Review of Xanath Caraza's
"Corta la piel / It Pierces the Skin"
(FlowerSong Press, 2020 Translated by Sandra Kingery)
by Gabriel Hugo
 
Reading Xanath Caraza’s newest collection of poetry Corta la piel/It Pierces the Skin is an experience in something that is quickly becoming unusual in this fast world of disposable memes and social media video clips. It Pierces the Skin pierces the senses as Violeta, the protagonist of this almost novelistic narrative, describes images of death from the victim’s point of view just as easily and vividly as she does images of love and desire. The smell death should have is not something we think of very often. The closest most of us in the U.S. have been to awakening in a field of dead human bodies is through images of Mel Gibson’s “Apocalypto,” a fictionalized account of brown people’s history in the Americas which fails to capture the full sense of death and dying because it never mentions the stench. Caraza is brilliant in bringing images of this and other scenes of blood, with and without the horror that can accompany them. In one poem, the blood can be the result of a violent assault by armed guerrillas upon innocent villagers in Central America, and in another, a paper cut upon the poet’s finger.
 
The work on which Caraza has embarked in this collection serves not only as a window into historical moments in the Americas and the world, but also as an instructional manual on how to write poetically. Poetry, the very word which inspires typical laypersons to roll our eyes into our skulls as we reach our hands at break-neck speed for a smart phone, a laptop, anything that could sooth our need for diversion if only for that very superficial moment, lest we be subjected to a heavy dousing of poetic and philosophical gasoline on the brain, which could lead to some kind of revelation or truth enveloping us as we blindly and deafly pass through this Earth.
 
Nonetheless, this aversion to the broad realm of poetry is not the fault of the poet or the layperson, but of society itself. Our teachers need to teach more from poetry books, as they teach from math books. Parents need to inculcate their children with the sensibilities of poets, for besides clergy, who among us is purest or more honest?  Poets advocate for the victims of oppression. Figures like Caraza depict for us the contradictions in our collective history, as in “The Sword,” a poem about Christopher Columbus and the violence he and the church unleashed through evangelism. We need to see this content dramatized for us in words in poetic stanzas, because no other vehicle manages to convey those images as powerfully as does the poet through the written word.
 
Among bilingual Spanish/English speakers as myself, a common utterance is that Spanish presents a better experience when reading poetry, because it just sounds much more romantic, profound, and dramatic when it needs to be. For the most part, in my experience, this has been the case. Yet, this general rule does not always hold true. Such was the case when I read “Falsa Alarma/False Alarm”, and the book’s namesake “Corta la Piel/It Pierces the Skin,” two of my favorite poems in this book. The entire collection was translated by Sandra Kingery and students at Lycoming College in Williamsport, PA. The translations themselves seemed to me not as the same poems merely interpreted in another language (translated from Spanish to English), but more like a continuation of the thought process, the inspiration stretched along, spread wider to encompass territory that constitutes a separate world with separate ideas, but clearly with similar sensibilities. At times throughout the pages, I felt that the English translation surpassed the original not in skill or depth, but in magnitude and urgency.
 
Caraza’s poetry is emotive, powerful, and transcendental in its tone and content. Corta la piel/It Pierces the Skin is a collection worthy of collecting and passing along to the next generation. It not only shows the pictures of our current and past world history interlaced with matters of the heart and urges of the human body, but also teaches an art form that seems to be on the brink of being forgotten. Thanks to Xanath Caraza, forgetting the power of poetry we will not.

 El Pasado 1º de Octubre ofreció un programa virtual dedicado   al escritor, Roberto De la Torre Hurtado en memoria de recordar su obra literaria.
“Roberto fue un maestro de la palabra, orador por excelencia, tenía la habilidad de cautivar públicos de todas las edades. Atrapaba con su narrativa, poesía y su gran sentido del humor. El  don de gente que lo caracterizaba lo hacía destacar entre los grupos,  si tenías una inquietud enfocada a lo social o querías realizar un evento,  él estaba dispuesto a colaborar contigo”.  R.L.S.
​
 Fundador del Encuentro de escritores “Voces en la Frontera”, llegando a celebrar el XV aniversario en el 2019.  Autor de los títulos, “El Vampiro del Río Grande”, Antología “Mundos Extraños”, “Vuelo de dos Lunas” y un “El llanto de los murciélagos”.
​
Dentro del programa virtual que se llevó a cabo en el día anteriormente mencionado.  Las voces  de autores y artistas de Estados Unidos y México se hicieron una sola, para llevar  poesía y arte hasta el cielo. Dando lectura a  poemas y cuentos cuya  autoría era del escritor homenajeado, así como  de la creación literaria de los autores invitados.

