Chilenismos del mexicano hambriento

“Me despido ya de ustedes,
pues voy pa’l diablo, cabrones.
En la chamba me dijeron
así los pinches patrones.”

“¿Cómo crees que vas pa’l diablo?
¿Vas por donde los pelones?”

“Hasta la chancla del diablo
es adonde voy, fregones,
y se llama algo picante,
algo así como chipotle.”

“Ya sé adónde vas, pendejo,
desanúdate los chones:
‘Chile,’ no ‘chipotle,’ güey.”

“Ya sabía, no te enojes.
No te des por aludido –
fue chiste pa’ estos burrotes.
Pero a ver, que tú me digas,
tú que sabes de naciones,
¿qué es lo que comen en Chile,
enchiladas con limones?”

“Te lo explico así de fácil
pa’ que entiendas mis razones:
Buscarás en vano, ‘mano
cuando extrañes el atole,
pues no hay tal concepto en Chile,
que nones pollos pelones.
Cuando vayas a decir
que dónde está el guacamole,
mira bien que digas ‘palta,’
aunque pa’l tamal no te antoje,
pues es un líquido verde,
como que aguaron el mole.
Y cuando te ofrezcan ‘choclo,’
ni creas zampar bombones
ni nada de chocolate,
porque así indican ‘elote.’
Si te hablan de la ‘frutilla’
no te indignes cual fresote.
De la fresa se trata, ¿sí?
O sea: no seas prole.

Pero otros manjares tienen.
Te menciono los mejores.
No te achicopales, ‘mano,
sólo hay que saber los nombres.
Si te ofrecen una sopa
que se parece al pozole,
ahí encuentras calabazas—
son “zapallos”—y frijoles.
Pídete unas empanadas
de sabores sabrosones.
Haz de cuenta quesadillas
infladas como colchones.
Lo mejorcito que tienen
es pescado, congrio, ostiones—
con la comida del mar
hay muchas buenas opciones.
Y levántate temprano,
tan pronto oigas los relojes,
para buscar un ‘completo’—
es el rey de los hotdogues:
desayuno que se sirve
hasta con to’y medianoche.”

“Te agradezco tus consejos.
Me voy como en las canciones:
‘México lindo y querido’
y mi salsa de chipotle.”

Esboços do Nu Modernista

O nu literário às vezes retrata-se num contexto natural, favorável aos objetivos da filosofia naturista. O seguinte são idéias referentes a alguns exemplos do nu natural num contexto especificamente brasileiro: o modernismo. Oswald de Andrade, por exemplo, contextualiza o nu com versos “digeridos” dos colonizadores portugueses. Eis o “erro de português”:

Quando o português chegou
Debaixo duma bruta chuva
Vestiu o índio
Que pena!
Fosse uma manhã de sol
O índio tinha despido
O português

Já no começo do modernismo, no esforço de revalorizar a autêntica cultura brasileira, Oswald apontou para o aspecto positivo do nu, porém um nu potencial, não realizado no desigual intercâmbio das tradições. Nestes versos o clima parece ser o único fator decisivo na luta da roupa, mas como sabemos, na realidade a religião e os costumes europeus foram as causas da abolição da prática indígena de andar despido. Em mais um poema, “as meninas da gare,” Oswald volta a este momento inicial de contato entre culturas para desenvolver o efeito da nudez natural dos indígenas sobre os europeus. Os versos, ironicamente traspostos da Carta de Pero Vaz de Caminha (de 1500) a um cenário urbano moderno, cuestionam jocosamente o preconceito importado da vergonha:

Eram tres ou quatro moças bem moças e bem gentis
Com cabelos mui pretos pelas espadoas
E suas vergonhas tão altas e tão saradinhas
Que de nós as muito bem olharmos
Não tinhamos nenhuma vergonha

As “vergonhas” expostas aqui curiosamente negam, dentro dos mesmos versos, a possibilidade da “vergonha” católica na que foram criados os colonizadores. Desajeitavelmente não foi possível a inteira erradicação deste conceito do pecado original, mesmo que alguns poucos europeus adotaram o estilo naturista dos povos autóctonos. Tanto na poesia do Oswald quanto nos seus manifestos “Pau-Brasil” e “Antropofagia,” a nudez forma parte da cosmovisão indígena revalorizada pelos autores e artistas do movimento modernista.

