Daniel A. Olivas

By the author of Chicano Frankenstein, this is "Waiting for Godot" in a modern retelling with Borderlands immigration and ICE in the mix. Waiting for God nez has been workshopped in Los Angeles and New York, had a world premiere in Sacramento, California, and is being shopped to Los Angeles, Arizona, and New Mexico stages. Olivas's extraordinary reimagining of a classic play lays bare the destructive and brutalizing effects of the United States' anti-immigration policy on undocumented immigrants and their families. In Waiting for God nez, the forever-waiting characters of Estragon and Vladimir are embodied in Jes s and Isabel, two Mexican friends living in the States. Each night Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents kidnap Jes s and throw him into a cage intending to deport him. But the agents forget to lock the cage, so Jes s escapes and makes his way back to Isabel as they wait for the mysterious God nez in a city park. At one point Isabel looks upon her exhausted friend and laments, "What harm have you done to them? You are as much of this country as you are of M xico. But you are not home in either place. Ni de aqu , ni de all ." Waiting for God nez humanizes the plight undocumented people face in a country that both needs and disdains them. Through a darkly comic absurdist lens, it implores us to reconsider this country's policies in light of the fact that we are all human and deserve respect and dignity as we each try to make our way in a confusing and often indifferent world.

My Chicano Heart is a collection of author Daniel A. Olivas's favorite previously published tales about love, along with five new stories, that explore the complex, mysterious, and occasionally absurd machinations of people who simply want to be appreciated and treasured. Readers will encounter characters who scheme, search, and flail in settings that are sometimes fantastical and other times mundane: a man who literally gives his heart to his wife who keeps it beating safely in a wooden box; a woman who takes a long-planned trip through New Mexico but, mysteriously, without the company of her true love; a lonely man who gains a remarkably compatible roommate who may or may not be real—just to name a few of the memorable and often haunting characters who fill these pages. Often infused with Olivas's trademark humor, readers will delight in—and commiserate with—the lovestruck characters who populate these richly realized stories.Each story is drawn from Olivas's nearly twenty-five years of experience writing fiction deeply steeped in Chicano and Mexican culture. Some of the stories are fanciful and full of magic, while others are more realistic, and still others border on noir. All touch upon that most ephemeral and confounding of human emotions: love in all its wondrous forms.

A modern retelling of the Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley classic that addresses issues of belonging and assimilation An unnamed paralegal, brought back to life through a controversial process, maneuvers through a near-future world that both needs and resents him. As the United States president spouts anti-reanimation rhetoric and giant pharmaceutical companies rake in profits, the man falls in love with lawyer Faustina Godínez. His world expands as he meets her network of family and friends, setting him on a course to discover his first-life history, which the reanimation process erased. With elements of science fiction, horror, political satire and romance, Chicano Frankenstein confronts our nation’s bigotries and the question of what it truly means to be human.

How to Date a Flying Mexican is a collection of stories derived from Chicano and Mexican culture but ranging through fascinating literary worlds of magical realism, fairy tales, fables, and dystopian futures. The characters confront—both directly and obliquely—questions of morality, justice, and self-determination. The collection is made up of Daniel A. Olivas’s favorite previously published stories, along with two new stories—one dystopian and the other mythical—that challenge the Trump administration’s anti-immigration rhetoric and policies. Readers will encounter a world filled with both the magical and the quotidian: a man with twelve fingers who finds himself on a mystical date with a woman, God who appears in the form of a scrawny chicken, a woman who bravely fights back against her abuser, and Aztec gods searching for relevance after the Spanish conquest—just to name a few of the unforgettable characters populating these pages. The book draws together some of Olivas’s most unforgettable and strange tales, allowing readers to experience his very distinct, and very Chicano, fiction.

During the pandemic and in the wake of his father's death, Daniel A. Olivas set upon the task of reviewing almost 25 years' worth of his short stories that had been published in various collections or as parts of novels. Our strange times seemed to call for this type of introspection and examination. He found that many of his narratives fell within the world of magic, fairy tales, fables, and dystopian futures. This review also revealed that many of his fictions confronted-either directly or obliquely-questions of morality, justice, and self-determination while being deeply steeped in Chicano and Mexican culture. Olivas decided to choose his favorite tales from the many scores of stories that populated his published works. He added to the mix two recent stories-one dystopian, the other magical-both of which confront the last administration's anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies. The result is How to Date a Flying Mexican: New and Collected Stories. Though his books have been taught in colleges and high schools across the country for over two decades, this collection brings together some of his most unforgettable strange tales that will be enjoyed, again, by his fans, and anew for readers who have not, as yet, experienced Olivas's distinct-and very Chicano-fiction. A literary critic once called Olivas a "literary marvel." These stories, collectively, offer ample support for this declaration.

Wanderers and writers, gangbangers and lawyers, dreamers and devils. The King of Lighting Fixtures paints an idiosyncratic but honest portrait of Los Angeles, depicting how the city both entrances and confounds. Each story serves as a reflection of Daniel A. Olivas’s grand City of Angels, a “magical metropolis where dreams come true.”The characters here represent all walks of L.A. life—from Satan’s reluctant Craigslist roommate to a young girl coping with trauma at her brother’s wake—and their tales ebb and flow among various styles, including magical realism, social realism, and speculative fiction. Like a jazz album, they glide and bop, tease and illuminate, sadden and hearten as they navigate effortlessly from meta to fabulist, from flash fiction to longer, more complex narratives.These are literary sketches of a Los Angeles that will surprise, connect, and disrupt readers wherever they may live.

When Moses descended Mount Sinai carrying the Ten Commandments, he never could have foreseen how one family in Los Angeles in the early twenty-first century would struggle to live by them. Conchita, a voluptuous, headstrong single woman of a certain age, sees nothing wrong with enjoying the company of handsome--and usually much younger--men . . . that is, until she encounters a widower with unusual gifts and begins to think about what she really wants out of life. Julieta, Conchita's younger sister, walks a more traditional path, but she and her husband each harbor secrets that could change their marriage and their lives forever. Their twin sons, both in college, struggle to find fulfillment. Mateo refuses to let anyone stand in the way of his happiness, while Rolando grapples with his sexuality and the family's expectations. And from time to time, Bel n, the family's late matriarch, pays a visit to advise, scold, or cajole her hapless descendants. A delightful family tapestry woven with the threads of all those whose lives are touched by Conchita, The Book of Want is an enchanting blend of social and magical realism that tells a charming story about what it means to be fully human.