Chico Lingo, by Sergio Troncoso

Why Read?

noreply@blogger.com (Sergio Troncoso) — Fri, 18 May 2012 12:27:00 +0000

I believe this is the crisis of our times: we are losing readers, we are forgetting why reading is important as well as pleasurable, and we are becoming accustomed to a culture focused primarily on...

Chico Lingo is a blog about writing, politics, and finance by Sergio Troncoso, author of The Last Tortilla and Other Stories, Crossing Borders: Personal Essays, and the novels The Nature of Truth and From This Wicked Patch of Dust.

The Distance to Tucson

noreply@blogger.com (Sergio Troncoso) — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 12:49:00 +0000

Distance—whether it be psychic, physical, linguistic, ethnic or cultural—allows us to easily stereotype individuals, groups, and even places. I wrote a novel, The Nature of Truth, in which I...

Chico Lingo is a blog about writing, politics, and finance by Sergio Troncoso, author of The Last Tortilla and Other Stories, Crossing Borders: Personal Essays, and the novels The Nature of Truth and From This Wicked Patch of Dust.

My brother in Afghanistan

noreply@blogger.com (Sergio Troncoso) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 13:52:00 +0000

Last Friday I went to Zabar’s to select boxes of assorted nuts and dried fruits for my brother who is in Afghanistan with the Navy. As the Christmas and Hanukah holidays are approaching, one...

Chico Lingo is a blog about writing, politics, and finance by Sergio Troncoso, author of The Last Tortilla and Other Stories, Crossing Borders: Personal Essays, and the novels The Nature of Truth and From This Wicked Patch of Dust.

November Readings and Events

noreply@blogger.com (Sergio Troncoso) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 14:40:00 +0000

New Jersey, New York, Texas, New Mexico, and Illinois. Oh, only five states this month: I am glad I am slowing down. It has been an exhilarating fall, as I have read across the country...

Chico Lingo is a blog about writing, politics, and finance by Sergio Troncoso, author of The Last Tortilla and Other Stories, Crossing Borders: Personal Essays, and the novels The Nature of Truth and From This Wicked Patch of Dust.

October Readings and Events

noreply@blogger.com (Sergio Troncoso) — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 11:50:00 +0000

I'll be in New Jersey, Oregon, Maryland, Texas, and California in October. I am exhausted just thinking about it! I hope to see you at one of these readings or events. That is what...

Chico Lingo is a blog about writing, politics, and finance by Sergio Troncoso, author of The Last Tortilla and Other Stories, Crossing Borders: Personal Essays, and the novels The Nature of Truth and From This Wicked Patch of Dust.

Why I Wrote From This Wicked Patch of Dust

noreply@blogger.com (Sergio Troncoso) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 12:41:00 +0000

Two days ago at the Brooklyn Book Festival a young woman came up to me after my reading, and asked me a simple question: Why did I write my novel, From This Wicked Patch of Dust? The festival...

Chico Lingo is a blog about writing, politics, and finance by Sergio Troncoso, author of The Last Tortilla and Other Stories, Crossing Borders: Personal Essays, and the novels The Nature of Truth and From This Wicked Patch of Dust.

September Readings and Events

noreply@blogger.com (Sergio Troncoso) — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 01:47:00 +0000

This is my schedule during the month of September. My new novel, From This Wicked Patch of Dust, is being distributed right now, and my book of essays, Crossing Borders: Personal Essays, should...

Chico Lingo is a blog about writing, politics, and finance by Sergio Troncoso, author of The Last Tortilla and Other Stories, Crossing Borders: Personal Essays, and the novels The Nature of Truth and From This Wicked Patch of Dust.

The Lost Border: Request for Submissions

noreply@blogger.com (Sergio Troncoso) — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 00:24:00 +0000

Request for SubmissionsThe Lost Border: Essays on how life and culture have been changed by the violence along the U.S.-Mexico border Extended Deadline: October 15, 2011 This new anthology will...

Chico Lingo is a blog about writing, politics, and finance by Sergio Troncoso, author of The Last Tortilla and Other Stories, Crossing Borders: Personal Essays, and the novels The Nature of Truth and From This Wicked Patch of Dust.

