Nuestra Palabra Spotlight: Juan P Carmona's THE ALTON BUS CRASH

Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Have Their Say

Nuestra Palabra features the book "The Alton Bus Crash" on our latest podcast episode. Tony Diaz speaks with Juan P Carmona about his book on the tragic Alton Bus Crash, which claimed the lives of 21 junior and senior high school students after a bottling truck collided with the school bus, causing the bus to enter a caliche pit filled with water. This terrible incident led to many changes in several industries but also served as a precursor to other catastrophes that have befallen marginalized communities and the government response.

Juan P. Carmona is a Social Studies teacher at Donna High School and a dual enrollment History instructor through South Texas College. He graduated with honors from the American Military University with a master’s degree in American History and he was the Recipient of the 2018 James F. Veninga Outstanding Teaching Humanities Award by Humanities Texas. He is a member of the NACCS Tejas Foco Committee for Mexican American Studies K-12, and the Social Studies Coordinator for the Rio Grande Valley Coalition for Mexican American Studies. He is the co-author of a 1-year curriculum for a high school class in Mexican American Studies.

He has been teaching Mexican American History for dual enrollment for the past 10 years at Donna High School. He is also a member of the award-winning Refusing to Forget Project. His primary field of research is the history of the South Texas borderlands. He is the author of the book The Alton Bus Crash, co-host of the podcast “Mi Valle MI Vida” and produced a podcast with his Mexican American History students called “The Alamo Train Crash of 1940”, which he is now developing into a book project.

Tony Diaz

Writer and activist Tony Diaz, El Librotraficante, is a Cultural Accelerator. He was the first Chicano to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. In 1998, he founded Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say (NP), Houston’s first reading series for Latino authors. The group galvanized Houston’s Community Cultural Capital to become a movement for civil rights, education, and representation. When Arizona officials banned Mexican American Studies, Diaz and four veteran members of NP organized the 2012 Librotraficante Caravan to smuggle books from the banned curriculum back into Arizona. He is the author of The Aztec Love God. His book, The Tip of the Pyramid: Cultivating Community Cultural Capital, is the first in his series on Community Organizing. Tony hosts Latino Politics and News and the Nuestra Palabra Radio Show on 90.1 FM, KPFT, Houston’s Community Station. He is also a political analyst on “What’s Your Point?” on Fox 26 Houston.

* This is part of a Nuestra Palabra Multiplatform broadcast.
* Video airs on www.Fox26Houston.com.
* Audio airs on 90.1 FM Houston, KPFT, Houston's Community Station, where our show began.
* Live events.

Thanks to
Roxana Guzman, Multiplatform Producer
Rodrigo Bravo, Jr., Audio Producer
Radame Ortiez, SEO Director
Marc-Antony Piñón, Graphics Designer
Leti Lopez, Music Director
Bryan Parras, co-host and producer emeritus
Liana Lopez, co-host and producer emeritus
Lupe Mendez, co-host, and producer emeritus

www.Librotraficante.com
www.NuestraPalabra.org
www.TonyDiaz.net

Nuestra Palabra is funded in part by the BIPOC Arts Network Fund.

Instrumental Music produced / courtesy of Bayden Records baydenrecords.beatstars.com