Words on a Wire

Host Daniel Chacón travels to Las Cruces, New Mexico to sit with legendary Chicanx writer Denise Chávez. They discuss her career, her Las Cruces bookstore, and her new book, Street of Too Many Stories (Conocimientos Press, 2024).

Tim speaks with former Border Patrol agent and UTRGV Professor Robert "Mike" Magee. The two discuss an ongoing collaborative project founded by Magee in 2018, using Tim's book, "All They Will Call You" to teach empathy and compassion to future Border Patrol agents.
Mike Magee is a retired Lecturer in the Criminal Justice Department at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV). He is the editor of the published anthology textbook, The Contemporary Law Enforcement Anthology, Challenges and Opportunities for Today’s Officers. He holds a Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree, with an emphasis in Alternate Dispute Resolution, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from the State University of New York. He’s had a thirty-year career in local and federal law enforcement, including twenty-two years with U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) and its predecessor agency U.S. Immigration & Naturalization Service (INS). He served as the national president of the INS employees’ labor Union.

He has presented at numerous national conferences, been interviewed in the national media, and testified before congressional committees and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute at the U.S. Capitol Building. Since his retirement in 2023, he has also been volunteering at the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, Alamo, Texas and the Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park, Brownsville, Texas.

In this episode of Words on a Wire we're here to bring you a very special show, a tribute to American poet and writer Benjamin Alire Saenz. This show is a compilation of the most memorable moments of the event, back in April of the present year at the El Paso Community Foundation. Featuring writers Daniel Chacón, Alessandra Narvaez Varela, Tim Z. Hernández, Lee Merrill Byrd and Bobby Byrd, Alfredo Corchado and Former US Poet Laureate, Juan Felipe Herrera as the principal guest speakers of the event.

A big thank you to our team of producers Claudia Flores, Ana Llurba and Iliana Pichardo Urrutia and to the entire team that made this episode posible. Our Sound Editor: Facundo Torrieri. Script writer: Iliana Pichardo and our KTEP Producer Paul Castro and his team for helping us recording this wonderful event. We would also like to thank the El Paso Community Foundation, former, Dean of the college of Liberal arts at UTEP Denis A. O'Hearn and his team for making this event possible. And lastly to the Creative Writing Team from the Creative Writing Department at UTEP, for helping with the organization and marketing of the event.

Benjamin Alire Sáenz is an author of poetry and prose for adults and teens. He was the first Hispanic winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award and a recipient of the American Book Award for his books for adults. He is the author of Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, which was a Printz Honor Book, the Stonewall Award winner, the Pura Belpré Award winner, the Lambda Literary Award winner, and a finalist for the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award, and its sequel, Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World. His first novel for teens, Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood, was an ALA Top Ten Book for Young Adults and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His second book for teens, He Forgot to Say Goodbye, won the Tomás Rivera Mexican American Children’s Book Award, the Southwest Book Award, and was named a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age. He lives in El Paso, Texas.

In this episode, listen to the conversation between author and MFA student Ana Llurba and the members of Bilingual projects.

Sara Cordón is a Spanish writer currently living in New York City. She is the author of the novel Para español, pulse 2 (Press Two for Spanish, Caballo de Troya/ Penguin Random House, 2018), and is earning her PhD at the Graduate Center, CUNY. She holds an MFA in creative writing from NYU, and a master's in humanities from Carlos III University of Madrid. She was awarded the Cosecha Eñe Short Stories Award in 2017. She is co-founder of the nonprofit bilingual publishing house Chatos Inhumanos.

Guillermo Severiche is an Argentinian writer and scholar. He holds an M.A. in Hispanic Studies and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge, LA). In 2016, he moved to New York to complete an M.F.A. in Creative Writing in Spanish at NYU. He has been granted several fellowships to complete research for his work as a writer and scholar and to participate in artistic and academic events in Turkey, Cuba and Bolivia, among others. In 2019, he was one of the recipients of the 2019 New Works Grant provided by the Queens Council on the Arts, from which he founded EN CONSTRUCCIÓN. Reading series. Currently, he teaches in the Department of Modern Languages at Fordham University (Lincoln Center) and he works as Literary Manager at IATI Theater.

Pedro Medina León is an award winning author, speaker and editor. He is the author of the acclaimed novel Varsovia (Florida Book Award 2017), Mañana no te veré en Miami, Marginal and Tour: una vuelta por la cultura popular de Miami, and editor of the anthologies Viaje One Way and Miami (Un)Plugged. Medina León is a speaker member of the Florida Humanities Council for the 2018 –2019 program, and co-creator of the Escribe Aquí Festival, for the Betsy Hotel, which was awarded with a grant from the Knight Foundation and frequently gives talks around the country on writing, reading, and multiculturalism. In 2008 he created the cultural portal Suburbano Ediciones today suburbano.net is the leading Spanish-Language cultural network in the United States. He also is a contributing columnist for El Nuevo Herald and studied Literature at Florida International University.

Host Tim Z. Hernandez speaks with author and historian David Dorado Romo about "the true story of America, from the Mexican American perspective."