Book fair Oct. 31
Author Joe Olvera will be at the Southwest Book Fair on October 31, 2009 in El Paso, Texas.
He will sign copies of his book "Chicano - Sin Fin!"
The book will also be on sale at the fair from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the El Paso Downtown Public Library at Oregon and Franklin. At 4 p.m., noted Mexican author Carlos Fuentes will give a keynote speech at the event.
Come by and say hello to Joe, the first Chicano TV reporter in El Paso, and a former candidate for mayor.
Earlier this year, Joe received state and city proclamations in recognition of his longtime service to the community.
Sin Fin!
Showing posts with label Joe Olvera. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joe Olvera. Show all posts
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Column about journalist-author Joe Olvera's tribulations and award in the El Paso Times
Olvera to receive City of El Paso Award; tribute planned; account set up for Joe
Journalist's struggle is one we can all relate to
Column by Ramon Renteria/El Paso Times Online/Jan. 11, 2008
Reprinted from the El Paso Times (http://www.elpasotimes.com/)
It's not the kind of news you want to hear.
The e-mails rolled in a while back saying Joe Olvera had lost his other leg to diabetes, the disease that maims and kills so many Mexican-Americans.
Olvera is an old-school Chicano, a former newspaperman who worked at the El Paso Times and the now-defunct El Paso Herald-Post. He said he is the first Chicano who worked in El Paso television news.
Olvera upset readers with his in-your-face commentaries on El Paso life and politics and references to racism and other social maladies on the United States-Mexico border. He ended his columns with his signature sin fin, loosely translated as "without end."
Olvera's friends assumed he would spend his golden years writing, maybe spending lots of time with his large extended family. He wrote a memoir about his journalism adventures and struggle with diabetes. He once ran an unsuccessful mayoral campaign.
Olvera is not the type to ask for charity or the type to wallow in self-pity.
So, it was difficult for those who know him to respond. Some of Olvera's friends, led by Del Pueblo Press publisher Reyes Mata, started trying to figure out how they could help.
La Fe Clinic first offered to build a ramp at Olvera's mobile home so he could have easier wheelchair access. La Fe also sponsored an account at Bank of the West (account No. 1099051) to help raise $10,000 to help him buy a prosthetic limb.
With mounting medical problems, Olvera disclosed that he, too, was affected by the mortgage loan mess. Creditors threatened to foreclose on his mortgage.
The naysayers will complain that it was his fault, that he should have set aside enough for retirement and that he shouldn't have to rely on the rest of us to bail him out. Saving for retirement isn't so easy in a city where many of us live paycheck to paycheck.
If we set aside the depressing thoughts that nag us day in and day out, we might conclude the situation is looking brighter for Joe Olvera in 2009.
Organizers say the city of El Paso will honor him Tuesday with its Star on the Mountain Award, its highest civilian recognition. Olvera recently told friends: "I'm flattered, honored and humbled."
Del Pueblo Press has lined up Hispanic civic leaders, artists, writers, activists and others to pay tribute to Olvera and hand him its Chicano Lifetime Achievement Award at 4 p.m. Saturday (Jan. 17, 2009) at The Percolator Cafe, 217 N. Stanton. The public is invited.
We all know somebody having a tough time making ends meet. And those of us who can usually will extend a helping hand, whether it's a homeless person, a neighbor or strangers who lost their house in a fire. Or the Olveras in our lives.
May el sin fin smile again.
Ramón Rentería may be reached at rrenteria@elpasotimes.com; 546-6146.
[Joe Olvera's book "Sin Fin; Chicano! Memoirs of a Chicano Journalist" ($19.95) will be available at the Percolator event.]
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Review of Joe Olvera's book Chicano - Sin Fin by Ray Rojas in the El Paso Times
El Paso Times
May 25, 2008
Guest Review by Ray Rojas
Olvera recounts journalism days with wit, irritation
Being stuck in the trunk of a car in Tijuana is not good news - unless you are reporter Joe Olvera doing undercover work.
In "Chicano Sin Fin!: Memoirs of a Chicano Journalist" (Zapata 1910 Press, $17.95), Olvera recalls life as a veteran border journalist.
These days, it is not unusual to see a brown face on television or a Spanish surname attached to a newspaper story. In Olvera's day, there were few. In fact, he claims he became El Paso's first Chicano television journalist in the early 1970s.
Olvera's book opens with a topic outside of his journalism experience - the diabetes he has had for many years. As in many of his columns on Chicanos and diabetes, he chastises himself for ignoring the symptoms until it was too late. When he eventually went to the hospital, doctors had to amputate some of his toes right away.
The gems in Olvera's book are of his journalistic experiences.
I was expecting a collection of Olvera's editorials and was hesitant at first when the book read like a memoir. But his streetwise antics offer a humorous glimpse at a modern journalist.
