- J
HISPANIC HERITAGE GRAPHIC NOVEL for EDUCATION
The only time in history Mexico and the U.S.A. were ever allies! For a 4-step portal and flashpoints:
1. www.azteceagles.net – “Aztec Eagles of World War II: Mexico’s Heroes, America’s Brothers”
2. “Mexicans in WWII” - www.bit.ly/fictionforce -- (TeachersPayTeachers.com): The Fiction Force
3. www.newsweek.com - “Graphic Novel Renaissance: The Art Form is Exploding”
4. Air Power History–www.afhistory.org/air-power-history-2 -- 2021 Summer: Air Force Historical Foundation
1942: German U-boats torpedo Mexican oil tankers in the Atlantic! Mexico declares war on the Fascist Axis, joins the Allies and sends Mexican Fighter Squadron 201 to the U.S. to train as a unit of the U.S. Army Air Forces!
In the bloody Pacific war, the “Aztec Eagles” serve under General Douglas MacArthur crushing the Japanese! This ends their occupation of the Philippine Islands, a tyranny that began in 1941!
2021 is the 80th anniversary of the United States entry into World War II! December 7, 1941, the Empire of Japan attacked Pearl Harbor! The date that lives on “in infamy.”
Hispanic Heritage Month each year--September 15-October 15--now has a state-of-the-art new story!
To see this author’s “saga”--her struggle to bring a one-of-a-kind, multicultural story into a new millennium and Hispanics at war in the Pacific into American history--check out her 4-step portal as your basic flashpoints:
Prototype Graphic Novel + Study Guides: Multicultural Literature by Cynthia Buchanan
Latino Literature in English, flavored with the occasional Spanish word.
Online story with study guides--www.bit.ly/fictionforce
“MEXICANS in WORLD WAR II: AMERICA’S ALLY OF THE AIR”
Mexican Squadron 201 of the 58th Fighter Group, U.S. Army Air Forces
“AZTEC EAGLES of WORLD WAR II: MEXICO’S HEROES, AMERICA’S BROTHERS”
· One writer’s experiment in the literary genre known as “historical graphic novel!” Cynthia Buchanan blends graphics, photos and creative writing to honor both history’s monumental warfighting leaders and its unsung heroes. "Aztec Eagles of World War II: Mexico’s Heroes, America’s Brothers" grew into an e-book in 4 parts with study guides not only for global educators but military aviation buffs beyond.
A native of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands, this Texas author commemorates the historic friendship between Mexico and the U.S.--the “Good Neighbor” policy during a devastating “two-ocean” war.
See how author Cynthia Buchanan shapes a transnational graphic novel experiment for a wide spectrum of subjects and diverse levels of readers beyond borders, coasts and air space that define frontiers.
Her work of leadership serves critical thinking and public discourse for Hispanic and Asian cultures and more.
=========================
Dear Friends of Learning and Fans of Books, at Whose Feet I Cast Myself in Gratitude and Respect:
PHASE ONE: RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT: All done! Pre-publication prototype (Boot Camp for Books)
$50,000: For repayment of 15 years’ Research & Development costs--2005-2020, credit card debt + living and travel expenses + overhead costs + legal fees for business contracts and literary representation.
PHASE TWO: PUBLICATION, MARKETING & DISTRIBUTION (2021)
· $50,000: Professional artist/illustrator + book production + publication of final novel with study guide.
Total: $100,000 = PHASE ONE (now complete) + PHASE TWO (book production + publication)
The development phase of any new product is always the costliest. Particularly history, which must be composed, fact checked, validated, vetted, corrected, and edited ad infinitum. Development can seem excruciatingly costly, beyond the budgetary imaginings of even the most imaginative of innovators. So it is with innovator-author Cynthia Buchanan, whom I.R.S. in its tender mercies calls “Creative Artist.”
· “In my book-development-debt and burden of guilt as ‘creative artist,’ I recalled a quote by Yann Martel, who wrote Life of Pi... ‘Art is the suitcase of history, carrying the essentials. Art is the life buoy of history. Art is seed, art is memory, art is vaccine.’”
That in mind, Cynthia Buchanan made a Business Plan that did not include ramen noodles or “crying for daylight,” as working cowboys say. Now she has mole de olla!
Read about her journey in creating “Mexicans in World War II: America’s Ally of the Air” in the summer 2021 issue of the distinguished Air Power History under the Air Force Historical Foundation. Its “wing men” are a community that includes the United States Air Force plus historical support entities and a slew of aviation buddies.