Mário de Andrade também utiliza o nu natural, de uma maneira que afirma o caráter pluricultural do povo brasileiro. Na sua rapsódia Macunaíma, o protagonista (que quase não fala) e os dois irmãos dele saem do banho que tomaram na marca do pezão de São Tomé, transformados nos fenótipos característicos do país: branco, vermelho e negro: “E estava lindíssimo na Sol da lapa os três manos um louro um vermelho outro negro, de pé bem erguidos e nus. Todos os seres do mato espiavam assombrados.” Altamente representativa da origem natural do país, a fauna indígena aparece numa lista que faz Mário de nomes e variedades das espécies e dos ruidos que faz cada uma. Os animais “assombrados” começam a fazer barulho até que Macunaíma “botou as mãos nas ancas e gritou pra natureza: ─Nunca viu não! Então os seres naturais debandaram vivendo e os três manos seguiram caminho outra vez.” É somente depois deste bautismo (que é também metamorfose e renascimento) acompanhado pelos irmãos nus, fenotipicamente diversos, e acompanhado também pela “fala” natural dos animais do mato, que Macunaíma vai começar falar com verdadeiro sotaque e vocabulário brasileiros. Nesta cena, e também na exagerada cerimônia macumbeira num capítulo posterior, a nudez é condição imprescindível para a aproximação à essência puramente brasileira.

De maneira semelhante, as famosas imagens de Tarsila do Amaral, como A Negra e Abaporu, realçam a importância que deram os modernistas ao nu como expressão autêntica. Nestas imagens e outras semelhantes, o corpo é muitas vezes exagerado, favorecendo certa parte deformada, num intento de estender, de esse jeito emblemático, os limites da representação corpórea do país. O corpo nu foi para os modernistas um conceito atávico, ideal para encarnar a liberdade artística da criação duma nova e orgulhosa identidade nacional.

The Flower Song Symposium: Intro. and Scene I

The Flower Song Symposium

A Dramatic Dialogue about Art

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Read an excerpt below!

Among speakers of Nahuatl (the language of the Mexica or Aztecs, along with many dozens of city-state populations based around the Valley of Anahuac in central Mexico), the phrase in xochitl in cuicatl—flower and song—means poetry, covering its range of activities from written composition through musical performance. Sometime in the late fifteenth century, Tecayehuatzin, the lord of Huexotzinco (now a mid-sized city in Puebla state), invited his political and poetical peers to his palace to engage in a conference about the theory and practice of in xochitl in cuicatl, tantamount to discussing the meaning of art. In the Cantares mexicanos collection in the National Library of Mexico, there exists a four-folio text in reference to this symposium, in which it is not always clear if we are reading a fragment of the dialogue, or a summary, or something in between. In my opinion, the text provides a delicate and tantalizing glimpse of a Mesoamerican treatise on aesthetics, part of a philosophical system that would be rigorously suppressed by the Spanish invaders in the sixteenth century and beyond.

In writing this play, my intent has been to breathe life into this historical dialogue (here, scenes VI-VIII of eight scenes), to make it better known by expanding and contextualizing it. I have attempted to accommodate Nahuatl speech patterns (formalized repetitions; couplets such as “face and heart” to mean “personality”) in the dialogue in English. Little is known regarding some of the dialogue participants; about others, we have no record beyond their participation at this encounter. Consequently, I have filled in detail and characterizations as necessary. For example, in some few instances, I have slightly altered age differences among the characters. I have given cameo appearances to three important poets who did not attend the gathering: Macuilxochitl, Nezahualcoyotl, and Nezahualpilli. Nonetheless, the majority of source information comes from the published studies and translations of the renowned scholar of Mesoamerica, Miguel León-Portilla. A brief glossary of terms in Nahuatl follows the text.