Monday, February 10, 2020
From the TRiP Wire Opinion Desk
(TRiP Wire welcomes readers to submit opinion pieces for publication)

    A funny thing happened today when I went looking up the phrase "The Emperor has no clothes". The search (which was totally unrelated to writing of this article) led me to this website in the picture above (I'll include the link at the bottom of this piece).  It was funny because, as you can see, the meaning refers to people being "afraid to criticize something or someone because the perceived wisdom of the masses is that the thing or person is good or important."

Jeanine Cummins' book, "American Dirt" is very likely not the 'Masterful" work of literature that Sandra Cisneros claims it is. But because of all the online criticism and media  frenzy about the book, it's now a New York Time's Best Seller, and it's #1 this week on the Amazon Charts. Nice job, activists. You made sure this silly little book made it huge when, on its own, it probably would barely have caused a ripple in the literary world. (In other words, this book has no clothes...or a jacket...like the emperor in the phrase above...)

And a whole lot of people are going to benefit from this. A lot of people that you probably didn't want to benefit. Like Cummins, the publisher of the book, and Cisneros, herself. I mean, she stuck to her guns on this. Backing the book 1000% despite all the fuss from Mexican Americans and other Latinos condemning it.

I heard an interview she did on NPR where she sounded so combative, that I thought, damn is this because she refuses to acknowledge an error in judgement on her part? Or is she positioning herself for some future purpose, some kind of gain. Very Machiavellian, Sandra. Nice. 

​I mean, she even went all passive-aggressive about the Latino critics, essentially saying that they should shut up and read the book, and "if you don't like it" do some introspection about what you are "really upset about" and write poetry. Write POETRY!? (Scratching my head...) Sounded to me like that was meant as a kick in the baby-making area of all the activists out there, who I guess in her mind, tend to be poets who are angry about a whole lot of things that have nothing to do with their oppressors. The publisher of the book will definitely keep this little Mexican American token girl in their pile of AFFIRMATIVE ACTION BOOK DEALS. Fo' sho'.  Bravo, Sandra!

Full disclosure, I have not read the book. I tried, but I couldn't get past the first chapter. It's boring a.f. I don't know how Oprah said she was mesmerized from the first word her eyeballs fell on when she opened the book. What kind of trash have you been reading, girl? To hear her say it, it was the most captivating, enthralling story that she just couldn't put down. 

Really? It was that good, Oprah? Or were you saying that because you have some deal, some bargain to live up to with the publishers and their industry. After all, you are running an empire, so I get it. It's business, baby. Truly. I'm not being facetious. Business is business. But maybe I see now why some folks on the brown side of the scale saw this reception and said, wait a minute. Something smells fishy a.f. And it's not the stink-filled shirt on my wet back, you know, since I just swam across the slimy Rio Grande River from Mejico. 

I'll be honest (to my fellow brownies' scorn) I didn't buy into that whole story of appropriation and cultural insensitivity...at first. But then I read (tried really hard--forced myself to complete) the first chapter.  Only then was I able to see their point. Not because of the appropriation argument, but because of the "really BAD writing" criticism of the book. It's just some cheesy writing. This is both a good and a bad thing. Good because it gives hope to many wannabe bestsellers to write without worrying about being great at it, and bad because it only reinforces the critics' argument against the book. 

I think I have digressed a bit.

The point is this, the major publishers are not interested in hearing real stories of Mexican and Latino immigrants by Mexican and Latino immigrants. In that sense, Cisneros had a point in her interview, saying that Cummins could probably reach an audience (White people) that neither she, nor other authors of color can. Why? I guess because Cummins is mostly White. (She has about a plantain-peel's worth of Puerto Rican in her blood, as I understand).

BUUUT. If these a-holes in the major leagues of the publishing industry would give us a chance, give us a 7 figure book deal, we'd write kick-ass books that would take us 7 years to accomplish. 7 figures pays for barbecues and cerveza for 7 years easy! (Yes, I'm including myself here. I'm author... duuuh, I no' how to writ good-o.) 

I guess what I'm saying is, yes the publishers still haven't opened the door to us. God knows we have been banging on their doors, and walls, and windows hard as hell for decades. They just keep ignoring us like we're Jehovah's Witnesses knocking on a Saturday morning. But one person who sure is going to have some sweet deals coming out of this is Sandra Cisneros for defending the book to the cost of many of her audience walking out on her. But perhaps it is a master strategy to finally break into the White reader zone and become bankable to the major publishers, who in turn, will give her a nice multiple-figure deal. Maybe she's not the hero we wanted, but the one we deserve...?

Ps. BTW, here's my book. Put your money where your activism is. Support a colored's writing career. I bet you a 7-figure book deal that my book right here opens in a much more dramatic fashion and grabs you much better than American Dirt. Just an unbiased opinion. ;) 

Link to Bookbrowse.
​Link to Sandra Cisnero's NPR interview.
Ah, what the hell, link to American Dirt.

