Group #2

Josabeth Simisterra, Brianna Gonzalez, Maya Pacheco-Berger

Poem

Hex poem to colonizers, recolonizers, and haters

I hope you feel the sting of 

platano poppin’ oil

I hope when you try to jump back,

one drop jumps a second quicker onto your hand

and i hope when you bite into it, thinking the sting was worth it,

you realize you didn’t let the platano ripen enough

and it ain’t even that sweet

just like you.

Response

When reading this poem I first thought it would have a closer connection to brujeria/witchcraft because of the wording of hex, which would typically be used on one you wanted to get revenge on or spite them. I think it’s interesting how of all things the author wished that they wished for them to feel the sting of oil and taste unripe platano. It is so specific, when I was reading I was expecting it to hope they live horrid lives of misery because of the trouble they caused however it was only limited to one food. I think it’s funny because this happened to my sister last week, she forgot to check the ripeness and my mother was so sad taking a bite of each one hoping there was at least one piece that could be salvaged. I understand how sad it is not getting the flavor you want but from the outside perspective of one’s whose culture has been taken and dragged through the mud for profit it is amusing to watch people want to be apart of your culture so badly yet failing so miserably. While it is not a nice thing to wish on people a hex is in no way supposed to be a nice thing, it is in fact it’s supposed to torment your life something that’s always quite off but you can never really figure it out.   

Video: Platanos Maduros

This is an instructional video on how to make platano maduro. This is relevant to the poem because it adds visuals to what the poem describes. The oil that pops and splashes causing to sometimes burn people. Platano Maduro is so special to latin culture and it is included in many latin dishes.

Drawing

This is a drawing of a non-latinx person, specifically a colonizer getting burnt by the popping oil of the platano maduro.

Blog 1

By: Kaid Almuntaser, Elijah Herring, and Heidy Espinal

Interviewing Cara De La Luz on what she loves about life

Interviewer: Hello everyone, we have a Puerto Rican poet with us today. Today we have Caridad De La Luz with us, and she is a poet that has performed in the Nuyorican poet café. Hello Caridad De La Luz, may you introduce yourself.

Caridad De La Luz: Good afternoon everyone, I am Caridad De La Luz, and I am a Puerto Rican poet. I was raised and born in Bronx and have see the Bronx as my home. I have been around poetry for all my life and actually wanted to become a brain surgeon as a child.

Interviewer: As you said, you have been around poetry your whole life. Who did you learn or get familiar with poetry from?

Caridad De La Luz: My grandmother started poetry in my life. She used to remember poems since she could not read or write. She would recite them to me, and I would remember them but when I got into school, I eventually started forgetting them.

Interviewer: What is something that you hold dear to your heart?

Caridad De La Luz: I hold family dear to my heart. I used to live in a house where my great grandmother would live in the basement, my grandmother would live on the first floor and my family and I were on the second floor. My family used to always go to my grandmother’s side of the house and even when we moved out, my family and aunts and uncles would always go to my grandmother’s house for all the holidays.

Interviewer: Who was someone very inspirational in your life?

Caridad De La Luz: My grandmother and Julia de Burgos were very inspirational. Julia de Burgos was the first Puerto Rican poet that wrote her poems in English.

Interviewer: Who are you a big fan of?

Caridad De La Luz: I love Draco Rosa. He entered the boyband MENUDO, and he was the first one to sing in English. He represented the Nuyorican culture like non other. He helped me become more creative, resilient, and helped increase my cultural pride. He fought cancer and then toured his album Monte Sagrado. He is a great man with great humility.

Interviewer: How to you view the Nuyorican poet café?

Caridad De La Luz: I see the Nuyorican poet café as a community, a family, a home. It is a place where we can speak freely about how we feel and all the pain that we have gone through. It is a place where can celebrate all the achievements we have accomplished.

This is an interview Caridad De La Luz was part of: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mke2MHmPaXY

This is her reading a poem for Julia De Burgos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHFT0IJe52I

Group 2:

Josabeth Simisterra, Brianna Gonzalez, Maya Pacheco-Berger

Presentation

The piece our group decided to go with was the Blog forum where many people were discussing the topic of interracial marriage. This blog post immediately caught our eye because it seems insensitive especially during these political times. When looking at the article attached it reads about a man (Keith Bardwell) refusing to marry an interracial couple simply because he “doesn’t believe in mixing races that way.” The constant pattern of burdening others and their happiness simply because you believe one thing (that can cause a lot of damage) is horrible and shouldn’t be something tolerated. While Bardwell thinks he’s doing well for the child because he believes that a biracial child will not be treated well by either the black or white community. The child is none of his concern and his need to interfere with these people’s lives is harmful in many ways. The couple will have to deal with this experience for the rest of their life while Bardwell thinks he played savior by thinking since he didn’t marry them he prevented a biracial child. (Which simply does not make sense since you don’t necessarily need to be married to have children.) Reading the responses to the article in the blog forum is just as upsetting considering that people were in agreement with Bardwell and promote these ideas publicly while hiding behind the excuse that they have black friends and are therefore not racist. This narrative is harmful in many ways because it lacks complex thinking. For example, Bardwell assumed this couple would be having children however marriage necessarily mean you’re having children either so if that was the case the reasoning behind his refusal to marry this couple is thrown out of the window because there would be no child for him to be thinking about in the first place. There are many other situations that just toss this idea away however it is clear that people with this idea simply don’t think this far ahead.

