acknowledgements

My thanks to all of those who helped this collection come into being: to Cecile Pineda who encouraged me long ago to ‘make it strange’; to the Tragafuegos writing-group-that-was: Vicente Lozano, Belinda Acosta, and Liliana Valenzuela; to the Macondo Workshop groups that offered feedback on several of these stories; to Michelle Otero who wrote notes on almost every page; to Joan Pinkvoss, Shay Brawn and the staff of Aunt Lute Books for the realization of a dream; and most of all, my thanks to my brother, Moisés S. L. Lara, for the gorgeous artwork on this book, for the many critiques, and for keeping me writing when I would have given up.

I would like to gratefully acknowledge the 2008 Gloria Anzaldua Milagro Award and the 2013 AROHO Gift of Freedom Fiction Genre Finalist Award for providing me time and space for ongoing revisions.

Finally, I’d like to acknowledge the old stories/myths that inspired several of these stories, especially those of la llorona (cortando las nubes, or, death came on horses); las lechusas (tecolotl); and la huesera (la huesera, or, flesh to bone). I don’t believe that we are done with the old myths yet—or that they are done with us.