Rudolfo Anaya, Professor Emeritus \u00a0who is widely acclaimed as the founder of modern Chicano Literature, recently published a new book, \u201cThe Sorrows of Young Alfonso.\u201d This new book casts a wide net in the exploration of the human condition through a tapestry of intertwining issues and characters. Among those issues are the strength of family, the insistence of religious observance, the power of the supernatural and of mythology, the wonders of nature, the loss of Hispanic cultural values, the impact of history, the weight of rural poverty and the understanding of the inevitable sorrows in life.\u00a0Anaya deems\u00a0the book\u00a0a “fictional memoir,” \u00a0but it\u00a0could also be read as a thought-provoking companion to his most famous work, the classic 1972 coming-of-age novel \u201cBless Me, Ultima.\u201d “Sorrows” has characters with lives that parallel some of lives of characters in \u201cUltima.\u201d For instance, the central character in both books is a young man who learns about the hardships of growing up on the llanos (plains) of eastern New Mexico.<\/p>\n
Writing the book, Anaya said, \u201cwas strenuous, mentally and physically. At 78, with the back problem that I have, a novel is very difficult to write.\u201d Nevertheless, Anaya is also working on a few shorter book projects.\u00a0One is a children\u2019s story called, \u201cOwl in a Hat,\u201d and is designed for a summer reading program for kids in kindergarten through sixth grade in northern New Mexico, sponsored by Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Christopher Montalvo Memorial. \u201cThe theme of the (Owl in a Hat) story is if you can\u2019t read, you can get into a lot of trouble,\u201d Anaya said.<\/p>\n