Paris, True To Its Promise,

I Think The Possibilities Are Endless In Terms Of What The Genre Would Be Like. However, In Terms Of Looking For Sources Of Money, I Think We Have To Be Very Careful Not To Fall Into Hollywood's Commodification Of Chicano Culture. We Could Look At The Example Of Piri Thomas, A Successful Puerto Rican Writer Now Living In The Bay Area, Who Has Received Repeated Offers From Hollywood...and He Said He's Not Going To Write About His People Doing Drugs And Going To Jail.

When I Devoted Myself To Poetry - And Poetry Is A Very Serious Medium - I Don't Think The People That Knew Me As An Individual With That Tongue-in-cheek Kind Of Humor...well, It Didn't Always Lend Itself To My Poetry. When You're Writing Poetry, It's Like Working With Gold, You Can't Waste Anything. You Have To Be Very Economical With Each Word You're Going To Select. But When You're Writing Fiction, You Can Just Go On And On; You Can Be More Playful. My Editor's Main Task Is To Cut Back, Not Ask For More.

Hispanic Gives Us All One Ultimate Paternal Cultural Progenitor: Spain. The Diverse Cultures Already On The American Shores When The Europeans Arrived, As Well As Those Introduced Because Of The African Slave Trade, Are Completely Obliterated By The Term. Hispanic Is Nothing More Than A Concession Made By The U. S. Legislature When They Saw They Couldn't Get Rid Of Us. If We Won't Go Away, Why Not At Least Europeanize Us, Make Us Presentable Guests At The Dinner Table, Take Away Our Feathers And Rattles And Civilize Us Once And For All.

For Things To Have Value In Man's World, They Are Given The Role Of Commodities. Among Man's Oldest And Most Constant Commodity Is Woman.

I Definitely Do See Language Serving Its Users, And When It No Longer Serves Them We Need To Look For New Words.