ACCEPTING!
NOVELLA SUBMISSIONS
We are accepting submissions for novellas between 16,000 to 18,000 words max. 
Must Be FICTION
Submission period is September 28, 2019 to November 3, 2019

In English or bilingual English and Spanish are accepted. 

We are looking for fiction by a minority author or minority-centered pieces by authors of all backgrounds treating topics of immigration, border life, detention centers, Mexican American life and culture, Mexican folklore, Mexican American historical fiction.

Pieces must be complete and edited fully for grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Only completed works will be considered. If your submission is accepted, we will contact you by email with further instructions. 

We cannot contact everyone after the initial email acknowledging the fact that we have received your submission. If you are not contacted after that, then it means we did not select it for publication. The book will be a 5x8. 
GIVE US SOMETHING TOTALLY NEW AND EXCITING!

Send your submissions to theravingpress@gmail.com. 

If you have any questions send them to us to the same email address.

SHARE THIS POST IN YOUR WRITERS GROUPS!

It's the 1994 La Joya Coyotes senior prom and I'm 18 years old. I got my fancy suit on, looking all GQ. On my arm, I got a pretty woman clinging to me like she's walking a tight rope. Perhaps it's the heels that can't come easy when you are wearing a tight, form-fitting dress and looking all glam yourself. 

               We bust through the quadruple doors of the entrance to my high school. Everybody is looking at me like, "Is that Gabriel walking in with that angel? Who is she?" They were all confused of course because my date was not one of them. She was an outsider. In fact, she was a bit older than me, so she wasn't even in high school at that point. So it's quite an impression I made coming in with what looked like my girl, since I was never seen promenading around with a girl in the hallways throughout my high school career.  I never even had an "official," public girlfriend back then. I was never known for being a Casanova, in spite of the fact that most girls thought I was a player for some reason. I guess it was my quiet demeanor. My sleepy, love-me-tender eyelids. The fact that girls always found it easy to connect with me. That always raised suspicions. 

"Tiene la musica por dentro," is the local saying. In other words, he's got a well-hidden bad boy side.

                       As we join the crowd in the cafeteria now converted into a dance hall, we see the band on stage. An unbelievable manifestation, like seeing ghosts. How was it possible that we had gotten this band of all bands to play at OUR PROM?!

  And the band was?
                     None other than
                                   LOS PALOMINOS.
                                                       Whooooaaa...

                  Los Palominos were just one of many tent poles in the Tejano Music genre that swept the nation's Spanish-speaking communities throughout the 1980's and '90's. To me, they were my favorite band. It's hard to describe just what their music sounds like if you have never heard it, but it's a mix of Mexican cumbia and norteno music with a tinge of U.S. rock & roll oldies...at least in spirit. 

              Aside from them, those bands that seemed to be the ambassadors of a vibrant, unique, and proud (though very much humble in style and presentation) music tradition were powerhouses like el Grupo Mazz, La Mafia, Emilio Navaira, and the mega star, Selena Quintanilla. Of all of these, the three most influential in the Rio Grande Valley, as well as nationally and internationally were Mazz, Emilio, and Selena. 

                 Let me get right down to the conspiracy theory here. In 2008, Emilio Navaira was in a terrifying bus crash that nearly took his life and survived only to be killed off by a massive heart attack eight years later. Joe Lopez, lead singer for Grupo Mazz was tried and convicted of raping his niece in 2007. He was given a 32 year sentence of which he served 10 and was released a mere ghost of his former self. And of course, Selena Quintanilla was murdered in cold blood by Yolanda Saldivar in 1995. Only a year after my prom.

           Really, after the death of Selena, the Tejano Music industry took a dive. It was the beginning of the end. It is peculiar that all these (and others) Tejano singers met such negative fates. Their destinies are rivaled only by hard-core gangsta' rappers who occasionally get gunned down or o.d. Which begs the question, what's behind this very rapid death of an entire music genre? What are the forces behind it that brought about these results?

                  In the case of Joe Lopez of Grupo Mazz, there are still alternate versions of the rape accusation. It seems that certain evidence that could have proved his innocence was not admitted in his court case, and so he was convicted.

                  When it comes to Emilio, I'm always suspicious when someone of a young age, comparatively speaking, just up and croaks one regular day. He was only 53 years old! Did someone slip some poison in his Chivas Regal? He was at his home, for cryin' out loud. One of my uncles died the same way. He was found alone in his home, dead of an apparent massive heart attack. But questions remained of people that had access to him, and who might have had a motive to kill him. Did Emilio face such a danger as well? There had already been one brush with death. The media chalked it up to him driving his tour bus without a license and under the influence of alcohol. But you know what Trump says about the media, right? Hmmmm...

