La tarde era triste

Tequila, mestizas y mariachis
vienen a llamarme con las quietas
noches glaciales:
mestizas, mariachis
y el sol de Brownsville.

–Okazaki
1945

Américo Paredes

This poem was taken from Between Two Worlds, published by Arte Publico Press.
“…in 1944 Paredes entered the U.S. Army as an infantryman. At the end of the war he was assigned to the army journal, Stars and Stripes and was sent to Tokyo to cover the war crimes trials…
He is recognized as one of the seminal Mexican American scholars of the 20th century. From mid-century onward his studies of corridos, folkloric ballads, machismo, and border stereotypes of Mexicanos formed the basis of a whole school of southwestern folklore…“

Paredes’ books include George Washington Gomez: A Mexicotexan Novel, With His Pistol In His Hand: A Border Ballad and Its Hero, and A Texas-Mexican Cancionero: Folksongs of the Lower Border.