Notitas: Select Columns from the Tucson Citizen by Alva B. Torres

From 1984 to 1993, Alva B. Torres wrote close to 400 columns for the Tucson Citizen, one of Arizona’s major newspapers. In the journalistic world, she stands out as one of the first Mexican American women to write a weekly column for a key newspaper.

In addition to recipes, Torres took this opportunity to share childhood memories and write about Mexican Americans who lived in Tucson, known as Tucsonenses. She also often made those active in local school programs, civic life, or operating small businesses the focus of her columns. Although never overtly political, Torres steadfastly reminded her readers that Mexican people and culture had always played a critical role in the city’s past. By focusing her columns on ordinary people and places, and highlighting local cultural practices, Torres garnered many fans and a wide readership. In addition to Torres’s insights about Mexican food, Notitas offers an exceptional selection of columns that provide readers the opportunity to learn more about Alva B. Torres as a person and her thriving social world.

REVIEWS:

"I found that the topics and issues that Alva Torres discussed in her columns remain salient, and consider each one as providing a single frame of information that when read together provides a dynamic diorama about the practices and aspirations of an evolving people and city. Although never overtly political, through her column, Torres continually reminded her readers that Mexican people and culture had always played a critical role in Tucson’s past and in the present."
—Lydia R. Otero, author of La Calle and In the Shadows of the Freeway.

“In the late 1960s, my mother’s older sister Alva B. Torres fought to preserve La Placita de la Mesilla and inspired the creation of a City historical commission. Her boldness impacted me. When my tía began writing weekly columns, they evolved from recipes into glimpses of the Tucson that she knew before and after World War II. At first glance, her columns appear nostalgic but they reveal resistance to physical and cultural erasure. Tía Alva ended her columns in 1993 but her influence continued. Starting in 2000, as a columnist for the Arizona Daily Star, the subjects I wrote about were extensions of hers. I paid homage to those who would have gone unnoticed and championed individuals and families, many of them immigrants from south of the border who sought new lives in Tucson.”
—Ernesto “Neto” Portillo Jr, Former Arizona Daily Star Columnist

“At the heart of Alva Torres’s success as a community columnist is the fact that she is herself deeply and personally rooted in Tucson. She can express with utmost reverence why the culture and history of our city are its life blood. All in a style of writing that made you feel like you were sitting across a kitchen table with her for a spirited discussion.”
—Daniel Buckley, Former Tucson Citizen Writer and Columnist

"Notitas provides the opportunity to read Alva B. Torres’s words and learn more about the columnist, her love for Tucson and the history of nuestra gente."
—Betty Villegas, Director of the Mexican American Museum

"Alva B. Torres’s columns are near-perfect snapshots of what it is to be a Tucsonense. Reading Notitas was like being given the opportunity to return to my childhood and visit with a favorite tía I hadn’t seen in a long time."
—Mauro Trejo, Turquoise Trail Guide