grown and developed into a much stronger unification than ever before, [ Since the 1970's ] when ZOOT SUIT made it's initial impression. Your work is a big part of that growth.Tell us about your humble beginnings making plays and skits locally, before unveiling some of your opus masterworks.
Luis VALDEZ: The challenge of creating theater with striking campesinos was a humbling experience. Cesar had warned me from the start: “There’s no money to do theatre in Delano,” he told me. “There’s no actors, no stage, no time even to rehearse. We’re on the picket line night day. Do you still want to take a crack at it?” “Absolutely, Cesar!” I responded. “What an opportunity!” I was, of course, thinking about spirit of the movement he had started. But he was absolutely right. By necessity, El Teatro Campesino was born on the picket line. In time, we began to perform at the NFWA’S Friday night meetings. The National Farm Workers Association may have been rich in spirit but it was dead broke. After college, I had joined the San Francisco Mime Troupe for a year, performing in city parks, learning the improvisational techniques of Commedia dell Arte. This knowledge proved to be more useful in Delano than all the theater history I had learned at SJS. But my greatest revelation came from the campesinos themselves. As actors and audience, they taught me to stay down to earth; to stay away from all the pretentious artsy crap and to get to the point with actos that were clear and hard hitting. Above all, to stay positive and hopeful. “Don’t talk about it, do it!” became an essential Teatro precept. Later when we began to stage Actos about the Chicano Movement, the Vietnam War and racism in the schools, we found our audiences in LA, Chicano and New York no less responsive to our basic simplicity than the original grape strikers. “Zoot Suit” came about a dozen years after the birth of El Teatro, but the roots of my musical play like those of the original pachucos reach deep into the barrio earth.
Joshua TRILIEGI: I attended the auditions for LA BAMBA at Los Angeles Theater Complex in the Nineteen - Eighties. The excitement around the project was, and still is, very much alive and entirely current. Tell us a bit about that experience.
Luis VALDEZ: Before it was a film, LA BAMBA was originally going to be a stage musical by me and my brother Daniel. It was actually conceived on the Opening Night of Zoot Suit in New York. We were at the Winter Garden Theater on Broadway, and as I made my final rounds before curtain time, I dropped into my brother’s dressing room on the second floor. As the lead actor in the play with Edward James Olmos, Daniel was in high spirits. We both were. We had came a long way from Delano. Celebrating our success, we pledged that now that we had brought the 40s to Broadway, we should bring the 50s. But how, with what? At that exact moment, we heard mariachi music. Looking out the dressing room window, down toward Seventh Avenue, we spotted a gilded, fully suited band of mariachis playing up toward us. We didn’t know it at that moment but the President of Mexico had sent mariachis to serenade us on opening night. Daniel and I recognized the tune immediately. It was the answer to the question we had just posed to each other about our next musical. We simultaneously
laughed and said the words to each other: LA BAMBA!
It took five years to bring the project to fruition. The biggest problem turned out to be the lack of biographical material about Ritchie Valens, born Richard Valenzuela, in 1941 Los Angeles. There were a few articles in old magazines, but no published book or biography. What’s worse, Daniel had no success at all in finding surviving members of Ritchie’s family. They were long gone from Pacoima in the San Fernando Valley, where they lived in the 50s, 60s and 70s, and in the early 80s, before the internet, there was no social network to tap into. Without direct contact with the family, LA BAMBA was turning into a pipe dream. Somewhat dispirited, Daniel came back from Los Angeles to San Juan Bautista, home base of El Teatro Campesino, vowing nonetheless to keep on searching. Then one night, as life’s ironies would have it, he finally met Ritchie’s older half brother, Bob Morales. He met him in San Juan Bautista in Daisy’s Saloon! It turned out that Bob and most of Ritchie’s family now lived fifteen miles away in Watsonville, and he occasionally frequented Daisy’s with his biker friends. One thing quickly led to another. Bob took Daniel to meet Connie Valenzuela,Ritchie’s mom, then Daniel took me to meet the entire family. Within days, we took the story to our old friend Taylor Hackford in Hollywood, who agreed to option Ritchie’s story as a biopic for the big screen with Columbia Pictures. I wrote the screenplay over the winter and once we got a green light, I directed the picture the following summer, with my brother as associate producer. In the end, our biopic ended up grossing more than 100 million world wide. Very few movies come into being quite so precipitously. But there were twists of fate. We had originally intended the part of Ritchie Valens as a vehicle for my bro, But by the time we got the green light, Daniel graciously conceded that at 37 he could no longer pass as 17. So for all of his efforts, he generously created an opportunity to make a star out of Lou Diamond Phillips.
Joshua TRILIEGI: A writers experience with his or her collaborators is rather important, in your case: Los Lobos, Edward James Olmos, Lou Diamond Phillips to name a few. Will you talk about how much input you had at the time these projects were in development in choosing these fellow artists.
Luis VALDEZ: During the casting of Zoot Suit at the Mark Taper Forum in ’78, our greatest dilemma turned out to be the part of El Pachuco. I wrote the script with my brother Daniel in mind, though I saw him as both Henry Reyna and El Pachuco. The issue of nepotism aside, we had been collaborating within El Teatro Campesino for a dozen years before Zoot Suit came along. So it was only natural for him to serve as my unique role model for the play. Unfortunately,unlike film, he could not play two roles onstage simultaneously. So we set out on our quest to find one or the other. After an exhausting two weeks in LA, unable to find an alternate Henry or Pachuco among hundreds of actors, I took the weekend to be with my wife Lupe back in San Juan, where she was recuperating after giving birth to our third son Lakin on the very day I finished the script. Daniel continued with the auditions. A day or so later, he called me with subdued excitement: “Guess what?” he said, “I found El Pachuco!”
It turned out that after another disappointing day in LA, my bro met a a trim Chicano actor with a Bogart face strolling down the halls of the Mark Taper Annex across from the Music Center. Daniel asked him if he was there for the auditions. The Chicano Bogie responded: “What auditions?” Apparently, he knew nothing about Zoot Suit, but he was willing to read for a part. So Daniel read him. I had given my brother the option to play either of the two leads, but once he saw and heard Edward James Olmos read, he knew he had found El Pachuco.
