continued eminent domain abuse

eminent domain and manifest destiny / segundo barrio and now the ysleta area / i have not had the words to write about the recent city council decision / heart hurts / hope to write more soon

"EL PASO, Texas (AP) — It looks like an undeveloped dirt lot in a residential neighborhood, so city officials decided to put a long-awaited four-lane road extension through it.

But the square of dirt is a holy site for the Tigua Ysleta del Sur Pueblo tribe and the site of the tribe's original pueblo.

That's not the only problem with the planned road that would cut across other private property to create a direct path from Interstate 10 to a border highway on the city's congested southeast side."

this morning, i was in the mood for a sappho fragment and was pleased indeed:



]
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]thought
]barefoot
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#12 from If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho (translator, Anne Carson)

ROCÍO DÚRCAL (for the poetas in ept who often requested to hear this song in class while they wrote their poems):


R.D.'s "nadie es como tú" (#4) is one of those songs that takes me right back to childhood as soon as i hear it

i am joaquin film, 1969:

part 1

part 2

Christine Granados Reading tomorrow

TEXAS LATINO VOICES

The Brownsville Heritage Complex in historic downtown Brownsville invites the public to attend a special literary event, Texas Latino Voices. This program is held in conjunction with the Dallas Center for the Book, Humanities Texas, and the Brownsville Public Library. Texas Latino author, Christine Granados, will present an overview of the Latino literary scene in Texas, followed by readings from her work, 6:30 p.m., Sept. 15, 2007.

This presentation is one in a series in the Texas Latino Voices programs to be presented by the Texas Center for the Book and the Denton and Abilene Public Libraries and the Brownsville Historical Association with the Brownsville Public Library. This program is made possible in part by a donation from Humanities Texas, a state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. This presentation is sponsored locally by Whataburger.

The Brownsville Heritage Complex is located at 1325 E. Washington St. in historic downtown Brownsville, and is managed by the Brownsville Historical Association.

[el camino de mi alma] by roberto harrison

"i go back
i go forth
i am home

i am crustaceous
in the land of canals
in the knot of 3 rivers

i am the moon
in the shine
of a Quetzal

i am the Choco,
the Cuna,
and the colorless loss
of each Mola--
each wood..."

Excerpt from Counter Daemons by Roberto Harrison. To read more of [el camino...] and an interview with Roberto Harrison, visit here.


I recently picked up this book and I am thoroughly energized by what I have read so far. Here is another excerpt from Counter Daemons that i admire (it's from the section "[Face Time]"):

"i snake up the panther with claws

i bear the arrival of horses

i eagle the loss for the clouds

i deer all the skinny coyotes

i sink in the ground with the animals hidden--

i am a kernel of entry"...

Teeth by Aracelis Girmay

I remember reading Rigoberto González's book review of Teeth by Aracelis Girmay and wanting to buy her book. I ordered it last week and it arrived today. I'm looking forward to reading this book in its entirety soon. But on my quick glance through it so far, I love how there is a poem about Santa Ana -- "Santa Ana of Grocery Carts." Here is an excerpt:

"... Santa Ana of cross-guards, tomato pickers,
bakeries of bread in pinks & yellows, sugars.
Santa Ana of Cambodia, Viet Nam, Aztlán..."

Oh, I loved, loved reading this poem about my hometown in Cali.

Here's a link to another poem from the collection called "Arroz Poetica," and on this page there is a link to a video of Girmay reading from her work.

24 Foot Ladder / Border Wall

"Flores said he had a 24-foot ladder and would likely bring it with him Friday to highlight the absurdity of building a border wall...'I do have a 24-foot ladder and I may bring it along. The new economy of the Valley will be 24-feet ladders if they build the wall...'" from the Rio Grande Guardian.

intro to xicanisma

"As a product of U.S. society, nevertheless with strong ties to my ethnic and mestiza identity, and as a woman of conscientización, I believe our views must expand to make world connections from which we will see that our particular culture has infinite affinities with other women, especially women who like ourselves, have for so long been denied a voice within our own societies." - from the book Massacre of the Dreamers: Essays on Xicanisma by Ana Castillo.

****************************************************************************

Dictee by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, one of my favorite books, comes to mind too.

THE OUTER BANDS

"I'm telling you a story of brick and bone,
of merciless rain subduing cars in their tracks.

I'm handling their images in my hand
a series of retablos, haloed faces in vapored windows..."

Check out The Outer Bands, a poetry collection by Gabriel Gomez, published by University of Notre Dame Press and winner of the Andres Montoya Poetry Prize.

“Gabriel Gomez is an accomplished poet, one who honors the resonance of language as well as reverberations of form. And, like a retablo, each poem shimmers with reverence, if not for saints and Biblical figures, but for the beauty and poignancy of complex, contemporary life.” —Valerie Martinez, from the introduction

Some sample poems.

from the U of ND press website: "The Outer Bands is a first collection of poems from Andrés Montoya prize-winner Gabriel Gomez. The book is an expansive examination of language and landscape, voice and memory, where the balance between experimentation and tradition coexist. The poems realize a reconciliation between the writer’s voice and the voice of witness, wonder, and tragedy; a dialogue between two worlds that employ an equally paradoxical imagery of the American Southwest and the marshes of Southern Louisiana. The book concludes with its namesake poem, “The Outer Bands,” a twenty-eight-day chronicle of the days between Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita, which together decimated the Gulf Coast region in 2005. The sequence poem, a pastiche and re-contextualization of images, news blurbs, and political rhetoric, travels and responds in a spare subjectivity to the storm. Gabriel Gomez completed it during a two-month emergency residency at the Santa Fe Art Institute after his home in New Orleans was destroyed."

GABRIEL GOMEZ is a poet, playwright, and music journalist born and raised in El Paso, TX. He received a B.A. in Creative Writing from the College of Santa Fe and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from St. Mary's College of California. He has taught English at The University of New Orleans, Tulane University, The College of Santa Fe, and The Institute of American Indian Arts. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with his wife Julie. The Outer Bands is his first book.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

For Latina/o poets with a first book manuscript (no entrance fee!) Andres Montoya Poetry Prize (judge Martín Espada) Deadline Jan. 15, 2008.

-Inaugural prize winner: Pity the Drowned Horses by Sheryl Luna

-Prize named after, in honor of: Andres Montoya, author of The Iceworker Sings & Other Poems

for more information about the upcoming book prize, check out the GUIDELINES and/or contact Francisco Aragón, prize coordinator.