In Xochitl In Kuikatl

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(2004-Ongoing)

1. To the Masterminds of Paranoid Nationalism

I say, we say:

‘We,’ the Other people

We, the migrants, exiles, nomads & wetbacks

in permanent process of voluntary deportation

We, the transient orphans of dying nation-states

la otra America; l’autre Europe 

We, the citizens of the outer limits and crevasses

of ‘Western civilization’ 

We, who have no government; 

no flag or national anthem

We, the New Barbarians

We, in constant flux, 

from Patagonia to Alaska, 

from Juarez to Ramalla,

todos somos mojados

We, the seventh generation, the fourth world, the third country

We millions abound, 

defying your fraudulent polls & statistics 

We continue to talk back & make art

[Shamanic tongues]

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I Think of Lorca

The schizophrenic
Subway resembles
A slithering serpent;

America has died.

I take my exit on
24th St.
And Mission:

San Pancho, Ca.

I don’t know
What to eat
From the plethora
Of restaurantes:

Tortas or pupusas?

I think
I’ll settle for
The guanábanas
In the rustic canasto
From in front of
The bodega;

The Mission never dies.

The static streets
Are naked
With noise:

Spanglish and traffic;

A drum circle
Colorful with pride;

The Mission never dies.

A red balloon
Falls:

Collapses
In the middle
Of the street;

I think of Lorca

And how
The moon
Never dies.

A Mountain of a Dream           

Los Angeles is visible
Beyond the rising towers
And the holy Hollywood Sign:

Her ornate beauty shines
In the glittering taco trucks
Adorned with packed choice of tastes; 

Her innate warmth resides
In the gleaming smiles of children
Salivating for a moist ice cream

From the wobbly cart of
An immigrant—
Fresh from the countryside of
El Salvador—
Pushed by sweaty palms
And sheer American will.

Los Angeles can be seen,
Clearly,
My dear,
Tonight,
As we cling to caffeine
And contemplate la luna y las estrellas
Of future years:

An island of a thought;
A mountain of a dream.

José Hernández Díaz is a first-generation, Chicano poet with a BA in English Literature from UC Berkeley. José has been published in The Best American Nonrequired Reading Anthology 2011, La Gente Newsmagazine of UCLA, Bombay Gin Literary Journal, Hinchas de Poesia, among many others. Jose has had poetry readings in Los Angeles, San Diego, Berkeley, at the Mission Cultural Center in San Francisco, and at The Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA) in Long Beach, Ca. This November, José will be a featured reader/speaker at the IX Festival de Literatura del Noroeste de México in Tijuana. José Hernández Díaz is presently a moderator of the online group, ‘Poets Responding to SB1070,’ where he has contributed more than 30 of his own poems.

Excerpt from Red Accordion Blues

History is a ragged prisoner
dragged down the streets of the republic
unrecognized like a prophet paraded
through the riotous days
of our hurried existences
today
on the wall
behind the cash register
at the Texas Meat Market
the Palestinian shop owner
keeps a news photo of Arafat & Shimon Peres
the star of David tattooed
like a reproach onto his forehead
a message from the intifada
on the American front
thoughts of death camps
genocide, the Middle East
seething with open hatred
cut like handcuffs
through the early morning traffic
the rain sloppy & sloshy
like the mind before wakening
five male, Mexican citizens
nervous as escaped convicts
dart from the Union Pacific railyards
to a waiting black Suburban
that will haul them
into the nightmare
of free market economics…

©2010 Hijo Del Sol Publishing Fernando Esteban Flores

About the Poet

Fernando Esteban Flores was born in Laredo, Texas and resides in San Antonio, Texas. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Arts in English. Currently, he teaches writing at a San Antonio middle school. He was a juried poet in the Houston Poetry Fest 1993, 1994, 1998, and 2000, and was a featured poet in 1999 as well as in the San Antonio Poetry Festival in 1994 and 1995.

His poems have appeared in various literary journals, and he was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in poetry. Both his books of poetry, Ragged Borders and Red Accordion Blues, are available from Hijo Del Sol Publishing.

In 2002 and 2008 he received the ExCEL award for excellence in teaching from KENS 5-TV and SACU (San Antonio Credit Union). He was featured on Univision’s television segment, Lo Mejor de Lo Nuestro in 2007. He was selected as South San Antonio Independent School District’s 2008 Teacher of the Year and included as one of twentydistinguished educators from Bexar County by Trinity University’s, 2008 Trinity Prize Committee.

I.

I notice skylines no one speaks of

in your paintings, and the clouds

behind you slaughtered in blues

and blacks, because the sun gushes

nowhere in your landscapes; 

because your floral dresses hold

a tension more than rain clouds;

because your brow slows me

to your eyes.  I see the weight

of spider monkeys perched

inside your portraits, sunflower roots

constricting you to earth, and blood

no one struggles to look away from;

blood on the horizon of your dress

spilling past the catheter at your knees.

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