Dawn spread her rosy fingers
and lavender tresses across the eastern sky, filling my drive
into work with joy every day last week. Doubling my pleasure,
the voices of my two riding companions, Elba Rosario Sanchez
and Olga Angelina Garcia Echeverria, who, like brilliant morning
light, started each day in a joyful reminder that chicano poetry
lives!
Elba begins our drive with
a nationalistic anthem, Tepalcate al tepalcate, a dirge to amerindian
paradise, lost to all-consuming hombres de ojos pálidos
whose rapaciousness relegates descendant indio-meztizo a este
frío hostil / pavimento gris / de mediocridad. Comes next
De vírgenes y rebeldes. Readers familiar with -- and,
owing to the excesses of some Chicano nationalists, perhaps suspicious
of -- conventional indigenist thematics will be surprised and
delighted by Sanchez' slyly humorous celebration of a woman's
sexuality, smiling with her as she observes, yo imagino tu /
mundo de secretos de / verdades ignoradas y de / sombras y se
me / desliza por entre las piernas una / sonrisa casi un
suspiro y me / abro al placer que / mi cuerpo me / ha rendido
/ muchas veces / antes.
Sanchez' twenty short offerings
blend language and theme for an interesting twenty minutes of
driving pleasure. Eight en español, six puro english poems
-- four are translations of one another -- and six mezcla, two
featuring interlineal translation, devote themselves to nature
(Moon Corn; Maiz de Luna; Lagartija; Lizard; Ristras; Como Golondrinas),
sexuality and gender (De virgenes; Woman Blood; Lover's Ode Me
Siento Continente); family or generational perspectives (Tepalcate,
Baudelia, After Nuevo Mexico, Tunas a la Luna, Sowing Seeds,
Urge, Sunday's Chicken); protest against the non-Chicano world,
(For the Middle-Aged White Man; Hisspanicsss).
Listeners will delight in
Sanchez' humor, particularly her Lover's Ode where she delights
sensuously in the faithfulness and mouth-filling complete satisfaction
as the poet softly calls out her lover's name, cilantro.
Critics do not have to read
between lines nor extract thematic patterns to understand Elba
Rosario Sanchez' motivation for her art, that's not required
since Sanchez explicates her poet's motive in A gift of tongues:
this tongue of mine sets
fires
licking hot all in its path
scorches the old
announces the new
this tongue of mine breaks
through walls
setting free imagery of
feelings
odors of dreams
tasting the bitter
the rancid
quenching its thirst
this tongue of mine invents
the words
creating familiar signs
draws my days in bold hues
celebrates
affirming my world
this tongue of mine
opens wounds
heals the hurt
with warm breath savors
the other
the you that is also me
this tongue of mine
Olga Angelina Garcia Echeverria's
half hour comprises eleven works concentrating on gender (Quemando
Tortillas; Tequila Blue; Mama Azucar; Beso); generational and
family themes (Miquitzli; Abuelita; El Dia; Poem for Frida; Sonia
on Hope Street; Fences); and an unparallelled masterpiece that
begins Olga's presentation, Lengualistic Algo, Speaking in Tongues.
Here is a superb performance, a tribute to chicanismo's most
potent expressive resource, our language, la mezcla:
Qué quieren conmigo
los puristas,
all tongue-tied
& sitting proper
behind fat stoic dictionaries?
I've already eaten the thin
white skeletons
of foreign words
choked on the bones of Inglés
Only,
learned the art of speaking
in codes
and code switching,
learned to spit palabras
out of boca abierta
like bullets
like fire
like fuego
like poems
have already licked alive
the crevices of open-legged
borders
bleeding the histories and
languages
of my name
Have already been witness
to silence
to white-haired first grade
teacher
bringing finger to lips
and saying,
Shhhhhh! Speak English.
You're in America now,
speak English.
Mi bisabuela fue Yaqui
Mi abuela Mexicana
Mi madre mestiza
y yo?
Your worst linguistic nightmare
hecho realidad
Aquí se le hecha
de todo; East Los attitude,
chile chipotle, Chicana
power fist.
Aquí el inglés
se quita sus moños,
wears khaki guangos
and dances slow motion to
oldies.
Aquí el inglés
trips over itself
Y el español comes
down
off its high Spanish horse,
cruises down Whittier Boulevard
in a cherry-red Impala lowrider,
watchala it rides the bus,
eats chile spiced mangos
and elotes smothered in
mayonesa,
it learns to say pá
instead of para,
'cá instead of acá
'llá instead of allá,
travel pá cá
y pá llá
pá llá y pá
cá
pá Caló. Órale!
Somos las chicas patas lenguas
que se rajan
cruzando fronteras sin papeles,
illegal tongues jumping
over barb-wire fences
and running como las cucarachas
when you hit the light switch!
Córrele cuquita!
Córrele!
Aquí el lenguaje
existe en el momento
que Conejo hits up Pablo
for a ride
con, Come on vato. Give
me un aventón
to la marqueta. Y Pablo
lo manda a la fregada
with a wave of a hand y
con Chale dude!
Qué me vez? cara
de taxi-cab?
Aquí se usa lo que
sirve,
el rascuache, el mestizaje,
las left-overs y lo yet
to be born,
Aquí cada palabra
está viva. Respira.
And all the Chicas Patas,
las Wátchalas,
los éses y ésas
of the world
stand up and shout:
Hey! And ain't I a word?