Olvera was recruited to be part of an intense journalism-training program at Columbia University in New York City. He describes chasing stories and learning to do investigative journalism in the Big Apple.
Because the training focused more on television, Olvera tried broadcast journalism for a while at what was then the CBS affiliate Channel 4-KROD. Broadcast journalism did not agree with him, and he later became a reporter with the El Paso Herald-Post and El Paso Times.
Though it's a memoir, "Sin Fin!" feels as if Olvera is talking about modern-day issues: killings in Mexico, illegal border crossings, notary publics practicing immigration law, U.S. citizens in Mexican prisons, and abuse of low-income workers.
Posing as an illiterate undocumented immigrant, Olvera exposed an El Paso notary public fraudulently practicing immigration law and ripping off the poor.
He traveled from central Mexico posing as a Mexican immigrant, and was smuggled into the United States in a car trunk. He continued his journey to Chicago.
When "Americans" were killed on a road in Mexico, the El Paso Herald-Post editor asked Olvera to ride the same road to see whether it was that dangerous.
Olvera gave a prison guard a few bucks during the course of reporting a story. Hilariously, he jotted down "bribe" on his expense report.
Another time, he used his street savvy to access El Paso's most notorious gangs.
Olvera also posed as a farmworker, witnessed the abuses of farmers, and experienced a chile picker's backbreaking labor.
Over the years, Olvera called out racism when he saw it. He even ran for mayor at one time. He fought with editors and fellow reporters who, he thought, mistreated Chicano reporters. He also battled against "taco beat" assignments (covering sappy Hispanic events) just because he was among the few "Mexicans" in the newsroom. He resented being used as a translator for his Anglo colleagues.
He talks about how corporate journalism influenced local newspapers and how advertising dollars, rather than the public interest, often influenced how news was covered.
"Chicano Sin Fin!" is a wonderful exploration of a Chicano in journalism, the kind of book that should influence others in Olvera's footsteps to re-examine whether they are still doing the "taco beat" or real investigative journalism that lands you in tight spaces.
Raymundo Elí Rojas is the editor of Pluma Fronteriza, a publication dedicated to Latino and Chicano writers in the El Paso-Juárez-Las Cruces region.
Another time, he used his street savvy to access El Paso's most notorious gangs.
Olvera also posed as a farmworker, witnessed the abuses of farmers, and experienced a chile picker's backbreaking labor.
Over the years, Olvera called out racism when he saw it. He even ran for mayor at one time. He fought with editors and fellow reporters who, he thought, mistreated Chicano reporters. He also battled against "taco beat" assignments (covering sappy Hispanic events) just because he was among the few "Mexicans" in the newsroom. He resented being used as a translator for his Anglo colleagues.
He talks about how corporate journalism influenced local newspapers and how advertising dollars, rather than the public interest, often influenced how news was covered.
"Chicano Sin Fin!" is a wonderful exploration of a Chicano in journalism, the kind of book that should influence others in Olvera's footsteps to re-examine whether they are still doing the "taco beat" or real investigative journalism that lands you in tight spaces.
Raymundo Elí Rojas is the editor of Pluma Fronteriza, a publication dedicated to Latino and Chicano writers in the El Paso-Juárez-Las Cruces region.
Meet the author
El Paso author and journalist Joe Olvera will discuss his memoir "Chicano - Sin Fin!" at the Tumblewords writing workshop at 11:45 a.m. June 14 at Memorial Park Library, 3200 Copper.
The book is available at amazon.com and other online outlets.
To learn more about Olvera, e-mail joeolverwrites@gmail.com or go online to www.joeolverawrites.blogspot.com.
Information: 539-6365; e-mail
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Look for it in other venues in the near future
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Read Joe Olvera's hot new book Chicano - Sin Fin!
May 2008Zapata 1910 Press is proud to present Joe Olvera's new book Chicano - Sin Fin! Memoirs of a Chicano Journalist (ISBN 978-0-9777992-9-9; May 2008; $17.95).
Buy the book at www.amazon.com and other online retailers. We will keep you informed of bookstores and other outlets that also will carry the book.
Educational institutions may order bulk copies through the publisher's wholesalers.
Read the book review by Ray Rojas in the El Paso Times, May 25, 2008.
Write the author at joeolverawrites@gmail.com
A schedule of Joe's future book signings and presentations will be posted here:
- June 14 (Saturday): Joe Olvera will lead a workshop for the Tumblewords Project and discuss his new book; 11:45 a.m. at Memorial Park Library, 3200 Copper Ave., in Central El Paso.
- June 28 (Saturday): Joe Olvera will present his book at the La Fe Cultural and Technology Center; 2 p.m. at 721 South Ochoa (rear) in South El Paso.
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