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Hispanic press marks 25th year

Arte Público still at the forefront of Hispanic publishing

by Matthew Shepherd
The Daily Cougar

When Arte Público began publishing Latin American literature, it was filling a niche that most large publishing houses ignored. Now, 25 years later, the press is the nation's largest Hispanic literature publisher and the largest nonprofit publishing house in the country -- and it is based at UH.

The press, founded by UH Spanish professor Nicolás Kanellos, began as a Revista Chicana-Riqueña, a small literary magazine at Indiana University Northwest. The magazine evolved into The Americas Review but continued its focus on Hispanic literature, which, like most ethnic American literature at that time, was underrepresented by major publishing conglomerates.

The review won national praise from the Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines, and its quick success prompted a leap into the publishing world for Kanellos in 1979. One year later, Kanellos brought the project to UH.

The press has since thrived, winning national recognition with multiple awards and best-sellers and sparking the careers of numerous Latin American authors. Awards include the White House Hispanic Heritage Award for Literature, awarded to Kanellos in 1988 by former President Reagan, and the 1989 American Book Award for best publisher-editor.

The press publishes works ranging from children's literature and young adult fiction to biographies, autobiographies and histories of major civil rights leaders.

The press is exhibiting promising success in the shadow of larger houses that, largely because of presses like Arte Público, are only now beginning to realize the potential for profit in ethnic markets. Arte Público remains optimistic about its future while it adapts to the new competition, which boasts the appeal of large advances for authors and considerable marketing power, Kanellos said 

"We're doing what they're not doing. We're publishing non-fiction works. (We) keep moving, keep low to the ground (and) keep opening up new paths," Kanellos said.

"Very few (independent publishing companies) have been able to thrive," Lucha Corpi, the author of a young adult mystery series for Arte Público, said. "Arte Público is growing. It's one of the only two presses still publishing after the heyday of the Chicano civil rights movement."

Corpi, whose next novel, Crimson Moon, is scheduled for release next month, pointed out that one key element giving Arte Público a competitive edge is its commitment to its authors. Whereas large publishing houses are notorious for taking a book out of print months after its release, Arte will keep it in print. "I want my books to survive," Corpi said. "They will help them survive."

Arte Público Press is certainly busier than ever, marking its 25th anniversary with steady growth on several fronts. Its children's literature imprint, Piñata Books, is in the process of expanding into cities outside Houston after being encouraged by its local success. The press is also working closely with Reliant Energy to develop reading incentive programs in schools.

In the realm of adult publishing, the press is working to expand on a series on the Chicano civil rights movement. The series already includes a book published in conjunction with PBS's four-part television series, Chicano. Other components of the series include histories, biographies and autobiographies from major civil rights leaders from the 1960s to the 1980s.

In addition, the press will host an April conference in San Antonio celebrating the release of a biography of Willie Velasquez. Velasquez was the founder of the Southwest Voter Registration and Education Project, an organization that had a great impact on minority voting. Arte Público holds more than 170 events annually across the nation, like author tours, panels, readings and teacher conferences. Though the events are held nationwide, "Houston gets the best benefit of all this," Kanellos said.

Arte Publíco's most ambitious and important undertaking outside publishing contemporary authors is its Recovering Latin American Literary Heritage project. This project represents an unprecedented effort to research, gather, index and publish Hispanic literature from the colonial period through 1960.

"The project is assuming critical mass," Kanellos said, noting that it has compiled between 300,000 and 400,000 literary items, including 18,000 books.

The project's team is comprised of UH graduate students who painstakingly read, index and classify each rescued work. The collection ranges from journals of early Spanish explorers, religious texts, diaries and letters to plays, poetry and novels based on traditional oral stories.

In addition to transferring every piece of work to microfilm for preservation, the project is working with EBSCO, the world's largest electronic database publisher, to digitize full-text versions of every work. This database will be available online by subscription in the fall.

The project has already published 30 books, including the first anthology of Spanish-American literature in Spanish; Oxford Press published its English counterpart. Additionally, the project is preparing its first textbook, still in its early stages. Funded largely by grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, the textbook will include Web-based support.

A board comprised of 25 scholars decides which works are to be published by evaluating information presented in a biannual conference where approximately 250 researchers report on their findings. The next conference is slated for November in New Mexico.

Arte Público receives half its funding from book sales and half from fund raising. Donations include government grants, corporate donors, individuals and philanthropic foundations devoted to the arts and sciences, like the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the AT&T Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The press also holds a gala each November, which has traditionally been a major fund-raiser.

The press is starting an endowment campaign and is looking for major donors. The campaign will allow for more financial stability, allowing the press to focus more on literature, Kanellos said.
 

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