Enrique's Journey at Peru State College

One Tuesday, January 23, Sonia Nazario--Pulitzer Prize winning journalist for the Los Angles Times and author of the acclaimed book Enrique's Journey--visited Peru State College.

For good reason, Isabelle Allende describes Nazario's book as "a 21st century Odyssey."

To learn more about the book and the people whose trials and travels the narrative chronicles, including updates on their lives since the publication of Enrique's Journey, just follow the preceding link.

Sonia Nazario won a Pulitzer for her newspaper articles on the subject of Enrique, and photo-journalist Don Bartletti won a Pulitzer Prize for his photography; this interview with Jody Hammond, a journalist for Stories de la Frontera, features Bartletti and his photographs taken for Nazario's articles for the Los Angles Times.

And this recent story about migrants on The Train of Death--trains on which Enrique traveled on his terrible journey from Honduras to the Rio Grande River--underscores how the peril for these immigrants continues to grow. And you might also enjoy this first of a four-part interview of Nazario by Connie Martinson.

I published a series of photographs from Sonia Nazario's presentation Tuesday night and enjoyed, prior to her talk, dining with her and a group of Peru State Students.

In addition to photographs, I also took took some video clips from Sonia Nazario's riveting talk about Enrique's journey and her own experiences retracing his often harrowing voyage.

Enrique's Journey Part One includes Nazario's discussion of her motivations both to become a journalist and to pursue the story of the impoverished people who flee Central America, an investigation that let her to Enrique.

And in Part Two, Sonia Nazario talks about the obstacles that confronted Enrique on his odyssey to reunite with his mother in North Carolina and Nazario's own experiences riding the violence-plagued trains that carried Enrique north to the Rio Grande River.

Read the book.

Peru State Foundation Meet and Greet at Tiburon Golf Club

Tiburon Golf Club Greeting

PSC Foundation Director, Todd Simpson, with PSC Student Senators Will Jackson and TJ Beckert

On Thursday evening, January 19, The Peru State Foundation and Alumni Association sponsored a meet-and-greet reception for Peru State College Alumni at the Tiburon Golf Club in Omaha.

And as the photographs from the event suggest, the evening proved a gratifying success. Over eighty participants enjoyed the good food and enthusiastic company.

President Hanson highlighted for the gathered alumni many of the recent successes Peru State continues to enjoy, especially in terms of student engagement and success.

In addition, Sara Crook and Dan Holtz showcased for the group their special Trails and Tales event scheduled for October 2012. You can read at the previous link about this event that begins in Norfolk and Williamsburg, Virginia, and concludes with four days in and around Boston.

While taking photographs, I enjoyed talking with many familiar faces and meeting new PSC supporters--oh, and the artichoke dip was as good as the Tiburon hostesses claimed. Thanks for the tip!

And what fun, the enthusiastic group of alumni included two notable Peru State College graduates in English, Randi Scott (Mayberry) and Chris Raabe.

After graduating with a teaching certificate in English, Randi eventually became a lawyer and presently serves as campaign manager for Brett Lindstrom's congressional campaign.

Also graduating with a teaching certificate in English, Chris Raabe, who worked on the student newspaper and played baseball during his Peru State days, presently teaches English.

Raabe recently published his first novel, a narrative for young adults, The New Phenomenon; you can purchase the book on line.

Chris Raabe will visit Peru State in the near future to read from and discuss his novel.

Squaw Creek in the Winter

If you look for an interesting and exciting diversion, take a trip to the Squaw Creek National Wildlife Preserve. As you will see at the previous link, this beautiful area includes year-round birding fun and offers updated looks at the numbers of Bald Eagles and waterfowl in the area.


On Sunday, January 15, Deb Clopton and I drove out to the preserve to see a substantial number of Bald Eagles--mostly immature birds that hulk along the ice in the background, waiting--and Snow Geese.


The area presently houses around 250 Trumpeter Swans, graceful creatures in flight and when landing that huddled in the distance on the ice.

We saw a variety of other birds as well, including March Hawks and Canada Geese.

On the cold and windy morning, I took a video of the 200,000+ Snow Geese gathered on the ice.

As the video indicates, the wind blew at a substantial clip, so turn down the volume a bit on the video until all the thousands of birds take off in a tornado-twisting and loud swirl.

I also posted some photographs from the excursion.

International Conference on Caribbean Literature in Havana, Cuba

Last year the International Conference on Caribbean Literature took place in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Togabo.

The conference featured writer Earl Lovelace. I also enjoyed an excursion into a mangrove swamp and filmed the country's national bird, the stunning Scarlet Ibis, so give the preceding link a look.

In a previous year, the conference visited St. Lucia, home of Nobel-Prize-winning author Derrek Walcott; the preceding blog page contains links to Walcott's reading.

This year's conference provided an even more exciting adventure, for I got to visit a place long on my wish list for travel, Havana, Cuba.

I will organize through five separate collections of photographs and videos, for I served as this historic conference's "official" photographer and videographer:

Tuesday night in Miami and Wednesday in Havana (152 images).