Caigo from hungry mouths
of thousands. Salgo como
bala
en los barrios de Califas,
broto como lluvia en el
desierto de Arizona,
canto mi Tex-Mex junta a
Flaco Jiménez
And tell me, ain't I a word?
Los académicos me
ignoran
los puristas dicen que contamino,
Webster y el Pequeño
Larousse
no me conocen y Random House
me escupe.
No manchen!
Aquí mi raza no se
detiene
cada nueva palabra remembers,
relives, speaks
the many conquests of our
bleeding tongues.
Our language, como cuerpo
de serpiente, moves
it shape-shifts
it sheds
en un instante muere
y aún vuelve a nacer.
Powerful, powerful reading.
Ironically, for a mezcla protest against language purists, Olga
gets all the accents right. For that one reading alone, When
Skin Peels is a bargain at twice the price, so poetry and chicano
literature lovers ought to buy two or three copies of this CD,
to share with friends and family, or send this poem to prescriptivist
professors and newspaper columnists who decry the "bastardization"
of english and spanish by chicano voices.
Olga Angelina Garcia Echeverria's
presentations call attention to themselves; they define a singularly
feminist voice that declares a chicana's confident self-awareness
that young women and girls need to hear. Where else will they
have it in so focused a presentation?
Echeverria's forcefulness
and bitter humor, her sensitive interpretation of long ago yet
unforgotten injuries, her joyful self awareness, offer constant
reminders of who a girl should look to become, in a world filled
with roaches and men, imposed expectations when the woman herself
offers so much more: Corazón, no esperes tortillas / recien
hechas a mano, redondas / y perfectas como la cara de la luna
. . . . En vez de tortillas te haré poema / tras poema,
recien hechos a mano / de mujer. Calientitos y blanditos. Like
Elba's rebellious virgin, Echeverria's woman knows what she enjoys,
and freely expresses its full understanding: this kiss / dizzy
with laughter / has ridden on ferris wheels / and bumper cars
/ played hopscotch / on opened mouths / and necks / tagged her
silhoutte / on white collars / and wine glasses /
she's played.
The double pleasure of two
poetas chingonas is just the start, raza. Calaca Press' CD When
Skin Peels triples--then quadruples--the pleasure of poetry with
a printed booklet of poetry, plus a CD's programmability.
Eminently worthwhile listening
start to finish, with booklet in hand a reader luxuriates in
text alone, allowing close critical appreciation of la poesia
chicana that only text provides, or multimodal immersion with
eyes and ears to derive a more intimate acquaintance with this
art, these two poets, all their women. My one complaint is Calaca's
decision to print the booklet in 7 point type, sorely challenging
this reader's visual acuity.
Enriching your experience,
Calaca's January release -- as with all CD media -- allows one
to program a structured listening experience, as a way of enjoying
favorites, a technique for critical appraisal, or for classroom
use. Program Elba's masterpieces: tracks 2, 15, 16, 7: Virgenes;
Urge; Tongues; Middle-Aged White Man. Olga's best: 21, 24, 27,
31: Lengualistic; Mama Azucar; Tequila Blue; Beso. Program
out the "fucks" (25, 27, 31, but how dismal omitting
masterpieces, Sonia on Hope Street; Tequila Blue; Beso). Program
for mezcla, spanish, thematic pieces, english. Program the best
of the best: 2, 21, 31.
Teachers of United States
literature, in particular teachers with chicana and chicano students,
need to take advantage of this powerful poetic resource. In an
industry where classroom anthologies of unitedstatesian or english
language literature almost totally ignore Chicano writing, not
just poetry, When Skin Peels, in highly worthwhile ways, corrects
the omission.
Oracy and literacy comprise
the 21st century's most important skills, abundantly showcased
by When Skin Peels. Here is a collection of noteworthy art, most
pieces suitable for any classroom, exciting. Each performance
of itself plays havoc with a listener's comfort; wetly sexual
or merely erotic, satiric or bitter humor, urban landscapes with
sharp teeth. Nothing gentle or soft here, not really, and this
is what makes the poems and the poetas tan chingonas. Pura chicana
poetry. Sanchez and Echeverria's poetry delivers interesting
combinations of language, gender, identitification motives, and
figurative language, in sum, a rich resource for classroom study
and quick writes.
Performing, reading aloud,
memorizing, seem to have lost their role in educative systems.
More the justification for buying this CD, especially for sharing
it with chicano classrooms. Kids' ears and lips will find this
excitingly new, yet familiar, accessible material. In a multicultural
classroom, the works offer an unexplored, fully U.S. Perspective
students deserve to hear. Give kids the printed text, form reader's
theater groups, have them create oral performances of their favorites,
and works of their own creation; they cannot fail to be motivated
to write, having heard Elba and Olga read their stuff. It would
be fun for the teacher, a joy for the kids, to gather a group
of girls and have them do their own oral performances.
Listen once to When Skin
Peels, you'll listen another 50 times, basking in the linguistic
and rhetorical richness of these two women. Maybe the CD will
fulfill your own spiritual needs for cultural regeneración,
or something cute and funny, or simply mark an enchanting 40
minutes of listening pleasure.
Driving home last week,
the western sky echoes the brilliance of the dawn, darkness above
blending into fiery horizon. I bask in the glory of our language,
our poetry, my passengers' irresistible creativity.