Drawing

The scribble of his face is supposed to represent his mind and how it is all over the place, therefore, explaining why he cannot grasp his head around the fact that other peoples lives are none of his business. The fence around his head represents the fact that he is fenced in by his thoughts of what he believes is right and cannot escape this thinking because he’s created this reality that what he believes is what is supposed to be upheld. The quotes around his head breakdown the reasoning behind why he refuses to marry interracial couples and the reason they are written so sloppily is to make it harder to understand which shows how his thoughts aren’t clear and don’t necessarily make sense.

Video

This is a video that highlights the struggles of interracial couples. One thing I really took out of the video is that these people are genuinely so happy and in love. Nothing and no one can deny what these people have. A lot of the struggles come from the reactions of their parents or even strangers who think it’s wrong. A lot of what drives this hatred is racism.  I think people are really uncomfortable with the idea of having to experience another culture and share their own. People don’t want others to mix with a race that they deem inferior and sometimes it may go into classism. Race and social class can sometimes go hand in hand and interracial couples may face that criticism. How they were raised and what they grew up around may be invalidated by their partners’ family because it’s foreign to them. Interracial love is just love. It isn’t any different. The fact that it has to be labeled “interracial” is just proof of how much emphasis we put on race and ethnicity. Love has no bounds and the color of anyone’s skin shouldn’t determine their worth or value as a human being. 

Group #3 Contributions:
Quote and written review by Amanda Medina
Video by Sarah Ramirez
Drawing by Genesis Batista-Cepeda

Written Material: Miguel Algarin, Arrestado

Topic: A Mongo Affair

“I have to admit that he has been

lied to, misled,

that I know that all the goodies

he named humiliate the receiver,

that a man is demoralized

when his woman and children

beg for weekly checks,

that even the fucking a man does

on a government-bought mattress

draws the blood from his cock

cockless, sin espina dorsal

mongo—that’s it!

a welfare fuck is a mongo affair!

mongo means flojo

mongo means bloodless

mongo means soft

mongo cannot penetrate

mongo can only tease”
-Miguel Algarin

By Amanda Medina

Miguel Algarin, discusses a conversation he has with a black Puerto Rican back in Suan Juan where they discuss the life for Boricuas living on welfare in New York. Going abroad from Puerto Rico to New York for what the black Puerto Rican believes will bring a change for the better and provide Puerto Rican’s with a better life than they have on the island. However, Algarin has a different take on that decision, in fact he thinks the whole welfare system is emasculating to men. Where the other Puerto Rican presents it as a lucrative opportunity for Puerto Ricans. Algarin, expresses his frustration with this system as stagnating and emasculating him as a man and provider. Having his wife and children reliant on the government presents itself as a huge problem to him. As well as the fact that others who believe that this is a better opportunity for Pureto Ricans than their life on the island, feels they have been hugely misled and lied to.

In his poem “A Mongo Affair”, Algarin equates dependence (on the government/welfare checks) to a fault in one’s manhood. Although this is not Algarin speaking for himself, but rather from the point of view of a created character, it is a destructive way of thinking about masculinity. It also perpetuates the idea that if a man cannot provide he is not a “man” at all. 

I thought this video was fitting to our topic because it is a poem that touches upon the consequences of society’s expectations of men. This line stood out to me: “We’ve been brought up in households which made us preach such false teachings, they told me I will soon be the man of the house when I was just 6 years old.” This describes a culture that, early on, makes it known to boys that they are to be the provider for his household. The poet then goes on to explain the negative impact this expectation has on men— “He’s a product of a failed social system, where expressing himself was considered sin, and he’s buried them all inside”.

Both poems speak on manhood and the things that can be destructive to it. For Algarin, it is begging for “weekly checks”, and for Singh it is society’s expectation of men to be “strong”, to be providers, and to be limited in their self-expression.

Drawing by Genesis Batista-Cepeda:

We were all drawn the the absolute sass that “hex poem to the colonizers, recolonizers, and haters” embodies. Even though the poem is short, Maldonado conveys a strong message through humor and snark. Of course, poetry, especially the poetry we’ve been talking about is also meant to be read and shared out loud, so Lucy decided to make an animation of the poem and read it to you.

Lucy’s Director’s Statement Comments

Based on Malodano’s other poems, I see a vulnerability in her work in addition to the sass in this poem. Because of this combination, I added a heart at the title to reflect her sarcasm, and used purple for her words to represent her femininity and identity as a woman, which are common motifs throughout her work as well. (It also adds to the witchiness of her hex.)

