Excerpts
Poetry
This poem has been widely anthologized, and it received the 1999 Christina Sergeyevna first prize award at the Austin International Poetry Festival. It is also available in the audio section of this website.
Nov. 2, 1998, On the Eve of Becoming an American Citizen
Not me, not I
a gringa I would never be
gritos de “muera el imperialismo yanqui”
resonando en mi cabeza
yo, la Malinche,
“there is always me-search in research”
going full circle
me an American
a Mexican-American
a bona fide Chicana chayote-head
My life is here now
raising my bilingual chilpayates
married, metida hasta las chanclas
in this brave new world.
A binational
una Nutella bicolor
vainilla y chocolate
dual citizenship, at least,
los políticos en México finally woke up
to us “raza” on this side of the border.
Welcome Paisano, Bienvenido Amigo,
hasta que se les prendió el foco, cabrones.
Ahora sí, pásenle, que su nopal está lleno de tunas.
Aquí en la frontera, en el no-man’s-land,
mujer puente, mujer frontera,
mujer Malinche.
Ahora sí, cuando me chiflen por la calle
me podrán decir “gringuita” y por primera vez
lo seré, una bolilla, una gabacha,
mis ojos azules y cabello rubio por fin
corresponderán a los estereotipos de la gente
“But you don’t look Mexican”
Enton’s ¿qué parezco? ¿acaso tengo changos en la cara?
When I die, spread my ashes along the Rio Grande, the
Río Bravo, where I once swam naked.
Liliana Valenzuela © 1998. Reprinted with permission from Stuart Bernstein Representation for Artists, New York. All Rights Reserved.
NO FURTHER REPRODUCTION OR DISTRIBUTION IS PERMITTED.
NOTE: I'm mostly old-school, having published extensively in print in publications in Mexico, Spain, Argentina, and the United States. I have a few selected online samples, which include:
ANMLY:
http://anmly.org/ap29/canto-mundo-29/liliana-valenzuela/
Hostos Review/Revista Hostoniana, vol. 20:
https://issuu.com/hostoscollege/docs/hos_no20_digital_10.28_ccd6d800851e4a
Top two links are audio samples of studio-recorded poems:
https://d7.drunkenboat.com/db8/panlitpoetry/valenzuela/
Proyecto Scherezade (Spanish):
http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~fernand4/lohubier.html
Nov. 2, 1998, On the Eve of Becoming an American Citizen
Not me, not I
a gringa I would never be
gritos de “muera el imperialismo yanqui”
resonando en mi cabeza
yo, la Malinche,
“there is always me-search in research”
going full circle
me an American
a Mexican-American
a bona fide Chicana chayote-head
My life is here now
raising my bilingual chilpayates
married, metida hasta las chanclas
in this brave new world.
A binational
una Nutella bicolor
vainilla y chocolate
dual citizenship, at least,
los políticos en México finally woke up
to us “raza” on this side of the border.
Welcome Paisano, Bienvenido Amigo,
hasta que se les prendió el foco, cabrones.
Ahora sí, pásenle, que su nopal está lleno de tunas.
Aquí en la frontera, en el no-man’s-land,
mujer puente, mujer frontera,
mujer Malinche.
Ahora sí, cuando me chiflen por la calle
me podrán decir “gringuita” y por primera vez
lo seré, una bolilla, una gabacha,
mis ojos azules y cabello rubio por fin
corresponderán a los estereotipos de la gente
“But you don’t look Mexican”
Enton’s ¿qué parezco? ¿acaso tengo changos en la cara?
When I die, spread my ashes along the Rio Grande, the
Río Bravo, where I once swam naked.
Liliana Valenzuela © 1998. Reprinted with permission from Stuart Bernstein Representation for Artists, New York. All Rights Reserved.
NO FURTHER REPRODUCTION OR DISTRIBUTION IS PERMITTED.
NOTE: I'm mostly old-school, having published extensively in print in publications in Mexico, Spain, Argentina, and the United States. I have a few selected online samples, which include:
ANMLY:
http://anmly.org/ap29/canto-mundo-29/liliana-valenzuela/
Hostos Review/Revista Hostoniana, vol. 20:
https://issuu.com/hostoscollege/docs/hos_no20_digital_10.28_ccd6d800851e4a
Top two links are audio samples of studio-recorded poems:
https://d7.drunkenboat.com/db8/panlitpoetry/valenzuela/
Proyecto Scherezade (Spanish):
http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~fernand4/lohubier.html
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