flor y canto en el ley

my travels have continued this year. it’s been a week since we got back from LA, or how monica so cleverly writes, el ley. I’m still waiting for jetblue to refund my delayed flight, I won’t hold my breath. Anyways, the trip was super fun, adventures always are. We went to the west coast for Flor y canto, a conference for chicano writers of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. The first one was held in 1973, 37 years later they’re still kickin’.

For three nights in a row we put out grown men to recliners, floors, and couches. We walked around Long Beach and rode the mythical public transportation system of the greater LA area. I sat in the sun at USC watching the sparse students. We celebrated El Grito w/ the baby brown students and one-man collectives. Big ups to La Santa Cecilia, they were dope. The reps from Voto Latino swore if we all voted, si se puede! eh.. I just wanted to listen to the music and absorb the moment.

At the conference, I heard tons of chic-ano writers and their flight about going back to Aztlan. I’m not sure where this place is, but I hope they stop looking for it. One woman tried to get the room to pray to her, I walked out. Another cried in screams in Castile’s spanish. Some gave us their whole life’s story starting from birth. Spanglish was well heard throughout the joteria. All of the speakers live in the two world concept. Some of their poems reflected the problems faced by Latin@s today, while others still talked about eating flour tortillas. Asses were kissed for future publications. Someone even asked if i was a ‘poet’, hah. It was interesting observing the brown artists.

The speaker who, in my opinion, did the best job was my rockstar hermanita Monica Teresa Ortiz. If only I would have remembered to push the record button, we all could have seen it. She spoke with clarity and pride, one of her poems was even dedicated to the trabajadores. I’m thankful to have accompained her. We also hung out w/ her friend, Javier Huerta, a fellow writer from the bay who tells great good/bad jokes. I think he’s going to use some of my creative declarations, it’s okay thoughts are not my own. At the end, an older renowned chicano poet, Alurista, told us that Texans have an enchanting stare, also deadly. He emphasized the latter. Short and sweet, we left on Saturday. I’d like to sincerely thank the three J’s for catering to us, they made our trip great.
Yay for Flor y canto 2010.