This week I’m proud to share an excerpt from my essay “Keeping the Conversation Going, or Some Stories I Can’t Tell Without Rolling My R’s: A Meditation on Latinidad, Disdentification, & Some Poems” which was recently included in the anthology Far Villages: Welcome Essays for New and Beginner Poets edited by Abayomi Animashaun and published by Black Lawrence Press.
This essay engages with the concept of disidentification as established by José Esteban Muñoz in his book
Special thanks to Abayomi Animashaun for including this essay in this landmark anthology and to Black Lawrence Press for providing a home for this communal converation! A special thanks and shout-out to poets Peggy Robles-Alvarado, Christina Olivares, Darrel Alejandro Holnes, and Lupe Mendez with whom I participated in the panel Beyond the Blueprint: a poetry reading and panel discussion on the reconstructed self at the 2017 Thinking Its Presence conference: The Ephemeral Archive hosted at the University of Arizona. It was there that I first read a draft of this essay.
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(excerpt from essay “Keeping the Conversation Going, or Some Stories I Can’t Tell Without Rolling My R’s: A Meditation on Latinidad, Disdentification, & Some Poems”)
José Angel Araguz
A Poco
for Ramon
This piece of paper is work? A poco?
I won’t believe that, ni un poco.
It’s work for me with this good eye,
one bad eye from broke glass, pero a poco
tu with two don’t struggle here?
And with books and school? A poco
you all talk about it, in class, I mean,
about what it means? That’s work. A poco,
I’m not here, you don’t write about me,
right? My bad eye? I bet you do. A poco,
no? You have nothing else? You have nothing else.
Don’t say it looks like a bruise gone white. A poco,
no? But don’t say it. Say it’s a marble, or
like my granddaughter says: A poco,
you can’t see out of that fish eye, abuelo?
Can you see me? Nope. Ni un poco.
What’s in the poem: How my fascination with ghazals and my fascination with South Texas Spanglish work together. How my co-worker Ramon had a clouded eye.
What’s left out: How Ramon’s clouded eye wasn’t glass because taking it out would have caused more overall damage. How Ramon’s thumbs were permanently purple from hammering and missing and hitting his hand. How when we worked side by side at Billy Pugh co. making equipment for oil rigs I felt both honored and intimidated. How the more I wrote into this poem the more I left Ramon’s voice behind. How the biggest breakthrough in writing the poem was having this meta-Ramon ask the question “You have nothing else?” then declare flat out “You have nothing else.” How this meta-Ramon is really me still guilty years later worried I don’t do enough on the page or in my life to honor the people who have helped me survive. How this species of interrogation is never done with, because it is how I honor those who have helped me survive.
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Happy disidentifying!
José
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