A spirit of creative collaboration is always a necessity in the theater, but given my experience with El Teatro, “Zoot Suit” could not have come about any other way. Eddie Olmos created El Pachuco, as surely as El Pachuco helped to create Edward James Olmos the movie star. The fierce intensity of his stage presence no doubt came from his very being, but Eddie had a “killer instinct” that captured the essence of the pachuco phenomenon in the 40s. Oddly, in a similar way, Lou Diamond Phillips captured the killer instinct that made Ritchie Valens a rock star; though in Ritchie’s case, it was mixed with the residual innocence of a 17 year old. This innocence is the key to the enduring poignancy of “Donna,” a classic teenage lament of long lost love if there ever was one. Finding this mix of guilelessness with ferocity was the challenge in casting the star of LA BAMBA. We literally auditioned over 600 actors from Los Angeles to New York. Finally in Dallas, Texas, we found an actor who had been making Christian films. He came in with a certain intensity to read for Bob, the role he obviously coveted. But under all that bravado was an unmistakably poignant heart. So Lou Diamond Phillips became Ritchie Valens, and Ritchie became Lou, with all the innocent ferocity that made him reach for the stars.
None of this, of course, would have been possible without my musical collaborators. In the case of “Zoot Suit,” I owe a debt of gratitude to Lalo Guerrero, the Godfather and Gran Maestro de la Musica Chicana. With his permission, I tapped directly into five of his classics from the 1940s to turn my play into a kick-ass form of cabaret theater, if not into a full fledged musical. Lalo’s music is unquestionably the Pachuco soul of “Zoot Suit.” Similarly, Ritchie’s music is the soul of LA BAMBA, but it could never have come back to life without Los Lobos. We were friends long before their first album, “Just Another Band from East LA”launched their remarkable career. But working on the film’s sound track with Los Lobos, featuring the voice of David Hidalgo as Ritchie’s, was a collaborative joy. LA BAMBA took them to the top of the charts for the first time, but they’ve been up there many times since then. So has the great Carlos Santana, another of my collaborators on the movie. It is his subtle, penetrating guitar solos that follow Ritchie’s emotional trajectory throughout the film. Let’s face it. Genius in the barrio is genius everywhere. ¡Ajua!
Joshua TRILIEGI: In the neighborhood that I grew up in, at that time, there were several different camps and schools of thought that became represented by imagery and eventually posters in the rooms of our friends: Farah Fawcett, Bruce Lee, Led Zeppelin, Gerry Lopez, David Partridge and of course the Incredible Image of Artist IGNACIO GOMEZ who designed the image for ZOOT SUIT. That particular Image always has and always will mean something very special to many of us. Talk with us about IMAGE and TEXT and that very important relationship between artist and writer.
Luis VALDEZ: The first poster for ZOOT SUIT was created from a drawing by José Montoya, the late great Chicano poet, muralista, and maestro from the Sacramento barrios. With both paint and ink, José had been capturing the Pachuco Image for decades, in poems, lithographs and silk screen posters. In 1973, he and his homies at the R.C.A.F. (the Rebel Chicano Artists Front that playfully dubbed themselves the Royal Chicano Air Force ) even staged a piece at the Third Teatro Festival in San José called “Recuerdos del Palomar.” Decked out as pachucos in zoot suits with their huisas in mini skirts, José and his cronies did not pretend to present a play as much as offer a form of performance art. Characteristically, José’s pachuco images were always imbued with a tinge of self-deprecating humor; which was exactly the quality of the first ZOOT SUIT poster. This image represented the play in its first draft, a two week workshop production run as part of the “New Theatre For Now” series at the Taper in Spring ‘78.
When I rewrote the play to open the main season that Fall, the Center Theatre Group hired Ignacio Gomez to create a new image more in concert with the growing impact of the production. More or less styled on Edward James Olmos’ interpretation of the role, El Pachuco now became a towering figure straddling City Hall. More in line with the mythical dimensions of the lead character in my play, the image was elegant, stark and grand. Almost immediately, thanks to Nacho’s brilliant skill as an artist, El Pachuco became iconic. As seen in newspapers, magazines and on the sides of municipal buses, the image seemed to burrow its way into the public’s consciousness, especially in the Chicano community. With all due respect and modesty, it remains a perfect example of how an artist and a playwright coming together can create a powerful symbol that speaks across multiple generations, perhaps even helping to heal some old psychic wounds in the City of the Angels.
Joshua TRILIEGI: The trajectory of a career has its own pulse and arc. You have continued to stay busy with collaborations of all sorts: El Teatro Campesino, San Diego Repertory Projects, PBS great Performances and so on. Tell us about the recent Ancient Goddess Project and the role that Kinan Valdez has taken on since 2006.
Luis VALDEZ: El Teatro Campesino will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2015. After a half century of uninterrupted artistic and cultural activism, we are proud to declare ourselves a multi-generational theater family. We could not have survived any other way. My beloved wife, Lupe Trujillo Valdez, joined El Teatro in 1968. As an activist at Fresno State University, she was the daughter of campesinos, a supporter of the United Farm Workers, and the first college-educated Chicana to “run away with the circus.” We were married in ’69, as much for love as for our shared political beliefs. We have three sons – Anahuac (’71), Kinan (’73) and Lakin (’78) – all born into the Teatro family, all artists and activists in their own right, all devoted to the betterment of the world around them through social justice and the arts. Other 40 year plus members and founders of the Teatro, such as my biological brother Daniel and spiritual brother Phil Esparza, have also raised their children and grandchildren within our family of families.
Cesar Chavez died in 1993, signaling the beginning of an organizational change in the Chicano Movement that El Teatro Campesino began to naturally undergo in the mid nineties. It was nothing more or less than the passing of leadership from one generation to the next. The older generation continued to serve on the Board of Directors, but the younger Generation took the reins of day to day operations. In this regard, my son Anahuac was the first the serve as the new General Manager of the company. In due time both Kinan and Lakin became associate artistic directors, until Kinan assumed full leadership as Producing Artistic Director in 2007. During all this time, they continued to write, direct, produce and act in new plays of their own creation. They staged Teatro classics such as “La Gran Carpa de los Rasquachis” and took full responsibility for the Christmas plays in Mission San Juan Bautista. Working with other young artists in the company, they staged world theater classics like Alfred Jarry’s “Ubu Roi” and Bertolt Brecht’s “The Measures Taken.” Experimenting with musical forms, Kinan also wrote and directed a goddess play called “The Fascinatrix” and another quasi-satirical work called “I Love You, Sam Burguesa.” Their objective was obviously to expand the range of El Teatro’s work, but with other works they consciously stuck to the political core. To wit, in 2010 Lakin wrote and directed a piece called “Victor in Shadow,” about the martyred Chilean folksinger Victor Jara. The three brothers then collaborated on three plays based on Mayan CreationMyths, including “Popul Vuh – Parts One and Two” written and directed by Kinan; and “Popul Vuh – Part Three, the Magic Twins” written and directed by Lakin. More recently, this summer in 2014, Kinan and Lakin collaborated with the La Jolla Playhouse/San Diego REP, playing the leads in “El Henry,” Herbert Siguenza’s raucous adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry IV part one.
