Guardó mil memorias y de repente escribo todo. No se me olvidad nada, así empiezo. Por la mañana estudio el futuro y por la
noche estudio el pasado. El enredo del
humano, su culto y su filosofía. Un
libro, un artículo, o un poema. Eso me
ayuda bastante. Temas sobre la muerte,
la oscuridad, y el universo ganan importancia, son cosas que me hacen
pensar. No tengo fin o tal hora de
empezar. Algunos versos los compongo al
sentir acuerdo, jubiloso, o resentimiento.
Por ejemplo, al rezar un verso religioso, al cantar un canto alegroso, o
al despertar de un sueño peligroso.
Según como me sienta al oír, ver, tocar, o recordar un gran amigo, o
amiga. A veces me escondo, a veces me
pongo triste, a veces lloro, pero nunca me dio por vencido.
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.
I am Mesoamerica
My liver
My heart
My soul
I don’t need your western
institution to contribute…
I am the other
I am Mesoamerica
I am the conquest
I am the colonial period
I am Mexico
I am 3500 years old, since the rise
of San Lorenzo,
AND still in the making…
I cannot stop,
I will not stop,
Not even death will stop me
Las Yerbas
Las Yerbas
Yerba mía
Yerba buena
Yerba cura
Yerba gracia
Yerba honesta
Yerba limpia
Yerba vida
Yerba pura
Yerba verde
Yerba quiero
Yerba dios
Yerba linda
Yerba fresca
Yerba brilla
Yerba viento
Yerba dulce
Y también ahí…
Yerba mala
Yerba perdida
Yerba negra
Yerba venenosa
Yerba muere
Yerba majadera
Yerba necia
Yerba seca
Yerba diabla
Yerba triste
Yerba mancha
Yerba duele
Yerba podrida
Yerba pica
Yerba agria
Yerba pena
Robarêtes
Cállate guay eres un pinché robarêtes!
¡Regrésamelos!
From the work Skulls, Witches, & Toads
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