UC Merced UC Merced Undergraduate Research Journal

Home , Alurista, I Am Joaquin, Sandra Cisneros

Title Chican@ Poetry: From the Chican@ Movement to Today

Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/743000gk

Journal UC Merced Undergraduate Research Journal, 7(2)

Author Rocha, Maricela

Publication Date 2014

DOI 10.5070/M472027438

Undergraduate

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Chican@ Poetry: From the Chican@ Movement to Today By: Maricela Rocha

Abstract the Chicano movement, their Mexican American struggle, and the injustices they uring the Chican@ Movement in faced. Chican@s in the United States the 1960s, poetry written by and can go years without receiving a sense of Dfor Mexican Americans became known Chican@ poetry or history in school or life as Chican@ poetry. This kind of poetry because of its controversy. Once they are played a huge influence in the Chican@ exposed to Chicano poetry, it changes their movement when the poem, “I am Joaquín”, perspective on their Mexican American by Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales gave a identity. This essay will do what schools do different meaning to the term “Chican@”. not, and that is explain how Chican@/a After this poem, Mexican Americans poetry has evolved from the poem “I gained a new identity and their own form am Joaquin” that made the Chican@ of poetry. Chican@ poetry is important movement popular, to the introduction of because it empowered and influenced newer Chican@/a poets borrowing from Chican@s to take action when they were earlier Chican@ poets. Also, I will explain oppressed. Today, Chican@s and Mexicans how poetry has been a big factor in the face some of the similar problems they did fight for Chican@s’/Mexicans’ rights. more than 50 years ago. Chican@s are still discriminated against, forced to assimilate, and are oppressed. Chicanos now have poetry where they can write and describe 123

hen the Chican@ Movement began Caramelo, Loose Woman, and Have You seen in the 1960s, it had a weak start Marie?. becauseW it did not have much advertising These writers and poets started using nor support. Not that many Chican@s poetry to communicate a deeper meaning were aware of the movement, but when of what it means to be a Chican@ and to in 1967 Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales1 bring an awareness to society about the wrote and published “I am Joaquín,” the racial discrimination they experienced, movement gained a lot of attention. After their urgency for change, and their history. being active in the Chican@ movement, Chican@ poetry has been interpreted Gonzales writes “I am Joaquín,” which and compared to more recent Chican@ results in an epic poem that is like no poetry by writing Specialist at University other poem ever written before. It outlined of Kansas Medical Center: Andrés 2000 years of Mexican-American history. Rodriguez and Professor of Spanish and Chican@ poetry had been written before Portuguese School of Humanities at UC the movement, but it had never had such Irvine: Bruce Novoa (1944-2010), some of an impact on individuals as it did with the their analysis has been included in efforts work of Gonzales and Chican@2 poets to to show how today’s Chican@ poetry has follow: Alberto Baltazar Urista Heredia evolved since the 1960s. or better known as Alurista: a Chican@ Writing specialists such as Andrés poet and activist; Luis J. Rodriguez: Rodriguez and Bruce Novoa agree that major figure in contemporary Chican@ Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales’ “I am Joaquín” literature, a poet, novelist, journalist, critic, is one of the poems most known from the and columnist; Gloria Anzaldúa: scholar, Chican@ movement because, not only did Chicana feminist, poet, writer, and cultural it give Chican@s a good detailed account theorist; and Sandra Cisneros: author of their history, the form in which it was of books like House on Mango Street, written and its content created a deep meaning to not only Chican@s, but also to other Mestizos and Mexicans from 1 A boxer and voter registrar during John Mexico that no other poet or poem could F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign that match. Andrés Rodriguez in the journal joined the Chican@ Movement in hopes “The Work of Michael Sierra, Juan Felipe to be a leader for his people after multiple fails of running for state representative and Herrera and Luis J. Rodriguez” of the mayor in Denver and Colorado. Bilingual Review/ La Revista Bilingüe 2 “Chican@ signals a politicized identity states the following about “I am Joaquín”: embraced by a man or a woman of Mexi- “it spoke to the needs and feelings of can descent who lives in the United States the time”, “exalted the collective struggle and who wants to forge a connection to a against oppression”, and “attempted to collective identity politics” (Sandra Soto, synthesize or reconcile two opposing Reading Chican@ Like A Queer: The notions of a Chican@ identity” (1996). De-Mastery of Desire) The reason why Gonzales’ poem “spoke 124

