Hello Wise Latina Women,

I have moved to a new blog! The new address is: www.thewiselatinawomanblog.com

I’m looking forward to continue sharing experiences and thoughts with all of you!

Besos,
Anja

Recently, I had the priviledge to participate in a BronzeWord Latino Authors-sponsored “Virtual Book Tour.” It allowed me to be the visitor of the day on many fabulous blogs, and to exchange thoughts about my novel The Heartbreak Pill with bloggers, readers, and the wonderful communities they’ve built together. It was great to find out that, amid the popularity-explosion of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, there’s still a large community of bloggers who continue to enrich our experience in the blogosphere with a more in-depth look at books capable of changing our lives in one page.

I would like to share with you this list of must-read blogs that I discovered during the tour. They represent an important forum for Latino writers and book lovers, with their reviews, interviews, news, opportunity-alerts, and even giveaways! I’m sure you’ll enjoy visiting them and becoming part of the discussion too.
 

Latino Books Examiner

The Sol Within

Chasing Heroes

Julia Amante

UNLOADED

Behind Brown Eyes

musings

Reading With Monie

A Sea of Books

That Happened To Me

Writing to Insanity
 

Happy reading, and all the best for all of you Wise Latina Women you in 2010!

Anja

Surprised (and way too delighted) at finding a great amount of reality, humor (and more than a dozen “bad” words) in a “textbook,” they told Ms. Feliciano they wanted to meet me. And so, I traveled there before the end of their term, to some 40 students with many more than 40 questions, funny stories, queries and the little bits of their touched-on souls that they’d brought along to show me how much effect my characters had had on them.
 

 
They gave me many presents that day, best among them a trip to the past and, in their smiling eyes, a life-sized picture of the path I’ve walked throughout my life. We talked about love, literature, infidelity, relationships, divorce, sex, about fear, peer-pressure, and the strength and courage we all need to summon just to live and make our best effort to be happy. And it was amazing. “Awesome!” as they would say if they were to tell you in English.

And so today, I’d like to encourage all of you, my Wise Latina Women out there, to find inspiration in a young person too. Talk to him or her of the things you would have liked to hear when you were their age, tell them life can be beautiful if they want it to be, because it’s all in their hands. You’ll find eyes full of dreams and hopes looking back at you. Their energy will make you feel younger than any Botox injection. Best of all, you will never be the same! (You’ll be even wiser and happier, as if that’s possible!)

I send you all love. Thanks for coming by today. And please feel free to send me your comments on the video below. I’d love to know of your experiences when talking to these life-sized mirrors of our younger selves.

Un abrazo,

Anja

 

The following message from Linda Nieves-Powell is what being a Wise Latina Woman is all about:

“Last spring I was involved in an MTV protest to ban an episode of TRUE LIFE: I’m a NUYORICAN. It was the most demoralizing thing I had ever witnessed and I went on a mission to spread the word about it. Here is an article published by the Daily News:

http://www.nydailynews.com/latino/2009/03/11/2009-03-11_mtvs_im_a_nuyorican_not_getting_el_barri.html

MTV responded to this outcry. I was then invited to attend the MTV board meeting with the President and Vice President of programming along with The Hispanic Media Coalition. They immediately took the episode off the air and also promised that there would be an attempt to create a more positive True Life special on Puerto Ricans. Well, they stuck to their word and here is a casting call…”

MTV is looking to profile the lives of young women of Puerto Rican descent currently enrolled as undergraduates at an Ivy League school (Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Brown, Dartmouth Penn or Columbia) that have an amazing and captivating story.
SEEKING: FEMALES (16+; Puerto Rican) – STUDENTS of Ivy League School; Must be of Puerto Rican descent. latinacasting@mtvn.com

Linda Nieves-Powell
President
Latino Flavored Productions Inc.

Let’s make sure that Linda’s work serves a purpose by letting our wonderful young Puerto Rican girls know about this!

Besos,

Anja

Hello, My Wise Latina Women…

With this post, I want to welcome new readers as a result of my new “Siempre Mujer” magazine blog on Charla Blog (www.charlablog.com). The blog posts go up every Friday, and they’re all about getting ready for our weekend through inspiration; be it a story, an insight, a book, music, art, a movie recommendation, a resource for something to do, or just a tool to help us reconnect with ourselves.

And so, in figuring out a way to welcome more women to my writing, I thought it would be a good idea to show, rather than tell, all of you a little about who I am, while at the same time giving you a useful new way to express yourselves.

So, first a primer… or as my friend Berta Castaner would call it, “news you can use.” I discovered Polaroid photography only a few years ago. I stumbled on a beautiful vintage SX-70 on Ebay for under $20 and thought I had to buy it. By then, the film for it had been discontinued, and knowing it would break my heart to have it and not be able to use it, I investigated ways to adapt the existing regular 600 film. I found my solution in a filter pak you can buy on Ebay for under $20. Just search “SX-70 filter pack,” buy a vintage SX-70 if you don’t already have one, and purchase some old Polaroid film, and you’ll be on your way. Though the 600 has also been discontinued, there are plenty of specialty online stores selling very good versions of the original stuff very reasonably. One of them is Polapremium. You can also still find some good deals on Ebay.

