Born in the bicultural/bilingual setting of El Paso, Texas/Juárez, Chihuahua, attended the University of Texas El Paso, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, & the University of Oregon. Professor Emeritus of Creative Writing & Literature, taught at the University of Oregon, Western State College of Colorado, Central Washington State University, the University of Texas El Paso, and Laney College, Oakland where he founded the Mexican and Latin American Studies Dept.
Rafael Jesús González, born in the bicultural/bilingual setting of El Paso, Texas/Juárez, Chihuahua, attended the University of Texas El Paso, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, & the University of Oregon. Professor Emeritus of Creative Writing & Literature, he has taught at the University of Oregon, Western State College of Colorado, Central Washington State University, the University of Texas at El Paso, and Laney College, Oakland (where he founded the Mexican and Latin American Studies Dept.)
He has four times been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He was Poet in Residence at the Oakland Museum of California and the Oakland Public Library under the Poets & Writers “Writers on Site” award in 1996. He served as contributing editor for The Montserrat Review and received the Annual Dragonfly Press Award for Literary Achievement in 2002 & 2012. In 2003 he was honored by the National Council of Teachers of English & Annenberg/CPB for his writing. In 2013 he received the César E. Chávez Lifetime Award. The City of Berkeley honored him with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015 and was named the City of Berkeley's first Poet Laureate in 2017.
Los gemelos, él con collar de esmeraldas, ella con collar de perlas, arrullan en sus brazos ------al aire inconstante y en sus manos llevan puños de azogue inquieto. Miden la dualidad y en su intelecto brillan las luces lejanas de Mercurio.
The twins, he with a collar of emeralds, she with a collar of pearls, rock in their arms ------the inconstant air & carry in their hands fistfuls of restless quicksilver. They measure duality & in their intellect shine the faraway lights of Mercury.
Tu, Mejillas con cascabeles, sabes bien lo que es ser despedazada como lo es la tierra cuando hacemos fronteras políticas y falsas. Se definen naciones para darnos orgullo falso de identidad para, como la religión, echarnos una red de mitos y hacernos bélicos y sumisos. Aquí y allá y por dondequiera son abusivos los gobiernos que son por los pocos canallas y no del pueblo.
¿Qué marca esta fiesta patria mas sólo una batalla significando poco? Esa vez fueron los franceses gabachos con su príncipe austriaco dorado, benévolo, inocente traído aquí tanto por mexicanos equivocados como por extranjeros oportunistas. Pero antes hubieron otros invasores, los gringos del norte hambrientos de tierra y emperio, y antes de ellos los gachupines con la cruz, la espada y su locura por el oro. Y si la verdad se diga, antes de ellos aun los mexicas fueron invasores de otros pueblos.
Tal vez, madrina luna, si orgullo cabe por el accidente de ser mexicano, esta mixtura de indígena, europeo y africano, de conquistador y conquistado, sea por lo mejor que a través de la historia hemos logrado — lo que hemos descubierto (o creado) que es verdadero, el movimiento de los astros y la marcha del tiempo, la belleza de la palabra en la poesía, del sonido en la música y el canto, del color en la pintura, la textura en el tejido, la forma en la escultura y la arquitectura, en el modo de ser que celebra y festeja la vida, nuestra veneración de la Tierra.
Si cabe orgullo en la palabra mexicano en este año que pone fin a la cuenta larga de 26,000 años de l@s abuel@s sea por lo que resolvamos, comprometamos a derribar fronteras, tejer y sanar las heridas de la Tierra, amarnos unos a los otros de cualquier raza y nación pues raza es solamente una, la humana, y parientes son los otros animales, las plantas, los minerales — y madre nuestra de todos la bendita Tierra.
Pues entonces, bajo Coyolxauhqui ¡arriba mexicanos! — matiz tan suyo en el arco iris de lo diverso que bajo el sol es la Tierra. ¡Arriba, mexicanos! Despertemos y en unión con nuestr@s herman@s de buena voluntad por el mundo entero, ocupémonos en sanar la Tierra y recrear en justicia y paz el mundo nuevo.
You, Cheeks with bells, know well what it is to be torn like the land when we make borders political and false. Nations are defined to give us a false pride in identity to, like religion, throw over us a net of myths and makes us bellicose and submissive. Here and there and everywhere governments are abusive which are of the few scoundrels and not of the people.
What does this national holiday mark but only a battle of little meaning? Then it was the Frenchies with their Austrian prince, golden, benevolent, innocent, brought here as much by benighted Mexicans as by opportunistic foreigners. But before that were other invaders, the Gringos of the north hungry for land and empire, and before them the Spanish with the cross, the sword, and their madness for gold. And if the truth be told, before them even the Mexicas were invaders of other peoples.
Perhaps, godmother moon, if pride is fitting for the accident of being Mexican, this mixture of indigenous, European, and African, of conqueror and conquered, let it be for the best which across history we have accomplished — what we have discovered (or created) that is true, the movement of the stars and the march of time, the beauty of the word in poetry, of sound in music and in song, of color in paint, of texture in the weave, of form in sculpture and architecture, in the way of being that celebrates and regales life, our veneration of the Earth.
If pride fits in the word Mexican in this year that puts an end to the long count of 26,000 years of the ancestors, let it be for what we resolve and commit to demolish borders, to knit and heal the wounds of Earth, to love one another of any race and nation for of race there is only one, the human, and our relations are the other animals, the plants, the minerals — and mother of us all the blessed Earth.
So then, under Coyolxauhqui, hail, Mexicans! — hue so much itself in the rainbow of diversity under the sun that is the Earth. Hail, Mexicans! Let us awake and in union with our brothers and sisters of good will throughout the world, occupy ourselves in healing the Earth, and recreate in justice and peace the new world.