· Cynthia Buchanan’s memoir-article in Air Power History recounts her life in New York during the building of the World Trade Center. Yet she never forgot her origins in the U.S. border states of Texas and Arizona, where she grew up a teacher’s “kid in the powerful magic of the Spanish Southwest. It turned this Anglo brat permanently bicultural,” she says.
Fluent in Spanish, Buchanan received an M.A. in Creative Writing in Mexico and was later awarded a Fulbright grant under the U.S. State Department for Creative Writing in Spain.
She now remarks that 2021 is the staggering 500th anniversary of Mexico’s history rooted in that of Spain in the New World; Hernán Cortés conquered the Aztec empire in 1521.
Less than two centuries later Spaniards from the Canary Islands colonized San Antonio, now a Mexicanized metropolis known as “Alamo City” and “Military City” both.
After Buchanan left Spain, she lived for ten years in Manhattan as a novelist and essayist. Her work was published in The New York Times, The Washington Post and Newsweek, among other top tier periodicals.
As the 80th anniversary of World War II rolls around with its theme of invasion and defense, 2021 also marks the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Threats of terrorism that endure today mean homeland patrols along a U.S.-Mexico border are a sharp reminder of September 11 as a day of historic infamy, indeed.
· As writer and consultant Buchanan has served as a resource for individuals from the Department of Defense as to the changing nature of the borderlands on both sides of the Rio Grande and because of her working relationships, travel and grasp of Mexico’s culture in the ways it defines the new U.S.A.
· She was approached by Texas Education Agency to train teachers in Creative Writing and by Texas law enforcement and criminal justice affiliates to train officers in narrative writing for case reports.
Meanwhile, Buchanan’s writing project “Aztec Eagles of World War II: Mexico’s Heroes, America’s Brothers” was mentored by a distinguished staff historian at Randolph AFB in San Antonio. It was here 201st Mexican Fighter Squadron—the operative unit of the Mexican Expeditionary Air Force--trained before deployment to the South Pacific in 1945.
Serving under General Douglas MacArthur freeing the Philippines from the Japanese, the Mexicans flew P-47 Thunderbolt fighter-bomber aircraft in their combat missions.
· To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the end of that bloodiest of wars, Buchanan was asked by the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas—the “Admiral Nimitz Museum”--to collaborate on a 2005 symposium hoping to feature the last veterans of legendary Squadron 201.
· Then the writer was invited by the U.S. Air Force Memorial Foundation to help commemorate the 60th birthday of this branch of the service in 2007. First stop for the traveling air show and exhibit was San Antonio--Lackland AFB’s “historic Kelly Field.” When Buchanan presented her “Aztec Eagles” PowerPoint, out of the audience came a Mexican-American teacher; he told her, “I wish my kids could’ve seen this!”
Buchanan was then asked to present her slide show at the Texas State Historical Association conference and later to serve on an advisory board for the state museum’s “Centennial of Flight” exhibit in 2010.
Her “Aztec Eagles” research collection, manuscripts, and archives with video interviews attracted Briscoe Center for American History and its Military History Institute in Austin at University of Texas. The Briscoe Center asked for her collection and PowerPoint to “put on the Internet as worldwide curriculum for teachers.”
· However, her money from a Texas State Historical Association book grant had long since been consumed, albeit she continued her volunteerism, sharing this story of Mexico’s contribution to World War II at libraries and schools as an echo of the federal mandate for Hispanic Serving Institutions and the White House Initiative to elevate a new demographic that is Hispanic.
“I’ll never forget outside a library one day, a withdrawn little guy, Latino, about 14 years old, sitting alone with his brand new I-Pad the school system gave him. He was viewing cartoons. I sat down next to him and asked if he wanted to use his device to look at a website about some heroes...www.azteceagles.net . He did. Was thunderstruck--‘This makes me proud to be Mexican.’ I told him, ‘You should be.”
In August 2020 San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich delivered his “pre-game history lesson on racial injustice,” and in it he insisted, “Hispanics have also been the victims of systematic racism in the United States.”
On that note it is of particular interest to writer Cynthia Buchanan that Popovich was a captain in the U.S. Air Force; a graduate of its Academy in Colorado Springs, he coached the Academy basketball team and did so, as well, on his five-year tour of duty in Europe. She hopes he someday sees her “Aztec Eagles of World War II” story honoring Mexican Squadron 201, who trained with dignity in San Antonio under U.S. Army Air Forces.
