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An interview with Rigoberto González

March 13, 2009

tags: activist, border, poetry

The following is an excerpt of an interview with Rigoberto González by Express News writer Steve Bennett where González talks about his upcoming young adult novel “The Mariposa Club.” It’s being published in April by Alyson Books. Bennett’s book blog is The Fine Print.

Follow the link to read the interview in its entirety.

The “Poetry Conversations” series here has a subtext of “why poetry matters.” Why does it matter?
It matters only if it communicates and lately there’s been a need for poetry as an expression of both celebration and devastation. Poetry is the place where it’s still possible to praise and weep and rage. And since we’re inhabiting a country where these freedoms of speech are being compromised more and more each day, we’re going to have to hold on to this one — the poem — for as long as we can.

What would a perfect world be like for you?
A world where books matter more than television, where art matters more than war, where people matter more than profits, where love matters more than policing love.

Finally, can you put together a list of, say, five of your favorite poems? Or important poems? Or poems everyone should read before they die?
I’d rather direct people to books, if that’s okay. Five poems are a start but a little too conservative for my taste and I have not a single conservative bone in my body, so why not be a little more indulgent and commit to five books.

“The Butterfly’s Burden,” Mahmoud Darwish, translated by Fady Joudah
“The Ice Worker Sings and Other Poems,” Andres Montoya
“The Salt Ecstasies,” James L. White
“Dear Regime: Letters to the Islamic Republic,” by Roger Sedarat
“View With a Grain of Sand,” by Wisława Szymborska, translated by Stanisław Barańczak and Clare Cavanagh

Related:
Read Rigoberto González’s review of John Olivares Espinoza’s The Date Fruit Elegies.

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