Spring 2000
Volume 5, Issue 10

THIS ISSUE

POETRY CORNER

YOU MAY BE HISPANIC IF...

The Real Capoeira

* Capoeira was originally a deadly sport in which the participants, often with blades strapped to their ankles, swung their legs high in attack, somersaulted, and passed within a hairsbreadth of their opponent's knees, head, groin, or stomach. Flexibility and rapidity of movement were more important than sheer muscular strength. In the modern dance the same quick, graceful movements are employed in dance; usually two men face each other, emulating the blows and parries of "the fight" in time with the rhythms of the berimbau, or musical bow. Clubs in Bahia and Rio de Janeiro train dancers in the arts of precise kicking and passing. (from www.eb.com)

the Alvarado Poetry Corner
furnished by Carlos Alberto Alvarado

The Mysteries
( LOS ENIGMAS )
by pablo neruda

You have asked me what the crab was spinning in his golden claws
and to you will say: the sea knows.
You ask what the tunicate hopes for in its transparent bell?
What is it waiting for?
I will say to you it awaits time, as you do.
You ask me whom the embrace of the Macrocystis alga may overcome?
Probe it, question it to a particular time in a certain ocean I know.
No doubt you shall question me about the cursed ivory of the narwhal,
and I will answer you that this unicorn of the sea
met agony at the point of a harpoon.
Perhaps you will ask me about the kingfisher^Òs trembling plumage
in the pure origins of the southern tides?
And with another question, will you not now shell
the crystalline construction of the anemone?
Would you understand the points of the foundations, their electrical matter?
The stalactite armada that journeys being broken?
The hook of the angler fish, how the extensive music of the deep
is loosed upon the waters?

I will want to say that the ocean knows this, that the life in your arcs
is broad as the sand, innumerable and pure
and between grapes of blood time polishes
the hardness of a petal, the gentle radiance of a jellyfish
and the branches of coral threads have been peeled
from an infinite mother-of-pearl cornucopia.
I am only a net that should empty
the anxious human eyes that have died in that darkness,
fingers familiar to the triangle, halfway
from a timid circle of orange.

Like your probing of the
infinite stars, I came
and in my net, and in the night, I awoke denuded,
alone, a fish caught up in the wind.

HOW YOU CAN TELL IF YOU'RE HISPANIC?

If you grew up scared of something called "el coco". If you have ever left grass for the camels on the night of january 6th instead of leaving cookies and milk for santa on christmas. If dinner usually consists of rice, beans and some kind of meat. If you shop at "el mundo". If you were raised on goya products. If you have ever used your nose or lips to point something out. If you have ever dropped food on the floor, picked it up, ate it after saying, "lo que no mata no engorda". If you have ever been hit by a chancleta. If you constantly refer to cereal as "corn flake". If others tell you to stop screaming when you are really talking. If you have ever gone outside your house with rolos and chancletas. If you have ever been hit wiht either the cord of la plancha or la correa. If you know, your mom is sneaking up on you because you hear the clack-clack of her chancletas. If your mother yells at tha top of her lungs ot call you to dinner and you live in a one bedroom apartment. If you can get to your house blindfolded because the smell of the chancletas is so strong. If you light a candle on the night of the lotto drawing. If your house has all of those little figurines that takes up every inch of space on or under the TV and entertainment center. If your sofa is covered in plastic If you not only, know who Don Francisco (from Sabado Gigante ) is but tell people he is your tio. If your mother , tia, or hermana's hair is blackcherry, "sun in" red, or burgundy that would make Celia Cruz jealous. If your titi thinks that butterfly clips are in vogue's hot list for hair accessories. If you go to a wedding or quinceañera, gossip about how bad the comida is, but are the first to take a plate to go. If your sister has more mustache hair than your father. If you think Cristina can beat Oprah any day. If your uncle owns more gold than the jewelry shop down the street. If you can dance merengue, cumbia, and salsa without music. If you use manteca instead of olive oil and can't figure out why your ass is getting bigger If you just can't imagine anyone not liking spanish food If you've been in a two passenger car with over seven people in it, with a person shouting " caben más". If you call your sneakers "tennis". If your car has fifteen speaker sin it and you fix it every weekend. If you have at least thirty cousins If you start clapping when your plane lands on the runway. If one of the main issues in your country is whether or not to become part of the u.s. you may not only be hispanic, but you may just be puerto rican If you consider platanos to be a food group you may not only be hispanic, but you may just be dominican If your live in "guashinton heights" you may not only be hispanic, but you may just be dominican If your country is run by japanese president, you may not only be hispanic, but you may just be peruvian. If people refer to you as "a drug dealer" you may not only be hispanic, but you may just be colombian. If you're constantly arguing over lost land you may not only be hispanic, but you may just be ecuadorian. If when in queens you're referred to as a puerto rican. If when in la you're referred to as a mexican. If when in miami you're referred to as a cuban. If you understood all of these, you're definitely hispanic (or pretty sly for a white guy.)

"Don Quijote", Pablo Picasso.