¡Manteca!

An Anthology of Afro-Latin@ Poets

Castillo-Garsow, Melissa

• Publisher: Arte Público Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781558858428
• eBook ISBN: 9781518501234
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Poetry
• Index: Literature

"We defy translation, " Sandra María Esteves writes. "Nameless / we are a whole culture / once removed." She is half Dominican, half Puerto Rican, with indigenous and African blood, born in the Bronx. Like so many of the contributors, she is a blend of cultures, histories and languages.

Containing the work of more than 40 poets—equally divided between men and women—who self-identify as Afro-Latino, ¡Manteca! is the first poetry anthology to highlight writings by Latinos of African descent. The themes covered are as diverse as the authors themselves. Many pieces rail against a system that institutionalizes poverty and racism. Others remember parents and grandparents who immigrated to the United States in search of a better life, only to learn that the American Dream is a nightmare for someone with dark skin and nappy hair. But in spite of hardship, faith remains. Anthony Morales' grandmother, like so many others, was "hardwired to hold on to hope." There are love poems to families and lovers. And music—salsa, merengue, jazz—permeates this collection.

Editor and scholar Melissa Castillo-Garsow writes in her introduction that "the experiences and poetic expression of Afro-Latinidad were so diverse" that she could not begin to categorize it. Some write in English, others in Spanish. They are Puerto Rican, Dominican, and almost every combination conceivable, including Afro-Mexican. Containing the work of well-known writers such as Pedro Pietri, Miguel Piñero and E. Ethelbert Miller, less well-known ones are ready to be discovered in these pages.

MIGUEL ALGARÍN

SURVIVAL

the struggle is really simple

i was born

i was taught how to behave

i was shown how to accommodate—

i resist being humanized

into feelings not my own—

the struggle is really simple

i will be born

i will not be taught how to behave

i will not make my muscles vestigial

i will not digest myself

A MONGO AFFAIR

On the corner by the plaza

in front of

the entrance to González-Padín

in old San Juan,

a black Puerto Rican talks

about “the race”

he talks of Boricuas

who are in New York on welfare

and on lines waiting for food stamps,

“yes, it’s true, they’ve been taken out

and sent abroad, and those that

went over tell me that they’re

doing better over there than here;

they tell me they get money

and medical aid

that their rent is paid

that their clothes get bought

that their teeth get fixed,

is that true?”

on the corner by the entrance to González-Padín

I have to admit that he has been

lied to, misled,

that I know that all the goodies

he named humiliate the receiver,

that a man is demoralized

when his woman and children

beg for weekly checks,

that even the fucking a man does

on a government-bought mattress

draws the blood from his cock

cockless, sin espina dorsal

mongo—that’s it!

a welfare fuck is a mongo affair!

mongo means flojo

mongo means bloodless

mongo means soft

mongo cannot penetrate

mongo can only tease

but it can’t tickle

the juice of the earth-vagina

mongo es el bicho Taíno

porque murió

mongo es el borinqueño

who’s been moved

to the inner-city jungles

of north american cities

mongo is the Rican who survives

in the tar jungle of Chicago

who cleans, weeps, crawls

gets ripped off,

sucks the eighty dollars a week

from the syphilitic

down deep frustrated

northern man—

viejo negro africano

Africa Puerto Rico

sitting on department store entrances

don’t believe the deadly game

of northern cities paved with gold and plenty

don’t believe the fetching dream

of life improvement in New York

the only thing you find in Boston

is a soft leather shoe up your ass,

viejo, anciano africano, Washington

will send you in your old age

to clean the battlefields

in Korea and Vietnam;

you’ll be carrying a sack

and into that canvas

you’ll pitch

las uñas

los intestinos

las piernas

los bichos mongos

of Puerto Rican soldiers

put at the front to face

¡sí!

to face the bullets, bombs, missiles

¡sí!

The artillery

¡sí!

to face the violent hatred of Nazi Germany

to confront the hungry anger of the world

viejo negro

viejo puertorriqueño

the north offers us pain

and everlasting humiliation

IT DOES NOT COUGH UP

THE EASY LIFE: THAT IS A LIFE

viejo que has visto la isla

perder sus hijos

are there guns to deal with

genocide, expatriation?

are there arms to hold

the exodus of borinqueños

from Borinquen?

we have been moved

we have been shipped

we have been parcel posted

first by water, then by air

el correo has special prices

from the “low island element” to be

removed, then dumped

into the inner-city ghettos

viejo, viejo, viejo

we are the minority

here in Borinquen

we, the Puerto Rican,

the original man of this island

is in the minority

I writhe with pain

I jump with anger

I know

I see

I am “la minoría de la isla”

viejo, viejo anciano,

do you hear me?

there are no more Puerto Ricans

in Borinquen

I am the minority everywhere

I am among the few in all societies

I belong to a tribe of nomads

that roam the world without

a place to call a home,

there is no place that is ALL MINE

there is no place that I can

call mi casa,

I, yo, Miguel ¡Me oyes, viejo!

I, yo, Miguel

el hijo de María Socorro y Miguel

is homeless, has been homeless

will be homeless

in the to be

and the come

Miguelito, Lucky, Bimbo

you like me have lost

your home,

and to the first idealist

I meet I’ll say

don’t lie to me

don’t fill me full of va...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Elizabeth Acevedo
• Gustavo Adolfo Aybar
• Miguel Algarín
• Jane Alberdeston Coralin
• Peggy Robles-Alvarado
• Josefina Báez
• Carmen Bardeguez Brown
• Ariana Brown
• Natalie N. Caro
• Natasha Carrizosa
• Adrián Castro
• Río Cortez
• Sandra María Esteves
• Mariposa
• Shaggy Flores
• Aracelis Girmay
• Modesto Flako Jiménez
• Tato Laviera
• Raina J. León
• Esperanza Malavé Cintrón
• Reynold Martín
• Tony Medina
• Marianela Medrano
• Jesús Papoleto Meléndez
• E. Ethelbert Miller
• Aja Monet
• Anthony Morales
• John Murillo
• Raquel I. Penzo
• Willie Perdomo
• Miguel Piñero
• Noel Quiñones
• Gabriel Ramírez
• Luivette Resto
• Louis Reyes Rivera
• Bonafide Rojas
• Mayra Santos-Febres
• Nicole Sealey
• Lorenzo Thomas
• Joaquín Zihuatanejo
• About the Poets
• Permissions