Real Stories of East LA L.A. Poet Laureate Holding Out Winner of FRANCO AGUILAR LUIS J. RODRIGUEZ for Lady Luck by 6-Word-Story looks for ghosts on police brutality JOSEPH MATTSON contest in southern Mexico Real Stories of East LA Spring 2015 EAST LOS ANGELES COLLEGE Real Stories of East LA Spring 2015 Poetry Editors Gustavo Mateo, Nils Rabe Fiction Editors Joshua Inglada, Daniel Sosa Layout Board Alena Morales, Marcille Sanguino Business Manager Kevin Rocha Proofreader Extraordinaire Joshua Castro Staff Joanna Alvarado, Lucy Alvarez, Joshua Castro, Joshua Inglada, Gustavo Mateo, Alena Morales, Robert Perez, Nils Rabe, Kevin Rocha, Marcille Sanguino, Daniel Sosa Faculty Editor Dustin Lehren Concept Design Diana Chang Layout and Design Production Yegor Hovakimian Milestone Committee Joan Goldsmith Gurfield, Dolores Carlos, Alexis Solis, Susan Suntree Cover Art Front cover: Photograph Franco Aguilar, What Lies There (Hacienda Photo Essay) Back cover: Oil on printed photograph Franco Aguilar & Jesus Barrales, Out of the Smoke Inside cover: Digital Photograph Jemima Wyman, Sample from fabric archive Milestone is published annually by the East Los Angeles College English Department, 1301 Avenida Cesar Chavez, Monterey Park, California 91754. U.S. Submission Guidelines: The editors invite digital submissions of poetry, fiction/non-fiction, comics, essays of literary interest, art, and photography. Guidelines at milestone.submittable.com 2 Contents Introduction . 5 Acknowledgments . 7 Amarillas | Joseph Hernandez . 8 This, My Father Talk- | Andrew Liu . 13 From The Municipal Gardens | Andrew Liu . 14 Sea Layers | Joshua Inglada . 16 My Main Conflict | Michael Guerra . 17 a + d + d + i + n + g | Joshua Castro . 18 #collegestudentproblems | Raul Meza . 26 La Veinte-Nueve | Luis J . Rodriguez . 28 Confidence | Joshua Castro . 32 Relentless Wonder | Janet Macias Garcia . 35 A Hug from Behind | Matthew Mejia . 37 Just Fears | Matthew Mejia . 38 Growing Up in Mexico | Marisol Arteaga . 39 Hacienda: What Lies There | Franco Aguilar . 43 No Mas Sentir | Guadalupe Salgado . 47 Porque Si Sed No Tienes, Agua Tampoco Tendras . 47 La Maracuya | J .G . Santibanez . 48 When I’m High | Daniel Victorino . 49 Elotero Man | Judith Cruz . 52 In the Metro There is Light | Gerson Villarreal . 54 Pleasure for Two | Brenda Morones . 55 One Head, One Thousand Arms | Nils Rabe . 56 #selfie | Christine Rodriguez . 57 Wade In Her Water | Richard Lopez . 59 Voy Al Mar | Guadalupe Salgado . 61 Writing Utensils | Aaron Higareda . 63 Six-Word Story Winner | Irving Grey Angeles . 64 All or Nothing | Aura Chavez . 67 Dreams (or the Lack Thereof) | J .G . Santibanez . 68 Syrian Boy | Eric Eztli . 72 Cherry Blossoms | Maria Barrera . 73 Pay My Fare for the Boatman | Joshua Castro . 74 The Gay Man (went Partying) | Joshua Castro . 75 There’s Always Next Year? | Joshua Castro . 77 You Are Not | Christopher Barba . 83 Save for the Echoes | Samantha Hess . 84 Duet | Joseph Mattson . 87 No Reason Left | Joseph Mattson . 88 Holding Out for Lady Luck | Joseph Mattson . 90 Contributors . 94 3 PHOTOGRAPH > Franco Aguilar, Out of the Smoke, No. 1 4 Introduction “No one noticed when Desiree began to talk to her shadow.” - J .G . Santibanez “Dreams (or the Lack Thereof)” pg . 69 When stepping out of the shadows, the first move may be noticing the shad- ow cast by your own life . For over half a century, Milestone, the literary and art journal published by East Los Angeles College, has aimed to present diverse student voices brave enough to take that first step . These students range from Luis J . Rodriguez (Milestone 1979), the current Poet Laureate of Los Angeles; to Dennis Sanchez (Milestone 1980) helping countless students transfer to four year universities with the Eastside Spirit and Pride Club; to recent student Eric Eztli (Milestone 2015) transforming his parents’ garage in Bell into Alivio, a cultural center for art and readings: all of whom are former students and whose voices inspire and move people . This year the creation of Milestone has taken a bold new approach by mak- ing the promotion, selections of pieces, art direction, and virtually all other aspects of the magazine student-driven! You are holding in your hands the first of many more by-the-student-for-the-student Milestone magazines . We started with a strong campaign of getting the word out and going digital by using milestone.submittable.com. Even though writers can now whip out their phones and submit their current work, we are confident we have an experi- ence here that can’t be reproduced on a screen . What will you find between these two covers? The artwork on the front and back covers sets the tone for the content inside . The front is part of Franco Aguilar’s What Lies There series, this issue’s featured photo