Joshua TRILIEGI: You are considered The Godfather of Latin Theater Worldwide. Has there been pressure to create a certain type of work with that mantle attached ? And how do we as writers, as artists, as performers retain that same vitality and spontaneity in our work, after the fame and notoriety ?
Luis VALDEZ: In 2010, I was invited to Mexico City by the CNT ( Compania Nacional de Teatro) to translate and direct the world premiere of ZOOT SUIT in Spanish. As far as I know, no other Chicano playwright/director had ever been offered such an honor, so I accepted with the humility of a long lost orphan given the chance to finally come home. Ironically, I was not born in Mexico. Neither were my Mom and Dad, who were born in Arizona early in the Twentieth century. The real immigrants in my family were my abuelos – my grandparents and great grandparents - who crossed the border from the northern state of Sonora before the Mexican Revolution over a century ago. Why then did I feel like an orphan? Because all my life, despite myAmerican birth, I had been treated like a Mexican. Here then is another example of how negatives can always be turned into positives. As an indio-looking, hyphenated Mexican American, I had no choice but to declare myself a Chicano; which if you see it my way is a Twenty-first century New American with a hemispheric identity. I did not buy into that fictitious line drawn in the desert called the border that separates rich from impoverished, white from brown, “America” from “Latin” America. So despite all the fame and notoriety my career has brought me, I remain brown and indio-looking. I feel no more pressure to remain Latino than to be an Anglo. I just am who I am, and that’s all there is to it. In the final analysis, assimilation is hardly a one way street. The world’s cultures have been assimilating each other for centuries. Sooner or later, most people in this hemisphere will realize that we are all New Americans. Until then, I rely on the struggle for social justice to keep my work spontaneous and vital.
Joshua TRILIEGI: Your public appearances are totally off the cuff, unrehearsed and down right bold. I love that about you, there is no lie. Not unlike The Zoot Suiter finding his power once he actually takes off the suit and finds himself underneath the costume. To whom would you attribute that particular trait in your earliest influences ?
Luis VALDEZ: My earliest influences no doubt came from my immediate family – my parent, aunts and uncles, grandparents, and their compadres. They were a vital, crusty, earthy lot. But as a kid I couldn’t help but notice right away that something was not right. Life was rigged somehow. Despite all our sweat and back breaking labor in the fields, we were always jodidos, poor as hell and out of gas, with nothing to do but move on to the next menial job. I hated stoop labor, not because it was unbearably hard but because it was humiliating. All the more because wages were dirt cheap. My folks kept their spirits up by developing a wicked sense of ironic humor, but I quickly realized that this was the only way they could tolerate the shit pies in the face that fate was giving them. Despite the constant looming despair, they kept me and my siblings in school, knowing it was our only way out. In due time I discovered that working with my hands did not prevent me from using my imagination. So even though I was picking cotton, potatoes, cherries, prunes and apricots as fast as I could, my mind was automatically running riot with ideas for bilingual stories, jokes and songs. With this kind of daily mental exercise, my school lessons became easy, a way to prove my worth to my teachers and myself in the face of discrimination. Like my uncles and cousins, I learned to defend myself with stinging ironic humor using the Pachuco slang of the barrio, but I also developed a proficiency in English.Mentally code-switching back and forth between Spanish and English, I eventually developed a spontaneous fluidity of expression that can only come from a well-exercised brain. Like I say, any negative can always be turned into a positive. I won a scholarship to attend San Jose State College in 1958, as a Math and Physics major my first year. By my second year, I knew what I really had to do. I had to set my imagination free by releasing all those stories, jokes and songs still zinging in my head. I had to admit to myself that I was an actor and a playwright, despite the fact that a career in the theater was totally impractical. So I switched majors to English, and never looked back. I became what I always wanted to be – a Chicano playwright.
Joshua TRILIEGI: Thank You so much for taking the time to share your experience with our readers. How can the public support current and developing projects and productions by ETC ?
Luis VALDEZ: This summer El Teatro Campesino is producing my latest full-length play, VALLEY OF THE HEART, in our playhouse in San Juan Bautista. It runs from August thru September, before moving on to other venues as part of our Fiftieth Anniversary celebration. If you come on Labor Day weekend, you can see both VALLEY in our theater and POPUL VUH outdoors in the park. If you can’t make it to San Juan, you can help us by donating online through our website at elteatrocampesino.com. But please support any of the Latino theater productions in your area. We fervently continue to believe that “Theater is the Creator of Community, and Community is the Creator of Theater.” For as our ancient Mayan ancestors believed: CREER ES CREAR. ¡Si Se Puede!
La Literatura Entrevista
LUIS VALDEZ: ESCRITOR
Por Joshua TRILIEGI
Luis VALDEZ cambió la Literatura Paisaje completo con su exitosa obra Fierce ", ZOOT SUIT". Aquí, en el sur de California, El juego es mucho más que las palabras. Se trata de una idea personal y positivo que dio a mucha gente la inspiración para hacer algo con las cosas que vieron, no sólo en sus hogares y barrios, pero para reclamar lo que estaba ocurriendo en los medios de comunicación, de poseer las historias que se les decía y simplemente reclamar lo que era suyo por derecho, para empezar: sus propias historias familiares . En esta entrevista Bureau Editor Joshua TRILIEGI y Luis VALDEZ discutir su carrera, su proceso de trabajo y el desarrollo de una fuerza poderosa que continúa inspirando a millones de personas indígenas de todo el Mundial y enseña a los demás.
