Poetry es una sección dedicada a resaltar la importante contribución literaria de las voces puertorriqueñas dentro y fuera del archipiélago, desde autores clásicos hasta escritores contemporáneos.

El poeta nuyorican Tato Laviera nació en Santurce, Puerto Rico, de padres filósofos y escritores. Su familia se mudó a Nueva York en 1960, cuando Jesús Laviera Sanches (su nombre de pila), tenía 10 años. a vivir en el Lower East Side. Estudió en la Universidad de Cornell y en el Brooklyn College. Moviéndose entre el inglés y el español, su poesía aborda temas como la inmigración, la historia y la identidad transcultural. Laviera es el autor de varias colecciones poéticas, incluyendo La Carreta Made a U-Turn (1979), AmeRícan (1985), Mainstream Ethics (Etica corriente) (1988), y Mixturao and Other Poems (2008). También escribió más de una dozena de obras de teatro, entre las que destaca King of Cans, estrenada en 2012 en el New York’s Red Carpet Theater. Laviera vivió en Nueva York hasta su muerte en 2013.

Lee más en https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/tato-laviera.

Spanglish

pues estoy creando spanglish
bi-cultural systems
scientific lexicographical
inter-textual integrations
two expressions
existentially wired
two dominant languages
continentally abrazándose
en colloquial combate
en las aceras del soil
imperio spanglish emerges
control pandillaje
sobre territorio bi-lingual 
las novelas mexicanas
mixing with radiorocknroll
condimented cocina lore
immigrant/migrant
nasal mispronouncements
baraja chismeteos social club
hip-hop prieto street salsa
corner soul enmixturando
spanish pop farándula
standard english classroom
with computer technicalities
spanglish is literally perfect
spanglish is ethnically snobbish
spanglish is cara-holy inteligenci
which u.s. slang do you speak?

Tato Laviera, “spanglish” from Benedición: The Complete Poetry of Tato Laviera. Copyright © 2014 by Tato Laviera.  Reprinted by permission of Arte Público Press. Source: Benedición: The Complete Poetry of Tato Laviera (Arte Público Press, 2014). Poem taken from the Poetry Out Loud digital anthology, https://www.poetryoutloud.org/poem/spanglish/.

ESTUDIANTE! “Spanglish” es un poema que puedes utilizar en la competencia, disponible para consulta en https://www.poetryoutloud.org/poem/spanglish/.

latero story

(can pickers)

i am a twentieth-century welfare recipient
moonlighting in the sun as a latero
a job invented by national and state laws
designed to re-cycle aluminum cans
to return to consumer acid laden
gastric inflammation pituitary glands
coca diet rite low-cal godsons
of artificially flavored malignant
indigestions somewhere down the line
of a cancerous cell

i collect from garbage cans in outdoor facilities
congested with putrid residues
my hands shelving themselves
opening plastic bags never knowing
what to encounter

several times a day i touch evil rituals
slit throats of chickens
tongues of poisoned rats
salivating on my index finger
smells of month old rotten food
next to pamper’s diarrhea
dry blood infectious diseases
hypodermic needles tissued with
heroine water drops pilfered in
slimy grease blood hazardous waste materials
but i cannot use rubber gloves
they undermine my daily profit

i am a twentieth-century welfare recipient
moonlighting during the day as a latero
making it big in america
someday i might become experienced enough
to offer technical assistance
to other lateros
i am thinking of publishing
my own guide to latero collecting
and founding a latero’s union to offer
medical dental benefits

i am a twentieth-century welfare recipient
moonlighting at night as a latero
i am considered some kind of expert
at collecting cans during fifth avenue parades
i can now hire workers at twenty
five cents an hour guaranteed salary
and fifty per cent of two and one half cents
profit on each can collected
i am a twentieth-century welfare recipient
moonlighting at midnight as a latero
i am becoming an entrepreneur
an american success story
i have hired bag ladies to keep peddlers
from my territories
i have read in some guide to success
that in order to get rich
to make it big
i have to sacrifice myself
moonlighting until dawn by digging
deeper into the extra can margin of profit
i am on my way up the opportunistic
ladder of success
in ten years i will quit welfare
to become a legitimate businessman
i’ll soon become a latero executive
with corporate conglomerate intents
god bless america. 

Tato Laviera, “latero story” from Benedición: The Complete Poetry of Tato Laviera. Copyright © 2014 by Tato Laviera.  Reprinted by permission of Arte Público Press. Source: Benedición: The Complete Poetry of Tato Laviera (Arte Público Press, 2014). Poem taken from Poetry Foundation’s digital anthology, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/58196/latero-story.

Soledad

people talk about loneliness

is only sexual companionship
that’s soon forgotten

beneath its seven layers
nobody can talk about solitude

people talk about solitude

and soledad

well, there is no english 
translation

Tato Laviera, “soledad” from Benedición: The Complete Poetry of Tato Laviera. Copyright © 2014 by Tato Laviera.  Reprinted by permission of Arte Público Press. Source: Benedición: The Complete Poetry of Tato Laviera (Arte Público Press, 2014). Poem taken from Poetry Foundation’s digital anthology, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/58193/soledad.