Monday, May 24, 2010

Chuy Ramirez on Amazon





AMAZON

Chuy Ramirez and other valley authors are featured at the Literacy Event in Pharr, Texas

http://www.valleytowncrier.com/articles/2010/05/18/news/doc4bf2c0df75a7c168155020.txt

Valley Town Crier-Literacy Event Pharr, Texas

http://www.valleytowncrier.com/articles/2010/05/18/news/doc4bf2c0df75a7c168155020.txt



Book available for purchase on Amazon.

Literacy Event, Pharr Texas

http://events.valleymorningstar.com/pharr-tx/venues/show/1120049-pharr-literacy-program


Chuy Ramirez, Author takes part in this event on Saturday May 22nd, 2010. It was a wonderful event. Pharr, Texas

Full Bio of Chuy Ramirez

Biography
Chuy Ramirez

Chuy Ramirez is an attorney who practices law in McAllen, Texas and is a partner in the firm Ramirez & Guerrero, LLP. He was also a partner for twenty five years in the McAllen firm, Montalvo & Ramirez. Leo Montalvo served as mayor of the City of McAllen for twenty five years and was the first Mexican American elected to that post. Ramirez’ practice focuses on commercial transactions and public finance. As a bond attorney, he has represented most governmental units in South Texas in connection with their issuance of tax-exempt bonds. He is currently corporate legal counsel for a local south Texas bank, a Texas national bank with branches throughout South Texas and more recently in San Antonio. He grew up in the Rio Grande Valley and is no stranger to the strawberry fields, to which he traveled over the years with his family and thousands of families from South Texas.
Ramirez attended Pan American University at Edinburg, Texas and is a graduate of the University of Texas School of Law. At the law school, he served as Articles Editor for the International Law Journal and published a note entitled, “Altering the Policy of Neglect of Undocumented Immigration from South of the Border, Vol. 18 in 1983. Strawberry Fields is his first fictional work. In law school, Ramirez was an active participant in the Chicano Law Students Association and edited Rio Rojo, a student publication. He also served on the Legal Research Board. Before law school, Ramirez served in various positions including City Manager for the City of San Juan in South Texas and as an administrator for Texas Rural Legal Aid. He also helped recruit area managers for the Dept. of Commerce (the U.S. Census Bureau) for the 1980 census.

As a high school student at Pharr San Juan Alamo High School in South Texas, Ramirez was an activist, edited a movement newspaper and helped organize the Mexican American Youth Organization which pushed for an end to segregated schools and bilingual education. He was also an active supporter of Cesar Chavez and his farmworkers movement during the California lettuce strike, and later Antonio Orendain’s Texas union, and edited the movement newspaper, El Portavoz. As a college student during the early 1970s, Ramirez was a political organizer and assisted with numerous campaigns, most notably the campaigns of Los Tres, the first three elected Mexican Americans to city office in San Juan, Texas, his home town. Ramirez was nineteen years old at the time. In 1972, he also helped organize the Raza Unida Party, a local third party in South Texas, for which former Texas state representative Alex Moreno served as the first standard bearer. Later, Ramirez served as treasurer for the Mexican American Democrats and an officer of the Texas Democratic Party. He has never sought public office and has not been directly involved in politics since 1980 except for his assistance or contributions.

Ramirez lives in San Juan, Texas with his wife of thirty eight years, Aida, who is a retired public school teacher. He has two children: Jesus Ramirez and Mirta Espinola. He is the proud grandfather of four: Chuy Ramirez III, Carla Ramirez, Victoria Ramirez and Isaiah Matthew Ramirez.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Pharr Literacy Program

http://events.themonitor.com/pharr-tx/venues/show/1120049-pharr-literacy-program

Strawberry Fields, A Book of Short Stories, on Amazon

First Texas Publishers
Immediate Release

May 18th, 2010

Chuy Ramirez Debuts Strawberry Fields, A Book of Short Stories
On Amazon

Book of Short Stories


(McAllen, Texas) – Strawberry Fields, a Book of Short Stories, by McAllen, Texas attorney and fiction writer, Chuy Ramirez, is officially on Amazon. Go to www.amazon.com and readers can locate Strawberry Fields via hardcover, paperback, and digitally on KINDLE.

The book signing will follow a presentation of excerpts Ramirez has selected to read.
“Strawberry Fields tells the tales of three generations of a Mexican family as they make their way from Northern Mexico to South Texas,” says Ramirez. The book is written like a novel but readers can read chapters as independent vignettes. The book is also a murder mystery. Most of the focus, though, is on that period in the 1960s when the “baby boomers” begin to come of age. Strawberry Fields is symbolic of both the strawberry fields in Michigan at which farm workers labored to improve their lot, as well as an abstract place that represents the dreams and ambitions of a young Joaquin, the protagonist.

Ramirez himself grew up in the Rio Grande Valley, attended Pan American University in Edinburg, Texas and is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin School of Law. He practices law in McAllen. Strawberry Fields is his first fictional work.