CAST

Men

Tecayehuatzin, Lord of Huexotzinco, 40

Cuauhtencoztli, Prince of Huexotzinco, 20

Motenehuatzin, Lord of Tlaxcala, 45

Ayocuan, Lord of Tecamachalco, 30

Monencauhtzin, Prince of Cholula, 25

Aquiauhtzin, Lord of Ayapanco, 35

*Nezahualcoyotl, Lord of Texcoco, 50

*Nezahualpilli, Prince of Texcoco, 15

Xayacamach, Lord of Tizatlan, 40

Women

*Macuilxochitl, Daughter of Tlacaelel, 35

*Xochiyollotl, Daughter of Macuilxochitl, 15

Tlapalteuccitzin, Lady of Amecameca, 50

Palace Servant (male or female)

Chocolate Bearers (4-6 youths, female and male)

*Actors portraying these parts can double as chocolate bearers.

Time: Late afternoon into the night, spring of 1480

Place: The palace garden of Tecayehuatzin in Huexotzinco, central Mexico. On stage, other than various potted plants to represent a garden, are three stone mini-temples, two of smaller sizes on the sides, similar to stone bleachers, and one in the middle large enough for an orator to stand on but no taller than 4 ft. These mini-temples, placed in an arc, are sturdy enough to support hammocks which will be extended between them, one each between the middle structure and the side structures. Backstage left and right have elevated platforms, parallel in height and area, and higher than the middle mini-temple. The house left elevated platform has a chiminea-type stove or brazier, and the house right has a waterfall, actual or simulated. The raised platforms should be dark except when indicated. Beyond them, on the backdrop, is the classic view of the volcanoes Popocatepetl (house left) and Ixtaccihuatl (house right) as seen from Huexotzinco.

Dress: Almost all the characters represent Mesoamerican nobility. The men should wear a maxtlatl (loincloth) and tilmatli (cloak), the latter of rich color and pattern. Optionally, the princes (Cuauhtencoztli, Monencautzin, as well as Nezahualpilli) can appear without cloaks to better mark a difference in age. The women should wear a huipilli (sleeveless tunic) of rich color and pattern, and cuetl (wraparound skirt tied with a sash). Only the servant should wear a plain white tilmatli or huipilli.

Scene I

TECAYE: (seated high on the house right mini-temple steps) Is there word?

SERVANT: (standing) Yes, my liege.

TECAYE: Then give it your breath.

SERVANT: Motenehuatzin will arrive shortly, and Ayocuan draws closer as well.

TECAYE: (laughing) Ah, yes. Even from far afield you must have heard Ayocuan singing. Did you learn his refrain?

SERVANT: (singing) “Let the earth remain! Let the mountains stay!”

TECAYE: Yes, steadfast Ayocuan. Tell me also: have you procured the talking drums?

SERVANT: (speaks) Yes… (sings) Yes, my liege.

TECAYE: Prepare the torches. And, make sure the cacao has been ground. (remembering) Double the usual amount of cacao.

SERVANT: I go, my liege.

(Exit Palace Servant stage left)

TECAYE: Double the usual amount, because among our guests will be Xayacamach! Ah, the face and heart of that Xayacamach: great poet, life of the party, drinks too much xocolatl (extends hands and arms to indicate girth)! But, like the full moon, he seems to hold sway over many, including the prince, my son. My son, Cuauhtencoztli, pesters me to close the calmecac. Eagerly he swoops down upon every chance to tell me that poets and scribes and musicians and dancers and painters and sculptors should be few, and that what few there are should go learn their arts elsewhere, in Tenochtitlan, or Texcoco. He sees the world around him as if through a smoky mirror, he sees not that here in Huexotzinco we have cultivated formidable talent, especially in flower and song.

Plenty of chocolate for Xayacamach. He’ll probably bring his own! Let him drink all the chocolate he wants, he will still help me defend the aim of those who write the red, who write the black, who sing and dance with drum and flute.

(Enter Cuauhtencoztli stage right, running)

CUAUHTEN: I find you, father. Why do you sit here alone? Do you not wish to remember that the new eagle and jaguar warriors are to be celebrated tomorrow eve?

TECAYE: I hear you, my son, and I have heard you speak it so loud and so often that even had I the wits of a lizard, I would remember it. Do I not know that you are to become an eagle warrior? But tell me this: do you remember who is coming to visit this very afternoon?

