Words are more important than food; words fulfill us. We are not meant to simply survive on this Earth. Our natural duty is to thrive. Words, ideas, drive us to thrive. Of course, we have communication with many different people in our everyday lives, but many times those conversations are superficial. They leave us longing for something of more substance. Literature is a different type of communication that delivers a profound substance. Literature unmasks both writer and reader. The writer and reader stand naked before each other. They read into and see each others’ manifest minds and souls. Not only … Continue reading “I Wanted to Cry and Throw-Up at the Same Time”

Hello Everyone, With this excerpt from “El Santo,” you now have the first person perspective of the three main characters (Lobo, Toro, Santo) from my book, Barrio Bushido. Santo tries to think and act like the ideal homeboy, and, of course, this gives him great passion and heart but also twisted madness. Do not think I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.      For I have come to set a man           against his father,      and a daughter against her mother…      and one’s foes will be … Continue reading An Excerpt from “El Santo”

The following is an excerpt from “El Toro” from my novel, Barrio Bushido. In tribute to the Marine Corps Birthday, November 10: But what the fuck is a Marine? He shits his pants just like you. He has regrets and fear and pain, and he cries too. See, if I learned anything on those dark days, it was how to suffer with class. That’s what a Marine is: he’s a professional sufferer; he suffers for you and me and he don’t think about the shit. He suffers with a smile on his face. And I never wrote this down when … Continue reading An Excerpt from “El Toro”

A Championship Being San Fran is now officially thee champion city. Kamala Harris, fellow UC Hastings almnus, will be California’s attorney general. Pretty boy SF Mayor Gavin Newsom is our new Lieutenant Governor. The San Francisco Giants are World Champions. Barrio Bushido, my novel, a San Fran Mission rooted production, is destined to be worldwide championship literature 🙂 Everything this week is the absolute best. Now, after waking up from this total dream, I question what to do with all of this positive energy. What do victories prove and who are we to become because of them? I share with … Continue reading A Championship Being

My Friends, I invite you into the magic of my new novel, Barrio Bushido. Experience a transformative video reading of the chapter “El Lobo” by Benjamin Bac Sierra. Approximately 11 minutes in length. Continue reading Barrio Bushido Video Reading

Hello Everyone, Here is a copy of a poetry assignment that I gave to instructors and counselors at a Puente conference in Berkeley. Our poetry session was very intimate and dynamic. Instructors and counselors created poems that transformed the ugly into the beautiful (see the prompt below). We beautified lice, rats, breakups, obesity, pimples, and the concept of the outcast. This is education!                                  Puente Program Poetry Assignment In “Poem of Love” Roque Dalton transforms the “moochers” into people who he calls his compatriots and brothers. While some may find disgust in the “ones who cry drunkenly for the national … Continue reading Puente Program Poetry Assignment

                                           LEADERSHIP TEACHING             During a recent teacher training, various professors from different disciplines were discussing how they still get nervous before teaching a class. I listened on with a certain amusement and anxiety. And I thought to myself, do I fear the word nervous? Is there some sorceress power in that word that triggers in me a flight response? I became uncomfortable with the word because I felt it identified something negative in me. Is the problem solved by simply changing the perspective of the feeling?             I embrace challenge, but, perhaps selfishly, I want it to be a … Continue reading LEADERSHIP TEACHING

I do not write about loqueria because it is the only subject I know; of course you can check out my other writings. Nor do I write about the vato loco because I want to exploit or stereotype homeboys. I write about the lifestyle so that I can better understand my own fascination with it. Craziness was part of our life, and we cannot simply repudiate it as if it is not a big part of our roots. In the crazy there is also a profound truth. Two homeboys looking for something in the beyond.                                                    “Outerspace Homeboys”                                              Crisp night, … Continue reading “Outerspace Homeboys”