Yesterday morning I read a beautiful poem—fierce and impassioned and it left me both breathless and wanting to run through the streets, pausing only to hechar gritos…one grito after another…because this poem so perfectly captured what I felt:
“Alphabet” Poem by Deborah Miranda…in solidarity with the Librotraficantes…
http://whenturtlesfly.blogspot.com/2012/03/alphabet.html
Yesterday morning, the Librotraficante bus left Houston for San Antonio, El Paso, Albuquerque, Tucson…they have a full schedule of press conferences, teach-in’s, readings, and the establishing of Underground Libraries…Please check out their website for more information, their schedule, and to donate:
http://www.librotraficante.com
There’s a poem boiling up in me too in response to the Book Ban in Tucson, but it hasn’t quite arrived…I so envy my friend Belinda Acosta, however, who is on the Librotraficante bus….for those of you lucky enough to be her friend on Facebook, she’s already posted pictures from the first day on the road…for everyone else, her report should be appearing soon at the Texas Observer..
For those of you in San Antonio or who are able to get there tonight…Librotraficante Banned Book Bash at the Gualadupe Cultural Arts Center, 1300 Guadalupe Street, San Antonio featuring Lorna Dee Cervantes, Sandra Cisneros, Luis Alberto Urrea, Carmen Tafolla, Xavier Garza, John Phillip Santos, Anthony The Poet, Tony Diaz and more…
I also recommend this link, posted yesterday, by Tony Diaz…heartbreaking and powerful. I was that child too. Born to migrant workers, translating at a young age…in my case, negotiating with landlords, as we looked for places to live in different towns. I don’t know who I would be as a writers–as a person–without books—specifically, without some of the books on the banned list…
CNN/Opinion/I am a Book Trafficker by Tony Diaz
http://inamerica.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/12/opinion-i-am-a-book-trafficker/
A Copy of Tucson’s Banned Book List
http://www.newstaco.com/2012/01/31/a-copy-of-tucsons-banned-book-list/
What follows are some other interesting links…video-recorded poetry readings, one in Fort Worth and one in Albuquerque…Rich Villar and Sergio Troncoso on the Book Ban…several Progressive.org articles….and information about a Teach-In that took place in Georgia…
And following those links, a poem I had published in an anthology more than 10 years ago…in Cantos Al Sexto Sol: A Collection of Aztalahuac Writing edited by Cecilio Garcia-Camarillo, Roberto Rodriguez , and Patrisia Gonzales which is now also banned….
Safe travelling, Librotraficantes…
Mi corazonaztlan is with all of you, all of us who cannot let this stand…
Adelante!
ire’ne
LIBROTRAFICANTE SOLIDARITY READING AND SPEAK-OUT!
Presented by Sound Culture/Tammy Melody Gomez, Fort Worth, TX. Reading took place Monday, March 12th, 2012
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/sound-culture-presents
Poetry Video: Albuquerque Taking a Stand Against Tucson 3/4/12
a condensed video of the Defendemos Libros poetry reading against cultural genocide in Tucson. Filmed at the Outpost, Albuquerque, NM.
Literati Boricua: We Are All Librotraficantes: On the Banning of Books in Tucson, Arizona
Video clips of Rich Villar and Sergio Troncoso
http://literatiboricua.blogspot.com/2012/02/we-are-all-librotraficantes-on-banning.html–
Progressive.org has several articles including Links for various authors responding to the book ban:
| Banned Authors Respond | |
TUSD flagrantly violates Constitution and International Human Rights Treaties
http://progressive.org/TUSD-flagrantly-violates-constitution-international-human-rights-treaties
Banned in Tucson
http://www.progressive.org/banned_in_tucson.html
An Interview with Carlos Munoz on the Tucson Book Ban
http://www.progressive.org/tucson_book_ban.html
National Group Defends MAS in U.S. District Court
Georgia State University organized a “Teach-In for Tucson Event”
More info here: http://www.georgiansforfreadom.blogspot.com/
Website states video is coming soon…
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corazónaztlan
the body has always known its origins
land languages god(s)
call its names in a running leap of silent
screams and the body will answer
imagínate tu cuerpo tu historia
limbs of conquest and civilizations
wombs of continent crossing generations
your hands a million million laboring days
begin searching with your fingertips
maps of the contouring earth
cling to flesh and limbs, and remember
places your eyes have never seen
follow the blue veins to red organs
where languages known and lost
thunder with stories like the
birthing of obsidian, and listen
try to forget what lives in your bones
try to silence the voices speaking
behind your beating heart, try to ignore
the yearning recognition of islands and sky
rename your body, let them count
and classify it, studying kidneys
liver brains flesh bone skin hair
but written on your intestines, the names
of your antepasados, their dreams
seeded corn in fertile lands, waiting
cuerpoamerica
oceans sky the tierra itself
you hold rivers and canyons and our place of origin
the trails through your veins the paths of your hair
everything leading back to your corazónaztlan
ire'ne lara silva 