The San Benito Cultural Heritage Coalition
is pleased to announce
Dr. Manuel Peña
and his new book
Where the Ox Does Not Plow
Please join us in a special reading/book-signing & reception:
Wednesday, May 21, 7:00 P.M. at the Narciso Martínez Cultural Arts Center
225 E. Stenger, San Benito, Texas
The book consists of twenty-six episodes that chronicle Dr. Peña’s transformative life-journey from an impoverished migrant worker to a career as a university professor. Inspired by his experiences and those of the people around him in Texas and California, Dr. Peña reflects on a wide range of issues arising from the marginalized condition of Mexicans and other Latinos in the Southwest. The book will engage readers in a broad range of human experiences, from race relations and economic exploitation to the intimacy of familial and romantic love.
Dr. Peña will discuss and read excerpts
from his new book.
$5.00 @ the Door
Dr. Manuel Peña is a renowned anthropologist of music and folklore. His book, The Texas-Mexican Conjunto, was the first ever to explore this popular accordion-based style, winning a prize from the prestigious Chicago Folklore Prize competition. The Mexican American Orquesta earned Dr. Peña an award for excellence from the Border Librarians Asociation. His Música Tejana is widely used in university classes on ethnic and ethnomusicology studies. Dr. Peña is a native of Weslaco, Texas who now resides in Fresno, California. Now retired, he was a professor of anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin, and a professor of music
for more information call (956) 361-0110
2 responses so far ↓
1 Gene Novo // May 22, 2008 at 8:05 am
5 222 08 humid and sultry and windy morning
…and I did go to the Narciso Martinez Cultural Arts Center in San Benito to listen to Dr. Manuel Pena …and the drive was MORE than worth it! His telling of Valley life more than 50 years ago is the BEST I have ever heard; he is a master of language, a brilliant man ….
I am often cynical about the value of higher education, but when “used” as Dr. Pena did his, combined with down-home life, simply amazing!
Coupled with my mid-morning breakfast/reading with some friends yesterday, Dr. Pena, I trust, nudged me to write a jot better ….
Eugene “Gene” Novogrodsky
Brownsville
2 Enriqueta Lopez Ramos // May 23, 2008 at 8:51 am
Dr. Peña’s book is a delight, I savored his words, his reading, his presentation. Peeking into the life of a migrant child, a Chicano youth, a man and now a professor give some of us from the Valley of Tears who were not cotton pickers, an insight into the hardships of my people. Thanks DR. Peña, ps. please sit and write another book.
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