essay on the hacienda ruins of southern Mexico . The back cover was commissioned by Milestone as a collab- oration between Aguilar and painter Jesus Barrales, whose oil paintings are also featured in this issue . Both artists depict decay and fear, but if you look closely enough, they point toward a sense of wonder, hope, and even beauty . In selecting the work, the staff talked about the need for creativity in overcoming the many obstacles current society presents . Maybe we shouldn’t have been surprised when quite a few submissions dealt with the fears our community faces on a daily basis . For example, when many of us thought a poem about a flower was too simple, a couple of the staff vehemently argued that its metaphor depicts sexual violence, and that it’s important that we include it . 5 Real fears are explored in subjects like substance and is why we decided to reprint Luis J . Rodriguez’s abuse in Marisol Arteaga’s “Growing Up in Mexico” “La Veinte-Nueve” from Milestone 1979, which de- where a pre-teen daughter tries to love her alcoholic picts a tumultuous and terrifying experience the mother by partying with her, and in Daniel Victorino’s Always Running author had with the police during “When I’m High,” which is about escaping the pres- the Chicano Moratorium, which includes a run-in sures of the American dream with cocaine . Joshua with Charles Manson . This issue also features sev- Castro deals with the self-destruction that is some- eral works of another established and prolific Los times involved in navigating sexuality as a young per- Angeles writer, Joseph Mattson . In “Holding Out son . In an excerpt from There’s Always Next Year? for Lady Luck,” Mattson looks back on his “hungry” we follow a 20-year-old boy cruising for older men on years surviving “Our Lady, The Queen of the Angels Craigslist, and in “Confidence” a young man would and her wayward wolves .” When dealing with all rather connect through texting than meet someone these fears, Matthew Mejia offers sound advice with new . The palpable anxiety felt on a college campus his poems “Just Fears” and “A Hug from Behind .” during both the first week of classes and during fi- The characters in this edition of Milestone all have a nals when new students deal for the first time with tenacious will to feel their lives . The stories told may getting, and passing college classes is explored in not be for the prudish, but they all demand to be Castro’s “Adding,” and Raul Meza’s “#collegestu- heard . After listening, you might look past your own dentoproblems .” The generational divide in multilin- shadow and feel how great literature and art sparks gual families is explored in Andrew Liu’s “This, My a light in all of us . Father Talk-” and Joseph Hernandez’s “Amarillas .” Fear of law enforcement still exists here and abroad Dustin Lehren, Nils Rabe, & Daniel Sosa 6 Acknowledgments Milestone gratefully acknowledges the ELAC Associated Student Union and the English Department faculty and staff – Joan Gurfield, Paulette Jaurequi, James Kenny, Mandy Concoff-Kronbeck, Ara Shirinyan, and Susan Suntree – for all their help and generosity . Many thanks to Dean Vanessa Ochoa and our graphic artist Yegor Hovakimian, and a special posthumous acknowledgment to Carol Lem . 7 PHOTOGRAPH > Nyqolas Hale, Secret Garden Amarillas | Joseph Hernandez In the garden in her backyard my grandmother has a tree that bears a fruit that grows fat and ripe like suns. She calls the fruit Amarillas, not by its name, but by its color. It is off-limits to everyone, my family and I know; no one but my grandmother can pluck it from where it hangs because, she says, she is the only one who can tell when it is ready for harvest. She doesn’t even let us help her pick it. So, because she cannot reach the lowest branches, she is left to spend hours causing a rain of smashed fruit on the sidewalk that not even her dogs are allowed to lap up. When she has gathered enough basketsful, and there is no more yellow-orange on her tree, she takes them to the local farmers market to sell or trade for meats and spices. 8 hen I was younger she would bring me to My girlfriend liked to sleep with nothing covering Wchurch with her. I would sit there, under- her body, and she smelled of cranberries and melon. standing nothing that was being said, letting my Her name was exotic, Lucinda, and she told me she eyes wander the cathedral, the browns and whites had a jungle in her backyard. I thought this was a of the pews, the rainbows of stained glass. After the joke until she took me to her home, in a part of Los mass, my grandmother would take me to the front Angeles I had never been to with a lot of hills. And of the church and kneel down before a statue of a in the center of the green, beyond the vines of rose- cloaked woman.