Sr. Valdez llegó a crear la película "La Bamba", que cuenta la historia muy importante de América del músico y del compositor, Ritchie Valens. Impulsado por la proliferación de Retro Nostálgico Films de 1950 como American Graffiti y su seguimiento Happy Days, así como la popularidad del género biográfico musical de proyectos como The Buddy Holly Story, Elvis y similares: LA BAMBA era el proyecto perfecto que completamente lanzó la energía y la fuerza de SUIT ZOOT en la estratosfera de los medios de comunicación populares y la cultura, por último, una historia que legítimamente reclama, explicados y honraron la experiencia latina, o como Luis Valdez podría decirlo, "la experiencia chicana" en la historia de la música popular. La película en sí toca en el paradigma de la familia en tanto mítica y real
circunstancias. Una película hermosa y entretenida, que admite hasta hoy tal como lo hizo originalmente a partir de su creación. De la misma manera que Zoot Suit nos dio la carrera de Edward James Olmos, 'El Bogart Chicano', La Bamba nos dio una gran cantidad de talento frente y detrás de las escenas: Lou Diamond Phillips, Esai Morales, Los Lobos y Otros. Desde entonces, el Sr. Valdez ha continuado su influencia como líderes en el mundo latino y chicano Dramaturgo viajar por todas partes, todo el tiempo, compartiendo su gran riqueza de conocimientos y experiencia en un mundo sediento de la verdad, la experiencia y el entretenimiento.
Estamos orgullosos de traerle Luis Valdez, sin censura, sin inhibiciones y el invicto.
Joshua TRILIEGI : En primer lugar, es un placer para compartir su experiencia con nuestros lectores. Asistimos a la proyección de Los Ángeles del aniversario del Zoot Suit y más tarde compramos y releer la obra. Hay tantas cosas en ella: la realidad, el folclore y una potencia feroz, así como un elemento musical genuinamente cadera, ¿podría compartir con nosotros cómo esa pieza originalmente formado en su mente y cómo se desarrolló en la innovadora obra de Broadway?
Luis Valdez : En el otoño de 1977, fue encargado por Gordon Davidson, director artístico de la Taper Forum Center Theatre Group / Marcos en Los Ángeles, para escribir una obra basada en un capítulo infame de la historia de Los Angeles, en concreto el Sleepy Lagoon Caso 1942 y los posteriores disturbios Zoot Suit de 1943. Aunque casi olvidado en los barrios chicanos, el Pachuco Época habían sido enterrados en los cubos de basura del olvido por el oficialismo Anglo que prefirió no conmemorar vergüenzas pasadas dolorosas. Una nueva generación entera nacida después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial casi no sabía nada acerca de los pachucos, aunque, inevitablemente, a mediados de los años 60, jóvenes méxico-americanos comenzaron a llamarse chicanos, como el legado de sus antepasados barrio zoot-adaptado pateó, heredando su orgullo racial , argot urbano y desafío cultural.
La diferencia generacional es que muchos de estos chicanos (a) s ahora estaban hablando su dialecto en colegios o universidades. Pero la dolorosa picadura de los disturbios Zoot Suit y el Sleepy Lagoon Caso persistía en los barrios, como una vieja herida supurante que se estaba décadas en sanar. Mi juego así sin darse cuenta se convirtió en una manera de tratar directamente con el daño psíquico infligido a los barrios este de Los Ángeles por los disturbios Zoot Suit abriendo la vieja herida racista y ventilar en el ámbito público del teatro. La verdad de esto se hizo evidente cuando el juego se agotó en el Mark Taper, incluso antes de que abriera, y cuando el público siguió el juego el Teatro Aquarius en Hollywood. Funcionó allí durante once meses, y al final, más de 400.000 personas vinieron a verlo. La mitad de ellos eran chicanos, la mayoría de los cuales nunca habían visto una obra de teatro antes. Esto entonces motivó el traslado al Teatro Winter Garden de Nueva York en 1979, donde Zoot Suit se convirtió en la primera chicana jugar para llegar a Broadway.
Las raíces de la obra, sin embargo, se encuentran lejos de la Gran Vía Blanca. Nací en un campamento de trabajo agrícola en Delano, California en 1940. En esos días Delano era un punto caliente en el valle de San Joaquín, y teníamos nuestras propias pachucos en el barrio "Barrio Chino" en la parte oeste. Uno de ellos era mi primo Billy; otro era su compañero de carreras CC. Billy hablaba un dialecto pachuco fluido, así que él me enseñó a llamar a mí mismo "Chicano", incluso pensó sólo seis que estaba. He aprendido mucho acerca de los pachucos, incluyendo su jerga y estilo de ser, de esta manera más íntima y familiar. Trágicamente, Billy tuvo una muerte violenta en Phoenix, dieciocho heridas de arma blanca en el pecho. Pero su compañero de carreras CC sobrevivió, se unió a la Marina de Guerra y llegó a casa un día para casarse y sentar la cabeza. En 1965, cuando le dije a mi madre en San José que estaba regresando a Delano para formar un teatro trabajadores agrícolas con los huelguistas de la uva, mi mamá dijo: "Oh, usted va a trabajar con CC" "CC" I dijo: "¿Es que vato todavía por aquí?" "Mijo," mi madre respondió: "¿No sabes quién es CC? Él es César Chávez ".
En 1970, El Teatro Campesino, el Teatro de Trabajadores del Campo nacido en los piquetes de la Gran Delano Grape Strike, produjo mi primera obra de larga duración desde la universidad. Se llamaba "Bernabé", con un personaje llamado "La Luna" que aparece en un pequeño papel como un mítico Pachuco en un traje de luces. El personaje era tan intrigante, supe de inmediato que se merecía una obra propia. Siete años más tarde, cuando Gordon Davidson me pidió que escribiera acerca del Sleepy Lagoon, he optado por hacer de El Pachuco la figura central mítico, tanto como maestro de ceremonias y alter ego de Henry "Hank" Reyna, el protagonista y líder de la 38 calle Gang. Por encima de todo, El Pachuco se convirtió en el guía, el narrador, por lo que la historia de la Sleepy Lagoon Case y los disturbios Zoot Suit podría ser contada a través de un Punto de vista chicano. El resto, como se suele decir, es historia del teatro americano.
Joshua TRILIEGI: Algo acerca de su trabajo es tan cierto, genuino y original, al mismo tiempo, usted habla de un buen número de personas de la comunidad. ¿Podría hablar un poco acerca de mantenerse fiel a la visión de uno y al mismo tiempo aprovechar una verdad más grande, no sólo para nuestras propias comunidades, sino para el mundo.
