::: L@S ELOTER@S :::

A collective of six young, committed Latin(@=a/o) writers from Chicago. We believe our narratives can document cultural and social conditions. We hope to create a new and safe space for Latin@ voices to be valued and heard in the city of Chicago. We nourish each others’ creative and critical processes, as well as support each others personal and professional development. We work/collaborate within our varied communities. We write to survive. We survive to write.



22 August, 2008

What are Los Eloteros?

Well, I'd like to think we're a collective of writers that came together because there was no other outlet available. As young aspiring word manipulators we thought, where can we go to maintain our creative process, how do we submit, where do we submit and most of all how do we keep ourselves motivated? The truth is our small communities and our larger community as a whole does not value the written word and the only kind of value we can expect is the kind we give. As Latino's we understand that we are marginalized and pigeonholed when it comes to our Spanish diction and cultural themes.
Being young often broke writers we know how hard it is to stay inspired. What our tight circle of six Eloteros provides, is an atmosphere in which we can be surrounded by peers that we admire and would hate to loose in our ever expanding literary world. As Eloteros we understand the varying voices, narrative tones of our work and the work outside of our collaborative. Together we want to promote the creative development of Youth, having read and heard the immense talent within our community we are, at a basic level, an ensemble trying to create exposure for those of us that get none.

To be continued..


Sidenote!
Maybe I should post this somewhere else but I've been thinking about the usage of Latino/a and I'm aware I wrote, 'As Latino's' without the slash. Here's the thing I don't really use the slash because Latinos in Spanish, as we all know, encompasses both Female and Male. So I guess I feel like it's redundant or unnecessary? So educate me querido Eloteros di me que piensan. Can we open it to debate, si? Honestly educate me. SLASH OR NO SLASH!

1 comment:

andare said...

Hi. I heard about Los Eloteros just recently. Now I am wondering, do you conduct a writing workshop somewhere? If so I'd love to learn more. Thanks