Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Jack Straw Writers

It has been an amazing experience to be part of this years Jack Straw Writers Program!

Each year twelve writers/writing teams are selected by a curator out of dozens of applicants, based on artistic excellence, diversity of literary genres, and a cohesive grouping of writers. Live readings are recorded, and selected portions are produced for podcasts and radio broadcast.

The 2014 Jack Straw Writers are Laurel AlbinaClaudia Castro LunaMargot KahnLoreen Lilyn Lee,Susan MeyersJohn MullenMichelle PeñalozaGigi RosenbergRaúl SánchezAnastacia Tolbert,Jane Wong, and Kristen Millares Young.

For now this year's anthology can be obtained from Jack Straw (jps@jackstraw.org) soon it will be in some local bookstores. 

 

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Gente de Fuego - People of Fire





The news from El Salvador these past couple of weeks have revolved around volcano eruptions and the upcoming presidential election.  And though dissimilar in their nature, upon closer inspection, they reveal a connection -- even if the connection is a poetic one.

Chaparrastique is the volcano in San Miguel that spewed gas and ashes this past December. 1,653 individuals were evacuated from the area around the volcano as a preventive measure in case a harsher eruption followed. President Mauricio Funes asked that the event not be used as election fodder and that instead the focus be on protecting the residents that could be affected by the volcano's eruptions.

The upcoming elections was the main topic of a talk sponsored by Seattle CISPES and given by Francisca Iraheta Romero, a school principal in El Salvador, and a member of ANDES, the Salvadoran Teacher's Union. She spoke eloquently and with great warmth about the importance of US neutrality in the upcoming elections. The people of El Salvador, she argued, need to decide on their own who their next president will be.

According El Salvador's Instituto Universitario de Opinion Publica, the election is very close. Salvador Sanchez Ceren, a former teacher and the FMLN candidate leads with 38.4 percentage points while the ARENA candidate, Norman Quijano, trails with 33.4 percent. The last presidential election (2009) was a watershed moment in Salvadoran history. It was the first time that a fair election was held and the voice of the people honored.

There are 23 volcanoes in El Salvador. The country's soil has many times been wetted by the scorching, angry tongue leaping from the center of the earth. The earth's red mantle has covered valleys, ravines, dipped in rivers, made the coast's silky black sand, made our genes quick to spark. It has made us a fiery people. Somos gente de fuego. Red the lava from the volcanoes and red the blood of our compatriots who fell in colonial wars, the massacre of 1932, the Civil War, and the ongoing senseless murders fueled by gang rivalries. 

This election, if held without outside interventions, will offer a chance for us to ignite a new course, to dial a new cycle in our history. Maybe then the color of Peace will spill over our small land.

Claribel Alegria in her poem, Flores del Volcan, eloquently brings together our volcanos and the turbulence of our political struggles. I copy it here in the hope that a new cycle will soon begin. 

Flores Del Volcan 
       por Claribel Alegria

Catorce volcanes se levantan
en mi pais memoria
en mi pais de mito
que dia a dia invento
catorce volcanes de follaje y piedra
donde nubes extrañas se detienen
y a veces el chillido
de un pajaro extraviado.
Quien dijo que era verde mi país?
es mas rojo
es mas gris
es mas violento:
el Izalco que ruge
exigiendo mas vidas
los eternos chacmol
que recogen la sangre
del chacmol
y los huerfanos grises
y el volcan babeando
toda esa lava incandescente
el guerrillero muerto
y los mil rostros traicionados
y los niños que miran
para contar la historia. 
No nos quedo un reino
uno a uno cayeron
a lo largo de America
el acero sonaba
en los palacios en las calles 
en los bosques
y saqueaban el templo
los centauros
y se alejaba el oro
y se sigue alejando
en barcos yanquis
el oro del cafe
mezclado con la sangre
mezclado con el latigo
y la sangre.
El sacerdote huia
dando gritos
en medio de la noche
convocaba a sus fieles
y abrian el pecho como un guerrero
para ofrecerle al Chac
su corazón humeante.
Nadie cree en Izalco
que Tlaloc este muerto
por mas televisores
heladeras
toyotas
el ciclo ya se acerca
es extrano el silencio del volcan
desde que dejo de respirar
Centroamerica tiembla
se derrumbo Managua
se hundio Guatemala
el huracan Fifi
arraso con Honduras
dicen que los yanquis lo desviaron
que iba hacia Florida
y lo desviaron
el oro del cafe
desembarca en New York
allí to tuestan
lo envasan
y le ponen un precio.
"Siete de Junio
noche fatal
bailando el tango
la capital."
Desde la terraza ensombrecida
se domina el volcan de San Salvador
le suben por los flancos
mansiones de dos pisos
protegidas por muros
de cuatro metros de alto
le suben rejas y jardines
con rosas de Inglaterra
y araucarias enanas 
y pinos de Uruguay
un poco mas arriba
ya en el crater
hundido en el crater
viven gentes del pueblo
que cultivan sus flores
y envian a sus niños a venderlas.
El ciclo ya se acerca
las flores cuscatlecas
se llevan bien con la ceniza
crecen grandes y fuertes
y lustrosas
bajan los niños del volcán
bajan como la lava
con sus ramos de flores
como raíces bajan
como rios
se va acercando el ciclo
los que viven en casas de dos pinos
protegidas del robo por los muros
se asoman al balcon
ven esa ola roja
que desciende
y ahogan en whisky su temor
solo son pobres niños
con flores del volcan
con jacintos
y pascuas
y mulatas
pero crece la ola
que se los va a tragar
porque el chacmol de turno
sigue exigiendo sangre
porque se acerca el ciclo 
porque Tlaloc no ha muerto.

          Taken from Esto Soy, Concultura, San Salvador, 2004