to the needs and feelings of the time” was Mexican hero and military leader in the because it came out after El Movimiento Mexican Revolution. He is an essential (Chican@ Movement) had begun. The part to the Chican@’s identity and movement was young and small-scale, history because he, along with Zapatistas so not much attention was put upon it (members from the revolutionary guerilla from the media, government, or people movement), fought for agrarian reform but when “I am Joaquín” was published- in Mexico and for the lost Mexican land -speaking of the struggles that Chican@s of California, Texas, and other states face in trying to achieve equal rights and to wealthy Europeans at their time of economic justice, it changed the course of settling in America. the movement. Minorities united because Throughout the poem, Gonzales the poem as well as the Chican@ movement continues identifying himself as important was a call for all the Spanish races being Mexican figures such as: Benito Juárez, oppressed and humiliated by the white Pancho Villa, Guadalupe Hidalgo, Félix community. Gonzales cries out in “I am Díaz, Victoriano Huerta, and so many Joaquín”, “La raza! / Mejicano! / Español! more adding to the uniqueness of “I / Latino! / Chican@! / Or whatever I call am Joaquín”. By Gonzales speaking on myself, / I look the same/ I feel the same/ behalf of many different individuals both I cry/ And/ Sing the same” (1967). When relevant and irrelevant to the Chican@, Gonzales expresses these sentiments, he he is attempting to find the identity is suggesting that these identities are very that fits him best and that is him. With similar, so why are they divided instead Gonzales’ poem, the reader gets a sense of being united. They are all human, all that Gonzales was confused on where he minorities exploited, and so Gonzales uses stood in the world or what he should call Joaquin as a symbol of all these individuals himself just like other Chican@s struggle and it’s not just one person in the “I” of “I to find the right identity. Chican@ as a am Joaquín” anymore but a collection of all term of empowerment did not exist before the races Gonzales mentions. “I am Joaquín”, but rather the term was not Gonzales then “attempted to synthesize popular because it was used as an insult or reconcile two opposing notions of a for lower status and culture immigrants. Chican@ identity” by writing the poem However, Gonzales uses it as a positive through two different identities that of the way of identifying oneself and the term oppressed and the oppressor (Rodriguez, starts to be used for El Movimiento. 1996). An example of this fusion can be Gloria Anzaldúa discusses this in her seen when Gonzales takes the identity of book Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Emiliano Zapata: “I am Emiliano Zapata. Mestiza, “Chican@s did not know we were / This land, this earth is ours. / The villages, people until 1965 when Cesar Chavez and the mountains, the streams / belong to the farmworkers united and I Am Joaquín Zapatistas” (1967). Gonzales embodies was published and la Raza Unida party was Emiliano Zapata because Zapata was a formed in Texas” (1987).“I am Joaquin” 125