Luis Valdez : escribí mis primeras obras en el Estado de San José, donde se graduó en el '64 con una Licenciatura en Inglés con énfasis en la dramaturgia. No era la opción más práctica para un hijo de trabajadores agrícolas migrantes, y mucho menos un chicano, pero yo estaba decidido a seguir a mi corazón. Me había enganchado en el teatro en el primer grado en 1946, cuando me dieron el papel en la obra de la escuela de Navidad. Yo iba a jugar un mono que lleva una máscara de mi maestro hizo, volviendo la bolsa de tacos de color marrón en papel maché. Estaba eufórico. A continuación, la semana de mi gran debut, mi familia migrante fue desalojado del campo de trabajo en el que había expirado nuestra bienvenida. Nunca estuve en la obra. Un gran agujero de la desesperación se abrió en mi pecho. Podría haberme destruido. Pero aprendí desde el principio que los negativos siempre pueden convertirse en positivos. Me llevé dos cosas: una, el secreto de papel maché, que permitieron hacer mis propias máscaras y títeres; y dos, una profunda ira, residual para el desalojo de mi familia desde el campo de trabajo. Veinte años más tarde, fui a César Chávez y le lancé mi idea para un teatro de, por y para los trabajadores agrícolas. Y así, el agujero en mi pecho se convirtió en la boca hambrienta de mi creatividad, en el que he estado derramando obras de teatro, poemas, ensayos, guiones, libros, etc durante casi 70 años.
Joshua TRILIEGI: La escena de Los Angeles y California ha cambiado, crecido y desarrollado en una unificación más fuerte que nunca, [Desde la década de 1970] cuando SUIT ZOOT hizo su impresión inicial. Su trabajo es una gran parte de lo que nos growth.Tell acerca de sus humildes comienzos haciendo obras de teatro y parodias a nivel local, antes de desvelar algunas de sus obras maestras de opus.
Luis Valdez : El reto de la creación teatral con campesinos en huelga fue una lección de humildad. Cesar me había advertido desde el principio: "No hay dinero para hacer teatro en Delano," me dijo. "No hay actores, ni el escenario, no hay tiempo ni para ensayar. Estamos en el día piquete noche. ¿Todavía quiere tomar una grieta en ella? "" Absolutamente, Cesar! "Respondí. "¡Qué oportunidad!" Yo estaba, por supuesto, pensando en el espíritu del movimiento que había comenzado. Pero él tenía toda la razón. Por necesidad, El Teatro Campesino nació en el piquete. Con el tiempo, comenzamos a realizar en las reuniones Viernes noche'S NFWA. La Asociación Nacional de Trabajadores Agrícolas pudo haber sido rico en espíritu, pero fue muerto se rompió. Después de la universidad, me había unido a la San Francisco Mime Troupe durante un año, actuando en parques de la ciudad, el aprendizaje de las técnicas de improvisación de Commedia dell Arte. Este conocimiento ha demostrado ser más útil en Delano que toda la historia del teatro que había aprendido en SJS. Pero mi mayor revelación provino de los propios campesinos. Como actores y el público, que me enseñaron a permanecer a la tierra; mantenerse alejado de toda la basura artística pretencioso y al llegar al punto con Actos que estaban golpeando claro y duro. Por encima de todo, mantener una actitud positiva y esperanzadora. "No hables, hazlo!" Se convirtió en un Teatro precepto esencial. Más tarde, cuando comenzamos a organizar Actos sobre el Movimiento Chicano, la guerra de Vietnam y el racismo en las escuelas, encontramos a nuestro público en LA, chicanos y Nueva York no es menos receptivo a nuestra simplicidad básica de los huelguistas de uva originales. "Zoot Suit" se produjo una docena de años después del nacimiento de El Teatro, pero las raíces de mi obra de teatro musical como los de los pachucos originales alcanzar profundamente en la tierra barrio.
Joshua TRILIEGI: asistí a las audiciones para LA BAMBA de Los Ángeles Complejo Teatral en los años - los años ochenta. El entusiasmo en torno del proyecto era, y sigue siendo, muy vivo y totalmente actual. Cuéntanos un poco acerca de esa experiencia.
Luis Valdez : Antes de que fuera una película, LA BAMBA originalmente iba a ser un musical por mí y mi hermano Daniel. En realidad, fue concebido en la noche de la inauguración de Zoot Suit en Nueva York. Estábamos en el Winter Garden Theater en Broadway, y como yo hice mis rondas finales antes de la hora de la cortina, me cayó en el camerino de mi hermano en el segundo piso. Como el actor principal en la obra de Edward James Olmos, Daniel estaba de buen humor. Los dos nos quedamos. Habíamos vino un largo camino desde Delano. Celebrando nuestro éxito, nos comprometimos que ahora que nos habíamos traído los años 40 en Broadway, debemos llevar a los años 50. Pero, ¿cómo, con qué? En ese preciso momento, escuchamos la música de mariachi. Mirando por la ventana vestidor, hacia abajo, hacia la Séptima Avenida, vimos una banda dorada, plenamente adaptado de mariachis tocando hacia nosotros. No sabíamos en ese momento, pero el Presidente de México había enviado mariachis serenata a nosotros en la noche de apertura. Daniel y reconocí la melodía inmediatamente. Era la respuesta a la pregunta que acababa planteado entre sí acerca de nuestro próximo musical. Simultáneamente,
se rió y dijo las palabras entre sí: La Bamba!
Fueron necesarios cinco años para llevar el proyecto a buen término. El mayor problema resultó ser la falta de material biográfico acerca de Ritchie Valens, nacido Richard Valenzuela, en 1941 en Los Angeles. Había unos cuantos artículos en revistas viejas, pero ningún libro o biografía publicada. Lo que es peor, Daniel tuvo ningún éxito en la búsqueda de miembros sobrevivientes de la familia de Ritchie. Se habían ido de largo de Pacoima en el Valle de San Fernando, donde vivieron en los años 50, 60 y 70, y en los años 80, antes de la Internet, no había ninguna red social para aprovechar. Sin contacto directo con la familia, LA BAMBA se estaba convirtiendo en una quimera. Un tanto desanimado, Daniel regresó de Los Ángeles a San Juan Bautista, base de operaciones de El Teatro Campesino, jurando no obstante seguir buscando. Entonces, una noche, como ironías de la vida que tienen, por fin cumplido medio hermano mayor de Ritchie, Bob Morales. Él se encontró con él en San Juan Bautista en el Saloon de Daisy! Resultó que Bob y la mayoría de la familia de Ritchie ahora vivían veinticinco kilómetros en Watsonville, y de vez en cuando frecuentaba Daisy con sus amigos del motorista. Una cosa llevó a otra rápidamente. Bob tomó Daniel para satisfacer Connie Valenzuela, madre de Ritchie, entonces Daniel me llevó a conocer a toda la familia. En cuestión de días, tomamos la historia de nuestro viejo amigo Taylor Hackford en Hollywood, quien accedió a la opción historia de Ritchie como un biopic para la gran pantalla con Columbia Pictures. Yo escribí el guión durante el invierno y una vez nos dieron la luz verde, dirigí la imagen en el verano siguiente, con mi hermano como productor asociado. Al final, nuestra biopic terminó recaudando más de 100 millones en todo el mundo. Muy pocas películas vienen a ser tan precipitadamente. Pero hubo giros del destino. Habíamos previsto inicialmente por parte de Ritchie Valens como un vehículo para mi hermano, pero por el tiempo que nos dieron la luz verde, Daniel amablemente concedido que a 37 ya no podía pasar como 17. Así, por todos sus esfuerzos, él generosamente creado una oportunidad para hacer una estrella de Lou Diamond Phillips.
