Maria Espinosa's Blog
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May.25.2013
My autobiographical novels LONGING and DYING UNFINISHED began as attempts to understand people whom I both loved and hated as well as to understand who I had been in the past. Writing through the veil of fiction, allowed me to view the world through their eyes as...
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May.14.2013
A group of us had walked along a narrow path to a deserted beach near Zihuatanejo, Mexico, which in 1971 was still a village of only several thousand inhabitants. The moon was brilliant, and the ocean glistened with reflected light. Inspired by the moonlight, the waves and the soft...
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Mar.01.2013
MYTHIC NEW MEXICO
Long ago I had a romantic vision of growing old in the mountains of Northern New Mexico. Alone in a remote cabin I would sort through my boxes of writing, diaries, fragments, poems, stories, editing them for any possible future readers. I pictured myself at the age of...
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Nov.10.2012
Gary and I have been together nearly a year now. We are living in a house on a narrow, almost hidden street near Old Town, within walking distance of several cafes, Old Town Plaza and downtown.
Still, the land and the culture feel somewhat foreign. It is rugged, dry country...
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Apr.30.2012
So it is still Albuquerque . I am developing a fondness for chile and for huevos rancheros on Sunday mornings with my friend, Gary. Leaves on the trees are sprouting. It is Spring, and the air is warm, even hot at midday. Over the weekend there were festivities in...
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Apr.30.2012
So it is still Albuquerque . I am developing a fondness for chile and for huevos rancheros on Sunday mornings with my friend, Gary. Leaves on the trees are sprouting. It is Spring, and the air is warm, even hot at midday. Over the weekend there were festivities in...
Continue Reading »
Aug.10.2011
TRANSITIONS
A year ago like a bird perched momentarily on a roost I was living in an apartment in Walnut Creek, California and going through the final stages of a divorce. This apartment overlooked a swimming pool---closed most of the time I was there—and a parking lot. In the...
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Feb.28.2011
Review published in Gently Read Literature, 2009
Pamela Uschuk is the author of four volumes of poetry as well as numerous chapbooks, and has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, Her work has been translated into a dozen languages. She has been featured at international conferences, has...
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Feb.28.2011
Brian Castro is a major literary figure in Australia. However, his work is not yet well known in the United States. Of English, Chinese, and Portuguese ancestry, Castro was born in Hong Kong and attended boarding school in Australia, where he has lived most of his adult life.
Castro's...
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Jan.20.2011
Cocks have been crowing for hours before the sun begins to rise over the village of Melaque on the Pacific coast of Mexico, several hours drive south of Puerto Vallarta. The town lies along a large bay. At the northwest end are steep green hills, studded with rocks. The sea at this end is calm...
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Jan.09.2011
New Years Eve was alive with fire crackers exploding everywhere. Along with this, were the sounds of loud music that lasted until the early hours of the morning.
At midnight, I wandered down to the beach, where fires were visible all along the shore, as well as a dazzling display of fireworks in...
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Oct.06.2010
MISSING CUASTECOMATE
Now that I have left, I miss the sound of the waves breaking against the sand, only a few feet away from the house. I miss the dark empty space that at night seemed threatening. Now for a short while the beach is fairly quiet, deserted by vacationers until later in the fall ...
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Aug.09.2010
THE VENDOR
A dark-skinned Indian, all afternoon she treads back and forth along the beach, the leather strap digging into her shoulder, the satchel heavy and weighing down her steps. The hot sun burns into her. Her pink dress is faded with many washings. The satchel is actually a wooden peg...
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Aug.07.2010
The heat kills. enough heat and humidity in just a short walk to be totally wiped out. The idyllic house by the ocean had its problems: hundreds of beachgoers appeared in July, and they loomed up close to the huge glass windows which serve as walls. Garbage overflowed the one big bin near the...
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Jul.13.2010
July 13, 2010
I've been a month now on the coast, a tiny village called Cuastecomate (never mind its website which boasts a mythical golf club). I am so close to the ocean that the waves lap the steps of this house at high tide. We are at the mouth of a long, narrow bay with steep hills on either...
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About Maria
MARIA ESPINOSA is a novelist, poet, and translator as well as a teacher. Her publications include four novels : Incognito: Journey of a Secret Jew, Dark Plums, Longing, which won an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation, and Dying Unfinished...
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Causes Maria Espinosa Supports
Amnesty International, KPFA, anything to ameliorate homelessness and to make shelters more livable
Maria’s Favorite Books
The Stranger - Camus, A Season in the Life of Emmanuel - Marie Claire Blaise, Under a Glass Bell (stories) - Anais Nin,