We all arrived in Miami on Tuesday for a reception and discussion of the upcoming adventure in Havana.

A group of us also enjoyed an initial taste of Cuban food that afternoon at a smallrestaurant close to the airport hotel complex at which we stayed; I ordered the grilled King Fish.

After a short flight from Miami to the Jose Marti Airport outside Havana (Habana), we visited one of Havana's famous cemeteries, where many of the island's wealthy built impressive statues and other structures at their grave sites--as the photographs indicate.


After getting settled in the beautiful Hotel Nacional, Havana's most famous hotel, we got in the bus for a quick trip to the Casa de Las Americas, the nation's center for international cultural relations--this government group also helped organize the convention, the first of its kind for scholars from the USA since 1959, the year the government created the organization.


There, the group's president, Roberto Fernandez Retamar, one of Cuba's most celebrated writers and scholars, addressed the group. Unfortunately, I did not bring the video camera and so cannot share his excellent talk.
After a fun-filled reception at Casa de Las Americas, we headed via a tunnel under Havana Bay to a restaurant, La Divina Pastora, located next to El Morro Castle that overlooks Havana Bay.

While we ate an exceptional fish dinner,Cuarteto entertained. The preceding video from a couple of the group's numbers does not sound all that good, however, take a look to see the group and the beautiful lights of Havana sparkling on the horizon and reflected in the bay's waters.

After dinner, our evening's featured speaker, Pedro Perez Sarduy, a noted Cuban poet, journalist, and novelist addressed the group. Sarduy's latest novel is the award-winning The Maids of Havana--and you can listen to him read from this book.

Author Pedro Perez Sarduy Speaks Part OneAuthor Pedro Perez Sarduy Speaks Part Two

I did not record all of whatSarduy related, but did video two large sections of the speech--and what a superb translator.

Give the talk a listen, for Pedro talks about his genesis as a writer in Cuba. Pedro stayed with us for pretty much the entire adventure, and I quickly came to admire him a great deal.

After Pedro's address, a surprise speaker--pictured on the right in the preceding paragraph--and one of Cuba's most celebrated statesmen and current President of the National Assembly of the People's Power, Ricardo Alarcon de Quesada talked with us for nearly an hour, a wonderfully articulate and energetic extemporaneous display.
Thursday Events in Havana (164 images).

Havana Bay with El Murro Castle

After the morning sessions, we gathered at one of the Hotel Nacional restaurants for lunch and an address by Miguel Barnet, another famous Cuban anthropologist and author, and presently the President of the Cuban Association of Writers and Artists.

Unfortunately Miguel Barnet was ill; I look forward to reading his well-known Biography of a Runaway Slave.




Before out trip to Old Havana that afternoon, I went back to theCasa De Las Americas, where I purchased a poster marking the One-Hundred-Year Anniversary of Franz Fannon--author of the important works The Wretched of the Earth and Black Skin, White Masks.


Around two in the afternoon, the group got in the bus with our excellent driver and two guides for the day and went to Old Havana, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site under rather heavy reconstruction.

But before our tour of Old Havana, we gathered in the San Geronimo School to listento an address by Dr. Eusebio Leal Spengler, the City Historian of Havana, who spoke about many things, including the preservation and architecture of Old Havana.

Eusebio Leal Spengler Part One

Eusebio Leal Spengler Part Two

The previous two links feature most of Spengler's address though the quality of the voices leaves something to be desired--too much echo in the hall.

Still, Spengler offers wonderful details about Cuban history, politics, and culture.


After the talk, we all went on a guided tour of Old Havana, and the photographs attempt to capture some of the area's growing beauty, contrasted always with what these tours do not highlight. But the pre-1959 automobiles suggest something of the contrasts that describe Havana.
We had an opportunity to return a couple times to Old Havana with its stunning buildings and other attractions, from food to the used book sellers market previously pictured, from the views along the bay to a variety of entertainments, including a Mojito at a bar Hemingway frequented or dancers in the streets:




As I did on more than one occasion, I concluded the night listening to music outside the Hotel Nacional, often with seven-year-old rum and a mighty good cigar--I picked Sequencia Tropical's CD, one of the groups that performs regularly at the hotel.

Friday Events in Havana (205 images)

Writing Tower at Hemingway Home Outside Havana

Friday proved another intense day. After the morning conference sessions at which I gave a paper and chaired a session, the group enjoyed lunch and then a talk by Margarita Mateo Palmer, a distinguished critic and novelist.

Margarita Mateo Palmer Part One

Margarita Mateo Palmer Part Two

I wish that one could find Palmer's works in English; she does not use a translator in these two pieces that pay homage from her work and that of others to Havana.





Music and Dancing at Museum of Guanabacoa

Habana Midic Performs


Saturday Events in Havana (238 images)

Nancy Morejon Part One

Nancy Morejon Part Two

Nancy Morejon Part Three

Nancy Morejon Part Four

Los Munequitos de Matanza Music and Slides of Saturday's Highlights in Havana



Sunday Events in Havana (95 images)