When I get to the room it is already packed and I grab a seat in the back. Looking at the audience I'm excited to see so many Latinos. I try not to look at the carpeting or the wall paper in this room because it gives me anxiety.
I peek at the women on the panel that include: Lorraine Lopez, Gabriela Jaurequi, Angie Chau, Daisy Hernandez, Erin Badhand and Laura Negrete.
The panel begins and they all begin to read their work. I felt so proud to be listening to the works of these writers. Their work all varied and I walked away feeling inspired by their creativity.
The moderator mentioned that the Macondo workshop is now has open applications and the deadline is in April.
The Macondo Foundation works with dedicated and compassionate writers who view their work and talents as part of a larger task of community-building and non-violent social change. Macondo is a community of poets, novelists, journalists, performance artists, and creative writers of all genres whose work is socially-engaged. What unites us is a commitment to serve our under-served communities through our writing.
Officially incorporated in 2006, the Macondo Foundation has its roots in the Macondo Writing Workshop (named after the sleepy town in Gabriel García Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude), which began in 1995 in the kitchen of poet and writer Sandra Cisneros. The Workshop rapidly grew from 15 to more than 120 participants in less than nine years. During that time, the Macondo Workshop expanded its community involvement through annual events with the Our Lady of the Lake University, UT-San Antonio, Trinity University, Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, Jump-Start Performance Theatre, Casa de Maria y Marta and the Bexar County Juvenile Detention Center. Macondo currently makes its home at Our Lady of the Lake University.
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