Taco Shop Poets take their show to Grossmont College campus

Taco Shop Poets take their show to Grossmont College campus
By Jessica Yadegaran, San Diego Union-Tribune, February 3, 2000

SAN DIEGO -- Tomas Riley and Adrian Arancibia have a lot in common.

They are bilingual third-grade teachers in National City. They are Latin American writers.

And they both recite their poetry in taco shops.

Riley, 29, and Arancibia, 28, are members of the Taco Shop Poets, a troupe of San Diego Latin American poet-activists. The bards give a free performance at 7 p.m. tomorrow in Room 220 of Grossmont College, 8800 Grossmont College Drive in El Cajon [CA].

Founding members Miguel Angel-Soria and KPBS "These Days" producer Adolfo Guzman-Lopez took their words out of mocha-sipping coffeehouses and into taco shops in the summer of 1994.

Through prose, poetry and musical accompaniment, the Taco Shop Poets explore the "border dweller" experience.

"We were reading at coffee shops and we felt like we were totally out of our element," Arancibia said. "Our community wasn't represented there. Especially when you look at the tradition that the Latin American writers and artists have had."

What started as a group of 25 passionate Latin American thinkers has whittled down to six professionals who take their prose as far as the New Yorican Poets Cafe in New York City.

"Performance is an integral part of the oral tradition," said Riley, who is working on his master's degree at San Diego State University. "Our people have always practiced this. It's a way of really appreciating what it means to be Latino and part of an oral tradition."

Riley fuses poetry into the curriculum of his bilingual class at Palmer Way Elementary School.

"It teaches them to communicate their feelings and opinions," he said.

Arancibia, who was born in Chile, exposes his class at John Otis Elementary School to music and poetry from Peru, Brazil and France.

Arancibia's family was caught up in the communist movement in Chile. Forced to immigrate to the United States, they moved to Joplin, Mo., in 1976 when he was 5.

The culture shock was minimal.

"It was a small town and we were sponsored by the Methodist Church, so it wasn't too hard," said Arancibia.

In 1980, his family moved to San Diego and settled at the National City-Bonita border.

"That experience was much harder," he said. "In Missouri, assimilation was guaranteed. But here, we were very isolated and stayed mainly on our block. Bonita was a lot different back then. We were the first group of Mexican kids going to Bonita Vista. A lot has changed."

Riley agreed.

"Becoming a teacher was just a natural place to be," he said. "It's the best way to give back to the community and tell these kids, 'Hey, I've been there and back and it's going to be OK.' It feels really good to come full circle."