Dedicatoria Chicana/Chicano Dedication, by Francisco X. Alarcón

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Francisco Xavier Alarcón was born in 1954 in Wilmington, Los Angeles, but spent most of his childhood in Guadalajara, Mexico. Returning to L.A. as a young adult, he attended Adult School and East Los Angeles City College before transferring to California State University, Long Beach, where he graduated with a B.A. in Spanish and History in 1977. Alarcón went on to earn a Master’s Degree from Stanford University in the 1980s, during which his life also became ensnarled in racial profiling at the hands of the San Francisco Police Department based on false charges that he was eventually cleared of. In 1992, Alarcón joined the team at UC Davis (which is also yours truly’s alma mater!) to direct the Spanish for Native Speakers program. A prolific poet and advocate for the arts, Alarcón published more than 20 books before passing away in 2016 at the age of 61. He is survived by his husband, Javier Pinzón, whom he married in California in 2008. I first encountered Alarcón’s poetry at the Los Angeles Public Library’s Central branch.

J.T.

shoreline under blue sky

Eagle Owls

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Each of us will watch the world unfurl into the greatest and most arduous of journeys

Facing the heaviest of winds and the steepest of earths

We will do this, and we will be challenged by this

And we will have to learn from this

Even when we feel entirely alone

Alone and away from home
No extra lifeline over-the-phone

Just one heart
And two lungs

Beating over a fractal of tired bones

We will grow tired, and we will grow impatient,

We will grow angry, and we will grow to feel unrecognizable to ourselves

We will be pushed by this journey, cornered and exhausted by its unimaginable lengths

But when we are—-

When we are,

Just remember who you are

And how you are.

Remember that you’re formed by the nexus of a community;

That you come from the same earths and the same winds which seem to push you;

Remember that you come from a million stars, and one;

And that you are here to rise, fall, and re-emerge

Only stronger,

Like our bodies in the ocean

Setting free our minds over the crashing, thunderous waves;

This is who you are, and how you are.

J.T.

Circulating

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While young, we stood tall against each other
Without knowing we were mountains.

Now grown, we stand alone, but
Betraying surfaces like fountains.

Mounting finite time and space,
We turn into the earth again,

The way knowledge turns to wisdom,
Only to become unknown again.

J.T.

This poem is dedicated to every brother, friend and neighbor gone too soon from our communities.

EPISODE 29 – MATT SEDILLO, PART II

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In our twenty-ninth episode, listeners are treated to the second part of our interview with Matt Sedillo, for which Sedillo reads some poems right out of the pages of the new Mowing Leaves of Grass from Flowersong Press. We also talk about Matt’s writing process over ten years since Arizona’s disgraceful SB 1070 bill, or the ghost of Jim Crow for Brown communities in the Southwest, as well as the city of Los Angeles’s larger connection to Arizona and the Southwest generally as a “battleground” against racist policies; the Occupy Wall street movement versus the work of groups such as Black Lives Matter today, and more is also discussed. A truly one-of-a-kind session for listeners.

J.T.

EPISODE 28 – MATT SEDILLO, PART I

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In our twenty-eighth episode, listeners hear part one of a two-part interview with Matt Sedillo, a former National Slam Poet from Los Angeles and author of the new Mowing Leaves of Grass, an anthology of poetry that reads like an indictment of U.S. race relations, critiquing its expansionist ideologies over two-and-a-half centuries as well as the political wasteland of the last four years under Trump. I also ask Matt on his thoughts about the Chicano movement in Los Angeles, Walt Whitman’s role in advocating for the Mexican-American “war,” and special places for him in the city of L.A. A truly fun session for listeners, especially the Spoken Word lovers out there.

J.T.