{"id":2394,"date":"2018-01-28T19:32:55","date_gmt":"2018-01-28T19:32:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/?p=2394"},"modified":"2018-02-24T14:10:03","modified_gmt":"2018-02-24T14:10:03","slug":"the-mexicanx-initiative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/2018\/01\/28\/the-mexicanx-initiative\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mexicanx Initiative"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p> $\"\"$ As Artist Guest of Honor of the upcoming 76th World Science Fiction Convention<\/a>, I\u2019ve decided to create \u2018The Mexicanx Initiative\u2019 \u2014 an effort to sponsor Worldcon attending memberships and award them to FIFTY Mexicanx artists, writers, filmmakers, culture shapers, and fans. We need more Mexicanx representation in science fiction and fantasy, and together with my incredible sponsoring teammates, we aim to do that at this year\u2019s convention.\n

So how does a Mexicanx sf\/f professional or fan apply for one of these sponsored memberships? Simple. Answer this:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy do you want to attend this Worldcon?\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The rules are short and sweet. You must<\/em> be Mexicanx \u2014 that is, of Mexican ancestry, whether a citizen of Mexico, Mexican American, Mexican Canadian, etc. As the sole judge and jury, I will review all submissions. I will research candidates as best I can. There is no word count limit, but please don\u2019t craft an epic. Keep your statement simple \u2014 even something as short as 100 words can be effective. Just make it you. Make it from the heart. You may post it here, or email me. In some cases, I may ask if it would be OK to email or phonechat a few followup questions.<\/p>\n

This business, this field, this life is about relationships. It\u2019s about your stories and your dreams. I\u2019m doing this because our world needs more Mexicanx stories, more Mexicanx sf\/f pros and fans, and more DREAMers. To own our future, we must own our narratives, lest we continue to be villainized, abused, and butchered. It\u2019s time for us to represent, gente.<\/p>\n

My amazing sponsoring teammates so far are:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Author John Scalzi<\/a> (THE COLLAPSING EMPIRE<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\u2022 Photographer Ctein<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2022 Author Ty Franck (one-half of James S.A. Corey<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\u2022 Author Christopher Brown<\/a> (TROPIC OF KANSAS<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\u2022 Super-agent Joanna Volpe (President, New Leaf Literary & Media<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\u2022 Super-fan Chris Rose<\/p>\n

\u2022 Super-fans John and Christine O\u2019Halloran<\/p>\n

\u2022 Author Mary Robinette Kowal<\/a> (THE CALCULATING STARS<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\u2022 Author Kate Elliott<\/a> (COLD MAGIC<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\u2022 Author and editor Richard Flores IV<\/a> (FACTOR FOUR<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\u2022 Fast Forward: Contemporary Science Fiction<\/a> (Kathi Overton, Tom Schaad, Mike Zipser)<\/p>\n

\u2022 Super-fan Kat Angeli<\/p>\n

\u2022 Super-fan Canadiense An\u00f3nima<\/p>\n

\u2022 SF in SF<\/a> and Rina Weisman<\/p>\n

\u2022 Super-fan Randall Shepherd<\/p>\n

\u2022 Super-fan Elizabeth B. McCarty<\/p>\n

\u2022 AMAZING STORIES \/ The Experimenter Publishing Company<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2022 Author Mur Lafferty<\/a> and husband Jim Van Verth<\/p>\n

\u2022 BWAWA<\/a> (The Baltimore-Washington Area Worldcon Association)<\/p>\n

\u2022 ALAMO<\/a> (Alamo Literary Arts Maintenance Organization)<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve wanted to launch this endeavor since I was first named a Worldcon GoH back in August, but only recently has it achieved liftoff \u2014 and wow, is it ever rising FAST. I announced on Wednesday, January 24th, that I would sponsor two Worldcon memberships, and within minutes, my good friend Scalzi offered to match with two of his own. We continue to gain teammates and we now have FOURTEEN sponsored memberships to distribute.<\/p>\n

Shoutout to Mexicanas:<\/strong> So far, I\u2019ve received very few submissions for these memberships from the ladies, while witnessing a strong wave from the men. Keep those submissions coming, one and all \u2014 but women, please don\u2019t let the men have all of these memberships.<\/em><\/p>\n

UPDATE (2\/24\/18): Thanks to my incredible teammates, we have now achieved our goal of 50 Sponsorships, which means a total of 50 Worldcon Attending Memberships will be granted to deserving Mexicanx pros and fans in the coming weeks. I want to thank ALAMO (Randy Shepherd, Scott Zrubek, Bill Parker, and the entire Board) for being the party that pushed this sponsorship effort across the finish line. Muchas gracias, all!!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thank you to Worldcon 76<\/a> for its very generous support and enthusiasm for The Initiative. Our team goal is to bring FIFTY of the best Mexicanx creators and fans to this year\u2019s convention, and together, we will make that dream happen.<\/p>\n

In Loteria We Trust.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Artist Guest of Honor of the upcoming 76th World Science Fiction Convention, I\u2019ve decided to create \u2018The Mexicanx Initiative\u2019 \u2014 an effort to sponsor Worldcon attending memberships and award them to FIFTY Mexicanx artists, writers, filmmakers, culture shapers, and fans. We need more Mexicanx representation in science fiction and fantasy, and together with my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"The Mexicanx Initiative","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[165,182,1,65,257],"tags":[263,258,260,261,63,156,264,262,265,259,18],"class_list":["post-2394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-appearances","category-art-life","category-conventions","category-creators-creatives","category-mexicanx","tag-christopher-brown","tag-ctein","tag-james-s-a-corey","tag-joanna-volpe","tag-john-picacio","tag-john-scalzi","tag-mexicanx","tag-new-leaf-literary","tag-san-jose","tag-ty-franck","tag-worldcon"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/ELVALIENTEpicacio.jpg?fit=1100%2C1800","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5te7x-CC","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2394"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2426,"href":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2394\/revisions\/2426"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/johnpicacio.com\/onthefront\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}