american political poetry in the 21st century - STIBA Malang
american political poetry in the 21st century - STIBA Malang
american political poetry in the 21st century - STIBA Malang
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134 AMERICAN POLITICAL POETRY<br />
attempt to bridge” (32). In “Poema para los Californios Muertos,”<br />
<strong>the</strong> speaker’s Spanish declarations of identity and solidarity <strong>in</strong>s<strong>in</strong>uate<br />
that <strong>the</strong>re is a rupture between history (<strong>the</strong> world of absent presence)<br />
and <strong>the</strong> contemporary North American cityscape (<strong>the</strong> world of concrete<br />
presence). At <strong>the</strong> end of <strong>the</strong> third stanza, she says that only <strong>the</strong><br />
ghosts of <strong>the</strong> dead Californios should rema<strong>in</strong> (“deben aquí<br />
quedarse”) <strong>in</strong> this city, which po<strong>in</strong>ts to a desire to honor her dead<br />
ancestors as well as a fantasy of absolute separation between a white<br />
Euro<strong>american</strong> present and a Chicana/o past. Later, it is clear that<br />
<strong>the</strong>re has been an erasure of history and that <strong>the</strong> plaque is but a superficial,<br />
dishonest attempt to make that history positively present. All<br />
that rema<strong>in</strong>s at <strong>the</strong> restaurant are “bitter antiques, / yanqui<br />
remnants,” “<strong>the</strong> pungent odor of crushed / eucalyptus,” and “<strong>the</strong><br />
pure scent / of rage”; none of <strong>the</strong>se presences, it seems, are “de los<br />
Californios.” Their history is conveniently bracketed <strong>in</strong> a small<br />
plaque—<strong>in</strong> effect a museum writ small, an image echoed <strong>in</strong> Alexie’s<br />
“Evolution” and strangely, <strong>in</strong> scale, by <strong>the</strong> f<strong>in</strong>ger r<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> Bly’s<br />
“Count<strong>in</strong>g Small-Boned Bodies.”<br />
Cervantes’s strategies highlight <strong>the</strong> fissure between history and <strong>the</strong><br />
liv<strong>in</strong>g present—even as that history has a palpable presence <strong>in</strong> each<br />
unfold<strong>in</strong>g moment—and between <strong>the</strong> language of collective ancestral<br />
memory (Spanish) and that of her present life (English). Though <strong>the</strong><br />
migrant agent is able to move between both, her poem shows <strong>the</strong> difficulty<br />
of f<strong>in</strong>d<strong>in</strong>g a home <strong>in</strong> ei<strong>the</strong>r. Cervantes’s speaker fails to carve<br />
out a space between <strong>the</strong> two, for it is here that <strong>the</strong> most effective<br />
poetic and <strong>political</strong> agency resides. The poem’s Spanish, though,<br />
refuses to forgo a heritage of absence and loss and to submit fully to<br />
<strong>the</strong> notion of “progress.” Moreover, Cervantes’s poem denies<br />
American cultural progress spoken of <strong>in</strong> terms of <strong>the</strong> “melt<strong>in</strong>g pot.”<br />
Some th<strong>in</strong>gs, she suggests, do not melt easily. They may be largely<br />
absent, but <strong>the</strong>y ferment uneasily <strong>in</strong> “la sangre fértil” and <strong>the</strong>y will<br />
eventually manifest <strong>the</strong>mselves <strong>in</strong> everyth<strong>in</strong>g planted <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> fertile soil.<br />
The poem thus seems to say that <strong>in</strong> mak<strong>in</strong>g “progress” you will reap<br />
what you sow; if you sow blood (“sangre”) you will reap it as well.<br />
The two poems discussed thus far use code switch<strong>in</strong>g to foreground<br />
<strong>the</strong> socio<strong>political</strong> and cultural experiences of <strong>the</strong> bil<strong>in</strong>gual,<br />
Lat<strong>in</strong>a/o migrant. But <strong>the</strong>se poems’ primary figures of voice do not<br />
comment directly on <strong>the</strong> relations between languages <strong>the</strong>mselves.<br />
Many bil<strong>in</strong>gual poems (and a strik<strong>in</strong>g number of English poems by<br />
bil<strong>in</strong>gual poets) take as <strong>the</strong>ir de facto subject <strong>the</strong> cross-poll<strong>in</strong>ation of<br />
languages and <strong>the</strong> cultures <strong>the</strong>y <strong>in</strong>habit. Is it any wonder that contemporary<br />
poets (any poets, for that matter) take language itself as a