brought forth Chican@ literature, film, Movement and the Feminist Movement history into existence. There was no but it was not necessarily part of either previous Chican@ literature, films, or art, one. Chicanas used poetry as well to have so “I am Joaquín” had a really important a voice in the male dominant society part in being the first form of history and to forward their movement among record for the Chican@ population and other women. Sandra Cisneros voices her most notably, “I am Joaquín” along with opinion about being Chicana in “Loose other poems can be accounted for being Woman” when she declares “They say I’m the mechanism that united the people for a macha, hell on wheels, viva-la-vulva, fire the Chican@ revolution. and brimstone, man-hating, devastating, Chican@ poetry during El Movimiento boogey-woman lesbian” (1994). Women served as a tool to unify the people and were considered so many things; a macha bring the awareness of things that not which is not heard that much, is the everyone knew. Andrés Rodriguez expands female equivalent of a male macho, so by on the subject, “To those who ask why saying “macha” the speaker is referring to talk about this poetry as “Chican@” and a woman as being very proud almost in not simply as another manifestation of an aggressive way. “Hell on wheels” stands other “American” poetry concerned with for the “man hating” feminists calling for languages and culture rather than politics. change that men attribute as crazy for The answer is that Chican@ identity is the wanting equal rights, work positions, and subject with all the details of that Chican@ freedom. “Viva la vulva” implies a women’s identity being what any poet or artist has right to have and enjoy sex just like a man to work with” (1996). Chican@ poetry is does, and “fire and brimstone” represents about Chican@s, so it should not be called a witch. This is due to women in the by any other name than exactly that. It is 1960s being considered witches for being a part of their identity and history. 2,000 curanderas (natural healers). Cisneros also years of history alone is difficult to write says that individuals call her a “boogey- into any poem and more when it addresses woman lesbian” because people associated 2,000 years of oppression of a race who, lesbians with feminists, so if a woman because they were born from non- was a feminist, she was assumed to be a American citizens, do not know anything lesbian and the opposite likewise. Cisneros about their other identity’s half. “I am continues to list the labels she and other Joaquín” attempted to tell the story of the Chicanas are called in the lines, “They other half of the Chican@, the Mexican say I’m a bitch. / Or witch. I’ve claimed indigenous half. / the same and never winced” (1994). From the moment that Chican@s Both of these are misconceptions that integrated poetry into the fight for rights, arose from men trying to retaliate with it became the voice of other people in whatever verbal weapons they could think other movements as well. The Chicana of against women but Cisneros uses those Movement had ties to the Chican@ misconceptions in her poetry as a form 126

of feminism, Chicana agency, to fortify of tearing and dividing people. Her body the woman more precisely the Chicana, then becomes the land in which this border by writing what the people really wanted is on and just like it splits the people on to read but at the same time hear their both sides of the border, it splits Anzaldúa struggle of being a Chicana and a woman, too. Even though Anzaldúa came years two minorities in one. She used these after the Chican@ movement, when she misconceptions as a form of feminism. published Borderlands/ La Frontera: The Chican@ poetry is different than other New Mestiza, filled with essays and poetry, poetry because poets have written in both she caused much controversy among young their native tongue and in English to satisfy Chican@s for writing direct and honestly both sides of the Chican@, and today about her opinions. poets have started to use different types After Gloria Anzaldúa published of just one language. Rodriguez states, “In her book in 1987, the effect of her strong truth, recent Chican@ poets have written essays and poetry was seen quickly among in not one but many Englishes: that of the Chican@s. This rapid recognition of home, of the streets, of the universities, of her work came about because Anzaldúa all they have absorbed in reading” (1996). invoked pride in the Chican@ for being In other words, one language can have mixed and presented him/her with a many dialects. For example, language can different view of the Anglo world and the be formal, informal, focused on a field borderland. Take as example, “El Anglo con like scientific, business, football, slang, cara de inocente nos arrancó la lengua. Wild or mixed like Spanglish. Chicana poet, tongues can’t be tamed, they can only be Gloria Anzaldúa writes a large quantity cut out” (Anzaldúa, 1987). Here Anzaldúa of her poetry in her book Borderlands/ is saying that the Anglo has ripped the La Frontera: The New Mestiza using both Chican@ from his/her natural language English and Spanish. She writes not just by forcing him/her to learn English and to as an American or Mexican using one abandon completely the other language but language but as both, which Anzaldúa then she says that the only way the Anglo refers to it as “a patois, a forked tongue, can make the Mexican/Chican@ abandon a variation of two languages” (1987). their natural tongue is by cutting it out so This patois can be seen when Anzaldúa they don’t talk at all. Mexicans’ lands were interprets the U.S and Mexico Border as stolen, taken away by the Anglos for the being a “1,950 mile-long open wound / Mexicans had no legal proof in the new dividing a pueblo, a culture, / running down American government that it was their the length of my body, / staking fence land and so they were regarded as illegal rods in my flesh, / splits me splits me /me immigrants with no land--only their raja me raja” (1987). Now in this quote, culture. That however was also soon taken. Anzaldúa gives you the exact length of the Mexicans were forced to assimilate to live U.S. at that time and describes it to you poor American lives. like an open wound because of its effect Sometimes, Chican@ poetry was so 127

