Your daily dose of Chicano poetry
"I write poems on walls that crumble and fall
I talk to shadows that sleep and go away crying.”
Luis Omar Salinas (1937–2008)
Going North
(for my grandfather)
Those streets in my youth
hilarious and angry,
cobblestoned by Mestizos,
fresh fruit
and dancing beggars.
Gone are the soldiers
and the nuns.
My Portuguese friends
have gone North.
The school girls
have ripened
overnight.
I hum Spanish tunes
waiting for the bus
in Fresno.
These avenues
I watch
carefree
young, open collared
like my grandfather
who died in a dream
going North.
Luis Omar Salinas
Poet Jose Montoya wrote, “…no one has ever disputed the fact that Luis Omar Salinas es el mero chingon de la poesia chicana. This has been not only the opinion of his fellow poets but of critics as well…He’s our Guru.”
Going North is from Salinas’ Afternoon of the Unreal. Read three more of his poems here.
Misa en Fowler
Dona Teresa’s voice crackled
Like brittle capsules of saliva
and screeched old.
And sister Celeste missed the organ.
And he laughed aloud and before
He could stop Tony and Chon were
Laughing.
And the father’s urgent and severe gaze
Censured them out the door and they
Sat by the curb and drank three-dollar-Joe’s
Wine.
And when they started mimicking in
High voices, Dona Teresa’s singing,
Ushers ashamed of them were sent to
Quiet them so the mass could continue.
José Montoya
Nation contributor Ray Gonzalez called it (Montoya’s In Formation: 20 Years of Joda published in 1992 by Chusma House Publications) “perhaps the definitive collection of calo writing to be found anywhere.” Gonzalez noted that Montoya’s voice remains as politically charged as it had been in the early years of the Movement. “Montoya writes a now-rare ‘in your face, vato!’ kind of poetry Chicano poets abandoned ages ago…” Read a short biography of Montoya here.
The Pioneers
Crazy as this may sound to you,
Henry no longer feels like a stranger in a strange land.
The country has reverted to Mexico.
Mr. Bones looking illegally wet,
walks into Wal-Mart
and the predominate language is Spanish.
The girl behind the register no comprende
until he Spik in Glyph.
The soldiers: Alurista, Lalo Delgado, Ricardo Sanchez,
insisted this would happen.
But most of us didn’t listen,
and took the low road.
Ye of little faith reap small rewards.
Behold how brown, Texas has become.
Reyes Cardenas
Reyes Cardenas‘ writings have been published in various places including, Caracol, El Grito, and Place of Herons Press. His books include Anti-Bicicleta Haiku, Survivors of the Chicano Titanic, Elegies For John Lennon and I Was Never A Militant Chicano. All of his books are available in ebook form from Alexander Street Press.
To Walt Whitman
hey man, my brother
world-poet
prophet democrat
here’s a guitar
for you
-a chicana guitar-
so you can spill out a song
for the open road
big enough for my people
-my Native Amerindian race
that I can’t seem to find
in your poems
“…de Hoyos takes on the tasks of bearing witness, and denouncing the imperative social demands that are inescapable. In the poems she writes, she comes face to face with herself and the world that surrounds her. Arise, Chicano! is Angela’s first published collection of poems.” Read more about de Hoyos at the Women Artists and Writers of Color website.
Xican@ Poetry Daily 