Copyright © 2020 by Cynthia Buchanan Cowley * All rights reserved
The only time in history Mexico and the U.S.A. were ever allies! For a 4-step portal and flashpoints:
1. www.azteceagles.net – “Aztec Eagles of World War II: Mexico’s Heroes, America’s Brothers”
2. “Mexicans in WWII” - www.bit.ly/fictionforce -- (TeachersPayTeachers.com): The Fiction Force
3. www.newsweek.com - “Graphic Novel Renaissance: The Art Form is Exploding”
4. Air Power History–www.afhistory.org/air-power-history-2 -- 2021 Summer: Air Force Historical Foundation
1942: German U-boats torpedo Mexican oil tankers in the Atlantic! Mexico declares war on the Fascist Axis, joins the Allies and sends Mexican Fighter Squadron 201 to the U.S. to train as a unit of the U.S. Army Air Forces!
In the bloody Pacific war, the “Aztec Eagles” serve under General Douglas MacArthur crushing the Japanese! This ends their occupation of the Philippine Islands, a tyranny that began in 1941!
2021 is the 80th anniversary of the United States entry into World War II! December 7, 1941, the Empire of Japan attacked Pearl Harbor! The date that lives on “in infamy.”
Hispanic Heritage Month each year--September 15-October 15--now has a state-of-the-art new story!
To see this author’s “saga”--her struggle to bring a one-of-a-kind, multicultural story into a new millennium and Hispanics at war in the Pacific into American history--check out her 4-step portal as your basic flashpoints:
Prototype Graphic Novel + Study Guides: Multicultural Literature by Cynthia Buchanan
Latino Literature in English, flavored with the occasional Spanish word.
Online story with study guides--www.bit.ly/fictionforce
“MEXICANS in WORLD WAR II: AMERICA’S ALLY OF THE AIR”
Mexican Squadron 201 of the 58th Fighter Group, U.S. Army Air Forces
“AZTEC EAGLES of WORLD WAR II: MEXICO’S HEROES, AMERICA’S BROTHERS”
· One writer’s experiment in the literary genre known as “historical graphic novel!” Cynthia Buchanan blends graphics, photos and creative writing to honor both history’s monumental warfighting leaders and its unsung heroes. "Aztec Eagles of World War II: Mexico’s Heroes, America’s Brothers" grew into an e-book in 4 parts with study guides not only for global educators but military aviation buffs beyond.
A native of the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands, this Texas author commemorates the historic friendship between Mexico and the U.S.--the “Good Neighbor” policy during a devastating “two-ocean” war.
See how author Cynthia Buchanan shapes a transnational graphic novel experiment for a wide spectrum of subjects and diverse levels of readers beyond borders, coasts and air space that define frontiers.
Her work of leadership serves critical thinking and public discourse for Hispanic and Asian cultures and more.
=========================
Dear Friends of Learning and Fans of Books, at Whose Feet I Cast Myself in Gratitude and Respect:
PHASE ONE: RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT: All done! Pre-publication prototype (Boot Camp for Books)
$50,000: For repayment of 15 years’ Research & Development costs--2005-2020, credit card debt + living and travel expenses + overhead costs + legal fees for business contracts and literary representation.
PHASE TWO: PUBLICATION, MARKETING & DISTRIBUTION (2021)
· $50,000: Professional artist/illustrator + book production + publication of final novel with study guide.
Total: $100,000 = PHASE ONE (now complete) + PHASE TWO (book production + publication)
The development phase of any new product is always the costliest. Particularly history, which must be composed, fact checked, validated, vetted, corrected, and edited ad infinitum. Development can seem excruciatingly costly, beyond the budgetary imaginings of even the most imaginative of innovators. So it is with innovator-author Cynthia Buchanan, whom I.R.S. in its tender mercies calls “Creative Artist.”
· “In my book-development-debt and burden of guilt as ‘creative artist,’ I recalled a quote by Yann Martel, who wrote Life of Pi... ‘Art is the suitcase of history, carrying the essentials. Art is the life buoy of history. Art is seed, art is memory, art is vaccine.’”
That in mind, Cynthia Buchanan made a Business Plan that did not include ramen noodles or “crying for daylight,” as working cowboys say. Now she has mole de olla!
Read about her journey in creating “Mexicans in World War II: America’s Ally of the Air” in the summer 2021 issue of the distinguished Air Power History under the Air Force Historical Foundation. Its “wing men” are a community that includes the United States Air Force plus historical support entities and a slew of aviation buddies.