Joshua TRILIEGI : Una experiencia de los escritores con sus colaboradores es bastante importante, en su caso: Los Lobos, Edward James Olmos, Lou Diamond Phillips para nombrar unos pocos. ¿Va a hablar de lo mucho que tuvo entrada en el momento de estos proyectos estaban en desarrollo en la elección de estos compañeros artistas.
Luis Valdez : Durante el casting de Zoot Suit en el Mark Taper Forum en el 78, nuestro mayor dilema resultó ser la parte de El Pachuco. Yo escribí el guión con mi hermano Daniel en mente, aunque yo lo vi tanto como Henry Reyna y El Pachuco. La cuestión de nepotismo a un lado, nos había estado colaborando dentro de El Teatro Campesino de una docena de años antes de Zoot Suit llegó. Así que era natural para él para servir como mi modelo único para el juego. Desafortunadamente, a diferencia de la película, no podía jugar dos roles en el escenario al mismo tiempo. Así que nos propusimos en nuestra búsqueda para encontrar a uno u otro. Después de un agotador dos semanas en LA, incapaz de encontrar un suplente Henry o Pachuco entre cientos de actores, me tomé el fin de semana para estar con mi esposa Lupe de vuelta en San Juan, donde se recuperaba después de dar a luz a nuestro tercer hijo Lakin en el mismo día en que terminé el guión. Daniel continuó con las audiciones. Un día o dos más tarde, me llamó con entusiasmo sometido: "¿Sabes una cosa", dijo, "me encontré con El Pachuco!"
Resultó que después de otro día decepcionante en LA, mi hermano conoció aa recortar Chicano actor con un rostro Bogart paseando por los pasillos del Mark Taper anexo al otro lado del centro de música. Daniel le preguntó si él estaba allí para las audiciones. El Bogie Chicano respondió: "¿Qué audiciones?" Al parecer, no sabía nada de Zoot Suit, pero que estaba dispuesto a leer un papel. Así que Daniel le leyó. Yo le había dado a mi hermano la opción de jugar cualquiera de los dos cables, pero una vez que vio y oyó a Edward James Olmos leyó, supo que había encontrado a El Pachuco.
Un espíritu de colaboración creativa es siempre una necesidad en el teatro, pero teniendo en cuenta mi experiencia con el Teatro, "Zoot Suit" no podría haber ocurrido de otra manera. Eddie Olmos creó El Pachuco, con tanta seguridad como El Pachuco ayudó a crear Edward James Olmos la estrella de cine. La feroz intensidad de su presencia en el escenario, sin duda, provenía de su propio ser, pero Eddie tenía un "instinto asesino" que capturó la esencia del fenómeno pachuco en los años 40. Curiosamente, en una forma similar, Lou Diamond Phillips capturó el instinto asesino que hizo Ritchie Valens una estrella de rock; aunque en el caso de Ritchie, que se mezcló con la inocencia residual de un 17 años de edad. Esta inocencia es la clave para el patetismo perdurable de "Donna", un lamento clásico adolescente del amor perdido hace mucho tiempo, si alguna vez hubo uno. Encontrar a esta mezcla de candidez con ferocidad era el desafío en la fundición de la estrella de LA BAMBA. Literalmente, una audición de más de 600 actores de Los Ángeles a Nueva York. Finalmente, en Dallas, Texas, se encuentra a un actor que había estado haciendo películas cristianas. Llegó con una cierta intensidad de leer para Bob, el papel que obviamente codiciaba. Pero bajo toda esa bravuconería era un corazón inconfundiblemente conmovedora. Así que Lou Diamond Phillips se convirtió Ritchie Valens, Ritchie se convirtió Lou, con toda la ferocidad inocente que le hizo alcanzar las estrellas.
Nada de esto, por supuesto, habría sido posible sin mis colaboradores musicales. En el caso de "Zoot Suit" Tengo una deuda de gratitud con Lalo Guerrero, el padrino y el Gran Maestro de la Música Chicana. Con su permiso, hice tapping directamente en cinco de sus clásicos de la década de 1940 para convertir mi obra en una forma de kick-culo del teatro de cabaret, si no en un musical hecho y derecho. La música de Lalo es sin duda el alma de Pachuco "Zoot Suit". Del mismo modo, la música de Ritchie es el alma de LA BAMBA, pero nunca podría haber vuelto a la vida sin Los Lobos. Fuimos amigos mucho antes de su primer álbum, "Just Another Band from East LA" lanzamos su notable carrera. Pero trabajando en la banda sonora de la película con Los Lobos, con la voz de David Hidalgo como Ritchie, fue una alegría de colaboración. LA BAMBA los llevó a la cima de las listas, por primera vez, pero han estado allí muchas veces desde entonces. También lo ha hecho el gran Carlos Santana, otro de mis colaboradores en la película. Es su sutil y penetrante solos de guitarra que siguen la trayectoria emocional de Ritchie en toda la película. Seamos realistas. Genio en el barrio es genio en todas partes. ¡Ajua!
Joshua TRILIEGI: En el barrio que yo crecí, en ese momento, había varios campamentos y escuelas de pensamiento diferentes que se hizo representar por imágenes y, finalmente, los carteles en las habitaciones de nuestros amigos: Farah Fawcett, de Bruce Lee, Led Zeppelin, Gerry López, David Partridge y por supuesto la increíble imagen de artista IGNACIO GOMEZ quien diseñó la imagen para SUIT ZOOT. Esa imagen en particular siempre ha sido y siempre significará algo muy especial para muchos de nosotros. Hable con nosotros sobre imagen y el texto, y que relación muy importante entre el artista y escritor.