               Selena Quintanilla, the queen of Mexican Americans, was not only at the top of her game in 1995. She was so far above all others in the genre, that she couldn't help but break the music industry into pieces, unwilling to conform to only one musical tradition. She was a true star in every way. The inspiration and hope she gave to all the millions across the U.S. and the world was really something noteworthy. Especially if it is your business to keep populations in check. After all, music has the undeniable power to move people, to create social awareness that bring about movements that lead to structural change. Someone had to do something about these bad hombres and nasty women of the Southern border. 

               For starters, you shoot to kill the biggest, most influential among them, because that's the way it's always done. Look at MLK, Bobby Kennedy, JFK, Lincoln. There's no other sure way but a bullet to cut down the towering figure. This was Selena's fate. Was Yolanda Saldivar a Manchurian candidate set upon the queen of Tejano to end her life? What might have been Yolanda's trigger? "Bidi bidi, bang bang?" like Howard Stern so succinctly, if disgustingly, phrased it?

            And as happened to people around these powerful historical figures, those secondary influential people got dealt with in various ways. Poison, for instance, is very efficient. Some times undetectable (according to my research watching many episodes of Forensic Files, and when done correctly by professionals). It's the perfect way to quietly remove someone of prominence from the scene. Perhaps this might explain Emilio Navaira's fate?

                But you can't rely on poison alone to dismantle the tent poles that keep a movement standing. That's where allegations come into play. Is Joe Lopez truly a child rapist? We know that a conviction isn't always definitive proof of guilt. Just ask the many people who have been exonerated and released from prison years or decades after being wrongfully convicted. It happens. I don't know all the facts about the Joe Lopez case, but if there are factors that were not analyzed, I think it is only fair to do due diligence because, after all, this is a person's life we are talking about. 

             So the question remains: who was behind the conspiracy to kill Tejano music? The US govt? The Hispanic U.S. media groups seeking to replace a strong Mexican American identity-driven music movement with a more neutral, and less potent music genre that is based on simplistic, repetitive beats that never change no matter the song, or the artist, or the passage of time? 

                    Yes, I'm talking about you, Reggaeton. If there is such a thing as playing Mozart and Beethoven to your baby while in the womb to help her or him be born a genius, then playing Reggaeton at any stage in life has got to produce the polar opposite. (Some songs are aiight, tho ;p). 

                 But to what end? What would those Hispanic media groups gain by killing Tejano Music? Well, it's no secret that Mexican Americans comprise the strongest (numerically speaking) category of Latinos in the U.S. Other Central and South Americans who come here represent a tiny fragment of the Latino populace, yet it may be in their interest to shape the body politic of Latinos in the U.S. by diminishing the Mexican influence and replacing it with a more universal Hispanic identity not rooted in any one Latin American nation. And the ultimate goal of such an effort, you ask? That is the million dollar question.

                  I tell you, this is a mystery just begging to be explored. And as the chief editor at The Raving Press, I will make a pledge to you here. If anyone out there is able to take this topic on and produce a manuscript of at least 18,000 words be it a fictional novella or non-fiction text, we will publish, promote it, and share the royalties 50/50 with you. So let's see what you got.

Gabriel H. Sanchez, 
Chief Editor 
The Raving Press 

P.S. I love Reggaetoneros. Where are my Reggaetoneros? 

Get the Bad Hombres & Nasty Women anthology by The Raving Press for FREE for a very limited time. This is a collection of poetry, art, and short stories for the times we are living in. An important collection to own on Kindle or Paperback. 

Please give us a review on Amazon and LIKE our page on Facebook. 

Are you a published author with a book to sell, or an artist, photographer, musician, actor, or artisan who has items to sell? The Raving Press Events is hosting its 3rd annual book festival at the Speer Memorial Library in Mission, Texas on February 16, 2019 from 10 am to 4 pm. We are offering a FREE BOOTH primarily to authors, but also to artists and others. Limited booths available. 

Last night we had an event at the Dustin Michael Sekula Memorial Library in Edinburg, Texas. (thanks to the staff there) where we had a signup sheet for the free booth at our next event. But since the book presentations were moved to another spot at the library, many people never found us. That is why we are extending this invitation to everyone who came looking for us and anyone else who might be interested in joining us in February. 

Download the Bad Hombres & Nasty Women: Anthology. This is a book of poetry, short stories, photography, and art responding to our current president's most outlandish rhetoric from the start. 

For the greatest effect, SHARE THIS LINK with friends and fellow creatives. 

Limited time offer ends 11/29/2018.

Get Lost: Children of the River for FREE for a limited time from November 19, 2018 to November 23, 2018.

Just click the photo above or the link below to download your copy.

WE WOULD LOVE YOUR FEEDBACK! 

​Please do consider providing even a single-word review or feedback on Amazon.

This is not required for you to get the book entirely FREE, but it would help us greatly in alerting others about our publications and our press. 

THANK YOU SO MUCH. ENJOY!

CLICK HERE
TO DOWNLOAD NOW.