Kayla’s Interpretation

This poem is essentially about taking a stand against oppressors. It uses symbolism and if you ever made maduros you know the popping of the oil can be very hectic at times. While reading this I imagine myself cooking a meal and the quick reflexes you have to have when throwing the platanos in the oil. The platanos in turn are a representation of the colonized people and the popping oil is the backlash in which the colonizers will receive from these people.

Probably one of the most important and interesting stanzas is the last one stating, “ and I hope when you bite into it, thinking the sting was worth it/ you realize you didn’t let the platano ripen enough/ and it ain’t even that sweet.” This stanza is both very funny and full of attitude. I definitely hear the poets voice in these lines and this line made me feel the most connected to the poet because an under ripe platano isn’t always the best. It’s the poets “haha” moment to the colonizers exemplifying how the Hispanic people can’t be detained.

This line can also be related to the other poems in this link which I went on to look at for similarities. There’s a common theme of territory and belonging; a collision and being apart of two different worlds all at once. Through these poems you see how essential it is for the Hispanic culture to say “we are here” and to be heard and seen. 

Dulce’s Drawing

Since the poem is titled “hex poem to colonizers, recolonizers, and haters”, I decided that it would only make sense to draw a witch-like character in order to put emphasis on the “hex” aspect of it. I made sure to make her hair curly and give her a set of brown eyes. I wanted her to be a character that not only represented the context of the poem itself, but also of latinx people. Her witch’s hat also adds on to the “hexing” bit. Above her, is a thought bubble, she’s thinking or manifesting the sort of damage that she wants these people, aka, the “colonizers”, “recolonizers” and “haters” to suffer. As you can see in the poem, she repeatedly states “I hope”, she’s not directly causing any harm, so in my drawing she’s also just manifesting these misfortunes.

We were influenced Galeano’s description of the violence caused by the conquistadors as they explored and conquered Latin America.

Dulce’s audio-visual response: 

This video focuses on Francisco Pizarro, a Spanish conquistador. It explains Pizarro’s expeditions and how he came to conquer Peru. What stood out to me most about this video was the way in which he conquered this land. He used violence and force against the Incan people. Pizarro’s greed led him to take advantage of the Incan’s vulnerability when they were suffering from illnesses and trick/deceive Atahualpa (the Incan Emperor) even after he was submissive to his wishes. It seems that Pizarro’s ambitiousness and eagerness to become rich was so powerful that he’d stop at nothing to achieve it.

Kayla’s drawing response:

This drawing is a series of images influenced by the fact that a majority of the article was about people traveling and “exploring” these parts of the world a lot of times looking for gold. The Taíno symbol represents the Indians killed during these explorations.

Lucy’s writing response:

What struck me most from this excerpt of Open Veins of Latin America was the juxtaposition of the splendor that the Spanish found in this “New World” and the atrocities that the native people have to endure as a result of it. For the Spanish, the land and riches of the New World was a paradise that almost seemed to be a gift from God, while the native people of these lands were forced to undergo complete suffering as they were subjugated in order to procure riches for the conquistadors. I was particularly affected by the Antillean holocaust and the fact that these people were so deprived of hope that they resorted to killing their children so that their people would no longer suffer. And yet, when we learn of these “discoveries” we are only told of the glory that Spain found. I wrote this poem to highlight that juxtaposition from the text.

behold! the sun casts its golden glow
upon sloping hills
as trees reach for the skies
and spreads its luscious greenery
onto the rich black soil
upon which we seek our riches

behold the sunlight that reflects
off these men who stand over us

as sparkling waters kiss
as shore that glitters with His bounty
and cuts through the banks
like lightening
running through the earth
bringing life
breathing air unto my Home

this water that runs
bears no more color
red or clear, is there a difference?
the air is empty in our home 

gifts bestowed upon the deserving
our inheritance from Him
no paintings can do it justice
no words nor melodies can capture
the paradise He himself has given us

do the stars and moon betray us?
the god have abandoned us,
what omens have we ignored to lead us here

blessed be His children that the mountain
opens up its veins
to bestow upon us gifts!
Open yourself before me!
Our children will bear this weight
of bounty and riches,
the deep gold and dazzling silver
surrender to our might!

i open your veins before me
my child, i am so sorry
but this weight you will bear no more

Group 3: Amanda Medina, Genesis Batista-Cepeda, Sarah Ramirez

    In his essay “The Problem of Land”, Jose Mariategui touched upon the different ways that colonialism exploited indigenous people. For example, systems like feudalism and the latifundium were oppressive towards the Incas and bound them to a life of servitude which then prevented them from owning land. Mariategui speaks about eliminating these systems so that the Incas can be liberated. It makes us think of oppressive systems that exist nowadays to make land/home ownership difficult for various people groups. We know that home ownership is important for many reasons, a major one being building generational wealth for one’s family. However, things like housing discrimination and the racial wealth gap serve as barriers in the way of this pursuit.