There are still many writers out in the Bay, extraordinary writers like Gina Valdez, a poet who I just saw in Portland. We have young people like Eduardo Corral, who won the Yale Younger Poets Award. José Antonio Rodriguez, published by Luis Rodriguez. But there are only a few of us who are paid attention to in New York. There are legions behind us who are not.
Sandra CisnerosBelieve it or not, Mexican cooking, for those of you who have not gone farther south than Taco Bell, uses a lot of vegetables. But those vegetables were not brought here, like corn mushrooms, huitlacoche, or squash blossoms.
Sandra CisnerosOne way to get very humble is to dedicate the work you're going to do to your community.
Sandra CisnerosThe beauty of literature is you allow readers to see things through other peoples eyes. All good books do this.
Sandra CisnerosThe most powerful speaking you can do is the speaking that comes from your heart and your love.
Sandra CisnerosOne of the things we learned from that panel is the way poor communities use a library is very different from wealthy communities. But the way the library books are measured are by how many books are taken out. And people in poor communities sometimes won't take the book out because they're afraid to. They're afraid of losing it and not being able to replace it.
Sandra Cisneros