harsh and controversial that it was banned the border. for the sake of the white population. One of the important themes Anglo Americans did not want Chican@s of Chican@ poetry has been about learning history the “wrong” way and to Chican@s taking action about injustices, develop resentment against them for what discrimination, and also bringing happened in the past. Anzaldúa’s book awareness to others about their struggles. is an example of this because of how she Alurista can be seen calling for action in wrote about the Anglo, queer life, culture, his poem “When Raza” when he says, and feminism. Her book was banned in “la gente que espera no verá mañana, our Tucson, Arizona schools, according to HB tomorrow es hoy, horita, que viva la raza”. 22813. However, in response to the ban, He communicates, in this poem, that the many Chican@s protested and demanded people who wait to do something or take for her book, getting it only through action don’t see tomorrow, one has to take Librotraficantes4. Yet, Anzaldúa did not action today to be able to see tomorrow. mind the controversy that her Chican@ Even the title “When Raza” suggests a call poetry caused because she was just writing to action but Alurista was not the only one about what bothered her and how life was to do this. Other Chican@ poets would give for the Chican@. Take Anzaldúa’s poem, people the encouragement they needed to “To live in the Borderlands means you”, join the Chican@ movement and fight for where she vividly describes, “To live in their rights. Andrés Rodriguez explores the Borderlands means the mill with the more on this subject in Contemporary razor white teeth wants to shred off your Chican@ Poetry: The Work of Michael Sierra, olive red skin” and also “To survive the Juan Felipe Herrera, and Luis J. Rodriguez. Borderlands you must live sin fronteras be He states, “It seems to me that Chican@ a crossroads” (1987). Anzaldúa conveys poetry, in particular, has concerned itself to the reader what it means to live in the from the start with renovation, renewal, borderlands like she did. She describes the rebirth” which could be interpreted for Anglo as a “mill with razor white teeth” referring to many different things (1996). that just attacks any Chican@/Mexican It could be the renovation, renewal, and that he/she sees. They strip the Chican@s/ rebirth of oneself, one’s identity, the Mexicans of their skin, culture, language, Chican@ movement, or something much of their identity and so to survive in the greater. This quote also could be proof borderlands one must be a mix of both, a that recent Chican@ poetry is a sort of new “in between” gender which a Chican@ renovation and renewal of older Chican@ or Mestizo most often feels when he/she poetry with just minor differences that doesn’t completely belong on either side of have developed through time. Chican@ poets were just trying to make connections 3 a law banning Mexican-American Ethnic with individuals in order to cause change. studies in Texas 4 “I am Joaquin” was the greatest book smugglers Chican@ poem to cause change and the 128