Economic uncertainty as a political weapon

noreply@blogger.com (Sergio Troncoso) — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 16:30:00 +0000

You have to hand it to the House Republicans: they have outplayed President Obama in almost every respect on the deficit-ceiling debate, but primarily in their use of economic uncertainty as a...

Chico Lingo is a blog about writing, politics, and finance by Sergio Troncoso, author of The Last Tortilla and Other Stories, Crossing Borders: Personal Essays, and the novels The Nature of Truth and From This Wicked Patch of Dust.

Solve the mystery, win a free book

noreply@blogger.com (Sergio Troncoso) — Tue, 31 May 2011 20:00:00 +0000

I am a contributor to a terrific new anthology, You Don’t Have A Clue: Latino Mystery Stories for Teens with a Teacher's Guide (Arte Público Press), which was published a month ago and has been...

Chico Lingo is a blog about writing, politics, and finance by Sergio Troncoso, author of The Last Tortilla and Other Stories, Crossing Borders: Personal Essays, and the novels The Nature of Truth and From This Wicked Patch of Dust.

Obama's Focus

noreply@blogger.com (Sergio Troncoso) — Wed, 04 May 2011 10:39:00 +0000

I like the photo released from the Situation Room, with President Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton, Robert Gates, Joe Biden and others riveted by the live screen as our Navy commandos enter Osama Bin...

Chico Lingo is a blog about writing, politics, and finance by Sergio Troncoso, author of The Last Tortilla and Other Stories, Crossing Borders: Personal Essays, and the novels The Nature of Truth and From This Wicked Patch of Dust.

Work@Character

noreply@blogger.com (Sergio Troncoso) — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:05:00 +0000

Yesterday Laura and I had our last face-to-face teacher conference of the academic year for our younger son Isaac. Next year he will join his older brother at one of the best high schools in New...

Chico Lingo is a blog about writing, politics, and finance by Sergio Troncoso, author of The Last Tortilla and Other Stories, Crossing Borders: Personal Essays, and the novels The Nature of Truth and From This Wicked Patch of Dust.

Packinghouse Poet

noreply@blogger.com (Sergio Troncoso) — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 01:50:00 +0000

I have spent the last week delightfully immersed in the poetry of David Dominguez, who wrote The Ghost of César Chávez and Work Done Right. David is also co-founder and poetry editor of The...

Chico Lingo is a blog about writing, politics, and finance by Sergio Troncoso, author of The Last Tortilla and Other Stories, Crossing Borders: Personal Essays, and the novels The Nature of Truth and From This Wicked Patch of Dust.

Moral luck

noreply@blogger.com (Sergio Troncoso) — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 02:20:00 +0000

This week something strange happened to me. I was in an elevator in my co-op, and I got stuck. All four elevators in my 23-story building were replaced last year, at a significant cost to...

Chico Lingo is a blog about writing, politics, and finance by Sergio Troncoso, author of The Last Tortilla and Other Stories, Crossing Borders: Personal Essays, and the novels The Nature of Truth and From This Wicked Patch of Dust.

The Bookery in Socorro

noreply@blogger.com (Sergio Troncoso) — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 05:19:00 +0000

After buying asaderos at Licon’s Dairy, I drove Laura, Aaron, and Isaac to one of my favorite independent bookstores, The Bookery in Socorro, on the east side of El Paso. The Bookery is walking...

Chico Lingo is a blog about writing, politics, and finance by Sergio Troncoso, author of The Last Tortilla and Other Stories, Crossing Borders: Personal Essays, and the novels The Nature of Truth and From This Wicked Patch of Dust.

The Provinciality of the United States

noreply@blogger.com (Sergio Troncoso) — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 14:58:00 +0000

Literal Magazine: Latin American Voices continues to be a provocative voice in culture, literature, and politics. One of the best things about publishing your work in a magazine such as Literal...

Chico Lingo is a blog about writing, politics, and finance by Sergio Troncoso, author of The Last Tortilla and Other Stories, Crossing Borders: Personal Essays, and the novels The Nature of Truth and From This Wicked Patch of Dust.

The Consumer Used and Abused

noreply@blogger.com (Sergio Troncoso) — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 22:00:00 +0000

Why can’t corporations be more flexible? Why can’t they put a dollar value on trust, which could be engendered by being more consumer-friendly? Let me tell you about a few different...