Luis Valdez : El primer cartel para SUIT ZOOT fue creado a partir de un dibujo de José Montoya, el último gran poeta chicano, muralista y maestro de los barrios de Sacramento. Tanto con pintura y tinta, José había sido la captura de la imagen Pachuco durante décadas, en los poemas, litografías y carteles de serigrafía. En 1973, él y sus homies la RCAF (Rebelde Chicano Artistas delantero que en broma a sí mismos apodado el Royal Chicano Air Force) incluso montó una pieza en el Tercer Festival de Teatro de San José llamado "Recuerdos del Palomar". Ataviado como pachucos en zoot suits con sus huisas en mini faldas, José y sus compinches no pretenden presentar una obra de teatro tanto como oferta de una forma de arte de performance. Característicamente, las imágenes pachuco de José siempre estaban imbuidos con un tinte de humor autocrítico; que era exactamente la calidad del primer cartel SUIT ZOOT. Esta imagen representa la obra de teatro en su primera versión, una semana dos talleres ciclo de producción como parte de la "New Theatre For Now" en la serie de la forma cónica en la primavera del '78.
Cuando volví a escribir la obra para abrir la temporada principal que caen, el Grupo de Teatro del Centro contrató a Ignacio Gómez para crear una nueva imagen más en concierto con el creciente impacto de la producción. Más o menos estilo en la interpretación de Edward James Olmos del papel, El Pachuco ahora se convirtió en una figura destacada a caballo entre el Ayuntamiento. Más en línea con las dimensiones míticas del personaje principal de mi obra, la imagen era elegante, austera y de los grandes. Casi de inmediato, gracias a la brillante habilidad de Nacho como artista, El Pachuco se convirtieron en un icono. Como se ve en los periódicos, revistas y en los costados de los autobuses municipales, la imagen parecía cavar su camino en la conciencia del público, especialmente en la comunidad chicana. Con el debido respeto y modestia, sigue siendo un ejemplo perfecto de cómo un artista y un dramaturgo que se unen pueden crear un poderoso símbolo que habla a través de múltiples generaciones, tal vez incluso ayudar a curar algunas viejas heridas psíquicas en la Ciudad de los Ángeles.
Joshua TRILIEGI: La trayectoria de una carrera tiene su propio pulso y arco. Has seguido mantenerse ocupado con colaboraciones de todo tipo: El Teatro Campesino, San Diego Repertory Proyectos, PBS Great Performances y así sucesivamente. Cuéntanos sobre el reciente Proyecto Diosa antigua y el papel que Kinan Valdez ha asumido desde 2006.
Luis Valdez : El Teatro Campesino celebrará su 50 º aniversario en 2015 Después de medio siglo de activismo artístico y cultural ininterrumpida, nos sentimos orgullosos de declararnos una familia de teatro multi-generacional.. No podríamos haber sobrevivido de otra manera. Mi amada esposa, Lupe Trujillo Valdez, se unió a El Teatro en 1968. Como activista de la Universidad Estatal de Fresno, ella era la hija de campesinos, un partidario de la Unión de Campesinos, y la primera chicana con educación universitaria a "huir con el circo. "Nos casamos en el 69, tanto por amor como por nuestras convicciones políticas compartidas. Tenemos tres hijos - Anahuac ('71), Kinan ('73) y Lakin ('78) - todos nacidos en la familia de Teatro, todos los artistas y activistas en su propio derecho, todas dedicadas a la mejora del mundo que les rodea a través de la justicia social y las artes. Otros miembros de 40 años, más y fundadores del Teatro, como mi hermano biológico Daniel y su hermano espiritual Phil Esparza, también han criado a sus hijos y nietos dentro de nuestra familia de familias.
César Chávez murió en 1993, marcando el comienzo de un cambio organizativo en el Movimiento Chicano que El Teatro Campesino comenzó a sufrir de forma natural en los mediados de los años noventa. No era nada más ni menos que el paso del liderazgo de una generación a la siguiente. La generación más vieja continuó sirviendo en el Consejo de Administración, pero la generación más joven tomó las riendas de las operaciones día a día. En este sentido, mi hijo Anáhuac fue el primero el servir como el nuevo Gerente General de la empresa. A su debido tiempo, tanto Kinan y Lakin se convirtieron en directores artísticos asociados, hasta Kinan asumió el liderazgo completo como Director Artístico en 2007. Durante todo este tiempo, continuaron escribir, dirigir, producir y actuar en nuevas obras de su propia creación. Ellos protagonizaron clásicos de Teatro como "La Gran Carpa De Los Rasquachis" y se llevaron toda la responsabilidad de la Navidad juega en la Misión de San Juan Bautista. Trabajar con otros artistas jóvenes en la empresa, que protagonizaron clásicos del teatro mundial como Alfred Jarry "Ubu Roi" y Bertolt Brecht "las medidas adoptadas." Experimentar con formas musicales, Kinan también escribió y dirigió una obra de teatro diosa llamada "La Fascinatrix" y otro trabajo cuasi-satírico llamado "Te Quiero, Sam Burguesa." Su objetivo era, obviamente, para ampliar la gama de trabajo de El Teatro, pero con otras obras que conscientemente pegado al núcleo político. A saber, en 2010 Lakin escribió y dirigió una pieza llamada "Víctor en la sombra", sobre el cantante de folk chileno mártir Víctor Jara. Los tres hermanos y luego colaboraron en tres obras de teatro basadas en CreationMyths mayas, incluyendo "Popol Vuh - Partes Uno y Dos", escrita y dirigida por Kinan; y "Popol Vuh - la tercera parte, los Mellizos Mágicos", escrita y dirigida por Lakin. Más recientemente, este verano de 2014, Kinan y Lakin colaboró con el La Jolla Playhouse / San Diego REP, tocando los cables en "El Henry", la adaptación estridente de Herbert Siguenza de Enrique IV de Shakespeare primera parte.
Joshua TRILIEGI: Usted es considerado el padrino de América Teatro Worldwide. ¿Ha habido presión para crear un cierto tipo de trabajo con el manto adjunto? ¿Y cómo hacemos nosotros, como escritores, como artistas, como artistas conservan la misma vitalidad y espontaneidad en nuestro trabajo, después de la fama y la notoriedad?