most successful within la raza. This is on discrimination, farm working, and because unlike any poetry before, Gonzales losing one’s native language; whereas, organized the Arhymmatic poem in a during the Chican@ movement, Chican@ unique style: traveling from the past to poets wrote about what was happening the present and addressing several topics with El Movimiento, Chican@ folklore like Chican@ heroes, the Anglo American (legends, stories, tales), and political poetry. Invasion, and resistance to assimilation. Political poetry as described by Rodriguez The birth and rebirth of Chican@ poetry in his analysis is “one’s immediate social can be seen when in 1994 Sandra Cisneros environmental as well as the presence of published “Loose Woman”. Following history” (1996). So, it is both emotional Gonzales style of not having a rhyme and historic. Rodriguez presents this pattern but containing a powerful message, different kind of Chican@ poetry that one of her lines reads, “I’m Pancho Villa. was part of the Chican@ Movement, but / I break laws, / upset the natural order, which many people don’t know about, / anguish the Pope and make fathers cry” with work from Luis J. Rodríguez, Juan (Cisneros, 1994). Just like Gonzales in Felipe Herrera, and Michael Sierra. He “I am Joaquin”, she took the identity of considers these poets to be a good sample of an important Mexican figure to identify political poets because their work contains herself. Pancho Villa5 was a very famous political themes tied with self-expression Mexican Revolutionary general and that creates emotion in the reader. Take previously a bandit, which Cisneros writes as example, Luis J. Rodriguez’s “Music about when she says that he breaks laws of the Mill” where he describes a leader and disturbs natural order. This similarity of a local Ku Klux Klan group, “His blue in form between the poems suggests the eyes glazed like the electric spark of an idea that young Chican@ poetry is written arc weld. He said little, but he watched with the intention to retouch upon old everything” (1996). Rodriguez’ description material so people do not forget about it. of this man sounds so different than what Sandra Cisneros’ poem might have been many Chican@s would expect from a an inspiration from Gonzales’ poem; it’s Chican@ poet. It sounds like an innocent obvious that something had stood out human being that watches silently over to her in his poem, and she wanted to other people much like an angel, but contribute more to the idea. It can be said instead of being an angel, he is a killer of that young poets do not just borrow from African Americans and other minorities. earlier poets, they make it into something However, that aspect, according to Andrés newer and different which is what Cisneros Rodriguez, is what makes Luis J. Rodriguez did in this particular poem. a political poet, the idea that he can be Today’s Chican@ poetry focuses more political and poetic in describing such a person without letting his race, feelings, or 5 José Doroteo Arango Arámbula better opinion describe this man for the actions known by his nickname Pancho Villa people like him have done. Thus, for a 129

young poet to become a political poet like it is the source of their youth, a memory these men now, they would be subjected to of the past, and a sign that change is scrutiny because today people are resistant coming within poetry or within the world. to different types of thinking. Chican@ poetry is not another branch Overall, what Chican@ poetry did of American poetry, but its own. It is the previously and still continues to do is call for kind of poetry where two cultures clash action and communicate messages deep to together and tongues intermix that simply the Chican@ corazón. With Chican@ poets cannot be silenced. like Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales, Alurista, Luis J. Rodriguez, Gloria Anzaldúa and Sandra Cisneros, whom all contributed References to creating and renewing the Chican@ Anzaldúa, G. (1987). Borderlands: the new identity through their poetry, their work mestiza = La Frontera. Reprint. San Francisco: served as a tool to unify the people in the /Aunt Lute, 2012. Print. Chican@ movement and today to bring Bruce-Novoa, J. (1982). Chican@ poetry: A awareness about other struggles Chican@s response to chaos. Austin: University of face. Today’s Chican@ poetry is not the Texas Press. clone of the Chican@ poetry that arose Cisneros, S. (1994). Loose woman: Poems. New from the movement but it is very similar York: Knopf. to it. Young Chican@ poets have been able Gonzales, R. (1967). “I Am Joaquin.” http:// to create new poetry by borrowing from history.msu.edu/hst327/files/2009/05/I-Am- earlier Chican@ poets. Often, Chican@s Joaquin.pdf go through many years with never getting Rodriguez, A. (1996). Contemporary Chican@ a sense of Chican@ poetry in school or Poetry: The Work of Michael Sierra, Juan life but once they are exposed to it, they Felipe Herrera and Luis J. Rodriguez. Bilingual think different about what it means to be Review, 21(3), 203-218. Chican@. Poetry to the Chican@ may not be the same poetry or be significant to non-Chican@s, but to the Chican@s,

Maricela Rocha comes from a small agriculture town called Watsonville, Ca. She is the first in her family to attend college. Maricela is attending her first year at UC Merced and is pursuing a major in English. Her passion for writing encouraged her to become part of The Prodigy (A school publication) for a while where she got some of her poems and articles published. With her writing, she hopes to help others become informed about how children face hunger, how minorities are still discriminated in society, how it is growing up in a small town like, and especially about Chicano poetry.