Chico Lingo is a blog about writing, politics, and finance by Sergio Troncoso, author of The Last Tortilla and Other Stories, Crossing Borders: Personal Essays, and the novels The Nature of Truth and From This Wicked Patch of Dust.

A Peculiar Journey

noreply@blogger.com (Sergio Troncoso) — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 13:17:00 +0000

I go through spurts in writing. This past summer I wrote, and rewrote, more than I have in years. I got into a certain rhythm. The ideas were flowing, and my skills, such as they...

Chico Lingo is a blog about writing, politics, and finance by Sergio Troncoso, author of The Last Tortilla and Other Stories, Crossing Borders: Personal Essays, and the novels The Nature of Truth and From This Wicked Patch of Dust.

Terror and Humanity

noreply@blogger.com (Sergio Troncoso) — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 03:58:00 +0000

(On September 11, 2001, an editor from Newsday called me at home and asked me to write about what was happening in New York. I didn't know what to write, or if I could write anything. I...

Chico Lingo is a blog about writing, politics, and finance by Sergio Troncoso, author of The Last Tortilla and Other Stories, Crossing Borders: Personal Essays, and the novels The Nature of Truth and From This Wicked Patch of Dust.

American Anima

noreply@blogger.com (Sergio Troncoso) — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 00:24:00 +0000

Sometimes you need a break to regain your anima. That is what I needed after finishing a few projects, after a long hot summer, after trying to make sense of the American political scene where a...

Chico Lingo is a blog about writing, politics, and finance by Sergio Troncoso, author of The Last Tortilla and Other Stories, Crossing Borders: Personal Essays, and the novels The Nature of Truth and From This Wicked Patch of Dust.

Traveling Alone Together

noreply@blogger.com (Sergio Troncoso) — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 13:18:00 +0000

I am toward the end of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, on my iPhone no less, and I have relished every second with this poet. Just as with Emily Dickinson’s Collected Works, which I also read...

Chico Lingo is a blog about writing, politics, and finance by Sergio Troncoso, author of The Last Tortilla and Other Stories, Crossing Borders: Personal Essays, and the novels The Nature of Truth and From This Wicked Patch of Dust.

Illegal is Illegal

noreply@blogger.com (Sergio Troncoso) — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 12:46:00 +0000

That stupid tautology is what passes nowadays for thinking in today’s debate on illegal immigration. It’s stupid, because instead of explaining or justifying anything, that tautology glosses...

Chico Lingo is a blog about writing, politics, and finance by Sergio Troncoso, author of The Last Tortilla and Other Stories, Crossing Borders: Personal Essays, and the novels The Nature of Truth and From This Wicked Patch of Dust.

Literal: Latin American Voices

noreply@blogger.com (Sergio Troncoso) — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 02:31:00 +0000

This spring I have an essay in a groundbreaking magazine I hope many of you will buy and read, Literal: Latin American Voices, edited by Rose Mary Salum. My essay, “A Third Culture: Literature...

Chico Lingo is a blog about writing, politics, and finance by Sergio Troncoso, author of The Last Tortilla and Other Stories, Crossing Borders: Personal Essays, and the novels The Nature of Truth and From This Wicked Patch of Dust.

King of the Chicanos

noreply@blogger.com (Sergio Troncoso) — Tue, 25 May 2010 00:29:00 +0000

Today I finished reading a wonderful novel, King of the Chicanos (Wings Press), by Manuel Ramos, which was published a few weeks ago. Ramos has written several crime fiction novels, and so the...

Chico Lingo is a blog about writing, politics, and finance by Sergio Troncoso, author of The Last Tortilla and Other Stories, Crossing Borders: Personal Essays, and the novels The Nature of Truth and From This Wicked Patch of Dust.

Mr. Fixit

noreply@blogger.com (Sergio Troncoso) — Fri, 14 May 2010 02:30:00 +0000

I have spent the past two weeks fixing broken things, or having them fixed by experts. My son’s MacBook needed the RAM replaced at the new Apple Store near Lincoln Center. I fixed the...

Chico Lingo is a blog about writing, politics, and finance by Sergio Troncoso, author of The Last Tortilla and Other Stories, Crossing Borders: Personal Essays, and the novels The Nature of Truth and From This Wicked Patch of Dust.