Juan Felipe Herrera; Poet Laureate of California

I'm late on this, but since it is still National Poetry Month, I wanted to acknowledge Juan Felipe Herrera, who was appointed the Poet Laureate of California last month. He becomes the first Chicano to ever hold this post.

It might be of importance to people who read this blog, as his work is very much influenced by the Beat Generation (writers like Allen Ginsberg), as well as the whole Chicano movement. In fact, Herrera was at the very first Festival de Flor y Canto (Festival of flower and song) at USC in 1973 where he shared the stage with some of the great Chicano/a writers of the time like Oscar "Zeta" Acosta, Alurista, Juan Gómez Quiñones, José Montoya, Ricardo Sánchez and many others. (In 2010, he was also present at USC for a new Flor Y Canto that included artists from the original festival, as well as representatives of a new generation of voices).

His most recent work, "Half of the World in Light" was a winner of that year's National Book Critics Circle award in poetry, but I'm more familiar with his 2007 collection, "187 Reasons Mexicanos Can't Cross The Border: Undocuments 1971-2007." The title piece is perhaps his most known--and most hilarious--poem. A short excert below:

Because Lou Dobbs has been misusing the subjunctive again
Because our suitcases are made with biodegradable maguey fibers
Because we still resemble La Malinche
Because multiplication is our favorite sport
Because we’ll dig a tunnel to Seattle
Because Mexico needs us to keep the peso from sinking
Because the Berlin Wall is on the way to Veracruz
Because we just learned we are Huichol
Because someone made our IDs out of corn
Because our border thirst is insatiable
Because we're on peyote & Coca-Cola & Banamex
Because it's Indian land stolen from our mothers
Because we're too emotional when it comes to our mothers
Because we've been doing it for over five hundred years already...

Book Review: 'It Calls You Back'

Last week saw the release of Luis J. Rodriguez new memoir, “It Calls You Back: An Odyssey Through Love, Addiction, and Healing.” It is being promoted as a sequel to his best-selling memoir, “Always Running: La Vida Loca; Gang Days in L.A.” Indeed, the book starts off with the last time the author was arrested and released from jail.

My favorite part of the book is the early chapters because they get into how radical politics finally dragged the author away from gang life, (after a few false starts). He writes: “And yet, I managed to attend political meetings among Chicano activists in East L.A. and then a mixed group of revolutionaries in Watts and the Harbor Area.” And in the same chapter he later writes, “Because of the pull I felt toward intelligent revolutionary activity, as well as the artistic pursuits I was dabbling in, my relationship to the gang changed again.”

The author then talks a lot of all the different factory jobs he had and the organizing work he did while working those jobs, and also his good and bad experiences, especially when dealing with racism. The book doesn’t really take a turn until chapter eight when he decides to become a writer. It was a big and risky step, but it proved to be the right choice to make.

From there we see the author doing different things to learn, and then practice, his craft. He hooks up with the Los Angeles Latino Writers Association, takes writing classes at East L.A. College, gets a job at a small community Eastside newspaper, and then gets a big opportunity, a summer program at UC Berkeley where he learns reporting and writing skills from journalists that work for big publications.

Later on, there is another turns in his life when the author moves to Chicago where he gets into the Chicago poetry scene, (something that would prove pivotal), and starts writing for the People’s Tribune newspaper, which allows him to visit different cities to write articles. One great story involved the Appalachian coal country of West Virginia and some young KKK members. Apparently they heard him speak and wanted to talk to him afterwards, so he went to meet with them at a shack in a wooded area. They told him their situation; that they couldn’t feed their families, but no one except for the Klan would come around to talk to them. They told him, “We got your words, your message—that we’re having the same problem as other people and that we have more in common with them than rich folk.”

One thing that bothered me, is that intertwined with all these different stories, the author spends a great deal of time going through what seems like every detail of every single relationship he’s ever had, (and there was a lot of them)! I understand that there is something to learn from these experiences—but not all of them—and sometimes not much.

One of the best things about this book, (which I hope people will notice), is that it shows that life is full of big risks. Most people don’t dare to take them, but this brother did. Not only did taking big risks help him get out of the gang life, but it also helped him become a good writer and one of the best poets out there.

New School to Be Named for Sandra Cisneros

One day I blog about comics, the next about poetry. That's just the way it is around here ('cause I'm a cultured MFer).

Anyway, this is quite possibly the coolest news I have heard all year: There is a new school opening up...and it's going to be named after popular Chicana poet, Sandra Cisneros! The L.A. Times, through its book blog, reported today that the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) will be opening the doors to the brand new Sandra Cisneros Learning Academy in Echo Park this Fall. From the article:

Parents and administrators involved in the Camino Nuevo charter school, which is part of the L.A. school district, put forward her name for the new K-8 academy slated to open in September. This month, the LAUSD Board of Education decided to change the name of Central Region Elementary School No. 14 to Sandra Cisneros Learning Academy.

The article also notes that there are other schools in LAUSD named after authors, they are not that common. I personally can't wait until they open more schools after poets: Wanda Coleman Middle School, or even Charles Bukowski High School!

I wonder what the mascot will be for this school? How about, The Hollering Creeks!?!