Author Archives: hispanicculturereview

New volume available!

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The editorial team of Hispanic Culture Review is pleased to announce that the Fall 2010-Spring 2011 volume of the bilingual journal is available starting today in George Mason University’s (GMU) Student Media office. The academic magazine is free for GMU’s students. Readers can purchase the journal for $7 by writing to hcr@gmu.edu or hcr.gmu@gmail.com.
Subscriptions orders can also be addressed to:
Hispanic Culture Review
Student Media Office
The Hub, Room 1232
4400 University Dr., MS 2C5
Fairfax, Virginia  22030

We want to thank all the authors that contributed with a variety of poems and essays for the celebration of our twentieth anniversary.

The Fall 2010-Spring 2011 volume features:

POETRY

Homenaje a niños uruguayos
Ana M. Alvarado Hernández
George Mason University, Virginia

Rodrigo y Carmen G. quemados vivos
Ana M. Alvarado Hernández
George Mason University, Virginia

LAbor
Daniel Aristi
Belgium

1968
Melissa Castillo-Garsow
Fordham University, New York

De la simple existencia
Pedro Gandía
Spain

Poiesis
Pedro Gandía
Spain

Too late to contemplate rebirth
Paula Hayes Vasquez
Strayer University, Tennessee

Encontrémonos
Gilberto Hernández
Portugal

El grito
Matilde Humar Brezauscek
Chile

Segunda Carta a Eugenio María de Hostos
Mayra Vargas-Rodríguez
University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras

NARRATIVE

The last of the great wetback poets
Fernando A. Flores
Texas

ESSAYS

Expresiones de la marginalidad: de las novelas picarescas a
Barrio de Fernando León de Aranoa
Mónica Camazón Mediavilla
George Mason University, Virginia

El sujeto fronterizo en La frontera de cristal de Carlos
Fuentes
Miguel Santos González
George Mason University, Virginia

Paradigmas del “performance” gastronómico en “Marina y
su olor” de Mayra Santos-Febres
María Inés Ortiz Medina
University of Cincinnati, Ohio

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Hispanic Culture Review received these photographs of Peru taken by Francisco J. Montero, from Washington D.C. His visual work has been published in Equiery Magazine, Diplomatic Connections Magazine, Polo Player’s Magazine and Hispanic Culture Review. Thank you, Francisco, for your collaboration.
Readers are welcome to publish their pictures in our blog and may send them to hcr@gmu.edu or hcr.gmu@gmail.com.

Celebrating and Remembering the Dead

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This mixed media composition entitled “Celebrating and Remembering the Dead” was designed in Adobe Photoshop, shaded with colored pencil and later painted with gold leaf paint. The artist, Genine C. Geissler, dedicated the piece to the memory of her brother Matthew.

By Genine C. Geissler
George Mason University, Virginia

I grew up in Laredo, Texas, a small city on the Mexican border. Like many Americans who have grown up on the border, Mexican culture was a part of my life from a very young age. Some of these cultural traditions might seem strange or unfamiliar to others, but my Jewish mother and Catholic father taught me to have an open mind, and they inspired me to follow my healthy spiritual convictions.

When my brother died at the age of 19, a Mexican tradition, the Day of the Dead, comforted me. The Day of the Dead is a religious holiday for remembering loved ones in a positive, enlightening and dynamic fashion. For this piece, I wanted to create something that not only showed the duality of life, but reflected the traditions that honor deceased family members and friends.

 

The Day of the Dead became popular during the Spanish colonial period as a syncretic religious holiday, a mix of Pre-Colombian Indian beliefs and Catholic dogma. The indigenous roots of the Day of the Dead date back to around 1000 BCE. The people of Mexico visited the graves of deceased family members and friends to mourn and to celebrate the dead in life. Some of the traditional imagery used in the celebration includes skulls, dancing skeletons, the Virgin Mary and candles lit at night at cemeteries. Today, the Day of the Dead remains much the same as it did 3000 years ago; Mexicans bring food and drink to gravesites, and they pray and remember the dead.

Throughout the United States, culture exchange between Americans and Mexicans has resulted in new forms of artistic expression. I only hope that I have captured the spirit, harmony and grace of a holiday that is so dear to me.