Using the filter and the camera is virtually techno-idiot-proof. If I can do it, you can do it. (One tip from my friend, painter and photog extraordinaire, Nereida Garcia Ferraz. Polaroids work almost as copy machines… graphic, colorful objects and still lifes work best.)

Okay, so now that I’ve told you how you can get in on the fun, here you have a few samples: snapshots of moments in the life of a regular woman who happens to be Latina, and has been known to act wisely every so often. Enjoy!

***Have some Polaroids to share? Send them my way and I’ll post for all of us to enjoy.

You go Lovetta! We love you.
Happy Thanksgiving and a great (inspired) weekend for you all… Anja

Welcome again, Wise Latino Women! Black Friday’s around the corner, and yet I’m not feeling like pushing past a throng of people just to shop. I don’t really feel like spending a lot of money in a lot of things that won’t make me happy. I want to buy a few selected things that I’ll have the time to truly enjoy. So, I’ll be doing my shopping over the Internet, and inside my own closets and cupboards. Who knows what I’ll find there? If you’re a better shopper than I, please enjoy, and save the economy in the process. As for me, I think I’ll look in my trunk-full of “tried-and-trues” and allow my fingers to search for some complementing treasures (books, movies, music) to make my holidays even merrier. Happy Holidays to all of you, my Wise Latina Woman (and to the men who appreciate you.)

1. Movie “The Lives of Others”
2. Dwell Magazine
3. Anything by Nereida Garcia Ferraz (www.nereidagarciaferraz.com)
4. Laurent Korcia’s “Cinema” CD; especially cuts 1,3 and 4… and 12… and 15… and, you get the point.
(If you’re into broadway shows and/or telenovelas, you’ll appreciate his music’s sense of drama.)
5. The Antique & Collectables Market on Lincoln Road
6. Corinne Bailey Rae’s first CD
7. Macy Gray’s first CD
8. Music by Buena Fe, Habana Abierta, Yerba Buena and Orishas
9. Any Hector Lavoe CD
10. Anything written by E.L. Doctorow and F. Scott Fitzgerald
11. “The Science of Getting Rich” by Wallace Wattles
12. “Creating Money” by Sanaya Roman and Duane Packer
13. Netflix
14. “Little Stalker” by Jennifer Belle
15. “Post Coitum Animal Triste” (1997 French Movie, also known as Aftersex)
16. Women Artists: Sophie Calle, Helen Levitt, Marlene Dumas and Lorna Simpson
17. Christian Lacroix shoes; the more vintage, the better
18. Calvin Klein Underwear (and I was a fan well before Eva Mendes)
19. The SX-70 Polaroid Land Camera
20. “Tinta y Café” in Little Havana
21. “The Floating Opera” by John Barth
22. “The Long Hot Summer;” a 50s feel-good movie
23. Collaging… it really doesn’t matter how you do it
24. “Sex and the City;” the book, the series and the movie… and the thoughts behind it.
25. “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart, whose bath-water I’d drink
26. The soundtrack to “The Royal Tennenbaums”
27. NPR, especially “The Diane Rehm Show,” “All Things Considered,” and “The Splendid Table”
28. Tim Walker Pictures
29. Feng Shui
30. Jenny Craig (It works, as long as you avoid box-food fatigue.)
31. “Eternal Sunsine of the Spotless Mind,” the movie…
32. The Creative Writing MFA program at FIU
33. BusinessWeek magazine
34. “The Bell Jar” by Sylvia Plath
35. Reading art books at the Wolfsonian’s Café

Have a great Thanksgiving! Besos, Anja
***And sorry about putting quotes around book titles, instead of underlining. Still trying to figure out this blogging thing.

Vice President of Operations

Genrox Financial Solutions
We are in the process of recording new marketing segments for our 2010
calendar year and are seeking talent to represent our company on a
nationwide morning show. Commitment will require travel to Tampa for 1 day
to tape our segments at the studio.

Ideal spokesperson would fit the following profile:

Female, Age 40-50 years, Working Professional appearance who can reach out
to both soccer moms and working women, charismatic personality who can
appear genuine, comfortable, and confident. Ability to speak clearly is an
absolute must! Prior television experience is a plus. This show airs
nationwide from California to Florida up to New York so appearance should
appeal to all types of viewers and nationalities.

This show is similar to San Antonio Living or Great Day SA but on a larger
scale.

Training will be provided. Flight and expenses will be paid by our company
and compensation will be provided. Spokesperson will be required to sign a
media release for all video content.

If you are interested, please send a photograph, portfolio/ resume, and
contact information to genevieve@mydebtfir m.com. If we are interested, our
office will contact you for a face to face interview. No phone calls please.

Genevieve Muniz

Vice President of Operations

Genrox Financial Solutions

Email genevieve@mydebtfir m.com
Website www.mydebtfirm. com

Hello Wise Latina Women,

I’ll have much more on this topic very soon. But for now, let’s just celebrate that our wise (or unwise) moments can once again be instant art forms that last decades and give us instant tactile joy and perspective. Get more info at www.polapremium.com, or just google the phrase “Polaroid reissue,” and get your photog-heart ready to explore your own world in a new-old way. Cheers!