For reviews of the book and more information on the author, or to purchase Strawberry Fields, visit www.firsttexaspublishing.com or contact Mirta Espinola at 210-394-1254. In McAllen, the book is available at Los Cazadores Restaurant at Ivy and North Main. In San Juan, the book is for sale at Ebony Estates at 700 N “I” Rd, Suite B, San Juan, TX 78589. In Edinburg, you can find the book at the Law Office of Alex Moreno 4751 S. Jackson, 956-381-8000. The book is also available in San Antonio, Texas at Tres Rebecas and The Twig Book Shop.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Strawberry Fields, A Book of Short Stories/ Review by: Karen Tanguma


From San Antonio Examiner,




Review by: Karen Tanguma

The intriguing novel, “Strawberry Fields,” features the migrant journeys, experiences, and memories of Joaquin (attorney), as an adolescent farm worker from South Texas. Similar to the migrant stories of Tomas Rivera, Chuy Ramirez entwines different aspects of Mexican American migrant history with a variety of fictional elements in the telling of his story. For instance, the author attempts to unravel the mystery of the strawberry fields’ murder by meticulously building suspense in the novel with a series of short stories.

The jingle “Grandfather tree, grandfather tree, why don’t you tell your secrets to me” foreshadows the mystery behind the murder of Joaquin’s first intimate acquaintance (a blond migrant girl) and Joaquin’s upcoming self-reflective journey toward transformation into mainstream society and enlightenment about his own identity. Through a hero’s quests, Joaquin (attorney) accepts the challenge to depart from his familiar surroundings of the courtroom and revisit (comes to terms with) the trials and tribulations of his past.

The author, Chuy Ramirez, ignites Joaquin’s passion to revisit his past and embrace his own heritage through his childhood memories, while creatively featuring them independently throughout the novel’s chapters. The novel opens with Joaquin nostalgically reflecting on his past (unsolved murder) and upcoming vacation (road trip) to Michigan and Indiana. In its entirety, the novel reveals pivotal moments of Joaquin’s life in short stories, such as his first communion, his experiences salvaging and riding a tricycle, and his non chalaunt attitude (unresolved issues) toward burying his estranged father. In closing, the novel maintains suspense with the unsolved murder mystery. So, stay tune for a possible sequel!

Like Tomas Rivera, Chuy Ramirez uses his experiences (field laborer) and his talents to honor the cultural heritage of Mexican American migrants and the American Dream with “Strawberry Fields.”
The author of “Strawberry Fields” Chuy Ramirez grew up in the city of San Juan in South Texas and is presently an attorney in McAllen Texas. He attended Pan American University in Edinburg Texas and the University Texas Law School, before settling in as a partner in the law firm of Ramirez & Guerrero.

Book Signing Schedule: Book Tour in September

May 7 at 5 p.m.-Twig Book Shop in San Antonio Texas

May 10th at 7:30 p.m.-"Society of Latino and Hispanic Writers of San Antonio"-Barnes and Noble, San Pedro Crossing in San Antonio Texas

http://slhwnotes.blogspot.com/

Check “First Texas Publishers” for times, locations, and book information.
www.iberoaztlan.com
texaspublishing@iberoaztlan.com


Price: $25.00 Paperback
$40.00 Hardcover

ISBN: 978-0-615-32672-6

Monday, May 3, 2010

TWIG BOOK SHOP, San Antonio Texas



http://thetwig.indiebound.com/event/chuy-ramirez-strawberry-fields


Event: The Twig Book Shop, May 7th, 2010
5pm, in the Peark Brewery Complex
Author: Chuy Ramirez, Strawberry Fields

Ramirez, who is from South Texas, has a home in north San Antonio and is General Counsel to Lone Star National Bank, which is opening several branch banks in San Antonio. His book of short stories, Strawberry Fields, published in February, is a collection of stories and vignettes of three generations of a South Texas family beginning at the turn of the century and ending around the year 2000. The stories include the coming of the railroad and irrigation systems to the Valley and the people who labored to slash and burn thousands of South Texas acres to convert prickly desert to productive farm land.

As a boy in the early 1960s, Ramirez had chopped cotton just south of Lamesa around a community called Sparenberg. Forty years later, in “Strawberry Fields, A Book of Short Stories”, a character much like Ramirez recalls Lamesa:

“In the 1950s, on Saturdays, the family would drive in for groceries from the cotton fields around Sparenberg and Klondike—not quite towns on the Texas mesa, but rather zip codes denoting farm-to-market road intersections. Welcoming them as the road curved north into the town square of Lamesa, Texas, was the Negro shanty town. A segregated clay-red flatland devoid of flora or fauna (save for the sturdy tumbleweeds, which grew in abundance), was reserved for the small huts with the tar and asphalt siding. The only integrated venue in town was the long line at the rear of Murphy’s slaughterhouse, where the Mexicans and the Negros would line up at dawn on Saturdays with their galvanized washtubs to receive the calf bowels that Murphy disposed of.”

Welcome to the Chuy Ramirez Blog

Works of Fiction:

Strawberry Fields, A Book of Short Stories

Toy Soldiers-to be released

Joaquin's Journey-to be released


Essays:

Altering the Policy of Neglect of Undocumented Immigration from South of the Border, Vol. 18 in 1983

Igualada: Exploring The Gloria Anzaldua Link Between Powerlessness and Chicano/a Self-Expression













E-MAIL ME

E-MAIL ME
firsttexaspublishers@gmail.com

Chuy Ramirez at STC Pecan Library Campus