CUAUHTEN: It’s…(thinking)… it is your clutch of composers, the lovers of flower and song. It will please me to see and hear Xayacamach.

TECAYE: Indeed. Will it please you to see and hear Xayacamach say that in order to honor the new eagle and jaguar warriors tomorrow eve, we need to hear an appropriate flower song composed?

CUAUHTEN: Certainly. Xayacamach himself can compose it, he would do us the honor…

TECAYE: Son, just as we have new warriors, we also have new flower song composers, and they deserve the moment to be celebrated as well.

CUAUHTEN: This appears plain and just, but can they not use a flower, a song, from their repertoire of red and black?

TECAYE: So they will do, as is the custom, but there will also be new with the old. I have already heard the new flower song in the calmecac, and I am much pleased. I anticipate my…what did you call it?…clutch of composers will stay a day or two to participate in the celebration.

CUAUHTEN: This is good and true, father.

TECAYE: Your old nemesis from the sporting contests will be here, too. What is his name… the prince of Cholula?

CUAUHTEN: (dejectedly) Monencauhtzin.

TECAYE: Now, don’t let him get the best of you. You’ve grown, you’re stronger and faster now than when he won that footrace. You need to show more confidence in your abilities, son!

CUAUHTEN: I’ll beat him back to Cholula!

TECAYE: More confidence in your abilities, not just of strength and speed, but also of flower and song. I hear Monencauhtzin has developed a gifted voice among composers.

CUAUHTEN: I’ll let you be the judge of that. For me, these skills fight like fire and water, father. One invigorates the flesh, the other dulls the senses.

TECAYE: I do not think your senses will be dulled by Aquiauhtzin from Ayapanco—he’s built quite a name for himself as a daring composer, ribald, even. And the venerable Tlapalteuccitzin is expected as well, and Motenehuatzin…

CUAUHTEN: If you give me their names with their faces, I will remember them better.

Gerineldo and the Hairy Nalgas

One of my favorite classes in the Introduction to Literature (in Spanish) course is when we read the medieval ballad "Romance de la Melisenda." I then have the students listen to a certain Britney Spears recording to compare and contrast content and theme of popular music over some six centuries. This always fruitful class activity led to the conception of the poem below, in which the "lyrics" part of my poem mixes "Melisenda" with "Crazy" and medieval Spanish with modern American English. (Another popular ballad from the same time period was the "Romance de Gerineldo.")

Gerineldo and the Hairy Nalgas
never made it out of Juan’s garage.
Quique played the bass and Steve the drum set,
somebody sang while Juan played lead guitar.
They used to shake the house and rock the calle,
as they covered all the hits “back when,”
from Mecano up to Ozomatli,
Fabulosos Cadillacs también.
But their version of “You Drive Me Crazy”
was Juan’s creation and their biggest dream.
It was a sampler from the Romancero
that built a backstory for Britney Spears:
“El romance de la Melisenda”
about a princess who stayed up all night.
Juan got Melissa to perform the lyrics -
she was Steve’s girlfriend but Juan loved her right.

Baby, I’m so into you
Yo soy princesa, eres príncipe azul.
De mi cama salté,
Wearin’ nothin’ as if it were my birth day.
Every time you look at me
Los mis pechos laten, it’s easy to see.
You drive me crazy
No puedo dormir
Me dize mi abuela que
There’s nothing to fear.
Sooyy…loca, carpe diem’s right,
Baby, thinkin’ of you keeps me up all night.
Conde, you’re so into me
Yo soy la moça que te encanta a ti.
Dime, will you marry me?
Ya maté un hombre para llegar aquí.
Cada vez I look at you,
No sé qué hacer - ¿qué harías tú?
Me vuelves crazy
I just can’t sleep.
Me dizen mis doncellas que
I’m in too deep
Sooyy…loca, carpe diem’s right,
Baby, thinkin’ of you keeps me up all night.

Gerineldo and the Hairy Nalgas
never made it past the neighbor’s yard.
But Melissa learned that Juan was her man,
and soon “Just Married” was soaped on their car.
They had a son and named him Gerineldo,
not for them a name like “Luis” or “James.”
From the juglares to American Idol,
the more things change the more they stay the same.