Flipping through the pages of the latest issue of Poder, I saw a story about a new Norton Anthology on Latino Literature and was reminded about Junot Diaz's great accomplishment of winning the 2008 Pulitzer for the tales of Oscar Wao. He is only the second Latino to earn the top writing recognition. Diaz tells a very good story of acculturation, of displacement, of the Latino experience– much like other Latino writers. And he contributes the very unique Dominican voice of his characters who are (or think they are) perpetually sieged by the culturally-charged 'fuku': a concept that has many different meanings and words among Latino countries.
But Junot is not alone in his great conquest of the 2008 arts world. Latino Lin-Manuel Miranda took the Tonys by storm earlier this year with In The Heights: the best musical, best score, best orchestration and best choreography winner. Earlier this month, the musical score was nominated for a Grammy, along with The Little Mermaid, Gypsy, South Pacific and Young Frankenstein. Diaz and Miranda, like Nilo Cruz with Anna in the Tropics and Oscar Hijuelos with The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love before them, reached the pinnacle by earning these national top awards in theater and prose. Coincidentally, these four talented individuals are of Caribbean descent (Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic).
Earlier this year, the 7th art named Javier Bardem the 2008 Oscar winner for best supporting actor on his role on No Country for Old Men.
As the year wraps and many 2008 ’in-review’ lists are published, we just wanted to send a nod out to these accomplished Hispanics who contributed to the great cultural total of our present and made a mark in some of the most reputed awards to creative pop expression in modern times.
Here is a link to a good story about Latino arts in 2008: A Year to Remember for Latinos (NY Daily News).
PS: kudos to John Leguizamo and the rest of the cast in Nothing Like the Holidays. Hope the film about a Latino Holiday family reunion does well.
SUBSCRIBE