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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140 AMERICAN POLITICAL POETRY<br />
She goes on to say that she “want(s)” monol<strong>in</strong>gual readers to be able<br />
to “stay with” her, but that she also <strong>in</strong>cludes “double pleasures”—<br />
particularly resonant words and phrases—specifically for bil<strong>in</strong>gual<br />
readers (143). I do not want to suggest that Mora’s motives are representative<br />
of o<strong>the</strong>r Lat<strong>in</strong>a/o poets, merely that her calculated use of<br />
two languages po<strong>in</strong>ts both to a dualistic voice and a bifurcated audience<br />
for this <strong>poetry</strong>. Her claim also suggests that Spanish l<strong>in</strong>es <strong>in</strong> primarily<br />
English poems are particularly resonant and important, and<br />
even <strong>the</strong>se few challenge <strong>the</strong> English “tradition.”<br />
The majority of primarily English poems that <strong>in</strong>clude Spanish<br />
words and phrases literally highlight <strong>the</strong>ir Spanish textures <strong>in</strong> italiciz<strong>in</strong>g<br />
Spanish words, phrases, and sentences. The examples are numerous.<br />
Pedro Pietri’s “Puerto Rican Obituary” (1973), Baca’s “Mi Tío Baca<br />
el Poeta de Socorro” (1989), Mora’s “Artista Cubano” (1994),<br />
Sandra M. Castillo’s “En el Sol de Mi Barrio,” “R<strong>in</strong>cón,” and<br />
“Monday Night at Pedro’s” (1997), Judith Ortiz Cofer’s “The<br />
Changel<strong>in</strong>g” (1993), Virgil Suárez’s “Poem for My Fa<strong>the</strong>r” (2001)<br />
and “After Forty Years of Exile, The Poet Arrives” (2002), and Martín<br />
Espada’s “Search<strong>in</strong>g for La Revolución <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> Streets of Tijuana”<br />
(2002) are just a few <strong>political</strong> poems <strong>in</strong> English that use a proportionately<br />
small number of Spanish words and phrases. Their italicized<br />
Spanish words foreground <strong>the</strong>se poems’ bifurcated worlds—switch<strong>in</strong>g<br />
between cultures is analogous to switch<strong>in</strong>g between languages. Many<br />
poems of migratory agency do not have an equal number of Spanish<br />
and English words; poems migrate between cultures as well as strictly<br />
between languages. Even a few Spanish words serve as metonyms for<br />
a larger world excluded from ma<strong>in</strong>stream U.S. culture. However,<br />
<strong>the</strong>se poems can be <strong>political</strong>ly problematic <strong>in</strong> that <strong>the</strong>y may exclude a<br />
primary audience—bil<strong>in</strong>gual and non-English-speak<strong>in</strong>g Lat<strong>in</strong>as/os.<br />
My read<strong>in</strong>g of <strong>the</strong> next poem implicitly exposes this potential rift.<br />
Baca’s “Mi Tío Baca el Poeta de Socorro” <strong>in</strong>cludes few Spanish<br />
words but none<strong>the</strong>less embodies great departures between Englishspeak<strong>in</strong>g<br />
and Spanish-speak<strong>in</strong>g cultures. These brief italicized phrases<br />
are signals or slightly opened doorways to <strong>the</strong> cultures, languages, and<br />
forces that imp<strong>in</strong>ge on <strong>the</strong> dom<strong>in</strong>ant culture. This m<strong>in</strong>imal Spanish<br />
gives Chicano-Apache Baca’s poem its most critical mean<strong>in</strong>gs. In <strong>the</strong><br />
poem, two cultures with unequal power—Chicano campes<strong>in</strong>os and<br />
<strong>the</strong> U.S. Rangers who repress <strong>the</strong>m—clash. This relationship exposes<br />
rifts between languages, generations, methods of activism, and uses of<br />
art. “Mi Tío Baca el Poeta de Socorro” is thus primarily English, but<br />
its speak<strong>in</strong>g voice laments for Baca’s uncle, a deceased poet and labor<br />
organizer who <strong>in</strong> all likelihood wrote <strong>in</strong> Spanish. The poem thus