Luis Valdez : En 2010, fui invitado a la ciudad de México por la CNT (Compañía Nacional de Teatro) para traducir y dirigir el estreno mundial de SUIT ZOOT en español. Por lo que yo sé, ningún otro dramaturgo chicano / director jamás se le había ofrecido un gran honor, por lo que aceptó con la humildad de un huérfano perdido hace mucho tiempo, dada la oportunidad para finalmente volver a casa. Irónicamente, yo no nací en México. Ni eran mi mamá y papá, que nacieron en Arizona a principios del XX siglo. Los inmigrantes reales en mi familia eran mis abuelos - mis abuelos y bisabuelos - quien cruzó la frontera desde el estado norteño de Sonora antes de la Revolución Mexicana hace más de un siglo. ¿Por qué entonces me siento como un huérfano? Debido a que toda mi vida, a pesar de nacimiento myAmerican, yo había sido tratado como un mexicano. He aquí, pues es otro ejemplo de cómo los negativos siempre pueden convertirse en positivos. Como un indio de aspecto, con guión mexicano-americano, no tenía más remedio que declararme un chicano; que si ves a mi manera es un siglo XXI de las Américas, con una identidad hemisférica. No compré en esa línea ficticia dibujado en el desierto llamado la frontera que separa a ricos de pobres, blanco del marrón, "América" de América "Latina". Así que a pesar de toda la fama y notoriedad de mi carrera me ha llevado, sigo siendo de color marrón y de aspecto indio. No siento más presión para permanecer Latino que ser un anglo. Yo sólo soy el que soy, y eso es todo lo que hay que hacer. En el análisis final, la asimilación no es una calle de sentido único. Culturas del mundo han estado asimilando entre sí durante siglos. Tarde o temprano, la mayoría de las personas en este hemisferio se darán cuenta de que todos somos nuevos estadounidenses. Hasta entonces, me baso en la lucha por la justicia social para mantener mi trabajo espontáneo y vital.
Joshua TRILIEGI: Sus apariciones públicas son totalmente fruto de la casualidad, sin ensayos y abajo a la derecha en negrita. Me encanta eso de ti, no hay mentira. No a diferencia de El Zoot Suiter encontrando su poder una vez que en realidad se quita el traje y se encuentra debajo del traje. ¿A quién le atribuir ese rasgo particular en sus primeras influencias?
Luis Valdez : Mis primeras influencias sin duda procedían de mi familia inmediata - mis padres, tías y tíos, abuelos y sus compadres. Eran un montón de vital importancia, crujiente, terroso. Pero como un niño que no podía dejar de notar de inmediato que algo no estaba bien. La vida fue manipulada de alguna manera. A pesar de todo nuestro sudor y agotador trabajo en los campos, siempre estábamos jodidos, pobres como el infierno y de gas, sin nada que hacer más que pasar a la siguiente trabajo de baja categoría. Odiaba rebajan el trabajo, no porque era insoportablemente dura, sino porque era humillante. Tanto más porque los salarios eran muy barato. Mis padres mantuvieron el ánimo, mediante el desarrollo de un sentido del humor irónico, pero rápidamente me di cuenta que esta era la única manera en que podían tolerar los pasteles de mierda en la cara que el destino les estaba dando. A pesar de la desesperación que se avecina constante, que a mí ya mis hermanos mantienen en la escuela, sabiendo que era nuestra única salida. A su debido tiempo, descubrí que el trabajo con mis manos no me impidió el uso de mi imaginación. Así que, aunque yo estaba recogiendo algodón, patatas, cerezas, ciruelas y albaricoques tan rápido como pude, mi mente estaba corriendo automáticamente antidisturbios con ideas para cuentos bilingües, chistes y canciones. Con este tipo de ejercicio mental diario, mis lecciones de la escuela se convirtieron en fácil, una manera de demostrar mi valía a mis profesores ya mi mismo en la cara de la discriminación. Al igual que mis tíos y primos, aprendí a defenderme con humor irónico de picadura usando el argot Pachuco del barrio, pero también he desarrollado una habilidad en English.Mentally código de alternar entre el español y el Inglés, al final me desarrollé una fluidez espontánea de expresión que sólo puede venir de un cerebro bien ejercitado. Como digo, cualquier negativa siempre se puede convertir en algo positivo. Gané una beca para asistir a San Jose State College en 1958, como una de las principales de mi primer año de Matemáticas y Física. Por segundo año, yo sabía lo que realmente tenía que hacer. Tuve que poner mi imaginación libre por la liberación de todos esos cuentos, chistes y canciones todavía zinging en mi cabeza. Tuve que admitir que a mí mismo que yo era un actor y dramaturgo, a pesar del hecho de que una carrera en el teatro era totalmente impracticable. Así que me cambié mayores a Inglés, y nunca miró hacia atrás. Me convertí en lo que siempre quise ser - un dramaturgo chicano.
Joshua TRILIEGI: Gracias por tomarse el tiempo de compartir su experiencia con nuestros lectores. ¿Cómo pueden los proyectos actuales y en desarrollo el apoyo público y producciones de ETC?
Luis Valdez : Este verano El Teatro Campesino está produciendo mi última obra de larga duración, VALLE DEL CORAZÓN, en nuestra casa de juegos en San Juan Bautista. Se extiende desde agosto hasta septiembre, antes de pasar a otros lugares como parte de nuestra celebración del Cincuentenario. Si vienes en fin de semana del Día del Trabajo, se puede ver tanto en nuestro teatro VALLE y Popul Vuh al aire libre en el parque. Si no puede llegar a San Juan, usted nos puede ayudar mediante la donación en línea a través de nuestro sitio web en elteatrocampesino.com. Pero, por favor apoyar cualquiera de las producciones teatrales latinos en su área. Nosotros seguimos creyendo fervientemente que para que nuestros antiguos antepasados mayas creían "El teatro es el Creador de la Comunidad, y la comunidad es el Creador del Teatro.": CREER ES CREAR. ¡Si Se Puede!
PLUS: BUREAU SPANISH EDITION BUREAU GERMAN EDITION SUPPLEMENT
VISIT BUREAU OF ARTS AND CULTURE MAGAZINE BOOK PAGE FOR AUDIO INTERVIEWS: LOST HORIZON BOOKSTORE IN SANTA BARBARA. POLISH FILMMAKER AND AUTHOR JACEK LASKUS.CHICAGO ARTIST AND AUTHOR TONY FITZPATRICK . JAMAICAN PHOTOGRAPHER / AUTHOR DENNIS MORRIS. BAY AREA ARTIST AND LECTURER JOAN SCHULZE. EUROPEAN ARTIST/ART BOOK MAKER SIGRID COLON. PHOTOGRAPHER / AUTHOR JIMMY STEINFELDT. AMERICAN POET SABREEN SHABAZZ . ACTING COACH / AUTHOR BERNARD HILLER http://www.bureauofartsandculture.com/BOOK--BUREAU.html
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