BACK TO MY HOME PAGE

Welcome students and colleagues, friends and family, if you have made it this far, I encourage you to stay a bit longer and read about some of my work. The writings reflect many of the thoughts that I carry with me throughout the course of a day, evening, and often times, the dreams that take hold of me while I sleep. The verses represent the inner voice in me that speaks of the past, the present, and the future. Writing is my ultimate form of expression that allows me to reflect, inspire, get well, and grow. The energy that feeds my work, I pull from themes that correspond to Mesoamerica, my ancestral place of birth, and the area I study. References to symbols of the past, deities, and natural phenomenon, dominate certain pieces, and blend with current verses of life, love, and death. I have never taken a writing class... the only "style" that exhibits my work is the one that I create from my imagination, heart, and dreams.

I’m an avid builder and horticulturalist, and so I spend a lot of my time building things and growing different types of herbs and plant food. I do not identify as an artist nor do I make art for aesthetic purposes; my work solely materializes a ritual-ceremonial or utilitarian function. The craft of working with wood I learned from my father, by watching him design and build homes throughout much of my adolescent youth. I also learned how to work with stone by watching my uncles construct brick and rock landscapes, in the wealthy neighborhoods were they labored during much of the 1980s, when construction was booming. My paternal grandpa Juan was also a craftsman, hence why all his sons became builders of some sort, and so building has always been an integral part of my family’s trade history. I learned about plant cultivation from my abuelita Mercedes on my paternal side and my abuelito Severo on my maternal side. Much of the landscaping strategies that I learned from my grandparents came with them from Mexico when they migrated to Alta California, in the early 1960s, along with my parents. A lot of the building and planting strategies that my family has implored have been in use for over 3,000 years. It is my purpose to revitalize and sustain these ancestral practices through ceremony, household building, and plant cultivation.

My fascination with building and growing food is not only familial, but also physical-skeletal (see my Physical Anthropology 101 blog), and because so, I have an admiration for the morphology of the human hand. The hand is unlike any part of the body, and because we use our hands every day, we literally take them for granted, sometimes failing to notice their full potential use. Our hands are our first weapons of choice in an attack, yet they are the first part of the body that we extend when helping or consoling someone. With our hands, we build shelter, writer letters, prepare food, and unknowingly, make love. Our hand-digit coordination is unique because it is precise, well adapted for creating, and for using and making tools. Hand-digit use coordination has been a part of our human evolutionary past since we inhabited arboreal environments, way before we developed bipedalism. When combined with tool use, the creative use of the hands has the capability of decolonizing our minds and bodies.

My inquiry into the relationship between hand-bone morphology usage and social behavior remains in the early stages. Nonetheless, some preliminary findings I modeled in a recent paper where I discuss the role of the hands, and early human tool making, in the creation of spatial wellness. The paper is published in Vol. 3 No. 4 of the International Journal of Development and Sustainability.


Florecita que amanece

Florecita que amanece
Llévame ah El Sereno y ordéname tú medicina
Florecita que amanece
Quiero ver tus ilusiones y conocer tus dolores
Florecita que amanece
Explícame tus versos y destróname los huesos
No hay porque vivir
Si no hay algún dolor
Llévame ah El Sereno
El Sereno quiero ver
Llévame ah El Sereno
El Sereno quiero ser

Care for the young

Carefully care for the young, for they are not ready yet to defend themselves.

From the Tonalpoalli (Mesoamerican count of destiny/day count) of Enrique Coco Zaragoza

Red wine flow

May the precious red wine flow and the first flowers grow.

From the Tonalpoalli (Mesoamerican count of destiny/day count) of Enrique Coco Zaragoza

Friday

There are days such as Friday which is very favorable to the masses.  Many get paid on Fridays, or it’s the final day of study, etc.  This day brings a more positive outlook to your week and thus brings other possible positive events.

From the Tonalpoalli (Mesoamerican count of destiny/day count) of Enrique Coco Zaragoza

Pulling spider webs

We talked about the space between people and how they pass away.  I saw you when you were young, the illusion of your gasp and the snake becoming one.  Serpent, Christ, and Flower all twisted into one.  The entire time I was wondering.  Was it far too late for us, or if things had just begun? Yeah we were twisting there without a care pulling spider webs from our tongue…

Ear spools

My collection of ear spools grows everyday… Obsidian, turquoise, and now jade…

Se fue la flor

No más se fue la flor y despertó todo el mundo…

Mixed with Mesoamerica

I’m dispensing my Valentine’s Day poetry mixed with Mesoamerica

Explosión de identidades

Como instructores, Maestros mas bien diga… creo que debemos de enfocarnos en identificar las particulares únicas en nuestros estudiantes y advertir una explosión de identidades. 


¿Pues yo digo no?

Maestro vs. Profe

Still on the high from the weekend’s Mesoamerican conference I remain on the topic of Maestro vs. Profe. (english translation Master vs. Professor). And well for now Master wins, as this person is one who teaches you how to find your own skill, as opposed to one who teaches you a skill… So for all of my Profe. friends, I’ll be referring to you as Master, until my thinking changes, I hope you all don’t mind…

Júpiter

Júpiter
Mis confidentes son Júpiter, Neptuno, y Plutón.
Mi energía El Sol
Mi luz La Luna
Mi alma La lluvia (Julia)
Mi corazón El Horizonte
Mi destino favorito La Tierra
Mi arte educar
Mi pasa tiempo volar
Mi lugar de descanso El Mar
Soy Libra y mi creador es Venus, El Amor
¿Que mas quiero?

Búscame quiero verte

Tú quien conoces El Viento
Acaríciame la frente
Despéiname y provoca me

Platícame algo de tu universo
Duérmeme la mente
Alíviame y retira me el miedo

Por fin quiero conocerte
Invítame a tus sueños
Estira tus manos y siente me

Búscame quiero verte

En busca de tu aliento

En busca de tu aliento… cuidado por El Viento