AmeRícan - A Poem that Moved Me

[POV]

From the pages of El Nuevo Federalista:

AmeRícan

by

Tato Laviera

we gave birth to new generation,
AmeRícan, broader than lost gold
never touched, hidden inside the
puerto rican mountains.

we gave birth to a new generation,
AmeRícan, it includes everything
imaginable you-name-it-we-got-it
society

we gave birth to new generation,
AmeRícan salutes all folklores,
european, indian, black, spanish,
and anything else compatible:

AmeRícan, singing to composer pedro flores' palm
-------trees high up in the universal sky!

AmeRícan, sweet soft spanish danzas gypsies
-------moving lyrics la española cascabelling
-------presence always singing at our side!

AmeRícan, beating jíbaro modern troubadours
-------crying guitars romatinc continental
-------bolero love songs!

AmeRícan, across forth and across back
-------back forth and forth back
-------forth across and back and forth
-------our trips are walking bridges!

it all dissolved into itself, the attempt
was truly made, the attempt was truly
absorbed, digested, we spit out the malice,
we stand, affirmative in action,
to reproduce a broader answer to the
marginality that gobbled us up abruptly!

AmeRícan, walking plena-rhythms in new york,
-------strutting beautifully, alert, alive,
-------many turning eyes wondering,
-------admiring!

AmeRícan, defining myself my own way any way many
-------ways Am E Rícan, with the big R and the
-------accent on the i!

AmeRícan, like the soul gliding talk of gospel
-------boogie music!

AmeRícan, speaking new words in spanglish tenements,
-------fast tongue moving street corner "que
-------corta" talk being invented at the insistence
-------of a smile!

AmeRícan, abounding inside so many ethnic english
-------people, and out of humanity, we blend
-------and mix all that is good!

AmeRícan, integrating in new york and defining our
-------own destino, our own way of life,

AmeRícan, defining the new america, humane america
-------admired america, loved america, harmonious
-------america, the world in peace, our energies
-------collectively invested to find other civi-
-------lizations, to touch God, further and further,
-------to dwell in the spirit of divinity!

AmeRícan, yes, for now, for i love this, my second
-------land, and i dream to take the accent from
-------the altercation, and be proud to call
-------myself american, in the u.s. sense of the
-------of the word, AmeRícan, America

(Source: Hernández, José. Conquered Peoples in America. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall Hunt Publishing Co., 1997)

Commentary. Folks, I have no idea if Mr. Laviera favors statehood for Puerto Rico, nor do I care. Judging by the source of the poem, not very likely. Then again, according to an on-line bio:

A central tenet to Laviera’s work is his identification with the African American community in this country. On the one hand, he reinforces the unity and common roots of blacks and Puerto Ricans: “it is called Africa in all of us.” This tendency also reflects the new multi-ethnic constitution of America which has supplanted the old myth of the melting pot. In this context Laviera’s poems are reaffirmations of his Puetroricanness, and of his community’s as a new national identity that diverges from the insular Puerto Rican. He proposes a new ethnic identity which includes other minority groups in the country. New York City becomes the space where this convergence and cultural mestizaje (mixing) takes place. While maintaining a denunciative stance through the use of irony and tongue-in-cheek humor, Laviera’s work flourishes with a contagious optimism, and his poems are true songs to the joy of living which Puerto Ricans profoundly feel despite the harsh circumstances in which they live.

I don't think Mr. Laviera is talking here of "assimilation" as much as mutual "inculturation." That's what I get from all this anyway. I'll have to study him carefully to see if that's what he thinks, or what he really thinks.

Anyway, if you read the poem carefully, you may detect its tropical rhythm. You can almost dance to it!

The power of art lies on its ability to trascend these kinds of barriers. The poem speaks to me, and says what I feel as one being Puerto Rican, AmeRícan, and American. It tells it like it is, it tells you who we are.