Susana Chávez-Silverman is a Califas-born U.S. Latina writer and flaneuse who (against all odds) is also an educator, aunque she mostly laments what's happened to la Cacademia over the last decade or so. She still finds joy and hope in being la High Priestess of SLOW to her students and former students, some of whom are among her closest compinches. Co-editor of Tropicalizations: Transcultural Representations of Latinidad (1997), she's also the author of Killer Crónicas: Bilingual Memories (2004) and Scenes from la Cuenca de Los Angeles y otros Natural Disasters (2010). Her book, Heartthrob: del Balboa Café al Apartheid and Back, will be published next year, by University of Wisconsin Press.