San Francisco
The noise out there is
eleventh floor small.
The Salvadoreños
crossed the streets
of their begotten pasts
in expectation.
That evening,
you and I Tenderloin
through the Tu Lan on 6th and Market –
escorted by a guerrillero
Whose war is now
to walk us safely back
to our hotel,
a white mountain of marble jungle
All it took
was a question in Spanish
for him
to know our fear
on our search for hotels
Read on the Marco Polo site
warning us not to go
right – and we were
right – like the many
crossings in life
when you knew
not to go right – but you did
on the website of your life –
but you did, and there was
no nice salvadoreño
to walk you back
on your better path
out of a war zone
¿Do you know the words to this Mexican Song?
Un-Spanish speakers
Unmarried to Mexicans
the women come out of their old
waitressing lives
professional and working class women
daydream of an old
Mexican Song (Sin ti)
A man whose last name they never knew
but shared chips of corn on hotel beds with salsa,
kindergarten words in Spanish
Now they imagine him to be any dishwasher
at the Mexican restaurant they visit
with their husbands
Leaving their shyness in a Taco Bell commercial
just aired on TV, they search with vague inexistent words
for a mental glimpse
of their foreign born love
With all five senses in Spanish,
they cling onto Spanish speakers, they can hum or whistle to
You know Spanish,
¿Do you know the words to this song? (Vereda Tropical)
Any song reminds them
of the old Mexican song
the Mexican lover, spilled like water
in a restaurant
on their waitressing uniform
An old Mexican song that soaks up the part
of their heart
that is Mexican.
(Destino Cruel)
Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs is a Chicana poet, literary critic, cultural worker, and Professor at Seattle University in Modern Languages and Women and Gender Studies. She is from Watsonville. She received her BAs in French and Spanish from Occidental College, her teaching credential from UCSC, and her Masters and Doctorate degrees from Stanford University. She is a renowned poet and in 2011, she represented the United States in India as one of the three featured American poets at the Kritya International Poetry Festival. Dr. Gutiérrez y Muhs is often invited to deliver keynote speeches, readings and presentations at national and international conferences. Gabriella is the author of a book of interviews with Chilean and Chicana writers and poets, Communal Feminisms: Chicanas, Chilenas, and Cultural Exile (2007); a poetry collection, A Most Improbable Life (2003); She is first editor of the renowned publication, Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia (2012); and the editor of Rebozos de Palabras: An Helena María Viramontes Critical Reader (2013). She is currently finalizing her debut novel, Fresh as a Lettuce: Malgré Tout.
The noise out there is
eleventh floor small.
The Salvadoreños
crossed the streets
of their begotten pasts
in expectation.
That evening,
you and I Tenderloin
through the Tu Lan on 6th and Market –
escorted by a guerrillero
Whose war is now
to walk us safely back
to our hotel,
a white mountain of marble jungle
All it took
was a question in Spanish
for him
to know our fear
on our search for hotels
Read on the Marco Polo site
warning us not to go
right – and we were
right – like the many
crossings in life
when you knew
not to go right – but you did
on the website of your life –
but you did, and there was
no nice salvadoreño
to walk you back
on your better path
out of a war zone
¿Do you know the words to this Mexican Song?
Un-Spanish speakers
Unmarried to Mexicans
the women come out of their old
waitressing lives
professional and working class women
daydream of an old
Mexican Song (Sin ti)
A man whose last name they never knew
but shared chips of corn on hotel beds with salsa,
kindergarten words in Spanish
Now they imagine him to be any dishwasher
at the Mexican restaurant they visit
with their husbands
Leaving their shyness in a Taco Bell commercial
just aired on TV, they search with vague inexistent words
for a mental glimpse
of their foreign born love
With all five senses in Spanish,
they cling onto Spanish speakers, they can hum or whistle to
You know Spanish,
¿Do you know the words to this song? (Vereda Tropical)
Any song reminds them
of the old Mexican song
the Mexican lover, spilled like water
in a restaurant
on their waitressing uniform
An old Mexican song that soaks up the part
of their heart
that is Mexican.
(Destino Cruel)
Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs is a Chicana poet, literary critic, cultural worker, and Professor at Seattle University in Modern Languages and Women and Gender Studies. She is from Watsonville. She received her BAs in French and Spanish from Occidental College, her teaching credential from UCSC, and her Masters and Doctorate degrees from Stanford University. She is a renowned poet and in 2011, she represented the United States in India as one of the three featured American poets at the Kritya International Poetry Festival. Dr. Gutiérrez y Muhs is often invited to deliver keynote speeches, readings and presentations at national and international conferences. Gabriella is the author of a book of interviews with Chilean and Chicana writers and poets, Communal Feminisms: Chicanas, Chilenas, and Cultural Exile (2007); a poetry collection, A Most Improbable Life (2003); She is first editor of the renowned publication, Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia (2012); and the editor of Rebozos de Palabras: An Helena María Viramontes Critical Reader (2013). She is currently finalizing her debut novel, Fresh as a Lettuce: Malgré Tout.