Overview

This is a rarity in contemporary writing, a truly bilingual enterprise, as in Susana Chávez-Silverman’s previous memoir, Killer Crónicas. Chávez-Silverman switches between English and Spanish, creating a linguistic mestizaje that is still a surprise encounter in the world of letters today, and the author is one of a small but growing band of writers to embrace bilingualism as a literary force. Also like Killer Crónicas, each chapter in Scenes from la Cuenca de Los Angeles is a “crónica,” a vignette that began as intimate diary entries and e-mails and letters to lovers, friends, and ghosts from the past. These episodic chapters follow Chávez-Silverman’s personal history, from California to South Africa and Australia and back, from unfathomable loss to deeply felt joy. Readers drawn into this witty book will confront their own conceptions of boundaries, borders, languages, memories, and spaces. Por su white, insouciant, papery look, por su semejanza a la amapola (scentless, a fin de cuentas, no obstante esa famosa escena de la Wicked Witch of the West, purring evilly, “Poppies, poppies will put them to sleep. Sleeeep, sleep . . .”), when I leaned in to sniff, I hadn’t been expecting any scent at all. Y por eso, el cool, familiar mounds of damp masa harina, Mercado Libertad en verano scent, es—por lo utterly inesperado—lo más disturbingly, comfortingly, hechizante que tienen las paper flowers. Stay with me a while. Busquemos, together, más strange familiars. —excerpt from chapter 1, “Diary Inside/Color Local Crónica”

Full Product Details

Author:   Susana Chavez-Silverman ,  Michael Shelton ,  Paul K. Saint-Amour
Publisher:   University of Wisconsin Press
Imprint:   University of Wisconsin Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.10cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.333kg
ISBN:  

9780299235246

ISBN 10:   0299235246
Pages:   176
Publication Date:   30 April 2010
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Reviews

"""Chávez-Silverman is doing nothing less than creating a new genre . . . through the only language capable of apprehending it: Spanglish as the new language of national becoming.""--Lázaro Lima, Bryn Mawr College ""By sharing her story in a stream-of-consciousness manner, Chavez-Silverman inspires readers to evaluate their perceptions of ethnicity, meanwhile highlighting the versatility of language.""--ForeWord ""In her book, Chavez-Silverman breaks out of 'proper' language and writes the way she speaks and hears language spoken. . . . She respects language, but isn't afraid to have a little fun."" --Open Salon ""These diverse passions--trees, men, perfume, astral signs, chronic panic attacks, an all-abiding love for friends and the sounds of the streets of San Francisco, all make her so endearing. After the alarums and diversions, it is these passions that drive her story . . . drive her . . . make it hard for those of us on either side of the border to ever be able to forget her y su poder.""--Carlos Amantea, The Review of Arts, Literature, Philosophy and the Humanities"

<p> These diverse passions--trees, men, perfume, astral signs, chronic panic attacks, an all-abiding love for friends and the sounds of the streets of San Francisco, all make her so endearing. After the alarums and diversions, it is these passions that drive her story . . . drive her . . . make it hard for those of us on either side of the border to ever be able to forget her y su poder. --Carlos Amantea, The Review of Arts, Literature, Philosophy and the Humanities

Chavez-Silverman is doing nothing less than creating a new genre . . . through the only language capable of apprehending it: Spanglish as the new language of national becoming. --Lazaro Lima, Bryn Mawr College Chavez-Silverman is doing nothing less than creating a new genre . . . through the only language capable of apprehending it: Spanglish as the new language of national becoming. Lazaro Lima, Bryn Mawr College These diverse passions--trees, men, perfume, astral signs, chronic panic attacks, an all-abiding love for friends and the sounds of the streets of San Francisco, all make her so endearing. After the alarums and diversions, it is these passions that drive her story . . . drive her . . . make it hard for those of us on either side of the border to ever be able to forget her y su poder. --Carlos Amantea, The Review of Arts, Literature, Philosophy and the Humanities By sharing her story in a stream-of-consciousness manner, Chavez-Silverman inspires readers to evaluate their perceptions of ethnicity, meanwhile highlighting the versatility of language. --ForeWord In her book, Chavez-Silverman breaks out of 'proper' language and writes the way she speaks and hears language spoken. . . . She respects language, but isn't afraid to have a little fun. --Open Salon These diverse passions trees, men, perfume, astral signs, chronic panic attacks, an all-abiding love for friends and the sounds of the streets of San Francisco, all make her so endearing. After the alarums and diversions, it is these passions that drive her story . . . drive her . . . make it hard for those of us on either side of the border to ever be able to forget her y su poder. Carlos Amantea, The Review of Arts, Literature, Philosophy and the Humanities By sharing her story in a stream-of-consciousness manner, Chavez-Silverman inspires readers to evaluate their perceptions of ethnicity, meanwhile highlighting the versatility of language. ForeWord In her book, Chavez-Silverman breaks out of proper language and writes the way she speaks and hears language spoken. . . . She respects language, but isn t afraid to have a little fun. Open Salon These diverse passions trees, men, perfume, astral signs, chronic panic attacks, an all-abiding love for friends and the sounds of the streets of San Francisco, all make her so endearing. After the alarums and diversions, it is these passions that drive her story . . . drive her . . . make it hard for those of us on either side of the border to ever be able to forget her y su poder. Carlos Amantea, The Review of Arts, Literature, Philosophy and the Humanities By sharing her story in a stream-of-consciousness manner, Chavez-Silverman inspires readers to evaluate their perceptions of ethnicity, meanwhile highlighting the versatility of language. ForeWord In her book, Chavez-Silverman breaks out of proper language and writes the way she speaks and hears language spoken. . . . She respects language, but isn t afraid to have a little fun. Open Salon These diverse passions--trees, men, perfume, astral signs, chronic panic attacks, an all-abiding love for friends and the sounds of the streets of San Francisco, all make her so endearing. After the alarums and diversions, it is these passions that drive her story . . . drive her . . . make it hard for those of us on either side of the border to ever be able to forget her y su poder. --Carlos Amantea, The Review of Arts, Literature, Philosophy and the Humanities By sharing her story in a stream-of-consciousness manner, Chavez-Silverman inspires readers to evaluate their perceptions of ethnicity, meanwhile highlighting the versatility of language. -- ForeWord In her book, Chavez-Silverman breaks out of 'proper' language and writes the way she speaks and hears language spoken. . . . She respects language, but isn't afraid to have a little fun. -- Open Salon

These diverse passions trees, men, perfume, astral signs, chronic panic attacks, an all-abiding love for friends and the sounds of the streets of San Francisco, all make her so endearing. After the alarums and diversions, it is these passions that drive her story . . . drive her . . . make it hard for those of us on either side of the border to ever be able to forget her y su poder. Carlos Amantea, The Review of Arts, Literature, Philosophy and the Humanities

Author Information

Susana Chávez-Silverman is professor of romance languages and literatures at Pomona College in California. She is author of Killer Crónicas and coeditor of Tropicalizations: Transcultural Representations of Latinidad and Reading and Writing the Ambiente: Queer Sexualities in Latino, Latin American, and Spanish Culture.

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