El Mango Entero #4
We're back
Hello mi gente,
Welcome back to El Mango Entero. If you’re new here, bienvenidos. I hope you’ll consider subscribing and staying. This newsletter is a space to reflect. Often, I’ll share a poem or other artwork that’s been on my mind. Hopefully, you’ll join me in that process of reflection and clarification.
This is my first post since June 1st, 2020. Some of you may be wondering why I stopped writing and why I decided to come back.
I decided to stop writing because I was tired. I spent the summer teaching a couple of different writing courses, trying to write new material, and trying to be a good partner. However, I would be lying if I said I stopped writing El Mango Entero because I got too busy.
The truth is I was spiritually tired. Maybe I was depressed. All I know is when it came time to write my next post I didn’t know what to write, and I didn’t have the energy to push past that initial block. During those days, I spent so much time looking at my phone. I was scared to miss out on something. It felt like everything was happening and nothing was happening at the same time.
So why am I back? I just finished teaching a poetry writing course through Catapult. One of the writers in that class emailed me to ask how to balance a creative life with work and stress and everything else our days are consumed by.
I told them what I’m telling myself in this post: There’s no magic answer. The only thing that matters is setting aside time to write and protecting that time to the best of your ability. If you have a writing class that time is automatically blocked off for you on your schedule. If you don’t have a class or other writing structure, you have to block that time off to read and write.
That’s where I’m writing to you from: from the most anxious I’ve felt in months in the middle of a pandemic with a whole lot of self doubt. I’m writing to you because I have to try to show up for myself. Because I have to reteach myself how to write and read and laugh. And you’re welcome to join me on that journey.
Quick Hitters
What I’m Reading: I just finished reading Nate Marshall’s new book FINNA. I really love Finna. Nate does such a good job of disguising his poems. Go look at his poem “Imagine.” It begins with political stakes and turns into a love poem. When I first wrote that last sentence I wrote “It begins with political stakes, but turns into a love poem” —I changed that sentence because I think the poem keeps its political/ philosophical textures while turning towards romance.
I’m also reading MANIFEST DESTINIES by Laura E Gomez. Professor Gomez makes the claim that Mexicans have always been racialized in the United States by looking at the history of the very first Mexican Americans. I’ve been thinking a lot about Latinidad and whether it’s useful and this book has been useful. For example, I did not realize that it took 62 for New Mexico to be admitted to the United States because congress did not want to admit a state that was majority non-white. I have Professor Gomez’s follow up, INVENTING LATINOS, on deck when I finish reading Manifest Destinies.
What I’m Watching: I’m watching my first place Chicago White Sox most of the time :-)
What I’m Listening To: I really enjoyed the episode “Unpacking Black Capitalism, with Francisco Perez” from Getting to the Root of it with Venus Roots.
Mexican Heaven:
Lucas Giolito threw a no-hitter last week. It was the first no-hitter I watched happen in real time and by the end of the game I was jumping up and down. Gotta protect our joy where ever we can get it.
That’s it for today. If you read this, then thank you. Thank you for sticking with me. I hope you take good care of yourself.
See you on Friday,
José