Volume 13:1, Winter 2012
FLORICANTO ISSUE
INTRODUCTION
Francisco Aragón, Guest Editor
A young man raises his hand.
“How does it feel writing about our country?”
The invited guest tells the story of how he came to poetry.
The country in question: El Salvador. The scene of this exchange: a
high school in Washington, DC.
Frazier O’Leary, who has taught and coached for
thirty years, has gathered twenty or so of his Cardozo students, most
of them natives of this small Central American nation, or the sons and
daughters of Salvadoran immigrants. A few weeks earlier they had each
been given The Art of Exile by William Archila—also
born in El Salvador, who migrated to California in 1980 at the age of
twelve. After Archila’s presentation, O’Leary’s students
line up to have their books signed, chatter and visit with their new
friend.
That spring afternoon, in 2010, poetry became a palpable bridge.
Among those who witnessed what took place in that classroom was Dan
Vera, who’d graciously agreed to document the moment
with his digital camera—whose poem, “If You Want To Purify
America’s Textbooks of Ethnic Studies,” is one of the twenty-six
poems you’ll read in this winter issue of Beltway
Poetry Quarterly, an issue that aims to embody a similar
bridge.
Guest editors of Beltway Poetry are asked
to hone in on a local angle. Mine is the AWP Conference & Bookfair
held in Washington. Or rather: the “off-site” event at the
True Reformer Building on U Street that unfolded on February 4, 2011,
an event called “Floricanto in DC: A Multicultural Response to
SB1070”—in reference to Arizona’s anti-immigrant law.
But my duties as the AWP Conference Chair kept me from attending what,
by all accounts, was a moving and stunning evening of poetry. Had I
been able to participate, I would have shared this:
POEM WITH A PHRASE OF ISHERWOOD
to Jan Brewer
Cruelty is sensual and stirs you
Governor, your name echoing the sludge
beneath your cities’ streets. It spurs
the pleasure you take
whenever your mouth nears
a mic, defending your law…your wall.
Cruelty is sensual and stirs you
Governor; we’ve noticed your face
its contortions and delicate sneer
times you’re asked to cut
certain ribbons—visit a dusty place
you’d rather avoid, out of the heat.
Cruelty is sensual and stirs you
Governor, the vision of your state
something you treasure in secret
though we’ve caught a glimpse
in the jowls of your sheriff:
bulldog who doubles as your heart.
*
The poets in this special issue of Beltway Poetry
read on U Street that evening; or were slated to read but weren’t
able to get to Washington because of weather-related travel restrictions;
or read at the press conference at the foot of the Capitol two days
later.
What they all do share is a vision that honors and celebrates our nation’s
immigrant roots. They reject the xenophobia that SB1070 in Arizona and,
more recently, HB 56 in Alabama, represent.
I’d like to thank Francisco X.
Alarcón, Sarah
Browning, and Rich Villar
for organizing the Floricanto that has given rise to this One Poem Festival—here—on
the web. A shout out, as well, to the poets who responded to my invitation
and sent work. And, of course, a heartfelt nod to Kim
Roberts, founder and editor of Beltway Poetry
Quarterly, for this meaningful opportunity.
Francisco Aragón
November 1, 2011
Washington, DC
credits
Francisco Aragón's
latest book, Glow of Our Sweat (Scapegoat Press), received
second place in the “Poetry in English” category at the
2011 International Latino Book Awards. He is the editor of the award-winning
anthology The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry (University of
Arizona Press) and author of Puerta del Sol (Bilingual Press).
Recent work appears in PALABRA: A Magazine of Chicano & Latino
Literary Art. He directs Letras Latinas, the literary program of
the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies, where
he oversees a number of literary initiatives, including “Latino/a
Poetry Now,” a multi-year collaboration with the Poetry Society
of America. He is a CantoMundo fellow, as well as a member of the Macondo
Writers’ Workshop in San Antonio. He resides in Arlington, VA.
Published
in Volume 13, Number 1, Winter 2012.
To
read more by this guest editor:
Francisco
Aragón
Francisco Aragón:
Museum Issue
FLORICANTO ISSUE
Table of Contents
Andre Yang,
Why I Feel the Way I Do About SB 1070
Roberto Vargas, Solitude
of Diaspora
Dorianne Laux, Nearly Free
Regie Cabico, Mango Poem
Barbara Jane Reyes, My California
Sarah Browning, Step
Crushing on the Wild Thyme
Oscar Bermeo, the ice worker
lives
Susan Deer Cloud, He
Told Me
Hedy Treviño, A
Poem Dedicated to My Grandfather, José García
Juan Felipe Herrera, busman
Odilia Galván Rodríguez,
Los Santos Gitanos
Pamela Uschuk, 2011, The
Year of the Metal Rabbit
Abel Salas, Chook Son, Arizona
Luis Alberto Ambroggio, US Landscapes/Paisajes
de los Estados Unidos
Dan Vera, If You Want to
Purify America's Textbooks of Ethnic Studies
Marilyn Nelson, Honor Guard
Joseph Ross, If You Leave
Your Shoes
Carmen Gimenez Smith, Have
You Made Anything
Luis J. Rodríguez,
Piece by Piece
Tara Betts, Gunfire &
Snowfall
Randall Horton, For All
Those Who Benefitted from Slaves and the So-Called Illegal Alien
Francisco X. Alarcón,
Whale Songs
Carmen Calatayud, An
Offering of Strength
Martín Espada, Isabel's
Corrido
Rich Villar, Always Here
Aracelis Girmay, English
Class
This special issue of Beltway Poetry Quarterly
is co-sponsored by Letras Latinas, a program
of the
Institute for Latino Studies at the
University
of Notre Dame.