· Cynthia Buchanan’s memoir-article in Air Power History recounts her life in New York during the building of the World Trade Center. Yet she never forgot her origins in the U.S. border states of Texas and Arizona, where she grew up a teacher’s “kid in the powerful magic of the Spanish Southwest. It turned this Anglo brat permanently bicultural,” she says.
Fluent in Spanish, Buchanan received an M.A. in Creative Writing in Mexico and was later awarded a Fulbright grant under the U.S. State Department for Creative Writing in Spain.
She now remarks that 2021 is the staggering 500th anniversary of Mexico’s history rooted in that of Spain in the New World; Hernán Cortés conquered the Aztec empire in 1521.
Less than two centuries later Spaniards from the Canary Islands colonized San Antonio, now a Mexicanized metropolis known as “Alamo City” and “Military City” both.
After Buchanan left Spain, she lived for ten years in Manhattan as a novelist and essayist. Her work was published in The New York Times, The Washington Post and Newsweek, among other top tier periodicals.
As the 80th anniversary of World War II rolls around with its theme of invasion and defense, 2021 also marks the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Threats of terrorism that endure today mean homeland patrols along a U.S.-Mexico border are a sharp reminder of September 11 as a day of historic infamy, indeed.
· As writer and consultant Buchanan has served as a resource for individuals from the Department of Defense as to the changing nature of the borderlands on both sides of the Rio Grande and because of her working relationships, travel and grasp of Mexico’s culture in the ways it defines the new U.S.A.
· She was approached by Texas Education Agency to train teachers in Creative Writing and by Texas law enforcement and criminal justice affiliates to train officers in narrative writing for case reports.
Meanwhile, Buchanan’s writing project “Aztec Eagles of World War II: Mexico’s Heroes, America’s Brothers” was mentored by a distinguished staff historian at Randolph AFB in San Antonio. It was here 201st Mexican Fighter Squadron—the operative unit of the Mexican Expeditionary Air Force--trained before deployment to the South Pacific in 1945.
Serving under General Douglas MacArthur freeing the Philippines from the Japanese, the Mexicans flew P-47 Thunderbolt fighter-bomber aircraft in their combat missions.
· To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the end of that bloodiest of wars, Buchanan was asked by the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas—the “Admiral Nimitz Museum”--to collaborate on a 2005 symposium hoping to feature the last veterans of legendary Squadron 201.
· Then the writer was invited by the U.S. Air Force Memorial Foundation to help commemorate the 60th birthday of this branch of the service in 2007. First stop for the traveling air show and exhibit was San Antonio--Lackland AFB’s “historic Kelly Field.” When Buchanan presented her “Aztec Eagles” PowerPoint, out of the audience came a Mexican-American teacher; he told her, “I wish my kids could’ve seen this!”
Buchanan was then asked to present her slide show at the Texas State Historical Association conference and later to serve on an advisory board for the state museum’s “Centennial of Flight” exhibit in 2010.
Her “Aztec Eagles” research collection, manuscripts, and archives with video interviews attracted Briscoe Center for American History and its Military History Institute in Austin at University of Texas. The Briscoe Center asked for her collection and PowerPoint to “put on the Internet as worldwide curriculum for teachers.”
· However, her money from a Texas State Historical Association book grant had long since been consumed, albeit she continued her volunteerism, sharing this story of Mexico’s contribution to World War II at libraries and schools as an echo of the federal mandate for Hispanic Serving Institutions and the White House Initiative to elevate a new demographic that is Hispanic.
“I’ll never forget outside a library one day, a withdrawn little guy, Latino, about 14 years old, sitting alone with his brand new I-Pad the school system gave him. He was viewing cartoons. I sat down next to him and asked if he wanted to use his device to look at a website about some heroes...www.azteceagles.net . He did. Was thunderstruck--‘This makes me proud to be Mexican.’ I told him, ‘You should be.”
In August 2020 San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich delivered his “pre-game history lesson on racial injustice,” and in it he insisted, “Hispanics have also been the victims of systematic racism in the United States.”
On that note it is of particular interest to writer Cynthia Buchanan that Popovich was a captain in the U.S. Air Force; a graduate of its Academy in Colorado Springs, he coached the Academy basketball team and did so, as well, on his five-year tour of duty in Europe. She hopes he someday sees her “Aztec Eagles of World War II” story honoring Mexican Squadron 201, who trained with dignity in San Antonio under U.S. Army Air Forces.
Copyright © 2020 by Cynthia Buchanan Cowley * All rights reserved