Workshops: “Border voices” & “Playing with languages and poetry” Prof. Cecilia Saleme

WORKSHOP 1 “Border voices”

What Money? (Anonymous)

There was a fellow who knocked over a bank in Tucson and fled for the border with the FBI in hot pursuit. When he got to the border he wasn’t real interested in formalities and he got through real fast and kept on moving. The FBI had to stop and sacar their papeles to get permission to pursue a fleeing malefactor across the international boundaries. By the time they got across the border, the robber had disappeared. But the FBI always gets its man, and they got him this time, too. He was way up in the sierra in a little town called Bacadéhuachi.

A beautiful little place.

When they caught him, he didn’t have the money with him, and they didn’t speak any Spanish, and he didn’t speak any English. So they hired an interpreter. The FBI man said to the interpreter, “Tell him to tell us where he hid the money.”

The interpreter turned to the prisoner and said, “Dice el señor, ¿dónde está el dinero?”

And the prisoner replied, “¿Dinero? ¿Dinero? Pues, claro que había dinero, y debe de estar por alguna parte, pero no me acuerdo precisamente que donde está.”

The interpreter turned back to the head FBI man, and he said, “He’s forgotten where he hid the money.”

Entonces, the head FBI man sacó la pistolota, and he cocked it and he laid it up against the prisoner’s head and he said, “Tell him that if he doesn’t remember where he hid the money in two minutes, I’m going to blow his brains out.”

The interpreter turned to the prisoner and said, “Dice el señor que si no te acuerdas que donde está el dinero entre de dos minutos, te va a dar un balazo por la cabeza.”

And the prisoner said, “Pues, en este caso, está el dinero atrás de la casita de mi hermana. Es una casita blanca en esta mera calle, al lado izquierda de la calle, tres cuadras de distancia de aquí. Atrás de la casa, hay un árbol muy grande. Dos pasos al norte del árbol, hay una piedra blanca, y allí está enterrado el dinero.”

Whereupon the interpreter turned to the FBI man, removed his hat, and said, “He says he’s willing to die like a man.”

WORKSHOP 2: “Playing with languages and poetry”

1. Cultural awareness: shaping upon another poem.

“Sonrisas” by Pat Mora

I live in a doorway

between two rooms. I hear

quiet clicks, cups of black

coffee, click, click like facts

budgets, tenure, curriculum,

from careful women in crisp beige

suits, quick beige smiles

that seldom sneak into their eyes.

I peek

in the other room señoras

in faded dresses stir sweet

milk coffee, laughter whirls

with steam from fresh tamales

sh, sh, mucho ruido,

they scold one another,

press their lips, trap smiles

in their dark, Mexican eyes.

2. Writing bilingual poetry of your own: Bilingual poem model: Diamante/Diamond

Yo

Quién soy yo?

Soy la persona quien estará

Cuando nada más en el mundo te quedará

When nothing else in the world is left to you

I am the one who will be there

Who am I?

I

3. Poem in two voices/poema a dos voces:

“Border Crossing”

I approach the border

Me acerco a la frontera

Driving my new convertible

Escondido en un camión

Anticipating what awaits me

Anticipando lo que me espera

A relaxing vacation, cottage on the beach

Noches de miedo y abuso

Having a good time with friends and family           

Separado de amigos y familia

I chose to come here for my spring break

Quería venir aquí, pero no así

I have money in my pocket to spend on whatever I like

No tengo dinero

I will be coming back in a week or so.

No sé cuando volveré, tal vez nunca.